Chana Punjabi; Kosher Ghee = Glee

I am not going to lie.

This summer and autumn have been busy as all get out.

For Yom Kippur -- that is, to break the fast on Yom Kippur -- I'll be preparing my great uncle's famous sour cream cake. (Recipe TK.)

For now, exciting news in hecshered land: Purity Farms makes organic, kosher ghee -- which is pretty readily available in any good-sized supermarket, or via the Internet. Even more exciting: I recently bought some.

I can't wait to use it to cook the New York Times's recipe for Chana Punjabi, which the Grey Lady ran back in March 2009 (Elaine Louie adapted it from Heather Carlucci-Rodriguez at Lassi, a shoebox-sized restaurant on Greenwich Ave in the Village. I used to go there all the time during graduate school, and the food is delicious.)

Here is my version:

Ingredients

1 tablespoon butter or ghee
1 medium onion, chopped
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon minced ginger
1 16 oz can tomatoes
1 1/2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon salt, or as needed
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice OR champagne vinegar
2 15-ounce cans chickpeas, drained
2 tablespoons minced cilantro

Sides: yogurt, rice

Directions

1. In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, heat oil and add onion. Sauté until translucent and soft, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, ginger and chili, and sauté until soft and fragrant, about 3 minutes. Add tomatoes. Cover and cook until tomatoes are very soft, about 5 minutes, then remove from heat.

2. Purée mixture -- I use an immersion blender -- then add paprika, 1 teaspoon salt, coriander, the garam masala, turmeric and lemon juice/vinegar. Add chickpeas and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low.

3. Cook for 5-10 minutes; add the cilantro. Remove from heat and enjoy!

Borscht by Choice

photo courtesy joe lingeman. **we ate the soup before we took the picture.

Friday night, I did the unthinkable.

I made borscht.

By choice.

Worse, I made my boyfriend eat it.

For Shabbos.

Having recently reinstalled myself in the great white north, and anticipating the famously long and cold winters, I decided to experiment with this oft-dreaded dish.

I followed the Bittman recipe, which calls for boiling three pounds of chopped beets and one onion in six cups of water.

After the mixture softens, Bittman says to beat in two eggs. I used one. Then he says to add the juice of one whole lemon.

I upped the acid Bittman suggested, using champagne vinegar instead of lemon juice alone. I also served it with mini creamer potatoes and sour cream mixed with champagne vinegar and dill.

On the next go-round, I'm going to experiment with adding turnips to the broth. And I'll serve it warm, instead of as a vichyssoise. I'm also thinking -- per the advice of my collaborator and friend -- to substitute the traditional potatoes with a blue cheese crostini.

I'm also thinking about putting horseradish (homemade, from the root) into the stock. Is this suicide? Or worth a shot?

Garlic Scapes

courtesy jayirwin via flickr

Peppery, garlicy, crunchy, divine. I cut mine up and sauteed with onions and MORE garlic, then added green squash and tinned tomatoes to make a sauce. Per a friend's advice, I got rid of the bulbous bit at the end, which looked something like an artichoke heart.

They taste fresh, like a hit of spring. The feeling you'd think you'd get if you carried around mint leaves in your mouth. Adventerous and 100 percent yum.

The Flip Side of Eating: Orthodoxy and Exercise

courtesy wallyg via flickr

For me, growing up, exercise was important. But not in the way that it seems to have been in secular, Christian, or non-Orthodox communities. Rather than working out, the emphasis for us was on the brain.

For evidence, I offer that, when it came to sports, my Jewish school competed in a so-called yeshiva league. That was the rule for basketball, soccer, and hockey. By contrast, we faced secular schools for such "brain"-oriented competitions as mock trial, model UN, and the like. You'd have an ice cube's chance in hell at seeing my yeshiva compete against Dalton in track.

You can see the evidence of this kind of hard living -- really, hard eating -- in the faces, skin, and bodies of many an Orthodox or charedi person. Making too much of the body in traditional cultures has been taboo, understandably so. Often, in the U.S. at least, vanity is antithetical to modesty.

But there seems to me nothing about not taking care of yourself that honors God.

Today -- some 15 years later -- it's different. Attitudes seem beginning to change. In Prospect Park, I see Orthodox and charedi women out walking, rollerblading, riding bikes for exercise. Sometimes, they're accompanied by another female friend. Other times, women are accompanied by their husbands.

The still-surprising and wonderful times are when charedi women are out on their own. Walking, skating, huffing it through the park. Grasping a water bottle in one hand. Striking out, on behalf of their bodies, alone.

Fruit soup 2.0

They say it will be 98 degrees tomorrow. The only thing keeping me from throwing up is my beloved box fan and the vat of fruit soup I just made.

A lot has changed over the past 12 months. Soon I'll be departing Brooklyn for greener pastures. And colder winters. And a horrible mall called Destiny.

Most important, I'm now making the fruit soup with plums.

Which sound like a vaguely Shakespearean term for testicles.

Why eat bacon if...

You can eat spiced marcona almonds? They are spicy, salty, addictive, and delicious.

Epicurious has a great recipe for them here.

Do yourself one better and buy packs of the suckers from the Park Slope Food Coop.

Cooking Makes a Comeback

So much promised for the new year. Handing over private information you wouldn't share with a stranger at a bar (thanks, census); the Dubai International Arabian Horse Championships (book early!); and, of course, waiting with baited breath to see if residents of Vancouver, Washington, tired of playing second fiddle to British Columbia, change the town's name to Fort Vancouver (a civic initiatve launched at no less hallowed ground than Tommy O's).

And, of course, the blog. I've been inspired by the discovery of some of my grandmother's recipes (long thought lost) and this New York Times story, which features non-Jewish chefs who cook their spouses' kosher favorites on the holidays.

As my friend points out, the article is "amazing because basically every couple is jewish woman-goy man... quite a change for the shiksha-loving NYTimes... when did this happen? "

Thanks for getting with it, NYT.

Your moment of zen:

“I would love to cook the Seder meal,” one famous non-Jewish chef said of Passover dinner with his in-laws. (He asked to remain anonymous to avoid their wrath.) “The food has got to be better.”

Clearly he's been married long enough to anticipate the wrath. Good job, anonymous.