Category: Meat & Poultry

Steak Summer Rolls


I don’t know if I’m more excited for you to have this recipe, or to share the cookbook that it’s from! My friend Miriam Pascal, of Overtimecook as well as the author of one of my favorite dessert cookbooks, Something Sweet, is releasing her latest cookbook in the “Real Life” series, Real Life Shabbos Cooking.

Now let me tell you something about Miriams Shabbos food – I’ve experienced it – in real life. I was lucky enough to be her Shabbos guest at her home in California, not once, but twice! I still dream about her focaccia challah (yes, the recipe is in the book), all her delicious dips, dumplings, and so much more.

Aside from her delicious food, Miriam and I both have a passion (read: obsession) for good coffee, and her coffee bar is a dream, complete with an incredible coffee machine and the best ice nuggets. She also always has delicious cookies and cakes to eat along with it.

With the book release next week, I invited Miriam over to cook something together from the book, and the summer rolls were right up my alley! We had so much fun making them together! I’ve always struggled working with rice paper, and Miriam taught me a few tricks that really helped. I was so excited to make her a cup of coffee for a change, and I took out my Cumulus machine for an iced nitro cold brew which we thoroughly enjoyed before the fleish.

I’m so excited for you to have Miriam’s incredible Shabbos recipes in your hands, she really thought of everything in the book from Shabbos kiddush to shalosh seudot and everything in between!

Steak Summer Rolls
YIELD 12-15 rolls

1 (approx. 2-lb) London broil OR flank steak, thinly sliced
¼ cup soy sauce, GF soy sauce, tamari sauce, OR coconut aminos
½ cup pineapple juice
2 cubes frozen garlic
2 cubes frozen ginger
¼ cup brown sugar,
1 teaspoon kosher salt

MISO PEANUT DIPPING SAUCE
⅓ cup creamy peanut butter
1 Tablespoon white miso paste
¼ cup soy sauce, GF soy sauce, tamari sauce, OR coconut aminos
1 Tablespoon toasted sesame oil
¼ cup pineapple juice
2 Tablespoons honey

ASSEMBLY
12-15 rice papers
green or red cabbage, shredded
carrots, shredded
sugar snap peas, halved
bell pepper, sliced
scallions, sliced
avocado, sliced
cucumber, sliced
sesame seeds, optional, for garnish

Prepare the steak: Combine all marinade ingredients in a ziplock bag. Add sliced steak; seal and marinate for 1 hour,
up to overnight.

Heat a large frying pan over high heat. Add steak and marinade; cook, stirring occasionally, for 5-8 minutes, or until
steak reaches desired level of doneness. Discard liquid; set meat aside.

Prepare the miso peanut dipping sauce: Place all dipping sauce ingredients into a container; use an immersion
blender to combine until smooth and creamy. (This can also be done in a blender or food processor.)

Assemble the summer rolls: Fill a deep plate with water. Submerge 1 sheet of rice paper for 15-20 seconds, until just
a bit softened but not too soft. Place rice paper on a flat surface.

Add steak and vegetables of choice in a line in the center. Fold eggroll style: Fold sides over the filling, then roll to
fully encase in rice paper. Set aside. Repeat with remaining rice paper, steak, and vegetables.

Serve summer rolls on a platter, alongside a bowl of dipping sauce. If desired, sprinkle sesame seeds over summer
rolls.

PLAN AHEAD
Summer rolls can be prepared 1-2 days in advance. Wrap them in parchment paper to prevent them from drying out; refrigerate, covered.

Related Recipes:

Crispy Rice Paper Dogs
Hot Dog Eggrolls
Hamantachos! Eggroll Nachos

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Stuffed Cabbage Meatballs

Every year on Sukkos, one of the things I look forward to most is my grandmother’s stuffed cabbage, or her beloved cabbage soup. It’s one of those recipes that tastes like home, filled with memories and nostalgia, and no Sukkos feels quite complete without it. This year, I spent Sukkos in Peru, and while it was an incredible experience, I came home craving that familiar taste of my grandmother’s recipe. I hadn’t gotten my annual fix, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

Bubby’s cabbage soup has always been one of my ultimate comfort foods. Her secret ingredients were green apple and golden raisins, which gave the sweet-and-sour sauce its signature flavor. It’s the kind of dish that takes me right back to my childhood with just one bite. Unfortunately, my kids don’t share my enthusiasm for the soup and while I’ve made countless variations of my grandmother’s recipe over the years, including stuffed cabbage cocktail dogs and stuffed cabbage Bolognese, I wanted to come up with something that would satisfy my craving while being something my kids would actually get excited about.

Enter stuffed cabbage meatballs! All the nostalgic flavors of my grandmother’s stuffed cabbage, but in a familiar form!

And wouldn’t you know it? The kids absolutely loved them! They got a meatball dinner they were excited to eat, and I got all the comfort and nostalgia of my grandmother’s stuffed cabbage. A win-win for all!

