Reuben Mina and a Cute Story

Jeremy loves Passover, but not for any spiritual reasons.

First of all, there are sodas made with pure sugar, since corn - and thus corn syrup - is forbidden during the holiday.  (I almost never buy soda, but it's an annual holiday tradition.)  Secondly, my friend Michele makes the most amazing coconut chocolate chip macaroons; she generously gives me a supply each year.

And Passover is also when I serve my Reuben Mina [MEE-nuh], a lasagna-ish dish made with matzah instead of noodles.  This isn't kosher, since it mixes meat and dairy products, but it's incredibly good!  Let me tell you a little story to show just how good.

As faithful readers know, Jeremy is a connoisseur of Reubens.  He will order one if he sees it on a menu, and can rate and rank every one he's eaten in terms of flavor, portion size, tenderness of meat, generosity of ingredients, etc.  Just ask, and he'll tell you which ones are his favorites; he'll also tell you which one was the very worst ever (which would surprise many people, but he could rant for days about how it was overpriced and overrated, virtually inedible).

So one day, years ago, when I found rye matzah sitting among the Passover groceries at the store, I bought a box.  I had instinctively thought of a Reuben casserole.

I layered the matzah, sauerkraut, Thousand Island dressing, Swiss cheese and corned beef; I poured egg over it all to bind it together.  I baked it until it was golden, melted, and luscious.  I served it to Jeremy and to his friend Doug.  They loved it.

Then I told them there was some more left in the kitchen, and that they could help themselves to seconds.

Jeremy and Doug looked at me and then looked at each other.  The leapt up, they ran to the kitchen.  They managed to get stuck in the narrow space between one kitchen wall and the extended countertop.  They pushed.  They shoved.  They were laughing, but they still fought to see who would get to the casserole dish first.

Like something out of a cartoon, they went "pop" past the blockade and ricocheted to the stove.  They split the generous quantity of leftovers which would, frankly, have likely offered third helpings.  They were happy.

And so, although I couldn't find the rye flavor this year, I had to make a Reuben Mina while using up the leftover matzah now that Passover has ended.  How could I not?  I approximated the rye flavor with a sprinkling of caraway seeds; it's the caraway  flavor that people seem to associate with rye, anyway.  And this can be made year-round with plain or egg matzah, which is available at any time.

This dish is easy to make, rich, and satisfying.  Trust me - my son is a Reuben expert, and he says "This is (friggin') delicious!"

Reuben Mina

1 cup Egg Beaters
4 plain or egg matzot (plural of matzah)
1-1/2 pounds sauerkraut, drained
8 ounces Thousand Island dressing
1 teaspoon caraway seeds
4 ounces thinly sliced Swiss cheese, divided
1/4 pound thinly sliced deli corned beef, chopped

Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease an 8"x8" baking dish.

Pour 1/4 cup Egg Beaters into the prepared baking dish.  Place 1 matzah plus 1/3 of another matzah into the bottom of the dish.

Combine the sauerkraut, dressing and caraway seeds; place 1/3 of the mixture onto the matzah and spread it out.

Reserve half of the Swiss cheese for later.  Chop the remaining cheese and combine it with the corned beef. Distribute 1/3 of this mixture over the sauerkraut.

Pour another 1/4 cup Egg Beaters over the corned beef.  Place 1 matzah plus 1/3 of another matzah on top.

Place half of the remaining sauerkraut over the matzah and spread it to the edges.  Distribute half of the remaining corned beef mixture over the sauerkraut.

Pour 1/4 cup Egg Beaters over the corned beef.  Place the last matzah and 1/3 portion of matzah on top.  Spread the last of the sauerkraut over the matzah, and top with the last of the corned beef mixture.

Pour the last 1/4 cup Egg Beaters over the casserole, and top with the reserved Swiss cheese.

Bake for 40 minutes until golden and casserole is set.  Let rest for 5 minutes before cutting into 4-6 portions.

Makes 4-6 servings.

Matzah 'n' Mangoes (and a Giveaway!)

Lotsa news 'round here!

1) If you've got some spare time and you'd like to read my review of The New York Times Passover Cookbook, then go to page 24 of this month's issue of The Washtenaw Jewish News.  Find out why I like to schmear grape jelly on my matzah, and where I learned to do it.

And 2) I'm hosting a giveaway ... yay!

