Week 51 - Jewish

The Week 51 challenge, Jewish, was technically the last challenge I completed in 2020. I had planned to do it earlier in the month, but just kept pushing it back since the original plan was to make challah, which is a many-hour-long affair. The time never seemed right, and then when it finally came time to make it, I just wasn't feeling it, plus we were running out of flour and I wasn't sure we would even have enough. I decided to scrap the challah plan and instead make chraime, a Sephardic fish dish I had never had or heard of before but was mentioned in the Reddit intro thread. I used a recipe from Breaking Matzo which seemed simple and tasty.

The ingredients for our version (approximations since I didn't measure anything) were:

- about 1 tbsp cumin ($0.10)

- about 1 tsp smoked Spanish paprika ($0.05)

- about 2 tbsp olive oil ($0.20)

- 1 yellow onion, chopped ($0.68)

- big spoonful of minced garlic ($0.10)

- 2 cans diced tomatoes, drained ($2)

- 1/2 of 16 oz jar of roasted red peppers ($2.50)

- juice of 1/2 lemon ($0.40)

- 1/2 cup of water ($0)

- 1 lb of boneless skinless pollock fillets ($5)

- salt and freshly ground black pepper ($0.02)

- small bunch of cilantro, leaves chopped ($0.25)

The cost for the fish was about $11.30, and we ate it with some microwave rice packets ($3.37), for a total of about $14.67. For a fish dish, it wasn't that expensive, although we had the same white rice problem we always have where we're still hungry not long after dinner. If someone knows the science for why that's the case, would love to hear it.

While making the chraime, it occurred to me that the cooking process was very similar to shakshuka. Make your tomato sauce, add the fish/eggs into the sauce, and then cook until they're done. The basic steps were:

- heat spices

- add olive oil

- add onions and cook until softened

- add garlic and cook for about a minute

- add tomatoes, red peppers, lemon juice, and water (I used less water than the recipe because I had canned tomatoes, and just added enough water to be sure there was enough sauce to surround the fish)

- bring sauce to a boil, lower heat, and simmer for 5-8 minutes

- add fish (after drying in a towel if needed, like ours did because it started out frozen)

- make little wells in the sauce and put the fish fillets in the pan, making sure the fish is surrounded by sauce

- cover and cook for about 6-7 minutes until fish is opaque and temperature is at least 145 degrees

- remove from heat, and add salt, pepper, and cilantro

- serve over rice

This dish was delicious, and I'm glad I did this instead of the challah this time around. It took far less time and made for more of a complete dinner all on its own instead of needing to figure out what else to make with the challah. B passed on it completely, so I'm not sure if I'll be making it again any time soon, but A and I thought it was really tasty. It also felt super healthy, which was much appreciated after our holiday eating.

Latka Finger

This weekend, we headed over to Sticky's Finger Joint, a spot in the city that specializes in chicken fingers, for their holiday special: the latka finger. I had already made latkes (latka is so hard for me to type; I always spell it latke but will not here since Sticky's doesn't) for the 52 week cooking challenge, which I was not that enthused about, so I was hoping a nice, properly fried latka finger would improve our Hanukkah eats.

For $5, you get a piece of chicken marinated in a mix of buttermilk, onion and applesauce and then coated in a batter of potato, onions and matzo meal, and then fried. (They verbally gave all this detail in the description of the latka finger while we were there, but I promptly forgot it and had to look it up online here.) It comes with small side cups of sour cream and cinnamon-topped applesauce, as well as a piece of gelt. Part of the proceeds go to a nonprofit that fights hunger, so not only are you eating something timely for Hanukkah, you're doing it for a good cause.

Overall, we thought the latka finger was okay. The size was nice - good enough for both of us to split as a snack - but the latka breading just didn't have a ton of flavor to it on its own. (I feel like I'm writing my review of my own latkes again.) Also, since we were cutting the chicken finger instead of biting into it, the latka part often just fell off the chicken, which also contributed to it seeming not that flavorful. The latka finger was definitely improved by dipping. I liked it with the sour cream, which A also used to add flavor to it. So generally it was fine, but not as flavorful as we were expecting it to be.

We're glad that we stopped by Sticky's to try the latka finger as we were really intrigued by it from the moment we read about it since it was so different. Pretty sure that tomorrow was announced as the last day, so if you want to try it, head over now!

Week 51 - Kosher

Week 51 of the challenge - kosher - coincided with the start of Hanukkah, which made my challenge choice pretty easy. Latkes! I love eating latkes but I don't deep fry at home, so I set off looking for a recipe that would allow me to make latkes without tons of oil and frying. In the kosher recipe library on Chabad, they had a recipe for some low fat latkes that you could make in the oven, so that was my plan!

