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Tag Archives: holiday recipes

Meat ‘n Barley Soup

This is a great soup, that even my kids like, and it’s almost a full meal unto itself.

The smell it emits while simmering is out of this world and will fill your home with the inviting aromas of a really good meal on its way. I especially enjoy this soup for a cool Succos evening meal…

Serves 6-8 people, depending on how hungry they all are…

Ingredients

½ pound / 1 kilo flanken meat, cut into large cubes
1 large onion, diced
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 large carrots, peeled and grated
3 stalks celery, diced
1 standard box of fresh mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
10 cups water
3/4 cup barley
3 tablespoons of onion soup mix, without the msg in it
1 tablespoon mushroom soup mix, optional
2 teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoon pepper

Method

Cut off as much of the fat on the meat pieces as possible without ruining the meat.

Place the onion in a large soup pot. Add the olive oil to it and start to sautee it on a medium heat. Add the meat pieces and brown them well on all sides.

Turn the flame down and add the carrots and celery. Let this cook for five minutes together with the meat, and then add the mushrooms, water and all else. Turn up the flame again until the soup starts to bubble. Turn down the flame and simmer for 2-3 hours. Serve immediately. If you happen to have anything left over, this freezes well also, but chances are, you won’t have to worry about that!

Secret Italian Crispy Chicken

This recipe makes enough for two whole chickens, cut into quarters or eighths. If you want to do only one chicken at a time, just use less marinade.

Ingredients

Crispy Chicken

2 chickens, skinned, cleaned and cut into the size pieces you prefer
1 cup Italian dressing (recipe to follow)
1 large onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, diced
3 cups of breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon of dried parsley flakes
8-10 green pitted olives, sliced
8 black pitted olives, sliced

Italian Dressing

1/2 cup canola oil
1/4 cup olive oil
1/3 cup vinegar (either regular vinegar or white wine or apple cider vinegar)
4 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
1 teaspoon granulated onion powder
1/2 teaspoon dried mustard powder, optional
1 teaspoon parsley flakes
1/2 teaspoon thyme

Method

Crispy Chicken

Lay the chicken pieces down in a pan in a single layer. Pour the Italian dressing over all the chicken pieces. Cover the pan with plastic wrap and let it marinade in the fridge for several hours or even overnight. After if has marinated about two hours, turn over the chicken pieces in the pan.

Here’s a good homemade Italian dressing recipe for those who either don’t want to use the store bought versions or prefer a healthier alternative:

Italian Dressing

Mix this up or even better, blend it with a hand blender for a few minutes. It tends to separate, but blending it with the hand blender helps alleviate this problem. Pour off one cup of this dressing and pour it over the chicken pieces. The rest, you can use over a fresh salad that goes great as an accompaniment to this chicken recipe!

Preheat the oven to 375° F / 190° C.

Spray a large roasting pan with a bit of cooking spray. Layer the onions and garlic on the bottom of the pan.

Discard the marinade that the raw chicken sat in! Never reuse marinade that sat on raw chicken, meat or fish!

Put the breadcrumbs into a plastic bag, together with the rest of the parsley flakes. Using a fork, place each chicken piece into the breadcrumb bag, shake to coat it well, then lay it down on top of the onions and garlic in the pan, right side up. Do this to each piece. Layer on the olive slices on top of the chicken pieces. If you don’t have both kinds of olives, it will still come out fine to use only one or the other kind.

Cover the chicken pieces with a piece of baking parchment paper and then with foil, leaving one side of the foil very slightly open so some steam can escape. (I put baking parchment paper on top of the food so that the foil won’t touch the food and cook into it.) Slide it into the oven and bake for 65 minutes. Uncover the chicken and bake for 10 more minutes uncovered, to crisp it up a bit more. Serve alone or along with some rice.

Sweet Zucchini Bread

This recipe makes two standard loaf pans’ worth, or three small ones. It’s blessing is mezonos, even though it is called a ‘bread’. It’s really more like a cake consistency.
This “bread” has no yeast and is more the consistency of cake.

