Playing With Leftovers to Make Breakfast

Bob and I recently catered a dinner for 150 people in Cincinnati Ohio. This followed up on our end-of-September romp with Surreal food at the Cleveland gathering. Complete report and photos of Cleveland food. As I noted in my post describing that dinner, after service, most of the leftovers were thrown out, which is required by safety rules. Bob and I cooled and took some of the leftovers home, however, since that would not put anyone else at risk!

One item that came home with us was the rolled, stuffed bread Bob had made. He made 4 meat and 2 cheese varieties, and they were very well received:



I stuck with the two cheese breads - Cheddar Cheese (which I've been eating for breakfast at the office) and Mozzarella with Garden Tomato.

This past weekend, I was inspired by a dish my mother used to make for my father when I was a kid. She'd have gladly made it for all of us, but since it contained - horrors - chopped liver, she never got any takers other than Dad. Basically, it was a savory French Toast - two slices of bread drenched in beaten egg, then slathered on one side each with chopped liver, then put together like a sandwich and fried in Onion Nyafat.

The fabulous smell of the sandwich frying would fill the house and make us all hungry enough to try it - but we kids never liked it (that liver thing, I guess), and we went "yuck" after the smallest taste. After a few times, we realized that no matter how good it smelled - we hated the liver flavor of this dish!

As an aside, I consider Onion Nyafat a crucial part of any Jewish cook's pantry, even though it is fast disappearing.




We never had "neutral" Nyafat in my house - what would be the point? Onion Nyafat is sort like Kosher Lard - it lends taste and texture to anything fried in it. Nyafat is an essential ingredient to proper Matzoh Brei, for example. I used to use Nyafat to fry fried rice, before I learned to love pork fat. Moreover, when I was kid, Nyafat came in a pint sized jar. As time has passed, the jar has shrunk - first to 12 ounces, now, as you can see, to a a measly 10.5 ounces. And it is darn hard to find these days. I hope it doesn't disappear entirely in the current anti-hydrogenated fat mania. However, I digress.

Saturday morning I decided to try a savory French Toast (inspired by Mom's liver sandwich) using Bob's leftover Mozzerella Tomato Bread. I soaked several pieces of the bread in beaten egg, to which I had added salt, pepper, Hot New Mexican powder, and a pinch of the fabulous dried Oregano I got from Heather's Heat & Flavor, which adds an intense "garden-ness" to anything it is added to. I fried the slices in Onion Nyafat. I added a little butter at the table to any parts of the dish that were a little dry.

The slices came out looking like this:






Positively yummy. Nothing like playing with yesterday's leftovers to make tomorrow's breakfast food!

Fun Playing With Passover Food With Family

And so we come to the reason for the trip east in the first place - preparing Seder delectibles to share with my family! My nephew came home from school and the game was on.

First order of business for Saturday: a 20 quart pot of chicken soup. 

While the soup bubbled, and before starting on the Gefilte Fish, we paused for an amazing lunch treat. My parents have new neighbors in the house behind theirs. The neighbors have chickens, which are allowed to free range all over their properties. This morning, the doorbell rang and we were presented with a half-dozen just-collected eggs by the two adorable children of the neighbors, with a delightful hand drawn card that made Mom's day. Those eggs did not last long:

Soft Boiled Fresh Egg

On Sunday, we turned our attention to the brisket, matzoh balls, and hard boiled eggs. Cleveland's own Mister Brisket provided the beef:

Here, the meat has cooked a bit over half way, and we sliced it then chilled it, to finish cooking before the first Seder. This is the first cut or flat. I also brought some of the deckle, or point, just to be sure we'd have enough (we had plenty, so I brought that back home with me).

Here's a look at the finished matzoh ball in soup; I took this after I got back to Cleveland:

And finally, the eggs. Yoda, um, Mom took charge of those; even she marveled at how hard it is to peel farm fresh eggs even if you cook them perfectly (Mom's Passover claim to fame was hard cooking and peeling over 500 eggs at a time for the Hebrew School Model Seders when I was kid):

And so, it was time for the first Seder in my parents' house in . . . I don't know how many years.

