Potato Kugel, Kosher, pareve (Tori Avey)

I thought it was time that I added a kugel recipe in: the German loves this and I am constantly trying for a better one. Changes in italics

Tori Avey's Kosher Pareve Potato Kugel

As usual, I am posting the recipe as well in case the link goes bad.

INGREDIENTS

5 pounds russet potatoes (about 10 medium-sized potatoes)
2 whole large onions
6 eggs
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
6 tablespoons potato starch (if not serving for Passover you may substitute corn starch)
1/4 cup schmaltz or extra virgin olive oil, divided (schmaltz gives amazing flavor; use olive oil to keep it vegetarian) I just measured the 3 T used for the 11x13 pan out into a small bowl. After I used it I then added 1 T to the bowl and used that to drizzle on top.

1. Place a 9x13 baking dish or pan in the oven (metal is recommended, or ceramic, but I used the Pyrex that I have to hand) and preheat oven to 400 degrees, letting the dish heat up inside. Peel the potatoes, then use a food processor or hand grater to grate them into large shreds.
2. Place the potato shreds in a large mixing bowl and cover with cold water. Let the shreds sit for a few minutes. 
3. Meanwhile, peel and shred the two large onions in the food processor or with a hand grater. Reserve. I drained the shredded onion.
4. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, salt and pepper until fluffy.
5. Drain the potato shreds in a colander, pushing down firmly on top of the shreds with your hands to push out the excess liquid. This creates a paste of tomato starch at the bottom of the bowl that it is drained into, and after I poured off the water I used this bowl (and its starch) to mix the ingredients in.
6. Place grated potatoes in a large bowl. Add the seasoned eggs, grated onions and potato starch to the bowl. Use your hands to mix all ingredients together until well combined.
7. Take the preheated baking dish out of the oven. Quickly pour in 3 tbsp schmaltz or olive oil, then use a pastry brush to carefully spread the fat around the bottom and sides of the hot dish. Careful, don't burn yourself! The hot dish, while a bit difficult to navigate, will help to form a beautiful brown and crisp crust for the kugel.
8. Carefully and quickly spread the potato mixture into an even layer in the baking dish (it should sizzle!), then drizzle remaining 1 tbsp of melted schmaltz or olive oil across the top.
9. Bake uncovered at 400 degrees for 60-70 minutes until the top is nicely browned all across the top. If it seems to be browning too fast (before the center is cooked), cover the kugel to keep it from over-browning. You really want it to have a nice golden crust-- at the end of cooking, if it's not quite brown enough, you can put it 6 inches below the broiler for a minute or two to evenly brown it all across the top. This kugel tastes best served hot directly from the oven. Let it sit for 5-10 minutes before slicing and serving.

NUTRITION:: 15 SERVINGS

Nutrition Facts

Passover Potato Kugel

Amount Per Serving

Calories 197Calories from Fat 45

% Daily Value*

Fat 5g8%

Saturated Fat 1g6%

Cholesterol 65mg22%

Sodium 345mg15%

Potassium 713mg20%

Carbohydrates 32g11%

Fiber 2g8%

Sugar 1g1%

Protein 5g10%

Vitamin A 95IU2%

Vitamin C 8.8mg11%

Calcium 33mg3%

Iron 1.7mg9%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Dutch Baby

(will be re-posted to February 5, when I cooked it)

I am always searching for more interesting ways to cook food that is simple enough that the kids will eat it, yet interesting enough that I am not bored by it, and that is relatively fast to make. This dish, called a Dutch Baby, seemed to fit the requirements. I first saw it mentioned on Simply Recipes, called a Dutch Baby and then rummaged around the internets a bit and also found them on Smitten Kitchen, called German Pancakes. I like the second recipe (Deb Perelman's) better (fewer ingredients) so that's what you see above. Incredibly simple.

I made two of them, topped one with raspberries out of the freezer (macerated, while the pancakes, were cooking with just a little OJ and sugar), and split one Dutch Baby between the German and myself and the other (they had theirs with much more powdered sugar) between my two girls.

We were all pleased.

