Double Mushroom Barley Soup

Here's my favorite Double Mushroom Barley Soup. I use both dried mushrooms along with fresh, and it makes a rich, hearty, full-bodied soup. It's a meal in itself if you're inclined.

1 oz. pkg dried mushrooms (pictured)* -these are Porcini
1 T. olive oil
8 oz fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 onion, sliced
1/2 lb carrots, sliced
4 ribs celery, chopped
3 T vegetable boullion powder (I like the Israeli versions, one pictured. While chicken "flavored", they are actually vegetarian.)
1 cup barley
8 cups water
Pepper, salt, tamari sauce if desired, to taste.
Parsley for garnish

Soak the dried mushrooms in water about 1/2 hour. In a large soup pot, saute the onion, fresh mushrooms, and celery. Microwave the carrots until soft, a minute or two. Slice in small chunks and run through the food processor until finely chopped. Add to the sauteing vegetables. Slice the soaked dried mushrooms into small pieces - they will be spongey. Add to the soup pot along with 8 c. water, 3 T. bullion, 1 c barley, salt and pepper. Since the boullion is high in sodium, I don't add much salt, but be generous with the pepper. Bring to a low boil, turn on lowest setting, and simmer for 1 1/2 hours. The barley will thicken the soup. The dark mushrooms, carrot, and celery give the soup a nice color palate - mushroom/barley is fairly gray looking by itself.
This soup freezes well. It's a great gift or bring along.
* Dried mushrooms are often found in the ethnic aisle of the grocery store, in the Kosher section. They hail from eastern Europe, as do most American Jews, but this dish is not uniquely Jewish. It's just that most groceries no longer have a "Polish" or "Lithuanian" section


PS I have checked a few supermarkets and cannot find the dark dried mushrooms. I checked in with the distributer, Kirsch Mushrooms, and they don't know which stores their products wind up in. However, you can buy a pound from them directly for $42.80, shipping included. Just mail them a check to 751 Drake Street, Bronx, NY 10474.
The little containers are about $2.95 for 1/2 oz. so this is the equivalent of 32 individual containers! (And way cheaper if you don't mind a lifetime supply - 32 containers would be $94, + 32 plastic containers biting the dust.)

Chocolate Stuffed Prunes

My grandmother, Nana, who was Ida Hertz, wasn't a cozy lady.  But she did send us a tin of hamantaschen each year, and they were terrific.  I also have a strong memory of her sending my dad a box of chocolate stuffed prunes for Purim.  I saw her just a few times a year, and never really spent any time with her, so I have no idea what this was about, nor did I ever have chocolate stuffed prunes at any other time.  Why did I recall this 50 years later?  Food memories are like that.  That's why I'm doing this blog!

2 bags of prune, as moist as you can find
4 oz bittersweet baking chocolate bar, or any chocolate you fancy

I experimented.  They are easy, and delicious.

With a knife or kitchen scissors, half the prunes (one bag) lengthwise.  Flatten them out and lay them on a cookie sheet.  Take a bar of bittersweet baking chocolate, or any kind of chocolate you like, and break it into pieces placing a chunk on each prune.  Put it in a slow oven, about 300 degrees, for just five minutes.  Snip up the prunes from the other bag while the chocolate is melting.  Take out the baking tin of prunes and place another prune on top of the chocolate, to make a prune chocolate sandwich!

Set the cookie tin the the refridge so the chocolate hardens.

Goal in the future is for them to be a little more regular and pretty.

PS From Laurie Hertz - who grew up in St. Paul and saw Nana every week.
Sorry.  Not to be overly critical but you've got it wrong.  The coolest part of the prunes (I remember chocolate covered prunes) was that she put them in those little white candy wrappers and then in an old (Fanny Farmer?) candy box.  She must've have saved every candy box she ever received.  And every candy wrapper.  I don't think you could just go out and buy them in those days. I think they might have had a piece of cherry on each one.  

Update in 2023: I baked Zeke Hausmann a batch of almondhornchen (I posted the recipe) and I had a lot of leftover melted chocolate so I dipped prunes. Neil liked those the best!

