Category: Purim

Arayes: Kofta Pita Pockets


I love how today’s food trends have made Middle Eastern food so popular. Otherwise, I probably never would have heard of sabich, or hawaij, or arayes.

So what are they? Arayes are native to Lebanon, where they stuff kofta, a spiced beef or lamb mixture, into pita pockets and grill them. Yes, it’s as good as it’s sounds.

What I love even more than traditional arayes, is that chef’s have been creating their own adaptation of the classic for a fun twist. A local restaurant had fish arayes on the menu last week, and I’ve been seeing lots of other variations of the traditional filling as well.

While I’m usually one for turning tradition on it’s head, I loved my classic recipe so much that I went with it. But I did spare you the annoying blogger habit of calling anything with 3 corners hamantaschen, because frankly, they are not. Although in the festive Purim spirit, they are triangular, and they really do make the perfect Purim party appetizer.

Speaking of Purim party appetizers, I love to put out of bunch of finger food for my Purim feast every year because everyone is so busy coming and going, there’s hyper kids all over the place and probably a bunch of adult drunks too – so no one really wants a formal meal. Finger food makes the perfect spread and arayes are just the thing.

Some other great party appetizers that I’ve done in the past include:

drunken hasselback salami
pulled beef tacos
hummus bassar
breaded honey drumsticks
hot dog eggrolls
potato borekas
franks in blanks
chicken wings
charcuterie board
roasted sweet potatoes with gooey pecans (recipe in Millennial Kosher)
lachmagine pizza (recipe  in Millennial Kosher)

Enjoy!

Arayes Pita Pockets
YIELD: approximately 24 pita pockets

1 small onion, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup packed parsley
1 1/2 lbs. ground beef (not lean) or ground lamb
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 cup pine nuts, optional
6 pitas
1/3 cup olive oil
prepared tahini, for serving

Method:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Add the onion, garlic and parsley to the bowl of a food processor and pulse until chopped. Add the mixture to a mixing bowl with the beef, cumin, allspice, salt, pepper and pine nuts (if using). Gently stir the mixture to incorporate all the ingredients.

Cut the pitas in half and fill each pocket with about 1/4 cup of the meat mixture, flattening it out so it fills the pita evenly. Cut the pita halves into quarters and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Brush both sides of the pita with olive oil and bake for 20 minutes, flipping halfway through.

Serve warm with tahini, for dipping.

Related Recipes:

Jerusalem hummus in jars
mechshie
herbed pita chips
grilled chicken fattoush

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Salami Tarte Tatin

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!!
S-A-L-A-M-I  T-A-R-T-E  T-A-T-I-N!!!!!!!

OK I can’t remember the last time I’ve been so excited about a recipe!!! Salami time AKA Purim, AKA the Busy In Brooklyn yearly salami tradition is here and YAYYYYYY!!


I love that the young girl who used to throw her weekly salami sandwiches down the incinerator chute is now known for her salami trash-ups! My friend recently said to me, “You know Chanie, no one is every going to look at salami without thinking of you”, and I’m OK with it. In fact I’m all over it. Because becoming known for a particular ingredient means I’m doing a good job as a blogger and that my friends, is my jam (also job, but yes, jam!).

So… why in the world am I so excited? Well I’ll tell you. If you’re not well versed in French pastry, you might not be familiar with the classic dessert, TARTE TATIN, an upside-down pastry in which fruit is caramelized in butter and sugar as it bakes under a blanket of puff pastry. Fancy pastry chef’s make their own, but most recipes call for the store-bought variety which means only one thing – QUICK & EASY.

But still, WHY am I so excited??? Well traditional tarte tatin uses fruit as it’s base, and you even might find some unique recipes for vegetable-based tarts, but you have never found a SALAMI tarte tatin and I, my friends, think it’s pretty genius. And I’m a pretty hard sell.

Whats more than the salami is the bourbon caramel that the salami bathes in as it cooks down. Yes, you got that right. Bourbon. Caramel. And although I abhor margarine, there was no winning here because coconut oil + salami is a no go, so I caved. And I’m ok with it. I mean the puff pastry is virtually all margarine anyway, so whats another few tablespoons, amiright?

It’s hard to keep up with myself with this salami thing and I was worried about how I’d one-up my previous recipes. The now infamous drunken hasselback salami is sold at virtually every kosher deli stand, and salami babka has made it around the world, so coming up with something new was quite daunting. But I’d said I hashtag #nailedit on this one.

