Yes You Can! Piecrust

Ready-made piecrusts usually contain saturated fat, sugar and excess salt.

Why not make your own from healthy canola or olive oil and a bit of flavorful whole-wheat flour?
It’s really not that hard. It’s also tasty, healthier and less expensive.

Here are two recipes to get you started.

For the first, you don’t even need a rolling pin. Just mix the ingredients together right in the pan. What could be easier? Use it for dessert or savory pies and quiches.

Plan ahead for the second recipe, as the dough needs to “rest” for 30 minutes before you roll it out. It’s great for rustic-style vegetable pies.

NO-ROLL PIE CRUST (Dairy or Parve)

1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup whole-wheat flour
¾ teaspoon sugar (for a sweet pie)
¾ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup + 3 tablespoons canola oil
2 tablespoons milk (dairy or soy)

9 “(23cm) pie plate

Whisk together both flours, sugar (if using) and salt right in the pie pan. Mix the oil and milk together. Add them to the flour mixture in the pie pan and mix with a fork or your fingers. Add more milk, if necessary, until the dough holds together.

Press the dough evenly over the bottom and sides of the pan and even-out the edges.

To pre-bake: Preheat the oven to 425 F (220 C). Place a piece of aluminum foil or parchment paper over the dough and fill it with dry beans. Bake the crust for 10 minutes. Lower the oven temperature to 350 F (180 C), carefully remove the beans and foil, and bake for another 10-15 minutes, until golden brown.

Or fill the crust with your favorite filling and bake as directed in your recipe.

Makes one 9” (23cm) crust


SEPHARDIC PASTRY DOUGH (Parve)

¼ cup water
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup whole wheat flour
¼ - ½ cup all-purpose white flour

Combine the water, oil and salt in a bowl. Stir in the whole-wheat flour. Gradually add enough of the white flour to make a soft dough that leaves the sides of the bowl. Knead gently in the bowl and shape into a disc. Wrap it in plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375 F (190 C)

Generously grease a 9” (23 cm) pie pan with cooking oil spray. Roll the dough into a round to fit the pan. Fill with your favorite filling and bake until the filling is set and the crust is brown.

Makes one 9” (23 cm) crust

Yes You Can! Croutons and Breadcrumbs

Aren’t croutons just toasted bread cubes? And breadcrumbs are day-old bread ground up in the food processor or crushed with a rolling pin.

That’s what I always thought. At least until I read the label on a package of croutons at the grocery store. They were loaded with salt and fat. And rather expensive for a product that’s basically bread!

You can make your own very easily.

Croutons in the Oven

Cut slices of bread into cubes. Put them on a baking sheet and bake them in a low oven until they’re dry and lightly browned. Stir them occasionally while they’re baking. When they’re done, they should feel like toast.

Croutons on the Stove

Heat some olive oil in a large skillet. Add cubes of bread and cook, stirring often, until they’re crisp. Add garlic or spices if you’d like.

Oven-baked croutons will keep for awhile in an airtight container. Croutons cooked in olive oil are perishable and should be used fairly quickly.

Breadcrumbs

For soft fresh breadcrumbs simply tear up leftover bread into pieces and process in your food processor.

Make dry breadcrumbs from toasted or stale, dry bread. Break it up directly into the bowl of the food processor and process until it becomes crumbs.

Home made breadcrumbs can be stored in a zip-lock bag in the freezer for a few months.

Yes You Can!

You’ve heard it over and over again. To lose weight, you’ve got to eat less and exercise more.

But there’s another piece of the equation – cooking!

In many households, home cooking has all but disappeared. It started when women left the kitchen to work outside the home. Food manufacturers filled the void with processed “convenience” foods. These foods became regular components of the meals we fed our families. Then our lives got even busier and we started to rely on “fast food” and take-out. Many of us never learned how to cook.

It’s time to get back into the kitchen.

The financial crunch is certainly a good incentive to switch from store-bought to home-made. And we know that home-cooked food is almost always healthier than high-fat, high-sugar and overly salted processed foods.

It’s really not hard to cook from scratch. And it doesn’t take all day. What it takes is some advance planning and a little know-how.

How can you make the switch from store-bought to home-made? Let’s start with some easy basics.

In my next few blogs, I’ll give you directions and recipes for making salad dressing, soup stock, pie crust, croutons, and pudding. Small things that taste better, cost less, and are healthier when you make them yourself.

Cook from scratch?

President Obama won over the crowds by saying “Yes We Can!”

And I’m saying to you, when it comes to cooking, “Yes You Can!”

Kitchen Helpmates

With quality ingredients, I can whip up a good meal with a sharp knife, cutting board and decent cooking pans. But I also enjoy the convenience of electric appliances.

