Category Archives: Home Cookin’

A Chanukah Miracle in Brooklyn

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(Originally posted in 2021.)

The Jewish holiday of Chanukah commemorates the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem after its destruction in the second century B.C. The ceremony involved the lighting of a menorah, an oil lamp, but there was only enough oil to last for a single day. By a miracle, the menorah glowed for eight which is why Chanukah, the Festival of Lights, is celebrated for as many days. In Jewish households, a nine branched menorah is used; a single candle is lit on the first night and an additional candle is added each consecutive night, with the ninth position reserved for the shamash, a helper candle used to kindle the others.

Since the Chanukah miracle revolves around oil, tradition involves eating oil-centric fried foods. Sufganiot, jelly doughnuts, are the go-to sweet treat in Israel while Eastern Europe brings latkes to the table, potato pancakes customarily served with sour cream and apple sauce; here, we happily indulge in both.

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My homemade latkes: shredded potatoes, minced onion, beaten eggs, baking powder, S&P, plus a binder like flour or matzo meal, shaped and fried in plenty of peanut oil and/or schmaltz (chicken fat) if you’re the decadent type 🙋‍♂️; they’re plated here with the requisite sour cream alongside chunky apple-strawberry sauce topped with sweet crystallized ginger. (You know me: I hadda be different.)


The recipe calls for salting and draining the potatoes; I simply set up a colander in the sink, squeezing out the liquids from time to time. But this year, I noticed something I had never witnessed before: the intricate patterns made by the drained, wet potato starch were as beautiful and mesmerizing as snowflakes! A present day Chanukah miracle!


The photo enlarged.

Now, look very, very closely and you can see a tiny, perfect Chanukah menorah in the pattern. Go ahead, keep searching. Stay focused. Take your time. Don’t pay any attention to me. I’ll just, um, finish off these latkes while you’re trying to find it….

!חַג חֲנוּכָּה שַׂמֵחַ
Happy Chanukah!
 
 
Stay safe, be well, and eat whatever it takes! ❤
 
 

Thanksgiving Redux

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Thanksgiving is a family affair and it takes over a week to shop for and prepare what has become an over-the-top family tradition. Not to mention Thanksagaingiving, another tradition in my clan, which you can read about here.

A few folks asked for photos of the extravaganza. I guess they wanted proof 😉.

And even though I do pretty much the same menu each year, it always takes every bit as much time to put the whole thing together. You’d think I’d have developed some shortcuts by now.

But you know what? It’s totally worth it. Here’s our typical feast:
 
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Chestnut Soup – our appetizer, served with crème fraîche and snipped chives
 

Roast Turkey and Gravy (plus four extra thighs because everyone loves dark meat, of course!) with Cornbread Chestnut Stuffing featuring currants and dried cranberries.
 

Cranberry Sauce with Kumquats, Black Walnuts and Chambord
 

Dandy Brandied Candied Yams
 

Maple Sugar Acorn Squash with Spicy Pepita Topping
 

Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Jerusalem Artichokes with Crispy Soppressata and Grated Parmigiano Reggiano
 

Savory Corn Pudding. As served…
 

…and fresh out of the oven. It’s a signature recipe of mine that uses frozen corn – evaluated and actually better than fresh for this – as well as Cope’s dried sweet corn. I marvel at the way the snipped chives always find their way to the top. Did I mention that half a pound of butter and more than a pint of heavy cream were ingredients as well?
 

Scalloped Potatoes with Leeks and Bacon. As served…
 

…and fresh out of the oven. Only a pint of heavy cream and a pound and a half of bacon went into this low-cal dish. 😜
 
Cornbread is happiest when it's made in a cast iron skillet
Cornbread is happiest when it’s made in a cast iron skillet.
 

Skillet Cornbread with fresh sweet corn, cheddar cheese, cilantro, jalapeño, and more: my special recipe.
 

Homemade Pumpkin Pie. Yes, from a real pumpkin, not a can – a decadently rich recipe I’ve been tweaking for years that I’m finally happy with. Topped with buttery, crunchy toasted pecan brittle (yep, that’s homemade too) and the obligatory whipped cream.
 