Ingredients

3 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup canola oil
1¾ cup white or light brown sugar
1 (8 oz.) can crushed pineapple, drained
2 cups shredded zucchini, washed and unpeeled
2 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. baking powder
¾ tsp. salt
1–2 tsp. cinnamon
3 cups flour
1 cup golden raisins
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

Method

Beat eggs, vanilla, oil, and sugar together until thick. Add in the pineapple, zucchini, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Then add in the flour, and on top of that, the raisins and walnuts.

Tip for side of page:
It’s always best to add the raisins on top of the flour as once the raisins are coated with flour, they will not sink down to the bottom of whatever cake or muffin they are in, where they may burn.

Mix until this just until it is completely blended together and resembles a thick batter.

Pour into loaf pans that have been lined with parchment baking paper and bake at 350°F / 180°C for 45 minutes to an hour. They are done when a cake tester or knife inserted into the middle comes out clean and only very slightly sticky. These loaves stay moist and slightly sticky inside. Slice and serve, or freeze for later use.

Peanut Butter Crunch Ice Cream

Ingredients

Crunch

300 grams OR 10 oz. semi-sweet chocolate
½ cup peanut butter
Melt these two items together. While it is still warm, stir in 1 and 1/2 cups
cornflakes or rice krispies. Mix this well.

Ice Cream Base

6 eggs, separated
1 cup sugar
2 packets of vanilla sugar (2 Tablespoons of vanilla sugar)
2 Rich’s whip, whipped

Method

Crunch:

Line a flat baking tray with baking parchment paper and spread the chocolate peanut butter mix on it. After it has hardened, break the chocolate into small bits and then it is ready for use in your ice cream. Small bits are important or else it will be hard to bite into when it’s frozen!!.

Ice cream base:

Separate the eggs. Beat the whites until stiff. In a separate bowl, beat the yolks with the sugar until it turns thick and yellow. Pour this out into the whites. Using the yolks’ bowl, beat up the Rich’s whips. Fold all mixtures together and then add in the pieces of hardened chocolate/ peanut butter crunch and fold this in as well. Pour the ice cream mix into 9×13 pan or large plastic container and freeze until solid.

Almond-Apple Cake

A moist cake with only the goodness of apples used as sweetener. Great for Rosh Hashanah! Submitted by Toby Weinper of Hamodia Magazine

Makes 1 round cake, 16 pieces

Ingredients

3 eggs
1/4 cup oil
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
3/4 cup unsweetened apple juice concentrate (canned)
2 & 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon each cinnamon and ginger (optional)
1 & 1/2 cups ground almonds
2 apples, peeledtill warm, stir in 1 and 1/2 cups

Method

Preheat the oven to 350°F / 180°C.

Grease and flour a 10-inch round baking pan. Beat the eggs until they are frothy and have expanded in volume. Continue beating and add the oil in a thin stream. Add applesauce and apple juice concentrate.

In a separate bowl or a plastic bag, combine flour, baking soda, spices if using and almonds. Add to the batter and beat until well -combined. Dice one of the apples and mix into batter. Pour the batter into the pan. Slice the second apple into slices and use it to decorate the top of the cake, by layering it on top

Bake the cake for about 40 minutes or until the cake tests done when pierced in its center. Let the cake cool on a rack for 15 minutes before turning it out of the pan.

Nutritional Information per piece: Calories 250, Protein 5g, Carbohydrates 37g ,Fat 9.7g, Saturated Fat 1g ,Sodium 62mg , Fiber 2.5

Blended Fruit Soup

A delightful summertime treat that I specifically save it for seudas shelishis (the third meal of Shabbos afternoon)

serves 8 to 10

My neighbor Esther shared this with me. It is a variation on an otherwise typical fruit soup, and it is such a delightful summertime treat that I specifically save it for seudas shelishis/ the third meal of Shabbos afternoon. It also is such a refreshing treat in the Succah. Here in Israel, Succos is still very warm in the daytime, unlike most of the East Coast of the US of A! My kids love it; they don’t see or taste any pieces and the color is very attractive. For those who DO like texture in a fruit soup, you can just puree it half way.

