Norwegian Crepe Pancakes

These were inspired by my going to NetCost, a super store in NE Philly specializing in Russian and Eastern European foods. They had a huge section of "preserves", many from Israel with Hebrew and Russian. They are a genre of fruit somewhere between what we call jam and pie filling. I brought some cherry preserves and then tried to figure out what to do with them. Rolling them up in a crepe is perfect. Three or four make a very nice meal.

These remind David of the thin pancakes his Aunt Ruth made in Salt Lake, rolled up with fruits. Happily so!

It's from How to Feed a Loon, two guys with a blog and lots of YouTubes. I have modified it, using more whole wheat, natch.

3 eggs
1½ c whole milk (up to 1/3 can be buttermilk)
1 c all-purpose flour (half white, half whole wheat)
¼ t salt
1 t sugar
¼ t cardamom ground, optional
1 t vanilla 
2 T butter melted, plus more for the pan
Preserves or jam, for spreading and rolling. Optional: ricotta cheese.

Use a hand mixer or a blender, mixing the eggs and milk til smooth

Add the flour, salt, sugar, cardamom, vanilla extract, and melted butter, and continue mixing until most of the lumps are gone.

Heat two 9 to 10-inch skillets over medium heat and coat with a small amount of butter (about 1 tsp). Swirl the pan until the pan is fully coated.

Scoop about ⅓ cup of the batter and then pour into the center of the skillet, immediately swirling the pan until most of the batter has been distributed along the bottom of the pan. You can do this with the bottom of a 1/3 c measure.

Cook until the edges begin to curl up slightly and some bubbles begin to appear, usually about 2 minutes. Carefully slip a rubber (or silicone) spatula under the side of the pancake and flip.
Cook for another minute and then transfer the pancake to a serving plate. I put the tray in the Breville, without heat, closed - the steam keeps them warm.

This makes about 8. They go pretty fast!

If desired, roll the pancakes, or serve flat with toppings on the side.

Persimmon Picking & Pulping + Persimmon Bread

Micah spotted persimmon trees on the trail to the Gesher Tsar Meod, and in 2023 Jo, Micah, and I picked a bunch. Then he found an even bigger tree and I went with Jennifer Paget and we picked a half a pot full.

I purchased a vintage Foley Food Mill on Ebay and it worked wonderfully, though it's slow. Eventually you collect pulp, which you can eat as a kind of cross between jam and sauce. It's a beautiful color. The dark flecks in it are completely edible.

We baked three loaves with this recipe. It's dark and moist. Nice with cream cheese. You can use pumpkin pie spice in lieu of the cinnamon/nutmeg/cloves.

This recipe is from Feast Magazine, doubled.

2 1/2 c (175g) flour (1/2 each whole wheat and white is fine)
1 t baking soda
1 t  salt
1 t ground cinnamon
1/2 t fresh ground nutmeg
1/2 t ground cloves
1 1/3 cup  sugar
4 eggs
2 t vanilla 
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
2 c (260g) persimmon pulp

Preheat oven to 350˚F and spray pans. 

Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves in a medium bowl; set aside. 

In a larger bowl, beat sugar, eggs and vanilla together until combined and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. With mixer running, stream in melted butter; continue to beat until incorporated, scraping sides of bowl down with a spatula as needed. Fold in persimmon pulp and mix until incorporated. 

Fold flour mixture into butter mixture just until combined, then fold in persimmon pulp until incorporated and no streaks remain. Divide between your pans.

Bake on middle rack of oven for 45 to 50 minutes, rotating pan after 20 minutes of baking. Bread is done when a wooden skewer comes out clean or with a few crumbs. Set on wire rack to cool completely.

 

Sweet Potato Gnocchi

Sweet potatoes are more nutritious than white potatoes, and prettier, so I decided to give Sweet Potato Gnocchi a whirl. They are fun and delicious. Could be a side, or a main. The ingredients are pretty flexible.

