Boston Organics, and meat questions

[magid]

Small box, one third fruit.

• a small head of cauliflower
  
• a pint of grape tomatoes
  
• four yellow onions
  
• a head of garlic
  
• three zucchini
  
• four sweet potatoes
  
• eight red-skinned potatoes (medium-large)
  
• two grapefruit
  
• two oranges
  
• two huge plums (I thought they were nectarines!)

Given the Pesach nuttiness, I'll have to supplement this with a Russo's run. Current thoughts for Shabbat dinner include turkey with a sweet potato-walnut stuffing (also sage, onion, and mushroom), cranberry-orange something, and green beans, with baked gefilte fish to start, possibly a baked apple something to finish. I need a bit more in the veggie department (I'll be relying on leftovers as the basis for two lunches), and I'm bringing a potato-something to second day lunch, so I'll need more potatoes (five adults and four children can eat lots of potatoes!). Oh, and I need to get eggs before the holiday. I might not use them, but it would be too strange to have Pesach without any eggs at all.

As for the meat questions: I have (a) boneless breast of veal and (b) boneless chicken thighs, neither of which I've cooked before. I could treat them as generic meat, and probably end up with something acceptable, but it would be great to get suggestions for ways to make them shine (as it were. No shoe polish suggestions necessary :-). Anyone?

Comments

[feygele.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, my favourite ways of cooking veal are all decidedly not pesadik. (With beer, or lightly breaded.) But! If your breast is already boneless, I'm going to assume you have a tidy pocket left. In which case, you really ought to try stuffing it. Make a stuffing (more on this in a second), sew or tie it up, lightly brush the veal with olive oil, add about an inch of water to the roasting pan, cover it all up with foil, and roast away for 2ish hours.

Stuffing: I think veal goes nicely with thyme and lemons, so here's a Pesach variation of my normal stuffing. Roast some spring potatoes with salt, thyme, and pepper. Thickly slice some onions and roast 'em too. Once done and cooled, mash 'em up together. (The crispy bits taste good once mixed with the veal's juices.) Add lemon juice to taste.

You can also google stuffing recipes... Enjoy!

[feygele.livejournal.com]

Also... Now I seriously want to be eating meet this Pesach, instead of hosting, cooking, and leading two vegetarian seders. *sigh* MEAT!

[magid.livejournal.com]

I've never got the hang of any cooking with beer (in bread or stews, etc), probably because I have yet to find a beer I like, so there's never any around to play with. So while I'm sure that recipe is great, it's unlikely to happen even not around Pesach here. Lightly breaded, yeah, that's a challenge, even though it's technically fine for Shabbat (but boy, do I not want to deal with that and my Pesach kitchen, even though I'd be using foil and other disposables).

Your suggestion sounds a lot like something I do with chicken and rice. When you say 'roast,' about what temperature do you mean? (I always assume it's a hot oven, 450 F or more.)

When I'd been planning to make a turkey, I'd been thinking a sage stuffing with sweet potatoes and walnuts, but I think that might be a bit overpowering for veal. I have lemons and dried thyme, or fresh lavender... Hrm. I might roast extra potatoes with cauliflower and onions, or sautee mushrooms and onions, mix them with fresh lavender, and use that.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Any chance of meat at lunches? Not the same, I know, but something.

And good on you for leading two sedarim!

[feygele.livejournal.com]

Not that I know of... I may just buy some pre-cooked meat and try to eat it here, promising not to let it touch the vegetarian dishes.

[feygele.livejournal.com]

I cook it at 350F, and I think 2 or 2.5 hours is the length needed for about 4-5 pounds.

And I think your mix sounds delicious. Cauliflower would definitely work nicely with that! Really, you can just experiment with flavours - you cook enough that I'm sure you have a sense of what would/n't work. Enjoy!

[magid.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

Something about cooking unfamiliar cuts of meat makes me more flustered than it should. I think it's a combination of nervousness about ending up with something edible, plus the knowledge that it cost an arm and a leg (though perhaps a small arm and a small leg :-). And in this case, it's been years since I've eaten any veal, so it's harder to riff off its flavor profile.

[magid.livejournal.com]

At least it's a holiday that's likely to have lots of disposables, so it's easy enough to avoid touching any of the dishes....

Around here, anyway, there's an increasingly decent selection of already-cooked meatstuffs.