I love to barbecue.  In fact I have been known to do it with 3 feet of snow on the ground.  I barbecue chicken, lamb chops, vegetables and even fruit. Now that the BBQ season officially opens this weekend with Memorial Day, I have tried to come up with new BBQ ideas for my friends, family and readers.

 

Here are a few ideas for your BBQ that I often do at mine:

 

• I find that lamb has its own natural flavors and doesn’t need a marinade; you can just throw it from the package straight onto the grill. (yay, no extra work!)
• Sliders are very popular nowadays; I buy all kinds of great chutneys, sauces and flavored mustards to go as a complement.
• My favorite sausages are Jack’s Gourmet Sausages.  Try buying a variety of them. You can also buy some “fakin bacon” and place them on the grill for a few minutes until they are crispy; it makes a great topping for hot dogs or sliders.
• I make a platter of all kinds of pickles (half-sour and sour pickles, sour kraut and pickled tomatoes).
• I serve platters of sliced of tomatoes, red onion, and shredded lettuce and some sautéed onion.
• No bbq is ever complete without coleslaw (either homemade or store-bought).
• I always have big fresh garden salad, corn on the cob and French fries.  (I love the 5-minute McCain’s fries).
• Fresh pineapple and mango are delicious on the grill. 3-4 minutes per side max.

 

The marinade below is great for chicken or vegetables. For the meat, let it soak for 2 hours or overnight.

If you are using it for vegetables, leave out the ketchup and marinade for up to 1 hour.

 

Dijon Garlic Marinade

1/2 cup red wine (I like Zmora its a young red, with fruity tones)
1/4 cup seeded Dijon mustard
1/8 cup balsamic vinegar½ cup ketchup
1/4 cup olive oil
6 cloves crushed fresh garlic
1 tsp thyme
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper

In a small bowl, whisk all ingredients together except the meat.

Place the meat in a shallow pan in one layer and pour over the marinade.
Try to marinade for several hours — it helps tenderize the meat.

Place the meat on a medium- hot grill about 4 inches above the fire and cook on both sides until cooked through.

 

 

This week I did at cooking demonstration inside Gourmet Glatt,  a local kosher supermarket in my neighborhood.

I demonstrated these recipes, gave out tastings and handed out recipe cards.  In case you don’t live near by here are the recipes.

 

Ragin Cajun Tilapia

½ cup corn starch

2 tablespoon Cajun Creole seasoning (pereg brand or similar)

Salt and pepper

1 Tablespoon canola oil

4- 6oz pieces of tilapia, salmon or flounder

 

Place corn starch, salt and pepper and seasoning in a small bowl and mix together.

Coat fish in the corn starch mixture and set aside.

Heat a sauté pan on medium heat and add oil.

When the oil is hot add the fish and cook the fish until it is flakey in the center.

 

Serve with store bought sweet salsa such as peach, or mango.

 

 

Thai Fish Fillets

Ingredients

1 (14-ounce) can coconut milk

2 cubes frozen minced ginger

2 cubes frozen minced garlic

4 cubes frozen minced cilantro

1 teaspoon curry powder

1 Tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce

2 tablespoon brown sugar

1 teaspoon sesame oil, toasted or roasted

1/2 teaspoon salt, divided

4 (6-ounce) tilapia fillets, flounder, salmon

Preparation

On a medium heat, place coconut milk in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer. Add ginger, garlic, and cilantro then stir and let it simmer for 3 minutes.

Add in curry powder, soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, and bring to a simmer (do not boil). Remove from heat and let the ingredients infuse the coconut milk for 10 minutes.

Place fish on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Season with salt and pepper, pour sauce over fish and reserve some sauce for garnish.

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork.

Right before serving pour more warm reserved sauce over fish.

 

 

Crunchy salmon with tangy aioli

4 –portion salmon fillet

salt and pepper

½ cup tablespoons mayonnaise

1/2 sweet chili sauce

1 cup French’s French Fried Onions or similar brand

Instructions

Place the salmon skin side down on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper container.

Season the fish with salt and pepper. Set aside.

In a small bowl, combine mayonnaise and sweet chili sauce.

Generously spread the mayonnaise mixture on top of the fillet.

Sprinkle the onion rings on top making sure the all salmon is covered

Bake at 350 for 20 minutes

Check the center of the fillet for readiness with a fork (it should be flakey).

