Chocolate Honey Cake שאָקאָלאַדער לעקעך

Chocolate lekekh. Since we were celebrating a birthday on yontif, mimetic candles are made of baby carrots and sour cherries, both from Stoneledge Farm

The honeycake recipe that I have been making for the last decade has some chocolate as a seasoning, but it is not really a chocolate cake. Here at last is the deeply chocolate honey cake you have all been waiting for. כּי לקח טובֿ נתתּי לכם

Chocolate Honey Cake

Preheat oven to 400F. Prepare several cake or loaf pans.

Melt over simmering water

6 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped

Sift dry ingredients together:

24 ounces (6 cups) all-purpose flour (You may use part or all whole wheat pastry flour)

1 scant tablespoon ginger

2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 teaspoons allspice

2 tablespoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ cup cocoa

2 teaspoons kosher salt

Blend together in processor or blender:

8 ounces (1 cup) pitted prunes

1/2 cup ginger preserves

In a mixer combine:

2 tablespoons instant coffee

1 cup boiling water

1 pound (about 2 scant cups) bamboo honey

1 ½ cups butter (3 sticks, 12 ounces), or coconut oil, or vegetable oil

2 cups dark brown sugar (1 pound)

2 teaspoons vanilla

4 tablespoons slivovitz

6 extra-large or jumbo eggs (added at last minute)

Combine the prune-ginger-mix into the coffee-butter mix and stir in the melted unsweetened chocolate. Gently fold the coffee-ginger-chocolate into the dry ingredients.

Then fold in:

4 grated pears (about 12 ounces pear pulp and juice)

8 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped, or chips

Pour and scrape the batter into prepared loaf-pans and/or cake pans. Bake 15 minutes at 400, 15 minutes at 375, and 15 minutes at 350. The cakes are done when a tester comes out clean and they offer mild resistance to a touch.

This recipe yielded one large loaf cake, and eight small (8-inch) loaf cakes. I guess you could make half the amount, but the cakes stay good for two weeks, and in fact get better every day.

All-Pit Avocado

A couple of months ago I had the good fortune to find a delicious seedless avocado at my local grocer, but you can't bet on this sort of thing happening every time.

This week, the same grocer sold me Big Stony, seen above, with barely a third of an inch of pulp insulating a billiard ball-sized pit. Big Stony was as tough and bland as Almond Girl was satiny and voluptuous, so there would seem to be an inverse pit-size to lushness correlation.

LIttle Chocolate Chip French Fries

I have no pictures for you, because these cookies disappeared almost instantly. A week of frenzied baking had yielded some scraps of whole wheat piecrust pastry and biscuit dough, so I mixed them with an egg, brown sugar and chocolate chips to make a few dozen ad-hoc cookies.

The Wee'an, into whom most of the cookies vanished, had this trenchant observation:

They are almost like little chocolate chip French fries in the way they make you feel.

Makes life worth living, that does.

Ad-Hoc Chocolate Chip Cookies

Dough scraps from pie, tarts, cobbler, biscuits, scones, slump, pan-dowdy, or whatever else you have been baking (about 4 ounces, but really just use up whatever you have)
1 egg
1/2 cup (or so) dark brown sugar
1/2 cup (or so) flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
chocolate chips or chopped semisweet chocolate

Crumble the doughs together with your fingers. Use a pastry blender to mix in the sugar and egg. Add enough flour to make a cookie dough-like consistency. Blend in the chocolate chips and chill for an hour or longer.
heat the oven to 375. Form the dough into cherry-sized balls and arrange them on parchment lined baking pans. Bake for 20 minutes, switching the trays front to back and top to bottom halfway through.

Cheese or Font?

Printing on Cheese

Since this blog is called In Mol Araan and is devoted to the study of the osculocal pleasures of food and language I don't see how I can withhold from you for one second longer the Cheese or Font game. Have fun!

Shave-Ice האָבל-אײַז

OMG shaved ice! When was the last time? I don’t even remember. You see, this is why you have to stay in New York all summer, even when the heat index is 108.

