Shabbat dinner
Aug. 4th, 2003 09:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidFriday morning I made my by-now-standard multi-grain flax meal vegan challah dough. When I got home from work in the afternoon, I formed the risen dough into rolls, let them have a second rise, and baked them.
This Shabbat was the one during the (first) nine days of Av, when it's traditional to abstain from meat, except on Shabbat (this is part of the leading up to the major fast day, the ninth of Av, which commemorates the destruction of both the first and second Temples, the expulsion from Spain, many pogroms, etc. It's Wednesday night to Thursday this year.). I was surprised by just how much I found myself wanting to eat meat (well, turkey, actually); I'm not usually that voraciously carnivorous. My craving lead me to make two trays of turkey thighs, far more than I could actually eat. One tray had onions, carrots, bread crumbs, and rosemary, while the other had walnuts, raisins, onions, bread crumbs, and ground sage, with the very end of the bottle of white wine Pinkfish brought last week. I roasted both trays. They came out well; I tried some of the veggies of each, though I had only one piece of turkey (the rest made it into the freezer, labeled and dated (not something I usually manage), for eating next week, after the fast day).
While that was cooking, I started on the vegetables. I sauteed some onions (I thought about how different WildRaven's cooking must be), then cubed the largish farm eggplant. I'd already decided not to salt it, since there wasn't time, but I also noticed that there were very few seeds, which (according to some theories) are what cause bitterness in eggplants in the first place. I sauteed those together over low heat for a long time. Once it had mostly cooked down, I added some San-J Sezchuan spicy sauce and drizzled little bit of honey over the eggplant, and let it cook down more, into a spicy eggplant sludge. I was very pleased with this batch: the eggplant was incredibly tender, almost melting in my mouth.
I tipped and tailed the farm green beans, and was surprised at how fuzzy they are; I'd not prepared fresh green beans in too long, I suppose. I steamed them. I'd thought to dress them with ume plum vinegar, garlic, salt, and sesame oil, but I never got around to that...
The only other food cooking this weekend was yesterday's pizza for lunch. I made a pizza dough with dried basil, oregano, onion powder, garlic powder, white pepper, and a bit of cayenne pepper. I topped those with a variety of things I scrounged from around the house. All of them had some tomato sauce, thinly slice onion, sun-dried tomatoes, fresh basil, and fresh oregano. Two had artichoke hearts. One had chopped fronds of fennel. Cheeses were mozzarella and/or cheddar (since I didn't have enough mozzarella to go around). Despite yesterday's humidity (it was well before the thunderstorms), they came out rather well.
This Shabbat was the one during the (first) nine days of Av, when it's traditional to abstain from meat, except on Shabbat (this is part of the leading up to the major fast day, the ninth of Av, which commemorates the destruction of both the first and second Temples, the expulsion from Spain, many pogroms, etc. It's Wednesday night to Thursday this year.). I was surprised by just how much I found myself wanting to eat meat (well, turkey, actually); I'm not usually that voraciously carnivorous. My craving lead me to make two trays of turkey thighs, far more than I could actually eat. One tray had onions, carrots, bread crumbs, and rosemary, while the other had walnuts, raisins, onions, bread crumbs, and ground sage, with the very end of the bottle of white wine Pinkfish brought last week. I roasted both trays. They came out well; I tried some of the veggies of each, though I had only one piece of turkey (the rest made it into the freezer, labeled and dated (not something I usually manage), for eating next week, after the fast day).
While that was cooking, I started on the vegetables. I sauteed some onions (I thought about how different WildRaven's cooking must be), then cubed the largish farm eggplant. I'd already decided not to salt it, since there wasn't time, but I also noticed that there were very few seeds, which (according to some theories) are what cause bitterness in eggplants in the first place. I sauteed those together over low heat for a long time. Once it had mostly cooked down, I added some San-J Sezchuan spicy sauce and drizzled little bit of honey over the eggplant, and let it cook down more, into a spicy eggplant sludge. I was very pleased with this batch: the eggplant was incredibly tender, almost melting in my mouth.
I tipped and tailed the farm green beans, and was surprised at how fuzzy they are; I'd not prepared fresh green beans in too long, I suppose. I steamed them. I'd thought to dress them with ume plum vinegar, garlic, salt, and sesame oil, but I never got around to that...
The only other food cooking this weekend was yesterday's pizza for lunch. I made a pizza dough with dried basil, oregano, onion powder, garlic powder, white pepper, and a bit of cayenne pepper. I topped those with a variety of things I scrounged from around the house. All of them had some tomato sauce, thinly slice onion, sun-dried tomatoes, fresh basil, and fresh oregano. Two had artichoke hearts. One had chopped fronds of fennel. Cheeses were mozzarella and/or cheddar (since I didn't have enough mozzarella to go around). Despite yesterday's humidity (it was well before the thunderstorms), they came out rather well.
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no subject
Date: 2003-08-04 08:23 am (UTC)Oh, and an official Majes-stamp-of-approval on the artichoke hearts as a pizza topping. Back in the days when I ate pizza, it was one of my favorite things.
no subject
Date: 2003-08-04 08:44 am (UTC)Woo-hoo! An official seal of approval!
Artichoke hearts make it on my list of pizza toppings I can use while one-handed :-) (which includes almost anything in a jar or can that doesn't require further cutting).
Do you like them in other contexts as well (what about whole artichokes?)? And why don't you eat pizza any more?
no subject
Date: 2003-08-04 09:44 am (UTC)My diet is such that I avoid breads and starches. It has worked really well for me. Once in a while, I do have a bit of this or that, but generally speaking I avoid doing so. I implemented that diet about two and a half years ago, and I lost 80 lbs. I've come up about 15 pounds since then, but that is because I've been working out 5 days a week and have put on a bunch of muscle mass. I do miss out on some of my old favorites though - lasagna being highest on the list of most-missed food types.
no subject
Date: 2003-08-04 10:07 am (UTC)Have you had any 'baby' artichokes? They're much smaller (more snackly), and frequently have no choke at all.
I have other friends who have severely limited starches, and I find it a hard thing to imagine myself doing. Kudos to you.
(Part of my mind immediately starts thinking about substitutes. Thin sheets of tofu fried for denser consistency and used as a base for individual pizzas was the first thing that came to mind...)