Shabbat for the “Food is Fuel ‘ gang

as t

As tiy have probably figured out by now, I really love food. Cooking for me, is often a form of play. I like to combine flavors and textures. I like having flavors play off of one another both in a particular dish and over the course of a meal.

I know that not everyone approaches food the same way. My husband, certainly does not. My late mother in law was not a good cook. My brother in law always says that he didn’t know food was supposed to taste good until he left home. Once, on a visit to my in laws they began to talk about the excellent crackers they had just bought at the supermarket. They went on and on about the amazing crackers they were going to serve me. I assumed that it might be something slightly out of the ordinary, something one normally might buy in a gourmet shop.

What they brought to the table was a box of store brand saltines. Which brings me in a round about way to this week’s Shabbat dinner. My daughter is away for the weekend. It’s been a hard work week for my husband, so it’s just the three of us for dinner. I decided to make something uncomplicated and pleasant.

One of the first ways I learned how to make chicken was with honey and mustard.it’s sweet, it’s salty and it creates a crispy crust. It’s pleasant for simple tastes.
That, and it looks really pretty. I taught this to my kids as a fail safe way to flavor chicken or fish when you aren’t feeling all that clever.

I also made quinoa with the chicken juice from last week. the meal will be rounded out with roasted vegetables with rice vinegar and of course challah. I think I’m not making dessert this week.

Comments

מְחַיֵּה הַמֵּתִים

וְנֶאֱמָן אַתָּה לְהַחֲיוֹת מֵתִים: בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְהֹוָה מְחַיֵּה הַמֵּתִים You are faithful to restore the dead to life. Blessed are You, Adonoy, Resurrector of the dead. That particular line is recited at every single prayer service every day three times a day, unless you use a Reform or Reconstructionist prayer book . In those liturgies instead of praising God for resurrecting the dead God is praised for giving life to all. I am enough of a modern woman, a modern thinker, to not actually believe in the actual resurrection of the dead. I don't actually expect all of the residents of the Workmen's Circle section of Mount Hebron cemetery in Queens to get up and get back to work at their sewing machines. I don't expect the young children buried here or the babies buried here to one day get up and frolic. Yet, every single time I get up to lead services I say those words about the reanimating of the dead with every fiber of my being. Yesterday, I e...

Connecting with the past

A few months ago I had a craving for my father’s chicken fricassee. If my father were still alive I would have called him up and he would have talked me through the process of making it. My father is no longer alive so I turned to my cookbooks and the recipes I found for chicken fricassee were nothing at all like the stew of chicken necks, gizzards and wings in a watery sweet and sour tomato sauce that I enjoyed as a kid. I assumed that the dish was an invention of my father’s. I then attempted to replicate the dish from my memory of it and failed. A couple of weeks ago I saw an article on the internet, and I can’t remember where, that talked about Jewish fricassee and it sounded an awful lot like the dish I was hankering after. This afternoon I went to the butcher and picked up all of the chicken elements of the dish, a couple of packages each of wings, necks and gizzards. My father never cooked directly from a cook book. He used to re...

Food friday - your grandmother's food processor

My grandmother bought my mother this wooden bowl and a chopping knife, known in Yiddish as a hock-messer, soon after my parents got married. Yes, she also got them a dairy set as well. these wooden bowls and chopping knives were a big part of food prep when I was growing up. meatloaf and meat balls were mixed in this bowl. Chopped liver was made in this bowl as well. Sundays we often made chicken salad for lunch made out of chicken left over from Shabbat chopped with vegetables and mayo. That too, was made in this bowl. When I was in college my parents got their first food processor and the chopping bowls were not used as much. Several years ago, my father asked if i would like the bowls and the hock-messers. I was happy to have them. I like the sheer physicality of chopping up a big bowl of stuff into teeny pieces. While the wooden bowls have stood up well to the years of use, the hock-messers had not. The bladed which were bolted into their handles, wobbled. The blades wouldn't ...

sarah in nyc

Search This Blog