The shaved ice man uses a small hand-plane to scrape the ice block,

Then the back of the plane forms the ice-needles into a perfect cone when he scoops it into a cup,
and pours on the syrup. I chose tamarindo. Tam-gan-eydn-arindo!

I wish I could have made a sound file of the ice-planing process, because a large part of the pleasure of having the shave-ice is hearing the khromtshe, khromtshe, khromtshe of the plane scraping across the ice-block.
The Yiddish word for shave-ice is האָבל-אײַז (hobl-ayz), or plane-ice

Non-Cooked Escarole

Arguments for cooking the escarole are well known:

• Braised escarole is one of the best things in the world.
• Raw escarole is bitter.
• Raw escarole is hard to chew.
• You are going to get another seventeen pounds of greens from your CSA tomorrow whether you cook this week's greens or not.

The overwhelming iron-clad logic of these arguments, however, wilts into a soggy heap on days like today when our very brains are fricasseed in the 90-degree heat. Of course you can make salads, but just as you need raw salads even in the coldest days of winter, you need vegetables in some way relaxed, if not quite cooked, even in the hottest days of summer. Viana La Place has a recipe for Smashed Salad, for which you put your salad greens in a clean pillow case, and then smash them against the side of your counter, bang, boom, whap! I would love to try this some day, but I was not quite up to that today. What I did was combine two processes for relaxing raw greens. I rubbed them between the palms of my hands with kosher salt to break down the cell walls, and then let them marinate a while in olive oil and cider vinegar. The resulting dish is pleasantly mellow, but with the live vital flavor of raw food. I learned about marinating raw greens, even the really tough one like collards, from Lillian Butler, founder of Raw Soul. I will have to tell you more about Raw Soul soon, no solemn vow implied.

OH, and don't be scared about washing your greens. It is easy-peasy-lemon-squeezey.

This is my submission for Haalo's Weekend Herb Blogging, founded by our fearless leader Kalyn, and hosted this week by Anh at A Food Lover's Journey.

Non-Cooked Escarole

1 bunch escarole
kosher salt
olive oil (be liberal)
about 3 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
1 small onion, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, finely minced
black olives or tapanade (optional)
orange juice or zest or both (optional)
lemon juice or zest or both (optional)
sun-dried tomatoes (optional)
a pinch of cumin (optional)
fresh or dried chiles (optional)
a tiny bit of sugar or agave (optional)

Wash the escarole and spin dry. sprinkle the leaves with kosher salt. using your hands, massage the salt into the leaves. Chop the kneaded leaves as soarsely or fine as desired. Drizzle a liberal amount of olive oil over the leaves and mix well. add the vinegar and minced onion and garlic and optional aroamtics and mix well again. Taste for seasonings. You can serve it right now if you just can't wait, but it will be even better in half an hour

Chocolate Kernik שאָקאָלאַדער קערניק

אַ סך פֿון ענק האָבן מיר שױן געפֿרעגט אַ היפּש פּאָר מאָל װען איך זאָל שױן אָנבלאָגעװען אַ שאָקאָלאַדער קערניק. נו? קומען װעט נאָך אונדזער אױסגעבענקטע שעה. אָט איז רעצעפּט װאָס װאָלט געקאָנטברענגען דערלײזונג.

שאָקאָלאַדער קערניק

טײג

½ טעפּל רױע פּעקאַן־ניס

½ טעפּל שאָקאָלאַד

מישט'ץ אױס שאָקאָלאַד מיט ניס אין אַ פּראָצעסירער. טו זײ אַרײַן אין אַ בעקל פֿון 6 צאָל

12 אָנצן אָונצעס האַלב־זיס שאָקאָלאַד

12 אָנצן (1 פּושקע) קאָקאָנוס מילך

1 לעפֿל אַגאַר

2 לעפֿל װאַסער

2 לעפֿל ראָם

¼ טעפּל אַגאַװע

װאַרעמט'ץ אָן דעם שאָקאָלאַד מיט דער קאָקאָנוס מילך. אין אַ קלײן טאָפּ, װאַרעמט'ץ אָן װאַסער מיט אַגאַר דער אַגאַר זאָל צעגײן. מישט'ץ אױס שאָקאָלאַד־מילך מיטן אַגאַר־װאַסער, ראָם און אַגאַװע. גיסט'ץ אײַן אינעם בעקעלע מיטן שאָקאָלאַדן טײג, און קיל עס אָפּ אַ פֿיר שעה.

