RECIPE--Israeli-Style Ground Chicken and Veggie Delight

This one-dish meal is based most loosely on a recipe for ground beef “Ktzitzot.” My changes include adding veggies to a “burgers” recipe, more than doubling the seasoning (including the amounts of onion and garlic,) and adding sesame seeds (also, I’ve reduced the amount and changed the type of salt.)  The template is in Jamie Geller’s cookbook, Joy of Kosher.

1 medium Italian eggplant, chopped

2 Portabella mushroom caps, chopped—I am sure that you could use 8 oz of any mushrooms

(Place the eggplant and mushrooms in a medium-sized bowl.)

1 bell pepper, chopped (I used orange, as so much of the dish is neutral shades)

1 large onion, chopped

6 garlic cloves, minced

(Place the bell pepper, onion, and garlic in another medium-sized bowl.)

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1 to 1-1/4 lb ground chicken (you can try this with ground turkey—the flavor will be more pronounced)

1 egg

¾ c matzo meal OR Panko bread crumbs

4 stems of parsley with leaves, chopped

½ Tablespoon sea salt

½  tsp Za’atar seasoning (a mixture of parsley, sesame seeds, and sumac)

½ tsp cumin

½ tsp cinnamon

Mix together (in a large bowl.) This is easiest with your hands, but you can use a potato masher instead.

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1 inch of olive oil to cover the bottom of the pot you use—I used an enamel-coated cast-iron 5-quart Dutch oven.

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Put one piece of the onion into the oil and heat the oil over a medium flame. When the onion sizzles, add all of the onion, garlic, and bell pepper. Place the softer veggies (eggplant and mushrooms) on top of the harder veggies (which are already in the pot.) Cover it and cook for 5 minutes. Stir.  

Add the chicken mixture all in a heap. Use a wooden spoon to break it into chunks the size of a Damson plum. It doesn’t matter if some bits of the chicken fall loose or if some chunks are a bit bigger. Cover the pot.

Cook for 15 minutes. Stir thoroughly to incorporate all the veggies into the chicken. Cover the pot again.

Cook for another 10 minutes. Taste to ensure that you find the dish salty enough. (Add a small amount of salt if you find it necessary.)

This is a rich dish and so it yields about 7 servings.

NOTE: I cooked this recipe for the Sabbath and was able to prepare it for the Saturday mid-day dinner. I cooked it completely before Friday candle-lighting, but because the pan is so heavy, it was able to stay on the blech without losing moisture. (The combination of the liquid given off by the veggies and the olive oil produces a considerable sauce.) A note to everyone who has never heard of a blech: Jews who follow the commandments regarding not kindling a flame on the Sabbath use a tin sheet that covers at least two burners of the stove. With a two-burner blech, the cook leaves only one burner on (before the Sabbath,) and that to “Low,” the lowest setting possible. The tin retains heat exceedingly. Since a porcelain-covered cast-iron pot also retains heat, you can leave such a pot about 2/3 over a burner (under the tin blech) that is off—and the food will not have become a Petri dish of bacteria overnight. In the early morning, you can shift such a heavy and enameled pot, containing a recipe with this much sauce, fully to the portion of the blech that is over the burner that IS turned on (Low.) In those conditions, you likely will not burn any food if you serve dinner no more than 7 hours after having shifted the pot.

RECIPE: Fried Brown Rice with Veggies and Eggs

Cook 2 cups raw brown rice (to yield 4 cups cooked rice) and refrigerate the rice overnight. (A recipe for Perfect Brown Rice is on this blog.)

1/4 c peanut oil

2 onions, diced

1 tsp garlic powder

1 T fresh grated ginger root

6 eggs 

Sliced thinly carrot, 1 large or preferably 3 small. If using the large, dice it

1 c frozen peas, thawed OR 8 oz snow peas, thawed if frozen, or fresh

1 tsp 5-spice powder (see below for recipe)

1/4 c soy sauce

4 scallions, sliced thinly

*  *  *

5-spice powder:

1 tsp star anise (whole anise shaped like a starfish. Do NOT substitute ground anise.)