 

Each Shavuot meal we start off with Kiddush and then move onto our dairy courses.  Hopefully, the wines we choose for each course will bring out the very best in the foods we have selected to serve.  Last week on my radio show, “Table for Two with Naomi Nachman” on the Nachum Segal Network, we had a wine-and-cheese show featuring Jay Buchsbaum, from Royal Wine Corp. (which owns the Kedem, Bartenura and Herzog brands, just to name a few), and Brent Delman, The Cheese Guy.  Each of them brought in some amazing samples from their companies and we discussed wine and cheese pairings. You can catch the show on the archives (www.nachumsegal.com) and learn more about wine and cheese production too.

 

I have paired my family’s favorite Shavuot recipes with some fantastic suggestions of wines.  Hope you enjoy!

 

Onion Soup - The Famous Classic!

 

The key to imitating the real beef flavor of traditional onion soup is adding miso into the soup.  This really enhances the flavor of the soup.

WINE: The wine I use in the soup recipe is Jeunesse, Carbernat Sauvignon, a young semi-sweet wine from California (Jeunesse means young, flavorful and fun). I then use the left-over wine from the bottle at the table for the first course.  The red wine is a great marriage of flavor in the soup and as accompaniment to the soup course.

 

Ingredients
3 pounds yellow onions, peeled and sliced
½ tsp freshly ground pepper
1 tablespoon butter
salt to taste
2 Tbsp paprika
¼ cup flour

1/2 cup miso
1 cup red wine
6 cups vegetable broth

2 Tablespoon onion soup mix with no MSG
1) Slice onions 1/8 inch thick.
2) Melt butter; add onions and saute very slowly for 1 hour in a large saucepan.
3) Then, add pepper, salt, paprika, Miso and flour and saute over low heat for 10 minutes.
4) Add water or broth, onion soup mix and wine. Simmer for 2 hours.

If you want a stronger flavor add more onion soup powder.

 

Onion soup

 

 

 

WINE: I am a big fan of white wines.  I recommend white wines with fish courses and salads.  I recommend serving Sauvignon Blanc, a dry white, an Israeli wine from Binyamina Reserve. This goes really well with this salad and gravlax and will combine all the delicious flavors of this recipe together.

 

Goat Cheese Salad with Raspberry Vinaigrette

 

1 log goat cheese about  10oz, grated or crumbled

2 heads romine lettuce, finely chopped

1 small red onion, sliced into half moon rings

handful of terra chip sticks

 

Quick and Easy Raspberry Dressing

1 bottle garlic expression salad dressing

12oz jar seedless raspberry jam

Blend dressing in a food processor until smooth, then add the jam and process until smooth

 

or

 

Homemade Raspberry Dressing

1 tablespoon shallots, finely minced

3 Tablespoon raspberry preserves

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1/3 cup olive oil

Salt and ground black pepper

 

Place shallot in food processor and mince finely. Then add preserves and vinegar.

Then in a steady stream while machine is running add the olive oil.   Add salt and pepper to taste. You can do this by hand with a whisk but it is a smoother consistency in a food processor.

Salad

Place salad greens on a large platter, scatter red onions and terra chips sticks over the top.

Add the cheese around them and drizzle with dressing.

Toss and serve immediately

 

Goat cheese salad

 

Gravlax

2 sides whole salmon fillet (about 2 pounds per side)

2 Tablespoon salt

2 Tablespoon sugar

1 Tablespoon white pepper

1 large bunch dill

 

Place the two salmon sides, skin side down, on a large cookie sheet both sides next to each other. Set aside.

Mix spices together and sprinkle over both salmons, making sure there is thick coating over the entire salmon.

Place dill over spices covering the salmon flesh.

Place fish halves together one on top of the other, skin side out on both so the flesh is touching each other.

Cover the entire salmon tightly in heavy duty foil and place the cookie sheet in refrigerator for 2 days.  Place heavy weights (such as cans) on the covered salmon to weight it down. After 24 hours, turn the salmon over for another 24 hours.

 

After 48 hours, rinse off the dill. You can slice and eat it immediately or freeze the well-wrapped halves for up to a month.

NOTE: Best to slice slightly frozen in order to get thinner slices that way.

Gravlax

 

WINE: Dessert wines are my husband favorite.  His favorite is another wine from the Binyamina Reserve from Israel.  The Gewurztraminer Late Harvest.  It has a golden color and a fruity aroma that goes so well with a final course of cheese cake.

Chocolate Chip Cheese Cake with Oreo Crust

Crust:

2-3 cups Oreo cookies finely ground

Filling:

16oz Cream cheese approx

2 eggs

½ cup sugar

1 teaspoon lemon juice

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

½ cup chocolate chips (optional)

 

In a food processor chop up the cookies until you get a course crumble.

Press the crumble evenly into the bottom of an 8×8 square pan forming crust.

