Sruli's blog

This is intended for a 9 inch springform baking pan. Assumption: You're using a mixer like a Kenwood or a KitchenAid. If you're using a hand mixer, that's fine. I don't, but I can't imagine it's too different. Ingredients for the crust - 1 cup (225 g) graham cracker crumbs (add more if you don't just want it on the bottom) (use Lotus in Israel, works out better) - 2 Tbsp (25 g) sugar (probably can skip if you're using Lotus crackers... better anyway that way) - ¼ cup (60 g) unsalted butter, melted, plus extra for coating the baking pan (more like 1/2 cup if more crackers for sides but don't overdo) Ingredients for the cheesecake - 1 kg (yes, really) high fat cream cheese, at room temperature. Take out the cream cheese hours and hours in advance. - 1 1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp (275 g) sugar - 3 Tbsp (22 g) corn starch - 2 tsp (10 ml) vanilla extract - 2 tsp (4 g) finely grated lemon zest - 3 large whole eggs - 1 large egg yolk (don't get fanatical about rem...

Dough: 910 grams spelt flour 20 grams dried yeast (or 50 grams fresh yeast, or sourdough starter) 4 tbsp Silan or honey or maple syrup 600 ml water (2.5 cups} 6 tbsp olive oil 1 tsp salt If you want to brush stuff on: 1 egg yolk 1 tbsp silan (or whatever) 1/2 tsp salt seeds if you want Preparation: Put everything except the salt into a mixing bowl. Set up the dough hook on the mixer. Mix on slow for three minutes. Add the salt. Mix another seven minutes. The dough will be sticky and soft.  Mix by hand for another two minutes. Spray a bowl with non-stick spray, put the dough in.  Spray top of dough lightly. Cover with a towel and let it rise for an hour, we want it to double. Divide into pieces about 100 grams each, should be ~16 rolls. For each piece: Pull tight, make into a ball. You might need a little flour if it's too sticky, or maybe grease your hands. Put the balls on an oven tray with baking paper into the oven. Leave space, they'll grow. Let rise another 30 minutes. Th...

 This recipe requires a food processor or blender.  You need to start with cooked chuumus. This recipe assumes you already have that, but if you don't, there are many ways to cook chuumus. If you don't want to fuss, start with a can from the supermarket. Last time I did this, I started with frozen chuumus in a package, and cooked it for a while. It took a long time to soften, and I ended up adding a little baking soda, which sped up the process.  If you're picky like me and want the chuumus to be extra smooth, you will want to remove the outer shells. The easiest way I know of to do this is to drop the chuumus into a pot of water, reach in with your hands, rub the beans between your hands and drop them. Get another handful, keep doing it. The shells float to the top, they're easy to get rid of. This can be time consuming, and isn't critical, but the more shells you remove, the smoother it will be. Ingredients: about 250 grams of chuumus beans (chick peas, garbanzos)...

  Ingredients: 1 cup sesame seeds (140 grams), use the white ones, not with the shell 2 - 4 tablespoons canola or other light oil salt to taste, see below Step 1 : Toast the sesame seeds lightly. a) Pour into dry pan on medium / low heat b) Stir constantly until there is a nice fragrance, and the seeds are very lightly colored (not brown). It's easy to burn, don't overdo it. c) Transfer the seeds to a large plate and wait for it to completely cool off Step 2 : Put the seeds into a food processor or blender and process until it's a crumbly paste (it's about 1 minute). Step 3 : Add the oil and keep blending for a few minutes. You might have to scrape the sides.  Keep checking the consistency. It needs to be smooth, not gritty. You should be able to pour it.      Step 4 : Taste it, add a little salt, process some more, taste again, and keep doing this until it seems right. Done!   It stores well in the refrigerator.

 Hat tip to my sister-in-law Ellen, who found Mom's hand written notes. I guarantee that any errors here are mine, not Mom's. Mom's shlishkes were amazing. Yes, the measurements are vague-to-missing. I doubt Mom knew them. Disclaimer: I may have made some minor edits. It's probably better in the hand-written original, shown below. Shlishkes Make mashed potatoes, season to taste Throw an egg in and onion flakes Add enough flour with baking soda to make a firm dough. Divide down into fist size pieces. Flour (your table). Roll by hand rope like, a bit thicker than a pencil, cut pieces into 1 1/2 inch long. Place in boiling salt water (don't crowd them), cook about 10 minutes (take one out to taste). Have a bowl of cold water ready. With slotted spoon remove from pot, place in cold water (continue with rest) strain and rinse. Saute onions (golden) add some corn flake crumbs and mix with onion until you get the aroma. Prepare a baking pan with some olive oil, just enough...

