Meat mina

This meat kugel is inspired by Sephardic recipes for mina con carne. If you avoid kitnyot on Passover, substitute sliced carrots or more spinach for the peas. You can use honey and vinegar in place of the extra sweet red wine; I just wanted to get the stuff used up!

Note that you want ordinary matzo for these sorts of things. Do not use whole wheat or egg matzo.

Again, by 'drained' spinach I mean really drained. It is necessary to squeeze out the water.

INGREDIENTS:

• 2-3 matzos
• 1 lb. ground beef or lamb
• 1 yellow or Spanish onion, finely chopped
  
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1 cup frozen peas, thawed
• 3 tbsp. extra sweet red wine (or 2 tbsp. vinegar + 1 tbsp. honey)
  
• 1 lb. frozen spinach, thawed and drained
• 1 tbsp. tomato paste
  
• 6 tbsp. olive oil
• 1/2 tsp. ground allspice
• 1/2 tsp. ground cloves
  
• 3 eggs

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
   
2. Soak the matzos in water for 2 minutes, then immediately press between paper towels to drain away excess moisture. This will make them flexible but not soggy.
3. Coat a non-stick baking pan with 2 tbsp. oil, then cover the bottom with the matzos.
4. In a saucepan, heat 2 tbsp. olive oil, then sauté the onions in the oil over medium-high heat until soft.
   
5. Add the ground meat and sauté together for 3-4 minutes. When the meat is almost cooked, add the tomato paste, wine, peas, spinach and raisins. Allow to cook for another minute or two on low heat.
6. In a separate bowl, beat eggs thoroughly. Combine with meat mixture and transfer to the pan with the matzos.
7. Bake at 400 degrees for 50 minutes or until top is golden.
   

Mina (Passover Spinach and Cheese Pie)

My mother made this for me when I was a kid. I think it's pretty tasty, although I could go for a zestier flavor. The end product is like a cross between a Tortilla Española and spanakopita.

One tip: when I say 'drained' spinach, I mean really drained. Take the spinach in your hands and squeeze it. It's amazing how much water there is in a package of spinach.

An idea that I had as I struggled with the eggs was that perhaps it would be better to dip the upper layer of matzo in eggs first, and then pour the remaining eggs over that, thus creating what is in effect a layer of matzo brei on top. It would definitely make the results more even. Mixing an additional egg or two into the spinach wouldn't be bad.

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 lbs. frozen spinach, thawed and drained
• 1 cup feta cheese, crumbled
• 3 cloves garlic
  
• 4 eggs, beaten
  
• 4 matzos
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• Bowl of water
  

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. Put 1/4 cup oil at the bottom of a baking pan. The pan should be slightly larger than a matzo--say 10x12 or 12x12.
3. Dip two of the matzos in water quickly (or they will become soggy) and then arrange them at the bottom of the pan, breaking them if necessary, so that the bottom is covered.
4. Mix the spinach, feta and garlic in a bowl; arrange on top of matzo.
5. Dip the remaining matzos in water and arrange on top of the spinach. Pour the eggs over this, attempting to apply them evenly.
6. Bake for 10 minutes. Drizzle remaining oil over the casserole and return to oven for another 30 minutes.

Allow to cool slightly before serving.

Chicken with 42 Cloves of Garlic

When my brother in law gave me a recipe for 'Chicken with Forty Cloves of Garlic,' I was more than a little skeptical. It turns out that when you cook chicken with unpeeled garlic, the chicken is not garlicky at all; rather, the garlic adopts the flavor of the chicken. The soft, schmaltzy garlic cloves can then be spread on matzo.

As for the number of cloves: my lucky number is 42. (The reason is not The Hitchhiker's Guide; it's even nerdier). As such, I couldn't resist adjusting this recipe to that number. Again, the proportions are not that sensitive because the garlic does not actually impart a strong flavor.

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 lbs. chicken pieces, skin on
• 2 large onions, chopped
• 1 apple, peeled, cored and chopped
• 42 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
  
• 1 tsp. dried tarragon
• 1/2 cup semi-dry red cooking wine
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
  
• Salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
   
2. In a four quart casserole, combine the chopped onions, apples, parsley and tarragon.
3. Put down a layer of chicken, nestling garlic cloves in between the pieces. Repeat until all of the garlic and chicken has been placed.
4. Combine the wine, nutmeg, salt and pepper in a jar or container and shake to combine. Drizzle over the chicken.
5. Cover the casserole and bake for 1 1/2 hours or until juice runs golden from chicken when poked with a fork.