In medium bowl beat cream cheese, eggs, sugar, lemon juice and vanilla extract until smooth.  Slowly add in chocolate chips.

Pour in to prepared crust and bake 350 for 45 mins.

After 45 minutes shut off the oven and let the cheese cake cool inside the oven for another hour.  This prevents the top from cracking.

Remove and cool.  Chill until firm.

Garnish with broken Oreo pieces (pictured)

 

 

I am always looking for a Sunday adventure for my family. This week was no exception, and seeing that it was Lag BaOmer, I wanted something to do which involved a barbecue.  A friend had recently mentioned to me something about Hakadosh BBQ, which is a traveling pop-up kosher booth that sells Texas-style BBQ meats from a smoker and which is operated by Texan-born Ari White and the team at Gemstone Catering.  Hakadosh BBQ joins local street fairs and sets up their traveling restaurant to sell kosher food to the public.  So this is where my family and I went on the beautiful Lag BaOmer Sunday this past week.  We piled into the car from The Five Towns and drove to their site this week, which was on Broadway on the Upper West Side. We sampled their pulled smoked-beef sandwiches as well as entire smoked turkey legs (I felt like I was back at the Renaissance Festival!). The food was scrumptious and the atmosphere delightful. Visit http://www.gotcholent.com/Hakadosh_BBQ.php for their upcoming locations.

 

Here is my version of a Texas BBQ Pulled Chicken sandwich made from my Shabbat leftovers.

 

Pulled Chicken Sandwich Served with Pickles and Coleslaw

 

3 cups of cooked chicken from chicken soup

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 onion diced

Salt and pepper

1 cup favorite BBQ sauce

 

Separate the cooked chicken off the bone and shred it into stringy pieces

Heat pan and add olive oil. When oil is hot add onion and sauté until soft.

Season with salt and pepper

Lower pan to a medium temperature.

Add shredded chicken and stir for a minute, then add in the BBQ sauce and cook in pan for 10 minutes uncovered until the sauce reduces a little.  Make sure the bottom doesn’t burn by continually stirring.

 

Serve on a Kaiser roll along with a side of coleslaw and pickles

pulled chicken sandwich

 

 

Marinated coleslaw

Recipe adapted from food.com

 

 

Vegetables

1 shredded cabbage, finely chopped

2 carrots, shredded

4 scallions, finely chopped

 

Dressing

3/4 cup white vinegar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 tbsp brown sugar (taste)

1 teaspoon celery seeds

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

3/4 teaspoon garlic powder

2/3 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup white sugar

black pepper (optional)

 

Directions:

In a large bowl, mix the vegetables together and set aside.

Mix first 6 dressing ingredients together in a small saucepan; bring to a boil.

Remove from heat then immediately add in the oil and white sugar; mix to combine until the sugar is completely dissolved, then pour the hot mixture over the veggies.

Allow to sit out at room temperature for 1 hour stirring occasionally with a spoon.

Cover and refrigerate for 24 hours stirring occasionally.
Season with freshly ground black pepper (if desired) before serving.

 

Marinated coleslaw

I recently came back from an incredible trip to Israel.  I  walked around the shuk, prayed in holy sites and of course ate some amazing food.  When I came home it was only few days before Israel’s Independence Day (Yom Haatzmaut) so I had to whip up my own version of Israel traditional foods.

Matbucha or Shukshuka (you choose)...

Whenever I make Matbucha, I always take off some and turn it into shukshuka.  I pour approximately one cup worth into a small frying pan and heat it gently.  I then crack 3 raw eggs into it and let it sit and cook on a medium heat to cook the eggs through.(I like runny yellows).

I then serve it with Israeli salad and hummus with some fresh pita and it makes for a wonderful breakfast. 

1 large onion cubed

4 garlic crushed

1 can 28 oz crushed tomato

1 can 14oz can diced tomato

1 bunch chopped cilantro finely diced

salt, pepper, cumin to taste

1/8 cup sugar

Sautee onion for 5 minutes until soft on medium heat.

Add in garlic and stir until it is soft for another 5 mintues.

Add in rest of ingredients and simmer and stir for 15 minutes until reduced down and flavors are concentrated.

Hummus

2 can chickpeas, drained & rinsed

Juice from 1/2 of a lemon

4 clove garlic, pressed

2 TBS good olive oil

¼ cup techina

water for thinning 

Blend all ingredients in food processor; water as needed until smooth consistency. 

Israeli Salad

4 tomatoes, diced small

3 kirbys, peeled and diced small

2 scallions, finely diced

1/4 cup fresh parsley, finely minced

splash olive oil

1 lemon, juiced, to taste (I like it lemony)

salt and pepper to taste

Mix in a bowl and serve





I am attaching some amazing photos that I took at Machane Yehuda (the Shuk) after pesach.