1 tsp fennel seed

1 tsp peppercorns

1/2 cinnamon stick

1/2 tsp whole cloves

    
*Grind together in a spice grinder. Store in an empty spice jar. You can use a paper funnel, such as made from a corner of an envelope, to transfer the 5-spice powder.

You can buy ready-made 5-spice powder if you prefer. You’ll find it with Asian foods.

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First, cut up all the veggies. Set the carrots and ginger in one bowl and the onions in another, the scallions in yet another. Crack the eggs into a fourth bowl.

Heat the oil in a chicken fryer skillet or other 12” skillet. Add the carrots and ginger to the heated oil, cover, and cook 2 minutes on medium heat. Add the onions and cook another 2 minutes.

Add the eggs. Stir constantly for yet another 2 minutes. Remove this pan to a back burner. It is not necessary for the eggs to be cooked as though scrambled hard; they will coat the rice eventually.

In a stockpot (or other 8-quart pot,) cook the rice over medium heat for 2 minutes, breaking up any lumps. If you are using fresh snow peas, add them now. Add the garlic powder, 5-spice powder, and soy sauce, and stir thoroughly, ensuring thorough distribution of the seasonings. Add the egg/veggie mixture and stir thoroughly. Cook for 2 more minutes. Add the scallions and any thawed peas that you may be using, and stir thoroughly. Ensure that the rice has been completely intermingled with the veggies.

Notice of Suspension Due to the Demise of my Windows Computer

It’s with regret that I announce the suspension of this Thrift with Flair blog. My Windows computer has gone to its eternal rest. Without it, I cannot access Word. The PsychDisABILITIES main blog happens to be stored currently as part and parcel of the book manuscript for RESPONSIBILITY--in Google Drive Documents! Hence, PsychDisABILITIES will be posted weekly, per usual.

At some point, I may resume the Thrift with Flair blog once I get the chance to develop new recipes and other posts within Google Drive Documents. But all of my Word documents--other than manuscripts of previously completed books--are lost. (The book manuscripts are on thumb drives, fortunately, as well as having been in Word.)

That’s the way the proverbial cookie crumbles! It ain’t the end of the world, but I am sorry that there will be an interruption in this Thrift with Flair blog.

May all of my loyal readers be well. Blessings, Deborah

RECIPE: Deborah’s Tuna Noodle Casserole

You will need 2 loaf pans, greased or lined, to bake the casserole.

12 oz bow-tie pasta (preferred) or other large shape of macaroni, cooked for least time specified on package directions. Drain and run cold water over the pasta to stop its cooking process.

You can prepare the sauce, following, in the same pot in which you had cooked the pasta.

3 T margarine

3 T flour

2 c liquid—milk preferred, but can use vegetable broth

1 tsp salt

Freshly-ground black pepper (about ½ tsp)

½ tsp garlic powder

1 tsp dried dill weed

1/3 bunch of fresh cilantro (preferred) or parsley, snipped small with kitchen shears. If you don’t have either on hand, you can substitute 2 scallions/green onions, snipped thinly.

2 5-oz cans of chunk light tuna

1 carrot, diced

Melt the margarine. (The heat already in the pot will do this nicely, without browning the fat.) Stir in the flour smoothly with a spoon-spatula (preferred) or implement of your choice. Then turn the flame on, to Medium-Low. Pour in ½ c of liquid. Stir/mix completely and try to remove all lumps remaining from the flour/fat roux. Add the rest of the liquid. Stir and immediately move the flame down to Low. Add salt, pepper, garlic powder, and dill weed. Stir often until white sauce thickens to the consistency of honey. Stirring constantly, raise the flame and let simmer for 1 minute, until sauce thickens to a gravy’s consistency. Turn off flame. Add cilantro or parsley or scallions, and tuna, and carrot. Mix thoroughly.

Wash your hands and take some of the pasta out of the colander (using your hands) into the pasta pot with its sauce. Mix. Repeat until all of the pasta is in the pot. Mix again, thoroughly.

Put half of the casserole into each loaf pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes, or until some of the pasta on the top of the pans has browned.

Serves 4.

You Don’t Need to Buy Sprays of Oil or Flour-with-Oil….

