Date and Honey Zucchini Bread

The same edition of the Press Enterprise that brought me the eggplant tart brought this recipe.  I haven't tried it yet.  But I'm going to!

Date and Honey Zucchini Bread

Start to finish: 11/2 hours

Servings: 10

11/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the pan

11/2 cups white whole-wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon kosher salt

11/2 teaspoons cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

3 eggs

1 cup honey

1 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups packed shredded zucchini (not peeled)

1 cup coarsely chopped medjool dates

Set a rack in the center of the oven.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mist a Bundt pan with baking spray.

In medium bowl, whisk together both flours, the baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs until well beaten.

Stir in the honey, oil and vanilla, then fold in the zucchini.

Add dry ingredients and chopped dates to the zucchini mixture.

Stir just until the dry ingredients are just moistened.

Do not over mix.

Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan.

Bake until a toothpick inserted at the center of the loaf comes out clean and dry, 50 to 60 minutes.

Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

Nutritional information per serving: 510 calories; 210 calories from fat (41 percent of total calories); 24 g fat (2 g saturated; 0.5 g trans fats); 55 mg cholesterol; 71 g carbohydrate; 5 g fiber; 40 g sugar; 7 g protein; and 400 mg sodium.

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Caramelized Onion, Eggplant and Heirloom Tomato Tart

I took this recipe from the Press Enterprise Sept. 4, 2013, edition.  It was meant for a summer Rosh Hashanah recipe - the Jewish New Year.  But I find it's one of my favorite summer recipes.

A few tips - the 2 hour time is extremely optimistic.  It takes me at least 3 hours, what with the chopping and everything.

And I rarely get the dough to come up in a nice, easy crust to be draped prettily into the springform pan.  Luckily, it doesn't matter.  If it breaks into pieces, press it into place, use your fingers to smooth over the cracks and rips, and pretty up the edges by crimping them like a pie crust.  Or not - it won't matter. Once it bakes, the crust will be just fine.  And this recipe is always a hit!

Caramelized Onion, Eggplant and Heirloom Tomato Tart

Start to finish: 2 hours

Servings: 8

For the crust:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, chilled in the freezer for 1 hour

4 tablespoons ice water

For the filling:

Olive oil cooking spray

13/4 pounds small eggplants, peel and cut into 1/2-inch-thick rounds

Kosher salt and ground black pepper

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

4 cups thinly sliced red onions (about 3 large)

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

4 heirloom tomatoes (multiple colors), cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices

Fresh basil leaves, to garnish

To make the crust, in a large bowl whisk together flour and salt.

Add chilled olive oil and using clean hands or a fork, mix until the oil is incorporated and the mixture is the consistency of small peas.

Add the ice water and mix until dough has just formed.

Shaped into a 6-inch disk, wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Meanwhile, prepare the filling.

Position an oven rack in the middle of the oven. Heat the oven to 375 degrees.

Coat a large baking sheet with olive oil cooking spray.

Mist the eggplant rounds with cooking spray, then season both sides of each slice with salt and pepper.

Arrange the eggplants slices in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet.

Bake for 30 minutes, or until soft and golden brown.

Remove from the oven and set aside.

While the eggplant cooks, in a large saucepan over medium, heat the olive oil.

Add the onions and saute until softened and translucent, about 5 minutes.

Stir in 1 teaspoon salt and the thyme, then reduce heat to low.

Cook, stirring occasionally so the onions don’t burn, until very soft and browned, about another 30 minutes.

Stir in the vinegar and remove from heat.

Mist an 11-inch springform tart pan (or a tart pan with a removable bottom) with cooking spray.

On a clean, floured surface using a floured rolling pin, roll the chilled dough into a 13-inch circle.

Transfer the dough to the tart pan and fold in and press together the overhanging dough to build up the edges.

If the dough tears or breaks, simply piece it together and press it into the pan.

Spread the onion mixture in an even layer over the bottom of the tart.

Add an even layer of the eggplant.

Top with tomato slices arranged in an overlapping circular pattern.

Spray the top of the tart with olive oil cooking spray, then season with salt and pepper.

Bake until the crust is golden and the tomatoes are slightly browned, about 45 minutes.

Remove from oven and cool on a rack. Remove the outer ring of the pan and transfer the tart to a serving plate.

Slice into 8 wedges and serve warm, at room temperature or chilled.

Serve garnished with torn basil leaves.

Nutritional information per serving: 340 calories; 160 calories from fat (47 percent of total calories); 18 g fat (2.5 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 0 mg cholesterol; 41 g carbohydrate; 7 g fiber; 8 g sugar; 6 g protein; and 610 mg sodium.

Dad's Brisket

While Norman is a professional chef, my dad is a talented amateur.  His recipes tend to involve a lot of garlic and a lot of wine - so much so that, as a 19-year-old living on my own and having to cook for myself for the first time, I had a real problem - all of my recipes required alcohol, which I was too young to buy.  I was probably the only undergrad begging her friends to buy red wine so she could make chicken cacciatore!