Ingredients

each of assorted overripe fruits, such as seedless grapes, plums, peaches,
nectarines, and apricots, or even a glass jar of red cherries
1/4 – 1/2 cup sugar (optional)
1 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons agave syrup (a natural chemical-free sweetener available in health-food stores)
** You can use 2-4 tablespoons of apple juice concentrate instead if you don’t have access to the agave syrup

Method

Wash all fruit. Slice and dice (if you are not pureeing all the way, be sure to cut each grape in half to prevent small children from choking G-d forbid) and place all fruit in a large pot. Fill the pot with water halfway up to the height of the fruit.

When the water boils, turn down the heat and simmer until fruit is completely cooked, about 40 minutes. Cool and add orange juice and agave syrup. Taste the liquid. If it is too tart for your taste, add sugar (but I never need to). (Or more agave if you want to keep the sugar out completely.)

Puree the fruit soup with a stick blender and chill thoroughly in a glass or plastic container, covered. Serve in small dessert bowls or pretty glasses and watch your family enjoy it to the last drop!

Crushed Peanut Cookies

These are NOT a peanut-butter cookie!

Makes about 50-60 cookies of the size shown in the photo.

Ingredients

4 eggs
1 cup oil
1¼ cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 teaspoons baking powder
small pinch of salt
5½ cups flour (you may need a bit more if the dough is too sticky)
200 grams shelled, unsalted peanuts, with the brown skins on, ground
1 cup regular sized chocolate chips

Method

Yes, readers, I have used this basic cookie recipe before. but there are so many great things you can do without margarine, that I am using it again here. If you haven’t saved the recipe before, save it now!

Preheat oven to 350° F/180° C.

In your mixer, beat the eggs, oil, sugar, vanilla, baking powder and the tiny bit of salt. Mix well. Add in the flour gradually until you have a smooth cookie dough. Pluck off a small piece of dough and roll it on your palm. (If it sticks to your hands, add in a bit more flour, perhaps 2 more tablespoons, until the dough is smooth, but this dough is almost always smooth as is.)

Process peanuts with the sharp metal “S” blade only until they are small bits, but not a powder. Set aside.

To shape cookies, pull off small bits of dough and roll them into balls. The cookies look nicest when they are miniature sized as shown. Larger sized cookies mean fewer per batch and they are less attractive. Flatten slightly with your thumb. Roll the cookies in the crushed peanuts, then lay them out on parchment-paper-lined cookie trays. Bake two trays at a time in preheated oven for 8-9 minutes until very slightly browned. Remove immediately from oven. Before they cool down, quickly take three chocolate chips and press them down into each cookie’s center. If you wait even a few minutes, the chocolate chips won’t go into the cookies and they won’t “stick.” Repeat this process until you have used all your cookie dough and the necessary amount of chocolate chips.

As the cookies cool, transfer the first 2 trays of cookies onto shallow pans or trays and slide them uncovered into the freezer to set while you do the next 2 trays. By the time the next two trays are out of the oven and chocolate chips inserted, the first 2 trays will have hardened in your freezer. Now you can remove them safely to plastic bags for freezing, without squashing the soft and warm chocolate chip center in the process.

Mandarin Orange Beet Salad

Beets keep well for longer periods of time, are full of healthy vitamins, and have so many varied uses. Instead of just average borscht or chrein, why not try something new this year?

47_beet_and_manorange
image-1518

Tip

You can freeze cooked beets and when they are defrosted, they are just as good as the day they were cooked. This is a GREAT time saver. I buy a lot of beets at one time, and then peel, check and boil them all on the same day. After they are cooled, since they shred and/or chop nicest when they are cold, I cut/shred/slice them into whatever form I want to store away. Then I pack them into disposable plastic containers, label what they will be for, and freeze them. This saves tons of time during the holiday, and also saves me some valuable fridge space. Plus, I do not have to worry about the beets going bad in the fridge, nor wilting or going moldy in storage before they are even cooked.

