Shabbat menu (milchig)

[magid]

• grape liquid, whole wheat challah
  
• hummus
  
• vegetable soup: onion, garlic, sweet potato, collards, parsnips, sunchokes, red lentils, black pepper, hot sauce, dried mushrooms, spinach (I was going to put the rutabagas in, but once I found the sunchokes, I decided that they needed using, and adding the rutabagas as well would result in too much white, plus too full a pot
  
• roasted cauliflower
  
• caramelized onions sauteed with zucchini and baby bok choi (seasoned with Szechuan spicy sauce and soy sauce)
  
• jasmine rice with chickpeas and preserved lemon
  
• green salad: red leaf lettuce, arugula, scallion, orange, green olives, feta, sunflower seeds, and a balsamic vinaigrette
  
• p-fruit salad: pomelo and pineapple
  
• pie: cranberries cooked in the liquid from a jar of sour cherries plus the last of the white sugar, then mixed with the sour cherries and some walnuts, put in a pie crust, a little maraschino liqueur poured on top, and baked (based on the taste of the cranberries, this is likely not very sweet, and I'm a bit nervous about how it turned out

The challah is in the oven, the soup is simmering, and all I have left to do (on the food front) is make the salad, which can happen after Shabbat (and I already remembered to pre-grind some black pepper).
________

I know we need the rain, but cold and rainy is my least favorite weather to be out in. So today was my first day this year not walking to work. :-(

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I wish this had been my Shabbat menu! What a variety of hearty and appealing foods, fitting for the weather and all things I would like. Yum.

Hooray for the remembering to pre-grind.

I'm sorry were not able to walk to work. Two months with all the cold and precipitation and especially ICE is an amazing feat. I think you chose an appropriate day to take a break.

Have a joyous Purim.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the menu compliment. I wasn't sure whether it really did fit the weather, given the cold and wet, but it worked out fine.

If at some point you'd like to de-anon, you're welcome to come to dinner :-).

Part of me is fine with taking a day off, while another part of me thinks I should've just brought a change of clothes and walked. On the third hand, I spent extra time in the morning cooking, so I would've been later than I prefer to be. The Yaktrax have helped with the ice pretty well. And I mostly like the cold when I'm moving.

Purim sameach to you to.

[(Anonymous)]

The hearty, warm soup seemed especially fitting for the cold and wet.

You are so lovely. Thank you. It would be nice to be able to spend time with you. Someday, I hope.

I've certainly experienced regrets after having skipped something for the first time. It's good that you now have the change-of-clothing strategy to add to your repertoire of what to do under various conditions in order to manage and enjoy the walk. Hope you do okay in today's wind.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Thank you, I was ok today. Face cold, legs cold, but otherwise a little too warm, mostly.

Notes

[magid.livejournal.com]

The vegetable soup was ok, but I thought there was too much different stuff that didn't really come together into a coherent whole. I'm not sure what to do about it. I can mash the sweet potatoes a bit to make it less thin (I do need to get some barley for soup, but at this point, after Pesach.), but I'm not sure what else, other than more salt, pepper, and hot sauce. Maybe some dumplings would make it more interesting.

The cauliflower was yummy.

The sauteed green stuff was good, and the leftovers went really well with the rice'n'chickpeas; the lemoniness wasn't weird with the spicy sauce after all.

I made far too much rice, but it will get used.

I made too much salad, but not by much.

The pie didn't come out quite as I'd expected: I'd thought that cooking the cranberries in the sour cherry juice would give it enough pectin to gel, but if it did, the baking broke it down. I also realized that unless they're fresh, sour cherries aren't really the wonder that cranberries are. I mean, the fresh fruit is great, but for cooking, cranberries are tarter, more noticeably not-sweet. The cherries pale in comparison.

[rethought.livejournal.com]

I meant to ask this yesterday...better late than never.

You may have done this before, but I was wondering if you would post your recipe for challah? :)

[magid.livejournal.com]

I'd be happy to, except I don't have a particular recipe. I think I started with a Mollie Katzen recipe, except I think my recipe came from Still Life With Menu originally, and once I got familiar with how bread works, I permute it each week.

The general outline: 6-9 cups of flour (dictated by how much bread I need; the flour can be all white, some whole wheat and/or white wheat, rye, barley, etc. In any case, the non-wheat flours are less than a third), 4 tsp salt (less if less flour), 1 tsp yeast (I have the kind that doesn't need proofing, which is why I think of all the dry stuff first and all the liquids after), 2-3 cups of warm water (more if it's less humid and if there's more whole wheat; enough to make the dough sticky enough without lots of dry flour), and a glug of olive oil.

I knead that together, and let it sit overnight, or while I'm at work (not in summer, though) until it's risen, then punch down and make loaves. Second rise varies depending on my schedule, from an hour or more down to putting it in the oven almost immediately as the oven heats (not ideal, but it works).

Depending on what I have around/mood, I may add grain flakes (read: hot cereal in flake form; pretty much any brown hot cereal works), soaked bulghur, flaxseed meal, sweetener (white sugar, molasses, honey, maple syrup, etc), and/or eggs (I know enough vegans/allergic to eggs people that I don't default to them, or to topping with seeds).

If I'm making bread that isn't for challah, I have a lot more leeway with flavors.

[rethought.livejournal.com]

I'll give that a try. Probably not this week but definitely next.

Thanks so much. :)

[magid.livejournal.com]

Good luck!

I remember being scared to make bread, intimidated by yeast, and so on. It took a while until I got the hang of it enough to feel comfortable off book.