Slow Roasted Brisket

This week I tried a new brisket recipe, in the hope that it would result in a dish that I had tried to prepare before but not with total success: a roast brisket that was firm, not too wet, flavoursome and delicious.

It has been a long time, unfortunately, since I last posted on my blog - and thought to use some "down time" during the end of the summer to do so. 

With four small children at home (aged 2 & 10 months till 8 years old), and my good wife Rebecca, to feed, I am always on the lookout for recipes that will please the kids while also being palatable to the adults. I do most of my home cooking on Thursdays and Fridays, in anticipation of Shabbat*, and it's always a rush for me to finish in time, while leaving Rebecca time to clean-up after me!

A few months' ago I was trying to think of dessert that would appeal to all as both a dessert, served with ice cream and/or fruit salad, for example, and a cake that could be served with a nice cup of lemon tea. Our children love jelly (which is Jello to those who live in the American colonies the other side of the Atlantic), and Rebecca is particularly fond of cake.  I am quite partial to fruit - fresh, dried, canned, juiced, etc. - so thought that it would be amazing to find a recipe that combined all these three ingredients for success. 

One of the features that I love about the internet is the ability to search for just about anything, with results being found in many disparate websites from different parts of the globe. And so, I starting searching for a dessert that includes cake, fruit and jelly, and lo and behold, I received a  good number of recipes; unfortunately none "hit the spot" and I decided to continue searching, this time in Hebrew. I know that a cake with a layer of jelly was a popular dessert here in Israel in years gone by, although it might now be considered passé by some, so thought this might show fruit, as it were. 

Any indeed it did! I found a number of recipes that answered my criteria, and following please find the one that I use, which I translated from the Hebrew. 

I sincerely hope that you enjoy making - and consuming - the scrumptious home-made comfort cake and look forward to your feed-back!

Wishing you and yours a most enjoyable summer (for those of us here in the Northern Hemisphere),

DSB
David S. Berman

bermandie@gmail.com

* Shabbat is the seventh day of the week, observed as a day of rest by Jewish people throughout the world - and a day on which work [as prescribed in by Jewish law] is not allowed. This includes cooking and baking, although preparing salads, setting the table, etc. is allowed.

 

Sponge Cake with Fruit Topping

Ingredients

1 can of tinned fruit (apricots and peaches work well but other fruit possible too)

250g butter or 250 ml canola oil

1 cup of sugar (200g)

4 eggs

2 cups flour (280g)

1 bag baking powder (2 teaspoons)

Zest from 1 lemon (optional)

1 bag of vanilla sugar or 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

For fruit topping

1 package jelly (apricot works well with all fruit but possible to use other flavours too)

400ml boiling water

Method

Heat the oven to 180°C.

Mix all the cake ingredients, except for the tinned fruit, in the bowl of mixer.

Butter a square or oblong baking dish and place the batter in the dish, flattening the surface.  Arrange the canned fruit on top.

Bake for approximately 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out dry.

For a super-moist dessert cake, prepare the jelly according to the package instructions and pour over the cake while it is still hot.

If you would like a layer of jelly on top of the cake, and thus a less moist cake, prepare the jelly when the cake is already cool and pour on top of the cold cake.

In hot weather, it is advised to keep the cake in the fridge.

Lemon Coconut Cake
based on recipe on www.bestrecipes.com.au

Ingredients
1½ cups flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
½ cup desiccated coconut
1 tablespoon grated lemon rind
1 cup sugar
125g butter, melted
2 eggs
1 cup milk/soy milk/coconut milk or mixture there-of
Icing
½ cup desiccated coconut
1 cup icing sugar
1 tablespoon grated lemon rind
1-2 tablespoons lemon juice

Method
Preheat the oven to 1800C. Oil a baking pan.
Combine all the ingredients in a bowl, mixing well with a spoon until the batter is smooth.
Pour the mixture into the baking pan and bake for approximately 40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the thickest part of the cake, comes out clean.
Cool completely before icing.
Icing
Mix together in a bowl the desiccated coconut, icing sugar and lemon rind. Add enough lemon juice to attain a thick but spreadable icing. Spread over the cooled cake.

Summer Peach Pie - Peaches provided by in-laws!

My in-laws, Rabbi Yisrael and Chana Berman, live on a kibbutz.

No, they're not Kibbutznikim, so delelte the image of them walking around in scuffed work clothes and a kova tembel! They live in Nof Tzurim, which is the residential neighbourhood of Kibbutz Rosh Tzurim, in Gush Etzion. They moved there in April of 2002, just a short time before I proposed marriage to my good wife Rebecca, their eldest child (it's all in the timing, some would say!). They were given many house-warming gifts, and some had the sense to pander to my mother-in-law's interest and active pursuit of gardening. One such a gift was a peach tree.

