The Tart Spangled Banner

This summer, my husband Andy had to travel to Geneva, Brussels, and London for work and invited me to tag along as all the kids were away. Who was I to say no as I imagined myself eating me way through each city. That turned out to be pretty close to the reality.


Within one hour of landing in Geneva, our friends and hosts, Scott and Clarisse, took us to the Divonne market just over the border in France, one of the few places to buy food on a Sunday. Remember blue laws? I went from stall to stall, tasting olives, seeing raspberries the size of walnuts, eggplants and tomatoes of every color, and witnessing the summer bounty of French farms.

The highlight was when the vendor of sun dried tomatoes, trying to get me to taste one, called out “mademoiselle”. I love France.

I volunteered to bake dessert for our July 4th dinner, I was so excited to bake with the glorious fruit I found at the market.  I decided on my summer fruit galette, an open-faced tart that is super easy. I chose white nectarines, the nuclear raspberries, peaches and fraise des bois. Fraise des bois are those wild strawberries they love in Europe. Although I think I see the same kind growing in the woods in Rock Creek Park near my house, they seemed safer to eat if some French guy was selling them.

As there was no need to make them dairy-free, I substituted lovely French butter for the dairy-free margarine I usually use. The dough was a little drier than with margarine, but still worked. I made the mistake of doubling the recipe in the food processor. This recipe ALWAYS comes out better if I make one batch at a time – it avoids overmixing.

Clarisse could not find her rolling pin. As I have done time and time again, a wine bottle is a GREAT substitute.  I followed one my “Ten Commandments of Kosher Baking” and shaved off some baking time to prevent burning. I actually took off about ten minutes. European ovens are tiny – think four shoeboxes – and I even had to lower the temperature towards the end because the heat in that small oven was very concentrated. As always, you have to keep an eye on your baked goods as they bake!

We sat down on the terrace to eat with a view of the alps, with a group of Americans and one Australian and discussed the translations of national anthems around the world. Some are pretty violent actually.  We ate a delicious dinner of cod gremolata which I invented on the spot using lemon zest, garlic, and huge Italian parsley leaves, rubbed on the fish and then grilled on foil on the grill, pan sautéed potatoes, grilled vegetables and of course, coleslaw.

The highlight was the tarts, which were served with vanilla ice cream – a real treat for a kosher girl. As we fell asleep that night, happy, full and listening to the frogs from the organic pool, I thought about my tarts and the joy of celebrating the 4th among friends outside the U.S.

We used to live in Geneva and it is always a little unsettling seeing a glimpse of the life that might have been. We are happy with our choice to live in the U.S. For one, you cannot beat the Jewish life in America. Though I always love the slowness of life in Europe, the emphasis on family and free time rather than work, I find I am naturally more comfortable around that American frontier mentality, the belief that you should always move forward, improve yourself, learn something new, and work towards a goal. Life seems to stand still in Geneva. I always have shpilkes (Yiddish for ants in the pants).

Summer Fruit Galette


serves 8
Store covered in plastic in the refrigerator for up to four days.

Dough
1¼ cups all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter or cold parve margarine, frozen for at least 30 minutes
and cut into 6 pieces
1 large egg, separated
3 tablespoons ice water, divided

Filling
3 cups fresh fruit: fraise des bois, berries, or nectarines, plums, peaches or apricots cut into ½-inch pieces
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon sugar, to sprinkle on top of galette

To make the dough: Place the flour, salt, and butter or margarine into the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Pulse 10 times or cut the butter or margarine into the flour and salt by hand using two knives or a pastry cutter.  Add the egg yolk (reserve the white) and 1 tablespoon of the ice water. Pulse
5 times or mix gently by hand. Add another tablespoon of the ice water and pulse another 5 times or mix again. Add the last tablespoon of water, a little at a time, pulsing or lightly mixing the dough for 10 to 15 seconds until it looks like clumps of couscous; the dough does not have to come completely together. Gather the dough into a ball.

Take a large piece of plastic wrap and sprinkle some flour on top. Place the dough on the floured plastic, wrap the plastic around it, and then flatten. Place the dough in the freezer for 20 minutes. 

Preheat the oven to 425ºF and place a rack on the lowest shelf of your oven.

Take a large piece of parchment and sprinkle it with some flour. Remove the dough from the plastic wrap and place it on top of the parchment. Sprinkle some flour on the dough and then place a second piece of parchment on top. Roll out the dough until it is about 12 to 13 inches wide, trying your best to keep the shape round. Peel back the top parchment and sprinkle some more flour once or twice while you are rolling.

To make the filling: Place the fruit in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl, mix together the sugar and cornstarch. Sprinkle on top of the fruit and mix gently. 
Place the fruit in the center of the dough circle and spread it outward, leaving a 2 to 3-inch border on the outside. Take one small section of the dough border, about 2 inches, and fold it over the fruit, leaving the fruit-filled center open. Pick up another 2-inch section of the border and repeat, pressing one section into the next to seal it, so you end up with dough pleats.

