Why blog?

I thought about going online by means of a website, but after three chapters of a guide on html programming I realized that I am not actally to dumb to set up a website, but to damn lazy.

A blog is really a website for the cyberworld couch potato.

But why at all? You will definitely not find some deep philosophical thoughts here……besides a few everyday tales and recipes I don’t have much to tell….ah, the woes of the homely girls. Actually I found a quote in a newspaper today that covers my experience on male/female relationships so well that I had to laugh. Someone already said publicly everything I could have said on that subject….so why bother?

I’d say it’s all about satisfying my play instinct and because I really love the internet. My father was some kind of computing pioneer and I was most probably the first kid in our school that had access to the www. Maybe that is why I somehow consider the internet a part of my life…..thinking about it that sounds rather quirky.

O.k. I’ll just confess…..I’m a web addict. Pure geek material

And it certainly didn’t help that I married a gadget crazy computer nerd……anybody out there who knows Gary Larson comics by heart? Well if so you will know exactly what I’m talking about when I tell you that we are looking forward to having looooots of little nerdlings one day

The siddur is back!

And it looks amazing! I was completely floored when the bookbinder handed me the once battered siddur and it looked like never opened before! The mottled paper in blue and red is beautifully contrasted by the dark blue back of the book. The pages had been cut slightly to give it the touch of a new book. All loose pages and also the rest of the pages have been fitted into a new binding. All in all a complete makeover. I am quite sure it is now fit to survive the next 20 generations

Chocolate Fondue – pareve

I bought every child’s dream…..a chocolate fondue set. Not that this is in any way necessary in life, but it does stir up happy childhood memories of ravenous uncontrolled chocolate consumption and being awfully sick afterwards…..well, the first part is definitely the better

The only reason I write this is because I am testing whether it is possible to serve this on shabbat. I really wonder whether the chocolate sauce will survive the plata…..don’t worry I’ll keep you posted!

Voilà here come the findings:

The chocolate sauce can be easily heated on shabbos by pouring hot water from the samowar into a large bowl and then putting the fondue bowl into that hot water (bain-marie method). This seems to be in line with halacha, too (I checked in “Hilchos Schabbos” by Rav Posen, where heating by hot water is discussed, e.g. heating the contents of a baby bottle). No plata needed at all.

In an orthodox household you will not be able to use the stand with the candle that comes with the fondue set for keeping it warm on shabbos, as the candle gets too hot (and many other considerations).

But if heated in the above mentioned way you can get the chocolate hot enough to stay warm for some time and can still put the bowl onto the stand (without candle) just for the sake of style. If you do not own a fondue set, you can improvise with a heat resistant bowl and small forks.

Anyway chocolate fondue is never lasting for hours….it’s just too good!

How to: Melt pareve chocolate by bain-marie method. You can add some soy-cream or other pareve cream to reduce sweetness and make it more creamy. Let cool in bowl. Cut different fruits in small cubes to dip into the chocolate (you can also take cookies, marshmallows etc.). Set aside. Heat again during main course……so it will be ready for dessert. Serve and enjoy. (If children are present: make sure your fine white linen is safely put away or covered with plastic foil )

Lamb tagine with chick peas and prunes – fleishig

This a really simple “add all ingredients and let simmer….simmer…simmer”-recipe that will win you loads of compliments. It tastes great with rice, couscous or farvel.

Ingredients: Lamb meat in cubes or big chicken chunks with bone, 2 onions diced, a pinch of saffron powder dissolved in some warm water, ras el hanout (moroccan spice mix), olive oil, about 5 tomatoes diced, two fistfuls of chickpeas soaked overnight and cooked until about half done, about 8 prunes in halves, salt, pepper, 1 cinnamon stick, kosher broth cubes if needed.

Preparation: Heat oil in skillet, add meat, stir-fry until well roasted on each side, add onions and stir for some more minutes. Add all other ingredients and water and simmer until the meat is well done.

If you like your sauce very rich, add some more olive oil at the very end.

SWEETNESS: The sauce will be slightly sweet. You can vary the taste from rather “on the tomato side” to “rather on the sweet pruny side” by adjusting the amount of tomato/fruit to your taste and adding/leaving away the cinnamon stick. I myself like it really sweet and with lots of cinnamon. Cinnamon and lamb are definitely a match made in heaven

SPICES: If you are insecure about how much spices to add just add only a bit and season according to your taste afterwards. You can buy ras el hanout online or in stores wiht a large spice assortment. It can also be prepared at home if you posses a large variety of spices already. I found the recipe below on www.recipezaar.com but I have not tested it. It looks like a very basic ras el hanout mixture and I am sure it will work for the stew above. (Trivia: the real has el hanout is very complex and some very elaborate mixtures can contain up to 100 ingredients, like rose buds and ground lavender.)

