Yom Kippur - Breaking the Fast Soup

When I grew up and well into my twenties, my paternal grandparents lived across the street from the synagogue most of my family attended. We'd have most of our holiday meals at their house, everything prepared by my baba (grandmother) and served up by my mother and aunts. 

For most holiday and Shabbat meals at Baba's, meat was on the menu.  But to break the fast of Yom Kippur, we always went with a lighter, dairy meal. When services ended at the synagogue, my family would file out the back door and stroll the half-block to the house.  Every single year, we'd be welcomed by the aromas of coffee brewing and freshly baked cinnamon rolls and blueberry or Saskatoon berry buns wafting from the kitchen in the back of the house to the entrance and living room. 

Dinner would be any combination of kugels, knishes, blintzes, fish, salads and other dairy dishes.  But the one thing I remember the most was Baba's Yom Kippur Soup. Once we were all gathered around the table, challah and the milky vegetable soup was always the first course.  Now, though we ate this soup every year, it wasn't always the same.  It was always close, but the vegetables in the soup were determined by whatever was plentiful in the garden that took up her back yard.

This recipe, Baba's Break-the-Fast Soup, was first printed in my cookbook Soup - A Kosher Collection (2004 - Whitecap).

Feel free to add or remove vegetables depending on your likes and dislikes or on whatever is fresh from your garden.

1 small yellow onion, peeled and diced

3 Tbsp. | 45 mL olive oil

1 small carrot, peeled and diced small

1 stalk celery, diced small

1/2 small parsnip, peeled and diced

6 cups | 1.5 L vegetable stock

1 medium red potato, peeled and diced

1 1/2 cups | 375 mL green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-inch | 2.5 cm pieces

1/4 lb. | 125 g button mushrooms, sliced 1/4 inch | 5 mm thick

3 Tbsp. | 45 mL all-purpose flour

3 cups | 750 mL 2% milk

2 oz. | 50 g thin soup noodles

1 Tbsp. | 15 mL  fresh dill, finely chopped

1 tsp. | 5 mL salt

1/4 tsp. | 1 mL black pepper

Over medium-low heat, sauté the onion in olive oil for 2-3 minutes, stirring as it cooks.  Add the carrot, celery and parsnip and continue cooking another 2-3 minutes. 

Add the stock and potato, cover and bring to a boil over high heat.  Add the beans and mushrooms, reduce heat to medium-low and allow to simmer gently for 15 minutes. 

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour and milk.  Make sure the mixture is well blended and there are no lumps.  Whisk the mixture into the soup and add the noodles. Bring the soup back to a simmer.

Cook until the noodles are tender and add the dill, salt and pepper.  Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. 

Shana tova u'metukah!

I'd like to wish everybody a happy, healthy, delicious and sweet new year!  Shana tova u'metukah!

Mushroom & Onion Kugel

Though traditionally we eat sweet foods for Rosh Hashana, it wouldn't make sense to make every dish sweet.  You may be preparing a sweet sauce for your chicken (we often serve Apricot Honey Chicken), tzimmes, a simple honey-glazed carrot dish or many other sweet dishes.  If that's the case, let me suggest serving a Mushroom & Onion Kugel as a side. 

Some people look down on the humble button mushroom, but I love them.  Paired with onions, salt, pepper and egg noodles they make a delicious savoury kugel.  You don't have to stick to the button -- I often use crimini or a combination of the two.  I've also been known to throw in portabello when the mood strikes.  Use any combination of mushrooms you like to make this easy recipe.  And for me, the crispier the golden brown noodles on top of the kugel the better!  

By the way, cooled completely and wraped well, this freezes beautifully.


Mushroom and Onion Kugel
Serves: 8

This simple recipe was passed down from my grandmother, to my mother and then to me (with just a couple of small tweaks).  It's still one of my favorite items on the holiday table.

