Author: chanie

Salami Babka

I…I…I…don’t even know what to say…. but BREAKING THE INTERNET comes to mind!! Move over Kim Kardashian because I’ve got Salami Babka in the house!!

I don’t know how I’ve held it in for this long – this gorgeous savory babka has been eating away at me (or have I been eating away at it?) ever since I conceived of it months ago… I wanted to shout it from the rooftops the second this baby came out of the oven, but it was not to be, because, as you know, I save all my SALAMI revelations for Purim! Yes, Purim. The holiday of booze, dress-up, and here at Busy In Brooklyn, SALAMI.

My salami hacks have been making their mark each year for the holiday, and I think I might have finally outdone my drunken hasselback salami, because, lets face it – ain’t nothin better than bread – and when you fill that bread with the sweet and savory fillings of apricot jam, mustard, brown sugar and salami – well…. you basically BREAK. THE. INTERNET.

Babka has been all the rage this year, from the famous Bread’s bakery babka (who’s recipe was recently made public in the Baking Breads cookbook) to the spreads in The New York Times, Bon Appetit Magazine, and all that other stuff. I have to admit that I have never made true, authentic babka (with buttery brioche dough), although I often fill my leftover challah with gooey chocolate spread, twist it up and call it a day.

I’ve had savory babka on my mind for a while now, and I was kind of surprised that I haven’t seen too many savory variations on the net. Especially since turning traditional sweets into savory adaptations is kind of a thing right now. My biggest obstacle with a salami babka was the brioche dough. The good stuff is loaded with butter and I just couldn’t stand the thought of using all that margarine (the rules of kosher forbid me from eating milk with meat, so no butter and salami together). And yes I realize that’s ironic since this thing is loaded with salami (insert facepalm emoji here!)

I considered going with a challah dough, but I finally decided I would make this super easy for everyone and just use pizza dough. Of course you can use any dough you choose, and even go crazy with the deli you stuff it with. Don’t worry about all of the mess – the little bits of salami that poke out of the bread and get all crispy and caramelized are my favorite part of this recipe!

Now if you’ve missed my whole salami situation – the reason for my yearly Purim salami postings are due to a little nugget of information that I read a couple of years back. I don’t know if it was true, or it was all a Purim joke – but it made mention of the fact that some people have a tradition to eat salami on Purim since it is hung, like Haman. I thought it was the coolest food custom I had ever read, so I adopted it. The part that you don’t know though, is that that was a huge deal for me! Why? read on.

So growing up, my mom would make salami sandwiches every Friday afternoon for lunch for my siblings and I. She’d send us outside to the courtyard of our building to eat them, so we wouldn’t make a mess inside the house before Shabbat. Little did she know, we all hated those little hard white pieces inside the salami (I’m pretty sure they were solid fat!), so one by one, we all chucked our salami sandwiches down the incinerator chute – every. single. week. My poor mom thought we were eating lunch and little did she know!

From thereon out, I never looked at salami again. For years. Until I got married and the only thing my husband knew how to cook from his Yeshiva days was salami and eggs. I always swore I’d never try it, until one day, he convinced me, and the rest is history! I learned that cooking out the salami fat leaves you with a super crispy, tasty bits of heaven that are so perfect for trashing up in fun ways!

Just. Like. This. Lets get hangin’!

Salami Babka

1 lb. pizza*, challah or brioche dough
1/3 cup apricot jam
2 tbsp deli mustard
2 tbsp brown sugar
7 oz. Abeles & Heymann salami, thinly sliced
2 tbsp everything bagel spice

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Flour your work surface and roll the dough out to about 11″ x 16″. Melt your apricot jam in the microwave or in a small saucepan and brush over the dough. Squeeze some mustard over the jam and sprinkle with brown sugar. Spread the salami slices out in one layer and starting from the long end, roll up jelly-roll-style. Slice the roll in half down the center, and gently twist the two strips around each other. Don’t worry if some of the salami falls out, or if pieces stick out of the dough, just try to keep the layers from falling apart. Place the salami babka into a greased loaf pan and sprinkle with everything bagel spice. If any of the salami fell out, just tuck it into the sides of the pan.