 
 
 
Beat the reserved egg white and brush all over the dough. Sprinkle with the teaspoon of sugar. Bake for 30 minutes. Move the galette to a middle rack in the oven and bake another 10 minutes. Let cool for 20 minutes.

Raising the Bar

I was craving my raspberry bars. Maybe it was looking at the book photo or remembering how I couldn’t stop eating them the day of the photo shoot. My fabulous photographer and friend, Michael Bennett Kress, preferred the pecan bars during the shoot, but both of us started at the trimmed off edges of each pan and slowly worked our way in.

So there I was making raspberry bars one Friday this spring and when the bottom crust was baked, it just seemed too pedestrian to spread jarred jam when I had a fridge full of luscious, seasonal berries. I got out the rasps and blues and squished them with my hands, added sugar and some flour and spread that over the bottom crust and grated the remaining dough on top. You can serve it warm or cold, though I like the chilled bars better.

After several Shabbat meals and snacks, we still had half the pan left on Sunday. I may have also made chocolate mousse that weekend. Berries can never compete with chocolate. Sunday afternoon, three hours into the seven total of my daughter’s regret over having donated 8 inches of her hair, I needed a pick-me-up. I told my son Sam, who LOVES fruit desserts, to get us two soup spoons. He asked if we needed plates and I responded, “Why?” We sat down and inhaled the remainder of the pan. Somewhere into the final corner of the pan, things were looking up. Sam and I licked our spoons. I took Emily to get her hair layered and her friends on skype pronounced the new style gorgeous. This dessert made my stressful afternoon ever so much sweeter.

Berry Bars

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) parve margarine, frozen for 15 minutes, plus extra for
greasing pan and parchment
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 large egg yolk
2 cups fresh blueberries
2 cups fresh raspberries
¼ cup sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Preheat the oven to 350ºf. Grease a 9 x 13-inch pan with some margarine. Place a piece of parchment in the pan that is large enough to go up the sides and hang over a few inches. Grease the top and sides of the parchment.

To make the crust: Place the flour and sugar into the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Process for 10 seconds. Cut the margarine into pieces and add to the bowl. Process or use your hands to mix for another 10 seconds. Add the vanilla and egg yolk and then process or mix until the dough just comes together.

Divide the dough in half, making one piece a little bigger. Wrap both pieces in

plastic; flatten and place the smaller one in the freezer. Take the larger piece and break it into pieces and scatter over the parchment. Press the pieces into the pan as evenly as you can. Place in the oven and bake for 15 minutes.  Remove from the oven and let cool for 15 minutes. 
Meanwhile place the raspberries and blueberries into a large bowl and squeeze with your hands to break up the raspberries.

Add the sugar and flour and squeeze together. This part is fun, but you may still want to use plastic gloves as I did.  Remove the other dough piece from the freezer and, using the large holes of a box grater, grate the remaining dough over the filling. 

Bake for 50 minutes, or until the top starts to look golden brown. Let cool. Trim off about ¼ inch of the sides, if desired, and eat them immediately, and then cut into squares or long bars. Serve warm or cold.

Pledge 25 Jewish Baking Class

Ohr Kodesh Congregation in Chevy Chase is celebrating the 25 years of Rabbi Lyle Fishman. To commemorate this milestone the synangogue launched "Pledge 25" asking each member the pledge 25 of Jewish learning or activity during the next year. I was asked to do a Jewish baking class and we did two classes. During the first class, we had about 16 people and baked challah and babka. Everyone made their own mini babkas to take home. I enjoyed watching several people 80 plus rolling out their babkas!

Yesterday we made rugelach and doughnuts for chanukah. I presented them with what I call the rugelach filling buffet: several jams, nuts, dried fruit, coconut, etc. with which to fill their rugelach rolls. The doughnuts were way too good. During the class I demonstrated how to make the dough that I cooked after everyone left. We ended up with about 30 doughnuts sitting around the kitchen that had to be eaten within 24 hours, or they get stale, PLUS I knew I had to make a fresh batch Friday for Chanukah. I keep hoping to get tired of eating them but that hasn't happened yet. Happy Chanukah!

Friendship Circle

The Chabad Lubavitch organization has a national program called "Friendship Circle" that matches up teens to special needs kids and does different projects with them. I ran two cooking programs for the group during November as part of their Cooking Circle program. On the first day, we made chicken matzoh ball soup, a chopped salad with creamy dijon dressing and an easy fruit tart. The second day we made cheese borekas, pizzas and the kids assembled and decorated their own layer cakes. I learned from working with special needs kids at Camp Ramah last summer that this group LOVES cake decorating. I gave them stacks of vanilla cake slices, bowls of icing and pastry bags with several icing colors and let them do what they want. Many adults are afraid of pastry bags, but not these kids. Although the result was more icing than cake, the kids had fun designing their cakes and squeezing the icing out of the bags. The helpers, including my daughter Emily, had a great time too.