2 medium/large sweet potatoes
3 T (or so) grated parmesan
3 T (or so) ricotta, or 1 egg
1.5 c white flour
1/2 c. whole wheat flour
salt to taste
dash of nutmeg

For frying:
10 leaves or so fresh sage
2 T. butter + olive oil

For topping: parmesan, + chopped walnut or hazelnuts

Optional: spinach, to fry along in the pan with the gnocchi

Microwave the sweet potatoes til cooked. Let cool. Peel and if you have a ricer, process them with it, or scoop into a large bowl and use a potato masher. You want some texture, not a puree. Add the other ingredients. This is easiest to work by hand. 

On a large board, cut the dough in quarters. Roll each quarter into a log and cut pieces about the size of a small grape. Smaller is better. You can flatten the log and cut it laterally and then in 1/2" pieces.

Flour a gnocchi board, or just the back of a fork. Press your thumb to flatten the dough and roll it from the top. This creates a hollow, ridged gnocchi.

Repeat with each quarter. This makes a lot of gnocchi. I froze half for another meal. 

Boil a large pot of water and then drop the gnocchi in a few at a time. They pop up pretty quickly.

In a large skillet, add some olive oil and butter. Fry the sage leaves. When they're crisp, remove them, and add a few dozen gnocchi. Brown on both sides. Yum!

Serve with grated parmesan, chopped nuts, pesto, or whatever you like.

If you throw some spinach in the pan with the gnocchi, it will be even more nutricious and colorful.

 

Claudia Roden Persian Chicken w Apricots, Pistachios, Pomegranate Syrup

This beautiful recipe was featured in Hadassah Magazine. It's perfect for Sukkot. I've made it several times in Chestertown, since it keeps well for winter shabbatot when you cook in advance. 

I have made some changes, like adding rice for the last stage, making it a kind of arroz con pollo. The biggest task in this recipe is browning the chicken, which I find is hard to do. But, it pulls the juices into the pan for the sauce and, I think, prevents the chicken from getting soggy?

2 T sunflower oil
2 onions, chopped
8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (they are usually sold six to a package. 8 barely fit in a big skillet.)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
7 oz soft dried apricots, chopped
1 t ground cinnamon
1 t ground coriander
1 T pomegranate molasses
Juice of 1/2 lemon

optional: 3/4 c. of rice plus extra water
Generous 1/2 cup pistachios, coarsely chopped

1. Warm the sunflower oil in a large sauté pan (with a lid) over low heat. Add the onions and cook, with the lid on, stirring often, for about 10 minutes, until soft and golden. 

2. In a second saute pan, with a lid, put the chicken thighs into the pan, skin-side down, add salt and pepper and cook over medium heat, with the lid on, for about 10 minutes, until the skin releases its fat and the chicken pieces are well browned. Turn them over and cook the other side for 10 minutes, until browned, adding more salt and pepper. 

3. Add the apricots and add the onions to the pan, lifting the chicken pieces so that they sit on top of the apricots and onions.

4. Measure 3/4 cup water into a liquid measuring cup, stir in the cinnamon, coriander, pomegranate molasses and lemon juice and pour over the chicken.

5. Optional: add 3/4 c. rice plus the appropriate amount of liquid (can be a little less than for just cooking rice, since you're also adding the 3/4 c water in Step 4.

Cook, covered, over low heat for 25 minutes, until the chicken is very tender and cooked through and the liquid is reduced.

5. Serve the chicken sprinkled with the pistachios. It's not super-colorful but very, very delicious!

Claudia Roden's Yogurt Cake

A 7" cake. It puffs and settles.

Here is Claudia Roden's Yogurt Cake. It's the same idea except adding yogurt gives it more heft. Eyal and Nadav love it! They call it yogurt muffins, for mysterious reasons. Note it has flour. Probably you could sub almond flour if you wanted to do this on Pesach, or make it gluten free. It's much lighter than cheese cake, but similar.

4 large eggs, separated, at room temperature - put the yolks in the larger bowl

½ cup granulated sugar
3 T [try doubling this for a denser cake] all-purpose flour (can be whole wheat)
1 ⅔ cups whole-milk Greek yogurt, or strain regular yogurt in a coffee filter for an hour or two.
1 lemon, zested and juiced

Optional: 1/2 c blueberries
Pinch of salt (optional), cinnamon to taste

Heat oven to 350 degrees and butter an 8- or 9-inch springform pan, or two smaller (A 7" and 5" works well).