Bake the babka until golden, about  35-45 minutes. Remove from the loaf pan and slice. Serve warm, with mustard for dipping.

NOTE: I know this recipe seems messy but the idea is to have some of the salami piece sticking out of the dough so that they get crispy and caramelized, while other pieces stay moist on the inside. The thinner you slice the salami, the more your babka will hold together, so try to slice as thinly as you can.

VARIATION: Try this recipe with kosher bacon, or other deli meats like turkey and/or pastrami.

*of course I used store-bought pizza dough because I’m about the 1-2-3!


This post is sponsored by Abeles & Heymann. Follow them on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter! 

Related Recipes:

drunken hasselback salami
salami quiche
beer battered salami chips with beer mustard
salami chips with dipping sauce

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Jerusalem Hummus In Jars

I’ve got to hand this one to a favorite person and a favorite cookbook: Naomi Nachman, and “Zahav“, respectively. Naomi is a foodie friend who’s not quite at my stage in life. She just married off her first child and her youngest is about the age of my oldest. Naomi might be older but she’s got more energy than my five kids put together! She’s always the life of the party and her foodie calendar puts me to shame. She just wrapped her first cookbook, Perfect for Pesach, which I was lucky enough to get some sneak peeks behind the scenes (and test some of the amazing recipes!). She runs a Pesach catering business, a “Chopped” themed party service, writes for various publications and even has her own radio show, Table for Two on the Nachum Segal Network. I love Naomi’s positive energy and I’m proud to call her a friend.

Recently, Naomi managed to squeeze in a trip to Israel amid her crazy hectic schedule, and she brought me back some Hawaj from the shuk. I’d never tried hawaj before, but I knew that there were two types of the Yemenite spice blend – one for soup and one for coffee. The spice was so potent (everything from the shuk always is!) that my whole kitchen smelled of it, even through the Ziploc bag! I wanted to make the most of the spice so I thought about how I could use it to really let it shine. And it hit me – hummus basar!

I had never made meat hummus before, or any REAL hummus from scratch and I was excited to try! I went to the holy grail of Israeli cookbooks, “Zahav” to find the perfect recipe and of course Michael Solomonov’s did not disappoint. What I love so much about Zahav is that every recipe is approachable, and unlike some of the other cookbooks on Middle Eastern cuisine, Zahav is the least bit pretentious. The hummus I made from the book was by the far the best one I had ever tasted and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to go back to store-bought. It is just a whole ‘nother ballgame.

What I learned from Solomonov is that hummus is so much more about the quality of the tahini than it is about the chickpeas. I always thought of hummus as a chickpea spread, but no. It’s a silky-smooth-sesame chickpea spread that will knock your socks off. You start by preparing silky smooth tahini that involves a brilliant garlic hack that I won’t share (buy the cookbook to find out what it is!). Then you take that tahini perfection and add loads of it to butter-soft chickpeas. Oh. My. God. is it good.

Zahav’s hummus recipe is a two step process, but I’ve simplified it here into one. I would definitely encourage you to try the original recipe at least once, but this makes a pretty good substitute. And please do me a favor and don’t put the amazingly pungent and flavorful hawaj-spiced beef over store-bought hummus because that’s like serving homemade shortcakes with canned whipped cream. Just no. And if  you’re feeling up to the task, try Zahav’s pita recipe and bake ’em up in mini to go along with these Jerusalem hummus jars. There’s really nothing quite like homemade pita to go along with homemade hummus.  I’ve made the recipe a few times already and it is super simple and incredibly delicious!

If this post hasn’t already compelled you to buy the cookbook, here’s an excerpt of a review I wrote after I got it:

“Michael brings the beauty of Israeli culture and cuisine to the forefront without the bells and whistles. He lets the food stand on it’s own, humble and beautiful, with clear, easy to fllow recipes that dont require millions of ingredients. And he’s not cheffy about it either….This guy isn’t cooking Israeli food because it’s trendy, he’s just doing what he loves and it comes through on every page. Even though he himself is not kosher….he acknowledges that the rules of kosher define the boundaries of Israeli cuisine and keeps all the recipe in the book (and in his restaurant) free of shellfish, pork and mixing milk and meat. In a culture that thinks that you have to be “treif” to be cool (especially so if you are Jewish), this man has my total respect). ”

Of course this Hummus Basar was made in jars in the spirit of Purim, but feel free to make this recipe and serve Israeli style, in a big bowl with lots of fresh pita for dipping! You can also make the hawaj beef and serve it over rice, it makes for a delicious side dish!