Fritzie Platkin's Cinnamon Coffee Cake Bundt

There were only a few bakeries in Fargo, and the Jewish women rarely purchased anything at them.  They were great bakers.  This was a cake my mother baked regularly, a favorite of my dad's.  I'd never actually made it before now (2010) but seeing and tasting it really brought my mom back.  I can see her wearing a cobbler apron, facing her ancient MixMaster on the counter, adding ingredients, concentrating on the procedures at hand.

This makes a very large, rich, moist cake.  It's quite similar to the Moosewood Cardamom Coffee Cake, so you could, in addition to the cinnamon, add cardamom.  It's also well-known as a Hungarian Sour Cream Coffee Cake.  Whatever you call it, it's wonderful.

I have baked this since for a kiddush for my mom’s late Tishri yahrtseit, and pretty sure I baked one for Nomi and Micah’s L’chayim Engagement havdalah.

She made it in a bundt pan.*  Bundts were all the rage in the 60's and '70's.  (footnote below).

Take out butter to soften.
Preheat oven to 375°
Spray a large bundt  or 10" tube pan with oil

¾ c butter (!) = 1.5 sticks
1½ c sugar

3 eggs
3 c. cake flour

¾  t salt
1½ t. baking soda
1½ t baking powder
12 oz sour cream (non-fat or low-fat is fine) - [they come in 8 or 16 oz containers]
¾ t almond extract or vanilla

Nut Mixture:
¾ c. chopped walnuts
¾ c. sugar
1½ t cinnamon

In large bowl (or mix master), cream the butter with an electric mixer.  Add the sugar and eggs and cream very well.

In another large bowl mix the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder, or just mix it into the mix master bowl in you are using a stationary mixer.  Alternate adding the sour cream + extract and the dry ingredients.  (I have no idea why this recipe calls for cake flour, but no arguing with a recipe.)

In a big plastic container with a lid, like a deli container, add the walnut/sugar/cinnamon, put the top on securely, and shake. (This is where you'd add the same amount of cardamom to be Moosewoody.)  A double size hummus container was perfect!

Add 1/3 of the batter to the oiled pan - this is best done by using a spatula and dropping it in rather than pouring, since the batter is very thick.  Add half the cinnamon mixture, spreading it evenly. Add the second 1/3 of the batter, top with the remainder of the nut mixture, and finish it off with the last third of the batter.

Bake at 375 about 50-55 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

Cool.  To take the cake out of the tube pan, gently cut around the perimeter of the pan to loosen the sides and around the tube.  I now use a non-stick tube pan, so it means using a plastic spatula/knife.
Pull the cake and tube out and set it on your tray.  Gently scrape the bottom of the cake to loosen it from the bottom and also loosen the cake from the tube itself.  You can then either lift the cake up and pull out the pan,  or invert the cake onto a second plate, pull out the tube, and tip it back on the tray so the rounded side is face-up.

This cake is truly worthy of a nice footed cake server.  It makes about 24 slices, plus some pretty spectacular crumbs.

Nordic Ware's Founders

All it took was $500 and a good idea back in 1946, when Dave and his wife Dotty, started a business venture in the basement of their home, and from that point on, the company 's first bakeware products took-off. The Rosette Iron, Ebelskiver Pan, Krumkake Iron and Platte Panna Pan, became the first products, as well as the ethnic specialties in which the foundation was laid for the newborn company.

In 1948, the Dave and Dotty purchased Northland Aluminum Products, combining their own line of aluminum products with Northland's, and began producing bakeware and household items under the Nordic Ware trademark. Dave was an entrepreneur at best, and often was heard to say, "If you can sell it, you can usually make it."

The Bundt Pan

In 1950, the landmark pan was introduced, after the Minneapolis Chapter of the Hadassah Society asked Dave and Dotty to produce a kuglehof pan, similar to the one the society's president had received from her grandmother in Germany. Dave produced the pan from cast aluminum for the Hadassah Society and a few for the Nordic Ware trademark, which he sold to department stores using the name, bund pan. (The word bund means a gathering-thus a bund cake, with its characteristic fluting, was a cake suitable for a gathering or party.) Nordic Ware created the pan and filed for a trademark to protect its creation, renaming the pan the Bundt pan.