Mom, Justin, Andrea, Jeff, Stan, Daniel, Bob

The only family member missing is my sister Chaya. She couldn't make it up from Florida. But it was great to see my two nephews!

Seder Plate

Charosis

Dad made the salad

Baked Cauliflower with Scape Pesto (no cheese)

Unfortunately, here is where I got too busy serving to take pictures.

Potato Kugel

This leftovers photo came after I got home; I never did take a picture of the Farfel Pudding, which is one of my Passover staples. Because I couldn't get apricots at the two stores I looked in (who knew apricots in natural juice were so rare?) I used a can of mango instead - and liked it a lot better; mango and coconut oil (in place of margarine) will now be de rigueur in my Farfel Pudding.

We enjoyed two holiday breakfasts with my parents before we left. First, Dad made Matzoh Brei; note the coconut oil taking the place of the traditional onion Nyafat that is no longer made.

Perhaps Bain Capital, who's Sankaty Advisors Unit just bought Manischewitz (which had bought up Rokeach, maker of Nyafat, several years ago), will bring Nyafat back. Who needs Nyafat? I sweated some onions in the coconut oil to simulate the Nyafat, and it wasn't a bad knock off.

At Dad's request, I scooped the onion pieces before out of the pan before he put the raw food into the fat, and then served them on the side. Delicious!

For our last meal Wednesday morning, Dad asked me to make Matzoh Pancakes. We served these with berry jam and strawberries, neither of which wound up in the photos.

Matzoh Meal Pancakes

And then we left.

Fun Playing With Food and Family - I could not ask for anything more. Wishing you the best of this spring and holiday season!

More Fun Playing with Breakfast Food

What a difference quality eggs make! This post shows three recent breakfasts, all made with Kathy Breychak's incredible Blue Eggs.

Saturday June 14, I awoke to realize that we did not have a scrap of bread in the house. And I was hankering for some Blue Eggs for breakfast. So, how to make them? Matzoh Brei!

Of course, the only proper medium for frying Matzoh Brei is Onion Nyafat.



Soak matzoh in warm water, lightly beat eggs with salt and pepper and add to drained matzoh, let soak for as long as you can wait, then fry in hot Nyafat. Add salt after frying, and serve with a big glass of ice cold Organic milk or make an Egg Cream (I did, but didn't get a photo of it).



This Matzoh Brei is "pancake" style rather than "scrambled. I think it gets crispier when you let it sit rather than tossing it around incessantly. But there are times I scramble it.










Yum.

This past weekend, Bob and I enjoyed a number of treats from Cleveland's resident meat maven - Mister Brisket. On Friday, I learned that Mister B had scored some fresh Copper River King Salmon. And at a reasonable price, too (last week, it was well over $30 a pound, this week, it was well under $30).

And of course, once I trundled down to the store (2156 South Taylor Road, Cleveland Heights, OH 44118), I had to get some other goodies from them. So - I loaded up a half pound each of pastrami (best in Cleveland and maybe the world), corned beef, and turkey breast and a package of casing hotdogs.

Saturday morning - Pastrami & Eggs. Knowing how I intended to use it, Mister Brisket sliced the pastrami into thick slices. Add Blue Eggs and a hot pan and . . . magic!


Four Blue Eggs


Pastrami begins to render over a low flame




Now? Not yet.


Now? Yupper!


Lightly Beaten Eggs Poured Over the Meat

And, after a perfect flip:









We served it with Challah and Ghee (and yes, a little ketchup for me).

Sunday, it was the corned beef's turn:




Four Eggs to Start, Again



The Corned Beef was more thinly sliced, and didn't render as much fat as the pastrami had.







Another perfect breakfast. Thanks to Kathy Breychak and the gang at Mister Brisket for providing the ingredients for me to play with!

