Kitchen Vignettes

Need quickie vegetable for Thanksgiving?

Try roasted asparagus. It’s among the easiest of side dishes you can make. It looks good. Tastes good. You can make it in advance. Serve at room temperature.

This is one of my go-to fall back dishes whenever I am stuck for an easy, veggie side dish, no matter what the occasion.

Roasted Asparagus

1 pound asparagus

1/2 tablespoon olive oil

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Balsamic vinegar

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Wash the asparagus and remove the woody portions at the bottom. Peel if very thick. Coat the asparagus with the olive oil. Place the asparagus on a cookie sheet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for 6-10 minutes, depending on thickness, or until barely tender. Let cool to room temperature. Sprinkle with Balsamic vinegar. Let rest for 15 minutes before serving. Makes 6 servings

You can serve this hot too: sprinkle the just-roasted asparagus with a squirt or two of lemon juice.

You can serve this topped with thin shavings of Parmesan cheese.

Vegetarian Thanksgiving Guests?

Every year I hear about people who go nuts because they have vegetarian guests coming for Thanksgiving dinner and they don’t know what to cook for them.

Maybe they’re truly flustered. Or maybe they’re actually upset that their teenager, who, like all other teenagers is otherwise the model of good manners and propriety, has just given up meat. Or they’re annoyed because their daughter-in-law (of course) has “turned” vegetarian on them.

Or something like that.

But really. I know change is difficult for most of us and the Thanksgiving turkey dinner seems almost sacrosanct, but there is always so much food on the table, most of it meatless, that a vegetarian can skip the meat and eat everything else, right?

It’s not as if you have to make an entire extra dinner.

All you have to do is heavy up on the sides. That means the usual mashed potatoes and/or sweet potatoes, plus a bunch of vegetables. And if you add a rice or pasta recipe or a recipe for a whole grain casserole that should do it.

Then everyone is happy. The turkey lovers (I confess to be that) can have their turkey and the vegetarians can be satisfied too.

Suggestions for recipe that make good side dishes and that will also nourish and please vegetarians: Spinach Pie, Mujadarah (a bulgur wheat/lentil dish), brown rice and mushroom pilaf, eggplant Parmesan, Bulgur Wheat Casserole with Dried Apricots and Pistachios, Macaroni and Cheese. Dozens of others.

And try this one, for Vegetarians. Meat eaters will love it too.

Farro Pilaf with Winter Squash

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

2 teaspoons chopped fresh ginger

1 cup diced winter squash (such as butternut)

1 cup farro

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1-3/4 cups vegetable stock

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, for 2 minutes or until the onion has softened slightly. Add the garlic, ginger and squash and cook, stirring occasionally, for another minute. Stir in the farro, parsley and thyme. Season with some salt and pepper. Pour in the stock. Bring the liquid to a boil. Boil for one minute. Turn the heat to medium-low, cover the pan and cook for about 25 minutes or until all the liquid has been absorbed. Makes 6 servings

Hi Ronnie, Love your site--it's packed with wonderful stories, ideas and ofcourse recipes.I was one of the Kugel cooks and mentioned to you that I want to recreate a savory type of strudel dish that my Russian Grandma used to make.She would lay the pastry on a baking sheet and then top it with either kasha, potatoes, cheese or meat. Then she would roll it up like strudel and bake it until golden brown. Then we goblled it up instantly. Can you help me?

bagela

Hi

My grandmother used to make potato strudel. I remember that she even made her own dough, at least once, and I actually tried that (I remember stretching the dough to table size!). Here is a recipe for potato strudel — it’s basically mashed potatoes and onions inside phyllo dough. If you don’t want to use butter and cream, substitute olive oil and chicken stock).

You can use the same process using cooked kasha or any other grain. I also have a recipe for mushroom strudel if you’re interested.