I mostly followed their recipe with only slight modifications. I used:

- about 2 lbs of potatoes ($0.75)
- 1 yellow onion ($0.60)
- 3 tsp canola oil ($0.15)
- 1/4 cup flour ($0.15)
- salt and pepper ($0.08)
- 1 large egg + egg whites of 1 large egg ($0.38)

For about 2 trays of latkes, the cost was only slightly over $2. I made some power greens and mushrooms, just like with the previous night's Canadian dinner, which tacked on a few dollars. All together, that was a pretty affordable meal.

The steps to make the latkes were:

1. Peel potatoes and remove outer layers and ends of onion.

2. Set up food processor with grating blade. Grate potatoes and onions. Drain in colander over a bowl. Dispose of the water but not the potato starch that collects on the bottom.

3. Once the potatoes and onions seem dry (I thought they were, but perhaps they could have used some more wringing), move to large bowl and mix with the potato starch, flour, salt and pepper. Mix well.

4. Add the egg, egg white, and 1 tsp of canola oil, and mix some more.

5. Add canola oil to baking sheets and brush the oil on. (We only had one clean pan so I did one this way, and used foil + nonstick spray on another pan. It worked better this way.) Scoop spoonfuls of the latke mixture onto the sheet and form/press into circular cake shapes.

6. Bake at 450 degrees on the lower and middle racks of the oven for about 12 minutes.

7. Flip latkes and swap baking sheet positions. Bake another 10 minutes. Latkes should be golden brown at that point, but it might depend on your oven and setup. (The latkes on the foil did not brown very much.)

Usually you eat latkes with sour cream and/or applesauce, but I ate them plain and with the vegetables, and A added sriracha to a few. We like sriracha so it's up in the air for us whether it's better with the traditional toppings.

The latkes were okay, but not that flavorful. I added plenty of salt and pepper, but they still tasted like they could have used more. The texture was different coming out of the oven, and frying would definitely taste better. So overall they were just okay.

It was interesting doing this kosher challenge. Even though I knew one big part of this meal would not be kosher - our kitchen - it made me think about all the steps of the meal and any accompaniments with the kosher rules in mind. It's something that doesn't usually enter into the planning process for me, so it was an interesting exercise. I probably will not make these latkes again as they just don't compare to the fried ones, but I'm glad I tried. Until we get an air fryer, I think I'll leave the frying and the latkes to the experts.

Taste of Jewish Culture

I don't know what it's like in other cities, but one of the ways you know it's summer in New York is an endless barrage of street fairs. Avenues and streets closed one or both days of the weekend with many of the same vendors showing up week after week. Some are different like the Ninth Avenue International Food Festival which has a lot of local vendors, and sometimes there's just something special in the middle of a regular fair, like today's Taste of Jewish Culture put on by The Workmen's Circle.

We were really excited about the vendor list as there were some great places lined up, and one place we knew we wanted to stop was Taim. We keep meaning to bike down to one of the shops, now that the truck doesn't stop by us anymore, but haven't found time this summer. Their truck was at the first corner we got to, so we immediately ordered a falafel sandwich to share.

Their special today was harissa falafel. I had never tried it before, but A had it once before. The harissa falafel is a little zestier and a little spicier than the regular green falafel, but just as delicious. We got it with everything, so they loaded on the vegetable toppings and the s'rug. We don't remember there being any pickles or amba (chutney sauce) though.

After taking a break in a public atrium with our falafel sandwich, we headed back out to the fair and checked out the other food options. The most interesting one was from Shelsky's, a Brooklyn smoked fish and appetizing shop. They were serving stuffed latke boats topped with your choice of either chopped liver or smoked whitefish salad. They both sounded delicious.

We opted for the potato latke topped with smoked whitefish salad and sriracha. This was so good, and we quickly wished we had opted for the 2 stuffed latke boat deal (saving $1) so we could have tried the other variation. The latke had soft creamy potato inside and the fried exterior was just crispy. The whitefish salad was fantastic, and it's clear why Shelsky's is known for their fish. The salad wasn't fishy at all. It just delivered great smoked fish flavor mixed with some vegetables like celery. The bit of sriracha on top gave it a good bit of tangy spice. This was a really delicious treat.

Instead of going back for another latke boat, we stopped by Baz, which has a restaurant located in the Little Italy area. They opened earlier this year and we were excited to try the food since the sample plates on the table looked good.

