SUNDAYS WITH MARLENA SPIELER

Today is our first post in our culinary adventure of cooking through JEWISH COOKING by Marlena Spieler.
As I had stated Mel at Cooking Schmooking and Shankari at Stream of Conciousness and I are about to begin our big culinary adventure. We are starting with appetizers and soups to begin with so my first recipe is the Sun-dried Tomatoes and Peppers which was adapted from Marlena Spieler's recipe.
I'm in San Diego right now after my daughter had her baby, my 3rd granddaughter. I fixed this salad for the family and I'm happy to report that it went over exceedingly well. Even before we had dinner friends came over and Tony saw the salad sitting there and asked what it was. I told him about our project which he thought was a great idea and said the salad looked and smelled good...we are off to a good start I think.
My oldest granddaughter Tianna said "I don't don't like peppers, but this is GOOD!" and proceeded to have two helpings. My 19 month old granddaughter also loved it. I gave her about three peppers and a couple of tomatoes to start with and she scarfed that up in no time and was asking for more. My daughter, son-in-law and I all thought it was very good.
It was very easy and quick to make and all the ingredients were things readily available at any grocery store or in your pantry. There was one change that I made; the capers I think were meant to be the large caper berries rather than the nonpareil capers and were supposed to be the ones packed in salt rather than brine. The recipe called for 2 or 3 and to be rinsed off. I used the little capers and added about 2 tsp to the salad. I'm thrilled that the first attempt went over so well. It was delicious.
It was even better the next day after all the flavors had blended together. The left overs made a great lunch for me.. I didn't share.
SUN-DRIED TOMATO AND PEPPER SALAD
15 sun-dried tomatoes
5Tbsp oil
3-4 yellow bell peppers (red or orange would be pretty too) cut into bite size pieces
6 cloves garlic minced
14 oz canned chopped tomatoes (fresh Roma tomatoes in season would be good too)
1 tsp or more fresh thyme leaves
1/8 -1/4 tsp sugar (depending on the tartness of the tomatoes)
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tsp capers (in brine not the salted type) or more to taste
1 Tbsp or more chopped fresh parsley to taste
salt and pepper to taste
fresh thyme and parsley for garnish

Put sun- dried tomatoes in a bowl and cover with boiling water, let sit about 30 minutes until plump. Drain and cut into halves or quarters.
Heat the olive oil in a skillet, add the peppers and cook for 5-7 minutes.
Add half the garlic, the canned tomatoes, thyme and sugar and cook over medium heat until the mixture is reduced and most of the liquid is gone. Season with salt and pepper, stir in the sun-dried tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, capers and the remaining garlic. Stir together well, remove from heat and leave to cool to room temperature, adjust seasonings.
Serve at room temperature, garnish with the remaining thyme and parsley.
Serve alone or with flat bread or a good hearty bread.
Serves 4-6

Please be sure to go to Mel's and Shankari's blog's to read what recipes they have also adapted from Marena's book. We will be posting every Sunday so be sure to check back then. I will try to post my recipes in the mornings after this so you can whip up one of our recipes for dinner. Please leave a comment or e-mail me with any questions or comments you may have and if you make one of our recipes please be sure to let us know what you thought of it.

COOKING WITH MARLENA SPIELER

This the beginning of what I think will be a fun and exciting cooking adventure. Mel @ Cooking Schmooking...No Problem told me she was thinking of cooking through Marlena Spieler's Jewish Cooking book,I told her I had thought of doing something like that after reading Julie and Julia but was too lazy. Mel then asked me if I would be interesting in doing this with her and another blogger Shankari @Stream of Consciousness.. I thought it would be fun and went over to take a look at Marlena's book. It was fabulous.. lots of interesting recipes some that were familiar and quiet a few that were new to me. I thought it would be a good chance to learn to cook Jewish food and learn something of the Jewish culture. I've e-mailed Marlena a couple of times and she is the sweetest person..and she's flattered we are doing this. I hope I can do justice to Marlena's recipes and and am honored to be doing them. We will be beginning our culinary project this week so come back on Sunday and read our first posts. Please leave lots of comments because feed back will help me and the others to know how you like this project and how we are doing.

THE BEST OF LEMON GRASS- FAST & FLAVORFUL

Fast and Flavorful, that's the name of the class we attended at the Sac. Food Co-op on Thursday night. The class was taught by Mai Pham, celebrity chef and cook book author and owner of Lemon Grass restaurant.
Sue, and I plus several other students were lucky enough to help prep for the class. Mai showed us how prepare the Papaya Salad(my favorite) that was one of the dishes she was teaching during class. Mai is very personable easy to talk to and work with and a great teacher. I was so thrilled to be able to work with her.
To start the class Mai showed part of a video she did for Food TV about her return trip to Viet Nam her family and all the great food of the country. She went over different ingredients and how slicing vegetables and meat in a certain way contributes to the flavor of a dish. All these dishes were made with her new cooking sauces that the Co-op is now carrying. I have to say, they are really really good and make preparing her dishes really fast and easy. She has three right now, Lemon Grass Ginger, Yellow Curry, and Green Curry.
First recipe up was the Green Papaya Salad. Shredded green papaya, green beans, cherry tomatoes, peanuts and cabbage and of course the wonderful sauce which is prepared with a mortar and pestle.