A number of you have been wondering when I was going to make a chocolate kernik, already. I was planning to try something last Friday, but you know, even when the days are long, shabes just comes rushing up at you unawares, so I thought, I’ll just throw together something really fast and easy this week, and work on the real chocolate kernik recipe next week. You can’t expect such a strategy to yield sublime recipes consistently, but wow, this is clearly the kernik that was meant to be.

Chocolate Kernik

Crust

½ cup raw pecans

½ cup (4 ounces) semisweet chocolate, chopped

grind the chocolate and nuts together in a processor and press the crumbs into the bottom of a springform pan. (It will be easier to unmold the cake if you place a cardboard disk in the bottom of the pan and form the crust on that. Since the kernik does not get baked, it will be fine).

Filling

12 ounces (1 can) coconut milk

12 ounces (1 ½ cups) semisweet chocolate, chopped

2 tablespoons water

1 tablespoon agar

2 tablespoons dark rum

¼ cup agave, if desired

Heat the coconut milk with the chocolate to melt. Swish the water in the can to get out the last drops of coconut milk. Heat the coconut water with the agar to dissolve. Combine the agar with the chocolate mixture and rum and agave if desired. Pour the filling into the chocolate crust and chill for four hours.קערניק

kernik A vegan cheesecaker made from nuts or seeds

See pistachio kernik, Strawberry kernik, and Bamboo Honey Vanilla Kernik

Wine and Wheels

This enchanting cyclist is no doubt flying to a picnic at which she will be enjoying some wonderful red wine along with some Dill and Chard Frittata. I put the socks on her to make the picture decent, which should resolve the situation in Alabama, where she has been banned.

Seedless Avocado

I got this unusually rich and buttery avocado at Integral Yoga on West 13th Street. It had no stone at all, just a little almond-sized hollow in the center. Never saw that before.

Serendipitous Recipe Transmission (Zucchini with Mustard Seeds)

Folks frequently ask where I get recipes. Well, heavens, recipes are everywhere. I read cookbooks, newspapers, blogs, the backs and sides of boxes, and of course I make things up, but I think my favorite mode of recipe transmission is the serendipitous viva voce connection, which occurs at those fortuitous creases in the space-time continuum when a total stranger will thrust upon you a recipe that will end up enriching your life endlessly. This is what happens when you go to Queens.

A while back I was shopping in Patel Brothers in Flushing Queens. I am going to have to tell you about Patel Brothers in more detail soon, because this is a place where very, very good things can happen, but I will just give you one example for now: I was looking at some small firm zucchini-like squash and wondering what I would do with them, and the gentleman immediately next to me volunteered that you cut them into slices, heat black mustard seeds until they pop, and then add the vegetables. You have to try it, he insisted, it is just so good.

It is indeed. This week I made it with the miraculous ribby zucchini from Stoneledge Farm.

Zucchini with Mustard Seeds

Oil (I used grapeseed oil; coconut oil might be interesting)

chiles (optional)

1 ½ teaspoons black or brown mustard seeds

½ pound zucchini or other firm summer squash

salt

Scrub the squash and slice into thin rounds. Heat the oil in a skillet and add the mustard seeds and the chiles if you are using them. When the seeds turn grey and begin to pop add the zucchini and cook, stirring until lightly browned here and there. Salt to taste.

Orange Strawberry and Banana Kernik

Will you just get a load of this?