Potato Strudel

6 large Yukon Gold or all-purpose potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

4 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon salt or to taste

freshly ground black pepper to taste

2 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil

1 large onion, sliced

1 large egg

1/3 cup half and half

8 sheets phyllo dough

3 tablespoons melted butter

dry plain bread crumbs

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Cook the potatoes in lightly salted water for about 15 minutes or until tender. Drain, add the butter and the salt and pepper and mash with a potato masher (do not use a food processor). While the potatoes are cooking, heat the vegetable oil in a saute pan over medium heat. Add the onions and cook for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown. Add the sauteed onions to the mashed potatoes and stir to blend. Add the egg and half and half, blend and set aside to cool. Using one phyllo dough sheet at a time, brush the sheet lightly with some of the melted butter, then sprinkle with a few bread crumbs, repeat, using 4 sheets (per roll). Spread half the potato filling down the long side of the sheet about one-inch from the edge and leaving about one-inch at the top and bottom (short side). Roll, jelly roll style, place seam side down on a baking sheet. Press down the ends to seal them. Repeat with the remaining 4 sheets of phyllo and the remaining potato filling. Brush the outside of the sheets with butter. Bake for about 20 minutes or until hot, browned and crispy. Makes 2 potato strudels

Carrot Salad a winning “experiment” for company

When I have company everyone sort of gravitates to the kitchen. I have a nice size kitchen, so it’s okay, but yesterday, when nearly all of my 40+ adults and several kids were gathered around the center island, where I had laid out a buffet of food, no one was actually eating, I asked one of my son-in-law’s friends to be the first to DIG IN and fill up a plate for himself.

He said he was more than willing to get the ball rolling.

I love when people are in my kitchen yakking, having a glass of wine or beer and looking at the food. But after cooking all that stuff I really really wanted them to start eating it!

So Joel get a plate full and believe it or not, then everyone else followed.

There was lots of food but the biggest hits were the challah (recipe on my website: www.ronniefein.com) — I made two enormous 4-1/2 pound breads. And also the Grand Finale Cookies (recipe in my book Hip Kosher but I added extra chocolate chips per the many requests from my children).

The spinach pie (also in Hip Kosher) was a hit, in fact, my daughter Gillian’s dog, who will eat anything she can and tries to jump up on tables, chairs and what have you to get near anything edible, actually succeeded in reaching two large pieces of spinach pie and polished them off, so I guess she liked it too.

Another winner was this carrot salad, an “experiment” on my guests, even though my mother always told me never to try out new recipes for company.

Carrot Salad

2 pounds carrots, peeled and shredded or grated

1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1 large clove garlic, finely chopped

1-1/2 teaspoons paprika

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon harissa (or 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper)

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/3 cup olive oil

1/4 cup lemon juice

salt to taste

Place the shredded or grated carrots in a bowl. In another bowl, mix the cilantro, garlic, paprika, cumin, harissa and cinnamon. Stir to mix the ingredients and spoon over the carrots. Toss the carrots with the cilantro mixture. Pour in the olive oil and lemon juice and toss ingredients. Sprinkle with salt to taste. Let marinate for at least 2 hours. Best served at room temperature. Makes 8 servings

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My grandma made coleslaw so often she could do it while watching several grandchildren and also Young Doctor Malone. She did it all by hand too. No food processor. Just a big fat knife and an old cutting board. Such was multitasking in the 1950s.

I take the easy way out. The shredding disk is faster than I am and I can also use the slicing disk if I wanted thicker shreds.

Also, grandma always made the same recipe. I don’t. Sometimes I want spicy and sometimes I more vegetables. My kids don’t like mayonnaise as much as I do so sometimes I use a buttermilk dressing or a vinaigrette. In my kitchen there are never-ending variations and it’s all still coleslaw. Good now in the hot weather but we eat it all year.

Hot and Tangy Coleslaw

6 cups shredded cabbage

2 shredded carrots

2 shredded scallions

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup plain yogurt

2 tablespoons honey

1-1/2 tablespoons cider vinegar

1 medium jalapeno, deseeded and finely chopped

1 teaspoon salt or to taste

freshly ground black pepper to taste

Toss the cabbage, carrots, and scallions in a large bowl. In another bowl mix the mayonnaise, yogurt, honey, cider vinegar, jalapeno pepper, salt and pepper. Pour over the vegetables and toss to distribute the dressing evenly. Let rest for at least 15 minutes. Toss again and serve. Best at room temperature or slightly chilled, not cold. Makes 8-10 servings

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