Friday, March 20, 2009

Greenbeans the easy way

Prep time- 10 minutes
Cooking Time- 10 minutes minutes
Feeds as many as you have beans for!

Number of things that get dirty- 3
knife
cutting board
covered oven safe container with
ziplock bag (large


Ingredients
as many greenbeans as you want- fresh or frozen
garlic either fresh roasted or ground
1 tbls oil
pinch salt


remove stems from either end
put greenbeans, garlic, oil and salt into a ziplock bag
toss around with wild abandon until all greenbeans are nicely coated
remove from bag into oven container
bake about 20 minutes at 180*C until everything is nice and just slightly toasty

great additions include toasted almonds or pine nuts

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Onion Chicken

This is the fastest and easiest chicken recipe that I know of. It is my chicken of last resort when I do not have time to do anything else for shabbat. You can even add rice in the bottom (with enough water) and it will all cook together and give you a really easy and tasty side dish at the same time.

Prep time- 5 minutes
Cooking Time- 45-60 minutes minutes
Feeds 4-5

Number of things that get dirty- 3
poultry shears
large pyrex or roasting pan
knife


Ingredients
1 onion
1 whole chicken

Remove skin and stems from onion. Cut a single slice into the side of the onion to give it more surface area.
Set aside onion
Clean chicken. If you are in Israel, remove feathers. If you are not in Israel, you probably do not have to bother with that step as the kind folk at the chicken factory have already done it for you.
Place in baking tray legs up
Stuff onion where the sun don't shine (alternatively if you are more aidle than I, insert onion into vacant chicken cavity)
Cover and cook at 180*C until golden cooked.
Uncover and cook an addotional 10 minutes or so

I told you it was easy.

Cucumber Salad

This salad works best when you do the first part a day or so in advance. It really helps if it sits. I make the two "pre-mixtures" in ziplock bags which makes it easy to drain them and easy to clean up!

Prep time- 5-10 minutes minutes
Cooking Time- None but it should sit over night before you serve it
Feeds - depends how much you make

Number of things that get dirty- 3
chef knife
cutting board
serving bowl

Ingredients
2 cucumbers (or enough for about 2 cups of thin slices)
1 small onion
1 tsp cider vinegar
2 pinches of salt
1 pinch of sugar
2 tbls dill
2 tbls water
2 ziplock bags

slice cucumber into really thin slices and put into a ziplock bag
add 1 pinch of salt
seal and stick in the fridge for at least a few hours

slice onion into small pieces
add 1 pinch of salt
add 1 pinch of sugar
seal and stick in the fridge for at least a few hours

add dill to cider vinegar and stick in the fridge for at least a few hours

drain the liquid out of both bags and pour the remaining contents into a bowl
add vinegar and dill
add water if required

Serve cold

Purple Cabage Salad

Prep time- 5-10 minutes minutes
Cooking Time- None but it should sit over night before you serve it
Feeds - depends how much you make

Number of things that get dirty- 4
food processor
mixing bowl
two forks

Ingredients
Purple cabbage
1/3 C Light mayo
2 tbls apple cider vinegar
garlic powder
onion powder

Shred cabbage in food processor. Yes you could use a knife but that sort of takes the quick out of this recipe
mix in mayo and vinegar
add garlic and onion to taste

let sit over night or at least a few hours!

Tomato salad spread (and sauce base!)

I got this recipe from a vegetarian friend of mine (Thanks Yaffa!) and doctored it to our more garlicy taste. It became an instant favourite. We almost always have some of it in the fridge. If I think it is going ot go bad I just puree it into a tomatoe sauce, add a little something to thin it slightly and it is an incredible pizza or pasta sauce.

Prep time- 5-10 minutes minutes
Cooking Time- 1 1/2 -2 hours minutes
Feeds - no idea. I2 sort of stretches in limitless ways.

Number of things that get dirty- 4
chef knife
baking tray with sides
mixing bowl
wodden spoon

Ingredients
tomatoes- you can use pretty much any tomatoes you can find. I got the recipe with cherry tomatoes, but now I buy the cheap ones from "the ugly bin" and slice them.
basil (fresh is better but dried is fine)
olive oil
garlic (again, cloves are good, dried powder is fine)
optional dill

Cut tomatoes into chunks (or just halves if you are using cheery tomatoes and place skin side down onto a lightly olive oiled baking tray
if you are using whole cloves of garlic lay them out as well
sprinkly lightly with olive oil
if you are using dried basil and or garlic and or dill sprinkle it on now

roast at 180*C (350*F) for an hour
drain off juices
roast another half hour
drain off juices
if they look like they still have a lot of juice ot give up let them go another half hour

pour roasted tomatoes (and garlic) into the bowl with the drained juices
mix well
add a drop of olive oil if it is too thick (more of a problem when starting with bigger tomatoes)

serves well hot, cold, pureed, on bread, as a side dish for fish, or probably a bunch of other ways I am not thinking of.