Orange Strawberry and Banana Kernik

12 ounces banana pulp (I used 3 purple bananas and one yellow banana)

juice and zest of one large orange

1 pound strawberries, washed and hulled, plus more berries for the top, if desired

1 12-ounce package soft silken tofu

1 cup soymilk (I use Westsoy unsweetened)

¼ cup coconut oil

¾ cup maple syrup

½ teaspoon salt

1 ½ cups apple cider

4 tablespoons agar flakes

Puree the fruit, tofu, soymilk, oil, and syrup in a blender on high speed for several minutes until very smooth. You may have to do this in a few batches. Pour the apple juice into a saucepan and sprinkle the agar flakes on top. Heat the juice until the agar dissolves. Blend the juice into the fruit-soy mixture, and pout into a 9-inch springform pan, and chill an hour or two until set. If you happen to have a chocolate shortbread crust in that springform pan, so much the better. Top with beautiful strawberries, if you got ‘em.

Red Stuff

3 ounces red currant jelly

3 ounces apple cider

1 ounce port wine (optional)

1 tablespoon agar flakes

Melt the currant jelly with the juice and wine in a small saucepan. Sprinkle on the agar flakes and cook until the flakes dissolve. Allow the red stuff to cool slightly and carefully pour it over the back of a spoon onto the surface of the cake, or brush a bit over each berry.

Intriguing Street Names of New York Part VI

Troon Road, Jamaica Estates, Queens

I took a ride to the farthest-out reaches of our farthest-out borough yesterday and came upon Troon Road. This word makes me thing of small, furry and highly intelligent space aliens, but it is in fact the Dutch word for throne, appropriately enough for Queens.
I still get lost trying to find my way back from Queens, but I have learned one thing. If you come to a sign that says "Welcome to Great Neck," you are going the wrong way, unless of course you live in Great Neck, in which case welcome home.
If you find yourself in these parts, don't miss the mango pudding at Buddha Bodai.

Are You Discriminant?

Kostas Cleaners, East 33rd Street, Manhattan

The Chocolate Lady’s Vegan Shvies (Shabuoth, Shavuot) Survival Guide (Honey Vanilla Kernik)

The difficulties faced by vegetarians during the joyous festival of peysekh are the subject of endless brow-furrowing, hand-wringing, and beard-tugging, but really, a vegetarian Passover is a day at the races, a veritable (peysekhdik) cakewalk compared to steep and slippery slope scaled by vegans at the joyous Feast of Weeks. Yes, I know peysekh is way longer, and comes with actual mitsves, but everyone is more or less in the same boat with regard to facing culinary challenges at peysekhtime. Shvies, on the other hand, has no dietary restrictions, and on the contrary offers the extra option of having milkhiks at a holiday meal. This beloved shvies tradition is of recent origin, dubious provenance, and is by no means universal, but it has earned shvies the title as the best of all holidays.

Here are your shvies survival links:

The most important recipe you need is this cashew and hemp cheese for filling blitnses, pierogi, vereniki, naleszniki, and other cheesy delights.

Have a look as well at this amazing pistachio cheesecake (or Yiddish pistachio cheesecake)

Shvies cheesecake lexicography.

And here is the honey-vanilla kernik you have been waiting for.

A sweet and happy yontif to all In Mol Araan.

װעגאַנער טאָרט מיט קאַשוניס און קאָנאָפּליעס

1 טעפּל קאַשוניס

½ טעפּל קאָנאָפּליעס

¼ לעפֿעלע זאַלץ

¼-1/2 טעפּל האָניק

זױמען פֿון 1 שױט װאַניל

2 לעפֿל אַגאַר (קאַנטען)

װײקט אײַן די קאַשוניס און קאָנאָפּליעס אין װאַסער אײן נאַכט. גיסט אױס דאָס װאַסער. מאָלט אָפּ די ניס מיט 1 ½ טעפּלעך פֿרישע װאַסער, האָניק, זאַלץ און װאַניל. קאָכט דאָס געמיש אין אַ טאָפּ מיטן אַגאַר דער אַגאַר זאָל צעגײן. גיסט אײַן אין אַ טאָרט־פֿענדל פֿון 6 צאָל און קילט עס אָפּ.

Almost Raw Vegan Honey Vanilla Cheesecake (Kernik)

1 cup raw cashews

½ cup hemp seeds

2 tablespoons coconut oil

¼ teaspoon salt (2 fat pinches)

2 tablespoons agar-agar (kanten)

¼-½ cup bamboo honey or other flavorful honey, to taste

seeds from one vanilla bean

1 6-inch pastry crust (ah, look! You have a leftover chocolate crust right here!)