A charming woman named Susan, who works in Marketing and Community Relations for Whole Foods Market, sent me an email the other day with a fabulous offer: a case of 16 Ataulfo mangoes [ah-tah-UHL-foh] to play with and a case for one of my astoundingly wonderful readers (those in the U.S., that is ... sorry to others!).

Entry is easy: all you have to do is leave a comment below saying that you'd like to win, tell me what you might make with the mangoes (or just that you intend to eat them "as is" with no fuss), and make sure I can reach you by email to let you know if you've won.  It would be great if you could "like" Whole Foods on Facebook, too, 'cause they've been nice to us.  Oh, and only one entry per person even if you leave more than one comment; the first one will be the one that counts. It's easier and more fair that way.

This one is going to be fast and furious: the deadline is Wednesday, April 11 at 9 a.m. EDT, and I'll use Random.org to pick the winner.  If I notify you of winning, you'll have 'til 3 p.m. EDT to acknowledge it; if you ignore me, I'll move on down the road to the next in line.

This timing probably seems a bit odd ... here's the scoop.  The mangoes are only being featured for a short while.  Observant Jews won't be using the computer from sundown on Thursday the 12th through sundown on Saturday the 14th because of the end of Passover (Jewish law ... it's complicated), so finding an email announcement or responding to it wouldn't be possible.  And procrastinators have to worry about their taxes ... oy!  It seemed easier to just do it quickly, before the weekend.

If you're the winner and you live near a Whole Foods, Susan can arrange for you to pick up the goodies at the closest store; if you don't live near a Whole Foods, she'll have them shipped to you.

That's it!

Chag Pesach Sameach! [HAHG PAY-sahk sah-MAY-ahk] = Happy Passover!

Savory Salmon Pancakes

My good friend Cindy (remember? -- her niece didn't have cake at her wedding, which sent me down a spiral of obsession!) gave me a lovely gift the other day to thank me for my help with some projects at work: The New York Times Passover Cookbook. A new cookbook!!! I cannot tell you how thrilled I was ... :)

So, of course, I immediately started to peruse it. I could easily have stopped everything else I was doing and just walked down the hall to the kitchen to make lunch for my co-workers with my new recipes!

But I was a good, responsible employee and waited 'til the next day to start my cooking. And the very first thing I made? A variation on the recipe featured on page 107: Mrs. Arnold Stein's Cottage Cheese Chremsele.

Chremsel ([KREM-suhl] -- ignore the spelling variations with or without an "e", as either is an acceptable transliteration) is a Yiddish word, meaning "a flat fried cake made with matzoth meal and filled usu. with prunes" (according to Merriam-Webster) ... essentially a pancake. I don't know who Mrs. Arnold Stein is/was, or why her chremslach ([KREMZ-lahk] - the plural) weren't filled with prunes. But the pancakes featured cottage cheese -- something I had in the refrigerator and was trying to use up -- so that pushed them to the top of my list.

I am not a creature of habit (OCD? -- oh, yeah; routine? -- no), and have grown exceedingly weary of eggs or cereal or toast or similar items for breakfast. I'm the kinda girl who'll re-heat spaghetti and meatballs in the morning if it's available, so being limited to kosher and vegetarian options has put a bit of a damper on my need for variety. No bacon, no sausage, no leftovers permitted to be brought home ... sigh.

Thus, an opportunity for something new and novel immediately perked up my morning.

The chremsele recipe called for separating the eggs and whipping the whites ... uh uh, not when I'm hungry after not having eaten since the night before! I also veered from the recipe by adding some salmon (and lox would have been sublime in these, if I'd had it) and a pinch of dill. Then I fried 'em up and served them with sour cream.

Oh, the decadence! The pancakes were rich and flavorful, and a fabulous option for a fast breakfast, brunch, light lunch/supper ... truly, a quick and easy recipe that will be made over and over again.

So thank you, Mrs. Stein, for inspiring my breakfast. And thank you again, Cindy, for your friendship and for the lovely, thoughtful gift which I adore ... :)

Savory Salmon Pancakes

2 eggs
1/4 cup cottage cheese
pinch of salt
generous sprinkling of lemon pepper
2 heaping tablespoons of matzah meal or flour
1/3 cup mashed, flaked salmon
2 tablespoons minced onion
1/8 teaspoon dill
1 tablespoon butter
sour cream, for serving

In a medium bowl, mix together the eggs, cottage cheese, salt and lemon pepper. Stir in the matzah meal, salmon, onion and dill.


Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Make 5 mounds with the batter, and cook 3 minutes per side until the pancakes are golden brown and don't wobble if you nudge them slightly with the spatula.



Serve hot, with sour cream.

Vegetable Cheese Mina

My traditional first-night-of-Passover dinner is usually based around lamb patties: I simply mix ground lamb with sauteed leeks and a little salt and pepper, then cook them up (broil, grill, fry) depending upon the weather and my own personal whims. Jeremy adores them, but he wasn't joining me this year as it was his dad's birthday and they were celebrating together. And in the vegetarian kitchen I currently have access to, I couldn't have lamb anyway.

So, what to serve???

How 'bout a mina?

A mina [MEE-nah] is a lasagna-ish dish of Sephardic (Jews descended from those who were banished during the Spanish Inquisition) tradition, made of layered matzot with any variety of fillings in between them; minas can be meat or vegetarian. I make a fabulous one that's completely and utterly treyf ([TRAYF] = non-kosher) that is essentially a Reuben casserole: rye matzah, sauerkraut, Thousand Island dressing, Swiss cheese, corned beef, 3 times over and then topped with more cheese.

One of my proudest moments, in a weird sort of way, came when I made that particular dinner one night for Jeremy and his buddy Doug. I gave them each a serving, and they ooh-ed and ahh-ed over it, devouring it. When I told them that they could have seconds they leapt up, pushed through a narrow entryway between a wall and a counter that led into the kitchen, and shoved each other (playfully, of course!) to compete for more. They were goofy, but they showed me how much they loved the dish!

But in lieu of lamb or corned beef, I took some beautiful Portobello mushrooms, a bright red pepper, and some fresh baby spinach and worked some wonders with them to make a colorful and delicious meal. I sauteed the vegetables, and I put together a lovely cheese sauce using more of the flipflop Pinot Grigio I'd recently been given for tasting and marketing purposes. I layered everything between matzot, baked it up, and had created a creamy, luscious masterpiece!

I have to note that flipflop wines supports a fabulous charity called Soles4Souls, which purchases shoes for poor children around the world enabling them to avoid injury and, especially, to walk to school. For each bottle of flipflop wine purchased, Soles4Souls will distribute a pair of shoes to someone in need -- up to 100,000 pairs in the first year of the partnership. You know what a bleeding heart I am -- how could I not love this???

And I also love my new Passover mina. While I admit that it's a bit labor- and dish-intensive, it really is worth the time!

Vegetable Cheese Mina

Cheese Sauce

3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons potato starch or flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated pepper
1 cup skim milk
1 cup white wine
1/2 cup finely grated parmesan + 1/4 cup cheese needed to finish the dish

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the potato starch and cook for 1 minute. Add the salt and pepper, then slowly add the milk and the wine until incorporated. Cook until the sauce starts to thicken, whisking frequently, then stir in the cheese. Keep warm.


Vegetable-Cheese Filling

1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small red onion, chopped
1 small red pepper, chopped
3 ounces Portobello mushrooms, chopped
2 cups baby spinach leaves
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 cup cottage cheese

Heat the oil and the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion, red pepper, and mushrooms, cooking until the vegetables are softened. Add the spinach, salt and pepper; cook just until the spinach is wilted.


Combine the vegetables with the cottage cheese in a large mixing bowl. Set aside.


Matzot

3 eggs
1/4 cup white wine
4 plain matzot

Grease an 8"x8" baking dish. Place the eggs and the wine into another 8"x8" baking dish and combine them well. Soak one matzah in the egg mixture for 1 minute, flipping it over midway. Place the matzah into the greased baking dish.


Spread one-third of the vegetable filling over the matzah.


Drizzle 1/3 cup of the sauce over the vegetable filling.


Soak another matzah in the same manner, and place it over the vegetable filling. Spread another 1/3 of the filling over the matzah, and drizzle another 1/3 cup of the sauce over everything. Repeat one more time with the egg-soaked matzah, filling and sauce. Soak the last matzah in the egg mixture, and place on top. (Don't worry if you break a matzah -- it's all just going to get covered in sauce, then cut and served, anyway!)


Pour the rest of the egg mixture over everything, 'cause we don't waste anything in my kitchen! And pour the remaining sauce over the top of that.