German Pancakes, aka Dutch Babies

(based on Smitten Kitchen's recipe above)

• 4 eggs
• 1/2 T sugar
• 1/2 t salt
• 1 cup flour
• 2/3 cup milk
• 2 T room temp butter
• some vanilla, or lemon juice, or orange juice, or cinnamon, to taste

Pre-heat oven to 200C, butter two 9 inch cake pans or pyrex pie plates. Crack eggs into bowl and mix until light yellow (using beater or stab mixer). Add remaining ingredients and continue beating. Pour into pans and bake 20 minutes, then reduce temperature to 175C and bake an additional 10 minutes. Watch last 5 minutes to make certain it does not overcook.

Traditionally served with lemon slices, powdered sugar, and a ridiculous amount of melted butter (which we don't ever do).

Can macerate unsweetened fresh or frozen fruit with citrus juice and sugar, and top pancakes with it either hot or cold. Or powdered sugar. Or maple syrup. Or what tickles your fancy.

Fast, easy, and looks impressive.

Cauliflower-Ginger-Potato Soup

Part of my goal of feeling healthier this year is, of course, eating healthier. I'm never going to be able to get a healthy can of soup off the shelf in Germany, but now that I can find natural and MSG-free stock, I'm going to be making a lot more soup. And since the kids are very happy just to have a quick chicken-noodle (while I'm not), I'll be experimenting more.

The last soup was a big hit with the German, myself, and Ian (who tells me that he has had an issue posting comments- if anyone else has, would you drop me a line at bigappletobigbear (at) googlemail.com so I can see if there's a general issue?). I'll be following up tomorrow with a miso version and will add it to that post, but yesterday I made Cauiflower-Ginger-Potato soup. I started off thinking I could make it parve again, but I'm afraid I went, ahem, too far with the cayenne pepper and wound up needing to add a liter of 2% milk to calm it down. The German says it's still a bit spicy, but good with the milk added.

I started with the allrecipes.com Creamy Cauliflower with Ginger soup and changed it up a bit.

Cauliflower-Ginger-Potato Soup

• olive oil (enough to simmer the vegetables)
• a head of cauliflower, roughly broken (I picked up organic and it was the best I have ever had- I may need to consider buying organic cauliflower deliberately in the future)
• turmeric (I didn't have fresh, but it's definitely better. Just wear plastic gloves when scraping it or know that you fingers will be dyed a rich golden color)
• cayenne pepper
• 4 cloves garlic, sliced
• onion, large dice
• thumb+'s worth of peeled and sliced fresh ginger root
• 2 blocks Knorr vegetable MSG-free bouillon
• 6 cups boiling water
• a bunch of garam masala (is any recipe with ginger not better with garam masala?)
• cayenne pepper to taste (don't do what I did- throw a bunch in)
• an extra potato or two, peeled and quartered (thrown in to calm the cayenne down in my case, but also making it smoother and thicker)
• 2/3-1 liter 2% milk (you can use whole if desired)
• salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a stock/soup pot until it shimmers.

Then add the onions and sautee for 5 minutes.

Add turmeric and garam masala, to taste or a T+ each. Add cayenne pepper, but start with 1t and add more toward the end of cooking, when you can actually taste it.

Add cauliflower (and if you will use the potatoes, add them here as well)and continue to sautee 10 minutes.

Add garlic and ginger and sautee 2 minutes (add more oil if required).

Then add bouillon blocks and boiling water, stir, cover, bring to boil then lower to simmer for 20 minutes.

Use an immersion blender to puree the soup. Adjust spices. Add milk to taste and re-adjust spices, particularly salt and pepper.

The original recipe was 8 servings at 144 cal- this would be less: more (lower fat) milk, but more olive oil, 2x the fluid with far fewer calories. Our servings are more than a cup and we have more than 10.

Enjoy!

