Category: Meat & Poultry

Acorn Squash with Wild Rice Stuffing

I’ve been loving playing around with Instagram stories these days. It lets me post a step by step cooking tutorial and it’s just. so. fun! Last night I made Asian soup bowls with a richly flavored broth and a variety of vegetables for a make-you-own bowl dinner. I posted a play by play on my stories and the feedback was amazing!

I made these stuffed acorn squashes last Friday, using some of my leftover bacon-wrapped turkey from Thanksgiving. I posted a story as I made them and I got lots of requests for a formal written recipe. I managed a quick photoshoot, even though it was a hectic Friday and do I even need an explanation? I mean just look at these?!

I really love the idea of making this after Thanksgiving with some leftover turkey, but if you don’t have any, just leave it out and keep it vegan. With or without the turkey, this is a beautiful side dish that’s perfect for the fall, winter, holidays or just a weeknight cozy dinner. I put a poached egg over some leftover rice and lemme tell you….sooooo good!

Acorn Squash with Wild Rice Stuffing

3 acorn squashes
2 tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp olive oil, divided
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1 medium red onion, peeled and diced small
2 stalks celery, diced small
10oz. cremini mushrooms, stems trimmed and sliced
1 box Near East long grain and wild rice pilaf, cooked according to package directions
1 3.5oz bag roasted chestnuts, roughly chopped
1 cup leftover diced turkey (optional)
1/2 cup vegetable stock (increase to 1 cup if using turkey)
1/3 cup dried cranberries

Method:

Heat the oven to 425 degrees. Cut the acorn squash in half lengthwise and remove the seeds. Place cut-side up on a baking sheet and drizzle with 2 tbsp of olive oil.  Sprinkle brown sugar over the squash halves and season with salt and pepper. Roast until tender and caramelized around the edges, about 40 minutes.

Add the remaining olive oil to a saute pan and saute the onion and celery until deeply caramelized, about 10 minutes. Add the mushrooms, salt and pepper, and continue to saute until all the water evaporates and mushrooms caramelize. Add the rice, roasted chestnuts and diced turkey (if using) and stir to combine. Add the stock and cook the mixture until all the liquid is absorbed, stirring every few minutes. Add the dried cranberries.

Divide the rice stuffing among the roasted squash halves and serve.

VARIATION: I made this using some of my leftover kosher beef bacon-wrapped turkey, and I added some of the bacon to the dish as well. If you wish to do do so (it adds a nice smoky and crispy element), just crisp up your favorite variety and stir in the stuffing before serving (don’t add it during cooking or it will get soggy).


Related Recipes:

apple and sausage stuffed butternut squash
za’atar roasted kabocha squash with silan
turkey roulade with five minute stuffing
unstuffed mushrooms

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Farro Grain Bowl

Life with five kids has thrown me for a loop. They always say #3 is hard, maybe #4 too. But #5? I’m ex.hau.sted. Baby girl is still 3 months old, so I know we’re still in that needy (ie. nursing every 3 hours) stage, but man, it’s tough! I still won’t give up blogging though, because after five years of creating and sharing, it’s become so much a part of me. You guys, are part of the family.

Thank G-d for some stored posts that never made it to blog like this farro grain bowl. I don’t know why it’s been sitting in my archived photos for so long because dang is it beautiful. And oh so tasty! I’m all about grain bowls right now. Ok I’m all about any food really (breastfeeding!!), but there’s something about being able to throw in a little of this and a little of that to create something so satisfying.

I’m a huge fan of grain bowls because there are endless options, and it’s basically just an excuse to throw a bunch of leftovers into a big dish and call it fancy! I’ve started to make them for lunch a lot, using whatever leftovers I have in the fridge. I can usually find some quinoa (I like to cook it up in the beginning of the week so I can add it to salads, yogurt and mains) or leftover rice and I pretty much always have some cooked chicken on hand. There’s also plenty of veggies to choose from, plus some hard boiled eggs, cheese, and roasted beets. So basically I’ve got my grain bowls made, I have to just make ’em!

So, how do you build a grain bowl? Well, you can try and stick to a specific cuisine (like this Middle Eastern inspired bowl) or you can keep things simple. Just follow this basic outline:

How to Build a Grain Bowl:

Grains (rice, farro, quinoa, couscous, barley, wheat berries, millet)
Raw or Cooked Veggies (carrots, mushrooms, cucumbers, beets, peppers, zucchini)
Raw or Sauteed Greens (spinach, arugula, kale, radicchio, cabbage)
Protein (tofu, edamame, chickpeas, surimi, chicken, poached egg, cheese)
Dressing (pesto, miso, tahini, salsa, peanut sauce, soy sauce)
Garnish (seaweed, avocado, nuts, pickled veggies, scallions, fresh herbs)

I probably would have added some sauteed beet greens to this bowl, if I had had them, but the flavors were amazing and went together really well. The chewy farro, sweet beets, smoky chicken, crispy chickpeas and crunchy pomegranate seeds really complemented each other – both in texture and flavor. Of course the tahini didn’t hurt either, and the pomegranate molasses just put it over the top.