 
Stay safe, be well, and eat whatever it takes! ❤
 
 

Goblin’ Futomaki on Halloween

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Halloween is just around the corner and I wanted to indulge in something that didn’t involve Reese’s Cups, M&M’s, or Kit Kats, so I’ll be goblin’ futomaki that’s decked out in an All Hallows’ Eve costume – I guess that makes it both a trick and a treat. (But, not gonna lie, I’m waiting for the post-holiday sales: just as leftover Thanksgiving dinner tastes better the next day, so does leftover half-price Halloween candy.)

In obeisance to the official black and orange Halloween rubric, the black monstermaki (futomaki means thick or fat roll) is wrapped in nori, its conventional costume, and its orange sidekicks are swathed in soy wrappers that come in five flavors/colors: original soy, sesame, spinach green, turmeric yellow, and paprika orange.

I filled them with kani (krab sticks), avocado, cucumber, strips of sweet kanpyō (dried gourd) and most important, eel because – in keeping with the holiday spirit 👻 – it’s only one letter away from EEK!

And in case you’re wondering – no, I’m not handing out these spookomaki on October 31; the kids are supposed to scare me, not the other way around!

Happy Halloween! 🎃 🍣
 
 

Syrian Synergy

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Brooklyn’s Bay Ridge is home to a multitude of Middle Eastern restaurants and bakeries and each one offers a multitude of regional specialties. So of course, after years of conducting my Little Levant ethnojunket, I’ve developed some choice picks from a number of establishments. Which set me to wondering if I could combine some of my faves into a “whole is greater than the sum of its parts” delicacy. So I accepted the challenge.


This unique, aromatic, two-toned Middle Eastern bread (from Bay Root Meats) – one half covered with za’atar (a heady blend of spices), the other with mild cheese – would serve as the base.


I cut up some briny, nigella-seed-studded Nabulsi cheese and savory sujuk (from Balady) and distributed the slices on the cheese side…


…folded it over…


…then heated it up just until the cheese melted. I cut it into wedges and topped them with bits of cheese and sujuk plus a squiggle of hummus (from Al Salam). Pickled cauliflower (unretouched color, Balady again) on the side.

Synergistic success if I do say so myself.

Tempted to join one of my Flavors of Little Levant in Bay Ridge ethnojunkets? Check it out here and sign up to join in the fun!
 
 
Stay safe, be well, and eat whatever it takes! ❤
 
 

Lunar New Year 4723 (2025)

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The two-week long Chinese celebration of the Lunar New Year begins on Wednesday, January 29 – it’s 4723, the Year of the Snake.

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This year’s celebratory feast featured a whole steamed fish stuffed with ginger, scallions, and onions, bedecked with pea shoot sprouts, chives, and cilantro as the centerpiece.


Accompanying the star of the show was char siu chow fun…


…and an experiment involving a stir-fry of shiitake mushrooms and onions cradled in bok choy, both side dishes boasting a host of traditional ingredients.

The snake is known for a myriad of characteristics depending upon where you do your research: it is associated with transformation (snakes shed their skins), charm, elegance, sensitivity, effectiveness, adaptability, intelligence, determination, and resourcefulness.

One of the traditions that make this holiday so extraordinary is the way in which wordplay and homophones factor into the selection of dishes specially prepared to mark the occasion. For example, at festive gatherings a whole fish will be served, because the word for fish (yu) is a homophone for surpluses.

And speaking of determination and resourcefulness, there was a time a few zodiac signs ago that it looked like my Lunar New Year luck had run out in terms of another one of its traditional foods. It was a mystery involving a particular nian gao (the traditional sweet rice cake and a homophone for high year) that resonates to this day.

Want to know what happened? Please read my tradition-packed short story, “The Case of the Uncrackable Case!”
 
 
新年快乐! Xīnnián kuàilè!
恭喜发财! Gong hei fat choy!
 
 

“Thai” Red Vegetable Curry

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Another instapost since we’re on the subject of curries.

This one was reasonably Thai. Oyster mushrooms, pea shoots, green beans, red onion and cilantro elevated with a packet of Thai red curry paste I had in the freezer, served over Shanxi planed noodles which is when it stopped being “Thai.”
 
 
Stay safe, be well, and eat whatever it takes! ❤
 
 

Curry Cauliflower

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This is an instapost. An instapost is what happens when I make something tasty that was effortless to prepare and reasonably photogenic but there’s no overarching storyline associated with it because, well, time.

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Curry cauliflower served with basmati rice and paratha.


Reheated leftovers, having consumed all of the paneer and polished off the paratha on the previous day.
 
