Passover Mandelbrot

Passover, like most holidays seems to creep up quietly and then all of a sudden it's busy kitchen to the power of 10.  I really love this holiday but honestly, it's alot of work.  Anyone who tells you differently isn't the one doing the cooking.  Thank goodness for my sister (aka Auntie Takeout) who's stepped forward and is taking on alot of the work.

We cook at our own homes and then do the schlep to baba's place.  It's actually easier to do it this way than try to bring my mom to one of our homes.  It also leaves baba with enough leftovers for a week's worth of meals.  This year I'm doing the sides and desserts.
One of the desserts this year is mandel brot.   This recipe is a first timer for me and until now I had no idea how simple it is to make and I know baba will love these cookies.  They're really like a smaller and softer version of biscotti.  You also don't need a mixer for these - easy to put together by hand.

3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
1 1/2 cup cake meal
1/2 cup potato starch
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F.
Line cookie sheet with parchment paper
Whisk eggs and add sugar, continue whisking until well blended
Slowly incorporate oil and then both cake meal and potato starch
Stir in chocolate chips
Let mixture sit for 15 minutes
With oiled hands form 3 long logs (the mix will be sticky)
Bake for 30 minutes.  Take out logs and cut into approximately 12 slices per log and return to oven for 5--10 minutes to dry.

Fantastic!

Hamentashen for Purim

Purim this year begins the evening of March 15 and ends the evening of March 16.  This celebration commemorates the salvation of the Jewish people in ancient Persia from the evil plot of destruction from Haman.  He was not successful.  Each year, we mark this holiday by recanting the story (the megillah).  During the storytelling whenever the name of Haman is said out loud, the audience use noise makers to erase the sound of his name while stomping their feet.

Purim was always one of my very favourite holidays; essentially the only time as children we were encouraged to make lots of noise.  The custom is to make hamentashen, a triangular shaped cookie filled with one or many different fillings.  The triangle shape is meant to be symbolic of Haman's ears. We also take time during this holiday to make up small food gifts to share with family and friends, usually some cookies and also to perform acts of kindness for those in need.  That's not to say we don't display acts of kindness regularly but during this holiday it's somehow more purposeful.

The most fun of Purim as children was to dress up (kind of like Halloween costuming) in the images of the time.  You see alot of queen, bad guy, and hero type costumes.

I've always made hamentashen and this year is no different.  The recipe I used for years seemed just a little too cake like so I surfed to find a new one to try.  I think I hit pay dirt  when I checked out The Shiksa.  I was so happy to find two different dough recipes, one with butter and a second without.  She also has a wonderful tutorial on her blog and I actually used her method this year and it worked beautifully.  Once you get a rythym going with the assembly it's a breeze.

A good tip is to make your filling first.  The dough, if left too long can go dry.  I made a batch of prune filling (very typical filling for these cookies)

Prune Filling

1 lb (2 cups) soft dried prunes
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp lemon juice
zest of 1/2 lemon
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Put ingredients into a food processor and pulse until smooth.

Dough

2 eggs
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1 tsp orange zest
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

1.  Whisk eggs, sugar, canola oil, orange zest and vanilla together.    I did everything by hand - you don't need a mixer.

2.  In a second bowl sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.

3.  Slowly add the flour mixing in a circular motion with a wooden spoon until flour is incorporated.  Hand knead until you get to a smooth and slightly tacky consistency.

4.  Lightly flour your work surface and your rolling pin and roll out to approximately 1/4".  The thinner the dough, the crispier the cookie.  Using a 3" cutter or glass, cut rounds and put a tsp of filling in the center of each cookie.  Fold over left side towards the center, then the right side to join to the top third of the cookie.  Bring up the bottom part of the dough to pinch the ends.

5.  Bake at 350 F for about 20 minutes (my oven was 18 minutes)

** Make sure you visit The Shiksa's blog for an amazing tutorial on how to assemble the hamentashen.  Her method is great and no lost filling.  Yield is about 3 dozen so tomorrow I'm making a double batch with apricot filling and poppy seed filling.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I had this idea that being on parental leave would give me a lot of time to clean up at home and make nice meals that were well on their way to being ready when R got home.  In reality, getting the previous night's dishes done is about the extent of my household chore productivity (yeah - we're not the type that can't go to bed with dirty dishes - sorry Giz). 

Since I often nap at the same time as Ms. E (to catch up on the previous night's insomnia), getting chores done means that I have to use the bouncer/playmat/swing/etc. to "babysit" longer than what I'd like.   

