Tag: cheese

Brie Stuffed Dates

I had a handful of dates and a small wedge of Brie leftover from a cheeseboard that I made last week, and it made the ultimate sweet and salty nibble!

To view the reel on Instagram click here.

Brie Stuffed Dates

Dates
Brie, feta, manchego, Gruyère, or cheese of choice
Chopped pistachios or nuts of choice
Honey (try hot honey!) or sweeter of choice
Maldon sea salt flakes

Method:

Cut the dates open and remove the pit. Slice your cheese of choice so that it is small enough to fit inside the date. Stuff the dates with your cheese of choice, top with your nuts, and honey. Bake at 400 until melty! Sprinkle with sea salt flakes to finish.

Related Recipes:

Roasted Cauliflower With Dates And Smashed Olives
Stuffed Dates With Chestnut Cream

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Bissli Pizza Salad

I could say that I’m running out of Bissli salad ideas – but that just doesn’t happen to me. Give me an ingredient and a challenge and I’m all over it! Especially when it’s one of my favorite snacks – BISSLI! The pizza flavor might not be my favorite, but I can’t get enough of the crunch – so I figured why not coat some  actual cheese into pizza “croutons” – almost like one of those goat cheese salads, you know?

But then I thought – I really need something acidic to cut through all that heavy fried cheese – and I made these insane marinated onions that were so good I wanted to drink the sauce! And it doubles as the dressing too! Throw it all over some arugula with parmesan and you’ve got a salad worthy of your Chanukah party! Happy frying!

To view the reel on Instagram click here.

Bissli Pizza Salad & Dressing

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
Juice of ½ lemon
3 frozen basil cubes
1 clove garlic
½ tsp dried oregano
2 tbsp honey
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 small red onion, thinly sliced into half moons
7oz arugula
2 tbsp capers
Parmesan cheese, for finishing

Blend the salad dressing and pour over the onions. Set aside to marinate while you make the cheese croutons.

BISSLI PIZZA CROUTONS
1 bag pizza bissli
1/4 cup flour
1 egg
10 cheese balls
Salt and pepper, to taste

Method:

Blitz the bissli into crumbs and transfer to a shallow bowl. Whisk an egg and season with salt and pepper. Add flour to a Ziploc and season with salt and pepper. Add cheese to the flour and shake to coat. Working with one wheel of cheese ar a time, shake off excess flour, dip in egg and then Bissli crumbs. Fry unti crispy, about 1 minute per side (if you fry for too long the cheese will ooze out).

To assemble the salad, layer arugula, marinated onions with some of the salad dressing, capers, croutons and Parmesan cheese.

Related Recipes:

More Chanukah Recipes

Bissli Salad Series Recipes:

Green Goddess Bissli Chicken Salad
Falafel Salad
Italian Antipasto Salad

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Pumpkin Chili


There’s nothing like a warm winter chili on a fall night to get into your bones and fill you up from the inside out. I was bored of my regular chili, so I went with autumn spices and flavors like canned pumpkin, maple and cinnamon for a lovely twist. Go crazy with your toppings and have some fun!

To view the reel on Instagram click here.

Pumpkin chili

2 tbsp olive oil
1 Spanish onion, diced small
1 jalapeño, minced (remove seeds and ribs)
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
3 tbsp tomato paste
1 (15oz) can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
1 (15oz) can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
2 (14oz) cans petite diced tomatoes (with juice)
1 (15oz) can pumpkin puree
1 1/2 tbsp pure maple syrup
2 tsp brown sugar
2 cups vegetable broth
For serving: cilantro, red onion, avocado, cheese

Method:

Heat the olive oil in a medium pot and add onions, jalapeño and garlic. Saute until translucent. Add the spices and continue to saute until fragrant. Add the tomato paste and saute for another 1-2 minutes. Add the beans, tomatoes, pumpkin, maple syrup, brown sugar and stock and bring to a simmer. Cook, covered, for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Top with your favorite toppings!

