We try to create some semblance of normal life amid the abnormal.
I started a chicken soup yesterday. We ate some of it for dinner last night. I made noodles to go into the soup. I had read an article in a food magazine or perhaps a food blog years ago that described the making of a variety of Central European noodles that are made into a thin dough that is dropped from the tip of a pointed spoon into boiling water forming ribbons of noodle. I don't remember where exactly I saw the article, or who wrote it or exactly which central European country this particular variety of noodle is from. I don't even remember the exact ingredients that went into that variety of noodle. If I were a food historian I would hang my head in shame. I'm not but I am just doing my best to knock out meals that don't have the whiff of desperation to them.
We are living in a certain amount of food anxiety. Figuring out where to get the food we need has gotten extra complicated Costco has no delivery slots available at all for same day delivery (that's where you can get fresh fruits and vegetables and stuff that needs to be refrigerated or frozen). The two day delivery option will deliver in a couple of weeks and only about half of what I wanted to order was in stock. The market I have ordered from in Brooklyn seems to have no delivery slots for the foreseeable future but they don't tell you that until after you have finished placing your order. Riverdale Kosher has delivery slots available for next week but they don't tell you ahead of time which items they don't have. It's a surprise!
T make the noodles, I mixed three beaten egg yolks with tapioca flour and potato starch (a couple of tablespoons each) that I had left over from Passover. I'm saving our regular flour for bread baking. You add enough of the starchy stuff until the mixture is about the consistency of half and half. You then drizzle the mixture into rapidly boiling water and within a few minutes you have noodles.
The soup will be a hearty start for our meal. It's kind of dreary out. It will be nice to have warm soup in our bellies.
We are also eating meat balls. Salad will be made soon.
The noodle making meant that I had three egg whites ready to par-tay. Those egg whites are now
chocolate and cinnamon flavored meringues enhanced with bits of dried apricots and crisp rice. There is probably a community cookbook from the 1950s that has a recipe for something very similar with an adorable name like Cocoa Crunchies. This is not a separate species from meringue. It's just meringues with stuff in it.
We paid two virtual Shiva calls yesterday and got mixed up about time and missed a third.
Stay safe, be healthy and Shabbat Shalom!.
My mother-in-law from Slovenia called these poured noodles and often made them with leftover egg yolks after making meringues. My childhood neighbor from Ukraine poured them from a measuring cup and called them by a name she said meant cream noodles. I think they were widely used as a last minute replacement for dumplings or homemade noodles.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this bit of wisdom. There are times when I try something that is new to me and it clearly feels so right, so old coming from an old cooking tradition. These noodles are clearly the answer to an old cooking problem posed in a kitchen long ago. They will be part of my cooking repertoire for a long time to come.
ReplyDelete