In the case of these cookies, I almost made it through completing them during naptime.  But, the last couple of trays were the most memorable.  Imagine me yelling to Ms. E from the kitchen -- "hang on sweetie -- I just have to finish putting these cookies on the tray and then I'll be right there!"  Of course, my four month old was very understanding of this, which she demonstrated by crying louder.   

If it's any consolation -- they are really tasty!  Kudos goes to R's mom for sending the recipe.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 1/2 cups sugar

3/4 cup melted margarine

2 eggs

1 1/2 cup of canned pumpkin filling (I was generous and added closer to 2 cups)

1 tsp. vanilla

3 tsps. baking powder

1 1/2 baking soda

1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. salt

3/4 bag of choc. chips

3 cups flour

Mix ingredients in order given (mixed the wet and dry ingredients separately, first and then added the dry to the wet). Drop by tsp. on greased cookie sheet. Bake 350 for 10 minutes.

I made these cookies for a playgroup I held at my house.  They were so delicious and soft.   Sometimes I find that pumpkin affects the smell and colour of a dessert more than flavour.  But, this is not the case for these cookies!

Along with the cookies, I served a small cheese platter and some fruit. 

Banana Oatmeal Cookies

You can always tell when Giz is visiting by looking in my fridge.  Not only will it contain items that I rarely (if ever) purchase -- like cilantro or huge jars of roasted red pepper -- it will be so full that you can hardly find anything.  As you can imagine, Giz and I have had a few conversations about this.  It hasn't quite stuck yet.

Seeing as I'm not housing a barrel of monkeys, we ended up with an overabundance of bananas.  Lucky for Giz, I didn't complain about this because bananas are one ingredient of which I don't mind having extras.  They're easy to freeze and go great in baking when they're overripe.

In fact, I was so excited to bake these (my first baking since E was born), I even offered to be Giz's "kitchen bitch," the name we give to the person who gets the ingredients out and keeps things clean while the other person actually prepares the recipe.

Banana Oatmeal Cookies

1 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 cup shortening
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 cup of mashed bananas
1 3/4 quick cooking oats
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon.
3. Cream together the shortening and sugar; beat until light and fluffy. Add egg, banana, oatmeal and nuts. Mix well.
4. Add dry ingredients, mix well and drop by the teaspoon on ungreased cookie sheet.
5. Bake at 400 degrees F (200 degrees C) for 15 minutes or until edges turn lightly brown. Cool on wire rack. Store in a closed container.

Verdict: delicious!  We actually added raisins to one batch and chocolate chips to another.  Both tasted really good.

Hamentaschen

When Jewish holidays come up, my mind automatically goes to the food associated with that holiday.  Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) -- I think apples and honey.  Passover -- I think matza and horseradish and matza brie.  Hannukah -- I think latkas.  Purim - I think hamentaschen.  

I recruited a friend of mine to have a hamentashen-making morning.  It's so much faster when you have two people, one to roll the dough, the other to work with the filling.

Prune Filling

3/4 lb prunes

1/2 lb raisins

1 orange (deseeded, quartered, blended with skin left on)

lemon juice (to taste)

~1/2 cup pureed apricot (I couldn't find any, so I pureed peaches)

This is my friend's recipe.  She blends all of this together and lets it sit in the fridge overnight so that the flavours meld.  I followed a bit of a different plan.  I let the prunes and raisins sit in water overnight to plump up.  Here's what they look like after absorbing water overnight:

  

Then I blended everything together in the morning.  This made for a more liquidy filling, but it was still good.   

Basic Oil Dough

Norene Gilletz 

1 medium-sized seedless orange (thin-skinned)
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
2 3/4 cups flour (approximately)
2 tsp baking powder

Cut orange in quarters but do not peel. 

Process in a food processor until fine, using the steel blade, about 25 seconds.

Add eggs, sugar and oil. 

Process for 10 seconds. Add flour and baking powder. Process with several on/offs, just until flour is blended into dough. Do not over-process. Dough will be fairly sticky. Remove from bowl with a rubber spatula onto a lightly floured surface. Use as directed. 

Yield: enough dough for 4 dozen Hamentaschen. 


To Assemble:

1. Roll out dough to approximately 1/4 inch.  Make sure to use a good amount of flour so that the dough doesn't stick.

2. Cut circles as close together as possible so as not to have to overwork the dough more than necessary


3. Put 1 tablespoon of filling in centre of circle

4. Bring sides up and together pinching together to form a triangle shape. The cookie doesn't have to be completely closed, but the dough should hold together. It's nice to be able to see the filling - especially if you make several different fillings
5. Place cookies on greased or sprayed cookie sheet or on silpat
6. Brush with a combination of an egg yolk plus 2 tbsp of water (not entirely necessary but gives it a nicer sheen).  Alternatively, you can melt some butter and spread that on top.  