  12        oz.  egg noodles -- wide
  1          large  yellow onion -- peeled and roughly chopped
  3          Tbsp.  olive oil
  1 1/2    lbs.  mushrooms -- assorted, sliced
                      1/4" thick
  1          tsp. salt -- plus more to taste
  1/4       tsp.  black pepper
  3          Tbsp. all-purpose flour
  3          large  eggs

Cook the noodles according to the package instructions. Drain well and pour the noodles back into the pot or into a large mixing bowl.

In a large skillet over medium-high, sauté the onions in olive oil for 8-10 minutes, or until they are soft and starting to brown. Add the mushrooms, salt and pepper and continue to cook until all of the mushrooms are cooked through and have released some of their juices.  This should take another 8-10 minutes. Add the mushrooms and their juices to the noodles and mix thoroughly.

Taste the noodle/mushroom mixture to check for seasoning. Add more salt or pepper if necessary.  When you're happy with the flavour, allow it to cool for a few minutes.  Then add the flour and eggs, mixing well.

Pour the mixture into a greased 9"x13" baking pan and bake at 375 for 55-60 minutes, until the top has turned a dark, golden brown and the kugel has firmed up.  Serve!

                                  

Crumble-Topped Apple Kugel

To be perfectly honest, I don't remember eating apple kugel (or other sweet kugels) for Rosh Hashana when I was growing up. (We did, however, always have a sweet kugel during passover made with matzo meal, dried fruit and an apricot glaze.)  Perhaps because our family often had chicken with a sweet, fruity glaze, we avoided sweet sides.  But for many people, sweet sides are traditional.

The custom is to eat sweet foods for the New Year to symbolize our hopes of a sweet year. Many of us will dip pieces of challah or apple slices into honey, prepare sweet main or side dishes and end the meal with honey cake.

Apples:  I prefer a crisp, tart apple like a Pink Lady, Fuji or Macintosh, but use any apple you like.


Crumble-Topped Apple Kugel
SERVES: 12

3/4     lb. broad egg noodles

1/2     cup  raisins, seedless
1/2     cup  orange juice
4        large  eggs
1/4     cup  sugar
2        Tbsp. flour
1 1/2  tsp. salt
1 1/2  tsp. cinnamon
1        tsp. allspice -- *optional
1        tsp. vanilla
1/4     cup  butter or margarine -- melted
4 to 6 medium  apples -- peeled, cored and diced (4 cups diced)

Topping
3       Tbsp. butter or margarine
1/4    cup  flour
1/4    cup  brown sugar
1/2    tsp. cinnamon
1/4    cup  quick cooking oats
1/8    tsp. salt

Prepare the noodles following package directions.  Drain well and set aside to cool.

In a small bowl, combine the raisins and the orange juice.  Microwave for 30 seconds and set aside to cool. This helps the raisins absorb some of the juice and plumps them up.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, flour, salt, cinammon, allspice, vanilla and melted butter or margarine.   Add the cooled noodles, raisins, orange juice and apples.  Mix everything together and pour into a well greased 9"x13" baking dish.

In another small mixing bowl, combine all of the topping ingredients.  Use your fingers to incorporate the fat into the dry ingredients, forming a crumbly mixture.  Sprinkle the crumbs evenly over the noodles and bake at 375 for 50-60 minutes, until golden brown and firm to the touch.

                                

Starting to think about Rosh Hashana (and meat kreplach)

It's been a hectic summer and though it feels like summer just started, we're less than a month away from Rosh Hashana.  It's hard to believe and I'm sorry if I'm making you think about something you're not ready for.  The good news is that there's still plenty of time to prepare goodies for the holidays.  

One of the things I love for Rosh Hashana (or erev Yom Kippur) is a steaming bowl of chicken soup with home made meat kreplach.  The silky dough surrounding the oniony meat filling is my favourite soup accompaniment. 

When I was growing up, my grandmother always made kreplach for the holidays and when my parents started our catering company, meat kreplach were always offered for Rosh Hashana. It's true that some time and work is involved in making them, but they really are quite easy to make and wonderful to have in the freezer.

A few years ago I put together a step-by-step kreplach demo (with pictures) for eGullet.org.  You can find the demo here. I  hope you try making them and enjoy them during the holidays (or anytime!).

