French Toast a la Nomi

How could we not have a Challah French Toast recipe? If you can call it a recipe.
The pictured version is two eggs.

~ four slices of challah
2 eggs
~ 2 T milk
a few shakes of cinnamon/sugar or add them separately
a little vanilla
butter for the pan

The trick of French Toast is finding a bowl that is shallow with a flatter bottom for soaking the slices.

Beat the eggs.  Add a little milk + the seasonings.  Put your first slice flat, and when it's soaks up the liquid, turn it over.  Then slide it up the side of the bowl and repeat.

In the meantime, melt the butter over a large non-stick skillet, on medium flame.  Butter burns if it's too high, so keep an eye.

Soak your additional slices. Slide them into the hot pan.  First side will take 3-4 minutes, second side just 1 or 2.  Serve with
cottage cheese
yogurt
jam
syrup

Yummmmmm!

Salmon Cakes, Salmon Croquettes, Salmon Patties

All the same, really, but croquettes sound more appealing.  My mother made these a few times a year and I always loved them, so they are comfort food for me.  David asked that they be eliminated from our shared cuisine, but when he's out of town, I make these for myself, with rice pilaf. They never tasted like Mom's, but tonight I nailed it, so here's her recipe, with my modifications in [brackets] - her Mishnah, my Gemara.

1 can salmon (1 lb), or 2 small cans
1 egg
1 T. catsup [+ a t. mayo]
bread crumbs to bind [about 2 to 3 T]
dried onion [one half small onion, minced, plus a half stalk celery, minced fine. If you have garden herbs, some parsley would be great.]
Option (tasted this at Yosemite at The Big Trees) a t. or so of capers
salt, pepper
flour for dipping and frying
lemon, for garnish [if you're being fancy!]

1. Mix all the ingredients.  A potato masher works well. The salmon skin and bones are very nutritious and break up easily into the mixture.  The mixture should be moist but a little loose.  Don't go too heavy on the  bread crumbs or it makes it too dense.
2. Chill a half hour or more.
3. Heat oil in a large skillet.
4. Put a small heap of flour on a small plate.  Shape the mixture into flat patties and dip each side in the flour and then set it in the hot oil.
5. Cook until they're set on the first side - the flour gives the croquette a smooth, browned surface.  That's what I had been missing over the years!  Turn over and cook a few more minutes on side 2.  Makes about 6 or 7, as you see.

These would be good with a sauce!

Nomi's Favorite Banana Bread

This basic recipe is from a kid's cookbook I sent away for with coupons, from Gold Medal flour, copyright 1987, which was a great year.  Like many of my cookbooks, this is the only recipe I used it for.  It's an easy, basic loaf. Sometimes I bake it in 2 smaller loaf pans, or more recently in a quarter sheet pan in the Breville.  It's quicker and somehow it feels more gratifying.  When Abba was on a low far diet I substituted apple sauce for the oil.  For a protein boost, and to moisten it, I also used no-fat sour cream.
I often freeze ripe bananas, don't even need to put them in a container, they have their own wrapping - they don't look beautiful, but they are fine for banana bread!

1/3 to 3/4 C sugar (recipe calls for 3/4 but I think it's too sweet.)
1 1/2 C mashed bananas (3 large)
3/4 C veg oil [substitute: 1/2 c applesauce + 1/4 c. no-fat sour cream]
2 eggs
2 C all-purpose flour - [I usually use half WW and half regular]
1/2 C chopped nuts
1 t baking soda
2 t vanilla
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 salt

Heat oven to 325. 
Spray loaf pan(s) with oil.
In large mixing bowl, mash the bananas.  If you have a potato masher, that works well.
Add sugar, oil and eggs, mixing all together. [Tip: if you are substituting sour cream for part of the oil, put the oil in first, and then drop in the sour cream which will displace the oil and can be measured accurately, without the sour cream sticking to the measuring cup.]
Combine in remaining ingredients. Pour into pan[s]. 
Bake until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, 60-70 minutes for a single loaf or ~ 50 minutes for two smaller. 
Let cool 10 minutes, then loosen sides of loaf from pan and remove from pan. Let cool completely before slicing. 

If you use a silicon loaf pan, it works fine but the top of the loaf is flat.

The debate: is this a dessert? 

Matzah Ball Soup

Can't believe I didn't put THIS recipe up, since you've always been such a fan.  I'm taking the one right off the Striet's Matzo Meal box.  All matzah ball recipes are basically matzah meal, liquid (broth or seltzer or just water), eggs and oil.

Makes about 16 matzah balls, not huge.
First make the batter.  While it chills, you make your soup.

1 cup matzah meal
4 large eggs
1/4 c oil
1/4 c water, broth or seltzer
1 t. salt (or less, if you use boullion which has a lot of sodium in it)
ground pepper to taste

for soup itself, vegetarian:

parve boullion

parsnips

onion

carrots

other roots, if you have them

dill, if you can get it

parsley

spinach

Salsa, optional

In a medium sized bowl, beat eggs.  Add water, oil, salt and pepper.  Add matzah meal and stir thoroughly.  Refrigerate about a half hour to 45 minutes.  The longer they're chilled, the heavier they turn out. (At least I think that's how it works.)  My mother always told the story that the first time she made matzah balls, with her friend Maxine, they thought the batter was to loose so they kept adding more matzah meal.  Bad idea!
Wash the bowl and fork right away.  This batter dries to a concrete-like consistency!

Meanwhile, get going on the soup.

In large pot, bring 8 c. water (2 quarts) to a boil.  Add a peeled whole onion and about 3 T of parve boullion. Meanwhile, peel and chop one parsnip, about 2-3 stalks celery, and 6 or so baby carrots, or 2 peeled adult carrots.  (they're not actually baby carrots!  they're just pieces of larger carrots.)  They need to be finely diced since you serve them in the soup.

Doda Rochelle's housekeeper, Connie, who is Latin American, puts some salsa into the broth, which gives it a little more color and kick.  SInce the vegetables are diced, it cooks fairly quickly.

To shape the matzah balls, spray your hands with oil.  Then make shape them, plum-sized, dropping each one into the boiling broth.  They quickly rise to the top.  The recipes all say they should cook ~ a half an hour.  Seems like they're done sooner than that to me, but usually the problem is the opposite, it takes a long time before you're ready to serve it.

It's lovely to have fresh parsley and dill to chop and add on top.  This soup looks much better in light color or glass bowls, BTW.

Becca throws in lots of spinach in the end, which also adds great color and nutritional boost.

Knaidloach are actually quite easy.  People are always kind of scared of making them, and I have no idea why!