 I started with a boneless neck roast (see https://cooking.marcgottlieb.com/charts/meat/, this was a #10). It was not frozen, and about 1.5 kilograms. Ingredients olive oil a big onion or some small ones three or four carrots some celery stalks some potatoes, cut into quarters. one or more garlic cloves sweet paprika (1 tsp should be enough)  1 bay leaf 1 tsp basil or thyme a glop of tomato paste 1 cup of soup stock (or water with onion soup mix or whatever) 1 cup of dry red wine, white in a pinch salt pepper Prepare the meat It needs to be at room temperature. Also, pat it dry with paper towels. Sprinkle kosher salt and pepper to taste. Sear the meat Tongs are more useful than spatulas here. This is true later too, when you're turning the meat.   Get a roasting pan with a lid. Put in some olive oil. Get it up to medium high. Sizzle test (a drop of water should be exciting). Sear for 20 minutes (10 per side). Longer if there's more than two sides, because you want it sear...

This is very easy because I'm using a great blender, the Nutri Ninja Auto IQ. Not using fancy features, but boy, does this blend. Keep in mind that you can easily halve this recipe, and recently I've only been using the "half" version of the recipe, to good effect. Everything is adjustable. The biggest mistake I've made is to over salt the pesto. The second biggest mistake was to add too much garlic. Ingredients: 4 boxes of the bodek style basil leaves (easier to clean, debug, etc.) 4 cloves of garlic (you can also use the crushed garlic available in supermarkets) 1 cup of crushed nuts (see comment below) 1 cup of olive oil 1 tsp salt (to taste) 1/2 tsp pepper (to taste)  1 capful lemon juice (to taste) 6 tbs nutritional yeast Pour the olive oil into the blender. Peel the garlic, take off ugly bits, rough chop if you want, toss into the blender. Put in the salt and pepper. I've never tried it, but I understand that you can also substitute half of the basil wit...

This is a fleishig recipe based on ground beef and tomato sauce. I made this last night, and it came out good, so I am saving it here. It's a variation of something I found online, but I had to make several changes for it to work to our taste and in our kitchen. This recipe serves 3 or four people, depending on how hungry they are and whatever else is being served. With nothing else, two reasonably hungry people could eat this. We're making the sauce separately from the eggplants, so here are the two ingredient lists: Eggplant: 2 small or one large eggplants 250 grams of ground beef, more or less..the picture is misleading, because I actually used 500 grams of ground meat. 1 chili pepper, diced. Green for aesthetics. I left this out because not everyone likes it spicy and also I didn't have any. 1 red pepper, chopped up small, see picture some crushed garlic or a minced garlic clove 1 tbsp olive oil (more or less, I didn't measure) 1 tsp coarse salt ...

Okay, I'm no professional cook or baker, though my Mom was. However, I see that most of this blog is turning out to be receipies I want to save for myself or give to others, so here we are with one of my more recent (2018/2019) favorites: Chicken breast. Growing up the idea of eating white meat chicken was repugnant. To me, it was dry and tasteless unless it was 100% freshly roasted, and even then unless it was undercooked I wouldn't eat the stuff. In recent years I learned how to brine chicken breast. My wife, who likes chicken salad (not the stuff with mayo, the stuff with actual salad and pieces of chicken) had looked up how to prepare it the way it's done in the better take-out places, and showed me the YouTube video of a very simple method, which I then applied. Now it's one of my favorite reasonably healthy dishes. The chicken that comes from this recipe is moist and tender and can keep in the refrigerator for at least a week. What you'll need: A pan ...

