Sruli's blog

  Hot and Sour Soup – 8 Servings (with baby corn instead of bamboo shoots, 'cos I couldn't find bamboo shoots) Note: You might want to taste as you go. This is kinda hot, and kinda sour. If this is a problem, you shouldn't be making this soup, but consider easing off on the vinegar and on the white pepper and chili flakes if you like it but need less heat. I didn't sauté the mushrooms long enough when I did this. Maybe taste one when you think it's ready. Maybe cut the baby corn in half so it'll fit on a spoon. Widthwise too, of course, you want it thin.  On to the recipe! Ingredients Dried shiitake mushrooms – 1 ½ oz (43 g) Soy sauce – 5 Tbsp (75 ml) Seasoned rice vinegar – ⅔ cup (160 ml) Ground white pepper – 1 Tbsp (8 g) Sesame oil – ¾ tsp (3.5 ml) Cornstarch – 6 Tbsp (48 g) Water (for slurry) – 6 Tbsp (90 ml) Vegetable oil – 4 tsp (20 ml) Chili flakes – 1 tsp (mild) to 2 tsp (hot) Minced fresh ginger root – 2 ½ tsp (5 g) Sliced green onions – ½ cu...

  I watched a YouTube video where a non-English speaking chef did this or something like it. I took notes and made guesses: Note: I was out of chili paste this week, so I am making some by using chili flakes and hot (smoked) paprika with a few drops of olive oil to make a paste. In case it isn't obvious, some of the ingredients in this recipe are quite "hot". Wash your hands carefully with soap and warm water, and do not do not do not touch your eyes! pot tongue, water above the meat 3 tbs salt cinnamon sticks handful of cloves maybe 2 tbs some bay leaves boil, cool, peel cut into small pieces  pan oil (generous), like 4 tbs chopped onion, fry until light brown crushed garlic 2 small chopped tomatoes mix, mix, mix 1/2 tsp salt 1 tsp black pepper 1/2 tsp garam masala 2 tsp cumin chili paste, 1/4 tsp red chili powder 1/2 tsp tumeric mix, mix. mix 10 minutes add tongue another 3 minutes 2 tbsp oil add 1.2 cup water cook low heat, cover 2 tbs lime juice 1/2 tsp mixed herbs...

Notes: The recipe doubles well. We're using whole spelt flour because that's what we keep in the house. It would probably work better with all-purpose flour. Ingredients 3 tbsp whole spelt flour 1 tsp instant coffee powder 2 tbsp chocolate powder or sweetened cocoa powder  2. to 3 tbsp sugar 1/4 tsp baking powder 2 tbsp Milk 1 large egg 2 tbsp vegetable (not olive, omg) Oil 1/2 tsp  1/2 tsp vanilla extract Method  In a mixing bowl combine the flour, coffee powder, sugar, and baking powder. Mix well. Add milk, egg, oil, and vanilla extract, and stir with a fork just until combined. Pour this into a greased mug or bowl and microwave on high for 90 seconds (or a few seconds more) until cooked through. (DO NOT OVER COOK) Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or simply dust with powdered sugar. ENJOY!!!!! NOTE: you can use cocoa powder instead of drinking chocolate mix, in that case add 1 or 2 tbsp more of sugar according to your taste. 

Ingredients: 1000g beef (sliced thinly) 600g frozen broccoli (thawed and drained) 4 tablespoons vegetable oil Salt and pepper, to taste (I didn't use any.) For the Marinade: 2 table spoons soy sauce 2 tea spoons sesame oil 2 tea spoons cornstarch For the Sauce: 1/2 cup soy sauce 4 table spoons brown sugar 8 cloves garlic, minced 4 tea spoons fresh ginger, grated 2 tea spoons cornstarch mixed with 2 tablespoons water 1 cup beef or chicken broth Instructions: Marinate the Beef : Combine the beef with the marinade ingredients. Let it sit for 15 minutes. Prepare the Sauce : Mix all the sauce ingredients except the cornstarch and water. Set aside. Cook the Beef : Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large pan over high heat. Add the beef in batches to avoid overcrowding, cooking until browned. Remove each batch from the pan. Cook the Broccoli : In the same pan, add the remaining oil. Add the thawed broccoli and cook until heated through. Combine and Sauce : Add the garlic and ginger, cook for a...