The tree stands tall and proud at the entrance to their lovely warm and inviting home, and annually produces a prodigious amount of fruit. This year, we were blessed with two deliveries of peaches. The first batch was top quality, and was eaten with joy by us all, including our three small girls. The second batch, I must confess, was somewhat inferior in quality, with some of the peaches being suitable for eating as they are, while others just weren't.

This led to my decision to cook with them. It just so happens that I recently received a stack of cooking magazines from students at Pardes, where I work. I asked those returning to their homes overseas to kindly donate these magazines to me, rather than throwing them out. Serendipity dictated that one of them was the July 2007 edition of Bon Appetit, which just happened to contain an artictle on making summer pies. As if this wasn't enough, it contained a recipe for peach pie, that seemed interesting - and turned out to be delicious!

I had sufficient peaches to make two very nice pies; one was presented to my in-laws in gratitude, the other was consumed by my family and guests over Shabbat. Following please find my adaptation of the said recipe. Bon Appetit!

Pie Crust
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups (350g) unbleached all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
200g butter or margarine, cubed
5 tablespoons (or more) ice water
Method
Place the flour in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a blade. Add the sugar and salt, and the cold butter or margarine. Pulse a few times till it resembles coarse bread crumbs. Add some of the water, pulse, and continue thus until the dough comes together and forms a ball. Use additional water if need be, but do not over-work.
Transfer the dough to a floured board, knead a couple of times and form into a large flat disc. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge, for half-an-hour at least.
Pie Filling
Ingredients
2/3 cup Demara sugar
3 tablespoons flour
1.8 kgs firm but ripe unpeeled peaches, halved, pitted, each half cut into 4 slices
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 tablespoons butter or margarine, cut into cubes
1 egg, beaten, for glaze
2 teaspoons Demara sugar (for topping)
Method
Pre-heat oven to 180 C, place rack in bottom third of oven.
Combine sugar and flour. Mix peaches and vanilla essence, add to it the sugar and flour mixture, toss to mix through.
Roll out half the pastry, and line a greased pie dish with it, being sure to leave a dough overhang of a centimetre. Place the peach filling in the pie dish, and roll out the the second half of the dough. Place it on top of the pie filling, and crimp the edges to seal the two layers of pastry. Cut two slits in the pastry, to allow the steam to escape, and brush with the beaten egg. Sprinkle on the 2 teaspoons of sugar.
Bake for approximately one-and-a-quarter hours, till the filling is bubbling and the crust is a golden brown.
Remove for the oven to a rack and allow to cool.
Delicious served with whipped cream, or vanilla ice cream

Thanks, Yisrael and Chana!

Shavuah Tov,

DSB

Florentines make a fine Italian-inspired dessert!

Tomorrow, Tuesday 2 June 2009, is the opening day of the first summer program at the Pardes Institute, where I run the kitchen. I've been working at Pardes for over five years now, and with time one creates one's own customs that get repeated year after year. I have adopted two customs that apply to the opening and closing meals of any program at Pardes - be it a three week summer program, or the year-long program: I serve Lasanga as the main course for the opening meal, and Canneloni (or Manicotti as some of you call it) for the closing meal. Tomorrow being the first day of the Summer Program, I am indeed serving lasagna. This time it will be spinach lasagna - in the past I have made four-cheese lasagna, mushroom lasagna, sweet potato lasagna, perhaps other permutations too.

When drawing up the menu, I decided to serve an Italian dessert alongside the fresh fruit - after all, it is the first meal of the program, and I want to make an impression. I searched the internet a little, and decided to make Florentines. Who knows if these delicious biscuits (cookies for the American readers) really find their origin in Florence, but they are quite scrumptious and their name makes them eminently suitable for inclusing in an Italian-inspired menu. I remember well eating such biscuits as a child, not sure just who made them (will have to ask my mother) but they were placed on rice paper when they came out of the oven, and part of the fun was eating the rice paper. I don't think (Kosher) rice paper in available in Israel.

Subsequently, I have had good ones from the Marzipan bakery in the Machaneh Yehuda Shuk here in Jerusalem, and had great ones at the Parkway bakery in London. I had not tried my hand at them, until this afternoon, that is. I adapted one of the recipes that I read, and the results are very pleasing indeed. Those biscuits that I flattened before baking came out this and crisy, while those left as heaps did spread somewhat but remained quite substantial biscuits. The recipe follows, and am sure you will find great enjoyment making - and eating - these scrumptuous morsels.