I really enjoy this particular salad, and surprisingly, so do my kids. If you need to cut down on sugar intake, you can cut the sugar here to 2 Tablespoons and still maintain its flavor from just the fruits in the salad. The taste is outstanding, and the presentation is so pretty with the vivid splash of colors against each other…

Mandarin Orange Beet Salad

This ratio makes enough for 4 people

Ingredients

2- 2 1/2 cups cooked and shredded beets, which is about 3 medium sized beets
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. fresh lemon juice or vinegar
1/4 cup juice from what the beets were cooked in; (or just use the mandarin orange juice below, if you threw out the beet juices by accident)
1/4 cup almond slices
6 dried apricots, diced
1/3 cup white raisins, optional
1 can mandarin orange pieces, juice included
1/4 -1/2 cup pine nuts for garnishing, optional (this depends if you can find it in your area with a Pesachdik hechsher)

Method

Mix together the beets, sugar, salt, and juice and water. Refrigerate until serving. Right before serving, add in almond slices, diced apricots, and white raisins, tossing just a bit. Decorate with the mandarin orange slices arranged nicely on top, along with the pine nuts and serve.

Tangy Cranberry Meatballs

This great recipe is based on my regular meatball recipe with cranberry sauce and a bit of wine added. The flavor is unique and makes this a Yom Tov specialty! You can make the meatballs any size you like; I think it looks (and stretches) best when the meatballs are tiny, but if you’re short on time, you needn’t worry about their size.

Serves 6

Ingredients

1/2 kilo (1 pound) ground beef
1/2 kilo (1 pound) ground turkey or chicken
1 onion, pureed with 2 gloves garlic
2 eggs
1/2 cup kasha or quinoa or bulgur or breadcrumbs *
1 additional large onion, chopped
2 tablespoons oil

Method

*If you use kasha, quinoa or bulgur, soak the grains first in ¾ cup very hot water for 15 minutes to soften before adding to meat mixture. Breadcrumbs do not need to be soaked.

Mix together the ground beef, ground chicken, and pureed onion and garlic. Add in eggs and 1/2 cup of softened grain. Mix and if you are not making the meatballs right away, cover the bowl and let it chill in the fridge.

Using a large frying pan, sauté the additional chopped onion in the 2 tablespoons of oil on a low flame and while it is sautéing, form meatballs and add to the slowly sautéing onion. Let them brown for about five minutes, turning once to brown on the other side, then remove them to a plate. Keep forming meatballs and browning them until you have finished all the meat mixture.

Prepare sauce in a deep pot:

Sauce

1 can smooth cranberry sauce without berries

1 cup ketchup

1/4 cup semidry white wine

1 tablespoon soy sauce (optional)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon dark brown sugar

½ teaspoon pepper

Stir sauce ingredients together to smooth out any lumps and simmer on low. Add the meatballs, and simmer for one hour. This recipe does freeze well. Serve over a bed of brown rice, cooked quinoa or cooked and fluffed bulgur.

Stewed Red Cabbage & Raisin Salad

Good as a Rosh Hashana side dish…

Serves 6 -8

Ingredients

1 large head red cabbage, shredded
1/2 head of a small green cabbage, shredded
1/4 cup water
2 large onions, diced
2 large green apples, chopped
2 Tablespoons oil
1/2 cup dark raisins
1 Tablespoon dark brown sugar
1 Tablespoon lemon juice *

Method

*Note: Rosh Hashana time many people follow the minhag/custom not to eat sharp or tart foods. I left this in the recipe anyhow as it adds to its flavor but is not readily discernible and the recipe is still sweet.

Put the shredded cabbages into a pot, add the 1/4 cup water and bring it to a boil. Let it cook for 15 minutes and then turn it off. Remove it from the heat and drain it in a colander. The cabbage may turn sort of purple or blue.

Saute the onions in the oil for 5-8 minutes. Add in the apples during the last 3 minutes and toss to ensure that they will not burn. Add the cabbage back into the pot, together with the raisins, sugar and lemon juice. Mix it well, Cover the pot and let it simmer on a low heat for 30 minutes. Serves well hot or cold.