A Moveable Feast: My Blog

Summer in a New England Winter

April 5, 2012 by Carol 2 Comments

There is little as satisfying as preparing a meal with produce that I have grown myself. While I certainly sympathize with the Little Red Hen, and understand why she didn’t want to share her bread with her lazy, good-for-nothing friends, I have a different perspective. I have never asked my family and friends to plant, weed, water, or harvest, so there is no reason to deny them the pleasure of partaking in a salad made from freshly-picked veggies. Or a sage-infused sweet potato gnocchi. Or a tabouli made fragrant with mint and parsley.

So, back in October, when daughter, Elana, and her fiancé, Adam, surprised me by building a cold frame in the backyard, I was thrilled. I had read up on cold frames – basically, mini-greenhouses — and fantasized about having fresh, homegrown vegetables during the darkest, coldest days of winter. Now, my dream was about to come true.

Of course, the very next day was the Halloween that witnessed a historic, freak snowstorm. I was convinced that this season we would, as in the year before, experience record snowfalls and low temperatures, and that my dream of having a winter garden would be dashed. However, the snow melted in a matter of days, and I transplanted the parsley from my summer garden, saying a little prayer while patting the soil around the bunch.

After the kids departed for Chicago, I did some more reading. One source told me that in some parts of Europe it is traditional to plant seeds in cold frames on the shortest day of the year, so I planted lettuce and radish seeds on December 22, the solstice in Great Britain, and drank a cup of tea in solidarity (and to warm up – it was cold outside).

Little did I know that the winter of 2011-2012 would be another type of record breaker. It was the warmest on record, with the least amount of snowfall ever.

But it was, in fact, still winter so I didn’t really expect much to grow. Imagine my surprise when, after a couple of weeks, the seeds began to sprout. And they actually grew, albeit slowly. The enterprise was not without its bumps. Remember that old science lesson about setting fire to a piece of paper by putting it under a magnifying glass in the sun? Well, in mid-March, local meteorologists predicted two days of temperatures in the 80s, and guess who forgot to take the glass cover off the cold frame? I now have some green lettuce leaves with crispy brown tops. Luckily, that didn’t stop the rest of the crop from flourishing, and we should be enjoying salad in about two weeks.

And, here it is April and I am still harvesting parsley from last summer’s plant. Won’t it be neat to showcase it, and the lettuce, on the seder plate this weekend?

I have to admit that I had worried about becoming blasé at having access to homegrown vegetables and herbs all year. So far, no problem; the joy is still there. To see green sprouting in the midst of gray, barren trees and hoar frost-covered lawn was both comforting and inspiring. Next year, when a real New England winter is sure to rear its cold and snowy head, the green will be even more rousing.

I have already begun fantasizing about erecting one of those pop-up greenhouses. How big a unit can I fit into the backyard? I wonder if I can get oranges to grow? How long can I go between visits to the supermarket produce department?

Will my husband have me committed?

Gathering the stories

March 26, 2012 by Carol 4 Comments

Every Saturday of my childhood, I went to Bubby’s house for lunch after services. Since Bubby was strictly Orthodox, she would not cook on Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath, so everything had to be prepared in advance of sundown on Friday. Foods simmered on top of the stove or in the oven overnight. Consequently, the heavenly aroma of chicken soup, brisket, and stuffed cabbage permeated the house and filtered all the way out the front door, beckoning visitors and tempting passersby.

By my late teens I became interested in cooking myself, but realized that I had no idea how to make her standards. The summer of 1971, Bubby fell gravely ill with shingles. Every day I would go to St. Luke’s Hospital to spoon-feed her, as she didn’t want to eat. Perhaps she feared that the food would not be kosher, or maybe she just didn’t feel well enough. Or maybe, she was just used to her own cooking, which was fabulous. (Bubby was such a good cook that the visiting cantor who stayed with her during the High Holidays told me years later that he blamed her specifically for his huge weight gain. He couldn’t resist her challah, strudel, mandel breit, lockshen, etc. I understood; nobody could.)

Somehow I must have known that I might never get the chance to ask her questions again, so one day as I was helping her with her lunch I asked, “Bubby, will you give me your recipes?”