My food processor makes fast work of pureed vegetables, cookie dough and grated carrots. The mixer comes out for cakes, especially those with whipped egg whites.

I use the microwave for re-heating leftovers, making a quick white sauce, gently melting chocolate and cooking winter squash and eggplant. Chocolate pudding, one of our favorite treats, (see the recipe below) takes five minutes to make in the microwave.

I also rely on three specialized kitchen appliances: a bread machine, rice-cooker, and an immersion blender.

With a bread machine it’s easy to make whole-wheat challah, artisan-style semolina and multi-grained loaves, pizza and focaccia. Just put all of the ingredients into the pan, check for proper consistency and let the machine run. I often make challah dough on Thursday and refrigerate it overnight in a plastic bag. First thing Friday morning, I braid the dough, let it rise and then bake it.

An electric rice-cooker cooks more than just rice. Wheat berries, bulgur, barley, kasha, quinoa, millet, couscous and polenta turn out perfect in the rice cooker. Some grains require a pre-soak, but for most, just measure the grain and water into the pan, turn on the machine and walk away. It’s a no-fuss way to prepare nutritious whole grains.

We eat a lot of soup, and our hand-held immersion blender is especially helpful for pureeing it. Before discovering this handy device, I would pour hot soup into the food processor, only to watch it overflow into a big mess. With an immersion blender, you can puree the soup while it’s still hot in the pot. And if you like creamy soup without the cream, this is the way to make it.

Here are two "appliance" recipes – paella in the rice cooker and soup pureed with an immersion blender.

Vegetable Paella in the Rice Cooker (Parve)

I’ve adapted this recipe from The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook (Hensperger & Kaufmann, Harvard Common Press.) Although many of the recipes in the book are not kosher or use dairy products, I still find it a very useful cookbook.

2 tablespoons olive oil
½ cup diced onion
1 red pepper, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon paprika (sweet, hot or smoked)
1 medium-sized zucchini, cut into small cubes
2 tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped (or ½ cup canned diced tomatoes, drained)
1 ¼ cups Arborio (medium-grain Italian rice)
1 ¾ cups vegetable broth
½ teaspoon salt
A few threads of saffron, crushed (optional)
Freshly ground black pepper
½ frozen petite peas

Turn the rice cooker on to the quick or regular cycle) and put the oil into the cooking pan. When it’s hot, add the onion and red pepper. Cook until soft, stirring occasionally.

Add the garlic, oregano, paprika, zucchini and tomatoes. Close the cover and cook for 5 minutes.

Stir in the rice, broth, salt, saffron and a few grinds of pepper. Close the cover and reset the machine for the regular cycle.

When the cycle is finished, scatter the peas on top of the rice. Cover the machine and let sit for 15 minutes to steam the peas. Fluff with a fork and serve.

Serves 4


Butternut Squash Soup (Parve)

This is a very basic soup, so dress it up to your liking. Add grated fresh ginger, curry powder or baharat spice when you’re sautéing the vegetables. Or keep it basic and garnish each bowl with flavored croutons or toasted pumpkin seeds.

2 tablespoons olive or canola oil
4 cups cubed butternut squash
1 cup diced carrot
1 medium onion, chopped
6 cups vegetable broth
Freshly ground pepper and salt to taste

Heat the oil in a large pot. Add the squash, carrot and onion and cook until the vegetables are soft and just starting to brown. Stir in the broth and season with pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until the vegetables are completely soft, 30-45 minutes.

Puree the soup with an immersion blender and taste for salt.

Serves 6-8

Meeting Mr. President

I don’t usually get excited about politicians. Until now, the closest I’d come to seeing anyone famous was in 1970, when Moshe Dayan walked by in the Jerusalem shuk. All I remember was his height. He was as short as me.

Shimon Peres is taller. And very dignified. He doesn’t show his age or the wear and tear I would expect from years of Israeli political life.

He was making the rounds of the International Book Fair in Jerusalem, while I was there to promote my book. Unlike Moshe Dayan, he didn’t just walk by. He actually stopped to chat. I don’t remember what either of us said, but he graciously accepted one of my bookmarks.

Today President Peres starts meeting with party leaders in order to recommend a new prime minister. Tzipi (who happens to be a vegetarian) looks pretty fit. But Bibi, Barak and Lieberman all look like they could use some nutritional advice. Maybe our president will share my bookmark with one of them.

It's Kosher, But is it Safe? A Look at Restaurants

I’m a stickler for food safety. Ask my students. They’ve heard it a million times:

Wash your hands often.
Change hand and dish towels frequently.
Sanitize kitchen sponges.
Thoroughly wash all fruits and vegetables.
Keep hot food hot and cold food cold.
Pay special attention to the handling of raw fish, poultry and meat.
And never eat raw eggs!

