My oldest his home from China. Unlike her father and little brother, she actually enjoys eating. So, once again, cooking is actually fun.
She was craving eggplant parmesan during her last weeks in China, so that was waiting for her to eat as soon as she walking in the door.
She requested pomegranate meat balls for Shabbat, so I made them , with bulger wheat as the starch that holds the meat balls together. Right now I have sliced potatoes, onions mushrooms and carrots cooking in the oven bathed in the gravy from last Shabbat's chicken. It feels somehow Chanukah appropriate even though it isn't latkes.
The challa is on it's second rising. I was lucky to find a bag of King Arthur flour. So my challa dough has enough gluten in it to have that muscular feel when you knead it, meaning that it will be nice and chewy when we eat it . If I can't get King Arthur flour, I add gluten to the dough. I hate cakey/doughy challa.
There is a pot luck lunch at our synagogue so I made some mini cheese cakes . I only have one mini muffin tin so the baking has been a slow process. I baked two batches last night and one this morning.
Several years ago, I was researching cheesecake recipes and realized that they are all fairly similar. so here is my formula for cheesecake.
3 eggs
1 1/2 lb soft cheese - ricotta, cream cheese, farmer cheese,sour cream cottage cheese in any combination
1/2-3/4 c sugar
1 tbs flour
pinch salt
flavors - rind and juice of 1 lemon, or rind and juice of 1/2 orange, vanilla, cinnamon...
Put eggs in bowl and beat. add subsequent ingredients one at a time beating well after each addition.
add mixture into prepared pan ( If you are making one big cheesecake, make a graham cracker or nut crust, if you make mini cheesecakes this step is optional just put batter into muffin liners set into muffin tins)
bake at 275 until tan on top.
I decorated this batch with a a mixture of dark chocolate melted with butter. But strained and melted jam added to the end of the baking works well too. The cheesecakes on the blue plate are just a small fraction of the batch. But they were the only ones willing to model for the photographer.
Since I tend to cook most Fridays I might just devote my Friday entries to cooking.
Your food descriptions made my mouth water. I should be more like your husband and son and enjoy eating less. My interest has been piqued with the pomegranate meat balls. I've never heard of this dish and I have some pomegranates in the fridge. Is the fruit part of the meatball or a sauce?
ReplyDeleteIn this case,I threw some pomegranate molasses into the meat balls. You can pick up a bottle in a Middle Eastern food store. It is both tart and sweet and is often just the thing to throw into something boring and make it delicious.
ReplyDeleteI have made both meatballs and chicken using fresh pomegranate seeds along with the pomegranate molasses.I would have used the seeds, had I had some around. the molasses whic is simplyboiled down pomegranate juice creates an intensity of flavor that you don't get with the seeds alone.