The next dish was the Lemongrass Tofu with Shitake Mushrooms

Next was Shrimp Curry with Butternut Squash and Basil

The last was Spicy Roasted Chicken and Rice.

All of the dishes were so flavorful and only took a few minutes to prepare.
After class we had to opportunity to buy her sauces and of course the cookbooks and have them signed by Mai. It was a fun class and I hope she comes back to teach more.
Here is the recipe for one of the dishes she prepared in class

Spicy Roasted Chicken and Rice:
Chicken:
2lbs bone-in chicken thighs (breasts can be used)
1/2C Yellow Curry Sauce(Lemon Grass Kitchen brand) or to taste
2 small yellow onions cut into thin wedges
2 Roma tomatoes cut into 4 wedges
3 red potatoes quartered and blanched
2Tbs vegetable oil
Rice:
11/2 C basmati or jasmine rice
21/2C water
2-3 Tbsp Yellow Curry Sauce (Lemon Grass Kitchen brand)
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
2 cinnamon sticks broken
2 Tbsp vegetable oil

For chicken: combine chicken and Yellow Curry Sauce in a large bowl and stir to evenly coat the chicken. Marinate in the refrigerator for an hour. (or longer)

For rice: wash rice 3 times and drain completely. Combine with the remaining ingredients and transfer to a rice cooker or pot and cook until done, about 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Add oil to chicken and toss several times. Transfer to a roasting pan along with the onions, tomatoes and potatoes. Make sure the chicken and vegetables are in a single layer. Cover pan with aluminum foil and bake on the top shelf of the oven for 15 minutes. Change the setting to broil and broil the chicken uncovered is done and the edges are nicely brown, about another 5 minutes.
Serve chicken over rice.

Iron Steaks

Tuesday night Sue and I decided to try Iron Steaks. It is off Broadway in the old Fuji's restaurant building for all you old time Sacramentans. We didn't get there until after 8:00pm and it was still fairly busy. That was a good sign especially on a Tuesday night which I'm sure is not a big night for going out to eat. The restaurant itself is contemporary, nice clean design. I don't know what they did upstairs but the bottom floor or at least the area we were seated was comfortable. Each table had a big brick slab which we found out is where they place the food. The concept is to promote family style dining which is great because that way you can share and try several items and is also great for those who can't finish a whole steak. We started off with the hot crab dip with crostini. It was OK, not bad but needed a kick of something. They then brought us two Beignets and honey butter and also a little cup of cole slaw. OMG! Those beignets were to die for... piping hot, light and not at all greasy. With the honey butter it was heaven. I would have been happy with just a basket of beignets and the butter and nothing else. We did have them bring us a couple more. The cole slaw... boring. Sue ordered the Porterhouse and I had the Ribeye. They are brought out on sizzling plates and placed on the brick and our waitress asked if we wanted her to slice them. We said no, but then learned that we should have. Since the plate they were on are sizzling hot you had to leave them up there and either transfer the steak to your plate or slice it from there which is what we ended up doing. We also had a side of Pomme Frites (fries) with a Bacon Ranch and Garlic Mayo dipping sauces. Both were good but I loved the garlic mayo. The fries were thin and crispy but they could have been a little hotter, it was like they had been sitting a while and cooled off a little.
Desert was a strawberry shortcake made with the beignets and Sue had the ice cream sundae. I was full and only took a bite or two of the shortcake, it was good but I couldn't eat anymore. Sue said the sundae was very good.
Other than steak they have a few chicken entrees and a few fish entrees along with lobster. There aren't a lot of appetizer items and there is really not much there that caught my attention, salads are your usual steak house salads and there are a couple of soups. The sides are to be shared (large portions) and typical steak house fare as well.
I would definitely go back, especially since it so nice and close to where I live. A very good point about Iron is that there is no corkage charge, and no split plate charge since they encourage family style dining and no charge to bring a special occasion cake. You can't ask for better than that. The wine list is brief but has a good selection of California wines.
I think had I not just gone to CUT in Vegas I would have enjoyed the steak more. I'm now so spoiled after one steak dinner there, I can't help but compare what I am eating to what I had there, and there is no comparison. That being said it compares favorably to Ruth Chris' or Morton's in my opinion and price wise I think it's a better value.
I hope it stays busy and becomes another neighborhood classic.

Hot Crab Dip

The Beignets with honey butter

The steaks and Frites

Strawberry shortcakes

Ice Cream Sundae

As a side note: I had my left over steak for dinner tonight and it was was good, I think I enjoyed it more tonight. So, I would say the steaks are very good if they can taste that good the next night.


Iron Steaks
2422 13th St