New Year's Nosh

As a great good friend once sagely pointed out, people are portable. And so we spent today on planes rather than in the kitchen, arriving just in time for Shabbos dinner and a grand celebration ushering in 2011.

As if to review all the tastes of the year, or perhaps to sample the coming year, it was a night of nosh. The pre-supper spread was perfect for visiting - chips, crackers, crudite, dips sweet and savory, hummus, olives, nuts, and grapes.  Plenty to nibbles without requiring a pause in conversation.

The blessing were said with the help of multiple challah - plain, pumpkin, and chocolate chip.

Supper began with a lovely lentil soup, piquant with balsamic. As the bowls were cleared, all 16 of us filed into the kitchen to serve ourselves from a bountiful buffet.  Most dishes were served hot: curried brussel sprouts, cous cous with spicy vegetables, butternut squash with apricot puree, and roasted yams.  The morrocan carrots, bean and egg salad, and potato and olive salad were served cool, either at room temperature or chilled.  Once seated, conversation ebbed and flowed as attention was diverted to our plates.

Definitely a night to pace oneself, I was pleased to have saved room for a taste of desert - almost literally a bite of each.  The blood orage salad with cured black olives, the watemelon and mint salad, the vegan rosewater cake, the pistachio rice pudding, and even the mango slices, all whispered of travels to new and exciting lands.  For an accompanying after-dinner drink, it felt only right to choose chai tea.

A meal this grand requires marvelous company; and the gathering of friends old and newly met perfectly matched the table offerings - no two the same, plenty to sample, and everyone a delight in their own way. May the new year live up to tonight's auspicious beginning!

Philly's Best - Chocolate

Philadelphia cuisine may be known best for its eponymous sandwich, the Philly cheesesteak, but in actuality the highest quality of many types of food can be found in the City of Brotherly Love. Authentic tastes from around the world (from Italy to Viet Nam, and everywhere in between) are available. And now the list includes that culinary delight enjoyed on nearly every continent: chocolate.

Naked Chocolate Cafe, with its main store on Walnut, offers decadent chocolate drinks, pastries, and artisanal  truffle-like candies.  As if in consolation for not being able to make a visit in person, a box of these morsels arrived by mail shortly before Christmas.  The aroma alone is intoxicating.  The milk chocolate pieces are of such high quality I don't even mind that they aren't dark; and the darks are truly sublime.  The richness of the assortment requires a modicum of restraint - splitting pieces for tasting works well; and two or three tastes sates even a serious sweet-tooth. Just don't tease anyone by hiding the box . . .

Literary Fare - the Trilogy

My early nightfalls this year have been filled with stories written as trilogies.  And each has had its own distinct food culture.
First I devoured the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo books. By midway through the second, the craving for coffee was too strong to shake, though I was not suggestible enough to want it with toast with cheese and marmalade.  Every character drank coffee frequently, with only one or two references to mineral water and one notable exception when a minor character choose Diet Coke as a substitute. So I finally learned to use the grinder and French press at home - and then buzzed around until I could sit still to read on.

Next I chewed through the Wraeththu serious, which was hearty but not so delicious.  Food played a role as an indicator of wealth, but was never described in much detail.  Like the characters, I ate whatever I found handy until I reached the end.

The third chapter of this literary adventure, gentle readers, may prove my undoing.  Only a few chapters into Soulless (book the first of the steampunk Parasol Protectorate trilogy), food has taken on a strong supporting role. Very specific Victorian-era foods, prepared in very specific ways, are used regularly both as metaphor and as actual props.  The protagonist's interest in dining well proves both enticing and amusing, restoring my appetite.  Of one thing you may be sure - many cups of tea will be consumed before the last page is turned (by me, in both cases).

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Decadent, addictive - yet full of veggies.

Ingredients:

• 2 medium or 3 small zukes, grated, then nuked 2 minutes (do not discard liquid)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2/3 cup gluten-free baking mix, or rice flour *
• 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2/3 tsp baking soda
• 2/3 cup chocolate chips

Steps:

• Cream butter and sugar.
• Separate eggs.
• Add yolks and vanilla to butter mixture, beat and set aside.
• Mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, then beat into butter mixture.
• Fold in zucchinis, then stir in chips.
• Finally, beat egg whites until fluffy (just shy of peaking) and fold them in.

Bake in a greased, floured loaf pan at 350 for up to 1 hour (check earlier).

* If you aren't trying to bake without gluten, the same amount of regular wheat flour works fine.

Susan's Pao de Quiejo

A friend shared this recipe for Pao de Quiejo, aka Brazilian Cheese Bread.  Her notes:

Makes 2 dozen appetizer-sized balls (or 1 dozen balls and 3-4 single-serving pizza crusts)

Preheat oven to 400 DEG;. Boil the following until white foam appears (on stove or in microwave):

½ cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup milk

Add this hot mixture to 2 cups tapioca starch. Mix well with wooden spoon
and let rest for about 15 minutes. You will get white ball. Mix in 2 eggs
and about 6 ounces grated hard cheese* (e.g., parmesan). You will get a
gooey, sticky mass.

To form balls, cover hands with grease, use a teaspoon and quickly roll
into ball shape as best you can (they will smooth out during baking).
Better yet, use a miniature ice-cream scoop. Each ball should be about 1-
½ inch in diameter. Bake on lightly greased sheet or on parchment paper or silicone (Matfer) sheet.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, depending on size, until tops begin to brown.

For pizza, put about half the dough aside in a plastic bag in the refrigerator to use later. Take out the chilled dough and roll it into single-serving size pizzas directly on parchment or a silicone sheet. Prick it all over with a fork, to keep it from forming large blisters, and pre-bake it about 10-12 minutes. Take it out, top it and return to oven to finish baking.

*I like to use half grated, half shredded parmesan or other similar hard cheese.

Sufganiot

Mmm - jelly donuts for Chanukah!
And the RetroDome is selling them (as well as latkes with applesauce) during performances of The MeshugaNutcracker.
Could the festival of lights get any sweeter?