Blogger Potluck

The profiteroles from Kristy and my turkey siu mai that you can't see

Some of the goodies at the potluck

Sunday night we had our food blogger potluck. It was a rainy night so I think it kept a few of the bloggers away. We had a good time though eating, drinking and talking. Unfortunately I didn't take many pictures and actually forgot to take a picture of the dish I took. For lack of a better name I'll just call it Turkey Siu Mai. There was also a mushroom spread, pumpkin muffins,stuffed dates,seasoned nuts,mango lassi, a chocolate torte and profiteroles..there may have been a couple other dishes that I missed. Of course since this is a food bloggers potluck, the food was great.. no store bought food here. Next time we'll have to have it in the spring when the weather gets nice.

Several people have asked for the recipe for my turkey siu mai so here it is.
This is one of those recipes that has no set amount for the ingredients, you simply use as much or as little as suits your taste.

1pkg ground turkey- one pkg makes about 24 siu mai. you can use gound pork as well
green onions chopped
water chestnuts chopped
bamboo shoots chopped
dried shitake mushrooms soaked in warm water until soft then chopped
minced garlic
grated ginger
salt pepper
soy sauce
oyster sauce
fish sauce (optional)
sesame oil
Age- soy wrappers. I got mine at Oto's and they were in the vegetable section. They come in packages of 10 which make 20 wrappers.

add all the chopped ingredients into the ground turkey, add the soy sauce and oyster sauce, salt and pepper, fish sauce, and a little sesame oil. Mix well. It does take quite a bit of soy sauce and oyster sauce to get a good flavor in the mix.

For the Age wrapper (soy wrapper) cut the age in half and cook in chicken stock with
a little soy sauce until tender. Cool in the stock. When cool drain and squeeze out as much liquid as you can from each piece of age.
open each age gently and stuff with the turkey mixture..as much or as little as you like depending on what size you want. Squeeze together around the outside to make a sort of dumpling shape. Steam until done. You can steam with plain water or you can use chicken stock for more flavor.

SUNDAYS WITH MARLENA SPIELER-LUBIYA

LUBIYA is the Sephardi Israeli soup made with black eyed peas.

1C dried black eyed peas or 2 cans
1Tbsp olive oil
2 chopped onions
4 cloves garlic chopped
2-3 mild fresh chilies or 1 medium hot chili chopped
1tsp ground cumin
1tsp ground tumeric
90z fresh or canned chopped tomatoes
21/2C chicken stock, beef or vegetable stock
1 oz cilantro(coriander) chopped
juice of half a lemon

If using dried peas- put the beans in a pan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil and cook for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and let sit covered for 2 hours. Drain the beans and return the peas to the pan and cover with cold water and then simmer the peas for 35-40 minutes or until the peas are tender. Drain and set aside.
I used canned black eyed peas simply out of laziness or ease so if you do the same skip the first part and continue with the second part:
Heat the oil in the pan and add the onions, garlic and chili and cook for 5 minutes or until the onion is soft. Stir in the cumin, tumeric, tomatoes, stock, half the cilantro (coriander), and the beans and simmer for 20-30 minutes. Stir in the lemon juice and the remaining cilantro.
Serves 4
Serve with pita bread or any nice bread.

I had chopped the onions and garlic earlier in the day so when I got ready to make the soup it was very quick to make. The soup was done was done start to finish within a half an hour.
It is a very flavorful soup.

MATZO BALLS - MISHEGAS!

Matzo ball making with Estelle Opper and Marlena Spieler.

Literally, we got to spend the day with Marlena and her aunt Estelle Opper. What a pair, both were exceptionally nice and a lot of fun. Estelle was at Mel’s house to teach us the correct way to make matzo balls. Marlena happened to be in town so came with her aunt to lend support. Mel, Shankari and I all made dishes from her Jewish Cooking cookbook and had a huge spread of food, enough to make any Jewish mother proud. Chris Maceas from the Sac. Bee and photographer Autumn were also there to record the matzo lesson for the Hanukkah piece they will be running.

