The only excuse you need to go all-in on milchigs this Shavuot
By: Sharon Lurie
Greek Salad
This salad served with a milchig meal is my absolute favourite. The crunch of the cucumber, the saltiness of the feta, and the traditional dressing somehow make this such a refreshing salad.
Ingredients
1 medium red onion, thinly sliced into half-moons
250g baby tomatoes, halved
6-8 Israeli cucumbers, sliced into half-moons
1 green bell pepper, cored and sliced into rings
1 handful pitted olives
1½ tsp dried oregano
Pinch of salt
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 TBLs red wine vinegar
A handful of Greek feta cheese, cubed or crumbled
Method
Place the onions, tomatoes, cucumber, bell pepper, and olives in a large serving dish. Sprinkle the vegetables with ¾ tsp of oregano and a pinch of salt. Add the oil and vinegar (to your liking), then give everything a gentle toss. Top the salad with feta and sprinkle with the remaining ¾ tsp of oregano. Enjoy!
Creamy White Onion Soup
Ingredients
2kg white onions, halved and thinly sliced
125g butter
2 heaped TBLs flour
1 cup milk
1 heaped tsp mustard powder
4 TBLs parev chicken stock powder
2 packets Checkers house-brand onion soup mix
1 cup pouring cream
250g mascarpone cheese
½ cup finely grated cheddar cheese
1 tsp dried thyme
2 bay leaves
Salt and pepper to taste
1 handful fresh parsley, finely chopped
Method
Melt the butter over medium-low heat in a large, heavy-based pot with a matching lid. Add the onions and cook for 25–30 minutes, stirring every so often to ensure the onions don’t brown. Make your stock in a separate bowl by adding 2L of boiling water to the onion soup mix and chicken stock powder. Once the onions have cooked, stir in the flour and mustard powder, then whisk in the milk until it thickens. Add your stock to the onion mixture and bring to the boil for 1–2 minutes. Put on the lid, reduce the heat to low, and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally to prevent it from ticking to the bottom. After 1 hour, add the cream, mascarpone, cheddar, and thyme, and cook for a few more minutes, whisking continuously. At this point you’ll be able to see whether the soup needs more liquid — add either milk or stock as needed. Remember, this is meant to be a thick and hearty soup. Remove the bay leaves and blend until you reach your desired consistency. Serve with a little finely chopped parsley along with fresh bread and butter.
Tuna Blintzes with a 3-Cheese Cream Sauce
Crêpe Batter
4 eggs
3 TBLs vegetable oil
½ cup milk
½ cup water
½ tsp salt
1 cup flour, sifted
Method — Crêpes
Beat the eggs, oil, milk, and water with a food processor or hand blender. Add the salt and slowly add the flour, whisking or blending continuously until smooth. The batter should be pourable and have the consistency of buttermilk or cream. Allow the batter to rest overnight. When ready to cook, heat a non-stick frying pan over medium heat and use a pastry brush or paper towel to coat the pan very lightly with melted butter, or spray with oil. Once hot, add a ladle of batter, swirling the pan quickly to ensure a thin, even spread. Once bubbles start to form, your crêpe is ready to flip. Once cooked, stack the crêpes with wax paper between each layer.
Tips:
If you over-mix the batter, the gluten will start to develop and you may get a chewier crêpe.
Resting the batter allows the flour to absorb the liquid, giving it less of a floury taste and a softer crêpe.
If you make the batter in advance, it can be kept in the fridge for up to 5 days.
If you make the crêpes in advance, you can keep them in an airtight container or zip-lock bag in the refrigerator for up to two days.
Alternatively, you can freeze them. Defrost in the microwave, as they tend to break when brought to room temperature. They are easier to fold when warm.