Carrot-Ginger-Indian Spice Soup

A general cover of the standard Carrot-Ginger soup seen on so many sites, thrown together with what I had in the house. Here's Epicurious, and Jamie Oliver (next time I'll throw in some fresh-ground nutmeg) and Cooks.com. Mine is closest to the first but is vegan and non-dairy. Low calories, low fat (just the oil used to sautee the veggies), extremely high flavor. Yum (although the picture I took- not so yum. Carrot soup through my lens- not so great.)

• 2lbs (approximately 4 cups) carrots, cut in coins
• 2-4 large onions, diced as large as you want
• 4-6 cloves garlic, sliced
• thumb's worth+ of fresh (peeled), chopped ginger root
  
• olive oil
• pepper and salt to taste
• T of yellow mustard seeds (didn't have)
• T of coriander seeds (didn't have)
• lots of garam masala (start with 3 T, add more to taste, contains mustard, coriander and cumin as well as other spices)
• cumin, if you have it
• organic lime, zested (3 tsp) and juiced (1-1/2 T)
• 5-6 cups boiling water/vegetable stock

My soup is far more spicy than the ones linked to above, but I like it that way. I also add some cayenne and more black pepper after it's in my bowl- the spouse likes it as above.

So, sautee the onions in oil, add garlic after 5 minutes. Add all the spices and sautee a bit more. Then add the carrots and toss with the hot oil with onions and garlic for a bit.

Add the 5 cups of water/vegetable stock. In this case I added the water and then two blocks of Knorr's new MSG-free/natural vegetable stock. I was pretty excited to find that Knorr has begun to use some of its natural/MSG-free formulation in Germany: they have always sold them in Italy, but Germany had the MSG-cheap stuff dumped here. (Germans are acknowledged throughout Europe- and in Germany- to be more concerned with quantity and price than with quality.)

Bring to a boil then simmer until it's all tender (I picked the kids up from school: an hour later it was done). Puree with a stab mixer and add more water if too thick. If too thin, could cook a bit more or add a few potatoes (but would have to either have boiled potatoes to hand or let them cook before eating the soup).

Add lime zest (reserve a tiny bit to sprinkle on serving) and lime juice. Stir. Salt and pepper t0 taste (add cayenne if you want).

Serve.

(You can add a dollop of yogurt or whatever, but I love that this is parve, neither meat nor milk.)

Honey Cake

I made this in a gugeltopf for Rosh Hashonah this year, but I wasn't satisfied: it came out too dense and thick. Perhaps, in an excess of joy with using my KitchenAid mixer, I overbeat it?

Honey Cake
1 3/4 c. honey
1 c. coffee 2x strength (made with 1/2 the water, that is)
4 eggs
2T vegetable oil
1 c sugar (225 g)
3 1/2 c. flour (1c= approx 120 g 3.5=420 g)
pinch salt
1 t. baking soda
2 t. baking powder
1 t. allspice, 1 t. cinnamon
juice of 1 orange

Preheat oven to 325F/160C.
Bring honey to a boil, cool and add coffee.
Beat eggs until light and then add oil. Beat and add sugar.
Add all dry ingredients together, then alernate dry and liquid.
Pour into greased bundt pan and bake for approximately 1 hour (check).
Invert to cool, remove from pan after 10 minutes (not immediately!).

For me, this tasted more like a dense honey bread, not very sweet, and held for days. I sent my friends off to Paris with a big hunk of it two days later and they had it for breakfast and still enjoyed it. But I don't remember it being this dense.

Zucchini Boats

I was wandering through my favorite expat blogs when I fell upon Heather of Heather in Europe's latest post: zucchini boats. Surprisingly, I had all the ingredients in the fridge (or mostly), including a big block of Irish Cheddar (I buy it by the kilo at Selgros). So I made them:
And they were really good. The kids didn't like them (what can I say- they are tough eaters), but the German scraped the pan.
Here's my version:

• Grab a few zucchini, cut off the ends, put in a greased pan with drizzles of olive oil at 180C for 10 minutes.
• Meanwhile, dice an onion and mince 3-4 cloves garlic and toss them in olive oil in a saucepan on the stove.
• Then dice a carrot and a celery stalk and add them in.
• Salt, pepper and thyme (can you believe it- all my spices and I have no sage! I wonder if it would have tasted better with that?).
• Remove the zucchini, use a grapefruit spoon to scrape them out, add the contents to pan, stir for a minute or two with some grated cheddar then put back into the hollow zucchini and return to the oven for 10 minutes.
• Remove from oven, add panko and a bit more salt, pepper and grated cheddar and cook for 10 more minutes.
• Remove and eat. Yum!
  

