Sunday With Marlena Spieler

This is my last post for our series of cooking through the cook book, Jewish Cooking by Marlena Spieler. What a blast! I got to know two of my blogger friends more closely, had the opportunity to meet Marlena a couple of times and even learned to make Matzo ball soup from her aunt. This journey has been a pleasant and yet challenging one. It challenged me to try recipes that I may never have tried and every time, I was skeptical about it, Marlena proved me wrong each & every time. The recipes were fantastic, we have tweaked the recipes a bit, played with and savored almost all of the dishes.  Thank you Mel! for including us in this fun project.

Coming to this sweet recipe for today, I think those of you who know me, are aware that baking is not my forte. I bake, but have a few recipes that I enjoy baking and make them frequently. The name may not seem familiar to you, but if you are like me, use the store bought sugar cookie dough and this recipe is a breeze. I believe every family has their own version of sweet fillings. I used mango jam and it was delicious.

Sugar cookie dough – cut in 2 inch rounds

Mango Jam – 1/4 cup

Flour the rolling surface well and the cookie dough in 2 inch rounds. I flattened mine with a rolling pin, and spooned some mango jam in the center and folded the edges to make a triangle. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven 6- 10 minutes, until the edges turn slightly brown.

Eileen finished last of her post today and Mel has just a few more. Also go check Mel’s All clad pan giveaway for a chance to win an All clad pan.

Sundays with Marlena Spieler

This was a relaxing weekend for us. We spent time with friends and family and today we get to relax and start the week ahead. We did not cook much at home, but definitely ate a lot of food. We wanted something light today and this recipe came in handy. Our nephew who does not like eggplant liked this salad a lot over toasted baguette, WINNING recipe

Sundays’ with Marlena Speiler- Mushroom Caviar

Mixtures of finely chopped sauteed vegetables served with fresh bread or toast is a very common tradition in Jewish households. The texture of the dish is the reason why it is called Caviar and not the actual content, says Marlena.

Be sure to check my fellow bloggers dishes, Eileen and Mel

Sundays with Marlena Spieler

How is everyone doing after Thanksgiving?  We had a great time with family. We cooked both traditional and non traditional dishes, but it is the quality time you spend with family that counts right? When we get together, of course food plays a vital role and we always look for festive dishes to make. This is one such recipe from Marlena.

This is our adapted version of the recipe. We added Cayenne and mint to the recipe. If you wanted to make it vegetarian, use vegetable stock and add cauliflower and zucchini to the rice.

Chicken- 1 cup, diced
Garlic Cloves – 3 to 4, finely chopped
Turmeric- 1 tsp
Cayenne- 1 tsp, optional
Olive Oil- 4 T
Carrots – 2, diced or chopped
Cardamom pods- 6 to 8 (whole)
Long grain rice – 2 1/2 cups
Tomatoes – 9 oz, chopped
Chicken Stock-  4.5 cups
Mint – 3 T, finely chopped

For the lemon and mint relish:
tomatoes – 3 diced
Fresh mint- 1 small bunch, chopped
Scallions – 5 to 8, thinly sliced
lemons juice – 1 T
salt & pepper to taste

For the relish: Put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix together. Chill until ready to serve.

• Mix the diced chicken with half the garlic, cayenne and the turmeric.
• Heat a little of the oil in a pan, add the chicken, and fry briefly until the chicken has changed color and is almost cooked. Remove from the pan and set aside.
• Add the carrots to the pan with the remaining oil, and then stir in the remaining garlic, the cardamom seeds and the rice. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes.
• Add the tomatoes, chicken stock and mint to the pan and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes, until the rice is tender.
• A few minutes before the rice is cooked, fork in the chicken, Serve with the relish.

Be sure to check Eileen & Mel’s blog!

Sundays with Marlena Spieler

This  soup was a part of our meal along with  latkes & Apple Cranberry Chutney. When we cook, we tend to compare to something familiar maybe? To us the flavors just felt like rasam, a go to soup that one is given in South India when we have a cold or fever.