PAIRINGS: This dish is heavily aromatic yet delicately flavored, with mild sweetness and soft textures. I recommend a semi-dry white with just enough structure to balance the stewed vegetables.

Cholent

On the Jewish sabbath, it is not permitted to create or adjust a fire. This has been extended to all heat sources, making it essential to create foods that can keep cooking all through the sabbath day. Cholent is a sabbath stew so tightly bound to the old-world weekly sabbath rituals that one might reasonably call it a ritual of its own. My version uses a hell of a lot more onions than would typically be found because, hey, onions are fantastic.

Since you are blasting the meat for so incredibly long, it's especially important to use a rich, marbled cut that won't dry out as you cook it. With beef, I prefer flanken (also known as 'boneless short ribs'), but you could also use brisket. Lamb would work very nicely!

Based on impressions from this beautiful essay on cholent.

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 medium Spanish onions (about 1.5 - 2 lbs), sliced
  
• 10 oz. Crimini or Baby Bella mushrooms, scrubbed and sliced
• 4-6 whole cloves of garlic, peeled
  
• 1 1/4 cup dry beans (any), rinsed and soaked overnight
• 3/4 cup pearl barley
• 1 1/2 lbs. red bliss potatoes, skin on, cut into large chunks
• 3-4 carrots, washed and cut into large chunks
• 6 cups chicken broth
• 2 lbs. beef brisket or flanken (boneless short rib)
• 1 tbsp. sugar
• 2 tbsp. paprika
• Salt and pepper
• Several whole raw eggs (optional), rinsed
  
• Olive oil for sautéing
  

DIRECTIONS:

1. Heat a large skillet to medium-high heat. Once hot, add olive oil and allow to warm.
2. Add the onions and mushrooms along with the sugar. Sauté, turning frequently with a spatula, until beginning to caramelize: about 25-30 minutes.
3. Add the whole garlic cloves and continue to sauté about 5 minutes more. (The garlic will still be white.)
4. In a crockpot, thoroughly combine the caramelized vegetables, the beans, barley, carrots, potatoes and paprika.
   
5. Bury the beef in this mixture.
6. If you have room in the crockpot, bury some eggs in the mixture at this point as well. The egg white will turn an incredible caramel color.
7. Cook in the crock pot on low for a minimum of 8 hours, and as many as 18.

Serve at any time after the first 8 hours. Since you can't shut off the heat on shabbos, it's not uncommon to see people start eating the cholent after 8 or 12 hours, and then again several hours later.

PAIRINGS: I know that beef and beans and barley all fairly scream out 'red wine' (or dark beer), but I find that the entire dish has a sufficiently dark and brooding character that I really crave something a little bit sweet and fruity. Sweet white wines like Gewürztraminer and Riesling come easily to mind, or even a tawny port. A hard cider would also do the job.

Traditionally, people drink hard liquor (often scotch and vodka) on shabbos, although I've never been too crazy for that.

Short ribs

This slow-cooker recipe works well with many stewing meats, so long as they are rich enough not to dry out. Short ribs and their boneless counterpart (known in Yiddish as flanken) are far and away the most impressive, but a shoulder chuck roast will hold up pretty well, too.

The single most important seasoning here is cloves; this cannot be omitted.

But as I think I mentioned in an earlier post, the real secret ingredient in sweet red sauces for beef in Yiddish-American cooking is soda: cola for dark sauces, and ginger ale for light ones. I have also experimented with cranberry and orange juices to good effect. (Orange juice ends up tasting like tzimmes.)

It's impossible to provide proportions here as it is completely a matter of personal preference. Since the sauce contains no raw meat, you can taste it until it "seems right"--and remember, of course, that it will be made far richer and milder by stewing with the beef.