1	teaspoon ground cumin
1	teaspoon ground ginger
1	teaspoon turmeric
1	teaspoon salt
3/4	teaspoon sugar
3/4	teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1/2	teaspoon cinnamon
1/2	teaspoon ground coriander
1/2	teaspoon cayenne
1/2	teaspoon ground allspice
1/2	teaspoon ground fennel
1/4	teaspoon ground cloves

Russian pickled gherkin soup – fleishig

This is a really simple recipe but still a favourite of mine.

Ingredients: 1 onion finely chopped, 1 carrot diced, 1/2 celery root diced, beef in medium cubes, 4 large pickled gherkins, some of the liquid from the gherkins, a fistful of white rice, kosher beef broth cube, oil, spices.

Preparation: Stir-fry the meat with some oil, add onion, stir til the onion gets slightly translucent, add celery root and carrots, stir for about half a minute more, add water and broth cube. When the meat is done add rice. After about 10 minutes add the chopped or ground gherkins and some of their liquid. Let simmer some more until the rice is done and serve hot. This soup is supposed to have a slightly sour taste from the gherkins.

Milchig version: If you leave away the meat, the soup can be made richer by adding some thick cream together with the gherkins. Do not use milk, as the liquid from the gherkins will split up the milk into curd and whey…which will not happen if you use cream because it has a higher percentage of fat.

España – Torremolinos

I promised long ago to write about the hotel N.CH where we stayed during our holidays in Torremolinos, Spain. There is nothing special about this hotel except for the fact that it offers kosher food and is prepared for the needs of guests who are shomer shabbat.

The not so kosher traveller might ask now: „Why not just dine vegetarian in Torremolinos?“. Guys there is no such thing as a vegetarian Spanish restaurant! Besides nearly all restaurants have exactly the same menu featuring very prominently shellfish and pork. So even if your standards are way below orthodox I highly doubt you would enjoy Spain from the culinary point of view ☺

During our stay there was a kind of catoholic holiday called „Romeria y fiesta de San Miguel“. It was nice to look at and most of the local women dressed in very ornate traditional dresses. Definitely not an everyday experience.

In the N.CH hotel you basically get a small but clean room with a balcony facing a small square. But every evening the really exceptional part of the holiday takes place. The kosher dinner! The meals are not only really tasty, but will serve at least double the amount of people present

But there are some major drawbacks to the kashrut level because they (i) do not have a valid hechscher, which forces them to get the food precooked from the nearby kosher restaurant and (ii) do not have personnel that is trained in matters of kashrut. I had a few glances into the kitchen and it seems not to be in regular use except for heating up food or opening cans for breakfast. Furthermore I was unfortunately not able to spot a difference between our evening fleishig cutlery and the breakfast milchig one, not mentioning the fact that both seemed to be washed in the same sink…..

Nevertheless it was o.k. for us as we are not that meticulous, and even accepting the possibility that we had fleishig dinner with treif cutlery we were a thousand times better off than eating out somewhere else.

The dinner started each night with appetizers consisting of about four different types of Spanish tapas or Israeli dips and salads with French bread (on shabbat two loaves of challa instead and some fancy sparkling mevushal wine). For starters they served either soup (a chicken soup to die for) or some small pasta dish. The main dish was usually meat (chicken or beef) with pasta, rice etc. They even served chicken Chinese style one night. And for dessert either fruit or some very exquisite sponge cakes with different fillings.

As the food was supplied by the small kosher restaurant around the corner one can stay in Torremolinos even if one has a higher kashrut observance than described above. So if you plan to stay in Torremolinos I am quite sure the friendly couple owning the restaurant will be able to deliver to your hotel as well. Another possibility would be to just dine at the small restaurant each night, but I actually preferred it the other way round as the hotel dining room was more spacious and well air-conditioned. Nevertheless we enjoyed to sit in the restaurant one night and met some nice people from the local congregation.

Torremolinos itself is not exactly a beauty. It is highly touristic and looks like any other beach village in Spain. So if you are in for a bit of mindless “sleep, eat, drink, swim, get a tan”-sort of holidays it is great. But if you don’t want to see people running around in bathing suits all day it is definitely not your place. But there are ways you nearly get around the “meat display”. The beach is pretty empty until 10am. We enjoyed nice early morning walks on the seashore. The water is worth taking a plunge as well! In October there aren’t that many tourists around any more but the temperature is still nice. I therefore strongly recommend visiting Torremolinos off-season.

Torremolinos has an orthodox synagogue situated near the left part of the town. It is called Beith Minzi and services follow minhag sefard. Peaple are very nice and welcoming and it is definitely worth to go daaven there!

From Torremolinos you can make nice day trips to nearby cities. Especially Grenada is definitely worth a trip for the Jewish traveller! Tha Alhambra is absolutely stunning!