Place the prepared mina onto a large baking sheet to catch any drips, and bake for 30 minutes. Sprinkle the last 1/4 cup of parmesan over the top, and bake for 5 more minutes until everything is bubbling and golden.


Remove from the oven and let the mina rest for 10 minutes before cutting. Cut into 6 pieces and serve warm.

Chocolate Caramel Matzah

I've eaten far more than my fair share of chocolate-covered matzah over the years -- that stuff is ridiculously good! I've often wanted to make my own, with a caramel layer as well, but have never managed to get around to it ... until now.

Recipes for this abound; so I sort of glanced over a few, determined my own protocol, and then went to work. Though really, it's hardly labor-intensive -- a few minutes at the stove, a few minutes waiting for the treat to bake, another minute waiting for the chocolate to melt. The real work was waiting until last night for the start of Passover to eat this luscious treat, after making it on Sunday afternoon!

I've seen recipes for this using saltines or graham crackers as the base; but I have to say that the crispness of the matzah really serves it well. If you don't already have a stockpile of matzah for the holiday, wait until next week when Passover has ended and you can get a box on sale.

Chocolate Caramel Matzah

2 plain matzot ([mahtz-OTE] = the plural of matzah)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 9"x13" baking pan with foil, then grease the foil. Lay the matzot in the pan, side-by-side.


In a medium saucepan (because it bubbles up), melt the brown sugar and the butter together over medium heat until the mixture bubbles. Once it's bubbling, turn the heat to medium-high and stir constantly until the caramel thickens, lightens a bit in color, and pulls away from the sides of the pan -- approximately 2 minutes.



Pour the caramel over the matzot, and carefully spread it with a spoon.


Bake the matzot for 5 minutes or so, until the caramel has darkened a bit. Remove from the oven and sprinkle the chocolate chips over the matzot.


Wait 1-2 minutes for the chocolate to melt, then spread it evenly over the matzot.


Let everything cool completely, then cut each matzah into 12 pieces.

This can serve 1 or it can serve 2 dozen, depending upon how generous you're feeling ....

A Day-Long Food Fest

Oh, man, Sunday was an incredible festival of food!  Tom, Jeremy and I started out in Berkley, at O'Mara's Irish Restaurant on 12 Mile at Coolidge (as opposed to Coolidge at 12 Mile ... inside joke, after my father corrected me for phrasing it improperly).  It was an occasion for Tom to meet my parents, for me to visit with Tom's dad and stepmother again, for Jeremy to meet some of Tom's family ... it was -- as Tom succinctly put it -- "Lunch with the In-Laws" despite there not even being any engagement let alone a marriage.  It was a convenient way to phrase a complicated arrangement ... and it's kinda sweet, too.  And we needed to play yenta and get all of the old(er) folks together, since my parents live in Birmingham while Tom's live in Royal Oak ... they're practically neighbors!

I'd never been to O'Mara's before, but it was well worth the schlep across 696; Jeremy -- who has recently embraced being 1/8 Irish with a manic devotion -- has now declared it his new favorite restaurant.  There was a beautiful mural of charming Irish doorways along one wall, a gigantic Guinness mirror on another wall, and just a warm, friendly atmosphere with no one rushing anyone out the door.  I never got to look at a menu, because a Sunday brunch that was exceptionally good -- with lots of choices for everyone (from good eaters to picky nuisances) -- was already waiting for us: a beautiful assortment of breads and rolls, a lovely green salad, a gorgeous fruit tray, tuna pasta salad, macaroni and cheese, bacon, sausages, scrambled eggs, corned beef hash, hash browns, French toast, a variety of cakes and pastries, and -- the absolute pièce de résistance -- some of the best scalloped potatoes I've ever eaten (which both my mother and Monica, Tom's stepmother, had raved about before we went up to the table to peruse the offerings).

Now, anyone who encounters me for even a few brief moments knows at least two things about me: I'm not shy about being the first one up at the buffet table, and I'm also not shy about going up for seconds.  But I didn't want to be a glutton -- not to mention being unable to eat the breakfast meats because the ubiquitous sodium nitrite gives me migraines -- so I exhibited restraint and stuck to salad, fruit, mac 'n' cheese (it was home-style, with real cheese on top ... how could I resist???), the divine potatoes, and splitting small pieces of luscious mocha and lemon cakes with Tom.  (Still recovering from the hamantaschen binge of Purim, no massive quantities of food were on the agenda.)  I enjoyed myself immensely, always happy to eat and to converse and to eat a bit more.  And everyone else seemed to enjoy both the food and the company, as well; our parents even compared notes on afternoon naps and having doctor appointments as their primary source of entertainment ... groan.  My father and Gary (Tom's dad) were similar sorts who long for the good ol' days and an old-fashioned work ethic, while my mother and Monica were the last to leave the table because they were so congenially engaged in conversation with each other.  "Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match ...."

