Deb Perelman's Blog, page 41
December 4, 2015
pull-apart rugelach
The single most frequently asked (possibly rhetorical but I’ve never let that stop me before) question in regards to the sweet recipes on this site is “How do you not eat all of these?” And I finally have an answer: They’re not rugelach. I love chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, I think snickerdoodles are wildly underrated, but rugelach — those impossibly flaky Central European crescent cookies — are the single item in the category of foods that are just not allowed to be here ever, because there’s something about the glorious harmony of it all (the salty cheese, the tart jam, the cinnamon aroma, the crunch, and if you love your people, the chocolate, gaaah) that it will not be safe with me. Or I will not be safe with it. Which is unfortunate, because I have an avalanche of rugelach in my apartment right now.
Previously, the only things that prohibited me from an all-rugelach diet were the fact that: they are never as good from a bakery, even a great one*, as they are homemade and that they’re pretty tedious to make. Butter and cream cheese must be softened, which takes forever in the winter. The dough has to be beaten with a mixer, then chilled, then rolled out, one-quarter at a time, then spread with jam and nuts and dried fruit and, because you love your friends, chocolate and then cut into 16 wedges and each rolled individually then arranged on a baking sheet, brushed with egg or cream wash, sprinkled with more sugar, baked and cooled then repeated three more times with the remaining dough and even I don’t love them enough to do that more than once a year.
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permalink to pull-apart rugelach | 54 comments to date | see more: Cookie, Hanukah, Jewish, Photo
December 1, 2015
potato kugel
Among the great Ashkenazi soul food traditions — bagels, lox, chicken noodle soup, challah, brisket and its cousins, pastrami and corned beef — few are more deeply rooted in the communal psyche than kugels, or starch-based puddings that hail from southern Germany. The word kugel, meaning sphere, globe or ball, originally referred to dumplings dropped over a soup pot, the version baked casserole pans became my people’s favorite, always made in vast quantities, served on Shabbat or holidays in squares and usually shoved in the hands of unsuspecting relatives and guests in disposable foil tins on their way home. The smart ones know resistance is futile.
While two kinds are considered staples — noodle and potato — outside my family at least, where my mother claims to this day that she married my father mostly to get his family’s noodle kugel recipe, the potato reigns supreme, likely due to its practicality as an easily reheated side dish that complements any meal worth having.
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permalink to potato kugel | 30 comments to date | see more: Breakfast, Gluten-Free, Hanukah, Jewish, Onions, Passover, Photo, Potatoes, Put An Egg On It, Side Dish, Vegetarian
November 24, 2015
parsley pecorino biscuits
This was my first summer having a garden and it coincided with the summer I hatched a new human and the themes of both keep blurring together: The goofy pride in growing things from seed. The occasionally overwhelming feeling that there are so many things and they’re all very hungry and counting on you to fix this. The twinge of sadness as they look less sprout-y and more robust. The urgency to not squander any of this.
With that in mind, there’s the fact that a very warm fall has meant that instead of this garden looking near collapse, it’s going strong and the four billowing pots of herbs that remain are pressuring me to do something great with them before they meet their imminent frosty demise. Fried sage leaves on everything! Crisp rosemary flatbread all the time! Minced chives on every dish! Parsley… I mean, I like tabbouleh and all, but there’s no way I’m going to get through this. Let’s not pretend this made a huge dent, but 5 sprigs down is a respectable effort, right?
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permalink to parsley pecorino biscuits | 17 comments to date | see more: Appetizer, Breakfast, Herbs, Photo, Put An Egg On It, Scones/Biscuits, Thanksgiving
November 20, 2015
date breakfast squares
Thanksgiving may be my favorite holiday, I may look forward to stuffing, green bean casserole and all the pie the way normal people might anticipate Ben & Jerry’s Free Cone Day, but there is definitely a point — let’s call it right now — when I’m about at capacity with fresh fun ideas for soft orange vegetables and clever new ways to swim foods in puddles of rich sauces. Also, I still need to eat.
