Saturday 29 June
...or cooking when your hostess is
half-blind with conjunctivitis, the labels on all the spices are in Hebrew
(cursive), and all you have is what's in the fridge. It was not a Kitchen Nightmare, just an
episode of Chopped (Israel).
Kathy had generously bought a big
sack of dried porcini and some lovely big tube pasta (paccheri). Holt found an
appropriate recipe on Epicurious which he followed in spirit, if not exactly.
He made a mirepoix of finely
chopped celery, carrots, and green onions, all with a knife that couldn't cut
dirt (Dvorah, like many a Jewish mother, never sharpens her knives). Then added the
lovely reconstituted porcini and their water. Some rosemary from the garden added to the
woody notes. The tomato factor was a
bunch of largish cherry tomatoes quartered and tossed in at the last moment.
The other dish was pretty much
seat-of-the-pants, but tasted like it wasn't. Dvorah had 3 acorn squashes, and Holt recalled
a dish from Ottolenghi's cookbook Plenty
featuring pumpkin slices. A quick check of the internet revealed that we had
none of the ingredients as such, but the basic idea was good. Another appealing recipe featured dates, which
again we didn't have.
The end result went something like
this:
Slice 3 acorn squashes with a
knife (that w.c.d.), sprinkle with olive oil, sea salt, sumac, and what you
hope are coriander and cumin. Bake in the little toaster oven at 200º C or 250º
or whatever the heck that is, until kind of caramelized on the bottom.
Meanwhile make a compote of dried
figs and apricots with some lemon peel and sweet-ass wine. Cook till nearly all the wine is gone. Put the
squash, sliced, on a nice platter, sprinkle with the figicot mixture, and
drizzle with yogurt for that Plenty
look. Eat like artichokes: scrape with teeth or knife and dip in sauce. It's finger food, but not as messy as ribs and
much more kosher.
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