After that, we went to my new favorite grocery store: One Stop Kosher Food Market at 10 Mile and Greenfield in Southfield.  I'd been there once before, a few weeks ago, and only had sufficient time to peruse the perimeter ... but that was enough for me to fall in love at first sight.  I felt right at home, as though I were back in NYC where I grew up, shopping side-by-side with Orthodox Jews wearing yarmulkes and wigs and tzitzit and black hats.  And the food -- oh, the food!!!  Bagels and rugelach (crescent-shaped cookies, usually with a chocolate or a fruit filling) and babka (an exceptional coffee cake) and knishes (single-serving savory "pies" with a variety of fillings, from potato to cheese to -- oh, my God!!! -- pastrami) ... I was in my gluttonous glory just absorbing it all!

I bought some Bazooka gum (sugar and all, I'm sorry to say) because the writing on the wrappers was in Hebrew.  I bought some cotton candy (more sugar, virtually nothing but sugar) because it was made by Manischewitz (which has a very special place in my heart after inviting me to be a semi-finalist in its 2nd cook-off) and the container would be perfect -- priceless! -- for bringing lunch items to work.  (I have a very strong sense of whimsy, it seems.)  I bought chocolate-covered matzahs, because that's one of my favorite Pesach (Hebrew for "Passover") foods and the price was better at One Stop than I find it to be in Ann Arbor.  And I bought another box of my beloved Alef Beis (alphabet) cookies so that I can not only have a treat to enjoy with cocoa or with tea, but so that I can practice reading Hebrew by forming words with the cookies ... my equivalent to eating Alpha-Bits or alphabet soup and playing with my food!  I even bought a container of something called "Whip," which is a non-dairy cream.  In order to make baked goods that are pareve [PAHRv] -- neither meat nor dairy -- for my Jewish friends who keep kosher, as well as being able to provide treats for one who has a dairy allergy, I use Earth Balance vegan butter substitute and soy milk or yogurt; but now I can melt some pareve chocolate chips with Whip and even make a glaze or ganache or frosting, as well.  It takes so little to make me happy ... :)

And then, once we got back home, it was on to my food for the Oscars.  I'm not much of a t.v. fan, but will admit to watching the occasional movie on Turner Classics (usually an MGM musical), baseball (lots of baseball ... lots and lots of baseball!), the Tonys, "Monk," and the Oscars.  I care a bit about who wins the awards, but not a lot since I usually haven't seen many of the movies.  But I love to see the clothes, even though I know this makes me seem very shallow and inane ... oh, well, we all have our moments.

For the show, I offered a buffet with not much of a theme other than simply not requiring any utensils -- I'm not Wolfgang Puck, after all, making Oscar-shaped pumpernickel bread toasts with lox or mini gold leaf-covered chocolate statues!  (In a previous life, I might have tried; but now ...?)  We ate a tropical chicken salad (minced chicken, papaya, pineapple, toasted coconut, and a curried coconut milk sauce to kinda/sorta/maybe bind it together) dolloped onto crispy rice crackers, fruit, an assortment of vegetables for dipping, some exceptionally good salt-and-pepper kettle cooked potato chips, and an experimental dip for which I should win some sort of prize:

1 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon each cumin and paprika

1/2 teaspoon Ras el Hanout -- a Moroccan spice blend

a splash of Tabasco

a pinch of kosher salt

a sprinkling of Cajun seasoning

1 tablespoon of my new favorite condiment -- Polish Mustard From Hell

And I made peanut butter cookies -- adding both chopped honey-roasted peanuts and peanut butter chips -- because ... well, who needs a reason???  They're fabulous, soft, crumbly, rich, delicious, and addictive.  It's sort of surprising that there are any left, but then I did bake a lot of them ....

So, that was my Sunday -- eating food, buying food, making food, eating more food.  Not a bad way to end the weekend!