Florentines
Ingredients
1 cup chopped almonds (you can chop whole almonds in a food processor, use sliced almonds)
½ cup mixed candied fruits & peels, finely chopped
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup milk
¼ cup sugar
2 tablespoons honey
¼ cup to ½ cup flour
¾ cup chocolate chips
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
Method
Preheat oven to 170 C. In a bowl combine almonds, fruits and peels; set aside. In a medium saucepan combine butter, milk, sugar and honey. Bring to a full rolling boil, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Stir in almond mixture; stir in ¼ cup flour (adding more if mixture is too liquid). Drop by level tablespoonfuls, at least 7 cms apart, onto a greased and floured baking sheet. Using back of spoon, spread dough to 7 cm circles. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Remove from oven and let stand 1 minute on baking sheet. Carefully remove with spatula to waxed paper. Cool completely. In a small saucepan melt chocolate pieces and shortening over low heat. When cookies are cooled, evenly spread bottom of each cookie with about 1 teaspoon of the chocolate mixture. When chocolate is almost set, draw wavy lines through it with tines of a fork. Store cookies, covered, in refrigerator. For the uninitiated, a Florentine is a biscuit / cookie made by cooking butter, sugar, cream, honey, candied fruit (and sometimes nuts) in a saucepan before being baked on a cookie sheet. They are chewy and often coated with chocolate on one side.

Sweet Potato Canneloni (Manicotti)

Today was the last day of the 2008/9 School Year at Machon Pardes, where I run the kitchen. Following a minhag (custom) that I established over the past few years while working at Pardes, the closing meal today had as its main course Sweet Potato Canneloni (or Mannicoti, as the Americans call it!). It proved to be a tremendous success! I am not very good at inventing recipes, although do manage to follows other people recipes pretty well. This recipe, however, is one that I did "invent", the idea for the dish coming from something that I heard was served at a Simcha (joyous event). I think it's worth the effort, and it is a great dish to make for Shavuot, when many of us have the custom to eat dishes that contain dairy products.

Hope that you will enjoy making the dish - and am sure you and your guests will enjoy polishing it off!

I take this opportunity to wish the wonderful Students of Pardes every success for the coming year - be it at Pardes, for those continuing in 2009/10, or elsewhere... where-ever that may be!

Best wishes from Jerusalem,

DSB (David S. Berman)

Sweet Potato Canneloni (Manicotti)
Filling:
2 medium sweet potatoes
1 medium white potato
1 small onion
1 container cottage or ricotta cheese
salt and pepper
optional – garlic, nutmeg
White sauce:
50 grams butter or margarine
50 grams flour
2 cups milk
salt and white pepper
Boil pot of water. Add white potato. In 5 minutes, add sweet potatoes and onion. Boil til white potato is soft. Remove and drain, mash. Add cheese and seasonings. Set aside.
Melt butter and add flour, stir til flour is absorbed. Slowly add milk over low flame til sauce is thickened. Add salt and pepper.
Stuff manicotti noodles with potato mixture (either with spoon or make a piping bag – cut small hole at end of plastic bag). Place in a greased pan. Pour sauce over all. Sprinkle shredded cheese over top. Bake at 180 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour.

Shanah Tova - Happy New Year! (including great Honey Cake recipe)

Dear Family and Friends,

Please accept my very best wishes for a Shanah Tova - a very Happy New Year! May it be filled with good health, happiness and joy, and peace for us all!

We were at home for Rosh Hashanah and Shabbat - the only sensible decision, we thought, for a family with three small children! I attended my usual shul, while Rebecca and the girls went to the hear the shofar at a nearby shul.

There was happily lots of good food to be enjoyed over the three days, including Chopped Herrring and Danish Herring, Lamb Chops, Tsimmes with Brisket with Dumplings, and for dessert, Honey Cake (recipe follows), stewed quinces, and the Jewel in the Crown, Teigelach - doughnut shaped biscuits (cookies) that are boiled in syrup till they are sticky and shiny. It seems that they only Lithuanian Jews who still make Teigelach are those who live or grew-up in South Africa - and I am delighted to be continuing that tradition. It is certainly a great way to ensure you have a sweet and good year!

I am including a great Honey Cake recipe that I made for the Yomtov. It is light and melt-in-your-mouth, as opposed to so many others that are heavy. I hope that you will make it for your family and friends, and that you will enjoy it!

Honey Cake

Ingredients
6 eggs, separated
1 cup sugar
1 cup dark tea
1 cup oil
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch ground cloves
2 cups self-raising flour
1 tsp baking soda
3 heaped tablespoons honey
for syrup:
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of water
4 tbs honey

Method
Beat egg whites with sugar, until forms stiff cream. In separate bowl, mix yolks with the tea, oil, cinnamon, cloves, flour, baking soda and honey.
Fold yolk mixture gently into egg whites and pour into a 28 cm baking tin or a Bundt cake pan. Bake in a pre-heated oven (180oC) for approximately 35 minutes. Switch off oven and leave in for additional 5 minutes. Open the oven door and leave cake in oven for another 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, boil the sugar and water to form a simple syrup. Add honey.
When the cake has cooled down a bit, spoon over the syrup one spoon at a time.

Wishing you and yours a G'mar Chatimah Tova!