Soak the cashews and hemp seeds overnight. Drain them and add 1 ½ cups fresh water, the honey, oil, and salt, and blend at high speed for several minutes. Heat the blended nut mixture with agar until the agar dissolves and pour into a six-inch springform with or without a prepared crust. You can pour the mixture into individual cups or bowls.

Cheesecake-Lexicography II סערניק־לעקסיקאָגראפֿיע

Yesterday I asked the budding neologists among my readers for for names for a cheesecake-like dessert made with nuts or seeds. Hippogirl very aptly pointed out that the word "cheesecake" has been used for centuries to describe such cheese-free confections as Mrs. Beeton's Almond Cheesecake and Lemon Cheesecake, recipes number 1219 and1292 in Isabella Beeton's Book of Household Management (1861). The cakes in Mrs. Beeton's recipes resemble a a sort of shoo-fly pie made with lots of eggs and sugar. I think they are both worth trying, and I agree that for the time being the best word in English for cheesecake is "cheesecake."

The perfect Yiddish word for nut and seed cheesecakes is obvious. It has to be קערניק (kernik). You see, one of the Yiddish words for cheesecake is סערניק (sernik), from the word "ser" which means cheese in Polish and some other Slavic languages. The word "kern" means seeds or kernels.

This is the second most useful word I ever made up. The most useful word is געװעזנתּניתטע (geveznteyniste) which means the former wife of one's current husband. The former husband of one's current wife is one's געװעזנתּן (geveznutn).

Name This Dessert ?װאָס הײסט, װאָס סע הײסט

This honey-vanilla dessert is made with cashews and hempseeds that I soaked and pureed (recipe to be posted shortly). It is not intended to be a substitute for cheesecake, but rather a gesture in the direction of cheesecake.
So far I have been calling these guys "pareve cheesecake," or "vegan cheesecake," but surely they deserve a name of their own.
If you can think of an appropriate name for this kind of thing, in Yiddish, English, or any other language, please write something on the comments section. Those of you who look In Mol Araan via email need to click here to get to the website and post to the comments section.

Almost Raw Pistachio Vegan Cheesecake

Left to right: raw pistachios, soaked pistachios, decorticated pistachios

This delicious pale green dessert was my second attempt at a vegan cheesecake, and it is really much easier than I imagined. The only difficult part of this recipe is decorticating all the pistachios, but if you have company, the work flies by. I used agar agar or kanten to set the uncooked nut mixture, so this is more of a Bavarian cream than a cheesecake. Agar is a kosher vegetarian gelling agent. The Yiddish word for agar is אַגאַר.
The pistachio flavor is intense (it is almost nothing but nuts) and you just want to fall right into that calming soft green color. A Yiddish version of this recipe and a picture of the finished cake are here.

Chocolate Shortbread Crust

2 cups flour
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
pinch salt
1 cup (8 ounces) coconut oil

Line the bottoms of 3 six-inch springform pans with baking parchment and oil the parchment. preheat the oven to 325.
Combine the flour, sugar, cocoa and salt in the bowl of a processor and pulse to mix. Add the coconut oil and pulse until it forms a dough. Divide the dough into three parts and press into the bottoms of the prepared pans. Chill for 20 minutes or longer, and bake for 25 minutes at 325. This recipe will also make about 50 little shortbread cookies.

Pistachio Cheesecake or Crème Bavaroise

2 cups pistachios
1 cup almonds
3/4 cup honey
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup coconut oil
4 tablespoons agar (kanten) flakes (I used Mitoku)

Soak the almonds and pistachios overnight. Decorticate the nuts. You can remove the almond skins fairly easily by squeezing them and popping the kernels right out. The pistachios might require a little more in the way of persuasion to part with their cortices, but look at how gorgeously green those decorticated kernels are!
Combine the decorticated nuts with honey, salt, coconut oil, and two cups of fresh water in a blender and blend on the highest speed for several minutes to make the puree as satiny as possible. Pour and scrape the nut miuxture into a saucepan and heat with the agar flakes until the dissolve. Pour the filling into two of the prepared crusts, or into individual dessrt glasses and chill.