Thus, when I was supposed to be pondering turkey this week, I instead went down a date bar rabbit hole. Date squares, aka matrimonial bars, slices or cakes, are one of these old-school cookies that I imagine at some point were so ubiquitous, everyone forgot to mention them because you barely hear about them anymore. I get that they don’t summon the kind of fervor of salted chocolate chunks cookies, three-ingredient peanut butter domes and brown butter cereal treats but I have a deep affection for — how can I put this politely — Grandma Cuisine, you know, the kinds of food steeped in nostalgia for the 70-plus set, and I believe there’s a time and place for all cookies, even the hopelessly old-fashioned ones.
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permalink to date breakfast squares | no comment to date | see more: Bars, Breakfast, Dates, Photo, Snack
November 18, 2015
roasted leek and white bean galettes
Is this a good place to admit that in all years I sat down at the Thanksgiving table when I didn’t eat meat, it never occurred to me that I needed an alternative meal? Because: sweet potatoes. Because: green beans. Because: stuffing and cranberries and dinner rolls and four types of pie! My plate was heavy. My face was stuffed. I mean, who’s really in it for the turkey?
But, you’re probably a better vegetarian than I was (one who does not consider a montage of side dishes a proper meal) or at least a better host (one who believes every guest, regardless of diet, deserves a main dish), which means that you are probably currently tasked with making something vegetable-centric that’s a) not just everyone else’s side dish, b) ideally contains protein too, c) would be a good fit for the other harvest-y flavors on the table, i.e. no small order.
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permalink to roasted leek and white bean galettes | 12 comments to date | see more: Beans, Leeks, Photo, Tarts/Quiche, Thanksgiving, Vegetarian
November 12, 2015
pecan pie
I realize this is an unpopular opinion and that you might even revoke my internet food ranting license for saying this, but I’m not particularly bothered by corn syrup in recipes. For me, it’s more of a math thing. It mostly shows up in things nobody is eating for underlying health benefits and we all understand we’re only supposed to enjoy in moderation (candies, caramels, etc.) so it’s hard to get up in arms over a glug of it in a recipe that yields a few dozen tiny items one might eat one or two a day of a few times a year. [I will now duck until you’re all done yelling.]
What does bother me about it however is that it’s just plain bland — it tastes like sweet nothingness, and while I can shrug this off in small quantities, in larger amounts, it’s particularly a bummer. I mean, if we are going to eat something that’s largely comprised of sugar, wouldn’t we rather that sugar taste like something? And this is why when it comes to pecan pie, there’s a whole extra dynamic of deeply toasted, luxurious flavor that can be instantly tasted by using golden syrup instead of corn.
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permalink to pecan pie | 44 comments to date | see more: Christmas, Photo, Tarts/Pies, Thanksgiving
November 10, 2015
date, feta and red cabbage salad
Sara Jenkins is famous for making the Italian roasted pork street food known as porchetta trendy in New York. She’s also known for her way with pasta (and has a new book out with her famed food writer mom celebrating it). She’s had turns at a handful of great Italian restaurants in New York, earning them stars and accolades and has written at length for The Atlantic about Italian food. And almost all I ever want to talk about here? Her salads.
I can’t help it — they’re riveting, and while I will forever love roasted pork and pasta, in my life, nothing fills the inspiration deficit that accumulates from the daily repetition of cooking that real life requires like chefs that have a way with vegetables — ways we can take back home and eat food we’re more excited about. It began the first time we went to Porsena nearly 5 years ago, when I fell in love with a green bean salad busy with pickled onions, fried almonds, thinly sliced fennel and celery, which I’m of the opinion never gets enough praise. Crunchy and bright, I became obsessed and made it again and again at home. Last week, we were back for an early Sunday night dinner with our menagerie of mini-humans (fine, just two, but it feels like a lot!) and the giant shells with kale pesto were excellent, my son’s thousand-layer deeply broiled duck lasagna was otherworldly, my husband has nothing but good things to say about the linguine with clams, but the only thing I spent the next week babbling on about was the salad I had with dates, feta and radicchio.