We opted for the sampler of bagel bites so we could try as much as possible. Each sampler came with three mini bagel halves (it looked like plain, poppy and pumpernickel), and they were topped with nova and onion, cream cheese and cucumber, and egg salad and tomato. The bagels were pretty good, a little chewy, and the toppings were tasty. Our favorite was the nova, followed by cream cheese, and finally the egg salad. It was a little pricey though, for 3 mini bagel halves (much like their regular restaurant menu).

One great part of the fair was that, while we ate our tasty lunch treats, they had performances from various musical groups on stage. The music was fun. 

Overall, our visit to the cultural fair was good. We were hoping to get a bialy but they weren't selling them solo, only in packs of 6. That was disappointing. We didn't go to the food fair to shop for food, just to eat lunch. But we had some really tasty treats, especially our favorite falafel sandwich and that delicious latke boat.

Kasha Varnishkes

I have a bad habit of buying lots of grains, throwing them into the pantry, and then forgetting about them for awhile. I'm trying to get better about using them up on a regular basis these days, making meals out of things we already own rather than buying all new ingredients for every recipe. Back in March (I wrote most of this post then; why I never finished it, I have no idea), I wanted to use up a bag of kasha imported from Poland that we bought at a European supermarket in Queens. For my first attempt at working with kasha, I decided to adapt this recipe for kasha varnishkes, a traditional Ashkenazi Jewish dish.

Ingredients:

If you're unfamiliar with kasha, they're also known as "buckwheat roasted groats." It has a distinct nutty flavor. It's kind of hard to describe its unique flavor since I've been eating kasha in various forms (although mostly knishes) since I was a kid, so to me it just "tastes like kasha."

For the kasha varnishkes dish, you need:

- 3 large onions ($1.50)
- 10 oz white button mushrooms ($1.79)
- 3 garlic cloves ($0.10)
- 2 tbsp butter ($0.20)
- 2 large eggs ($0.36)
- 14 oz buckwheat roasted groats (kasha) ($2.19)
- 5 cups water ($0)
- 3 tbsp chicken bouillon ($0.90)
- salt to taste ($0.05)
- pepper to taste (plentiful amount) ($0.10)
- 16 oz farfalle ($1.50)
- 1 tbsp chopped cilantro ($0.45)

This recipe cost a little over $9, but it made a massive amount. Between the farfalle and the kasha, this was a very filling dish. It lasted for multiple meals.

Process:

This was a fairly time consuming recipe even though it wasn't that difficult. It took much longer than the estimate in the recipe I started from for the kasha to soften enough, so we ate late again.

1. Melt butter in heavy frying pan (that has a cover). Add onions and saute until they begin to soften. Add mushrooms and garlic and saute until everything is softened.

2. While vegetables are softening, look through kasha for any debris. Slightly beat 2 eggs in a medium bowl.

3. Stir kasha in to the eggs. Mix, making sure all grains are coated with the egg.

4. Remove onions and mushrooms from pan to separate plate.

5. Add kasha-egg mixture to the same frying pan. Flatten grains into the pan, and stir and break up egg coated kasha with wooden spoon for 2-4 minutes or until the egg has dried on the kasha and the kernels brown and mostly separate.

6. Add 3 cups of water, 2 tbsp of bouillon, salt and pepper and bring to a boil.

7. Add onions and mushrooms and stir together with the kasha. Add the remaining water and bouillon. Once boiling, lower heat to low and cover.

8. Cook the kasha-onion-mushroom mixture over low heat until kasha has reached desired softness. Check every 10 minutes or so. It took at least 30 minutes for our kasha to soften.

9. While kasha is cooking, make farfalle according to the package directions.

10. Add cooked farfalle to the softened kasha and stir.

11. Adjust seasoning of combined mixture and sprinkle with cilantro to serve.

Review:

This had a really mild flavor that tasted mostly like chicken broth and kasha. The onions and mushrooms were there, but most of their flavor seemed to dilute a bit during the cooking process. With everything that was in it, we thought it would be more flavorful, but similar to the mujadara, it was more bland than we thought it would be.

The most distinctive thing about this dish was that it was really filling and kind of heavy. That's probably one reason it's lasted so long in people's cooking repertoires - simple ingredients that are easy to find and very filling for a low price. Definitely a good budget meal, but I need to figure out what to add to up the flavor a bit.

Although I did like this, especially its healthiness and heartiness, I don't think I'll be making it again for a while. The recipe made a lot of kasha varnishkes. After eating it for dinner, I think I ate it for lunch for the rest of the week, so I got a little tired of eating kasha varnishkes. Still a good dish, worth making, and I'm glad I did make it. But I need a break from kasha...