Last Sunday night ended a somewhat obscure but quite wonderful Jewish holiday, Sukkot, the last in the series of Jewish New Year celebrations and it is my favorite. My husband and I have a Sukkah (one of the few advantages I can think of in suburban living is having a back garden in which to build one). My parents had a sukkah as I was growing up and I have wonderful memories of sitting outside eating in it in late September or early October, freezing family and friends over the 8 days. I remember wearing winter coats while eating my mom's delicious soups and stews which got cold in seconds. I remember my father wearing a navy wool hat with a red stripe in the band and red pom-pom that he called a pupkie hat (it was the only time he has ever worn a hat). My family still laughs over it and when my parents, my mom's sister and her family ate in sukkah last weekend we remembered...my father in his hat, my aunt and uncle in their Sukkah, pulled into the garage if it raining...my mother's brother's antics (cancer tragically took him from us when he was way too young, 22 in 1975 and I miss him still) and so much more.
This year, because of the way the Jewish lunar calendar hits the western solar calendar there were weekends in the 8 day holiday. It happens this way every so often and I love it because I can entertain double the amount!! The last time the holiday fell out like this I went a little crazy and had different people over on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of each weekend! By the second Saturday night I was a little shell shocked. I make all my lunches and dinners from scratch, you see, and I don't like to repeat. So this year while I took both Fridays off I only invited people for the actual weekend days and I was much happier.
The first weekend of the holiday I had some friends over on Saturday* for lunch then family on Sunday night for dinner. Unfortunately it was pouring at lunch time but we did go sit in the sukkah for the cheese course and dessert. I'm glad it worked out that way because these friends were mostly not Jewish and it would have been a shame had they not been able to have the experience. The lunch was one of my crazy restaurant style meals but at least I was able to make everything ahead of time though it took 3 different gourmet stores, a supermarket, and cost a fortune. It was all worth it as it was quite wonderful (again, am I allowed to say that if I am the chef??). I started out with tiny pieces of salmon sushi over blini with a dill sour cream garnish. A few months ago a friend gave me a block of Himalayan salt as a hostess gift which I am thrilled with and have been enjoying myself immensely thinking of what to serve on it and learning how to use it. I served the blini and salmon on it and if you swished the blini on the salt you got an extra bit of salt taste and it was fabulous. The friend who gave it to me was at this lunch and could share the joy of it and of course she took pictures.
For the main course, I did an Ina Garten recipe. She called them tuna rolls and they were-just not exactly what you are expecting. Seared tuna was cut into 1 inch cubes then tossed with avocado chunks, and a dressing of soy sauce, wasabi, hot sauce, and sesame seeds then put into arugula filled hot dogs buns. I fooled around with the recipe a little, leaving out some things (scallions-which I HATE) and adding some things (a bit of sour cream to make the dressing seem more complete and pulled together) and added halved grape tomatoes (because I had them and I thought they would be delicious) and I served it over toasted slices of boule instead of hot dog buns (which sounded really awful nor did I think they matched the sophistication of the rest of the dish). As a side dish I sauteed broccoli, onions slices, and teriyaki sauce and there was nothing left in the bowl except for one onion slice at the end of the meal!
Because I served fish, which according to the laws of being kosher is neither meat nor dairy I could serve dairy around the fish. The Himalayan salt and my glam friend's request to have figs and cheese were the 2 inspirations for this menu. I feel terrible that I completely forgot about the fig idea and I apologize to him but there was lots of lovely cheese for him. I will just have to have another lunch for him that uses figs and cheese. :) I offered my favorite brie, Brillat-Savarin (a triple creme, YUM!) a real bufalo milk mozzarella (I was actually looking for buratta (made from cream instead of milk) but neither Murray's, Whole Foods, nor Dean and Deluca had any that day so I had to make do), a sheep's milk, a goat's milk cheese Marcona almonds from Spain, a sunflower honey, and sesame crackers-all delicious! I cannot fathom a meal without chocolate so I also made tiny chocolate cupcakes along with yellow-cake cupcakes ad a warm chocolate fondue. MMMM...
Sunday night I served my family* a cauliflower soup (cut cup cauliflower, reserve a few florets to roast for garnish, boil in stock, when florets are soft whir an immersion blender and the pot, et voila-cauliflower soup) to which I added dried morels but I think bacon would make a fantastic addition. I might do it again for Thanksgiving with turkey bacon (the kosher issue). Then I served, what we in my family called "top and bottom" (because my brother and I often fought with my mother about just who got more top) which I believe is really Shepard's Pie (a casserole of chop meat with a layer of mashed potatoes on top then baked until crispy). No one had had the dish in years but on a cool night in October, eating outside it seemed perfect and added another memory for us as my mom used to make it all the time. I mixed boson with beef chop-meat then added a layer of mashed sweet potatoes, then a layer of regular potatoes. Looked good...tasted good...what more could one ask...?
I reused the chocolate cupcakes for dessert and then because there are those in my family who don't like chocolate (I've known them my whole life and still cannot grasp this) I made an apple phyllo dough tart that I saw in Bon Appetit. It was not a success. As I've mentioned, I keep kosher so cannot mix meat and dairy at the same meal therefore had to use melted margarine between the layers and maybe that was the problem but the phyllo dough was awful-dry and crackly, like eating paper. On top of the phyllo dough was a layer of almond cream, then the apples, then an apricot glaze. I left off the apricot glaze because I don't like things that are too sweet but really, who are we kidding here, I wasn't going to like this since it wasn't chocolate. THe apples were too thin and there were not enough of them so that taste did not stand up to the paper wrapping-I mean the phyllo. We critiqued it then I threw it out. I've never had so much trouble with a magazine published recipe before...Oh well, next week will come very fast!
Stay tuned for part 2 of my entertaining and once this is posted, I'm hoping Typepad will easily let me re-post with the *pictures I have on my office computer.
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