Related Recipes:

Baklava Pumpkin Pie
Baharat Pumpkin Butter
Mini Pumpkin Pies For A Crowd
Cookie Butter Pumpkin Pie
Beer Battered Pumpkin Rings

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Halloumi Cheese Waffles with
Tomato Jam & Balsamic Syrup

I am UBER excited about today’s post, I’m even using the word uber! You see, I dreamed up these halloumi waffles a couple of weeks ago and I wasn’t quite sure how they would turn out. Sometimes when I think up something really outside the box, it can be a bit much, but this, this just worked so harmoniously, I am still dreaming about it!

If you’ve never heard of halloumi before, it’s a semi-hard sheep’s milk cheese that’s like a cross between feta and mozzarella. Because of it’s high melting point, it’s one of the few cheeses that you can actually grill (or in this case, waffle iron). And I don’t mean grill between two slices of bread. You can grill this cheese on it’s own and it retains it’s shape and texture!

Many people don’t know this about halloumi. In fact, I decided to do a little Instagram contest to see who could guess what kind of waffle this was (using the picture below). There were 57 guesses and only one person guessed haloumi (chanazweiss won a copy of my ebook!). Some of the others were really intriguing (like fluffernutter, tofu, tahini, coconut flour, cottage cheese, cauliflower….). I guess I’ve got my fill of waffle ideas for a while.

You can find halloumi in the cheese section of most supermarkets nowadays, but it is most popular in Israeli cuisine. I’ve seen it grilled and fried, but my favorite preparation is the halloumi salad at Blueberry Cafe in Brooklyn. It’s got grilled peppers, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms and onions with crispy breaded cubes of fried halloumi and a sesame teriyaki dressing. They call it a salad, so I convince myself that it’s healthy, because it’s JUST. THAT. GOOD.

In keeping with the Middle Eastern spirit of halloumi cheese, I created a silan-sweetened tomato jam as well as a balsamic syrup that’s kissed with the amazing flavor of date honey. Silan is one of my favorite Middle Eastern ingredients and it works so well in these condiments (well in anything, really).

I know this is one of those recipes where you roll your eyes and think, “Looks good but it’s too much of a patchke“, but do yourself a favor and go for it anyway. Once you plate this baby up, the marriage of salty cheese with a crispy exterior, sweet tomato jam, acidic balsamic and bitter arugula will dance on your palate and hit every note!

With Nine Days of dairy coming up soon, we can all use a little something different, so get outside your comfort zone and grill up some halloumi. You can thank me later.

Halloumi Waffles

1 14oz. pkg halloumi cheese
olive oil
arugula
tomato jam (recipe follows)
balsamic syrup (recipe follows)

Method:

Remove the halloumi from the package and pat dry. If the cheese is thick (this depends on the brand you purchase), divide it in half. Brush the halloumi with olive oil and heat up your waffle iron. Grease your waffle iron well and add the cheese. Cook until the the cheese has developed a brown crust (resist the urge to open your waffle iron too early or the cheese will fall apart).

Serve immediately with arugula, tomato jam, balsamic syrup and a drizzle of good quality olive oil.

VARIATION: If you don’t have a waffle iron, you can also grill the halloumi or pan-fry until crispy.


Tomato Jam

1.5 lbs. ripe tomatoes
2 tbsp silan
salt and pepper, to taste

Method:

Roughly chop your tomatoes and place them in a saucepan with silan and spices. Bring the mixture to a boil and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook the tomatoes until they begin to fall apart and break them up with a fork. Continue to cook until the mixture thickens, about 45 minutes total.

NOTE: if desired, you may strain the jam through a fine mesh sieve to remove the skins.

Balsamic Syrup

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1 tsp silan

Pour the vinegar and silan into a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook until reduced by half (or more, for a thicker syrup).

Related Recipes:

summer tomato feta salad
roasted eggplant parmesan with feta

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Goat Cheese Ice Cream

We all have bucket lists – things we hope to accomplish one day, dreams we hope to bring to reality. I’d love to visit Italy, tour the South of France, and live on a farm. I’d also love to go grape stomping, write a cookbook, and sell baby hats on Etsy (I’m weird, I know).