Thinking about making your own grain bowl? Here are some other fun combinations!

// cauliflower rice + fajita spiced peppers + black beans + avocado + salsa dressing + fresh lime
// quinoa + roasted squash + sauteed kale + feta + pumpkin seeds + almond butter dressing
// couscous + roasted eggplant + tomato + red cabbage + hard boiled egg + harissa dressing
// sushi rice + carrots + cucumber + sushi grade tuna + edamame + fried egg + sriracha + soy sauce

Have you ever made a grain bowl, or seen one you like? Share the combo with me in the comments below! I love to get inspired with new combinations!

Farro Grain Bowls

1 cup farro
spice-grilled chicken (recipe follows)
2 medium purple beets
1 cup pomegranate seeds
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1 tbsp olive oil
kosher salt, to taste
fresh parsley, for garnish
tahini (recipe follows)
pomegranate molasses

Method:

To make the farro, rinse well and place in a saucepan with enough water to cover the grains. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes. Drain.

While the farro is cooking, wrap each beet individually in foil (do not peel) and roast at 400 degrees until fork-tender, about 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow the beets to cool (do not remove the foil). Once cooled, unwrap the beets and use your hands to remove the peel, it will slide off. Cut the beets into small pieces.

While the beets are cooking, toss the chickpeas with cumin, olive oil and salt and roast it in the oven alongside the beets, shaking the pan every 15 minutes or so. Roast until crispy, about 45 minutes.

To serve, divide the farro between four bowls. Slice grilled chicken and add to each bowl. Add beets, pomegranate seeds and chickpeas among the bowls and drizzle each bowl with tahini and pomegranate molasses. Garnish with fresh chopped parsley.

Spice Grilled Chicken

4 dark meat chicken cutlets (pargiot)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp Jerusalem grill or shawarma spice (store-bought or make your own)
kosher salt, to taste (if spice mix does not have salt added)

Place the chicken in a Ziploc bag with olive oil and spices and mix until well-coated. Marinate for 30 minutes (or overnight). Grill for about 6-8 minutes per side, until cooked through. Alternatively, broil the chicken under high heat for 6-8 minutes per side, depending on thickness.

Tahini

1/2 cup tahini paste (stir thoroughly before using, as oil and solids tend to separate)
1/2 cup water
1-2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/8 tsp cumin
kosher salt, to taste

In a bowl, mix the tahini, water, parsley, garlic, lemon juice, cumin and salt. Whisk until emulsified.


Related Recipes:

chicken shawarma
grilled chicken shawarma salad
za’atar roasted chickpeas

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Stuffed Cabbage Bolognese

A couple of months ago, the kosher culinary school that I attended sadly closed down. I remember bumping into another alumni and we shared our disappointment in the school’s closing. “Do you realize,” she said, “that our diplomas aren’t going to be worth anything anymore? Don’t you care?” I thought for a minute and realized, that no, I didn’t care, because it wasn’t really worth anything to me to begin with.

Being a Chef isn’t something you learn and file away in a drawer. It’s something you become, irregardless of schooling. A true chef never stops learning. They are constantly honing their skills, reading, watching and improving. I don’t need a piece of paper to show that I went to culinary school. The love that I put into my dishes, the effort that I put into my technique and the taste of the finished product is all a testament to my knowledge and understanding of food.

And still, I have a hard time calling myself a Chef. I have so much more to learn. I’ve never worked a restaurant kitchen. Never smoked a piece of meat. Never butchered anything. OK – never butchered anything correctly. Forgot how to break down a fish. Have yet to make a Thanksgiving turkey. Chef? I think not.

I so strongly believe this, that in the hundreds of cooking classes I’ve given around the country, I refuse to wear a Chef’s jacket and wear an apron instead. I feel like I’m a cook, just like my audience, and we’re learning together.

It’s this attitude that has allowed me to learn about interesting dishes and techniques, not necessarily from other Chef’s, but from average cooks. I’m always open to chatting about food and recipes, and hearing what’s cooking in other people’s kitchens. I’ve come home with amazing recipes from people I bump into in the supermarket, or on the train. I belong to lots of Facebook cooking groups and I love to browse through the Pages and see what’s cookin’ in other peoples kitchens.

Alas, and getting back on track here… that’s precisely how this recipe happened. I saw a recipe for an unstuffed cabbage with noodles made by Danielle Cooper Lader on the What’s for Supper Facebook page and it looked so amazing that I had to try my own version! I used my Bubby’s amazing cabbage & flanken soup recipe as my starting point and just went from there! It’s kind of a cross between lokshin and cabbage and stuffed cabbage, both popular Hungarian dishes that I grew up eating. And you know me and mashup recipes. This one is a winner!