Ella Helfrich, in 1966, used a Bundt pan for her winning recipe of Tunnel of Fudge Cake, in the 17th Pillsbury Bake-off. Following the contest, Pillsbury was overwhelmed with more than 200,000 requests from people that wanted to purchase a winning Bundt pan. In 1971, Pillsbury launched a line of Bundt cake mixes, licensing the name from Nordic Ware that continued the nationwide quest for Bundt pans. Now, Nordic Ware markets its own line of Gourmet Bundt® Cake Mixes.

"Today, there are nearly 60 million Bundt pans in kitchen's across America," Nordic Ware President David (Dave & Dotty's son). said. "Almost a Bundt pan in every pantry." The Bundt pan has continued its growth in popularity. It has been a guest on TV cooking shows, featured in an array of magazines and also used by some of the world's famous bakers. It is likely the most popular baking mold in the world.

Chilled Spiced Peach Mango Soup - shana tova

This scrumption soup requires advanced planning on two fronts: you need to buy the peaches & mango several days in advance, and you need to make it far enough ahead that it’s really chilled by serving time.  It is light but very flavorful, nice if you'll be having a heavy holiday feast.  I served it for our first Rosh Hashanah dinner at 6622 - peaches are in season for Rosh Hashanah, not just apples.

1/2 cup sliced almonds (alternative: toasted coconut)

1 T olive oil

6 large, ripe peaches - the riper the better [this can take up to a week!]
2 ripe bananas or a large ripe mango, peeled and diced
1⅓ cup orange juice OR grape juice
1 lime OR lime juice
2¾ tbsp honey
2 T Amaretto liqueur or peach brandy or Cointreau
1/2 c. water or more

1¼ tsp  ground ginger OR a t. of fresh grated ginger
¼ tsp  cardamom
¼ tsp  cinnamon

pinch of salt

pinch of cloves 
⅔  cup buttermilk, soy yogurt, or regular yogurt for garnish , optional

Optional garnish: mint sprigs

1.     Put the peaches in a pot or bowl and pour boiling water over them.  Cool enough to touch.  This is an easy way to peel them – if they are really ripe, the peels will slip off.

2.     In small skillet, toast almonds in oil over medium heat, stirring often, until golden, about 3 minutes. Set aside. 

  

4.     In large saucepan, add the peaches and bananas/mangos, squeezing the ripe fruit as you drop it in, so the pulp is mashed. Add orange or grape juice, squeezed lime juice, honey, liqueur, water, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, and pinch of salt and of cloves; bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until peaches are very soft, about 12 minutes. Let cool. 

5.     Using an immersion blender, purée until smooth. Cover and refrigerate until cold, about 4 hours. If it’s very thick, you can add ice cubes to the batch.  I often refrigerate chilled soup in a large glass pitcher - just make sure the ladle will fit through the top.

6.      Ladle into bowls. Drop in a dollop of yogurt or buttermilk, and swirl it to make a design. Sprinkle with toasted almonds, coconut, and mint. This year we used starfruit for the shehecheyanu and it would make a fun garnish.

Source, though I modified the recipe: http://www.canadianliving.com/food/chilled_spiced_peach_soup.php

Jo's Torte

This recipe is from an old, popular cookbook, Elegant But Easy. It's a lovely, very flexible dessert. Marian Burros, one of the authors, published a plum cake version in the NYTimes and it's legendary - the most popular recipe in NYTImes history. Jo Rosen served it to us, and I have made it dozens of times since. I like to make it in a glass-bottom spring form. I also purchased a bunch of smaller springform pans since it seems like we never actually finish a whole cake these days.

Dough:
1 c sugar
1/2 c butter (one stick) or 1/2 c olive oil
1 c. flour, sifted
1 t. baking powder
2 eggs
salt

Preheat oven to 350.

Cream sugar and butter.  Add flour, baking powder, salt and eggs.  Wet your hands and spread into a 9" springform  or a combination of smaller springform pans, evening the batter with a spatula.  I invested in a nonstick springform pan which works wonderfully. In a pinch you can use a pyrex rectangular pan but it's not as pretty.