“I don’t have them written down.”

“You can dictate them to me. I’ll write everything down. ”

“Only if you write in Yiddish.”

“But I don’t know Yiddish.”

“You have to do it in Yiddish.”

“Bubby, if you were so interested in having me learn Yiddish, why didn’t you teach me? Why did you only speak it when you didn’t want me to understand? Bubby, I’m going to live in Israel. I speak, read, and write Hebrew!” (The “speak” may have been a bit of an exaggeration at the time, but, hey, we were talking about food here.)

“Yiddish or nothing.”

Needless to say, I got the “nothing.”

I have now spent virtually every Friday of my adult life attempting to replicate her challah. Several years ago, when my dad was still alive, he was with us for dinner. Whether a Shabbat or holiday I can’t remember, but the meal did feature challah. After we had completed the blessings over the wine and the bread, my father startled me by saying, “This challah is better than Bubby’s.”

I doubt that was true, but will take that compliment with me to the grave.

As for all her other scrumptious dishes, I have never attempted to make egg noodles (hers were like silk), and I can’t stuff a cabbage leaf to save my life. My brisket with tzimmes, however, is identical to hers. When it comes to the desserts, I have never tried to duplicate the strudel since, in the attempt, I would end up the size of a house (remember Cantor Albert). Mandel breit is a once-a-year experiment and, while not bad, it’s just not Bubby’s.

In large part due to my failure to ask questions when I had the chance, today I ask lots of them. Slowly, I am gathering stories and recipes from my own relatives to publish a family memoir.

The moral of this story is to ask questions while your elders are alive and healthy. Get as many stories from them as you can. Write down the recipes and try them out, preferably with their source. And remember to share both.

And, if they expect you to learn the language of your ancestors, find out sooner rather than later.

Baking is Chemistry

March 14, 2012 by Carol 2 Comments

“Baking is chemistry” is the message I have been trying to convey to my three children for years. Whenever they would come home from school with an assignment for a science project, I would suggest that they try baking a cake with varying amounts of baking soda, baking powder, or some other ingredient, the theory being that they would see chemistry in action and I would get to eat cake. Not one ever took my idea seriously. Granted, they had excellent science projects, but I really wanted them to learn their way around a kitchen, especially since their father is hopeless in that part of the house. (Joel says that we split the kitchen duties 50/50 – I cook and he eats.)

Anyway, I have been baking challah every week since my marriage in 1977, in an attempt to duplicate the delicious loaves my own grandmother made during her lifetime. A few years ago, I decided to start doing the same in our cottage in the Berkshires. After all, I figured, why bring day-old or frozen bread with me when I could have freshly baked loaves, warm and fragrant right out of the oven?

Well, my challah came out weird. The dough was gooey and sticky, and full of odd-looking bubbles. The final baked product was flat and dense. Now, having been trained in research, I looked at my ingredients to make sure that each item was the same brand as the others. Where they were not, I purchased new – down to the brand of raisins. The challah still came out weird. So, next I looked at my measuring cups and spoons; even they were the same brand. Still weird – and ugly.

It wasn’t until a few weeks ago that I finally connected the dots (okay, I admit it, I’m slow). My neighbor, Sheila, and I were discussing how bad our hair looks when we shampoo in the Berkshires. We attributed it to the greasy-feeling water that results from the water softeners we need to counteract the hard town water. And, what are water softeners? Sodium chloride (i.e., salt).

Suddenly, it dawned on me: Awful looking hair and weird looking challah. Duh! Maybe it was the water! I immediately went to the computer to Google “the effects of hard water and soft water on bread baking,” and learned that, yes, this could be my problem. So, this past Friday, I tried baking with bottled water and, voila! My challah came out the way it is supposed to come out – soft and delicious.

By the way, my kids are all excellent cooks now, no thanks to the chemistry lessons I failed to impart.

Food for Thought

February 18, 2012 by Carol Leave a Comment

I have two rules when it comes to cooking and baking. First, never use a recipe that says, “Stir constantly,” and second, never make a recipe that requires separating eggs and whipping the whites.

