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Cook and Tell: Matzo Babka

29 Mar

I know that Passover isn’t for a couple of weeks. But why wait for a holiday to use matzo?

I tend to have random urges to cook (or more like realizations that something needs to be made for dinner), so I look for dishes that use ingredients that I can easily find at home. One of these dishes is a Matzo Babka. It’s easy to make, and it is one of those dishes that can last for a couple of days. The other positive is that this dish can be made to be savory or sweet, and you can get creative with the ingredients. My Mom makes this dish all the time around Passover time with different ingredients. Sometimes she makes it with chicken and dill, sometimes with raisins.

I usually try to make a sweet matzo babka (it’s not bad with maple syrup). However, this time around I decided to make a savory version. To make it my own, I decided to include some dried dill weed and some garlic powder.

Passover Matzo Babka

Matzo Babka

Ingredients:
3 sheets of regular egg matzo (this would make a thin babka, add more matzo for a thicker version)
1 egg
Dried dill weed (to taste)
Garlic powder (to taste)
Salt and Pepper (to taste)
Pam cooking spray

Preparation:
Place matzo sheets in a large bowl and fill with water until matzo is covered. Let the matzo soak in the water. Drain the water once matzos are completely soft. In the same bowl, break up the matzo sheets with a wooden spoon. Mix in the egg, dried dill weed, garlic powder, salt and pepper.

Coat a medium frying pan with cooking spray. Spread the matzo mixture in the frying pan to fill the pan completely, so that the matzo mixture takes on the shape of the pan. Cook in the pan until babka is golden and is lose in the pan. Gently remove the babka from the pan onto a cutting board, cooked side down. Flip the cutting board on to the pan, so that the uncooked side is on the bottom. Cook until the uncooked side is golden and is lose in the pan.

Cut babka into slices. Serve warm or cold.

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Olivie

20 Apr

Ask anyone from the former Soviet republics what their favorite meal was as a child, and you might be surprised to find out that it wasn’t dessert, but a salad. Yes, you saw correctly, a salad. This salad is called Olivie and it was a staple dish at any table during a festive gathering. It is still a favorite of my and for my husband it’s not a holiday dinner, if Olivie is not on the table.

Intrigued? Well, you’ll be happy to know that it’s actually not that hard to make. There are many different variations of this salad out there, and everyone’s got their version. There is even a version of it in Spain (Ensalada Rusa), which includes tuna. But I stick to the version my Mom has always made, and I love it (and so far only heard positive feedback).

Here are the ingredients you’ll need:

6 large potatoes (russet)
10 eggs
1 carrot
1/2 white or red onion
1 fresh cucumber
1 small pack of bologna
3 to 4 scallions
3 to 4 medium sized pickles
1 can of sweet peas
mayonnaise (1 and 1/2 large tablespoons)
salt and pepper to taste
A sprinkle of dried dill weed (or chopped fresh dill)

Boil the eggs, potatoes and carrot. Eggs should be hard boiled and potatoes and the carrot should be fully cooked through and soft (but not overcooked). As far as utensils, you’ll need a sharp knife, a cutting board, a large mixing bowl, and a peeler (if that’s how you prefer to peel your vegetables).

Once the eggs, potatoes and carrot are cooked. Peel the eggs, the potatoes and the carrot, chop all the aforementioned and place in the prepared bowl. Continue to peel and chop the onions, scallions, and cucumber and placing them in the same bowl. Chop the pickles and the bologna and add to the bowl. Finally, drain the can of peas and empty it out into the bowl.

Mix all the ingredients in the bowl, add salt and pepper to taste and mix. Add dried dill weed (if desired) and mix the ingredients again. Finally, add the mayonnaise, and mix all the ingredients until the mayonnaise is evenly distributed and all the ingredients are well combined.

So what does all this mixing get you? Take a look for yourself.

Russian Potato Salad, Olivie, Ensalada Russa

I haven’t heard of anyone walking away disappointed. A word of warning, the proportions I used will result in a very big salad, but feel free to pare it down. Just decrease the number of ingredients proportionally.

P.S. I received some commentary on this blog post with additional variations to this salad, so I wanted to add these variations here. Instead of mayonnaise some people use sour cream and for the meat component, instead of bologna some use chicken. Sometimes the carrot and onions are omitted.

Feel free to experiment with all these ingredients and see what tickles your taste buds.

Russian Salad Olivier (Russian Winter Salad)

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Deviled Eggs

09 Apr

Here I am, starting the weekend off on the wrong foot…I got sick All the weekend plans have been canceled and I will be spending the weekend under the covers. However, every situation has a silver lining, right? The silver lining here is that I can spend this time catching up on all those blog posts that have been piling up.

On that note, let’s start with a simple weekend dish. There are lot of variations of deviled eggs, but I keep my deviled eggs pretty simple. Egg yolks, mayo, dijon mustard and top with dried dill weed and/or paprika.

Making this dish is this simple:
Boil eggs (number of eggs depends on how many you need).
Mayonnaise (I usually just eye ball it. But about 1 tablespoon should do)
Dijon mustard (also eye ball it)

Peel boiled eggs, cut in half lengthwise. Carefully remove the yolks from the whites, keeping the whites in tact. Place the yolks in a mixing bowl, and whites on a serving plate. Add mayonnaise and Dijon mustard to the yolks and mix with a fork until smooth.

Spoon the mixture into a piping (pastry) bag and pipe into egg whites. Don’t worry if there is no piping bag around, you can also spoon the mixture into the egg whites. Sprinkle with dried dill weed, and they are ready to eat.

Deviled Eggs on Foodista Deviled Eggs

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Sunday Breakfast Series – Smoked Salmon Breakfast

14 Mar

Over a relatively short period of time I accumulated what I would consider to be a large collection of recipes. Whether it be from cookbooks, cooking magazines, the internet or from family members, I now have a drawer full of recipes.

Since it’s only truly on Sundays that we could allow ourselves a lazy morning, A (the hubby) and I, thought it would be great to have a new breakfast dish every Sunday.

Last Sunday was the first day of our Sunday Breakfasts. We started with a very simple dish, small smoked salmon canapes.

Salmon-Breakfast

To add this to your Sunday morning table here is what you will need:

Smoked Salmon
Cream Cheese
Sliced bread
Dried Dill Weed
Red onions

Toast the bread and cut off the crust to create bread squares. Spread each bread square with cream cheese top with slices of smoked salmon and sprinkle with dried dill weed. Peel a red onion and cut in half. Cut one of the halves cross wise. Arrange on a plate and serve.

These canapes are a great option for a light Sunday breakfast.

Keep coming back because there are great breakfasts coming soon in the Sunday Breakfast Series!

P.S. I wanted to give a shout out to my great friend V of VandJ Photography, who gave me some great photo editing tips!!! Thanks V, you’re the best!