Recipes

Too Good to Call Passover Cake Bête Noire
(Flourless Chocolate Cake)

8 ounces unsweetened chocolate, very coarsely chopped
4 ounces semisweet chocolate, very coarsely chopped
1 1/3 cups sugar
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into small pieces
5 extra-large eggs

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter a 9-inch round cake pan (not a springform), line it with a round of parchment paper, and butter the paper.

2. Place both chocolates in a food processor and process until chopped.

3. Combine the sugar and ½ cup water in a saucepan and bring to a rolling boil. Stir to dissolve the sugar.

4. With the processor on, add the boiling sugar syrup to the chocolate through the feed tube. Add the butter, piece by piece, followed by the eggs. Process only until very smooth.

5. Pour the mixture into the prepared cake pan. Set the pan in a larger baking pan, and fill the larger pan with warm water to reach halfway up the sides of the cake pan. Carefully transfer the pan to the oven, and bake on the center oven rack until a sharp knife inserted in the center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Remove the cake pan from the larger pan and transfer it to a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes.

6. Run a sharp knife around the edges of the pan. Cover the pan with plastic wrap, and invert it onto a baking sheet. Lift off the pan and peel off the parchment paper. Then invert a cake plate over the cake, and invert the plate and baking sheet together, so the cake is now right side up. Remove the plastic wrap.

7. Serve the cake warm, cold, or at room temperature. It will keep, covered, in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Serves 12 or more

by DEBORAH S. HARTZ

Sally Bower - nee Rabinowitz - has celebrated a lot of Passovers. But the one she remembers most fondly happened 70 years ago in Brooklyn. The Seder was at her boyfriend’s house, and it was the first time she would meet his family. When he opened the door, he had a bouquet for her.

During that evening, he put a ring on Bower’s finger in front of his family - even though the couple had been dating only three months.

Although this story is not in "Melting Pot Memories" by Bower’s niece Judy Bart Kancigor, many other exploits of the Rabinowitz family are. What started as a book written as a family heirloom has become popular across the nation with the book in its fifth printing and more than 3,200 copies sold.

It begins with the story of the Rabinowitz family leaving Slonim, in what is now Belarus, for the United States. It includes a history of the area, the family tree and 600 recipes gathered from 159 family members.

"It’s more of a story than a cookbook," Kancigor says by phone from her home in Fullerton, Calif.

But many of the recipes are from Bower, who was one of the tribe’s better cooks. She learned her way around the kitchen from her mother, who made a mean challah, and her mother-in-law, who had prepared meals for bar mitzvahs and weddings in the old country.

She remembers her mother soaking glasses for three days and burying the silver outside with hot coals for purification. The house was cleaned and any remaining crumbs of chometz - leaven - were searched out with a feather and burned.

Then there were the fish. The live ones kept in the bathtub so they’d be fresh when it was time to make the gefilte fish.

Spicy Moroccan Lamb Shanks with Apricots

Grandma Sera Fritkin's Russian Brisket

Yemenite Haroset Trufles

My column at OU's ezine "Shabbat Shalom" features the following recipes from Jayne Cohen's "Jewish Holiday Cooking": Chickpeas with Garlic and Barbeque Spices, Poached Prune Kreplach with Honeyed Cream and Pecans, Mishmash Kreplach (Beef, Potato and Fried Onion Kreplach). You'll find them at the end of the story.

When Jayne Cohen and her sister returned home after their grandmother had passed away, they were determined to recreate the holiday dishes they had grown up on. But neither had ever attempted these traditional recipes. Those had been Grandma’s province. Read the entire story.

3 to 4 pounds beef brisket
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup mango chutney
1 envelope onion soup mix
12 ounces Coca-Cola
2 tablespoons olive oil

1. Place brisket in a non-reactive pan. Combine onion, chutney, soup mix, and coke. Pour over brisket and marinate overnight in the refrigerator.
2. The following day preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
3. Remove brisket from marinade mixture and set marinade aside. Heat oil in a large stove-proof roasting pan and brown brisket on both sides.
4. Place the brisket in a roasting pan and pour the reserved marinade over the meat.
5. Cover the pan with foil and cook until tender, 3 to 4 hours. Baste the meat with the pan juices every 45 minutes. Serves 6 to 8

My column at OU's Shabbat Shalom entitled A harvest of recipes for Sukkot 5768 features the following recipes: Spinach-Stuffed Acorn Squash, Stuffed Eggplant in Olive Oil with rice, pine nuts and currants, and Polish Apple Cake. Chag Sameach! And in keeping with the harvest season, here's my latest column in the Orange County Register:

Cooking at the farmers' market

The Orange County Register/Fullerton News Tribune
October 4, 2007

by Judy Bart Kancigor

Amelia Saltsman is on a mission. With a cooking demonstration and book signing a month away, she is trawling the farmers’ market, querying farmers as to availability. Will there be persimmons? How about pomegranates? I tag along for the ride.

“Because I work with seasonal ingredients, and we are now on the cusp of the change of seasons, I need to best guess with the farmers when things will become available,” explains Saltsman as we stroll down the aisles.

But there are frequent interruptions, because this is the Santa Monica Farmers’ Market and Saltsman – writer, cooking teacher, producer/host of her own TV show and author of “The Santa Monica Farmers’ Market Cookbook” – is the undisputed queen of this market and instantly recognized by shoppers and farmers alike.

Every grower greets Saltsman, who has immortalized them in her new cookbook, which is as much an homage to the farmers, their histories, and their commitment to excellence as it is a collection of fuss-less, original and artful recipes inspired by the amazing varieties they produce.

My latest column on OU's website includes recipes for Tomato Pie, Tomato and Cucumber Bread Salad and Classic Tomato Soup with a Goat Cheese Swirl. Enjoy!

Like its nightshade relatives, the eggplant and potato, it was once thought to be poisonous. The French named it pomme d’amour (love apple) and considered it an aphrodisiac. Really a fruit, it’s called a vegetable. Call the tomato what you want. I call it delicious.

According to John Cooper in “Eat and Be Satisfied,” tomatoes were brought to Europe from Mexico in the sixteenth century, but weren’t

Read the whole story.