 
Stay safe, be well, and eat whatever it takes! ❤
 
 

Seeing is Deceiving

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How do you follow two months of indulgent Thanksgiving and Christmas feasting accompanied by a generous complement of seductive leftovers plus a procession of hypercaloric desserts without incurring post-holiday anticlimax?

Should you simply resign yourself to the prosaic with a homespun brunch like eggs and sausage, home fries and an English muffin?

Fat chance. And I use the word ”fat” advisedly. Because what you’re seeing here is more than meets the eye.

Those are sunny side up fresh duck eggs and the sausages are Chinese lap cheong made with duck liver; the home fries are anointed with white truffle oil and the English muffins are slathered with my homemade trifoliate orange and cranberry marmalade.


Oh, and a side of homemade johnnycakes.

So thanks to Santa’s sleight of hand I was able to cobble together this antidote to post-holiday culinary blues!
 
 
Stay safe, be well, and eat whatever it takes! ❤
 
 

Rumpumpumpom – A Christmas Cocktail (2024)

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I wrote this poignant piece in 2020 and nothing much has changed. So here it is again ICYMI. For best results, please read slowly.

Merry Christmas to all the lovers out there.
 
 
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Okay, I freely admit it. As a countermeasure against COVID stress and concomitant dumbfounding national politics, I started listening to Christmas music earlier this year. Much earlier. Like when it was still light out at 8pm.

It seemed that every day brought some new, depressing wrinkle to the headlines, and in order to survive, many folks went on a quest to find something, anything, that would provide some meaning, a dependable sense of personal stability. For me, at least, there was comfort to be gleaned from hearing the cozy, ageless tunes of a generally happier time that, unlike the news, required no rapt attention, songs that just droned their continual backdrop of falalalalas, hohohos, and parumpumpumpoms.

Now, the essence of an earworm is repetition. Rumpumpumpom. Taken out of context, what does rumpumpumpom even mean? From its relentless, nagging reiteration, I kept sensing that the word itself was on a quest to find its own meaning – that sense induced, to be sure, because it was five o’clock Somewhere – another prophylactic conceit that has gained popularity during these times – and my appreciation for that pastime led me to conclude that the rumpumpumpom conundrum would be solved if only it had a proper definition.

And now it does.

Behold the Rumpumpumpom, my custom Christmas cocktail.

Start with a base of RUM mixed with Hood PUMpkin eggnog, in proportions to taste and proximity to the aforementioned hour of the day. Float a glug of POMegranate juice into the mixture and drag a toothpick (or similar) through it to create a festive holiday design (admittedly not my strong suit). Garnish with PUMpkin seeds. Et voilà: Rumpumpumpom with a raison d’être.

Much to my surprise, it actually worked. Rum and nog are a classic couple and the tangy tartness of the pomegranate juice cut the sweetness of the pumpkin eggnog. By the time I had finished tinkering, it was eight o’clock Somewhere and by then I was easily entertained by the red juice and green seeds accidentally providing unintended Christmassy accents. Time for some photos and a few final taste tests….
 
 
And now…it is midnight Somewhere. The quest has been fulfilled, the music has run its course, the room is silent and serene.
 
 
And Somewhere, Someone with more artistic talent and a steadier hand could no doubt squiggle a Paloma Picasso-esque Christmas tree to float atop this libation, perhaps even trimmed with a solitary pomegranate ruby at its apex — and we would toast the holiday together.
 
 
A boy can dream.
 
 
 
 

Homemade Christmas Cookies, Day 5 – Linzer Cookies

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Linzer Stars

🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪
Finely ground almonds figure into in the sweet, tender dough; the filling is made from red currants that I bought when they were in season and preserved in anticipation of this maniacal operation. Why maniacal? Look closely and you’ll see that the powdered sugar blankets only the outer section of the star, yet the inner red star shines snow-free.
🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪

Follow along to see how I do it:

Start with solid backs.

Add preserves around the perimeter but not in the center. (Neatness doesn’t count.)

Match tops to bottoms.

Let it snow, let it snow, etc.


Squirt a blob of preserves into the cutout.

Now here comes the maniacal part: For each cookie, use a toothpick to draw out the five points of the star.

Et voilà!

The cookies are complete and packed up. Here’s the negative space that was left behind!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!
🎅🎄☃️❄️