Almost all baking requires a floured and oiled pan, and almost all recipes of any sort require an oiled pan. Yes, you can have sprays like Pam™ or Baker’s Secret™ on hand for emergencies, but here’s how to avoid using them on almost all occasions.

Pour about a tablespoon of canola oil in the pan. Use a brush—optimally a silicone pastry brush, but in actuality I use the much cheaper 1” or 2” nylon painting brush—to spread the oil around evenly.

For use with muffin tins, I do use silicone liners. They are easily cleaned by soaking in sudsy water. It is tedious to brush a tad of oil into 24 or more muffin cups!

To flour the pan, just add 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour to the pan once it has been oiled. Over your sink, firmly tap each side of the pan until the flour coats all inner surfaces. (You may need to add a bit more flour.) 

Note that if you are baking a chocolate dessert, you should use cocoa instead of all-purpose flour.

Mind the pennies, and the dollars will follow!

RECIPE: Greek-Style Pasta Salad Recipe

I should have been happy to provide you with a recipe fit for the American season, one that uses leftover turkey. But my degree of Jewish observance has resurged since Summer, so I am no longer cooking meat. It’s not that meat can’t be Kosher, it’s that in my 400 square foot apartment, I lack the room for meat dishes, pots, and utensils.

Thus, I give you today an “ordinary day” recipe. I hope that you like this inexpensive version of a tangy Greek salad.

RECIPE: Greek-Style Pasta Salad

1 lb macaroni, preferably a large shape, cooked according to package directions (but for the shortest time indicated,) drained in a colander and rinsed with cold water to cease the cooking promptly.

In a small jar, mix the dressing:

½ c olive oil

½ tsp garlic powder

4 T lemon juice

3 T rice vinegar, preferably plain rice vinegar (unseasoned)

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp salt

¼ tsp black pepper, preferably freshly-ground

Slice 6-8 radishes.

Chop 2 scallions.

Dice 2 carrots.

Drain 1 15-oz can of tomatoes (you can dice them directly in the can with kitchen shears.)

Drain 1 6-oz can of black olives. You can use either whole or sliced ones.

If you have capers on hand, they make a lovely touch to this salad. Measure 2 T.

Crumble 8 oz of feta cheese.

Add all to the pasta in a bowl (approximately 4-qt) and mix well.

Toss in the bowl with the dressing that you made.

Practical and Spiritual Reflections on Living with a Temperamental Oven

(Background: I’ve had five different stoves since early Summer, 2018! The first one had both carbon monoxide and gas leaks. The second and third AND fourth had gas leaks! The fifth, my current, runs safely—no toxicities emitted. G-d be thanked (along with my building’s management.) BUT it is as temperamental as a wood stove as far as the oven goes. Not only does it run very hot—more than 100 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than the dial setting would indicate—but also it has no insulation and the heat is concentrated on its top portion, especially on one side of the oven.)

Home economists would prescribe use of a free-standing oven thermometer. Basically, my mobility disorder comes down to severe tremor, and I would knock a thermometer over in the course of inserting/removing pans. So much for the thermometer that I bought long ago when less tremulous—it hangs near the sink now for decoration!

The extent of the problem is as follows. For a recipe for an oven-baked Indian rice pilaf that called for a baking time of 50 minutes at 350 degrees, I must adjust the time and temp to 40 minutes at 250 degrees this morning!

Furthermore, pans need to be adjusted up and down as well as turned about.

Such expertise did not come easily. So many batches of baked goods burned at top or bottom before I learned to check as early as when the first one-third of the recipe’s stated time had elapsed. In addition, I learned to reduce the temperature of the oven by 100 degrees from the recipe’s stated heat level.

It reminds me of the time when I lived in an apartment where the only source of heat was a fireplace. Keeping the wood types (size, tree origin) and amounts accurate so as to maintain some warmth was a learning experience indeed.

G-d never gives us anything that we can’t handle. Angels hover over us from birth to manage our exercise of free will morally while G-d’s planned course of events, which Jews consider as a never-diminishing series of tests of character, works itself out. Everything eventually turns out for the good. It is up to us to be steadfast when we can’t see the why, which is always our human condition. When we have worked out the problems that G-d sent us to Earth to repair, He calls us home.