There’s a lot we can do in our own kitchens to protect our families from food-borne illness. But what about eating in restaurants?

In my dictionary, kosher means “fit” or “proper”. So I would hope that a kosher restaurant would pay some attention to cleanliness and food safety.

Think again.

My own painful experience involved salmonella poisoning from raw egg “hidden” in the salad dressing at an expensive Manhattan restaurant. I reported them to the health department. But my husband still checks on their status occasionally via the internet. He found this in the recent records of the New York City Health Department:

Sanitary Violations

1) Non-food contact surface improperly constructed. Unacceptable material used. Non-food contact surface or equipment improperly maintained.
2) Pesticide use not in accordance with label or applicable laws. Prohibited chemical used/stored. Open bait station used.
3) Facility not vermin proof. Harborage or conditions conducive to vermin exist.
4) Hand washing facility not provided in or near food preparation area and toilet room. Hot and cold running water at adequate pressure not provided at facility. Soap and an acceptable hand-drying device not provided.
5) Evidence of mice or live mice present in facility's food and/or non-food areas.
6) Appropriately scaled metal stem-type thermometer not provided or used to evaluate temperatures of potentially hazardous foods during cooking, cooling, reheating and holding.
7) Food Protection Certificate not held by supervisor of food operations.
8) Cold food held above 41 degrees F (smoked fish above 38 degrees F) except during necessary preparation.
9) Hot food not held at or above 140 degrees F.

Kosher? Yes (There’s even a kashrut supervisor on the premises.)

Safe? Not in my book.

What can you do?

Some cities, including New York, post restaurant inspection reports on the internet. If not, ask your local health department about the restaurants you frequent. If there’s a problem, let the manager know that you won’t eat there until they clean up their kitchen.

Don’t endanger your health or the health of your family and friends.

Support kosher restaurants that care about food safety. Let them know that it’s as important to you as their kosher supervision.

Live in New York? Visiting Soon?

The New York City Health Department's list of restaurants included 53 with the word “kosher” in the restaurant’s name. I looked at those and found only three that failed to pass the city's health inspection. But those three failed big time, with scores of 47, 54 and a whopping 85.

I did a random check of restaurants under supervision of one of the larger kosher certification agencies. The majority passed inspection. Two notable exceptions: The restaurant where I got salmonella received a score of 76. It’s “sister” restaurant, under the same ownership, got 37 points.

Diner beware!

What Should I Eat? Popcorn

Popcorn

For an easy and nutritious snack, stock your pantry with popcorn.

Popcorn is a whole grain with plenty of fiber. If you don’t add a lot of butter or oil, it’s low in calories. And if you go easy on the salt, it’s also low in sodium.

Eat three cups of air-popped popcorn and you’ll get one serving of a whole grain and almost 4 grams of fiber. All for a mere 100 calories and less than 1½ grams of fat.

The healthiest popcorn is air-popped, which requires a special electric machine. We make popcorn in a covered pot on the stove using just a small amount of canola oil.

If you prefer microwave-in-the-bag popcorn, make sure it’s low-fat. And read the label to be sure there’s no hydrogenated or partially-hydrogenated fat in the ingredient list.

Did you know that popcorn eaters in the US got 250% more whole grains in their diet than people who didn’t eat popcorn? A survey reported in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association indicates that popcorn eaters generally have healthier eating habits than those who don’t indulge.

So next time you’re looking for a healthy snack, go for whole grains with a batch of popcorn.

Nosh

“A light snack”

That’s the New York Times crossword puzzle clue for the word nosh. Growing up near San Francisco, I always thought that nosh was a “Jewish word”. I certainly never heard it used by anyone outside of my own family. Obviously nosh is now very much a part of every-day English.

“Nosh” according to Webster’s Dictionary:

v.i. to snack or eat between meals
v.t. to snack on
n. a snack

Yiddish nashn, Middle High German naschen, Old High German nascon to nibble or gnaw

Here in Israel, the verb has been Hebraisized to לנשנש – to nosh.

We’re all familiar with noshing. You grab a cookie on your way through the kitchen. The children get antsy and you distract them with a piece of candy. There’s a little something in your purse “just in case”.

If the nosh is nutritious and reasonable in quantity, it may be just fine. Some of us actually do better with frequent between-meal snacks, rather than three large-sized meals. At the end of the day, it’s a matter of total calories and the quality of those calories.

Noshing is problematic when it becomes mindless – eating for distraction, comfort or boredom, for example:

Eating without thinking if you’re really hungry or not.
Eating because there are cookies just sitting in the pantry.
Eating because there’s half a chocolate bar left and you might as well finish it.

