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Dal Masala
Heat Soak all day or overnight 1 cup black lentils½ cup kidney beans Drain the beans and place in pressure cooker. Mince the following 1 medium onion2 medium tomatoesa 1-inch piece of ginger4-5 garlic cloves and add to pressure cooker along with 4 cups water1 tsp cumin seeds or ½ tsp cumin powder½ tsp red…
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Potato Soup
Combine in a large saucepan or small stock pot 4 large or 6 medium potatoes, peeled and diced 1 large onion, peeled and pierced in several places with a knife 1 carrot, peeled and diced 2 teaspoons salt Cover with water, a couple of inches above the level of the other ingredients. Bring it to…
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Colonial Poppy Seed Cake
Combine ½ cup poppy seeds (2-ounce jar) ¾ cup milk Let stand at room temperature three or four hours or overnight in the refrigerator. Let remaining ingredients warm to room temperature. Place all ingredients in bowl of electric mixer, including poppy seed-milk mixture 3 eggs ¾ cup softened unsalted butter (should be very soft) 1¼…
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Blueberry Sauce
This recipe makes a good topping for cheese Blintzes. See the recipe for Cheese Filling for Blintzes. In a 2-quart saucepan, combine 2 cups blueberries (frozen are fine) 1 TBL butter 2 TBL lemon juice ½ tsp cornstarch pinch of salt and cook over a medium-low heat, stirring as it comes to a gentle boil.…
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Cheese Filling for Blintzes
First off, the amount of farmer cheese is a range because the primary producer of packaged farmer cheese, Friendship Dairies, has reduced the size of their packages from eight ounces to seven. If you can buy farmer cheese in bulk, buy the larger amount, but also, don’t bother buying 3 packages of farmer cheese just…
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Oniony Potato Filling
This is a large recipe, suitable if you are making 3-4 dozen Blintzes, I would guess. My mother would often make larger batches of this filling with 5 pounds of potatoes and 3 pounds of onions. It is dense. Very dense. Peel and dice 1¼ pounds yellow or white onions In a large skillet, heat…
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Blintzes
While this might sound like a big production, in fact you can throw these together pretty quickly once you’ve done it a couple times. The entire process consists of these steps: make the filling(s), make the batter, cook the blintz wrappers, form the blintzes, cook them, eat them. I prefer to make the filling first…
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Summer Squash with Mint
This tasty vegetable dish (or its close relatives) kept showing up at dinnertime during a trip to Italy. We were smitten. It’s delicious served at room temperature.
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Roasted Banana Ice Cream
This started its life as a recipe for a delicious vegan ice cream that called for an ingredient that I was having trouble locating. Not being a vegan, I decided to rework the recipe. And just to be perfectly clear, the bananas are roasted, not the ice cream.
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Cullen Skink
In a shallow broad (frying) pan, place 16 ounces smoked haddock fillets 1 bay leaf 3 cups milk and heat until it’s steaming but don’t let it boil. Cook for 2-3 minutes until the fish is fully cooked. Turn off the heat, remove the fish to a cutting board, and reserve the milk and bay…
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Fresh Herb Kuku
This delicious frittata-like Persian dish is loaded with herbs, giving it a forest green color. Wrapped up in a piece of lavash with a bit of seasoned labneh, it’s a wonderful hors d’oeuvre.