Stuffed Cabbage Meatballs

2 tbsp olive oil
1 lg onion, peeled and sliced thinly into half rings
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 heaping tbsp tomato paste
1/2 large head of cabbage, shredded (about 1 1/2 bags preshredded)
28oz. can crushed tomatoes
3 cups water
Juice of 2 lemons
1 cup brown sugar (packed)
1 green apple, grated
1/4 cup golden raisins
salt and pepper, to taste

Meatballs:

2 lbs ground beef
1/2 cup bread crumbs
2 eggs
1/4 cup ketchup
1 tsp garlic powder
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Method:

In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions and saute until softened, add garlic and saute until fragrant. Add the tomato paste and continue to saute for 2 minutes. Add the crushed tomatoes, water, lemon juice, brown sugar, apple and raisins and bring the mixture to a simmer. Season with salt and pepper, add the cabbage and cook until wilted, about 10 minutes. If the sauce seems too thick (this will depend on how big your cabbage is), you may add a bit more water before adding the meatballs (if it seems too thin, it will thicken as it cooks). Taste and adjust seasoning to your liking (adding more brown sugar if you like it sweeter, or more lemon juice if you like it more sour).

In a medium bowl, combine the meatball ingredients. Form into small balls and drop into the simmering sauce. Simmer, covered, for 1 hour.

Related Recipes:

Bubby’s Cabbage Soup with Flanken
Stuffed Cabbage Cocktail Dogs
Stuffed Cabbage Bolognese
Passover Stuffed Cabbage

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Chicken Gnocchi Shawarma Bake

When dinner is so good, I forget that the camera eats first! So I need to take a screenshot from my video for my blog (ie please excuse the horrible photo lol!)

If you love chicken shawarma and you love a good one-pan dinner, this one’s for you! Pillowy gnocchi gets tossed with juicy tomatoes, red onion, olive oil, and warm shawarma spices, then topped with generously seasoned chicken and roasted until golden. As everything bakes, the tomatoes break down, the chicken releases its flavorful juices, and the gnocchi soaks up all that shawarma goodness, getting tender on the inside with deliciously caramelized edges. It’s hearty, comforting, packed with flavor, and best of all, there’s no need to boil the gnocchi first. Just toss everything into a baking dish and let the oven do the work!

Chicken Gnocchi Shawarma Bake

1 package (16 oz) vacuum-packed gnocchi
1 small red onion, diced small
1 large ripe, juicy tomato, diced
5 1/2 tbsp shawarma seasoning, divided
5 tbsp olive oil, divided
Salt, to taste
Chicken pieces of choice (legs, thighs, or boneless or bone-in)

Method:

Preheat oven to 400°F.

In a baking dish, combine the gnocchi, red onion, tomato, 1 1/2 tablespoons shawarma seasoning, 2 tablespoons olive oil and salt. Toss until evenly coated and spread into an even layer.

In a small bowl, combine the remaining shawarma seasoning, olive oil and salt to form a paste. Rub the mixture all over the chicken pieces, coating them generously. Arrange the seasoned chicken over the gnocchi mixture.

Bake uncovered for approximately 40-50 minutes, or until the chicken is golden and cooked through and the gnocchi is tender with caramelized edges.

Note: Cooking time will vary depending on the chicken pieces used. Boneless chicken will cook faster than bone-in pieces. Cook until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165°F.

Related Recipes:

Sheet Pan Roasted Fish & Gnocchi

Pepper-Crusted Roasted Beef Carpaccio

There’s a misconception when it comes to cooking beef that every roast needs to be braised. We’ve all become so accustomed to brisket—the long, slow cook, lots of liquid, meat that practically falls apart when you look at it—that sometimes we forget there’s a whole other way to cook a roast.

And honestly? Some cuts are even better when you don’t braise them.

Tender roasts can be dry roasted low and slow, almost like a giant steak. Instead of cooking them until they fall apart, you cook them gently just until they’re beautifully medium rare, then slice them thinly against the grain. French roast, ribeye roast, London broil and silver tip can all work beautifully with this style of cooking.

For this recipe, I took that idea one step further and turned a shoulder roast into my take on beef carpaccio—except instead of serving the beef raw, I gave it a serious pepper crust, seared it hard and then roasted it low and slow at 225°F until the center was perfectly rosy.

Once chilled, I sliced the beef as thinly as I could. I don’t have a deli slicer at home, and if you don’t either, here’s a little trick: place the slices between parchment and gently pounded them thinner with a meat mallet. It gives you those beautiful, delicate slices that you want from carpaccio while still keeping the beef cooked (I skipped this step because I cut it pretty thin with my knife!).

I layered the beef across a big platter and finished it with a drizzle of silan, juicy pomegranate seeds, micro arugula, crispy capers and shallots that I quickly pickled in red wine vinegar. The silan brings sweetness, the shallots bring acidity, the capers bring that salty crunch, and the pepper crust keeps the whole thing savory.

It’s festive and dramatic enough for a Yom Tov table, but what I love most is that it shows just how versatile a good roast can be.

Because sometimes you don’t need another braised brisket. Sometimes you just need a really good piece of beef, a lot of cracked pepper, and a meat thermometer.