The Spice shop at the shuk. The aroma was incredible


Glistening strawberries that exploded with flavor

The ultimate Chalva store called King Chalva. You can see why.
Each Chalva cake was almost a foot high. Chalva is a favorite of my husband.

Nothing like freshly baked challah right after pesach

For pesach side dishes are always a challenge. People are always asking me what I serve as sides. One of the most popular side dishes is this kugel.  I am always looking for new kugels to make for pesach.    My cousin, who cannot eat wheat, loves the idea of using potato starch and also makes it all year. It is also a pretty recipe as it has two different color layers when you serve it in a clear pyrex dish.

Zucchini kishka kugel:

Kishka layer:
1 carrot
1 potato
1 stalk celery
1 small onion
1/3 Cup oil
5 Tablespoon potato starch
½ tsp. salt
1 ½ tsp. paprika

Peel all vegetables and then grate them.

Mix in the rest of the ingredients with the grated vegetables.

Pour into 8×8 inch square pan.

Bake 350 for 25 min.

Zucchini layer:

1 onion
2 medium zucchini – do not peel
2 eggs
¼ Cup potato starch
2 Tablespoon mayonnaise
½ tsp. onion powder
¼ tsp. salt

Grate all vegetables. Add in the rest of the ingredients. Pour over baked kishka layer. Bake additional 45 min at 350.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love to make dips for Shabbat, so why not have it on Pesach too? The key to having great dips is the fresh ingredients: including garlic, lemons and cilantro.  With the introduction of so many spices that are kosher for Pesach, you can also spice up your palate by adding cumin, cayenne and pepper to your Pesach dips.

 

Matbucha

 

1-tablespoon olive oil

1 large onion cubed

4 garlic crushed

1 can 28oz-crushed tomato

1 can 14oz can diced tomato

1 bunch chopped cilantro finely diced

1-tablespoon cumin

¼ cup sugar

Dash cayenne pepper

Salt & pepper to taste

 

Sautee onion in a tablespoon olive oil until onions are soft and translucent.

Add both cans of tomatoes, and cook for 10 minutes.  Then add the cilantro, cumin, sugar and cayenne pepper.  Stir gently and cook until cilantro has wilted into the recipe. 

Season with salt and pepper.

Cook for 15 minutes until reduced down and flavors are concentrated. Adjust any seasoning to your family’s palate.

 

 

Matbucha Dip

 

 

Pesach olive dip

 

3 cloves crushed garlic

2 19oz cans green pitted sliced olives

1 19oz can Israeli pickles

½ cup pickled red peppers

1-teaspoon cumin

Dash cayenne pepper

2-tablespoon olive oil

Mix all ingredients in a food processor until blended.  It shouldn’t be too smooth like a paste but it should have a little texture.

 

 

olive dip

 

 

 

 

Marinated Eggplant

 

This recipe is from my mother, Miriam Stein, from Sydney, Australia.  I asked her if I could print the recipe but she only had it in her head.  She just told me that she makes it by adding a little of this and a little of that.  You know the Yiddish expression: “shitz arein”.  I had to figure out the amounts of each of the ingredients, but after experimenting and some further adjustments and tweaks, I was able to reconstruct her recipe. 

 

1 large eggplant

Canola oil for frying

Fist full of parsley finely chopped

1 cup Ketchup

4 Tablespoon sugar

½ lemon, juiced

4 cloves garlic crushed

salt and pepper to taste

 

Sliced eggplant into ¼ inch rounds

Heat a large fry pan and fry eggplant in batches until light to medium brown.

Drain the eggplant in a colander to let the oil drip out.  (Yes it’s fattening but totally worth it).  I leave a plate underneath the colander to catch the oil.

Sauce

In a medium bowl mix all the ingredients together.

Once the eggplant has drained for an hour you can add it gently into the sauce being careful not to break up the eggplant slices.

 

 

Eggplant dip

I havent posted much in the last few weeks as I was so busy with pesach cooking.  I wanted to share this delicous recipe with you all.

My family loves Tabouli and I make it every Friday night.  Here is a new twist on that dish. I got this recipe from my cousin Shelley Serber.  She has a wheat allergy and developed this amazing recipe to resemble the real Tabouli which is made from Bulgar wheat.  If you eat quinoa over Pesach it’s a great side dish.

Quinoa Tabouli

Ingredients

2 cups cooked quinoa

5 tomatoes chopped

1 red onion chopped
1 cup fresh chopped parsley
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (to taste)
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon kosher salt

White pepper (to taste)
 Directions

Mix quinoa, tomato, red onion and parsley together.
Add lemon juice and olive oil.
Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

 

NOTE: If you like a more lemon flavor you can add more lemon juice.