Media Round-Up

I'm very thankful to the newspaper, blog and website writers for their interest in my little book.  You can read some of the reviews of Passover a Kosher Collection by following these links:

In the Pink
Kosher Eye
Jewlicious
The Canadian Jewish News
The Kosher Scene
The Winnipeg Jewish Review
Kosher Today  (look for the March 22 piece on the increase in sales of Passover Cookbooks)
The Orange County Register
Jewish Women International
Jerusalem Post
Washington Post
The Jewish Georgian (page 24)
Customer reviews on Amazon.com

I know there are some more reviews out there, like in Ottawa's Jewish paper, but they aren't online.  If you know of any more links or non-digital reviews, please let me know!  Thanks!

After Passover

Passover has been over for about a week now and I've almost recovered.  The last couple of weeks before Passover were a whirlwind of shipping books out, helping customers find everything they needed for Passover, figuring out how to find products that I was shorted or that arrived and turned out to be from last year and finally, preparing food for over 150 families.  We were working flat-out with little time to post updates here.

Now that I'm rested and can post again I wanted to take a moment to thank everybody who bought Passover - A Kosher Collection.  It's been wonderful to hear which recipes people are trying and I've had such a good response to it.  It's also been getting great reviews (I'll post a link round-up soon) - I couldn't have asked for a better response. Thanks to everybody who told their friends about it and posted it on Facebook, Twitter, Amazon and personal blogs.

Book Launch

Passover - A Kosher Collection will be officially launched at McNally Robinson Booksellers at Grant Park in Winnipeg on February 21st at 2 PM.  If you're in the area please stop by for a few (very few!) words from me, book signing and some treats from the book.

Books Now Available At www.pamelareiss.com

It's been an interesting week and a half.  Last week I sent over 40 review books out to media -- we'll see if anything comes from that.  The books have been selling out of the store and I've received interest from other stores/distributors in the US and Canada.  It's very exciting to see them going out.  Today the first wholesale order was shipped out and I'm expecting some more wholesale orders from other cities to come in.

In other news, it looks like I'll be having an official book launch in a few weeks at a great independent book store in Winnipeg. It's the same store where I launched my first book five years ago and it'll be nice to have the second one there.  I'll post more information when dates and times are confirmed.

Finally, we've now got an updated website up at www.pamelareiss.com.  If you click on the "books" link at the top-right, we're set up to accept book orders.  Shipping in Canada and the USA is free and to other countries it's $10 for one or two books, $15 for three or four books.   If you need a quote for wholesale pricing, please get in touch.

Thanks to all of those who have already picked up a copy (or multiple copies) and for all of the great feedback!

The books are here!

I spent last night tossing and turning. The books were due to arrive today and I was anxious. I was scared to see the books.  It was a completely irrational fear because I knew about all the work that went into them.  Months of recipe testing and writing was followed by edit after edit. When that was done, it was time for proofing, a little more editing and then more proofing.

First thing this morning, we cleared out a hallway at work. Chairs and tables leftover from our restaurant days usually reside here, but they had to make way for the books! And then they arrived.  And I'm so happy with them.


Again, my irrational fear was that they wouldn't look like real books. I can't really explain this, because it makes no sense, but this is my first attempt at self-publishing and I was scared they wouldn't look as good as Soup.  They look great! I'm thrilled with how they turned out.

So that's 254 boxes of books, to the left.  It's a whole lotta books. Good news is they all fit in the hall. I was concerned we'd have to fill the storage rooms and that we'd have rows of boxes stacked in the store aisles.  At the moment it's not a problem, but we have to start moving some out soon.  As we approach Passover, we turn the entire store over and sell only Passover foods -- and we need every inch of space we can get.

We sold 3 books out of the store this afternoon and I have orders that need to be shipped out tomorrow.
I also have to start packaging up the press kits and sending them out.  We're on our way -- just another 5990-odd books to go!

If you're in Winnipeg, books are available at the store (Desserts Plus) for now, with more stores to follow.  They're also available at amazon.com. We hope to have www.pamelareiss.com set up for book orders by the end of the week.