I’m also crushing on the photos of this recipe, which is why I’m doing a lot of salami rambling aka filler content :) But in case you’re still scratching your head on this whole salami thing – it’s a BUSY IN BROOKLYN Purim tradition that I started a couple of years ago on the blog, after reading about a custom to eat salami on Purim, since it’s hung, like HAMAN. Cute, right??

I hope you love this recipe as much as I do!  Happy almost-Purim!

Salami Tarte Tatin

1-2 14oz. Abeles & Heymann salamis, sliced 1/4″ thick
1/2 stick margarine
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup bourbon
1/2 tsp salt
1 sheet puff pastry sheet, thawed in the refrigerator
whole grain mustard, for serving

Method:

Remove the puff pastry from the fridge and roll it out to the same width as you skillet. Using a knife, trim the puff pastry into a round shape to roughly fit the size of your skillet. Return to the fridge.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a cast iron (or oven-safe) skillet, melt the margarine and brown sugar, whisking as it cooks so the mixture combines into a caramel. Add the salt and bourbon and continue stirring until the mixture is thick and bubbly. Add the salami slices, overlapping them slightly to form a pattern (you may need more or less depending on the size of your pan and how you lay them out). Cover the salami with the puff pastry and tuck in the sides, if needed, with a spatula.

Transfer the tarte to the oven and bake for 35 minutes, until the puff pastry is puffed and golden.

Place a large plate over the skillet and flip it over.

Serve warm with mustard.

NOTE: this pastry is best served fresh as the dough can get soggy from the syrup as it it sits.

VARIATION: for a sweet and spicy caramel, add a spoonful of mustard to the caramel.

This post is sponsored by Abeles & Heymann.

Other Salami Recipes:

last year: salami potato latkes
two years ago: salami babka
three years ago: salami quiche
four years ago: beer battered salami chips with beer mustard
five years ago: drunken hasselback salami
six years ago: salami chips

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Fig Newton Hamantaschen

It’s officially hamantaschen time and while baking is not my favorite thing, I always try to push myself to a fun twist on the classic 3-cornered-cookies, and these FIG NEWTON delicious bites did not disappoint!

Fun fact – I first tested this recipe three years ago, but it needed tweaking, so I put it off year after year (see above! ;), but recently I made a decision to stop being afraid of dough, and I held myself to it! Yes baking is a science, and I’m not very technical but I can do it, and you can too.

Now if I’m honest, I’ve never actually had traditional fig newtons because they are OU-D and I keep cholov yisroel (dairy which has been derived from milk that has been milked under the supervision of a religiously observant Jew – not the case with OU-D certified foods), however, I have tasted an off-brand copycat version and I’ve also made them from scratch a few times (can you tell I like figs?), so I think I have a pretty good idea of what they taste like.

Purim prep is in full swing here with the kids deciding on custumes, shalach manos shopping and menu planning. I for one was dead set on dressing up as the SHTISEL family because I’m a huge fan of the series, but the kids are not having it! So, I’m on my own with this one.

Happy Purim Prep!

Fig Newton Hamantaschen

1 stick butter or trans-fat-free margarine, softened
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Fig filling:
12oz. dried plump califmyrnia figs, stems removed and sliced in half
1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 cup honey
1/8 tsp cinnamon
pinch of salt

Method:

Place the figs into a medium saucepan with the orange juice, honey, cinnamon and salt. Bring the mixture to a simmer and cook over low heat for 10 minutes.

While the figs are cooking, place the butter and sugars in a large mixing bowl and beat with a mixer until creamy. Add the vanilla and egg and beat until smooth. Add in the flour, baking powder and salt and mix until combined. Press the dough together to form a ball.

Place the figs mixture in a food processor blender and puree until completely smooth.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to around 1/4 inch thick and cut out circles with a cookie cutter or a drinking glass. Place a teaspoon of fig jam into the center of the circles and pinch the corners closed to form a triangle. Bring all the scraps together and roll out again, repeating the process until you’ve used up all the dough and jam.

Place the hamantaschen on a parchment lined baking sheet (or 2, if needed) and bake for approximately 12 minutes, until the bottoms start to turn light brown. Transfer to a cooking rack.

Store cooled hamantaschen in an airtight container for up to 4 days or freeze for later, if desired.

YIELD: approximately 2 dozen hamantaschen.

Related Recipes:

ma’amoul hamantaschen
raspberry hamantaschen hand pies
healthy thumbprint hamantaschen
baklava hamantaschen

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Mom’s Potato Knishes

As a recipe developer, it’s not often that I make other peoples recipes, and when I do, it’s often ones that have been in my family for years. I usually find myself cooking my mom’s dishes around the High Holidays – there’s just something about the Days of Awe that makes me want to connect to my roots, and how more so than with food.