Now Estelle is a presence unto herself. She is one of those people who can walk into a room and just take command. She demonstrated how SHE makes matzo balls from a mix which turn out beautifully. She made the traditional matzo ball which is basically the Matzo mix (w/salt), water, oil and eggs, then she made one with parsley and a little garlic powder which was a twist that Marlena uses. After mixing up the matzo batter it needs to refrigerate for about 15 minutes and we had to closely watch the time. Into the boiling water we added a little chicken bouillon for flavor -but we didn't have Telma brand which Estelle proclaimed to be the best. Estelle showed us how to roll the matzo balls. It doesn’t seem that hard to roll the little balls but Estelle can roll them and they come out really smooth on the outside, no wrinkles. I tried a couple of time and I could never achieve that smoothness. Into the boiling water they are gently placed and they grow as the cook. The initial ball we made was about golf ball size, the finished product was a little smaller than a baseball. After they have cooked for about an hour they were ready to be taken out … another precision project. Heaven forbid you should be digging around for a matzo ball and nick one or even worse cut a piece off of one which I did.. that was not good. Gently, very gently with a slotted spoon lift out a matzo ball and drain as much of the liquid as possible off and gently place it in a serving dish. Yes, you have to be gentle these matzo balls are as light and fluffy as a feather and if they should fall apart I’m sure Estelle would have taken the spoon away from me and scooped out the rest herself. The one matzo ball that I sliced was forgiven and she said that was to eaten by the cook, never served to a guest. To serve the matzo ball is place in a bowl first then the chicken broth poured over. Mel made a delicious broth from Marlena’s recipe..so good. This was my first matzo ball so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I can’t describe the texture, not quite like a dumpling much lighter and fluffier. The plain matzo was that a little plain but we thought it might have been because we used a low salt matzo mix and as Estelle said we didn't use Telma chicken broth in the cooking water. The matzo ball with the parsley and garlic powder was very good.

Also friends Jen and Phil came for our feast with lots of champagne. Even Chris and Autumn stayed for some lunch. Our meal consisted of Vegetarian Chopped Liver, Rice and Chicken, and Biscotti all by Shankari. Mel made the stuffed cabbage, the chicken broth, her husband Dave made both Pumpernickle and Challa bread and I made the Sun-Dried Tomato Salad and Peppers and the Polish Apple Cake. All the food was delicious and we had a wonderful time eating and talking.

It was quite a learning experience and Estelle was so gracious to teach us. It was a real treat to meet Marlena especially since I found out my husband his father have quite a connection and friendship with her family and Estelle's family.

I've learned so much cooking from Marlena's cookbook and it continues to be a fun project.

The Matzo Ball Queens

Estelle showing us how to roll matzo balls

Autumn takes pictures of the matzo balls cooking

Matzo balls cooking in broth

The matzo balls when cooked

Marlena's recipes on display

More food

Autumn, the photgrapher and Chris Macias from the Bee

Go to Cooking Schmooking and Sacramento Spice for their take on Matzo Balls.

Make sure you go to http://www.sacbee.com/livinghere/story/2386866.html and read the article about this Matzo ball making sessions, Chris did a very good job and Autumn captured it perfectly.

WEDNESDAYS WITH MARLENA SPIELER- NOODLE KUGEL

This is originally an old Russian dish brought over to North America.
Mmm... good! Buttery with apples and cinnamon, it makes the house smell like the holidays.

NOODLE KUGEL FLAVORED WITH APPLE AND CINNAMON

11/4lb egg noodles ( I used Fettuchini noodles)
1/2 C unsalted butter melted plus some for buttering the baking dish
2 baking apples peeled and coarsely grated
1C cottage cheese ( I used a mix of cottage cheese and farmers cheese), you might want to add an extra 1/2 C
3-4 lightly beaten eggs
2tsp ground cinnamon, I added about 1/2tsp of fresh grated nutmeg also
11/4C sugar
2-3 handfuls raisins
1/2tsp baking soda
pinch of salt

preheat the oven to 350 degrees
Cook the noodles in salted boiling water until done. Drain well.
Melt the butter and toss with the noodles.
Coarsely grate the apples and add to the noodles. Stir in the cottage cheese, eggs, cinnamon,sugar, raisins, baking soda and salt.
Toss well to combine. Turn mixture into a buttered 9X13 baking dish.
Bake 1-1.25 hours until browned and crisp.
Serve warm or cold.

YUM!! I thought I wouldn't like it, noodles are supposed to be savory but this is really really good. A bit of whipped cream on top of a warm plate of Kugel would be heaven.

Shankari is featuring is Egg salad and Mel is featuring Piaju