Cranberry Brie Pull Apart Loaf

We don't have parties very often, but I just made this for a winter tea. It's appropriate anytime, but lovely for the Thanksgiving to New Years holiday stretch. It is beautiful and delicious. A bit of a technical challenge, but not much in the way of complexity. Quantities are flexible.

1 round or oval boule or sour dough loaf
1/3 c whole cranberry sauce (could be apple slices for RH) [I just made a small amount with equal parts water, sugar, and cranberries]
5 T butter

1-2 T honey
8-10 oz Brie (it's easy to find kosher brands now, for whatever reason) - sliced thin.
a few sprigs of rosemary, chopped, plus a few sprigs for garnish

Thyme - chopped or ground, maybe a teaspoon.

Preheat oven to 350.

Cut the loaf in a criss-cross grid, leaving the bottom intact. Make sure the knife is sharp - if the bread is dense, this is hard. One recipe said to do is diagonally, which might be easier.

Melt the butter with honey, rosemary, and thyme.

Setting the sliced loaf on a tin foil base, on your baking tin - pour about half of the melted butter in the crevices and over the top so it soaks in.

Poke the brie slices in the cuts, in both directions. It's going to melt, so don't worry about it being perfect.

Pour, or by hand, stuff cooked cranberries in the slots. Pour the rest of the cranberry sauce and the butter over the top.

Bake until the brie melts, about 15 minutes. Don't overbake or it's really hard to cut the bottom. 

It's nice on a pedestal cake server. Garnish with rosemary sprigs.

Use a serrated spatula and pull!

This is gorgeous! And delicious!

There was a lot leftover and I served it room temperature at a kiddush, and people enjoyed it that way, too. But hot and gooey is the goal.

Watermelon with feta, balsamic, & mint

This is a beautiful first course. A slice of watermelon--this one is a mini-melon, the size of cantalope--sliced but on the rind, sprinkled with feta, drizzled with balsamic, and garnished with mint or basil.

Essentially it is a recipe for watermelon salad, but presented individually.

Easy, beautiful, refreshing, really healthful.

Beautiful plates help!!

Jane Brody's Lentil Paté

The trick to this easy, delicious dish is carmelizing the onions.  It makes a large quantity, enough for an appetizer for 8-10 people, plated.  (Good opportunity to use pretty salad plates.)  I like to serve it with a variety of crudites, like hearts of palm, radishes, whole mushrooms, and baby carrots.  Like carpas, but not Pesadik [though it is now that we eat kitniot].

1 c. lentils
3 c. water
1 large or two medium onions, diced
1 egg
oil (or butter)
chopped walnuts (about 5 - optional)
salt, pepper, and seasonings you like  (dill would be good)

In a 2 quart pot, boil the lentils in the water for about 35 minutes. Put an egg in for the last 20 minutes or so, to hard boil.

Fry the onions in a fry pan in the oil.  Do this at medium heat for about 15 minutes or more, stirring frequently so the onions carmelize but don't burn.  Easy to do this while the lentils are boiling.

Drain the lentils, peel the egg and mash it.  Then add the onions and mashed egg to the lentils, mashing with a potato masher.  No need to use a food processor, but pulsing with an immersion blender saves time. A masher gives it a little more texture.  It isn't the prettiest color, so -  hello, Parsley!!

You could leave out the egg and make this vegan.  

It is similar to the mushroom paté I make at Pesach, with dill.  In fact, dill would be great in this.

Rustic Cream of Parsnip Soup

This was just added to my pantheon of great soups.  Parsnips are one of my favorite side dish vegetables, more interesting than potatoes.  Uncle Steven came to expect them at our house.  They are good roasted, a nice addition, chopped, to motzah ball soup, and good mashed, too.

This soup is creamy without using half-and-half like most recipes do. One important thing is having a good sudoku knife - without that leverage it is really hard to slice and chop parsnips.  This recipe makes about 8 servings.

1 T olive oil (or butter)
one medium onion
2-3 stalks celery
2 cloves garlic, chopped
3-4 medium sized parsnips 
2 carrots, optional (they make it a more appealing color)
4 c. broth (vegetarian powdered is fine)
bay leaf
salt, pepper
dash of nutmeg
other optional herbs - parsley or dill for garnish

• Heat oil (or butter) in a deep pot with a lid.  
• Peel and chop the onion and add it with the garlic and saute at medium.  
• Chop the celery [or leeks] and add.  
• Peel the parsnips and dice, cutting the long way and then crosswise.  Add to the sauteing vegetables.  
• Add chopped carrots, if you like.
• Pour in 4 cups of broth, salt, pepper, the bay leaf, and a pinch of nutmeg. 
• Simmer for about 20 minutes, covered, until the vegetables are soft.  
• Using an immersion blender, process until smooth.  It's fine if some of the vegetables are still a little chunky, which gives a nice texture.

It's a fairly bland color (a good reason to add carrots), so chopped parsley helps! This gives a lot of flavor and depth for a vegan dish.

Cold Sesame Noodles

If you measure the oil first,
the other ingredients can float above it -
a little time saver.

Sauce ingredients:

8 T Chunky Peanut Butter

4 T Veggie broth (follow instructions for your veggie broth powder)

9 T Soy Sauce

6 T Sesame Oil

2 T Cider Vinegar

3 T Honey (maybe substitute agave nectar for vegans)

3 cloves minced garlic

4 T vegetable oil

Other Ingredients:

1 lb cooked cold spaghetti
3 Tbsp sesame seeds.
4-5 Scallions
1 cucumber (in strips)

Process:

1. Put the Peanut Butter, Veggie Broth, and Soy Sauce in covered bowl (leave some space for air to escape. Microwave for 30 second. Stir until the PB is no longer stuck together and the texture is consistent. You may need to put it in the microwave for another 20 seconds to get the texture consistent. this step take some elbow grease.
2. add all the sauce ingredients. stir well.
3. add the cold pasta. mix thoroughly. (I like to do it by hand. Make sure the bowl is large enough.)
4. dice the scallions and cut the cucumbers into strips.
5. add the scallions, cucumbers, and sesame seeds.
6. serve chilled if convenient.

Mushroom Walnut Dill Paté

This is just plain good, and happens to be kosher for passover - an excellent recipe for using any dill and parsley you just ***might*** have in your refrigerator crisper drawer.  Ditto with the hardboiled egg.  It's a very forgiving recipe.

1 hard-boiled egg
1 to 2 onions, chopped fine
12 oz or so of walnuts
1/2 lb (or more) sliced mushrooms
olive oil (or vegetable oil)
dill, parsley - the amount is flexible.
salt/pepper to taste

Saute the mushroom and onion over medium heat in oil in a large frying pan until soft and browned.  Put the browned onion & mushroom in a food processor with the walnuts, dill, parsley, and egg (cut into a few pieces).  (If you have a small food processor like I do, you need to do this in two batches.) Process until smooth.  Season to taste.

Some call this mock chopped liver.  Since actual chopped liver is not on my list, this doesn't feel like mock anything, it feels like really wonderful walnut mushroom paté.

It's a nice appetizer, served on lettuce with some crudites and crackers.  Or a great dip for hors d'oeuvres.