Mom’s potato knishes are a staple at every holiday meal, and it has always been my favorite, because, well… potatoes. It’s probably the only time you’ll see me using margarine – EVER – because coconut oil just doesn’t fly here and to keep the knishes pareve, I’ve got no other choice. Plus, puff pastry is basically 80% margarine anyway, so what’s a little more, amiright?

What I love about this recipe is that the filling makes enough to fill 3 whole rolls and they freeze great! And since they’re frozen unbaked, they taste like you just made them when you bake them up before serving. = a perfect recipe for long holidays like Succos coming up! If you have a custom to eat stuffed foods for the Harvest Holiday, I’ve got you covered there too!

Mom’s Potato Knishes

8 russet potatoes, peeled and diced
3 medium onions, sliced into half moons
3 tbsp olive oil
2 eggs
1/2 stick trans-fat-free margarine
salt and pepper, to taste
3 sheets puff pastry, thawed
1 egg + 1 tbsp water, for egg wash
1-2 tbsp sesame seeds

Method:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Add the potatoes to a pot and cover with salted water. Bring to a boil and simmer until the potatoes are fork tender. Drain well.

While the potatoes are cooking, heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Add the sliced onions and saute until deeply browned and caramelized.

Using a potato masher, mash the potatoes until no lumps remain. Add margarine, onions, salt and pepper. Once the mixture is cool, add in the eggs and stir until creamy.

Unfold the puff pastry onto a sheet of parchment paper and roll it out to form a large rectangle. Spread the potato mixture over it and starting from the longer side, roll up the pastry like a jelly roll with the seam on the bottom. Lift the parchment paper and place the roll on a baking sheet. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Cut slits into the pastry and bake until puffed and golden brown.

Repeat with remaining puff pastry and potatoes.

NOTE: This recipe can be prepared 2 days ahead. Cover and refrigerate before baking. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds before baking. Alternatively, you can freeze the roll before baking, brush with egg wash and sesame seeds and bake frozen.

VARIATION: You can also try this with sauteed cabbage to make cabbage knishes or sauteed mushroom and onions.

Related Recipes:

cabbage bourekas
deli roll
spanakopita bourekas
salmon en croute with creamed leeks

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Falafeltaschen Board


I can’t honestly believe that Purim is just a couple of days away! Which means Pesach is just a month away. And then Shavuos is just a couple of weeks after that. And do you know what happens then? By that time I should be holding my own. actual. cookbook. in. my. hands. Ahhhhh!!!!!


Cookbook, cookbook, cookbook. It is the air that I breathe these days! It is my breakfast, lunch and supper. The thing I think of when I get up in the morning and when I go to bed at night (and all the hours in between). It’s what has me crying from stress and happiness at the same time. It. is. real. and it. is. happening.

I have a newfound appreciation for cookbook authors the world over. I think they all deserve a gold medal for the tedious process of developing, testing, retesting and retesting recipe after recipe until they all start to look the same. I think they deserve the biggest honor for the amount of hours poured over every word and the amount of thought that goes into every page.

I have the greatest respect for food stylists and photographers and photo editors who make the perfect crease in a napkin, get the lighting and shadows just so, and finish the photos with the perfect finesse. And as I wind down to the finish line and wrap up my recipes, my photos, my very heart and soul that I put into this book….I’m forced to stop. Take a deep breath. Because life around me is still living, and the kids need costumes, and shalach manos and….PURIM. I celebrate you with honor and this fabulous FALAFELTASCHEN BOARD that doesn’t need much introduction. I’ll let the photos do the talking.

Happy Purim!

Falafeltaschen Board

1 package store-bought falafel mix (or make your own)
1/3 cup flour
canola oil, for frying

accompaniments:
fresh pita
pickled turnips
preserved lemons
hardboiled eggs
fried eggplant
Israeli pickles
Israeli salad
hummus
tahini
harissa
sumac onions
sauerkraut
parsley

Method:

Prepare falafel according to package directions. If mixture is loose, add flour until the consistency holds it shape. Form into triangular shape by hand, or using a triangular cookie cutter. Freeze until solid.

Heat canola oil over medium heat. Fry the falafel until golden brown. Serve with tahini and accompaniments of choice. 

Related Recipes:

corndog hamantaschen
sushi hamantaschen
baklava hamantaschen
date and almond hamantaschen
healthy thumbprint hamantaschen

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