In five years of blogging, this is my first time posting on a Saturday night, I just really wanted to get this up for you in time for the seconds days of the Chag! Soooo much easier than stuffed cabbage, and dare I say even more delicious. Chag Sameach!

Stuffed Cabbage Bolognese

2 tbsp olive oil
1 lg onion, peeled and sliced thinly into half rings
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 heaping tbsp tomato paste
2 lbs ground beef
salt and pepper, to taste
small head of cabbage, shredded
1 15oz. can tomato sauce
1 14.5oz. can diced tomatoes
1/2 cup water
Juice of 2 lemons
1/2 cup brown sugar (packed)
1/4 cup golden raisins, optional
1 pkg papardelle noodles, or other wide noodles

Method:

In a 5 qt pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and saute until golden. Add the tomato paste and continue to saute for 2 minutes. Add the ground beef, season with salt and pepper, and cook until crumbly and no longer pink, breaking up the meat as it cooks. Add the cabbage, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, water, lemon juice, brown sugar and raisins and bring the mixture to a boil. (Don’t worry if it seems there is too little liquid, the cabbage will break down as it cooks). Season with salt and pepper, reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes. If the sauce seems too thick, and not saucy enough (this will depend on how big your cabbage is), you may add a bit more water to desired consistency. If it’s not thick enough, simmer until thickened. Taste, and adjust seasoning to your liking (adding more brown sugar if you like it sweeter, or more lemon juice or a splash of apple cider vinegar if you like it more sour).

Cook the papardelle noodles according to package directions. If serving immediately, toss the noodles with the bolognese. If serving in advance, toss the pasta with a bit of oil right after draining so it doesn’t stick together. (Never rinse the pasta with water, and this removes the surface starch that helps it hold onto the sauce).

VARIATION: to make stuffed cabbage meatballs, prepare the sauce as follows: dice the onion and saute with the garlic, add the tomato paste and saute, then add 2 15oz. cans tomato sauce, 2 14.5oz cans diced tomatoes, 1 cup water, juice of 2 lemons, and 1 cup brown sugar. Add 1/2 head of cabbage and bring to a simmer . In a separate bowl, combine the beef with 2 extra-large eggs, 1 grated small onion, 1/3 cup breadcrumbs, 1/2 cup uncooked white rice, 1/4 cup ketchup, salt and pepper. Roll the mixture into balls and add to the sauce. Simmer for 1 hour.

Related Recipes:

Bubby’s cabbage soup with flanken
Passover stuffed cabbage
how to stuff cabbage
spaghetti squash bolognese
veal marsala bolognese

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Grilled Chicken Salad with
Jalapeno Honey Mustard Dressing

It was one of those nights, after many days of eating the wrong foods (read: fried, takeout, you-name-it), when I decided I needed to eat a salad for dinner. Luckily, we always have a stash of oven grilled chicken in the fridge (see my super easy recipe below!), so I just threw together whatever I had in the fridge and pantry and this salad was born. I’ve been making this dressing forever, so that wasn’t exactly an afterthought, but it turned out to be the perfect compliment to the composed salad dish.

If you’re an avid follower of mine, you already know that I post almost everything I eat on Instagram (whenever people stop me in the street to ask me what I’m up to foodwise, I just tell them to follow me there, ‘cuz I post just about everything that goes into my mouth!!), so when I whip together a healthy salad for dinner, I try to plate it up nice and pretty, you know, #eatingfortheinsta. So I fanned out my avocado all  fancy and stuff, and the recipe requests poured in. Next thing I know, my inbox is filled with pics of this salad – all composed and perfect, and this recipe-afterthought became an instant sensation.

The dressing is a hit in it’s own right, and lots of readers have told me it’s become a family favorite. So…I finally decided it was time to blog about it! As a recent text message from a reader reminded me, not everyone uses Facebook or Instagram, so I gotta think about the readers that just come here for the good stuff. Rikal, this is for you ;) !

If you’re not a fan of composed salads (salads that have been neatly arranged on a platter, like this), then just go ahead and and mix everything up in a big ‘ole bowl. I promise it’s just as delicious!

Happy Grilling you guys! Check out the links below for lots of other grilled chicken salad recipes that are perfect for summer or when you get that healthy-eating-binge!

Grilled Chicken Salad

1/2 head napa cabbage, thinly sliced
1-2 cups broccoli florets, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 avocado, diced
1/3 cup cashews
handful of golden raisins, optional
2 grilled chicken breasts, thinly sliced (recipe follows)

On a platter, spread out the cabbage. Top with broccoli florets, avocado, cashews, raisins and chicken and drizzle with jalapeno honey mustard dressing.