INGREDIENTS (SAUCE):

• 1 can (6 oz.) tomato paste
• Plenty of molasses
• Ground cloves (this is essential)
• Spicy brown mustard
• Cider vinegar
• Chopped garlic
• Allspice
• Nutmeg
• A little cola or ginger ale
• Salt

INGREDIENTS (BRAISE):

• 4 beef short ribs --or-- 2-3 lbs. flanken or shoulder chuck roast
• 2-3 russet potatoes, peeled and sliced
• 1 onion, sliced

Arrange the potatoes at the bottom of the pot, followed by the onions, and then the short ribs, then apply the sauce to the top of the ribs. It will drip down as it cooks, so don't worry too much about spreading it around. It's OK to put some ribs on top of others; if you do that, put some sauce on top of the first layer before putting the second layer on. Cook in the slow cooker for 8-10 hours on low. Serve warm with kashe or rice.

Shepherd's Pie

This is one of my favorite comfort foods, and it's very easy if you have leftover potato knish filling (or any mashed potatoes, really). I find that the knish filling really made a perfect topping for the shepherd's pie.

The potato knish filling is essentially just mashed potatoes prepared a particular way, and I don't feel like writing it again, so I refer you to that recipe.

If prepared appropriately, this recipe can be kosher (fleishig).

INGREDIENTS:

• 6 cups potato knish filling (see below)
  
• 1 lb. green peas, fresh or frozen
• 1 lb. lean ground beef
• 2 tbsp. brown mustard
• 3 tbsp. ketchup
• 1 tbsp. molasses
• Worcestershire sauce
• Yolk of one egg

RECIPE:

1. Preheat oven to 425.
   
2. If peas are frozen, defrost in the microwave.
3. Crumble and brown the beef in a frying pan, stirring frequently.
4. When the beef is brown on the outside, add the mustard, ketchup, molasses, and Worcestershire sauce to taste. Cook for another minute or so.
   
5. Transfer beef mixture to a casserole dish.
6. Top beef with peas.
   
7. Spread knish filling evenly over the peas using a spatula.
8. Beat the egg yolk together with some more worcestershire sauce or some water; brush onto top of pie.
9. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the top is somewhat crisp and the egg mixture has turned golden brown.

Serve warm with a green salad.

PAIRINGS: Goes well with a bitter stout such as Guinness.

Tuna Puttanesca

Easy, fast, cheap. Vaguely charming. Far be it from me, of course, to make a joke about puttanesca sauce being aptly named. (I'm too classy for that.) But once you realize how easy this is, you'll feel bad about having paid $18 for it at some fancy place in the North End.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 can (3 oz.) tomato paste
• 2 oz. anchovy paste (or 1 tin flat anchovy fillets)
• 2 oz. capers
• 6 oz. kalamata olives (without pits if possible)
  
• 3 cans chunk white tuna
• 1 large can crushed tomatoes
• 2 tbsp. crushed garlic
• Red pepper flakes
• 3 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 lb. linguini, cooked al dente
  

DIRECTIONS:

1. Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat.
2. Add the anchovy paste or anchovy fillets. If fillets are used, crush them with the back of a wooden spoon as they sauté.
3. Add in the garlic. Let the garlic and anchovies sauté for just a minute (they cook fast).
4. Add in the tomato paste, blending with a spatula. Allow to cook for a minute.
5. Mix in tunafish and red pepper; let cook another minute or two.
6. Add everything else; reduce heat to medium-low and let simmer for about 10 minutes.

Serve over pasta with grated parmesan.

PAIRINGS: Use a spicy wine with high tannins. A sufficiently ripe Cabernet Sauvignon is ideal. (Caution: unripe Cabernet Sauvignon tastes like the runoff from a Tabasco Sauce factory.)

Braised Rabbit in Wine Sauce

This dish makes me think of Spain: specifically, of Hemingway's elaborate descriptions of Spanish country food in For Whom The Bell Tolls. Maybe that's just me.

Anyways, I started with this hasenpfeffer recipe, sticking to it pretty closely, except with about twice the herbs and aromatics. It was delicious--seven people ate six pounds of rabbit, and no one saved room for dessert--but it was too tough, and I don't think the recipe did enough to tender up the meat.

So I've incorporated some steps from this coq au vin recipe, which uses the wine to soften the fibers of the meat overnight before braising. I have not yet tried it this way; expect updates.