3-Cheese Cream Sauce
2 TBLs butter
2 TBLs plain flour
1 TBLs chicken stock powder (parev)
1 can evaporated milk
1L full-cream milk
250ml cream cheese or mascarpone
2 bay leaves
1 tsp mustard powder
1 tsp crushed garlic
1 cup finely grated cheddar cheese
1 cup finely grated Tussers cheese
Method — Sauce
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Once completely melted, add the flour and chicken stock powder and whisk to combine. Remove the pan from the heat and add the evaporated milk and full-cream milk, whisking until all the lumps are out. Add the cream cheese (or mascarpone). Return the pan to the heat and add the bay leaves, mustard powder, garlic, Tussers, and cheddar. Heat the sauce slowly, allowing the cheese to melt. Check the seasoning, adjusting with salt and pepper, then remove from the heat. Remove the bay leaves. Your sauce is ready to pour over your blintzes.
This sauce can also be poured over cooked macaroni and baked until golden brown.
Waffles Never Tasted So Good
Who doesn’t love a waffle? Those wonderful waffles our mothers would make — dripping in butter, drenched in syrup, topped with a blob of vanilla ice cream that would start melting the moment it was placed on the warm waffle. Today it’s as easy as buying them off the shelf, toasting them, and adding your favourite toppings. This recipe is a novel “healthy” way to enjoy a sweet and savoury waffle over Shavuot.
Ingredients
1 pkt waffles (found in the freezer section of your supermarket — I used Orit’s)
1 × 250g cream cheese
250g smoked salmon
Finely sliced fresh or pickled cucumber
Finely sliced red onions
A few capers
Method
Toast the waffles until golden brown. Spread cream cheese over the waffles, place the salmon on top, and layer the remaining ingredients over the salmon.
Bread and Butter Pudding
A delicious, warm pudding for those cosy winter nights. If this pudding is baked too early the bread will absorb all the sauce and dry out, so I would bake it 45 minutes before serving.
Ingredients
1 loaf government bread or cinnamon babke, crusts removed and sliced
125g butter, at room temperature
Apricot or strawberry jam
1 TBLs cinnamon and 1 cup brown sugar, mixed together
3 cups seedless raisins (optional)
Custard Sauce
5 eggs
2 cups cream
1 litre milk
1 TBLs vanilla essence
Method
Combine all the custard sauce ingredients in a liquidiser. Butter each slice of bread and spread with strawberry or apricot jam, followed by a generous sprinkling of brown sugar and cinnamon. Place a layer of bread into a buttered baking dish. Sprinkle a cup of raisins over the bread. Pour two cups of custard sauce over the first layer of bread. Layer more bread, raisins, and custard sauce over the first layer. Repeat until all the bread has been used. Finish with a layer of custard sauce. Place the pudding in the fridge until ready to bake. Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C for 40–45 minutes or until golden brown. Serve immediately with custard sauce from Woolworths or home-made.
My Favourite Baked Decadent Chocolate Cheesecake
The diet will start on Monday! Shavuot comes once a year.
Base
1 box Romany Creams, finely crushed
125g butter, melted
1 × 85g Bar One chocolate
½ cup milk
Filling
3 extra-large eggs
¾ cup sugar
3 × 250g full-fat cream cheese (Philadelphia recommended) — ensure it is at room temperature
250g sour cream
2 TBLs custard powder, sifted
2 tsp vanilla essence
1 TBLs fresh lemon juice
Method
Mix the crushed biscuits with the melted butter. Melt the Bar One with the milk, either in the microwave or in a double boiler, until very soft. Pour over the biscuit base and freeze the base for 30 minutes while you prepare the filling. Beat the eggs and sugar together until light and creamy. In a separate bowl, mix the cream cheese and sour cream together — the cream cheese can sometimes be very lumpy, especially Philadelphia. Mix until smooth. When the cream cheese mixture is smooth, add it to the egg mixture and combine well. Add the custard powder, vanilla essence, and lemon juice. Bake for 25 minutes at 170°C — do not open the oven door. Turn the oven off and allow the cheesecake to continue cooking for 15 minutes.
I love my cheesecake creamy and would rather err on the side of underdone, as it will firm up once refrigerated. There is nothing worse than a dry, grainy, eggy overcooked cheesecake.
