Wednesday, March 11, 2009

More than I could chew

10 march 2009 (Purim)

After three weeks of assisting and excited about the holiday, I was a little over ambitious this week. In particular, this menu suggested three night-before tasks. Any one of them would have been manageable, but all together they added about four extra hours onto the shift, and ate up all of Monday evening.

Challah
Dairy Free from the Bread Bible, times four, with an extra egg or two (oops). I made the dough the evening before. It was very wet, and I was a little concerned that it would be difficult to form the next day, but the night spent in the fridge did wonders for it. Margit made four gorgeous braids, and they all got demolished.

Salad with Preserved Lemon Dressing
Either the preserved lemons weren't ready, or I should have been more careful about just using the peel, but the dressing was awful. I spent way too much time trying to save it. In the end, it was alright but not great, so I threw together a batch of the Krug family's dressing and served both on the side.

Sasouf (Bulgur and Chickpeas with Herbs and Lemon)
This was really nice. Easy to make, and the leftovers went quickly.

Butternut Squash Soup
Roasting the squash the night before made this soup really easy day-of. But processing all the squash myself the night before was an enormous pain. The soup was very simple and came out well. Onions softened in earth balance, pre-baked squash, and vegan broth simmered together for most of the shift. I pureed it with the immersion blender, and then added just a tiny bit of coconut milk and salt and pepper before serving it. This was a first attempt at copying Lauren's recipe. I think that hers had bay and rosemary.

Roast Lamb with Gravy
Alistair took care of this. I can't remember what my plan was for the lamb, but he didn't like it. I wasn't attached to it, so I let him take over.

Chicken, Olives, Onions, and Raisins in White Wine


Roast Eggplant Slices


Yogurt Sauce

My favorite. House yogurt, pomegranate molasses, tahini, and garlic. It was perfect, but no one seems to love this as much as I do. There was a ton left over. I used myself as an extra condiment with almost every meal for the next week.

Roasted Red Peppers and Onions


Hamantaschen
I made the dough for this the night before as well, and let Margit actually form the cookies. We had poppy seed and jam fillings; no chocolate, as we ran out of time. I would definitely make these again.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/mighty-appetite/2008/03/the_hamantaschen_project.html

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