Couscous

I have been making couscous for ages using a recipe that had me, after expansion, wringing the water out of the grains.

That's darned annoying (and the heat of the water is also painful)!

Today I thought, why don't I just add less water instead? D'oh!

The answer:

• One part couscous
• 1 1/2 part boiling water

Stir, cover with a cloth, wait 10 minutes, stir again and serve. This may vary a fit based on your type of couscous, but not a lot. What's even more embrassing is that if you read that Wikipedia link, this direction is right in the article. To be fair to me, if there are cooking directions on the couscous I buy, they are in Turkish.

I wonder what other "of course" moments await me?

Mom's Waffles

Hmm. I'm getting a little tired of pancakes every Sunday, so here's my mother's waffle recipe.

I'm posting it today, but I'll be making it this week and I may need to do some ingredient shuffling to make it work with what can find.
In particular, I know that I won't stock buttermilk, so I will try it with regular milk and with milk that has been curdled with lemon juice to see if one is better than the other.
Additionally, most shortenings here are made with animal fat and even though I have found a plant fat one, I'm not certain how I feel cooking with shortening again now that I have gone without it for three years. So I will try it with shortening (and weigh it because weight is so much easier) and then with olive oil and see which we prefer.--- Nope, used oil and just fine with it.

Waffles:

• 2 eggs
• 2C buttermilk (use whole if you can't find)
• 2C Gold Medal Flour (405 Flour)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 C shortening

Heat waffle iron. Beat eggs, beat in remaining ingredients with rotary beater until smooth. (spoon doesn't do it- I use my immersion blender).
Pour batter from cup into center of hot waffle iron. Bake until steaming stops or you have a whistle on your machine.

Richer Waffles

• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 C buttermilk
• 1 1/2 C Gold Medal Flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 C shortening (oil).

Treat same as above.

Okay- I like them better with the buttermilk and I stint the oil by about 50%.

The Holiday whirl: T2's party part 4

When the German and I went to T2's Chanukah party, we expected to hang out in their room, sing a few songs, light a Chanukiah, and eat (I brought a chocolate cake).
Instead, they had a wonder show in the big auditorium: T2 (who is amazingly shy in public, although not in private) even participated a bit. We were very proud and surprised, and then went back to the room and ate and chatted. We had a nice chat with a new mom from Israel via Seattle and her in-laws who were in visiting.
T2's Erziehrin asked for the recipe of this and the chocolate chip cookies that T2 brought on Friday (when she was Shabbat mamma), which made me very pleased. I explained that it was probably the dark brown sugar which made them so lecker, which might be an issue, but said that I would bring the recipes in next week in any case.

What I've been doing for the last month: Spiced Applesauce Cake

I read a lot of food porn- although less than I used to. One of my favorite blogs is Smitten Kitchen.

On the 25th, Deb wrote about this spiced applesauce cake and, as it happened, I had not only all the ingredients sitting in my fridge, but also a relatively spanking new, happy anniversary Artisan stand mixer sitting on my counter. So, Dear Readers, I baked it.

And it was delicious. The first day I thought that I would have preferred more spices, but the second and third days the cake just got better and better as the spices and ingredients melded. It was too spicy for my children's German palates, but the German husband loved it.

Spiced Applesauce Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
Adapted, barely, from Gourmet.com by Deb,then adapted a bit more by me from Deb

For cake

2 cups (8 3/4 ounces or 250 grams) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons (10 grams) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon (3 grams) baking soda
1/2 teaspoon (3 grams) salt
3/4 teaspoon (2 grams) cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon (1 gram) ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 stick (4 ounces or 113 grams) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup (7 3/4 ounces or 218 grams) packed dark brown sugar
2 teaspoon (10 ml) pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups (about 13 ounces or 365 grams) unsweetened applesauce

For frosting
5 ounces (142 grams) cream cheese, softened
3 tablespoons (1 1/2 ounces or 42 grams) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup (4 ounces or 120 grams) confectioners sugar (I used less to taste)
1/2 (1 teaspoon) teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 175C/350°F with rack in middle. Thickly butter an 8- or 9-inch square cake pan.