Yes, I know you still have one unfilled crust. Watch this space!

װעגאַנער קעזטאָרט פֿון פֿיסטאַשקעס

שאָקאָלאַדער טײג פֿאַר קעז־טאָרט אָדער המנטאַשן

8 אָנצן (2 טעפּלעך) מעל
1/2 טעפּל קאַקאַאָ
1 טעפּל פּולװער־צוקער
8 אָנצן (1 טעפּל) קאָקאָנוס פּוטער
זאַלץ אױפֿן שפּיץ מעסער

װאַרעמט אָן דעם אױװן אױף 325

מישט אױס מעל, קאַקאַאָ, און צוקער אין אַ פּראָצעסירער. גיט צו קאַלטע קאָקאָנוס פּוטער, זעשניטן אױף שטיקלעך, און מישט גוט אױס, עס זאָל װערטן אַ טײג.

באַקט עס אָפּ אַ 25 מינוט. דאָס מאַכט 3 טײגעלעך פֿון 6 זאָל, אָדער 50 קיכעלעך.

װעגאַנער קעזטאָרט פֿון פֿיסטאַשקעס

2 טעפּלעך פֿיסטאַשקעס

1 טעפּל מאַנדלען

¾ טעפּל האָניק

½ לעפֿעלע זאַלץ

¼ טעפּל קאָקאָנוס שמאַלץ (קאָקאָנוס בױמל, קאָקאָנוס פּוטער)

4 לעפֿל אַגאַר (קאַנטען)

װײקט אײַן די ניס אין װאַסער אײן נאַכט. גיסט אױס דאָס װאַסער. מאָלט אָפּ די ניס מיט 2 טעפּלעך פֿרישע װאַסער, האָניק, און זאַלץ. קאָכט דאָס געמיש אין אַ טאָפּ מיטן אַגאַר דער אַגאַר זאָל צעגײן. גיסט אײַן אין 2 טאָרט־פֿענדלעך פֿון 6 צאָל, און קילט עס אָפּ.

This recipe appears in English here.

Red Bananas רױטע באַנאַנעס

די אָ רױטע באַנאַנעס האָב איך געקױפֿט מיט מער װי אַ װאָך צוריק. זײ זענען, דאַכט זיך מיר, נאָך נישט צײַטיק, אָבער װי אַזױ זאָל איך װיסן? זײ זענען דאָך פּערפּל!

I got these purple bananas (commonly called “red bananas”) more than a week ago, and they still seem unripe, but how can I tell? They are purple, for crying out loud!

Purple Soup פּערפּעלע זופּ

דער רעצעפּט האָט זיך מיר געחלומט אַ פּאָר טעג פֿאַר פּסח. איך האָב שױן אַ שלאַל מיט אױסגעחלומטע רעצעפּטן, אַ סך פֿון זײ גאַנץ גוט. אַן אַצפּערלעכער קאָלעג האָט זי געלױבט װי די בעסטע קרױט באָרשט אױף דער װעלט.

I dreamed of this soup a few days before Peysekh. I have a number of dream recipes, some of which work in the waking world as well. An esteemed senior colleague called this the best cabbage soup in the world.

פּערפּלע זופּ

מאַסלינע בױמל (מיט אַ ברײטער האַנט)

2 גרױסע פּערפּלע ציבעלעס, דין צעשניטן לױט דער לענג

2 לאַובער בלעטער

1 לעפֿעלע טימען

7 פֿעפֿערלעך

1 הײס פֿעפֿערל

1 ¼ טעפּל רױטע װײַן (אָדער װיפֿל עץ פֿאַרשטײט)

1 העפֿטל פּערפּלער קרױט, צעשניטן

1 ½ פֿונט פּערפּלע קאַרטאָפֿל, צעשניטן

עטלעכע שטענגעלעך פּערטישקע און קריפּ (אַן ערך ¼ טעפּל פֿון יעדען)