Jerusalem Hummus in Jars

Hummus

1 cup dried chickpeas
2 tsp baking soda, divided
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup + 1 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp cumin
1 cup good quality tahini paste (stir thoroughly before using, as oil and solids tend to separate)
3/4 cup ice water

Add the chickpeas and 1 tsp baking soda to a large bowl and cover with a few inches of water. Soak overnight.

Drain the chickpeas and rinse. Add chickpeas and remaining teaspoon of baking soda to a pot and cover with a few inches of water. Bring to a boil and skim any scum that rises to the surface of the water. Reduce to a simmer and cook, covered, for one hour, until soft and tender. Drain well.

Add the garlic, lemon juice, salt, cumin and tahini to the bowl of a food processor with the S blade attached. Puree the mixture, and while the machine is running, pour the ice water through the feeding tube. Blend until the mixture is very smooth.

Add the drained chickpeas and continue to blend until creamy. Adjust seasoning,, adding more salt, cumin or lemon, if desired.

Hawaj Spiced Beef

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, diced small
2 cloves garlic, minced
8 oz. button mushrooms, sliced
1 1/2 lb. ground beef
1 tsp hawaj for soup
kosher salt, to taste
1/4 cup pine nuts
handful of fresh parsley, chopped
pita chips or homemade pita, for serving

Heat olive oil in a skillet and add the onions. Saute until translucent. Add the garlic and mushrooms and continue to saute until all the moisture from the mushrooms evaporates and they begin to brown. Add the hawaj and stir until incorporated and the mixture is fragrant. Add the beef and salt and cook until crumbly and no longer pink.

Toast the pine nuts in a dry pan over medium heat, or in the oven at 375 degrees, until browned.

To assemble the jars, fill a piping bag with hummus and fill about 1/3 of the jar. Top with beef, pine nuts and parsley. Alternatively, you may spread the hummus out in a large bowl and top with spiced beef, pine nuts and parsley.

NOTE: Hawaj is a yemenite spice blend. There are two types of hawaj – for soup and for coffee. Make sure to use only hawaj for soup. You can make your own with this recipe.

VARIATION: If you don’t have hawaj for soup, you may use shawarma spice, Jerusalem spice, or baharat.

YIELD: 8-10 8oz. jars. (I used these jars)

Related Recipes:

chestnut hummus with herbed pita chips
roasted garlic hummus with everything pita chips
chicken shawarma
farro grain bowl with Jerusalem pargiot
sweet tahini dip

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Ma’amoul Hamantaschen

If I had one word to describe these hamantaschen, it would be #proud. Yes they’re melt-in-your-mouth delicious, super buttery and also crispy, but the word I would use to describe them has nothing to do with how they taste. It has to do with how they make me feel.

I’ve always felt that food does so much more than nourish us. It connects us to our past, our present and our future. Traditional food, especially, has the power to bridge generations. Preparing the same dishes that my mother made, and my grandmother before her, allows me to pass on the flavors and smells of my childhood to my children in a way that nothing else can.

That’s why these hamantaschen mean so much to me. Not only do they reflect the traditions of my Ashkenazic heritage, they also represent the flavors and culture of my husband’s Sephardic hertitage.

While my husband is Ashkenazi like me, his mother was born and raised in Argentina, but her roots trace back to Syria. She grew up eating ma’amoul, rosewater-scented cookies filled with either date or walnut filling. When I got married, ma’amoul always made an appearance at parties and simchot and their interesting shape always intrigued me.

