Broccoli and Cheese Soup - Quick and Easy

Not all "cream" soups contain cream.  This one uses milk and broth  It is quick, easy and tastes rich and delicious.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup minced onion or sliced and minced leek (white parts only, well rinsed)
4 tablespoons butter (or margarine)
1/2 teaspoon salt (If you use broth cubes, OMIT the salt until you taste at the end)
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper or ground white pepper
Pinch of nutmeg
Pinch of cayenne (optional but very nice)
1 clove pressed or minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme leaves or 1/4 tsp dried thyme leaves or 1/4 tsp Italian seasoning

4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 cups vegetable stock or 3 parve chicken flavoured or vegetable bouillon cubes plus 3 cups water
1 cup milk
1 (16-ounce) package frozen broccoli, thawed and some set aside*
**Optional vegetables - see below

1 cup shredded cheese - I use sharp Cheddar

Garnish with croutons and serve with bread

Method:

In a medium sized, heavy-bottomed pot, melt the 4 tablespoons butter over medium heat. Add the onions, salt if not using bouillon cubes, pepper, nutmeg and cayenne and cook, stirring, until soft. Add the garlic and thyme (or other herbs and cook, stirring, for about a minute - keep an eye on it as garlic burns easily.

Add the flour and cook, stirring constantly for a few minutes.  Slowly add the stock and the milk, stirring constantly, and bring to a boil.
Reduce the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened, about 5 minutes.
Add the broccoli and cook, stirring, until tender, for 10 minutes.

At this point you may be able to mash the broccoli into the soup if you like it with a bit of texture.

*We also reserve some of the broccoli and add it in just before reheating the soup.

Alternatively,  puree with a hand-held immersion blender or cool and puree, in batches, in a blender or food processor and return to the pot.

If you have optional vegetables (below) add at this time.  Reheat the soup over low to medium heat

Remove from the heat and ladle the soup into bowls.
Top with the cheese and the optional croutons.

**I often will cook up some diced or shredded carrot and add the carrot in at the end, just before serving.  If you have a zucchini lying around, shred some of that up and put into the soup when you add the broccoli.  Zucchini has more moisture so you may need to add an additional tablespoon of flour for thickening

K (D)

Salmon Quiche - perfect for a dairy Shabbat breakfast or lunch

In this quiche, I used a bit of spinach I had in the refrigerator.  It is not included in the recipe below as it is not necessary.

First, the crust. I use a 9"/23cm quiche pan.  I have been using frozen, parve short crust as it is readily available.  You can use any short crust pasty recipe that you enjoy or even perhaps the following:

Crust: 

1       cup all-purpose flour
1/2     teaspoon salt
1/3    cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable shortening, margarine or butter
2       to 3 tablespoons (60-90ml) cold water

Alternatively, you can use frozen shortcrust pastry - thawed

Mix flour with salt.  Cut shortening into flour mixture until the shortening is about the size of small peas.  Do not over-work this important part - you want flaky crust.  Add cold water and stir with a fork.  If the dough is too dry and does not stick together, then add a few more drops of water.  Wrap in plastic and chill while cleaning up or for about 15 minutes or so.

Roll out into a circle a few inches larger than your pie pan or removable-bottomed quiche pan.  Place into pan and crimp edges to make it pretty. Make little prick marks with a fork or add pie weights to keep the crust from puffing up at this point.  Pop this into the oven (350°F/175°C) for about 5-8 minutes - this helps to prevent the bottom crust from being soggy.  You do not want to completely bake it - just temper it a bit.

Now, for the quiche mixture:

Ingredients:
3-4 eggs, depending upon size
One can evaporated (not condensed!) soy milk or 12 oz milk, soy milk (or other liquid milk alternative)**
1 Tbsp freshly chopped tarragon/1tsp dried tarragon leaves
200gm/7oz smoked salmon (lox), chopped
1/2-3/4 cup cheese
2 Tbsp. Capers, optional but nice
Freshly cracked pepper
Salt to taste (may not be necessary as the salmon is usually salty enough)
Sliced Fresh Tomatoes - either full sized ones or nice cherry tomatoes

**Some people do not combine liquid milk and fish.  I don't mind in a cooked dish.  Therefore, I often use regular milk if I do not have evaporated milk, and simply add an extra egg. 

Method:
In a milchig bowl, beat three extra large eggs, checked (or four regular sized eggs) well.  Add one can of evaporated milk (375ml/12oz standard can) and beat together.  Snip up some fresh tarragon - about a Tablespoon - or use one teaspoon of dried tarragon leaves.  Mix again.

Check the pie crust if you have forgotten about it! ;)

Add to the milk/egg mixture the following:

200gm/7oz smoked salmon (lox), chopped up a bit.
  *I use 'cooking salmon' as it is made from off-cuts and you can find it quite reasonable on sale and freeze it for later.  Photo below.
1/2-3/4 cup cheese - I often use a mixture of what ever I have here - cheddar (white, rennet-less), mozzarella, etc. 
Capers - about 2 Tbsp, if you can find kosher ones.  Quite nice, actually.
Freshly cracked black or mixed pepper
Salt - careful with the salt as the salmon is quite salty.  You should not need much.