Filling up on empty calories can leave you (and especially your children) feeling too full for the food that’s really good for you. And if you nosh too much, you’re likely to be getting more calories than you need. Especially if you’re trying to lose or maintain weight.

What can you do?

Buy healthy, low-calorie snack foods.

Portion out large-sized packages of snack food into individual servings; never eat right out of the box.

Don’t buy snack foods that you know will be a temptation. Once they’re in the house, it’s too hard to resist eating them.

Bake only for Shabbat and special occasions.

Sit down and relax while noshing. Don’t eat “on the run” or while doing something else.

And most important – ask yourself if you’re really hungry. Think before you put something into your mouth!

Cookbooks - They're More than Recipes

“… That which you will bake, bake; and that which you will cook, cook; and whatever is left over, put away for yourselves for a safekeeping until the morning.” (B’shalach 16:23)

This verse, from yesterday’s parasha, caught my attention. It’s all about collecting and cooking the manna in advance of Shabbat.

But what’s this about cooking and baking?

Rashi comments that “baking” refers to cooking in an oven, and “cooking” means cooking in water. Sounds like the beginnings of a cookbook!

Manna must have tasted better with a little help from the cook – herbs, spices and cooking technique were important if you were eating the same food for 40 years!

I’m a big fan of cookbooks. My collection includes kosher, vegetarian, ethnic, vegetables, bread, soup and dessert cookbooks. Some of them are fascinating to read for their descriptions of food history and habits. Others I use mainly as reference. And I do use many of them for their recipes.

But mainly I use cookbooks to give me ideas.

With so many of us busy with careers, family and community obligations, cooking often takes a back seat. We may manage to cook for Shabbat, but during the week, we rely on ready-made processed food – “fast-food” that’s usually high in fat, sugar and salt and low in vegetables, fruit and whole grains.

Sometimes we’re just so pre-occupied that we can’t even think of what to cook. That’s when a cookbook can help.

Keep your pantry stocked with the basics – whole-grain pasta, tomato sauce, rice, quinoa, tuna, olive oil, dried fruits and nuts. Buy fresh seasonal produce, dairy and eggs.

And then pick up a cookbook for inspiration.

Here are two of my favorite cookbooks. They both encourage creativity, with numerous suggestions for variations on the basic recipes.

Olive Trees and Honey – Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities Around the World, Gil Marks, Wiley 2005

Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, Deborah Madison, Broadway Books, 1997

Tu B'Shvat

In honor of Tu B’Shvat (Monday, February 9th), here’s a recipe featuring dried fruit and nuts…

CHOCOLATE DATE AND NUT BARS (PARVE)

Dates and walnuts are natural baking partners. Add chocolate and make it even better! These bars are mostly lots of fruit and nuts, with just a little bit of batter to hold everything together.

1½ cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
¼ teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¾ cup sugar
1 cup raisins
2 cups pitted cut-up dates
2 cups walnut pieces
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 325 F (165 C). Line the bottom of a large baking pan with parchment paper or aluminum foil and spray with vegetable spray.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, cocoa and salt.

In a large bowl beat the eggs, vanilla and sugar just to mix. Add the dry ingredients and mix together. Stir in the fruit, nuts and chocolate. Use a wooden spoon and mix enough to cover everything with the batter. There will be just enough batter to hold the fruit and nuts together.

Spoon the mixture into the pan and spread so that you have an even layer.

Bake for 25-35 minutes, until nicely browned. Cool the pan on a cake rack.

When cool, invert the pan onto a cutting board and refrigerate or freeze to firm up the chocolate. Cut into bars with a sharp knife.

Makes about 64 small bars

Jewish Health and Fitness Magazine

How can I fit exercise into my busy schedule?

Where can I buy modest clothing for swimming and bicycling?

What’s the best exercise DVD?

Find the answers to these questions and more at Thrive Magazine. Created by Kate Friedman, Thrive is an on-line PDF “mini” magazine devoted to Jewish women’s health and fitness.

Kate, a fellow former-Oregonian, teaches Torah and physical education in St. Louis, Missouri, where she’s also the athletic director of Block Yeshiva High School. She majored in Judaic Studies at Brandeis, spent a semester at Hebrew University and learned at Neve Yerushalayim and Shearim in Jerusalem.

Sports and fitness is her passion and expertise.

Kate’s magazine is filled with practical advice and inspiration for Jewish women interested in improving their health. She’s gathered articles from experts and lay people about health and fitness from a Jewish perspective. There are exercise ideas, nutrition tips, recipes, book reviews and more.

Kate’s creative, fun approach is informative and inspiring. I highly recommend Thrive to all of my readers. Go to http://jewishwomenthrive.googlepages.com/ where you can download the latest edition as well as the first two editions of Thrive Magazine.