Boston Organics, food thoughts
Mar. 26th, 2008 12:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidSmall box, one-third fruit.
Yesterday's cooking was all pantry cooking, using what I had around (including mishloach manot leftovers :-), particularly now that Purim's passed, and it's full into preparing for Pesach mode. I suspect that much of this produce will go the same way, combined with the non-kosher-for-Passover things I have already, to clear out as much as possible.*
While I was making the rice pudding, I started thinking about permuting the cooking liquid. I could use coconut milk (likely mixed with water), and add mango puree/nectar, then serve it with roasted mangoes on top (definitely with vanilla). Or maybe the pomegranate juice I haven't figured out what to do with yet (read; what's "special" enough to warrant using pomegranate juice...): I could make red rice pudding! Not sure what sweetener to put with that (honey, maybe?), nor what other flavors to marry it with (candied walnuts?). I could make a more Indian themed version, using chai tea for the cooking liquid, and adding more of those spices afterward. So many possibilities...
And thinking about Pesach: this year the first seder is Saturday night, after Shabbat, which is always tricky. The house has to be already prepared for Passover, but Shabbat meals require bread**. My current idea is to host that Shabbat dinner, having the kitchen turned over for Pesach already, buying whatever bread (rolls, more likely) in bags, eating it out on the porch, then having the rest of the Passover-appropriate meal inside. Then it occurred to me: it's not actually Pesach yet. So dinner could include kitniyot***! Perfectly legal to cook in one's Pesach pots, whether or not one eats them on the holiday. And the leftovers would be reasonable through the day until the seder****. Tofu, green beans, rice, chickpeas... All sorts of lovely possibilities for dinner. No hummus, though: nothing to put it on, and a bit strange to eat straight.
* Yes, I can sell it. But I'd rather have less to sell. Fewer aged canned goods (etc.), less stuff to move into smaller spaces for the holiday, taking up less space overall. On the other hand, more to restock after the holiday.
** Or matza, but it's a fairly ingrained custom not to eat matza for the month before Pesach, so one looks forward to it***** at the seder.
*** Kitniyot are an in between sort of category. They'r not actual levened material (non-matza stuff made from the five grains: wheat, oats, rye, barley, spelt), but they're things that Ashkenazi rabbis****** have over time declared to be too much like those, liable to function like those, etc. They include beans (green and dried) and their derivatives (tofu...), peas, peanuts, corn and its derivatives*******, mustard (I've never understood this one), rice, and so on. Interestingly, the drive to declare things kitniyot is not so strong these days, so when the rabbis investigated quinoa, they discovered that it's genetically a grass, and permitted it.
**** There is a time after which it is not allowed to eat levened food any more, and it's usually mid to late morning. While there are many things that have no Passover kashrut issues at all, it's usually a tricky time to figure out food, because people are busy preparing for the seder, but don't want to eat much before the meal. The day before being Shabbat this year, at least it means that the cooking won't be going on right beforehand, and there will be time for naps. Of course, it does mean even more has to be done in advance.
***** Assuming one ever looks forward to matza. Some do, while others most definitely do not.
****** Sefardi rabbis stayed off this bandwagon. My hat's off to them.
******* Which is why, if you like Coca-Cola with sugar, buy the Passover version, since they can't use corn syrup. Come to think of it, though there are many things I don't particularly like about many Passover prepared foods, at least none of them have high-fructose corn syrup!
- a bunch of red chard
- a bunch of broccoli
- two medium zucchinis
- four beets
- five sweet potatoes
- four yellow onions
- nine white potatoes
- a mango
- three oranges
- four plums
Yesterday's cooking was all pantry cooking, using what I had around (including mishloach manot leftovers :-), particularly now that Purim's passed, and it's full into preparing for Pesach mode. I suspect that much of this produce will go the same way, combined with the non-kosher-for-Passover things I have already, to clear out as much as possible.*
While I was making the rice pudding, I started thinking about permuting the cooking liquid. I could use coconut milk (likely mixed with water), and add mango puree/nectar, then serve it with roasted mangoes on top (definitely with vanilla). Or maybe the pomegranate juice I haven't figured out what to do with yet (read; what's "special" enough to warrant using pomegranate juice...): I could make red rice pudding! Not sure what sweetener to put with that (honey, maybe?), nor what other flavors to marry it with (candied walnuts?). I could make a more Indian themed version, using chai tea for the cooking liquid, and adding more of those spices afterward. So many possibilities...
And thinking about Pesach: this year the first seder is Saturday night, after Shabbat, which is always tricky. The house has to be already prepared for Passover, but Shabbat meals require bread**. My current idea is to host that Shabbat dinner, having the kitchen turned over for Pesach already, buying whatever bread (rolls, more likely) in bags, eating it out on the porch, then having the rest of the Passover-appropriate meal inside. Then it occurred to me: it's not actually Pesach yet. So dinner could include kitniyot***! Perfectly legal to cook in one's Pesach pots, whether or not one eats them on the holiday. And the leftovers would be reasonable through the day until the seder****. Tofu, green beans, rice, chickpeas... All sorts of lovely possibilities for dinner. No hummus, though: nothing to put it on, and a bit strange to eat straight.
* Yes, I can sell it. But I'd rather have less to sell. Fewer aged canned goods (etc.), less stuff to move into smaller spaces for the holiday, taking up less space overall. On the other hand, more to restock after the holiday.
** Or matza, but it's a fairly ingrained custom not to eat matza for the month before Pesach, so one looks forward to it***** at the seder.
*** Kitniyot are an in between sort of category. They'r not actual levened material (non-matza stuff made from the five grains: wheat, oats, rye, barley, spelt), but they're things that Ashkenazi rabbis****** have over time declared to be too much like those, liable to function like those, etc. They include beans (green and dried) and their derivatives (tofu...), peas, peanuts, corn and its derivatives*******, mustard (I've never understood this one), rice, and so on. Interestingly, the drive to declare things kitniyot is not so strong these days, so when the rabbis investigated quinoa, they discovered that it's genetically a grass, and permitted it.
**** There is a time after which it is not allowed to eat levened food any more, and it's usually mid to late morning. While there are many things that have no Passover kashrut issues at all, it's usually a tricky time to figure out food, because people are busy preparing for the seder, but don't want to eat much before the meal. The day before being Shabbat this year, at least it means that the cooking won't be going on right beforehand, and there will be time for naps. Of course, it does mean even more has to be done in advance.
***** Assuming one ever looks forward to matza. Some do, while others most definitely do not.
****** Sefardi rabbis stayed off this bandwagon. My hat's off to them.
******* Which is why, if you like Coca-Cola with sugar, buy the Passover version, since they can't use corn syrup. Come to think of it, though there are many things I don't particularly like about many Passover prepared foods, at least none of them have high-fructose corn syrup!