Pepper-Crusted Roasted Beef Carpaccio

Pepper-Crusted Beef
1 (3 lb.) shoulder roast
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon coarse butcher-grind black pepper
2 teaspoons medium ground black pepper
2 tbsp oil

For Serving
1 large shallot, very thinly sliced
½ cup red wine vinegar, or enough to cover
Pinch of kosher salt
Capers, drained and dried well
Oil, for frying
Good quality olive oil, for drizzling
Silan, for drizzling
Pomegranate seeds
Micro arugula
Smoked flaky salt

Pat the roast very dry with paper towels. Season generously with salt and peppers. Heat a large cast-iron skillet or heavy-bottomed pan over high heat. Sear the roast on all sides until deeply browned and crusted.

Transfer the roast to a 225°F oven (uncovered!) and roast until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part registers 130°F for medium rare. Remove from the oven and allow to rest. Refrigerate until completely chilled.

Meanwhile, place the thinly sliced shallots in a small bowl. Add red wine vinegar, season with a pinch of salt and allow to pickle for at least 20–30 minutes. Drain well before serving.

For the crispy capers, heat a thin layer of oil in a small skillet. Add the well-dried capers and fry until they open slightly and become crisp. Transfer to a paper towel to drain.

Once the beef is thoroughly chilled, slice it against the grain as thinly as possible with a very sharp knife. If the slices are thicker than you’d like, place them between sheets of parchment paper and gently pound with the flat side of a meat mallet until thin and delicate. Cut particularly large slices into smaller, organic pieces as needed.

Arrange the beef over a large serving platter.

Drizzle lightly with silan and olive oil. Scatter the pickled shallots, pomegranate seeds, micro arugula and crispy capers over the beef. Finish with flaky salt and serve.

Depending on the size of your roast, this can make 2-3 platters, adjust topping amounts accordingly. Reserve any extra meat for roast beef sandwiches.

Related Recipes:

Muhammara Carpaccio
Smoked Salmon Carpaccio
Spring Eggplant Carpaccio
Tomato Carpaccio
Simanim Carpaccio
Melon Carpaccio

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Baharat Braised Roast with Butternut Squash & Dates


There are certain spices that just smell like comfort to me, and baharat is one of them.

Baharat literally means “spices” in Arabic, and it’s a warm, aromatic Middle Eastern blend typically made with spices like cumin, coriander, black pepper, allspice, cinnamon, cardamom and cloves. Every blend is a little different, but that warm, earthy flavor is exactly what I want when the weather starts to cool and I’m craving something cozy and slow-cooked.

And this roast is COZY.

I wanted to create a braised roast that felt perfect for Sukkot and fall without going in the typical sweet-and-sour direction. Baharat gives the meat so much depth, while orange juice and zest brighten everything up, and silan adds just enough sweetness without making the dish feel cloying.

Then there’s the butternut squash and dates. As the roast braises, all those beautiful flavors work their way into the sauce. The squash goes in later so it gets tender without completely falling apart, while the dates soften into the braising liquid and add these little pockets of caramel-like sweetness.

And can we talk about how pretty this is straight out of the Dutch oven? Golden butternut squash, glossy dates, deeply browned meat and that rich, spiced sauce—it’s exactly the kind of centerpiece I want to bring to the table for Yom Tov.

Baharat-Braised Roast with Butternut Squash & Dates

4 lb Delmonico, Chuck or French roast
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 tbsp olive oil
8 large shallots, peeled and halved
5 garlic cloves, smashed
2 tbsp baharat
2 tbsp tomato paste
1½ cups dry red wine
1½ cups beef or chicken stock
Juice and zest of 1 large orange
2 tbsp silan
2 bay leaves
4 sprigs fresh thyme
1 medium butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1½-inch chunks
6 pitted Medjool dates, halved

Pat the roast completely dry. Season all over with the salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Sear the roast for 4–5 minutes per side, until deeply browned on all sides. Transfer the roast to a plate.

Add the shallots, cut-side down, and cook for 4–5 minutes, until deeply golden. Add the garlic and baharat and cook over medium heat until fragrant. Add the tomato paste to the pot and saute for 2 minutes, stirring, until the tomato paste darkens and begins to caramelize.

Pour in the red wine, scraping up all the browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Simmer for 2–3 minutes. Add the stock, orange juice, orange zest, and silan. Stir well. Return the roast to the pot, along with the bay leaves and thyme. Cover tightly and transfer to a 325°F oven. Braise for 3 hours, or until fork tender.

Remove the pot from the oven and carefully nestle the butternut squash and dates around the roast, pushing some of the pieces down into the braising liquid. Raise the oven temperature to 350, cover and return to the oven for another 30 minutes or until the squash is soft but still holding its shape.

Transfer the roast to a cutting board and let it rest for 15–20 minutes. Remove the bay leaves and thyme stems. If the sauce is thinner than you’d like, remove the squash and dates and simmer it uncovered on the stovetop for 5–10 minutes until glossy and slightly reduced.

Taste and adjust the seasoning. You can add another teaspoon or two of silan if you want a slightly sweeter finish.

Slice the roast against the grain and arrange it on a large platter with the shallots, butternut squash, and dates.

Related Recipes:

Baharat Pumpkin Butter
Baharat Roasted Spatchcock chicken With Tzimmes

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