7. Bake in 350 F oven for 25 - 30 minutes

Verdict: I purchased the raisins and prunes at Bulk Barn and made the mistake of assuming that the scales provided measured in pounds.  I realized, at the checkout, that I had more than double what I intended to buy since the scales were actually kilograms.  So, I doubled the recipe for the filling.  To use up all the filling, I tripled the recipe of dough.  Surprisingly enough, it didn't take us that long to make 12 dozen hamentaschen.  Thankfully, they freeze very well, are easy to share with others and taste great!  

Oatmeal Cookies and the TFX Non Stick

I have for years been in love with my silpat I've used it for baking many times over and thanked France for this invention I can't even tell you how many times. Well, move over Silpat, there's a new kid in town - it's called the TFX Non-Stick.

I got very interested in the TFX Non Stick a short while ago when I visited a fellow Torontonian blog Torview Toronto . I hadn't seen this product in Canada and really needed to learn more. The distributor - Engstrom Trading out of Houston, TX was so generous to let me try out the product.



Like the Silpat, it can be reused over and over again and will withstand oven temperatures of up to 500 F. The TFX is light weight (love that feature), very pliable and can be cut to fit your pan size or can be used as is. I seriously love that feature. Big check mark for me over the Silpat. The other feature I really like is how easy it is to store - folds, rolls and tucks away really easily without taking up space. I think the clincher is price - you can buy 3 TFX sheets to one Silpat and have similar end results.



We're in California on vacation until April so I made a point of bringing the TFX with me. Cookies were on everyone's wish list so we took out the Quaker Oats cylinder and started playing around with their recipe for Oatmeal Raisin cookies (the one under the lid of the cylinder top). We added a little here, took a little away and before we knew it we had a delicious cookie, sugar reduced with a texture of a granola bar.

3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (I used King Arthur white whole wheat)
1 tsp baking soda;
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups Quaker Oats (either quick or old fashioned)
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped dates
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1. Heat oven to 350 F. In large bowl, beat butter and sugars with beater until creamy.
2. Add eggs and vanilla and beat well.
3. Add combined flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt, mixing well.
4. Add oats, raisins, dates and walnuts; mix well.
5. Form into cookies either by dropping from a tablespoon or forming by hand.



6. Bake 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Cool slightly on sheet and remove to wire rack to cool completely.

No. 1 - Cookies were brilliant - not sweet, great texture, exactly the type of cookies I love.
No. 2 - Cleanup with the TFX is a breeze - quick wipe, good to go - can it get any easier?



It's not often that I'll endorse a product with such passion - this one is a winner. It's so light weight that ordering it online is a no brainer and worth it!!! Psychgrad, you may like this one but trust me, you're not getting your hands on mine - order your own :).

Winter Fancy Food Show

Thank you to everyone who participated in our contest last week.  I drew names from a hat...                    

and LeighAnn won!

*****************************************************************
Now, let me tell you about my recent trip to San Francisco....

If you follow me on Twitter, @EqualOppKitchen, you probably saw some of these pictures. While I was in San Francisco, I attended the Fancy Food Show.  The show was massive, with over 1300 exhibitors from more than 35 countries.

The show was a feast for all of the senses.  Common foods were antipasto items, cheese, olive oil, cookies/cakes and various drinks or powders to add to drinks.  But, the selection was remarkable.

Canada was well-represented at the show, with an entire pavilion area devoted to Canadian exhibitors.

Here are some products that I found particularly interesting:

These products come from a Canadian company, La Ferme Martinette.  They have a great selection of maple products that can be ordered online.  We made good use of some of these products for pancake brunch today.

This Mozzarella Cheesemaking Kit seems like a really approachable first step to homemade fresh mozzarella cheese.

I wish Kugel Co's sweet kugel were available in Ottawa.  Every now and then I get kugel cravings.  Maybe it's time I bite the bullet and make some of my mom's recipe.

I'm kind of a sucker for interesting syrups.  Blackberry Patch has quite the selection.  I was particularly taken with the Sweet Potato syrup.  Not something I ever expected to see, but apparently it's a versatile syrup.

I was thrilled to get a couple of Tahitian Gold samples.  Vanilla is one of my favourite smells and ingredients.  I've already had some of the vanilla sugar sprinkled on strawberries.  I think I'm going to order a bunch of vanilla to be sent to Giz while she's in Palm Springs because it's quite expensive to buy in the stores here.

I also really like the idea of pairing wine and cookies.  Wine & cheese or wine & chocolate is great, but I think it would be a lot of fun to have a group of girlfriends over to talk about our favourite wine and cookie pairings.