My foodie bucket list is a whole ‘nother story of things I want to accomplish in the kitchen. It used to be really long, but I’ve slowly been making my way through. In the past year, I’ve made pasta from scratch, filleted and cooked a whole fish, butchered a duck (and made confit), mastered omelettes and egg poaching, made falafel from scratch (with raw garbanzo beans!), made all kinds of nut butters, cooked a killer risotto, and learned to make a spicy Pad Thai.

One of the things I’ve always wanted to do, was make my own ice cream. Last year, my cousin gave me a gift certificate to chefscatalog.com for my birthday (I know, she’s amazing, right?) and I decided to buy myself an ice cream machine. As soon as the box arrived in the mail, I froze the ice cream bowl and went straight to work making some of the recipes that were included with the machine. I made classic vanilla, strawberry and coffee ice cream – each of which was delicious. But I wanted more.

So I started experimenting with my own ingredients to come up with unique flavors like guava and persimmon. Making ice cream from scratch was fun and exciting, but like many hobbies, my passion dwindled and my ice cream maker got lost somewhere way-up-high in the pantry. As the weather began to warm up, I decided to dust off my machine once again and up the ante on my ice cream making skills. Instead of making a ice cream with a base of heavy cream, I decided to challenge myself to making creme anglaise – a custard made of milk, sugar and eggs that is often used to make ice cream. One more thing to check off my bucket list.

No one said that mastering cooking techniques was easy. I must have gone through 2 dozen eggs and 4 quarts of milk until I managed to make a custard base that didn’t curdle. But practice makes perfect, and this creamy, yet mildly tangy cheesecake ice cream is living proof.

So what’s left on my bucket list? Well, I want to make my own kimchi, learn to can my own jam, make marshmallows from scratch, make authentic French macaroons, learn to use a smoker, eat more Indian food (make naan!), make my own sausage, play around with doughs (from galletes, to gourmet challah and homemade pita), cook a whole turkey for Thanksgiving (can you believe I’ve never done that?!), expand my knowledge of cheese & wine, eat more polenta, cook with (kosher) bacon, and experiment with plantains.

I’m sure I’m leaving out at least 100 other things, but lets see how far I get this year! In the meantime, I’m relishing the fruits of my labor with this unbelievably creamy and decadent dessert made from Natural & Kosher chevre goat cheese. I couldn’t think of a better way to end a dairy meal on the holiay of Shavuot. Chag Sameach!

Goat Cheese Ice Cream

4 egg yolks
2 cups whole milk
1 vanilla bean
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup honey
8 oz Natural & Kosher goat cheese
fresh fruit, or compote, for serving

Method:

Set a large fine mesh strainer over a medium bowl and set the bowl in larger bowl of ice water.

Add the milk, sugar and honey to a large saucepan. Scrape the vanilla bean and add the seeds and pods to the pot. Heat the milk mixture until sugar and honey are dissolved and small bubbles start to appear.

In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and slowly stream in 1/3 of the milk, whisking as your pour. Add the eggs/milk mixture slowly to the pot with the milk mixture, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon.

Continue to cook over moderate heat, stirring constantly, until it starts to thicken and coats the back of a spoon, about 4-5 minutes. Watch carefully! If the mixture gets too hot, the eggs will curdle. Immediately strain the sauce into the bowl set over the ice water bath.

Add the goat cheese to the sauce and whisk until melted and incorporated. Pour it through the mesh strainer to filter out any bits of cheese.

Refrigerate for a few hours or overnight and pour into ice cream machine. Churn until mixture reaches the consistency of soft serve ice cream, about 15 minutes. Transfer to a freezer-safe container and store in the freezer.

Serve with moscato strawberries, apricot sauce, plum compote. strawberry rhubarb sauce or fresh fruit!


This post was sponsored by Natural & Kosher Cheese. Follow them on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, Google+, or via their Blog

Other Shavuot Desserts:

blueberry apple crisp
sachlav rose water pudding
cinnamon buns with speculoos cream cheese frosting
classic cheesecake
sour cream chocolate chip cake

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