Shabbat dinner
Apr. 16th, 2010 06:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidThis week's inspiration came from not remembering what I needed to restock after Passover. I'd thought I had cans of chickpeas, but all I had was one can. One giant, six-pound can. And I really wanted chickpeas with the first pasta I was making after the holiday. So I opened it, tossing some into the pasta I've made too much of this week, and adding them to salads as well (the weird food you feed yourself when alone, like chickpea and garlicky cucumber pickles in a 'salad'). Still, I had lots of chickpeas left. And that got me thinking of felafel, but not the usual felafel, but baked felafel patties (I don't deep fry at home), where the chickpeas were mashed with sweet potato, since I had a number of them from the farm share, and they play well together. Given that, I thought mixing them with caramelized onions, cumin, cayenne, a touch of cinnamon, and freshly-ground black pepper would get the mixture to about where I wanted it to be. I checked some recipes Chef Google helpfully listed for me, and they all used baking powder and some flour to firm up the chickpea mixture, so I did that too. They're baking now, and I hope they'll end up a bit crunchy on the outside.
Once I was in a felafel universe, I realized what I should do with the two cucumbers that came in the farm share this week (they're the standard kind, like the waxed monster ones of my youth, and I don't care for them much, mostly because of their seeds, which leaves me uninspired usually to use them): tzatziki! I got some Greek-style yogurt, then went looking for recipes. And all of them called for garlic, which I'm still out of, and I couldn't face a fourth stop at a supermarket in one day (one of these had already yielded really decent pita, at least). I have garlic powder, and though it's really far from ideal, I decided I'd make do. So. I peeled, seeded, and diced the cucumbers, and put them aside to see if they'd drain even without salting. I mixed olive oil, freshly-squeezed lemon juice, the julienned zest of the lemon (since I had it, I should use it, right?), and a bit of garlic powder, hoping for the best. I patted the cucumbers dryer, then mixed in the yogurt, cucumbers, and some chives I'd picked off the porch (first harvest of the year :-), and it's resting in the fridge.
I had six apples from the farm share, and was tired of making applesauce, but these apples unfortunately need to be cooked. I debated baked apples, but decided they'd do better in an apple crisp. I sliced them up, put them over a pint of chunky gingered applesauce I'd found in the cabinet, adding some cinnamon and walnuts partway through the apples. I put a crumb topping with multigrain flakes as well as flour on top, and baked it.
It's time to be eating down the freezer, so I defrosted some vegetable soup with barley (which particularly appealed given the rainy cold day we're having).
And then I found out that my guests couldn't make it after all. So I'm thinking that if it's just me, I'm going to be lazy and not (a) make salad (though putting greens in pita with felafel and tzatziki is reasonably likely) or (b) sauteed greens with sesame-soy dressing. I can be free-form, and have hummus, garlicky cucumber pickles, olives, garlicky carrot and beet pickles, and cod that could be turned into a mayo-based salad. And there's always cheese, and salad if I change my mind. So it seems I'm done prepping for Shabbat now.
Once I was in a felafel universe, I realized what I should do with the two cucumbers that came in the farm share this week (they're the standard kind, like the waxed monster ones of my youth, and I don't care for them much, mostly because of their seeds, which leaves me uninspired usually to use them): tzatziki! I got some Greek-style yogurt, then went looking for recipes. And all of them called for garlic, which I'm still out of, and I couldn't face a fourth stop at a supermarket in one day (one of these had already yielded really decent pita, at least). I have garlic powder, and though it's really far from ideal, I decided I'd make do. So. I peeled, seeded, and diced the cucumbers, and put them aside to see if they'd drain even without salting. I mixed olive oil, freshly-squeezed lemon juice, the julienned zest of the lemon (since I had it, I should use it, right?), and a bit of garlic powder, hoping for the best. I patted the cucumbers dryer, then mixed in the yogurt, cucumbers, and some chives I'd picked off the porch (first harvest of the year :-), and it's resting in the fridge.
I had six apples from the farm share, and was tired of making applesauce, but these apples unfortunately need to be cooked. I debated baked apples, but decided they'd do better in an apple crisp. I sliced them up, put them over a pint of chunky gingered applesauce I'd found in the cabinet, adding some cinnamon and walnuts partway through the apples. I put a crumb topping with multigrain flakes as well as flour on top, and baked it.
It's time to be eating down the freezer, so I defrosted some vegetable soup with barley (which particularly appealed given the rainy cold day we're having).
And then I found out that my guests couldn't make it after all. So I'm thinking that if it's just me, I'm going to be lazy and not (a) make salad (though putting greens in pita with felafel and tzatziki is reasonably likely) or (b) sauteed greens with sesame-soy dressing. I can be free-form, and have hummus, garlicky cucumber pickles, olives, garlicky carrot and beet pickles, and cod that could be turned into a mayo-based salad. And there's always cheese, and salad if I change my mind. So it seems I'm done prepping for Shabbat now.