Ingredients: 360 grams (3 cups) all-purpose flour (or regular white flour) 1 tablespoon baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves (ציפורן) 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice (פלפל אנגלי), you might be able to substitute ginger 240 ml (1 cup) vegetable oil (I use canola) 340 grams (1 cup) honey 300 grams (1 1/2 cups) granulated sugar 110 grams (1/2 cup) brown sugar 3 large eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 240 ml (1 cup) warm coffee or strong tea 120 ml (1/2 cup) fresh orange juice 60 ml (1/4 cup) rye or whisky (optional) 50 grams (a handful, whatever) slivered or sliced almonds (optional) Instructions: Preheat your oven to 175°C (350°F). Grease the bottom and sides of a 9x13-inch cake pan or line it with parchment paper. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour , baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices. In another large bowl, whisk together the oil , honey, granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract un...

It's pretty easy to adjust this recipe if you like your salsa hotter.  Ingredients: 2 bell peppers (red, yellow or orange), seeded and diced 1 medium onion, diced 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, drained 1 tablespoon olive oil 2 tablespoons lemon (or lime) juice 1 teaspoon ground cumin 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon black pepper Optional: 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika, 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, any kind of Tobasco or other hot sauce if you want a kick Instructions: In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the diced bell peppers and onion and sauté for about 5-7 minutes, or until they start to soften. Add the minced garlic and sauté for an additional minute, or until fragrant. Remove the skillet from heat and let the mixture cool slightly. In a blender or food processor, pulse the drained diced tomatoes until they reach your desired consistency. Add the cooled bell pepper mixture to the blender and pulse until the vegetables are finel...

 Ingredients All-purpose flour- 3 tbsp Instant coffee powder-1 tsp Drinking chocolate powder or sweetened cocoa powder-2 tbsp Sugar- 2 1/2 to 3  tbsp Baking powder- 1/4 tsp Milk- 2tbsp Egg- 1 large Canola oil-2 tbsp Vanilla extract-1/2 tsp Spray canola oil Preparation In a mixing bowl combine all-purpose flour, coffee powder, sugar, and baking powder. Mix well. Add milk, egg, oil, and vanilla extract, and stir with a fork, just until combined. Spray canola oil into the ceramic (or glass) bowl so it won't stick. Add the contents of the mixing blow to the ceramic bowl and microwave on high for 90 seconds (or a few seconds more) until cooked through.  DO NOT OVER COOK.  Having said that, we have a very old, weak microwave, it took almost 5 minutes. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or simply dust with powdered sugar. Or just wait until it cools and dig in. NOTE: You can use cocoa or baking powder instead of drinking chocolate mix, and in that case add 1 or 2 tsp s...

Dry ingredients: 2 tablespoons dried oregano 1 tablespoon salt (or even less) 1 tablespoon dried parsley 1 tablespoon garlic salt (or garlic powder if you want less salt) 1 tablespoon onion powder 1 tablespoon white sugar 1 teaspoon ground black pepper 1 teaspoon dried basil ¼ teaspoon dried thyme ¼ teaspoon celery salt (or celery seed if you want less salt) Optional - a shake of red pepper flakes to add some zest Mix the ingredients together and store them in an airtight container. Liquid ingredients: ⅔ cup canola or olive oil (your taste determines what you use) ¼ cup white, balsamic, or wine vinegar (to your taste, again) 2 tablespoons of water Preparation: Whisk two tablespoons of the dry mix into the liquid. :

tl;dr Ingredients: 1.5 kg tongue (about three lbs?) 0.35 kg dried fruit, I prefer apricots and raisins (about 12 oz?) (you can use less, see below) 1 can of tomato sauce, about 15 ounces or 450 grams  1.5 cups water 1/2 cup brown sugar Yes, I know this isn't exact. It's also not baking, so, whatever. Preparation: Thaw the tongue and boil for at least three hours at a low boil and make sure the water covers the meat. It's done when you can stick a fork in and it comes out reasonably easily. Let it cool, peel it and slice it thin, and put it into a skillet with a lid. For the sauce, combine everything into a little pot, and bring it to a boil. Pour the sauce over the tongue, and simmer for 45 minutes. Enjoy! You can stop reading now, the rest is me rambling. I may edit this post at some point. I normally don't post recipes here unless I've tried them and gotten good reactions from the people eating them. But preparing tongue for people can be a little funny. People he...

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 ...