Filling:
Fruit: choose one, or mixture of

• 1 pint blueberries - you can add about 25% more blueberries for a deeper dish. Frozen are fine.
• 2020 Pandemic - 1 pint blackberries + 1 ripe peach, baked in a 9" pan so it's higher. Needs at least 45 minutes. Gayanne's favorite is blackberries.
• 2023 Bumper Crop of strawberries in Chestertown version: a pint of sliced strawberries. Take a half pint extra strawberries and use Aunt Sally's trick, blend them with sugar and a little mint, for a sauce. Divine!
• 1.5 lbs Italian plums, pitted and quartered; they are yellow green when fresh but turn purple when baked * - see note at the bottom - substitute 1½ T. brandy for the lemon juice - This is nearly identical to the NYTime version here. There are tons of updates here. 
• As of 2024, Micah planted a fig tree for me (for us, but I asked, I think!). It has been fruiting wonderfully. The figs are small, red, juicy ones. Tried it in this cake today, about 15-20. Chopped them into small pieces and added pumpkin pie filling and some fig jam we had in the refridge (ideas from researching the internet.)
• Sliced, peeled apples
• Sliced apples or pears (2 medium) plus a half bag of cranberries, skip the lemon juice ; add extra sugar
• Sliced peaches 
• 1 can pumpkin + sugar + pumpkin pie spice + egg + soymilk or soy powder
• Sliced, peeled pears (about 3) brushed with a mixture of lemon curd, almond extract, and cinnamon
• or, if nothing is in season, or you need to save time, use a can of sliced apples or canned pie filling.

Lemon juice  (~ half a lemon squeezed, or bottled to taste)
Sugar

Cinnamon - use a heavy hand.

Flour, if fruit is very juicy like plums or peaches.  

Add fruit to top, covering the entire surface.  The fruit will sink into the torte - no need to worry about the aesthetics.

Sprinkle top with a little sugar, some lemon juice; cinnamon, sifting on a little extra flour for very juicy fruits like peaches or plums.  If you're using a two-part torte pan be sure to support it from the edges when you transfer it to the oven.

Bake at 350 for 40 to 45 minutes, til top is nicely browned.  When the cake is cool, detach the outer rim of the pan.
It's an easy recipe to double; it freezes well.
It's nice to have a footed cake plate for this - it's a beautiful presentation.

*Italian, or prune, plums are very juicy.

Abba likes this better than a traditional zwetchgenkuchen, plum open-face pie.
Prune plums are in season around the High Holidays, so it's a tradition, at least in Yekkeh (German Jewish) families, to make them for Rosh Hashanah. I posted some friends' versions here.

New variation: prepare a 1.5x batch in a lasagne pan, and cut like they are bars. So delicious. Bake about 35+ minutes at 350, convection setting.

Chestertown 2021: I found a very similar recipe online, looking for raspberries since we have so so many at 8221. Here's a video of it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgU2Q7SB87c

Basically, you spread half the batter, spread the raspberries on it, and then cover them with dollops of the remaining dough so you can still see the raspberries. 

150 g butter/margarine 150 g caster sugar 150 g ground almonds 150 g self raising flour 1 egg 1 tsp ground cinnamon 220 g raspberries

Potato Salad with Dill and Walnuts

I am a huge dill fan.  In the summer it's perfect in a room-temperature potato salad - filling, crunchy, satisfying.  I wouldn't call it so much a recipe as a combination of ingredients. The recipe is evolving, since the arrival of bags of tri-color mini-potatoes.










~ 1 1/2 lbs fingerling potatoes, or other small, new variety (mesh bag pictured is tri-colored small potatoes
Generous amount of dill, but less than what you buy as a "bunch" - say "half a bunch"
3 ribs celery or one peeled, seeded cucumber
~1/2 c. chopped walnuts
2 dollops* of low-fat mayonnaise (or sour cream or yogurt - or a combination of any of them)
mustard to taste
hard-boiled eggs (optional)
ripe avocado in chunks (optional)

1. Pick some dill, if you're lucky enough to live across from the Sterns garden, which boasts a huge dill plant.

2. Cover the potatoes and boil for about 10-12 minutes, until they're tender. (Less for the minis.) Some of them will burst open.  Let them cool a few minutes and then drain the water.  If you want to add more protein, you can hard boil eggs at the same time.  This was how my mom made potato salad.