None of his recipes are simple. But they all come out wonderfully, and his brisket is no exception.

Ingredients:

1 brisket
Red wine
garlic, cut
coffee (instant. Or already made.)
small can of crushed tomato
pepper
cut onions
cut carrots
Browned flour (put the flour in a pan and cook gently as you stir it until it turns brown.)

1.Cut off what fat you can. Pepper the brisket.  Brown it in the aluminum plan you plan to cook it in - maybe put a little salt on the bottom of the pan first.

2. Pour the ingredients - except the flour - over it, mixed to taste.  I used half a bulb of garlic, half a large onion and half a bottle of wine for a 5 pound brisket.  I skipped the coffee because I forgot it.

3. Cook at 250 degrees until tender when you poke a fork in it - about 5 to 6 hours (I cooked it with Norman's at 325 for 4.5 hours.)

4. Remove meat from sauce, cool, and slice against the grain.

5. Strain out the veggies, then use a fat separator to pour the good sauce out from under the fat.

6. Store the meat in the sauce, and reheat in the sauce.

7. When you're ready to make the gravy, blend the veggies and sauce in a blender.  Mix the browned flour in a bit of cold water and pour it in as a thickener.

Norman Mael's Brisket

Last year, Norman Mael, long a stalwart and the chief cook of our synagogue, moved. Every year, he would make us a delicious brisket, the highlight of the Rosh Hashanah - Jewish New Year - feast he and his wife Lisa hosted at their house.

I tried holding a potluck without him, but it was sparsely attended.  So this year, I decided to bring back the brisket.

It was more of a challenge than you'd think. 

1. I've never made brisket, though I love my dad's.

2. It would have to be kosher. But I've never cooked kosher meat.  I usually bail out by making something vegetarian. And my kitchen is definitely not kosher - I've made crab.

3. There are no kosher briskets to be found in Bloomsburg. Or in the grocery stores in Williamsport. Or Wilkes-Barre.  No, you can't special order them, not from Weis, not from Giant, not from Wegmans.  I checked.

But Norman came to my rescue.  He found me three kosher briskets in Boston, and sent them home with his daughter Mary.

Plus he gave me his recipe.  He even sent along the onion soup he uses!

Next, I looked into koshering my kitchen.  That was a no go.  I have only one sink - you need two.  You need separate dishes, silverware, cutting boards and blender blades for meat and dairy - I suspect this rule was a plot thought up by potters and blacksmiths.  To makes something kosher that was once non-kosher - like all of my silverware except one small knife I use to cook vegetarian food for the synagogue - you have to let it rest for 24 hours, then boil it, without touching anything, including other pieces of sanctifying silverware.

Unless it's a knife.  You can kosher a knife by stabbing it into the earth in 10 different places. Or a flowerpot of dirt - really!  Unless it's serrated.  Then it's back to boiling.

Too much for me!

So I moved the project to the synagogue kitchen, where we had everything needed - separate plates, silverware, etc., except for a good kosher meat knife.

Until Friday.

I was still debating whether I wanted to risk dulling my one non-serrated good knife by stabbing it into my lawn, or whether I'd settle for sawing away at the brisket with the synagogues meat-side table knives when I arrived at the synagogue to start the cooking.

There, on the counter, was a beautiful, sharp chef's knife!  I don't know where it came from.  But I took it as a gift from G-d and got started!

Four and a half hours later, I had three extremely tender and tasty briskets.  I couldn't decide if I wanted to use my dad's recipe or Norman's, so I made two of dad's and one of Norman's. (I thought I would make one of each, but had to buy more than I needed of the ingredients for one of Dad's. I had planned to use just two pans, but the meat didn't fit and I needed a third.)

Both came out delectable and tender.  I'm still not sure which is my favorite.  So I'll post both.

The trick is low and slow - as John Hopkins of Forks Farm advised me.  I cooked these at 325 for 4.5 hours.

Here's Norman's. I'll post Dad's separately.

Ingedients:

1 large brisket, about 7 pounds

1 box of onion soup.  Not a packet - a box. Norman uses a kind that comes two packets to the box

1 bottle of ketchup, 14-ounces

1 liter of ginger ale

Pepper to taste.

1. Pepper the brisket. Brown if you like (I did), but that's optional.

2. Put the brisket in one of those disposable aluminum pans(assuming you didn't brown them in the pan.)

3. Add all the other ingredients.

4. Seal the pan tightly with aluminum foil, then drop it in another aluminum pan.

5. Pop it in the oven and leave it alone for 4-5 hours.

6. Let the meat cool before you remove it from the sauce and slice it. Slice it across the grain. Take any fat off the sauce after it has cooled. Return the meat to the sauce and stick it in the fridge until the day you use it.

7. Reheat gently in the sauce.