Monday, March 14, 2011

VEGETABLES WITH A TWIST

IMAGINATIVE WAYS WITH VEGETABLES.

I am a Vegetarian and am always looking for places that serve interesting vegetable dishes. If the place specializes in other foods, I  find something to eat with the Starters and of course the Desserts at the  end.

Recently we went to the new BLUE  ROOSTER, which is run by the chef   SHAUL BEN ADERET. The décor and ambience are eclectic, charming, and have a good feeling to relax in. The ceiling is sheer delight, featuring  a décor of tiny rose buds.

Shaul Ben Aderet is an imaginative Chef and the vegetables were  prepared in  creative ways. We had a Portobello Mushroom, covered with cheese, delicately spiced  and baked to perfection. There was a puree made from Jerusalem Artichoke Potatoes that was delicious. There is a beet salad, a pumpkin salad with gorgonzola cream and zucchini with artichoke cream.

Treat yourself and end the meal with desserts that defy explanation… they just have to be eaten.

The BLUE ROOSTER is at 10 Nissim Aloni Street Tel Aviv. Telephone 03 544 33 49.
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Here are a few ideas for  tasty combinations when you make vegetables. Remember vegetables do not need to be a side dish. They can be a main course, with added dressings, nuts and cheeses.

Steam ,cut up carrots, add  finely cut chives and pine kernels. Drizzle with olive oil, vegetable salt and black pepper.
Bake for five minutes and serve with cous cous or rice.
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Spinach leaves and feta cheese, strawberries and poppyseed dressing.

Take two cups of washed fresh spinach, slice then thinly,  one cup of washed and cut up strawberries and mix them with two teaspoons of raisins. You need to soak the raisins in a little balsamic  vinegar.  Grate Feta cheese over all of this and pour a Poppyseed dressing over the salad.  Serve with brown bread and butter. The recipe for the Poppyseed dressing is in last week's Purim site.

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Steam a whole cauliflower. Mix butter, chopped parsley and half a teaspoon of mustard, vegetable salt and pepper, a dash of Soya sauce. Bake for five minutes in a medium oven.
          I add grated pecan or walnuts on top with a few teaspoons of grated Parmesan cheese.
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 Bake fifteen small onions, and cut up garlic cloves. To bake, cover with a little olive oil. Make a sauce of yogurt, grated  cheddar cheese and chopped pine nuts. Bake and  serve on a bed of cooked brown rice.
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Bake twenty or more cherry tomatoes. Prick them with a toothpick. Peel  five garlic and arrange the peeled cloves with the tomatoes.  Chop green spring onions very finely and arrange all over the dish, with olive oil, parsley, vegetable salt and pepper and bake for ten minutes. Serve with a main dish or add to cooked pasta.

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I steam a large amount of washed baby potatoes and cut them in half, arrange them in an oven dish and bake them. Add rosemary, pepper, onion salt and grated parmesan cheese. Serve as a vegetable, in an omelets,  or with grilled Tofu.
Kids like the potatoes on their own, but occasionally you can  add a little yogurt before the end and bake a little more.

Have a good week and let vegetables be a lovely meal.

 LOVE AND LIGHT……RONA

PURIM AND HAMENTASCHEN

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 PURIM, POPPY SEEDS AND HAMENTASCHEN.

The Scroll of Esther is a story of Purim and we celebrate with fun, masks, costumes and parties.
We give gifts of foods, cookies, candies and remember people less fortunate than ourselves.

Here are a few ideas to create small Purim cookies , filled with traditional pereg, mon or poppy seeds. Buy the poppy seeds fresh and cook as directed. 

EASY HAMENTASCHEN

2 cups of self raising flour
½ cup sugar
200 grams butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg.

Beat the eggs and sugar. Add the buitter and vanilla essence Mix and then add the self raising flour. Work into a dough and place in the fridge for half an hour. Roll and cut into rounds that you fold with the filling in it.

Make the filling
Use 2 cups of finely ground poppy seeds.
1 egg
!/3 cup of honey or sugar.
1 tablespoon lemon juice.
 Half a cup of raisins or chopped nuts. Mix all the ingredients and cook on a low flame for a few minutes. Mix all the time.  When cool, use this as a filling for the hamentaschen. You can bake the dough in a roll and fill, then cut up when baked.  

Bake in a medium oven and sprinkle icing sugar to serve.
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IDEAS FOR GREAT AND DELIGHTFUL FILLINGS
Halva and ground pecan nuts.
Chopped fresh apples, raisins and  a little apricot jam.
Grated chocolate or chocolate chips with a little honey 
Dates, cinnamon,chopped nuts, mixed with a little Kosher wine
Nutella and crushed almonds
Raisins, cinnamon and  a little coconut.


Pack the little cookies  with as assortment of chocolates and edible nachies for the kids.
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POPPYSEED DRESSING FOR SALADS, SPINACH LEAVES AND COOKED POTATOES.

½  Cup oil. ¼ cup brown sugar.
5 tablespoons vinegar
2 tablespoons chopped green onions.
½ teaspoon salt/ ½ teaspoon dry mustard
2 teaspoons poppy seeds
add  a little tarragon.
Stir the dressing into the salad, or on cooked diced potatoes or even on cooked beets and cut up red onions.
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HAVE A HAPPY, FREILIGE PURIM,  WITH LOVE AND LAUGHTER
REMEMBER THE CAMERA [and batteries] FOR THE SPECIAL PHOTOGRAPHS , THAT WILL BE MEMORY MAKERS FOR YEARS TO COME.


LOVE AND LIGHT  
RONA


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