3. In the meantime, pick out the tough stems and chop the dill fine.  Put it aside.

4. Take three ribs of celery (or the cucumber.)  Slice it into three long stripe, and then slice the three strips in half.  Then line up the six strips and start chopping away - this is the quickest way I know to chop celery. Put the celery into a large bowl - might as well be the one you'll serve it in.

5. No need to peel the potatoes.  Chop them into small pieces - for fingerlings, cut them into sixths. For minis, into halves. If you hard cooked the eggs, peel and chop them, too. One avocado on top, in chunks, is pretty and delicious. (Don't put it in the mixture, add it to the top.)

6. If the walnuts need chopping, the food processor does it very quickly.  When I was little, one of my favorite jobs was chopping the walnuts, but that was before food processors - they were new in the 70's. You put the nuts in the top, turned the handle which turned the blades, and the chopped nuts dropped down.

7.  Add the potatoes and walnuts to the bowl.  Add two dollops or so of mayonnaise, to taste. *Roughly, a dollop is a generous tablespoon.  You could mix mayo and yogurt if it's for a dairy meal. You can also add some dijon mustard. Reserve a little of the dill for garnishing the top; add the balance to the other ingredients. Stir all the ingredients, add salt and pepper to taste.

This salad tastes good at room temperature.
If you have extra dill, it's great in hummus.  Dill Hummus was my favorite flavor - I never could figure out why they took it off the market.
This is recipe is kosher for Passover, too.  A good way to use any dill left over from the matzah ball soup!
For vegans, omit eggs and be sure to use vegan mayo.

Ima-Modified Dorie Greenspan's Raisin Scones

Though Dorie Greenspan sounds like someone I might have met at Herzl Camp, she is a well-known food writer.  These scones were in Parade Magazine, not a fancy venue.  They are a bit more work than muffins, but have a wonderful texture.  A real treat.  I just made them with blueberries and it worked really well.  Carnberry/walnut is awesome!  Craisins would be beautiful, too.

1 large egg
½ cup milk (skim is fine)
1 cup all-purpose flour 
1 cup whole wheat flour (this can be 1/4 oatmeal, adding a nice texture)
2 ½  T sugar
1 T baking powder
½  t salt - optional
6 Tbsp cold butter, cut into bits or grated in the big side of a box grater (hold onto the wrapper)
¾ cup raisins, blueberries or chopped cranberries.  
optional: handful of chopped nuts, your choice
optional: confectioners' sugar for icing


1 Cut the butter into bits as soon as you take it out of the refrigerator, with a fork, a knife, or a box grater.  You can use the butter wrapper to cut on.
Spray a cookie tin with oil.  You can also use the butter wrapper.
2  Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Whisk the egg and milk together in one bowl and mix the flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt in another. 
3 Drop the butter into the flour mixture and, using your fingers, cut and rub until the mixture is pebbly, squeezing the butter bits into smaller pieces. Pour in the milk and egg. Mix with a spatula until the dough is evenly moist, or just use your hands. Add the raisins or other fruits and give the very sticky dough a few more stirs/kneads.  
4 Press into a long rectangle on a cutting board. Cut into triangles. 
Or you can divide the dough into five balls. An easy way to do this is to roll the dough into a log and cut it in five slices.  On a roll-out mat, flatten each slice into a disc, and cut in quarters, making 20 mini-scones. 
Try to cover fully exposed raisins or blueberries with dough so they don't burn.
These don't spread much so they can be fairly close.  
5 Bake for 20 minutes, or until the scones are golden brown. Cool for a few minutes. 
6 Optional, ice them.  Take about 1/2 cup of confectioners sugar.  Add water by drops.  Seriously.  It needs to be very thick or it spreads all over.  You can dip the scones, when cooled, in the icing, or spread it with a knife or small spatula.

*Makes 12. Per scone: 170 calories, 26g carbs, 3g protein, 7g fat, and 35mg cholesterol.
15 scones from the batter @ 136 calories
20 scones from the batter ("four bites") @ 100 calories.