Cafe Liz

Chocolate Passover biscotti

These biscotti have a tendency to vanish. Biscotti are twice-baked cookies, once into a loaf, and the second time after being sliced, and until crunchy. Something about the denseness means they don’t lose much — if anything — from being made with matzo meal instead of flour, and thus kosher for Passover.

I got the recipe from my mother, who explained to me that she never bakes the full batch at once, because however much you bake, it immediately disappears. I baked mine before the holiday officially began, and thus kept myself from eating them — no Passover food until it’s Passover.

So first thing after getting home from the seder, I made a beeline for the cookies — yes, after a four-course meal and all. And it’s only been downhill from there.
Continue reading Chocolate Passover biscotti…

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Matzo balls in Persian fruit soup

I had a particular Persian meatball dish in mind when I made this — meatballs stewed in a broth of dried fruit. Fruit plays a central role in savory cooking in Persian cuisine. While dried fruit is more commonly associated with another holiday, Tu Bishvat, Passover also happens to fall in the spring, and thus fruit is still appropriate.

In this dish, it gives Ashkenazi matzo balls an unusual twist. The matzo balls provide firm texture in place of meatballs, and the fruit soup — well, it speaks for itself, a mix of sweet and savory thanks to some onions and garlic.

In terms of the fruit you use, you could follow my lead, or improvise. Continue reading Matzo balls in Persian fruit soup…

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Cranberry charoset

This is a play on a classic charoset — a Sephardi-style nut/date spread with a decidedly new-world twist. Cranberries are a new-world fruit, so it’s highly unlikely that they started appearing in any traditional Jewish cuisine too many centuries ago. But hey, it’s been 500 years since Columbus sailed the ocean blue and the world is increasingly globalized, so there’s no reason not to give our holiday “mortar” an extra cranberry tang.

Beyond the cranberries, there are the pears and the pecans, which give the charoset a decidedly upscale taste. What better way to deck out the seder table? Continue reading Cranberry charoset…

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Passover mushroom croquettes

Pork-obsessed Spanish cuisine is not known for being kosher friendly, but classic croquettes can easily be made not only kosher and vegetarian, but kosher for Passover, to boot.

Croquettes are breaded dumplings filled with a bechamel cream, flavored with any number of things. I learned the technique from my friend Arturo, who threw himself a croquette birthday party with seven different kinds of dumplings — including ham, shrimp, ham and shrimp … and then for the vegetarians, mushroom and spinach. Arturo was nice enough to invite me over during his three (!!) days of preparations, so after watching seven batches of croquette fillings come off the flame, I felt confident enough to give it a go myself. Continue reading Passover mushroom croquettes…

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Passover 2010 on Cafe Liz

Passover is rapidly approaching. The stores have already stopped stocking my favorite cookies and chocolates (no baker’s chocolate for Passover? really guys?) You, like us, are preparing for the week of unleavened bread, whether that means planning a seder, or just coming up with things to eat for the week.

I’m not one of those people who feels Passover equals starvation. I love the holiday, and all its food. Hopefully, I have some recipes that can make that process easier and more enjoyable. I’ll be posting new recipes over the next two weeks, but until then, you can check out my Passover-specific recipes from last year:

• Sweet bimuelos, a Turkish staple that aroused a surprising amount of interest as expressed by the commenters from around the world
• Mina de espinaka, a Sephardic spinach-cheese pie
• My mother’s charoset recipe, in traditional Sephardi Mediterranean style
• Matzo ball soup with Middle Eastern spices

Plus, my posts from the rest of the year are categorized based on those that suit Passover: Everything free of chametz (grains) appears in my Sephardi Passover recipes list, while everything free of chametz and kitniyot (legumes) appears in my Ashkenazi Passover recipes. (Let me know if I’ve mislabled anything …)

Have a happy Passover, from Cafe Liz. Let the cooking begin.

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Purim special: Hamentaschen-shaped bird’s nest baklava

Purim is approaching, and while I haven’t decided on a costume, I did decide to dress up my hamentaschen in Middle Eastern outfits. Hamentaschen are traditional Ashkenazi Jewish cookies notable for their three-pointed form, which according to tradition resembles the three-cornered hat of Haman, the holiday’s antagonist. (In Hebrew, for some reason, they’re called oznei haman, or “Haman’s ears.”) Last year I dressed up my hamantaschen as Japanese-inspired mochi cookies, this year I they resembled Middle Eastern pastries.

The Purim story is set in first-century Persia, so it’s unlikely that Mordechai, Esther or Haman ever had baklava. While the Persians (or Ottomans) are thought to have invented baklava, filo came into being only somewhere between the 6th and the 10th centuries. But still, it’s a twist that makes me smile. Continue reading Purim special: Hamentaschen-shaped bird’s nest baklava…

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Orna & Ella’s sweet potato pancakes

I guess I lack holiday spirit. It’s Hanukkah, but I haven’t been able to get in the mood for grease. After making six types of latkes last year, and frying them in more than enough oil to keep a hanukkiyah burning for eight days, I went a different route this year — potato pancakes that don’t have much in common with the Hanukkah staple, beyond the name.

These sweet potato pancakes are the signature dish of Orna & Ella, a fabulous establishment on Sheinken that has been producing creative, quality dishes since 1992. This recipe can be found all over the Web in Hebrew, and is also featured in their cookbook.

Basically, it’s mashed-up sweet potatoes mixed with flour and fried in butter. There are no eggs, so it’s the butter that helps the pancakes brown and solidify somewhat, although they’ll always be soft and creamy in the center. Continue reading Orna & Ella’s sweet potato pancakes…

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Mom’s challah

I’m not entirely sure where my mom got this recipe, but I got it from her. It’s a surefire way to impress at a Friday night dinner. It has this warm, yeasty flavor in the hours after it’s baked that dissipates as the hours pass, turning it back into just another regular bread (very good bread, nonetheless). Oh, and it’s downright massive.

It’s also quite forgiving. Last time I made it, I let my dough rise too much the second time around, and the challah became bloated and shapeless, and threatened to take over my oven. So I punched it down, braided it again and let it rise for a third, shorter time.

If you’re not making this for a religious celebration, you could just make little knots of dough. That would be good, too. Continue reading Mom’s challah…

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Dirt cake

Spot the impostor: It’s not a plant, it’s a cake. It only looks like a plant. (OK, a fake plant. But still.) I got this recipe from my mom, who’s been playing it for laughs since I was a child. This is my second year making it myself (for a different crowd each time, of course), and it gets a good response, even once the “dirt” cover is broken and people start digging into the cake. There’s just something about eating out of a flowerpot that amuses people. Continue reading Dirt cake…

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Passion-fruit citrus cheesecake

This cheesecake has a fabulous, tangy flavor, thanks to the passion fruit, orange and lemon. It also almost ended in complete and total disaster due to my impatience.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve made a cheesecake — about 51 weeks, right around last year’s Shavuot, to be precise — and I kind of forgot the importance of letting the cheesecake take its dear sweet time to cool down. In my haste, I removed the baking ring a few minutes after this gorgeous, golden cheesecake came out of the oven, and watched in horror as the perfect top split and the cake collapsed into a pile on its tinfoil wrapping.

Fortunately, not all was lost. Continue reading Passion-fruit citrus cheesecake…

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