INGREDIENTS:

• 5-6 lbs rabbit meat, cut into small pieces
• 1 1/2 cups flour, divided use
• 2 tsp. kosher salt
  
• 1 lb bacon, diced
• 2 medium Spanish onions (about 1 1/2 cups), finely chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 bottle red wine (preferably Pinot Noir)
• 3 tbsp. black currant or blackberry preserves
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp. dried rosemary
• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• Freshly ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS:

1. Place 1 cup of flour and the kosher salt into a zip-loc bag. Coat each piece of rabbit in this mixture and set aside.
   
2. In a deep metal skillet, sauté the bacon over medium-high heat until evenly browned, stirring often. Remove the bacon to a bowl but leave all the grease in the skillet.
3. Fry the rabbit pieces, browning them on each side, and then remove them to a covered casserole or dutch oven.
   
4. Sauté the onions and garlic over in what's left of the grease, adding a little butter or oil if needed. (It's OK if the pan's pretty gunked up at this point.)
5. Add 1 cup of wine to the skillet and gently scrape the sides with a plastic or wooden spatula. The cooked-on drippings should yield to your spatula as if by magic. (This is called deglazing the pot.)
   
6. Pour this into a bowl and combine with the rest of the wine, bacon, herbs, pepper, lemon juice, and preserves.
7. Pour liquid over the tabbit, cover and refrigerate overnight.
8. The next day, preheat the oven to 325.
9. Cook the rabbit in the dutch oven for about 2 hours, maintaining a very gentle simmer. You want the lowest heat you can get while still having the liquid bubble slightly.
10. Transfer the rabbit to a serving plate and cover it with foil to keep warm. Meanwhile, transfer the liquid to a saucepan.
11. Remove about a cup of the liquid and combine with 1/2 cup flour. Bring the rest of the liquid to a simmer and whisk in flour mixture gradually to avoid lumps.
    
12. Simmer the gravy for a few minutes, then transfer to a gravy bowl.

Serve immediately with mashed potatoes or egg noodles.

PAIRINGS: Rabbit has an intense, almost spicy gaminess, so a robust red wine such as Pinot Noir is the obvious choice.

Pasta with sweet beef sauce and yogurt sauce

The inspiration for using a cumin-based sweet beef sauce with a yogurt sauce came from the Afghani pumpkin dish, 'kaddo.' (Eventually, I'm going to get around to making that.) The beef sauce is sweet and spicy, while the yogurt sauce is sour and rich, and the interplay is unique and enjoyable. I'm not sure if this dish is for everyone; I'd be interested to get feedback on it before I serve it to a group.

The yogurt sauce is also great on its own with macaroni or tortellini.

INGREDIENTS:

Pasta and beef sauce:

• 1 lb. ground beef or lamb
  
• 1 lb. frozen or fresh okra, cut or whole
• 1 large can (about 1.5 lbs) chick peas, drained and washed
• 1 large onion, chopped
  
• 1 lb. penne pasta
  
• 1 tbsp. cumin
• 1 tbsp. chopped garlic
  
• 1 tsp. ground mustard seed
• 2 tbsp. molasses
• 1 tbsp. cinnamon
• cayenne pepper
• 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Yogurt sauce:

• 1 lb (1/2 carton) non-fat yogurt
• 2 tbsp. chopped garlic
• 1/2 cup ground Parmesan
  
• 2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 head fresh dill, finely chopped
  
• Lots of fresh black pepper

RECIPE:

1. Cook the pasta and set aside.
2. While the pasta is cooking, combine all ingredients for yogurt sauce in a bowl and set aside.
   
3. Heat some olive oil in a saucepan. Add onions once very hot; sauté until golden.
4. Add the garlic, beef and spices; sauté the mixture over high heat until meat is browned.
5. Add the okra, garbanzos, vinegar and molasses; sauté another couple of minutes.
6. Reduce heat to low; simmer, covered, for another 5 minutes.
7. Stir in pasta.

Serve the pasta with the yogurt sauce. I usually serve the hot pasta with the cold yogurt sauce, but you may prefer to gently warm the yogurt sauce in a small saucepan. I wouldn't get it too hot, though.

PAIRINGS:

Use a full-bodied red, but make sure that it isn't too acidic. Acidity tends to play poorly off of cumin dishes, especially when they are spicy.