Cake:

Measure flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices into one bowl.

Beat butter, brown sugar, and vanilla with an electric mixer at high speed until pale and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, then beat in applesauce. At low speed, mix in flour mixture until just combined.

Spread batter evenly in pan and bake until golden-brown and a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, about 35 to 40 minutes.

Cool in pan 15 minutes. Run a knife around edge of cake to loosen, then invert onto a plate. Reinvert cake onto a rack to cool completely.

Cream Cheese frosting:

Beat frosting ingredients together and spread over top of cooled cake.

Tabbouleh

I've been looking for a good recipe for tabbouleh for ages. Friends have sent me several and I haven't been happy with any of them. At the end of my last German class we had the usual party and a classmate brought some tabbouleh with her and I remembered how much I missed it, so I thought I would start again.

This recipe worked very well and I expect that I will be making it again today.

• 1/2 c. fine or medium bulgur (next time I move this up to 1 c.)
  
• 1/3 c. evoo
• 1/4 c. lemon juice (I'll add a bit more- this was 1.5 lemons for me)
  
• 2 c. parsley leaves (only small stems)
• 1 c. chopped mint leaves (I left this out)
• 1/2 c. chopped scallion
• 4 medium tomatoes (seeded, cored, chopped- I only chopped them)

Soak the bulgur in hot water 1-30 minutes until tender. Then drain (I squeezed in a clean cloth) and toss with the oil and lemon juice, add salt and pepper.
Add all the other ingredients before serving and toss. Use fresh- more than a day is pushing it.

Based on Mark Bittman's recipe

Pancakes

Mom's Pancake recipe (which I think may derive from an old Betty Crocker cookbook):
1 egg

1 C all purpose flour (I have always used Gold Medal)

3/4 C milk

2 T shortening, melted or veg. oil (I prefer either Crisco solid, whisked well in the bowl or softened butter)

1 T sugar

3 tsp baking powder(I use 2 with no problem)

1/2 tsp salt

Beat egg with hand beater until fluffy (I just use a fork); beat in remaining ingredients just until smooth. For thinner pancakes, beat in another 1/4 milk. (Let it rest until it bubbles- perhaps 5-10 minutes.)
To test griddle, sprinkle on a few drops of water. If bubbles skitter, heat is just right.

Using a 4 or more cup measuring cup with lip, pour about 3 T onto hot griddle.(I just pour some from a tablesppon- that makes silver dollar size).
Cook until puffed and dry around edges (look for the bubbles in the batter). Turn and cook until golden brown.(It's very quick.)

For blueberry pancakes: stir in 1/2 C of fresh blueberries, washed and patted dry.

Served with Vermont maple syrup (B grade to my preference) and the kids are wild for it (as is the German).

I've been making this recipe at least once a week since begging my mom to send it to me. Next up is asking what needs to be changed to use it in the waffle iron. As easy as pie (easier), and the kids are wild for it. Last week I used chocolate chips, but although the German loved that, the kids seem to be purists. Putting the recipe together takes less time than waiting for my frying pan to heat and for two kids under 8 and two adults a double recipe is better than a single- today I wound up having cottage cheese instead of pancakes when we ran out.

Yellow cake

This week has been school vacation for my older, but Kita was still in session for my younger for Monday and Tuesday. That allowed us to sleep in a bit (although T1 still gets up at 6 am) and to wait for the plumber this morning.

But when I picked T2 up today, she was unhappy: by coming in late, she had missed making a small cake, which everyone else had done and then taken home (I assume for Shavuot, which is a dairy holiday). So on the way home we stopped to pick up some strawberries and some Schlagsahne (whipping cream- I couldn't find a can) and then I googled around and we made this recipe:

(I love Allrecipes.com for the ability to change to metric, which allows me to toggle back and forth between my preferred method, weighing ingredients, and the ability to use volume measurement for liquids.)

