Saturday, December 31, 2005
Shabbos Hannukah- winter vegetable soup, ptcha-inspired potato kugel, and chicken in wine sauce
I've been blogging my Shabbat menus (and much other random stuff) on my personal blog since I started it about 3 years ago, but I only started making Shabbat when I moved out to the 'Heights last year. As one who enjoys cooking and serving food to J-bloggers and other people, I heartily applaud the idea of this blog and am honored to be included. Here's what I (in addition to whole wheat challah, which I might post later on) made for Shabbos Dinner this week...
Chicken in Wine Sauce
Preheat oven to 350 F. Take defrosted or fresh chicken bottom quarters. This cut takes the best to roasting, I think, and can survive hours on the blech if your shabbos guests come late. Arrange them in your baking pan and squirt a dab of dijon mustard on each. Smooth it over the chicken, as if you were putting on sunscreen. Now you can get creative with this, but I scatter some capers and caper juice and then some dried rosemary over it all, then some healthy lashings of last weeks qiddush wine- I usually have about half a bottle left from last week so I guess I use about a quarter of a bottle, which is probably a scant cup for you measurement freaks out there. Bake it untill the juice runs clear when you jab a knife ito the fattest part of the thigh. Take that, chicken!
Winter Vegetable Soup
So I had some leftover frozen beef broth- about 2 quarts worth- sitting in my freezer and ever since I found out about this great Hassidish minhag to have lima beans in chicken soup by the Shabbos Tisch I'd been curious about using lima beans in soup. So I concocted a Winter Vegetable Soup of epic proportions. I peeled and cut into rough chunks- 1 turnip, 1 parsnip, 3 carrots, 1 sweet potato, 1 white potato, the center of a celery head and added them to the defrosted broth along with a frozen package of lima beans. I may have thrown in a garlic clove, and another few cups of water. I let this simmer sloowly... from about 9 to about 3, so my guess is you could even do this in a crock pot for a totally non-cholenty cholent alternative. It was beyond yumalicious.
Ptcha-Inspired Potato Kugel
After Chakira told me how much he loves Ptcha, I decided to replicate the delicate (ha ha!) balance of garlicy, salty, peppery, and paprika-y flavors in the famed Satmar edition of "garlic jello" in a much more palatable potato-kugel form. After all, everyone loves potato kugel! So I took about 4 large russet potatoes and peeled them, then grated them with my trusty box grater, then squeezed out the starchy potato-water into the sink, which does wonders for the texture of the finished kugel, and latkes too as any latke-maven (including my bubby) will tell you. Then, instead of adding my characteristic carmelized onions, I grated in 3 large garlic cloves, then added a generous pinch of salt, a few heavy shakes of pepper, and a dash or two of paprika. i then cracked in two eggs and mixed the whole mush together with my fingers, then poked dots in the top and poured olive oil (this was Shabbos Hannuka, after all!) all over the top and finished it with some purely decorative paprika. Bake at 350, done when golden and crispy on top and no longer any hint of jigglyness. Note: NEVER serve partially cooked kugel, as you can food-poison your guests. It has happened to me, people, and its not pretty.
Chicken in Wine Sauce
Preheat oven to 350 F. Take defrosted or fresh chicken bottom quarters. This cut takes the best to roasting, I think, and can survive hours on the blech if your shabbos guests come late. Arrange them in your baking pan and squirt a dab of dijon mustard on each. Smooth it over the chicken, as if you were putting on sunscreen. Now you can get creative with this, but I scatter some capers and caper juice and then some dried rosemary over it all, then some healthy lashings of last weeks qiddush wine- I usually have about half a bottle left from last week so I guess I use about a quarter of a bottle, which is probably a scant cup for you measurement freaks out there. Bake it untill the juice runs clear when you jab a knife ito the fattest part of the thigh. Take that, chicken!
Winter Vegetable Soup
So I had some leftover frozen beef broth- about 2 quarts worth- sitting in my freezer and ever since I found out about this great Hassidish minhag to have lima beans in chicken soup by the Shabbos Tisch I'd been curious about using lima beans in soup. So I concocted a Winter Vegetable Soup of epic proportions. I peeled and cut into rough chunks- 1 turnip, 1 parsnip, 3 carrots, 1 sweet potato, 1 white potato, the center of a celery head and added them to the defrosted broth along with a frozen package of lima beans. I may have thrown in a garlic clove, and another few cups of water. I let this simmer sloowly... from about 9 to about 3, so my guess is you could even do this in a crock pot for a totally non-cholenty cholent alternative. It was beyond yumalicious.
Ptcha-Inspired Potato Kugel
After Chakira told me how much he loves Ptcha, I decided to replicate the delicate (ha ha!) balance of garlicy, salty, peppery, and paprika-y flavors in the famed Satmar edition of "garlic jello" in a much more palatable potato-kugel form. After all, everyone loves potato kugel! So I took about 4 large russet potatoes and peeled them, then grated them with my trusty box grater, then squeezed out the starchy potato-water into the sink, which does wonders for the texture of the finished kugel, and latkes too as any latke-maven (including my bubby) will tell you. Then, instead of adding my characteristic carmelized onions, I grated in 3 large garlic cloves, then added a generous pinch of salt, a few heavy shakes of pepper, and a dash or two of paprika. i then cracked in two eggs and mixed the whole mush together with my fingers, then poked dots in the top and poured olive oil (this was Shabbos Hannuka, after all!) all over the top and finished it with some purely decorative paprika. Bake at 350, done when golden and crispy on top and no longer any hint of jigglyness. Note: NEVER serve partially cooked kugel, as you can food-poison your guests. It has happened to me, people, and its not pretty.
# posted by torahumaddachic : 10:33 PM
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Speaking of kugel-- I grew up with the minhog to have an extra kugel on a Shabbos which has an extra seifer tôro. Therefore, this past Friday night, we (LabRab and I) had three kugels: potato, vegetable, and broccoli.
it think pt is a dipthong that takes some practice to pronounce- ive also seen it written Pitcha and Petcha, but really if you drop the t and pronouce the P and a Cha consecutively thats about what i've heard-- the t makes it a little easier to visualize.
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