Tag Archives: Cooking

Tellicherry Pepper

“The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook.”–Julia Child

I recently discovered this delicious pepper. Very tasty on steak when freshly ground on top before grilling. I think it would taste good on lamb as well. Telllicherry pepper comes from the southern coast of India. It is very fragrant and has a ” robust, pungent, fruity flavor” per the container’s description from Costco.

Some more information about the different types of pepper from Dana Angelo White on Food Network .

Do you have any favorite recipes with Tellicherry pepper?

I like boneless Rib Eye steaks for grilling, which are usually very tender.

A Tureen is a Pretty Pot

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Tureen- a large, deep, covered dish. A noun from the French word terrine, feminine of terrin or of the earth. An earthenware dish. (Dictionary.com)

“covered container, sometimes made to rest on a stand or dish, from which liquids, generally soup or sauce, are served at table. The earliest silver and pottery examples, dating from the early 18th century, were called terrines or terrenes (from Latin terra, “earth”), which suggests a pottery origin for the form. Most tureens are crafted in a bowl-like shape that has been influenced by the decorative conventions of their time, but novel pottery types, in the form of realistically modeled animals and vegetables, have also been popular.” (Encyclopedia Britannica)

640px-Musée_de_la_faïence-20-saucière via wikipedia

640px-Tureen_Marseille_1770_DMA_1997-46 via wikipedia

I usually serve soup right out of the pot on the stove into bowls for holiday dinners or everyday eating. I have not served soup or stews out of a tureen on the table. It would be another large serving piece to store and wash. In recent years, when I do host any holiday meals, I like to keep it simple. It is because the preparation and cooking is an all day affair, (unless I order take-out 🙂 ). After I am done with prep, cooking, serving, eating, visiting with guests and family, I am tired. The clean up can be exhausting if I am using my good china and crystal which I like to hand wash. I think a soup tureen would fall into the category of hand wash. Especially if it were a pretty china one.

But I can admire pretty tureens and I love fresh soups.

Sunset Magazine online has some quick recipes for soups:

Thai Chicken Coconut Soup

|Lindaghill|

Rosh Hashana Dinner

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I had a small family dinner party for Rosh Hashana. My menu for the dinner included fresh chicken soup and brisket. I added the home-made kreplach we had in our freezer to the soup along with matzo balls.

Homemade Chicken Soup with kreplach and matzo balls

I don’t have many of my own pictures because I was cooking all this the day of the dinner and it is a lot of work. Next time, I hope to cook some of the food ahead of time.

I really enjoy cooking holiday meals with my family. We all work together to make all the dishes.

My daughter was here and she helped a lot with shopping and some of the cooking. She made a delicious noodle kugel and a spinach salad with pomegranate seeds and pear. She bought the flowers, sage honey and some scented candles.

My husband helped with some shopping as well and picked up a pretty round chocolate chip challah.

It was hard getting everyone together. My daughter Kate had special plans for this weekend so I decided to make the dinner on Thursday night. My son Scott was working late but managed to come over with his lovely wife Jennie. They had helped make the kreplach with me a few weeks ago.

Two of my husband’s brothers and one of their wives made up the rest of our dinner party. I feel it is important for the family to be together and make happy memories.

I have a recipe I follow from my mother-in-law for the chicken soup. I have made it so many times over the years and it changes slightly each time I make it. This time I added a larger rutabaga and I think it gave the broth a sweeter taste. My daughter suggested I add some kale.

My mother-in-law Mary Lynn used to tell me that many Jewish women in the old days did not have their recipes written down with the exact ingredient measurements. Or they might leave out an ingredient when passing on a recipe. She told me a Yiddish expression ” shitararyn” which she said meant put in it or pour it in when adding an ingredient.

I used Judy Zeidler’s The Gourmet Jewish Cook book recipe for the brisket which is made with prunes and apricots and with brown sugar in the recipe. This gives it a slightly sweet taste.

It is a tradition to include sweet foods like honey for New Year because this means you will have a sweet year.

One of my brother-in-law’s made a Honey Cake from his mother’s recipe.

My daughter had a lovely idea about doing a Tshuvah activity where we would all set our intentions for the New Year and ask ourselves what do we want to cast off and what do we want to keep in our lives.

I regret we did not get to this activity at the dinner but I would like to incorporate it into future Rosh Hashana dinners. I want to think about my own intentions during this week for the coming year.

It’s Time to Make Kreplach

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Today part of my family got together for what has become one of our yearly rituals, making kreplach. For those of you who may not know, kreplach is like won ton or ravioli. The way we make it takes more than one day and it is a group effort.

First I shopped for the brisket. Then my brother-in-law cooked the brisket at his house because he has a meat grinder. He grinds up the brisket with kasha. We use the meat and kasha mixture as a filling for the kreplach.

My husband makes the dough for the pasta that is wrapped around the filling. He uses a hand operated pasta machine which I gave him as a birthday present many years ago. He does not make fresh pasta anymore but for this once a year kreplach tradition. We usually make keplach before Rosh Hashanah(Jewish New Year). We make a pretty large amount.

We get an assembly line going on our kitchen table. My husband on the pasta machine, cranking out a long flat pasta sheet. My brother in law cutting out circle shapes from the flat pasta. Me, my son and daughter-in-law, complete the last steps by placing a spoon full of filling in the center of the pasta circle.Then folding the pasta over the filling and crimping the edges a bit and bringing the opposite corners together. You’ll have to look at the picture because it is hard to describe.

The kreplach are then cooked in boiling water. After they are cool I put them in separate plastic bags, a dozen to a bag. We sometimes like to sample our work. Today we made about 120. I divided up the bags between us. We freeze the kreplach and it can be used later as an addition to soup or can be baked or fried and eaten alone as the main course or appetizer.

It’s fun making the kreplach together but a lot of work. You can see some of process in the photos I took.