זאַלץ און נאָך פֿעפֿער

אפֿשר 1 בוריקע, דעם צװײטן טאָג

װאַרעמט'ץ אָן בױמל, און זשאַרעט'ץ אָפּ די ציבעלעס מיט די לאַובער בלעטלעך, פּעפֿערלעך, און טימען ביז װײך און דורכזעעװדיק. גיט'ץ צו קרױט און װײַן. טוט'ץ אײַן די קאַרטאָפֿל און גענוג װאַסער אַלץ צוצודעקן (אַן ערך 12 טעפּלעך) און לאָזט'ץ זידן אַ פֿערציק מינוט. טוט'ץ אײַן פֿרישע געװירצן און נאָך זאַלץ און פֿעפֿער לױטן טעם. דאָס װעט זײַן פּערפּל װי די װעלט אינעם ערשטן טאָג. דעם צװײטן טאָג קאָן מען אַרײַנטאָן אַ ביסל אָנגעריבענע בוריקע.

Purple Soup

Olive oil (be liberal)
2 large purple onions (about 1 pound), thinly sliced along the longitudinal lines
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon dried thyme

7 peppercorns

1 chile pepper
1 ¼ cup red wine (or as much as you have)
1 purple cabbage (about 2 pounds), finely sliced or shredded
1 1/2 pounds purple potatoes, peeled and diced

several sprigs parsley and dill (about ¼ cup chopped leaves for each)

salt and ground pepper
Possibly 1 beet, the next day

Heat the oil in a large soup kettle, add the sliced onions, bay leave, thyme, and peppercorns. Cook until the onions are soft and translucent and add the cabbage and wine. Add the potatoes and enough water to cover everything generously, about 12 cups. Cook for forty minutes and add the fresh herbs and salt and pepper to taste. This will be vividly purple the day it is made. The next day you might want to brighten it up with a bit of grated raw beet.

Uppåkra (Swedish Potato Cookies for Passover)

I was loving these delicious butter cookies (do not click during peysekh!), and they already have lots of potato starch to begin with, so it seemed like a good idea to try a kosher-for-Passover version. For my first try at adapting the recipe I substituted half a cup of cake meal for the cup of flour (cake meal is quite a bit denser than flour), and increased the potato starch by a two tablespoons. Next time I might try adding another two tablespoons of cake meal for a firmer dough. There is really no kosher-for-Passover vanilla extract fabulous enough for these cookies, so I left that out and added the zest of an orange and a lemon, and this worked very nicely. Maybe I start some some homemade vanilla extract now, it will be ready for next year.

The peysekhdik uppåkra came out pleasantly crisp and very crumbly. You won’t believe it’s not chametz.

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Passover Uppåkra (Swedish Butter Cookies)

8 ounces (2 sticks, 1 cup) butter, softened

1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1 egg
grated zest of 1 orange

grated zest of one lemon

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons potato starch
½ cup cake meal (maybe ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons would be good)

Cream together butter and sugar in a mixer or with a pastry blender. Beat in the salt, egg and citrus zest. Sift together the cake meal and potato starch; add to butter mixture and beat until combined. Chill dough for about an hour. Roll into small balls and place on parchment lined cookie sheets. These cookies will spread quite a bit during baking, so give them plenty of room on the sheets. Bake at 375 degrees F for 10 minutes or until edges are brown, rotating the sheets front to back and top to bottom halfway through. You will have enough for about three half-sheet pans.

I am usually pretty chill about these things, but I’m just saying: if this recipe is not in the first page of results for "peysekhdik uppåkra," I will be sorely aggrieved.

Coffee, Sugar, and the Cosmos

Photo by Mark Rifkin

Our sages teach that the sun crouches all night behind the Domino Sugar building in Williamsburg. It rises from the sugar building and describes an arc across the sky, finally setting behind the Maxwell House Coffee building in Jersey City. One heavenly cycle is completed every twenty-eight years, always on a Wednesday.

אַלע בעסטע גרוסן פֿאַר אַ זיסן כּשרן פּסח און אַכט און צװאַנציק גוטע יאָר!

Wishing all In Mol Araan a wonderful Peysekh, and twenty-eight fabulous years of the new cosmic cycle.