• Using an electric hand mixer, beat egg whites until they're stiff peaks
• Using the same mixer, combine yolks and sugar (no need to wash beaters after the egg white). Beat on medium-high until the mixture is very pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. 
• Mix in flour, yogurt, lemon zest and juice, and salt until fully incorporated.
• Gently fold half of the egg whites into the yolk-yogurt mixture until only a few streaks remain. 
• Fold in the remaining whites, scraping the bottom and sides of the bowl, until the batter is evenly mixed, light and smooth.
• If you add blueberries, add a little flower to coat them. Take about 2/3 of the blueberries and mix in the batter. Save the rest for the top.
• Scrape the batter into prepared pan(s) and smooth into an even layer. Set the balance of the berries on top of the cake/s. These will not sink.
• Bake until the top is speckled with golden brown and puffed, 35 to 55 minutes. ( This burns if you don't watch it! You can cover with tin foil if it's browning too fast.
• Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cake cool before cutting. Serve warm or cold.

Fritzie's 60s OJ Onion Chicken

Zach is amused by 20th Century recipes with shortcut ingredients. The most famous (and maligned!) is  greenbean casserole with cans of mushroom soup and onion rings, but people do love it.

This chicken was my mom's recipe. It's on the Lipton Soup website as just OJ and the soup powder, but I add others things.

I have made it many times, and Abba asks for it. Frozen OJ is basically 100% juice, so not really processed at all. The onion soup powder does have some additives, but none I would avoid except MSG, if you have a guest who is allergic to it.

Heat oven to 375

2 chickens, cut in 8ths (or thighs, or breasts)
1 can frozen OJ (12 oz)
1 packet onion soup mix. (It's about 1.4 oz, if you buy a jar of it)
a few oz. raisins
optional: soy sauce to taste, garlic to taste, sliced scallions for the last few minutes

Pack the chicken into one large pan, skin sides up. 

Mix all the ingredients and spread over the top. Baste a few times. 

Bake for about 1 1/4 hour. Turn off the oven and leave in the chicken. It's most delicious when the sauce has nicely glazed. You could add the scallions and then turn off the oven. They will add some flavor and visual appeal.

Almond Horns - Mandelhörnchen

For Zeke's bar mitzvah, I wanted to bake something primarily for Zeke. I told him he didn't have to share his goodies with anyone. (For Ezra's, since we were a small group and we hung out at their house, I baked more generic things.) Zeke did share them, but received his own private stash and was quite pleased about it.

Since the Hausmanns are yekkehs on both sides, and indeed the boys already have German citizenship, I picked this treat, mandelhörnchen. I read about them in Smitten Kitchen, but ultimately went with the German version, video linked above. It uses marzipan, which I had in the house and wanted to try. 

There are many discussions of the merits of almond paste vs. marzipan. I took the sprinkles idea from Smitten Kitchen. These are not something Eric ever mentioned, but they are German classics.

This is a European metric recipe translated into American measures, so a little odd. 

7.05 oz marzipan
0.89 cups almond meal or almond flour
1 egg white for the dough
0.83 cups confectioners sugar (= powdered sugar)
2 t lemon juice
1 egg-white for dipping
4 oz sliced almonds
1 cup dark chocolate (more or less)


Put the marzipan, almond flour, confectioners sugar, egg white, and lemon juice into a bowl and mix it all together.
With wet fingers, shape 6 Crescents from the dough. (these would be huge. I did 9 and would go smaller still).
Dip each crescent first into the egg white and then turn it in the almond slices until it's well covered.
Set on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper.
Preheat the oven to 350°F and bake the almond crescents for 10 to 15 minutes or a little longer if you want them more crisp.

Let them cool and in the meantime, melt the chocolate on the induction Melt setting in a frying pan.
Once the almond horns have cooled completely, dip the ends of the horns into the chocolate. [Sprinkle on the jimmies!]
Let the chocolate set and then enjoy.

Not bad for a first try, and they were well-received!