This is the evil version, adjust to your personal prejudices: * a little more than 2 tsp yeast, maybe 2.5 * 3 cups flour Note: 1 cup flour is 113 gram as per the King Arthur website; they call it a "generous" cup, so about 340 grams. * 1 egg * 1.5 tablespoon vegetable (NOT OLIVE) oil * 1/2 teaspoon salt * 1 cup warm (not hot) water Note: 236.59 grams according to Google. Note: Shani substituted soy milk instead of water, she says her kids loved them. * 2 teaspoons vanilla (or just slop in some brandy or bourbon or whatever) * 1 lemon's worth of zest (you can substitute orange I guess) * Whatever you're going to fill them with, in a container with a squirty tip like for icing Knead and let rise in a warm place, covered. Roll the dough out onto a floured surface. The dough will be sticky, don't worry. But make sure both sides get floured. Roll it out to about 0.5 inches thick. Use a coffee mug to punch out circles of dough (about 2 inch...

This is not an economical way to make salted butter.  I'm only posting because there has been a butter shortage in Israel this year, and when I can find butter in the store, it's the small sticks of sweet butter, not the salted larger sticks we usually use in the Shaffren residence. Making butter is fun, you might want to do this with the kids. This is a "quick and dirty" way to make salted butter.  You'll need: sweet whipping cream, sold as "shamenet metukah", 38%, I usually see this in 250 ml sizes in the local supermarket a milchig blender two small milchig bowls like the kind you'd use for your morning cereal a place to put the butter when you're done so you can mold the finished butter - you can use aluminum foil, I use a regular butter tray Leave the container of cream out until it is at least at room temperature.  It's better to leave it out overnight.  Yes, that's what I said.  But room temperature will do if you're ...

Posted by a friend on Facebook, this looks positively evil: Hershey's Brownies 3/4 cup oil 1 1/2 cups sugar 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla 3 eggs 3/4 cup flour 1/2 cup cocoa 1/2 tsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. salt Mix everything. Pour into 9 inch round pan. Bake about 40 minutes at 350. Take out when still slightly jiggly in the middle, if you like your brownies gooey.

WHOLE WHEAT PANCAKES 2 cups whole wheat flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoons salt 2 eggs (3 if they're small), beaten well 2 cups milk 2 tablespoons vegetable oil Stir together dry ingredients first, because once you add the wet stuff you don't want to see lumps of baking powder. Then add the eggs, milk, and oil. Stir until large lumps are gone. Small lumps are fine (and desirable). Spray a griddle with non-stick oil and pre-heat the griddle. Spoon pancake sized glops of the batter on to the griddle. I usually use a large soup spoon. Flip when bubbles form and edges start to dry. Cook until lightly browned. I tried this recipe this morning and it came out great. People who like sugar and syrup and stuff will want to use some maple syrup, but my wife and I had them plain while still warm, and they were yummy.

This is the Consumer Reports recipe I liked, as copied from the cyber-kitchen.com web site. I think I still have that issue of Consumer Reports around somewhere, but it was easier to cut-and-paste. In our house it's called the "warm cookie" recipie because we almost never let the cookies cool off. The Practically Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie We wanted a cookie with a chewy interior, crunchy edges, and well-blended flavor. Above all, we wanted a cookie with a high overall chocolate impact to give a sensuous rush to the chocoholic. After much experimentation and perhaps a few cumulative inches to staffers' waistlines, we created a cookie with all those assets. Our recipe makes 40 medium-sized cookies. * 2-1/4 cups flour * 1 level teaspoon baking soda * 1 level teaspoon salt * 3/4 cup each white and packed dark brown sugar * 2 sticks (1/2 pound) sweet butter, room temperature * 1 teaspoon vanilla extract * 2 large eggs * 12-ounce package...

More stuff to try one of these days. Water Bagels 3 ¼ tsp. yeast 1 Tbsp. sugar 2 2/3 Tbsp. malt powder (optional) 1 Tbsp. oil 4-5 cups bread flour 1 Tbsp.+ 1 tsp. kosher salt 2 Tbsp. cornmeal 2 Tbsp. sesame or poppy seeds In large bowl, whisk 1 ½ cups lukewarm water, yeast, sugar, 2/3 tablespoon malt powder and oil until yeast dissolves. Stir in 1 cup of flour. Then stir in 1 tablespoon salt and enough additional flour to make a soft dough, about 2 ½ cups. Knead dough on a floured surface, gradually incorporating more flour until the dough is smooth and quite firm, 10 to 12 minutes. Cover with a towel and let rest 10 minutes. Divide dough into 12 pioeces. Roll and form bagels. Let rise about 20 minutes. Don’t let rise too long! Preheat oven to 450. Line 1 or 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper, sprinkle with cornmeal and set aside. In a large pot, bring 6 quarts water, and additional 2 tablespoons malt and 1 tsp. salt to a boil. Reduce heat to a gentle simmer. Slip se...