I was also quite taken with these clear packaging options for baked goods.   Makes me want to bake cupcakes and candy apples, just so that I can give them away in cute packaging.   I think they would be great for made-by-hand wedding giveaways.   

I think I'll stop there for now.  But stay tuned for more fancy food posts and travel posts about the rest of our trip!

Winter Fancy Food Show & Tate's Cookies

This post is long overdue and I must apologize. As bloggers we often have opportunity to either win something really cool or sample a product that really fits with our values. Admittedly both Psychgrad and I have turned down our share of offers simply because we felt that the product was just not a good fit for us for whatever reason.

Today I'm sharing a "Martha" moment with you to share a product that to me, is really worthy of mention and sharing with our readers. I was lucky enough to win a contest at More Than Burnt Toast in celebration of National Cookie Month. The cookies are from the artisan baker in Southampton called Tate's Bake Shop. I had no idea what to expect but was pretty excited when they arrived together with the Tate's Bakeshop Cookbook





My first impression when I sampled the cookies I received was "WOW, I had no idea" (I seemed to say that a lot when it came to these cookies) How is it that I never heard of them before.  Plus, the cookbook has a preamble from Ina Garten and for those who know me, anything Ina has got to be good. Not only did the cookies get a yummy award from me, I started doing some research and found that their whole wheat dark chocolate cookies took the gold award at the 2011 sofi Awards.  The sofi Awards from the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade (NASFT) are the highest honour in the specialty food industry. They recognize the outstanding foods and beverages of the year that demonstrate top quality, taste and overall appeal.




That leads us to some exciting news! NASFT's Winter Fancy Food Show is kicking off  in less than a week, inviting approximately 60 countries to San Francisco displaying, 80,000 new products looking to trade in and out of North America. Can you just imagine a show of this magnitude and being let loose to be one of the first to see all the new offerings? Totally awesome.


What's even more awesome is that Psychgrad will be attending the show and representing Equal Opportunity Kitchen, while combing the floors for the most interesting new products to blog about.
She plans to tweet all about her favourite products and interactions with various exhibitors.  If you're not already following her on twitter, you can find her here:  @EqualOppKitchen.

Holiday Memories

This year's holiday celebration was one of the most memorable on record. The only thing that creates a hold back on perfection is that Psychgrad and "R" were out west with "R"'s family. We were a collection of family and friends who shared the non commercial joys of the season.

We were at my brother's home and I love that he's a foodie and also pays attention to detail.









We decided to not go with the traditional North American dinner and opted to have a cultural celebration. Everyone had a contribution to bring so you could say it was a pot luck dinner.

I was excited to learn about traditional Venezuelan Christmas foods. The first is call Pan de Jamon, a ham, raisin and olive bread. A sweet, soft dough is rolled up around savory ham, sweet raisins and pimento-stuffed olives.




The dough is deliciate and soft and the filling, as unusual as it sounded to me initially just works. The Pan de Jamon is something that I'll definitely try. I was lucky enough to have it made for us by our friend Carlos of Empanada fame. Not only is he a great cook, he also shares his knowledge enthusiastically.



If you're in the Toronto area you could also do this the easy way and give Jose of Pimenton a call.

Jose is also known in our circle for his boozy gluten free Christmas cakes, great food and fun cooking classes.

My next fascination is with the Christmas Hallacas, kind of a tamale; served either as an appetizer or a main dish. To say tamale really minimizes the effort it takes to make this dish. Some make it at family gathering that takes a full day with all involved or for Carlos who didn't have alot of help, it was a 4 day ordeal. A Masa corn dough filled with a stew and wrapped in either corn husks or banana leaves, the finale is in placing them in a pot of boiling water for an hour to marry all the flavours together.












and of course a vegetarian one for "A"



I've included a recipe in the links below. I suspect that each region has it's own version with variations in the spice mixture. The one thing that's for sure, the hallaca is a labour of pure love and I savoured every mouthful.

There was a fully stuffed Tofurkey complete with vegetarian gravy. I had no idea vegetarian gravy could be so good.


For the poultry lovers, we had Chicken Scallopini stuffed with Fontina Cheese (one of Giada's recipes - see below)



and a Quinoa Everything Salad



Of course, by this time you're on overload already but somehow just have to find a little more room for desserts.







We generally finish off with a round of table musicians - oops...we forgot all about it.



Suki was on guard through the whole thing just to make sure that if anything dropped, it didn't hit the floor.



Disclaimer: I just couldn't include EVERYTHING - this post would have been 3 days long :)

Links:
Pan de Jamon
Chicken Scallopini