 

Roast with Red Wine Reduction

 

5 pound beef shoulder roast or California roast

 

1 large onion, sliced

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1-tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp kosher salt

Crushed back pepper

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp cumin

6 cloves garlic crushed

1-cup ketchup

1-cup red wine (I prefer Domaine Netofa Red from Israel) It is a medium-bodied wine with a hint of herbal bouquet which compliments the spices used in this recipe)

 

Place the onions on the bottom of a roasting pan.

In a small bowl take mustard, garlic, oil and spices and mix them together to form a paste.

Rub the paste all over the meat.

If you have time let the meat stand at room temperature for a few hours to absorb some of the flavors.

In a separate bowl mix the wine and ketchup and pour over the meat right before placing in the oven.

Insert oven probe into the thickest past of the meat and set the probe to 135 degrees.  This will be rare.  You can always cook it longer when reheating after slicing the meat.

Set the oven temperature to 375 degrees for 45 minutes to brown the meat, then lower it to 350 and cover the meat and let it cook until the probe hits 135 internally.

Once the probe has hit 135 degrees the oven will shut off take the meat out.  When the roast has cooled slice thinly and pour sauce over roast or place in a gravy boat.

 

This past week I attended the Kosher Food and Wine 2013 Expo.  What an amazing night it was!  The event was run by Royal Wine Corporation and it was at Pier 60 in Chelsea Piers.  They had thousands of bottles of wines and liquors to sample.  Not only were there lots to drink, but also lots to eat.  There were restaurants and caterers from all over the NY/NJ tri-state area giving out samples to try.  The food was exquisite and presented so artistically. All of the top New York restaurants such as Le Marais, Prime Grill, Abigail’s, Pardes (and even Pomegranate Supermarket from Brooklyn), just to name a few, had magnificent showcases of scrumptious gourmet delights for everyone to taste.

With all the awesome food and drinks at hand, I had to decide how to incorporate some of these fun ideas into my Purim seuda.  I love to make cocktails for my Purim seuda guests. I sampled some delicious cocktails, made by Walders, a company that makes a creamy vodka drink. I was really wowed!  They gave out samples of cocktails which had their creamy vodka as a base.  That was my favorite cocktail of the evening.

The following wines were among favorites: Laurent-Perrier Champagne (the best Brut Rosé I ever tasted); Morad Winery of Israel, the most amazing Passion Fruit wine, (which I will definitely be serving at my Purim seuda).  A very big “shout-out” to Ari Bergman (who knows my husband more than 30 years) whose vineyard in Netofa in the Lower Galil of Israel makes a delicious Rosé wine, a blend of Syrah and Mourvedre.  That was the highlight wine for me that evening.

Below is recipe for a cocktail using Walders Creamy Vodka that you can serve as a starter drink for your Purim seuda, as well as a delicious roast to make for the main course of your seuda.

 

Walders™ Pineapple Cocktail

Recipe by Walders.net

 

1/3 glass Walders Vodka and Vanilla

2/3 of a glass Pineapple juice

Crushed ice

 

 

 

Fill a tall glass with crushed ice and por a third of the glass with Walders Vodka and Vanilla.

Fill the remainder with pineapple juice so the cocktail is right to the top of the glass.

Stir and garnish with a wedge of pineapple

 

 

 

 

Roast with Red Wine Reduction

 

5 pound beef shoulder roast or California roast

 

1 large onion, sliced

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

1-tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp kosher salt

Crushed back pepper

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp cumin

6 cloves garlic crushed

1-cup ketchup

1-cup red wine (I prefer Domaine Netofa Red from Israel) It is a medium-bodied wine with a hint of herbal bouquet which compliments the spices used in this recipe)

 

Place the onions on the bottom of a roasting pan.

In a small bowl take mustard, garlic, oil and spices and mix them together to form a paste.

Rub the paste all over the meat.

If you have time let the meat stand at room temperature for a few hours to absorb some of the flavors.

In a separate bowl mix the wine and ketchup and pour over the meat right before placing in the oven.

Insert oven probe into the thickest past of the meat and set the probe to 135 degrees.  This will be rare.  You can always cook it longer when reheating after slicing the meat.

Set the oven temperature to 375 degrees for 45 minutes to brown the meat, then lower it to 350 and cover the meat and let it cook until the probe hits 135 internally.

Once the probe has hit 135 degrees the oven will shut off take the meat out.  When the roast has cooled slice thinly and pour sauce over roast or place in a gravy boat.