Recently, I broke Rule #2. But, I really had no choice. I had written a travel piece for the Berkshire JewishVoice about Portsmouth, New Hampshire and needed a recipe that was quintessentially New Hampshire. Well, you could have knocked me over with a maple leaf when I discovered that a favorite dessert among New Hampshire natives has nothing to do with apples, maple syrup, or seafood.

It was an orange cake. Since when have oranges grown in New Hampshire — or anywhere else in the northeastern United States? Apparently, the Old Portsmouth Orange Cake is actually a recipe that came over with early English settlers and has been a summertime favorite ever since. Come again? Oranges in summer? Is this some kind of scam being foisted on us gullible lovers of dessert?

Anyway, because I provide recipes to accompany my articles, I need to prepare them. That makes sense, as I certainly want to make sure I don’t disseminate bad food. I also have to take a picture of the final result. Well, the first recipe turned out inedible. It was so bad that I actually had to put it down the garbage disposal. So, I searched for another recipe, which I then adapted to enhance the orange flavor.

This second cake came out much better than the first. While I still hate having to beat egg whites, I have to admit they did make for a nice light, spongy cake. Sliced fresh oranges between the two layers added a nice, juicy tang in contrast to the sweet, rich buttercream frosting.

Let me know what you think of this cake!

Old Portsmouth Orange Cake

Ingredients:

For the cake:
½ c. plus 2 T. cake flour
¼ c. all-purpose flour
½ t. baking powder
¼ t. salt
3 T. milk
2 T. unsalted butter
½ t. vanilla extract
5 large eggs, at room temperature
¾ c. granulated sugar
1 t. orange zest
2 T. orange juice

For the Frosting:
12 T. unsalted butter, softened
¾ t. grated orange
1 ½ c. confectioners’ sugar
Pinch salt
2 t. orange juice
1/2 t. vanilla extract
1 T. milk
To assemble the cake:
2 oranges

Directions:

For the cake:

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees and adjust a rack to the center position. Coat two 9 inch round cake pans with vegetable spray and line the bottoms with parchment paper. Whisk flours, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Heat milk and butter in a small saucepan over low heat until butter melts.
Remove from heat and add vanilla. Set aside.

Separate 3 of the eggs, placing whites in bowl of standing mixer fitted with a whisk. Reserve the 3 yolks plus remaining 2 whole eggs. Beat the 3 whites on high speed until foamy. Gradually add 6 T. of sugar while beating to soft, moist peaks. Transfer whites to a large bowl and put the yolks and remaining whole eggs in the mixing bowl.

Beat yolks and whole eggs with the remaining 6 tablespoons sugar at medium-high speed until eggs are very thick and a pale lemon color, about 5 minutes. Add the orange zest and juice and beat to combine, about 30 seconds.

Return beaten whites to the bowl; sprinkle the flour mixture over eggs and whites. Mix on lowest speed for 10 seconds. Remove bowl from mixer, make a well in one side and pour melted butter mixture into well. Fold mixture with a large rubber spatula until combined.

Immediately pour batter into prepared pans and bake until cake tops are lightly browned and spring back when touched, about 16 minutes. When cool, run a knife around perimeter of first pan and invert pan onto plate. Peel away parchment paper and invert cake onto cooling rack.

Repeat with second cake.

For the buttercream:

In the bowl of electric mixer fitted with the whisk, beat butter on medium high speed until smooth. Add zest and beat to combine. Add confectioners sugar and salt and beat at medium-low until the sugar is moistened.

Scrape down sides of bowl and add orange juice, vanilla and milk and beat at medium speed until incorporated. Increase speed to medium high and beat until light and fluffy, scraping sides of bowl once or twice.

To finish the cake:
Using a sharp knife cut away orange peel carefully until no traces of pith remain. Cut oranges horizontally into 1/4 inch slices and then cut slices into 1 inch strips. Place one layer of cake on a cake round or serving plate. Arrange orange pieces on top of bottom layer. Spread a very thin layer of buttercream on the bottom side of the second layer and place the frosted side on top of the orange slices. Spread the remaining buttercream evenly over the top and sides of the cake.

Serve immediately or refrigerate until 20 minutes before serving.