Shavuot food
Jun. 9th, 2003 12:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidShavuot is traditionally a holiday with lots of dairy in it [1], which usually includes cheesecake. I have never made cheesecake; it falls into the category of "foods I eat but can't bear to cook," because then I'll know just how bad it is for me... (I don't deep fry foods, and dessert recipes involving pounds of butter are right out as well.). Usually I buy a small one, though, in the name of tradition.
This year, I did not. In fact, the food I made was minimally dairy at all (perhaps I'm becoming corrupted by all those lactose-intolerant friends...).
Instead of heavy cheese dishes, I made fish. I bought salmon fillet, drizzled a bit of Frank's hot sauce on it, then put small cubes of mango and a thinly-sliced onion on top of that. I baked it for about 20 minutes, and it was perfectly done.
I sauteed some onions and mushrooms, then tossed in a bunch of red-stemmed Swiss chard chopped into pieces. Once that was cooked down, I steamed a fillet of cod on top. I like how the fish gets a tinge of pink from the Swiss chard stems, but I think I left this on the heat just a bit longer than optimal.
I made a batch of challah rolls, fairly plain ones (only an organic multi-grain hot cereal added for texture) since I was a bit short on time. I'm lucky that bread is such a low-maintenance sort of food to make.
I made almost the rest of the bag of jasmine rice. It felt strange to make just plain rice, no matter how nice, as a side dish, so I added a small handful of pine nuts and chopped up half of a preserved lemon (the first I've used from January's batch). The salty lemoniness worked well, though I though I should've had a bit less lemon for that amount of rice.
I made a green salad of things harvested from the porch and office. There is such satisfaction in that.
Dessert was truffles. I melted chocolate, added cream, then some kahlua. I was pleased with the consistency of that batch, solid enough that it held a shape well without coating my hands completely in the process, but still soft enough to eat easily. That batch didn't last long. So I made another batch, this one using pomegranate 'molasses'. It was humid and rather warm on Friday, though, so this batch didn't set nearly as well as the previous one. The flavor is good, though I'm not sure I'd identify it as pomegranate if I didn't know that it was.
I went out for one meal (a lunch bbq on the first day, where I had the first red meat I've eaten in ages. Yum.), and did potluck for the other lunch. And most of my leftovers are gone now, so it was about the right amount of food.
[1] Shavuot, the feast of weeks, is celebrated 7 weeks after Passover. As with other major holidays, there is an agricultural side, celebrating the first harvest (barley, I believe)(in Israel, not New England... :-), and an exodus-from-Egypt side, celebrating the giving of the Torah in the Sinai desert. While the text only mentions the giving of the ten commandments, there are traditions that the rest of the commandments were also given. Which means that all the Jews in the desert suddenly found out about kosher rules, and the quickest 'celebratory' food is dairy, not meat...
This year, I did not. In fact, the food I made was minimally dairy at all (perhaps I'm becoming corrupted by all those lactose-intolerant friends...).
Instead of heavy cheese dishes, I made fish. I bought salmon fillet, drizzled a bit of Frank's hot sauce on it, then put small cubes of mango and a thinly-sliced onion on top of that. I baked it for about 20 minutes, and it was perfectly done.
I sauteed some onions and mushrooms, then tossed in a bunch of red-stemmed Swiss chard chopped into pieces. Once that was cooked down, I steamed a fillet of cod on top. I like how the fish gets a tinge of pink from the Swiss chard stems, but I think I left this on the heat just a bit longer than optimal.
I made a batch of challah rolls, fairly plain ones (only an organic multi-grain hot cereal added for texture) since I was a bit short on time. I'm lucky that bread is such a low-maintenance sort of food to make.
I made almost the rest of the bag of jasmine rice. It felt strange to make just plain rice, no matter how nice, as a side dish, so I added a small handful of pine nuts and chopped up half of a preserved lemon (the first I've used from January's batch). The salty lemoniness worked well, though I though I should've had a bit less lemon for that amount of rice.
I made a green salad of things harvested from the porch and office. There is such satisfaction in that.
Dessert was truffles. I melted chocolate, added cream, then some kahlua. I was pleased with the consistency of that batch, solid enough that it held a shape well without coating my hands completely in the process, but still soft enough to eat easily. That batch didn't last long. So I made another batch, this one using pomegranate 'molasses'. It was humid and rather warm on Friday, though, so this batch didn't set nearly as well as the previous one. The flavor is good, though I'm not sure I'd identify it as pomegranate if I didn't know that it was.
I went out for one meal (a lunch bbq on the first day, where I had the first red meat I've eaten in ages. Yum.), and did potluck for the other lunch. And most of my leftovers are gone now, so it was about the right amount of food.
[1] Shavuot, the feast of weeks, is celebrated 7 weeks after Passover. As with other major holidays, there is an agricultural side, celebrating the first harvest (barley, I believe)(in Israel, not New England... :-), and an exodus-from-Egypt side, celebrating the giving of the Torah in the Sinai desert. While the text only mentions the giving of the ten commandments, there are traditions that the rest of the commandments were also given. Which means that all the Jews in the desert suddenly found out about kosher rules, and the quickest 'celebratory' food is dairy, not meat...