I have just returned from a succesful week of cooking events before over 100 people in South Florida. I was hired by three different Chabad Lubavitch groups to do a cooking demonstration and tasting of a full meal. It was hard work, but I had an army of helpers and the food turned out great, which is often a challenge in other people's kitchens. The crowd ranged in age from 13-85. I met interesting people including a teenager who asked me to sign her Kosher by Design Kids in the Kitchen book that I edited and a woman who asked to test my parve flan for my upcoming book.

My mom, who had never seen me do a cooking demo before a large group, was able to watch me and kvell. I didn't share my usual story about the fact that the only home baked cakes I ever got growing up were the cake mixes mom made on Passover. I did like those brownies . . .

For two of the events, in Parkland and Downtown Miami, I prepared the following menu:

Caramelized Onion and Sweet Potato Soup

Whole Chicken with Dried Fruit Stuffing

Crunchy Quinoa

Pear and Almond Tart

For the event in Palm Beach Gardens, I substituted my Brisket Osso Buco for the Chicken.

Some comments:

"The demo was informative and entertaining and your food absolutely amazing. I keep getting great feedback from the women that were there.. they absolutely loved you!"

"I just wanted to thank you again for the amazing event last night. The ladies really loved it and had a great time."

Here is the sweet potato soup recipe. You may think this recipe calls for a crazy amount of onions. Trust me, they cook down. Start cooking on high heat, and once they onions brown, turn the heat down a little every few minutes. When you think the onions are brown enough, cook another 5 minutes. You will want to use an immersion blender to puree the soup and keep the blender on for at least 3 minutes straight. If the soup is very thick, which can happen because your sweet potatoes could be bigger than mine, add a little hot water and puree again.

Caramelized Onion & Sweet Potato Soup serves 10 people

1/4 cup canola oil 4 lbs onions, sliced
4 cloves garlic, chopped 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
8 cups water, vegetable or chicken stock
3 large sweet potatoes cut in chunks

Heat oil in a large pot. Add onions and cook on medium to high heat, mixing often until onions are golden brown. This takes about 30 minutes.

Add garlic, salt, pepper and cook 5 minutes more. Add the sweet potatoes and water/stock. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 40 minutes until the potatoes are soft. Cool slightly.
Purée using an immersion blender or in batches in a blender or food processor until the soup is completely smooth. Taste for seasonings and add salt or white pepper as needed.

Florida Kosher food tip

Eat at the Gelato Cafe in Boca -- they have delicious soups, salads and sandwiches and absolutely fabulous gelato. The owner let me try a few flavors, including mojito flavored sorbet. Yum.

Parve Scones

I will start all of you off easy with my parve scones. Some people even prefer them to my dairy ones. Scones are the perfect snack for shabbat afternoon, served with tea and jam. You can make them in advance and freeze them. The recipe below contains the quickest way to shape them -- just shape the dough into a pancake and place into a round pan and score triangles.

Here are some other options for them:

1. substitute 1/4 cup whole wheat flour for 1/4 cup of the all-purpose flour --noone but you will know
2. make this recipe your own --add 1/2 cup chocolate chips, dried cranberries, raisins, currants, any kind of chopped nut or any combination thereof
3. you can make them in any shape you like - just roll out the dough and cut into triangles, or use cookie cutters to make circles, hearts, flowers, stars, whatever you like

I freeze them baked and defrost only 1/2 hour before serving.

SCONES

2 cups plus 3 tablepoons all-purpose flour
¼ cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons cold margarine, placed in freezer for 15 minutes
2 eggs, divided
1/2 cup soy milk

Preheat oven to 425°F. Grease an 8-inch round baking pan and set aside. (Note: these do not bake as well in disposable aluminum pans)

In a medium bowl, sift together the 2 cups of flour, sugar, and baking powder, and salt. Place into the bowl of a food processor with a metal blade. Cut the chilled margarine into small pieces and scatter over the dry ingredients. Process for about 10 seconds until mixture resembles sand. Add 1 beaten egg and the soy milk. Process just until dough starts to come together, about 5 seconds. Sprinkle about 1 tablespoon of flour on your counter. Remove dough from the processor, place on your counter and knead gently until dough is soft. Add a little more flour if the dough seems sticky. If you are adding chocolate chips, dried fruit or nuts, knead them in now.

Shape dough into a ball and then flatten into a pancake the size of your baking pan. Place the dough into the pan. With a sharp knife dipped in flour, score the top of the dough into 8-12 wedges. Beat the remaining egg and then brush the top of the dough.

Bake 15 minutes or until the top is just beginning to brown. Let cool 5 minutes and then remove from the pan. Cut on the scored lines into 8 - 12 wedges. Serve warm or at room temperature.