Traditional ma’amoul is molded into different shapes using a special cookie press. The cookie is shaped differently, depending on the filling. My mother in law always used tweezers to decorate her ma’amoul, which I found really interesting. When I came up with the idea to fuse the classic hamantasch with Syrian flavors, I went to my husband’s aunt, Esther, for a cookie baking class.

Esther is a cook after my own heart. She likes to do things simply, without fancy tools or supplies (which explains the tweezer method!). She mixed up the ma’amoul in no time, while I attempted to measure her pinches of spice and sprinkles of flour. She expertly shaped the dough faster than I could follow and before long, they were out of the oven and covered in a snowfall of powdered sugar.

Of course I went back home and it wasn’t all that simple. For starters, traditional ma’amoul dough does not have egg, so it wouldn’t hold as a hamantasch. I was determined to make it work, and 6 batches later, I struck gold (or should I say rosewater?!). These ma’amoul hamantaschen are the perfect blend of buttery and crispy, thanks to the butter and semolina, respectfully. I’m super proud of this Sephardic-Ashkenazi fusion and I hope I’ve started a new trend in my family tree.

Now that we’ve got the Purim party started, stay tuned for lots of other exciting holiday recipes, coming soon!

Ma’amoul Hamantaschen

1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup semolina
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 egg yolks
1/2 c sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
3 tsp rosewater
7 tbsp butter or margarine, softened
powdered sugar, for dusting

Date Filling:

10 plump medjool dates, pit removed
1/4 cup hot water
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Walnut Filling:

1 cup chopped walnuts
3 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp orange blossom water

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

To prepare the date filling, place the dates in a food processor with the S blade attached. Add the hot water and let it soak for a few minutes. Add the cinnamon and puree until a smooth paste forms. Add more water, if needed.

To prepare the walnut filling, mix the chopped walnuts with sugar and orange blossom water and set aside.

In a bowl, whisk the flour, semolina, baking powder and salt. In a second bowl, whisk the egg yolks, sugar, oil and rosewater. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix to combine. Add in the butter or margarine and gently knead until you have a soft dough. Don’t overwork the dough.

Divide the dough in half so you can work with one portion at a time, and flour your surface. Cover the dough with a piece of parchment paper and roll it out until it’s a little more than 1/8″ thick. Using a 2.5″ round cutter (or larger, if you prefer larger hamantaschen), cut the dough into circles and fill with about 1/2 tsp of your filling of choice (or make half a batch of each!). Fold the dough over to form a triangle and place on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Bake for approximately 12 minutes, until the hamantaschen are crisped and just starting to lightly brown underneath. Allow the hamantaschen to cool completely before removing from the parchment and dust with powdered sugar.

NOTE: If you prepare the dough in advance, you may need to add a teaspoon of water to soften it up before rolling.

VARIATION: If you’d like to omit the rosewater, use 1 1/2 tsp of vanilla + 1 1/2 tsp water instead.

Related Recipes:

baklava hamantaschen
date and almond hamantaschen
healthy thumbprint hamantaschen

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Avocado Toast with Cheesy Scrambled Eggs

I used to hate scrambled eggs. And I mean hate. When my husband would cook them in the morning, I literally had to leave the house because the smell was too much for me. Runny eggs were my thing, especially in shakshuka, or sunny-side-up with a side of hash browns. Until, that is,  I learned to cook them.

Rubbery scrambled eggs are enough to turn you off for a very long time. But when you learn to keep those curds moist and creamy – not only will you want to eat them – you’ll also find that they don’t actually smell. Smelly eggs are a byproduct of eggs that are overdone. I learned that when I took over the egg cookery (and am reminded of it whenever I sleep in and my husband takes over!)

There’s something else that got me onto scrambled eggs, and that’s cheese! A small handful of mozzarella keeps the eggs super moist and adds a delicious gooey cheesiness that is pure breakfast glory. This has truly become my favorite breakfast.

My husband and I are also converted sourdough snobs, so spreading those creamy curds over some hearty toast with a dose of buttery avocado just can’t get any better. Of course I don’t eat these every day, because lets face it, I don’t eat breakfast every day. But I’d eat this if I did! I know this breakfast looks kinda fancy and intimidating here, but that’s just thanks to my good styling ;) , these toasts only take a couple of minutes to put together.