Olive Oil- 1 T
White onion-1/2 cup, chopped
Carrot- 1, peeled and diced
Garlic cloves- 4, finely chopped
Canned tomato- 2 cups
Vegetable or chicken broth- 4 cups
Middle Eastern Couscous- 1 cup
Mint- 1 tsp, finely chopped
Cilantro- ¼ cup, finely chopped
Roasted coarsely ground Cumin- 2 tsp
Cayenne- 1 tsp
Salt & Pepper to taste

• Heat oil in a large pan, sauté the onion, garlic and carrots until softened.
• Add the tomatoes and rest of the ingredients and let is simmer for about 20 minutes.
• In Marlena’s recipe, she adds some garlic along with the tomatoes and the rest of the garlic 10 minutes before the cooking process. This is done to get the strong flavor of the garlic.
• Check to see if the couscous is cooked through or cook for some more time. Serve hot with a garnish of mint and cilantro.

Please don’t forget to check Eileen and Mel’s blogs who are also cooking some delicious dishes from Marlena’s Cookbook. More about Marlena and her cookbooks can be found here.

Hello Everyone,

Sundays with Marlena Spieler

We are so happy to have moved to this new website of ours which is a labor of love, a gift from our  dear sister and 12 year old niece. It is weird, but it feels like having moved from a rental property to your own home .

Moving on, Our Jewish Cooking project is a fun ride. We are learning, cooking and tasting new dishes that we may have generally drooled over, but not cooked at home. And that is precisely why we wanted to do this and we are thoroughly in for a gastronomical treat.

The flu had found us and when we recovered we craved for warm soups and something deep fried. We did not want to over indulge- latkes and tomato soup with couscous fit the bill for us. Latkes were served with apple cranberry sauce, which had just the right balance of sweet and tart and lemon zest  gives it the oomph that we like.

The only specialty ingredient you need for Latkes is Matzo meal that we easily found at Whole Foods. When we called Trader Joes, they said they only carry it during the holiday season. Hmm haven’t we started seeing advertisements asking us to get ready for the holiday season? Sorry we  digressed a bit

Latkes adapted from Jewish Cooking by Marlena Spieler

Idaho Potatoes- 3 medium sized ( About 2 cups)

Grated white onion- 3/4 cup ( about half an onion)

Egg- 1, lightly beaten

Matzo meal – 2 T

All Purpose Flour- 1 T

Baking powder- 1/2 tsp

Sugar- 1/4 tsp

Salt- to taste

A dash of Tabasco

Vegetable oil for shallow frying

• Peel, wash and grate the potatoes. Put the grated potatoes in a colander and squeeze the water off the potatoes as much as possible.
• In a large bowl, combine the grated onions, potatoes with the rest of the ingredients and stir well to combine.
• Heat a non stick pan and drizzle about a tsp or more oil into the pan.
• When the oil is hot, ladle about 2-3 tablespoons of the batter on the skillet.
• Cook over medium high heat. Flip the latke when you see the edges browning. Cook approximately for a minute or two on each side, remember this depends on the type of stove you have).
• Remove from pan and drain on a paper towel.

Serve hot or keep them warm in the oven.

KCRA3 News segment on 12.16.09

Serve this Apple Cranberry sauce or sour cream/yogurt.

Apple Cranberry Sauce

Granny Smith Apples- 2, peeled and roughly chopped

Cinnamon Stick- 1/2 inch piece

Lemon Zest- of 1/2 a lemon

Lemon Juice- 1 tsp

Sugar- 4 tsp or more per your taste

Fresh Cranberries- 1 cup

• Peel, core and roughly chop the apples and place them in a pan over medium heat along with the cinnamon, lemon zest and juice.
• In Marlena recipe, she says not to disintegrate the apples, but mine just got that way and no complains, we loved it.
• Add the cranberries and sugar in the pan and let it cook on low covered until you finish hearing all the cranberries popping.
• Check for seasonings and serve with latke.
• Next time, we might add a wee bit of ginger powder.

Like this was not enough we also made tomato soup with couscous, recipe is here

Please don’t forget to check Eileen and Mel’s blogs who are also cooking some delicious dishes from Marlena’s Cookbook. More about Marlena and her cookbooks can be found here.