Yellow Cake from Scratch (with a few changes)
160 g all-purpose flour
150 g white sugar
50 g butter
120 ml milk
5 g baking powder
5 g salt
8 ml vanilla extract
2 eggs

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour one 9x9 inch pan.
In a large bowl, cream sugar and shortening until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition. Add flour, baking powder, and salt alternately with milk, beating just to combine. Finally, stir in vanilla. Pour batter into the prepared pan.--- I beat it a lot more and added the baking powder last.
Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Frost and enjoy.

Nutritional Information
Amount Per Serving Calories: 139 | Total Fat: 5.2g | Cholesterol: 27mg

Review: The cake is nice, I overbeat the Schlagsahne and wound up with flecks of butter (what's with that:)) and so sprinkled powdered sugar and sliced strawberries instead. Next time, I will decrease the sugar by 1/3 and increase the flour- the cake was a tad sweet for me. But the kids were happy, so that's a plus.

Cherry (and raspberry) Clafouti

I saw this recipe on Simply Recipes and it looked good: tasty and simple. It also looked very much like a recipe that Christina was doing in her series of German recipes on her blog An American Expat in Deutscheland, in this post. Her version is a Blankenhainer Cherry Cake and the major differences seem to be that the German recipe has more eggs, more flour (of various types), more nuts, and much more effort. As another commentor noted, I don't see much point to separating eggs and then putting the whipped eggs back in the batter and beating them: whipped egg whites are meant to be folded gently into a batter or there's no reason to have whipped them. I may try this recipe sometime, or I may just keep playing with this clafouti, which was indeed fast and easy.

Cherry Clafouti

• 2 cups of fresh sweet cherries, pitted (I used tart- they were fabulous)
• 2 tablespoons of slivered almonds don't like almonds, threw in some frozen raspberries
• 3 eggs made it 4, as eggs are small here in Germany
• 1 cup of sugar- left it it at 2/3, started at 1/2 but with the sour cherries needed a bit more
• 1 tablespoon of brown sugar- I threw out the German version, it was too terrible. Used American brown sugar.
• 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour, sifted
• 1/8 teaspoon of salt
• 1 cup of whole milk fettarme- 1.5%
• 2 teaspoons of Amaretto -or- 3/4 teaspoon of almond extract No Amaretto with the kids, and I don't like almonds anyway, so I upped the vanilla
• 1 2 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
• Powdered sugar for dusting


1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter and lightly flour a 9X9 or 10X7 baking dish. Toss in the cherries and slivered almonds.
2. Whisk the eggs, sugars, salt, and flour together until smooth. Add the milk, Amaretto (or almond extract, if using), and vanilla extract. Whisk until smooth. Pour into the baking dish.
3. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until lightly browned and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. When you pull it put of the oven it will wiggle a bit which is normal. Place on a wire rack to cool. The clafoutis will have puffed up quite a bit and will deflate while cooling. When cool dust the clafoutis with powdered sugar. Serve.

Serves 6.

I found that this served 3+ for breakfast (and a lovely breakfast it was). Next time I will double the batter and retain the same amount of fruit to get more of a meal rather than fruit surrounded by a dab of eggy custard. The German, Thing2 and I all liked it very much- Thing1 stuck with toast and marmelada (which is raspberry jam here in Germany).

Pasta Vegetable Salad

I have started so many posts and not finished them: some serious, some (perhaps) funny. I just don't have the energy right now. Perhaps I will work on them this coming week: don't be surprised to see posts popping up that appear to be old.

So here's what I made for lunch on Monday.

I used to own and run two restaurants that primarily focussed on salads, potatoes and other healthy foods. This resembles the primary salad we made and I had forgotten how much I missed eating it several times a week (I had it every day for the week). We served it on a bed of lettuce, but here I served it by itself.