Mix the above all together and pour into 9"/23cm quiche pan.



Top with fresh sliced tomatoes. 

Bake in oven (350°F/175°C) for about 25 minutes - I have a fan forced/convection oven - your timing might be about 5 minutes longer.  When a knife comes out clean, remove quiche from oven and cool on a rack.

This delicious quiche can be eaten hot, after cooling for about 5 minutes, or can be cooled and then stored in the refrigerator overnight for a lovely dairy brunch entrée. 

This is the type of smoke salmon/lox that I use.  As it is off-cuts (not perfectly sliced lox) it is often available at a discount price and can be successfully frozen for later use.

Easy Metric to Imperial Kitchen guide  <-- this is a good link to use if you need to convert!  Enjoy.

Pita Bread (Mizrahi) - Not like what you buy in the shops!

Ingredients:

3 cups flour
1 Tbsp dry yeast
1 Tbsp sugar   
 ¾ teaspoon salt
1 Tbsp Olive oil (or other vegetable oil)
 2 cups warm water - NOT HOT as the heat will kill the yeast
 1 ½-2 ¼ cups flour (You may use 1 to 1-1/2 cup whole wheat flour)

Directions:
   
    Combine first six ingredients in a large bowl.
  
    Beat well with a mixer or by hand for about 1 minute.
 
    Then mix in the remaining flour, using just enough to make a soft, sticky dough.
  
    Turn out on floured board and continue to knead for 5 minutes.
 
    Divide into 12 balls.  Let rest for 10-20 minutes.
   
    Roll out each ball to about 1/4 inch thick and 6 inches in diameter.
  
Place as many as will fit on a baking sheet that has been lightly greased and lined with baking paper and      sprinkled with cornmeal.   Sometimes I use sesame seeds to sprinkle on the pan.

    Let rise for 25-35 minutes
  
 Bake at 450 for 4 minutes, and then turn over with your fingers, a fork or spatula and bake for 4 more minutes or until lightly browned.  Repeat with additional rounds.
   
    Wrap immediately in a clean dish towel for 3 or 4 minutes.

K (P)

Easy Alfredo Sauce

 

Use a package of kosher cream cheese - put this in a milchig pan.

Pour some milk over it and grate heaps of parmesean cheese over it. Turn this on low. 

Chop up some parsley and chuck most of it in (save some for teh pretty!) 

Add one pressed clove of garlic.

Now, for added taste, use a bit of salt, pepper, a bit of cayenne and especially some nutmeg or allspice to give it that unique flavour. Let it all blend together over low heat until everything is melted and creamy. If it gets too thick, add some more milk.

I use the 1/3 less fat variety of cream cheese but I don't think it makes much difference.  Simply do one more push up the next day.  Or take the stairs.

Sometimes I will separate out some of the sauce and mix in a tablespoon or so of pesto. Very nice.

Serve with fettuccine pasta (or whatever you have in the house)  Oh, and bread.  And wine.

I will clean up this recipe a bit another day ~ I am currently finishing up the last of the leftover wine from Shabbat...as one does.

Old Fashioned Homemade Chocolate Pudding

When you absolutely, positive, NEED chocolate NOW!
This is a cornstarch (cornflour) based chocolate pudding.

Serves:  um....4?

• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 2 3/4 cups milk
• 1  tablespoon margarine or butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (sometimes I use half almond extract and half vanilla extract)

Directions

1. In a saucepan, stir together sugar, cocoa, cornstarch and salt. Place over medium heat, and stir in milk. Bring to a boil, and cook, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a metal spoon. Remove from heat, and stir in margarine and vanilla. Let cool briefly, and serve warm, or chill in refrigerator until serving.

 K (D)
Notes -  This is a quick and easy dessert and a favourite of children.  You may use a non-flavoured milk substitute.  Always use the best cocoa you can buy!  Use non-wheaten cornstarch/cornflour  Enjoy!  Can also omit the cocoa and make this plain vanilla - but I have no idea why anyone would want to do that :)

Chili Relleno Cassarole - Great for Shavuot and Kosher for Passover!

This recipe fits in a 13x9x2" pan.  It is easily halved but makes for fantastic leftovers - hot or cold.

Ingredients:
4-4oz cans of whole Ortega Chiles, seeds and tough veins removed
2 Cups grated Monterey Jack Cheese
2 Cups grated Cheddar Cheese
4 eggs
12 oz. can evaporated milk

Chopped fresh tomatoes (olives, cilantro, salsa, sour cream or other garnish that you enjoy)

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees

In a 13 x 9 x 2" pan, layer 2 cans of the chiles, covering the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle half of the cheddar and half of the Monterey Jack cheese on top - see photo just above this section.

Layer the rest of the chiles on top. Add the rest of the cheddar cheese.

Beat the eggs and milk together.  Pour over the chili/cheese mixture.

Bake at 400 degrees for 30 - 45 minutes or until the egg/milk mixture is no longer runny.  The top should be a bit brown.

Top with chopped fresh tomatoes, olives, cilantro, sour cream, as desired.

Serve with rice and beans.  Chips and guacamole are a nice accompaniment, as well. 

Kosher(D)
Kosher for Pesach (Passover)  - check all labels to make sure the ingredients are Kosher for Pesach