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Peach-Sweet Tea Sherbet
The book Hello, My Name is Ice Cream is an outstanding source of information and recipe ideas for ice cream. I found the amount of almond flavor overwhelming and suggest a smaller amount here. Peel 3 large fresh peaches If using frozen peaches make sure they are peeled. Cut the peaches into chunks and heat in a…
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Mango Lassi Frozen Yogurt
The recipe in Hello, My Name is Ice Cream is a much more nuanced description of how to make this frozen yogurt, giving you a number of options for thickeners (“texture agents”) and it has a more subtle mango flavor. I pushed up the mango puree volume substantially. I encourage you to track down the…
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Fresh Cherry Crostata
This recipe is incredibly reliable and makes a delicious rustic fruit pie with a buttery crust. I have switched out the fruit for other stone fruits. I made it without a food processor. I even made it without the benefit of a rolling pin once, making do with a glass tumbler to form the dough.…
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Kiffling (Wedding Cookies)
These cookies have a delicious crumbly texture. I’m not a fan of confectioners’ sugar, but the coating on the on the outside works perfectly. Using a mechanical grinder (meat, nut, whatever), grind 8 ounces almonds I suppose you could use 8 ounces of almond flour, but leaving the skins on provides a darker result and…
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Rum Balls
If you have a food processor, it will make chopping the nuts and pulverizing the vanilla wafers, but do each one separately. Next time I make this I’m going to grind the pecans instead of chopping them. Measure together in a bowl 1 cup (95g) of vanilla wafer crumbs 1 cup (135g) finely chopped pecans…
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Autumn Soup
Saute 4 cups (12 ounces) chopped leeks (white part), cleaned of any sand in a glug of olive oil When tender, add 4 cups (18 ounces) peeled pumpkin (or butternut squash), cut into ½-inch dice 1½ cups (8 ounces) turnip, peeled and cut into dize 1 cup (8 ounces) potato, peeled and cut into dice…
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Flourless Orange and Almond Cake
No butter, no oil, no flour: a delicious, moist cake with the flavor of almonds and orange. Served with a marmalade sauce.
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No-Knead Pizza Dough
Measure the flour by weight: you can scale this recipe up. See the note at the end. In a bowl, measure 320g type “00” soft wheat flour scant 1½ tsp salt 1/16 to ⅛ tsp yeast Regarding the yeast, for a 6-pizza recipe, you need about ½ tsp yeast, so go easy and don’t worry…
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Cold Borscht
I can’t think of a more refreshing lunch on a hot summer day. Slightly tangy, cold borscht can really give you a boost.
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Basmati Rice Salad
Cook 1 cup basmatic rice and spread the cooked rice on a large tray or jelly roll pan to cool. That will take about 10 minutes. While the rice cooks, combine the following in a 2-quart (or larger) bowl: grated zest of 2 small lemons 2 TBL lemon juice 3 TBL olive oil 3 TBL…
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Grilled Octopus
Purchase 1 octopus (1½ to 2 pounds), cleaned Note: A larger octopus will work, just make sure it fits in your pressure cooker and adjust the cooking time. I’ve also cooked 2 1½ pound octopuses at once in my 6-quart pressure cooker. When you (or the fishmonger) clean the octopus, be sure to remove the…
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Almond Polenta Pound Cake
Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease and flour a Bundt or 10-inch tube pan. Separate 6 eggs Reserve egg yolks. With electric mixer beat egg whites with ¼ cup sugar until soft peaks form. In an electric mixer, cream together ¾ cup (1½ sticks) unsalted butter ½ cup almond paste 1 cup sugar 1 teaspoon…
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Aloo Gobi (Potatoes and Cauliflower)
Wash, trim and cut into medium-sized florets 1 medium-size head of cauliflower Grate 2-inch piece of peeled ginger 3 or 4 cloves of garlic Place in a small (2-cup) bowl and add 1 TBL ground coriander ¼ tsp turmeric ½ tsp Kashmiri chili powder or paprika ½ tsp hot chili powder 1 tsp salt ½…
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Chicken Pot Pie with Cornmeal Crust
So much better than those frozen pot pies from childhood. This also works well with leftover turkey, so keep it in mind after Thanksgiving!
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Pasta with Spicy Almond Pesto
In a blender, combine to make a runny “pesto” with some chunks of almonds still visible. 1 cup roasted almonds olive oil to cover Cook 8 ounces pasta (bucatini, radiatore, etc) reserving some pasta water just before you drain them. When the pasta is almost done, saute 1 glug olive oil 2 cloves garlic, peeled…
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Oniony Noodle Kugel
Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil. While you’re waiting for it to boil, peel and dice 2 very large or 4 medium onions This works best with a non-stick pan, but you can do this in any 11- to 12-inch frying pan. Heat a large frying pan to a medium-high heat…
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Gefilte Fish Terrine
You can purchase other kinds of fish, but the mixture of pike, whitefish and carp is very common. If you like ocean fish, halibut-salmon (in the ratio of 2:1) can be found in Joan Nathan’s recipe, which is the inspiration for this one. You should end up with about 3 pounds of fish fillets. Ask…
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Dried Fruit Fruitcake
My mother found the basis for this recipe in Family Circle or Good Housekeeping magazine around 1970 and made it several times. Before eating this, I thought fruitcake was awful, but this is a real delight!