Pasta Salad:

This was all done by eye, but the gist is:
make pasta (according to the instructions), either shells or spirals.
(In my place, we would have several stockpots of boiling water going at once, but here in the house, I cheated by adding the vegetables themselves to the boiling water so I didn't need to blanch them and add them later.)
cook vegetables al dente (always carrots -which need the longest cooking time, green beans, and peas, which use the shortest. Also good with asparagus, broccoli, and snow peas.
Add the vegetables at the time which will allow them to be finished cooking at the same time. To make it even easier, use good frozen vegetables. Just make certain not to overcook and to chill and drain as rapidly as possible. (Of course, fresh tastes better and it's easier if you have a kitchen machine.)

Important: drain and run under cold water, while stirring the mixture to allow it to get as cold as possible, as fast as possible. You can also plunge into an ice bath, or have done so with the vegetables before adding them to already drained pasta.

Makes a cool, crisp and refreshing salad that I usually have with fat-free Catalina (if I have it) or a simple Italian vinaigrette.

Tuesday's with Dorie: Parisian Apple Tartlet

What I made is actually Berlin Rhubarb Tartlet, as I cook along with Tuesdays with Dorie. Jessica of My Baking Heart chose the recipe this week, and it is posted on her blog.

I was very grateful to see a recipe without chocolate and a recipe that I could make from ingredients in the house as I am dealing with single Mum-hood during the week: this is week 2 for the German being in Munich. So far it's been okay, except for the occasional weeping fit (by Thing2- I am old enough to get by with Skype and Thing1 falls asleep very quickly). We are still deciding whether to move down or continue the commuting for the next 6 months to a year.

In any case, the Tartlet. I have Blatterteig in the freezer (oh, I love my freezer) but I was out of apples and I am seriously in a rhubarb mood. I actually made a rhubarb turnover this weekend (that was the first time I used the puff pastry) and thought this would be a simple throw together. It turns out that my oven ran a bit hot, though, and my pastry blackened a bit on the edges at 190C and 15 minutes. I'll lower the rack next time.

For the filling I just diced a rhubarb stalk, added some sugar and macerated in lemon juice for the 15 minutes that I thawed the sheet. Voila!

It was delicious, even with a bit of blackening, as I am sure it would be with any fruit filling. Watch out for the dripping of the caramelized sugar, though, it can cause an oven mess if you use a flat (German style) cookie tray rather than a jelly roll pan.

Tuesday's with Dorie: Cinnamon Squares

Well, it has been a while! Even though I just got back from the States yesterday, I thought that now I am well again (or at least well enough), I needed to start posting my Tuesdays with Dorie again. Tracy of Tracy's Culinary Adventures chose today's recipes and it is linked here.
My husband is in Munich and the house is a wreck (not so much from my being away in the US, as from getting home and unpacking and doing laundry and dealing with the children alone) so I was grateful that I had all the ingredients in the house (except esspresso powder, which I really don't think exists here) and threw it together. (Photos added after the kids are asleep.)
A few thoughts:

• When will I learn? Even though I knew that I would not add the chocolate frosting (my goodness, I really don't like chocolate), why did I add the chocolate chips in the center layer? It really detracted from a decent cinnamon breakfast cake.
• I generally find Dorie's cakes too sweet- I lowered the sugar by 1/4 cup, but perhaps should have decreased it more.
• I often find the temperature/time incorrect- this time I turned the pan at 20 minutes and at 40 found it done. I might have been able to take it out at 35.
• Dorie's cakes are frequently not spicy enough for my taste: when decreasing the sugar I should have upped the cinnamon. I did increase the salt and the vanilla and felt that to be better.
• I dislike attempting to melt tablespoons of butter when I live with grams here and there are no sticks: I substituted 1/3 cup of olive oil and found the cake moist. I may continue to do this although in the case I think I would have preferred using 1/3 cup of unsweetened applesauce. I may try this again with much less sugar, yogurt instead of milk, applesauce and a real crumb topping (because sugar mixed with cinnamon is ehh in comparison).