Fun Breaking A Food Taboo

Most people who know me well know that I don't care for mushrooms. Though I'm not allergic to them, I've never liked them, and I'll usually pick them out if they are in something I'm eating. The only B Spot burger I haven't actually tasted is the Shroomage, which is topped with Portobello (though there are a couple of new burgers on the menu as of about 2 weeks ago that I haven't tried yet - more to come on that soon). 

Shroomage consumed by a dining companion at B Spot,  February 5, 2010.

In recent years, as I try to eliminate or minimize food taboos as much as possible, I've embraced the fabulous umami and deep flavor that mushrooms can give to food. Tree ear mushroom slivers, when included in Chinese dishes, actually go down pretty well now, and I've cleaned the plate of silky mushroom soup served by AMP 150's Ellis Cooley and Jeff Jarrett a couple of times. But there is still something about mushrooms that just doesn't work for me. They absolutely disgust me raw - I can't handle them at all, not even to wash or chop them. Likewise, pieces of mushroom do not make me hungry, even when fully cooked.

So it must have been the Leprechauns at work on St. Patrick's day at the North Union Farmers' Market. Bob and I had already discussed a fish and Kasha Varnishkes dinner. We were chatting with Charlie at the Ohio Honey Co. booth when inspiration struck. Killbuck Valley Mushrooms has always had the stand next to Ohio Honey at the Winter Market, but we never stop there for obvious reasons. 

Kasha Varnishkes is often made with mushrooms, but my mother never made it that way and neither do I. As we stood a few short feet from the mushroom stand, it hit me that adding some mushroom to the pan would seriously up the umami factor in the final dish. We've heard so many wonderful things about Killbuck Valley's product, so, as long as Bob was willing to wash and cut them (and eat them, since I'd pick my pieces out), I was game to try it!

Shittakes from Killbuck Valley Mushrooms

I'm pretty sure these were the first raw mushrooms to enter our house in the 15+ years we've lived here. I asked Bob to cut them in large enough pieces that they'd be easy to pick out.

While I prepped the Kasha Varnkishes, Bob treated these lovely Blue Marlin steaks from BayLobsters Fish Market to salt, pepper and EVOO, and started the grill.

Kasha Varnishkes begins with caramelizing onions in your choice of fat. For meat meals, schmaltz is traditional; my mom used cooking oil or onion flavored Nyafat (which no longer exists). For a dairy meal (or parve protein, meaning neither meat nor dairy, such as fish), butter is the winning choice. So, onions luxuriated in  a mixture of ghee (clarified butter) and Hartzler roll butter (with some Kosher salt) for about 20 minutes, then came out of the pan. Next, the kasha groats, which had been soaking up a beaten egg, went into the pan to seal the egg onto the groats. After emptying the pan and applying more butter (and a bit of peanut oil), I pushed the mushrooms in. Two minutes later, I flipped them around, then gave them another two minutes, salt and fresh ground black pepper. I marveled at the intensely mushroomy aroma, then added a little more oil, and returned the kasha and onions to the pan.   

The next step is to add hot water or stock. My mother tended towards plain water, but I wanted to infuse some additional flavor, so I made a quick vegetable stock of water, salt and pepper, a large oven-dried garden tomato, and broccoli (which I blanched, then removed to use as our vegetable side dish). Once the tomato rehydrated and broke down, I dumped the liquid into the pan, stirred, lowered the heat and put a lid on it. Fifteen minutes later, the pan received 8 ounces of small bowtie pasta that had been cooked al dente and drained. After some additional stirring to combine all of the ingredients, dinner was served:

The Blue Marlin steaks were pristine and grilled up fabulously. We also had fun playing with Hake filet  from BayLobsters with our left-over Kasha Varnishkes for Sunday dinner. 

Bob reports that the actual mushroom meat tasted wonderful, with a woodiness he loved. While I still can't get myself to want to eat the mushrooms themselves, I definitely appreciated what they added to the dish. This is a perfect example of not letting your food taboos get in the way of experimenting and enjoying twists on your usual flavors. Mushrooms, anyone?