NOTE: You may use raw broccoli or thawed frozen broccoli and roasted or raw cashews.

Easy Grilled Chicken

2 chicken breasts
Montreal steak seasoning
salt and pepper, to taste (optional, the steak seasoning is salty)
olive oil

Drizzle olive oil over chicken and sprinkle generously with Montreal steak seasoning. Grill or broil on high for approximately 5-6 minutes per side.(depending on thickness)

Jalapeno Honey Mustard Dressing

1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup mustard
1 small jalapeno, veins and seeds removed
1 clove garlic

Add all ingredients to a food processor or blender and blend until smooth.

NOTE: You may use dijon or yellow mustard. The dijon will be slightly creamier, while the yellow mustard will have a sharper mustard flavor.

#eatingfortheinsta!

Related Recipes:

grilled chicken shawarma salad
grilled marinated chicken
Asian chicken salad
sesame linguini with marinated chicken breasts

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Charoset London Broil

If you follow me on Instagram, you probably know that I recently spent a couple of days in Miami. Aside from my (almost) daily breakfast at Zak the Baker, I made sure to head to Sarah’s Tent, a kosher grocery in Aventura. Sarah’s Tent is a well stocked market with a great deli, but that’s not what I went for. I went for the Israeli imports, specifically, kosher Lotus Biscoff spread, also known as speculoos or cookie butter.

If you fly Delta, you may notice that they give out individually wrapped biscuit cookies made by Lotus, but sadly, I always pass on them and go for the kosher pretzels. El Al, however, offers up the Israeli-manufactured version of the biscuit, which is, in fact, kosher. I went through my kosher speculoos phase a little while back when my local kosher supermarket carried the biscuits (which I turned into these buns, these pancakes and this party mix), but I’ve since moved on to the spread – which is the most decadent cookie butter of your dreams – and is pretty hard to get your hands on with a kosher certification. I once made my husband travel all around Jerusalem to bring me home a prized jar, and I savored that butter like no ones business, one spoon at a time!

BUT – back to the recipe at hand. As I was strolling through the aisles of Sarah’s Tent, I noticed a jar of Israeli-made charoset and I was intrigued. As an Ashkenazi, I had never tasted the “real” stuff, made with dates, apples, walnuts and wine. I brought home a jar and sadly, I was quite disappointed with the flavor. It was sitting in my fridge last week as I rummaged through, looking for ingredients to make my london broil – and then it hit me. Why not marinate my meat in it, with some red wine, and make a Charoset london broil. Alas, the beef came out of the oven smelling divine, but I did not like the flavor. Putting a condiment that I did not like on it’s own on beef, only made the beef taste like the jarred stuff – and well, it was just off. But the idea was a strike of genius! I had posted a photo of the meat on Instagram (if you don’t follow my Friday food fests, you must!), and requests for the recipe started pouring in! So, I decided to come up with a homemade variation on the Charoset London Broil idea, and the results couldn’t have been better!

The meat marinates in a mixture of traditional charoset ingredients of red wine, walnut oil (in place of walnuts), silan or date honey (in place of dates), some grated apple and a pinch of cinnamon. After I cook up the meat perfectly medium-rare, the marinade gets cooked up thickened and tastes just like – you guessed it – charoset! This delicious Passover dish is a must, whether your Sephardic or Ashkenazi (like me!). Give it a try!

Charoset London Broil

1 1/2-2 lb. london broil, shoulder blade cut (see note)
1/2 cup dry red wine
1/4 cup walnut oil
1/4 cup + 1 tbsp silan (date honey), divided
1 apple, grated (I used Granny Smith)
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp coarse black pepper
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Method:

In a ziploc bag, combine the wine, oil, 1/4 cup silan, grated apple, cinnamon and black pepper. Add the london broil and marinate for 3-6 hours. Remove from the marinade (try to get off as much of the grated apple as possible) and reserve.

Season the london broil with salt and pepper on both sides and broil on high for 8 minutes on the first side and 5 minutes on the second side (for medium rare). Rest for 10 minutes and slice thinly against the grain.

Pour the reserved marinade into a small saucepan, add a tbsp of silan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes, until thickened.

NOTE: London Broil is not an actual cut a beef, but rather a cooking method. The method is to marinate the beef and grill or broil over high heat. Since london broil can be cut from different parts of the animal, I prefer the butcher cut, which is cut from the shoulder blade. If you use a different cut, cooking results may vary.

VARIATION: For a smoother charoset sauce, puree the sauce until smooth (after cooking).

SUBSTITUTIONS: If you can’t find silan, you may use honey instead. You may also use grapeseed oil (or any lightly flavored oil) instead of walnut oil.

Related Recipes:

“everything” london broil with red wine reduction
French roast with dried fruit
Kosher meat guide: cuts and cooking methods

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