Recipes provided by a friend. I tried the regular pretzel recipe on the bottom, and while the kids liked the dough I apparently got too enthusiastic with the kosher salt, so they scraped it off. It wasn't hard to make but it wasn't trivial, so I'm not going to make it too often. I still haven't tried the Honey Wheat but I plan to do so; I have to wonder if brown sugar might be an acceptable substitute. Honey Wheat Pretzels ¾ cup warm water 1 egg ¼ tsp. salt 3 cups whole wheat flour 2 tsp. honey kosher salt or sesame seeds Combine all ingredients (except kosher salt/sesame seeds) in breadmaker and run through dough cycle. Roll into a 14 x 16 inch rectangle. Cut into 12 14 x ½ inch strips. Gentle pull each strip to make a rope 16 inches long. Twist into pretzel shapes. Place on greased cookie sheet. Brush with beaten egg. Sprinkle with kosher salt or sesame seeds. Bake 18-20 minutes. Soft Pretzels ½ cup + 2 Tbsp. water ¾ tsp. salt 2 tsp. yeast ¼ cup sugar 2 ½ cups flour 1...

I decided that this blog should hold stuff I'd like to record before the lore gets lost. I may change my mind, but here's the story of Leah and the cow, which happened almost 20 years ago: Leah and the cow: Like most kids, Leah learned "what does a (animal) say?" from picture books. So conversations would happen like this one: Parent: "What does a cat say?" Leah: "meow" Parent: "What does a duck say?" Leah: "quack, quack" Parent: "What does a cow say?" Leah: "moo" One day we took Leah to a farm that was open to the public. This was partly for us and partly for her; we were interested in seeing the stuff they do on "real" farms, and there was a little petting zoo for Leah, who was in a stroller. There were cows in the pasture on the other side of the fence. Cows aren't petting zoo animals and Leah wanted to see them, so we took her over to the fence to see the cows. One obligingly ambled over....

I should probably record this somewhere in a convenient place: Start with somone else's whole wheat challah recipe to see if there's anything you want to steal. There are plenty of good ones on the Internet. That's how I got mine; this is just one that I liked, with a bit stolen from here and there and massaged a bit. It works for me. 1.5 + 2 Tbs water 3 Tbs vegetable oil 1.5 tsp salt 3 Tbs non-dairy creamer (yes, evil but necessary) 1/3rd cup brown sugar (use a generous amount) 4.25 cups pre-sifted (I use frozen) whole wheat flour (unless you want to sift), don't overdo this; when in doubt use less, not more flour 1 packet of yeast, or 2.5 tsp if you don't have packets - you'll have to experiment OPTIONAL: 4 tsp gluten powder with Vitamin C 2 tsp lecithin granules * put in bread maker. I use whole wheat setting but I shut off the machine before it hits the bake cycle. The dough setting will probably work too. OR * knead, let rise, punch down, let rise, etc...

Yes, I know I have a Treo 600, though one of these days that might change. Yes, the 600 isn't Bluetooth compatible. But I needed a wireless headset to go with my home phone so I decided to kill two birds with one stone and get a Jabra A210 together with a Jabra BT800. The A210 is a flat, rectangular box with a coiled wire that plugs into a standard 2.5 mm headphone jack and acts as a Bluetooth base. Besides the on/off switch and the 'pair' button, there's also a three-position switch that controls sound quality. The BT800 is a very nice little earphone / microphone device that sits on your ear and communicates via Bluetooth to a Bluetooth-enabled phone or other device such as the A210. A nice feature is DSP. There are many reviews on the web so if you're interested, Google is your friend. The pair effectively adds Bluetooth headset capabilities to a non-Bluetooth enabled device like my Treo 600. It works just as expected with my Treo. Great sound, very convenient, a...

I hate tamper-evident plastic packaging! You know what I mean; the stuff that you have to hack apart with a blunt scissor for 20 minutes before getting at the tiny product within. (I bought a wireless headset for a phone.) Oh, BTW, I am changing jobs. More on that at some point.