As you can tell, it's ok. I have a coffee guest tomorrow and will hope she enjoys it. The girls don't love it, husband's not here and for me the streaks of chocolate damage my enjoyment (and I used a lot less than the recipe). It's a learning experience.

Tuesday's with Dorie: Banana Cream Pie

I was certain that I would not make Tuesdays with Dorie this week. It's the week before Passover, life is crazy, and I have already removed all the chometz from the house. So there's now way that I could make a pie crust (no flour), nor did I want to make it a few days earlier (no time and didn't want to have it hanging around the house). Amy of Sing for your Supper chose Banana Cream Pie and the recipe is here.

Tonight I was looking through the TwD blogroll and started to feel bad about not being a functional part of the group, particularly as I won't be able to bake the next recipe (no flour allowed until eight days from Wednesday night, during the eight Paschal days). Also, I saw that some folks had made their pies as parfaits and thought: I can do that!

So I whipped out my potato starch and the other ingredients (white not brown sugar, powdered, not fresh nutmeg) and put together a half batch of the pastry cream. Because I read the P&Q, I put in 1/2 the amount of starch called for and I was also able to whip the pot off the stove almost as soon as I returned it (after tempering the mixture): it turned "solid" almost immediately and without coming to the boil. So far, great.

Then I gathered the ingredients for the topping. Because I so rarely use heavy cream, I keep H-Schlagsahne in the cupboard. I whipped it out and started beating. And beating. And beating. It didn't whip! Instead, it seemed to separate and curdle. After a while I just gave up. Luckily, I had three egg whites from the pastry cream and I beat those add, added a tbl. of powdered sugar, a teaspoon of vanilla, and then as I continued to beat, a judicious dollop of Kahlua and a few more tbl. of granulated sugar.Looked great.

I spread the cream in a pastry dish, layered slice bananas on top, and attempted to pipe the meringue on top. Err. My plastic baggie didn't work very well. Threw a few more banana slices on top, sprinkled some sugar on, then put it in my 225C pre-heated oven to brown. As warned, I waited and about three minutes later it came out looking great.

The German had two bowls full, I had a taste: the cream is too sweet for me, even though I cut back on the sugar. This seems to be a regular problem for me with Dorie's recipes and I need to more proactively reduce the sugar in her recipes. Spouse gives it two thumbs up, we will see how the girls feel tomorrow.

Tuesday's with Dorie: French Yogurt Cake with Marmalade Glaze

You might be wondering, how can G be cooking for TwD when she is gallivanting around the US East Coast rather than at home in her kitchen? Well, it's because I actually made today's French Yogurt Cake with Marmalade Glaze on February 25th, for a book club at my house which I really need to post about (perhaps when relaxing at Disney later in the week?).

I would like to thank Liliana of My Cookbook Addiction for this choice: I have actually made the classic French Yogurt Cake several other times and I really liked Dorie's version (and it's glaze) very much. In fact, I made the two versions side by side and decided to taste test them and Dorie's won it was completely eaten, while the other was only partially eaten).

I used all flour instead of using partial almond flour (not a nut lover) and we were all very happy with the result: flavorful, not too heavy (although not as light as the other contender, Clothilde's from Chocolate & Zucchini). In particular, I made the glaze with bitter grapefruit marmalade and it was marveelous.

Tuesday's with Dorie: Lemon

Bridget from The Way the Cookie Crumbles chose Lemon Cup Custard for this week's Tuesday with Dorie recipe. It received an awful cot of negative comments on the P&Q
So many, in fact, that I was motivated to make it even though I was overwhelmed with Purim and packing to go to the US for two weeks. Even worse, in some ways, to NY, Massachusetts and Florida, so lots of different climates and activities.
However, the majority of people since I joined have been doing chocolate and nut recipes and as those are really the ingredients I hate most, and because I really like flan, those comments actually made me interested in doing it. So I cut the recipe in half and used double the quantity of vanilla and it was great.
The German heartily agreed as we both had it for lunch. I used a bit less than half the amount of sugar and next time I would cut that a bit more, but otherwise it was great. In fact, after I publish this post I will go split the last one with the German:).