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permalink to date, feta and red cabbage salad | 6 comments to date | see more: Cabbage, Dates, Fall, Photo, Salad, Thanksgiving, Vegetarian
November 6, 2015
apple cider sangria
For about five minutes — before we remembered that we have an infant, a 6 year-old, two full-time jobs, a not very big apartment, an international business trip this month (sadly, not mine) are now doubting we are actually made of whatever is required to pull this off — we thought we might have a Friendsgiving dinner party this year. I love Thanksgiving and I want more of it in my life, ditto to friends and also dinner parties. Everything about this was going to awesome. I didn’t have to plan the menu to my perfect Thanksgiving dinner because I wrote it in my head probably five years ago and from what I hear, Alton Brown’s turkey recipe is the only one you’ll ever need. (Or should I dry brine? Or maybe this lacquered thing? Or maybe a mash-up of all of them? Or maybe just import a smoked one from Texas and be the most chilled out host in the history of Thanksgiving, ever, amiright?) Right, well, I had everything else planned out:
Pretzel Parker House Rolls
This Salad I’m Going To Tell You About Next Week
Squash Toasts with Ricotta and Cider Vinegar
Kale and Caramelized Onion Stuffing
Balsamic-Braised Brussels with Pancetta
Green Bean Casserole with Crispy Onions
Wild Mushroom and Stilton Galettes (the plan was to make 2 or 3 and turn them each into 2 to 3 single-serving as something of a turkey alternative)
A Gratin of Some Sort — either Cauliflower or Potato
Cranberry Sauce
Classic Pumpkin Pie with Pecan Praline Sauce
Pecan Pie (also coming next week, yessss)
An awesome cocktail
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permalink to apple cider sangria | one comment to date | see more: Apple, Drinks, Photo, Thanksgiving
November 4, 2015
kale and caramelized onion stuffing
I have very strong feelings about stuffing, which, for once, I can express succinctly: GIMME. Well, that and a little bit of righteous indignation. Why do we limit our consumption of it to Thanksgiving? Why do we feign interest in all sorts of uninteresting things (dry turkey, thin gravy, occasionally awkward conversations with tipsy distant relatives) just to eat stuffing? Separated into components — croutons, broth, sautéed vegetables — we’d never reject them during all of the months that are not November, but together, for whatever reason, together in a casserole dish, it’s the third Thursday of the month or bust. I demand answers.
There are a lot of really excellent stuffing recipes out there, and I would enjoy — possibly with someone else’s metabolism — chomping my way through all of them. But when it actually comes down to picking The One, I get daunted because the best ones have so much going on: homemade cornbread and five herbs, crumbled sausage, plumped dried fruit, toasted nuts — 14 ingredients is totally the norm — plus braising and blanching and frying and simmering, and given that it’s tradition to prepare this along with three other vegetables, dinner rolls, three types of pie and a turkey that’s half the size of a refrigerator, gravy, salad and cocktails, it’s really no wonder that most of us find the prospect of making Thanksgiving dinner overwhelming-slash-excruciating.
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permalink to kale and caramelized onion stuffing | no comment to date | see more: Kale, Onions, Photo, Thanksgiving, Vegetarian
October 30, 2015
chocolate peanut and pretzel brittle
Does anyone remember Garbage Pail Kids? Can I go predictably off-course here and admit, as I just did to my husband, who is now cracking up, that I was kind of scared of them when they came out? It was 1985! I was young! I was super into Cabbage Patch Kids and definitely did not have a grasp of parody and was this… something that could happen to a Cabbage Patch Kid? I mean, was it going to happen to mine? Why did everyone find them so funny? Ahem, right, so of course I now find them dark and brilliant, which should be no surprise given that they were co-invented by Art Spiegelman, something I learned exactly five minutes ago from Wikipedia but will now pretend I knew all along.
I bet you’re thinking, as per usual, “What on earth does this have to do with cooking, Deb? Focus, please!” But what I’d wanted to tell you is that for nearly eight years now, I’ve an item on my Halloween To-Cook List called “Garbage Pail Brittle,” which I’d hoped would invoke the chaos of the cards but in a less haunting to elementary school kids format. My theory was that, sure, peanut, almond and fancy seed brittles are lovely and elegant, but you know what would be even more awesome? Rice crispies. Potato chips. Pretzels. Because everyone knows that salt, crispy snacky stuff is aces against caramel, butter and chocolate.
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permalink to chocolate peanut and pretzel brittle | 8 comments to date | see more: Candy, Chocolate, Photo