If you’re feeling up to taking your egg game to the next level, here’s the best advice I can give you: make you sure you use a nonstick skillet and a silicone spatula. If you want to get those deliciously moist and creamy curds, you’ve got to be able to sweep the eggs across the pan, and for that, you need the slippery nonstick surface.

I hope you give these a try! Let me know how it goes!

Avocado Toast with Cheesy Scrambled Eggs

2 slices sourdough bread
1 avocado
fresh squeezed lemon juice
2 eggs
handful of shredded mozzarella cheese
splash of whole milk or cream
kosher salt and pepper, to taste
pat of butter or cooking spray
fresh arugula, sauteed spinach or kale, or greens of choice
sriracha, for garnish
black sesame seeds, for garnish

Method:

Toast bread, if desired.

Mash the avocado with a fork and season, to taste, with lemon and salt. Spread the mashed avocado over the toast.

In a small bowl, beat the eggs with a splash of milk, salt and pepper. Add shredded cheese.

Heat a skillet over low-medium heat and add the butter or cooking spray. Pour in the eggs, and after giving it a few seconds to set, begin moving it around with a rubber spatula. Keep moving the eggs over the heat until they start to form curds, 1-2 minutes. Remove the eggs from the heat when they are still wet, as the heat of the pan will finish cooking them.

Divide the eggs between the toasts and top with sriracha and sesame seeds. Serve with greens of choice.

Related Recipes:

scrambled hard boiled eggs
Purim deviled eggs
poached egg and avocado toast

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Marzipan Date Truffles

I must. must. must. discuss these beautiful photos!!! After much deliberation, I finally bit the bullet and upgraded to a new full frame sensor camera, the Canon 6D. Do I even need to tell you how amazing the full frame sensor is, or should I just let the photos do the talking (all unedited, straight out of the camera!)?

I know most of you are not here for the photography. OK maybe you enjoy the mouthwatering food, but you can do without the technical jargon. Let me just say that the camera sensor is what lets in the light and a bigger sensor = more light and more light = beautiful photos. That being said, my “studio” is in a pretty dark room with limited light so a larger sensor is really important for me. The full frame sensor also allows me to fit more into the frame of a photo so you get a wider view.


Sensor aside, the 6d also has wifi capability so I can set my camera on a tripod and connect to it via Canon’s app to take hands free photos! Taking photos on a tripod removes any possibility of camera shake so you get crystal clear, sharp photos. I’m so in love!

Speaking of which, I am also very much in love with this healthy, raw, vegan, 4-ingredient (if you don’t count the salt!) snack that’s become a staple in my house. Marzipan is one of my favorite flavors (hello 3-layer rainbow cookies!) and the pure almond extract really brings out that flavor in these guilt-free chews. With Tu B’shvat around the corner, they are just the thing!!

Marzipan Date Truffles

16 plump medjool dates, pit removed
1 cup raw almonds plus more for topping
2 tsp pure almond extract
1/8 tsp fine sea salt
1/3 cup chocolate chips, optional

Method:

Place the dates, almonds, almond extract and salt in the bowl of a food processor with the S blade attached. Blend until the mixture forms a dough and starts to clump up and pull away from the sides of the bowl (this may take a few minutes, depending on the quality of your machine). Taste and adjust seasoning, if desired (I like it to have a salted flavor).

With slightly damp hands, roll the date mixture into balls and press an almond into the top of each one.

If desired, melt the chocolate chips in the microwave, or over a double boiler. Pour the chocolate into a Ziploc bag and snip off the corner. Drizzle chocolate over the truffles and refrigerate until solid.

Truffles may be kept at room temperature, but they last longer in the fridge or freezer.

NOTE: almond extract is what gives these truffles their marzipan flavor. If you’re not a fan, you may use less (start with 1/2 tsp) or use 1 tsp of vanilla extract instead.

YIELD: approximately 20 truffles.

Related Recipes:

Tu B’shvat truffles
date and almond hamantaschen
cowboy cookie dough bites
gingerbread truffles

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