Can You Curry Up Please?

As someone who doesn't particularly enjoy spending hours in the kitchen, I appreciate food that takes minimal prep/cook time and still tastes incredible.  A few weeks ago, I was craving my favorite dish (roasted curry cauliflower) from my favorite restaurant (Rabbit Hole) in Colorado Springs.  Now, seeing as I am 1,903 miles away from my favorite spot, ordering out was not an option, so I decided to turn to Pinterest to see if I could find an imitation recipe.  I found a couple and decided to experiment a little, to my amazement, it turned out AMAZINGLY!  This is one of my new favorite recipes and it only takes about ten minutes to prepare and 30 minutes to cook.  Gotta love that right?  The other great thing about this recipe is that it costs next to nothing!  

The recipe below is enough to serve one hungry intern for dinner.  If you want to make it as a side, or an appetizer for more than one person, I'd use a whole head of cauliflower, but it tastes best fresh out of the oven so I try not to have left overs.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 head cauliflower 
• garlic (use as much as you want, I LOVE garlic so I use about 6 - 7 cloves)
• 3 - 4 tbs. extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp. cumin
• 3/4 tsp. curry powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt

Instructions:

• Preheat oven to 425°F.
• Chop cauliflower into bite-sized florets, peel garlic and cut larger cloves in half and place in a medium bowl.
• Mix olive oil, cumin, curry powder, and salt in a bowl and pour over cauliflower & garlic; mix until cauliflower florets and garlic are evenly coated.
• Place cauliflower/garlic on a baking sheet (try to have a single layer so that it cooks evenly).
• Bake for 15 minutes, remove, flip cauliflower, and bake for another 15 - 20 minutes until cauliflower is tender (be careful not to overcook, the garlic should be tender, not crispy).
• Remove from oven and serve immediately.

And it's as simple as that!  It will probably take you longer to read this post than it will to actually prepare this savory treat.  Another plus, it's SUPER healthy, I mean what's in it?  Cauliflower and garlic.  Boom, roasted (see what I did there?).  Hope you enjoy!

For a Good Year

Well I must admit, I did not anticipate the majority of my blog posts to be about food seeing as I am not the world's best cook (I've burned water once or twice), but I just couldn't resist sharing this recipe with you.  Now, I'll have you know, that this is my great grandmother's recipe and it is very near and dear to my heart, and stomach.  It's quite possibly my favorite food and even though you may never have heard of it before, I'm sure once you taste it you'll love it too!  

It's called kugel (קוגל), and it is a traditional Ashkenazi Jewish "pudding" (I put pudding in quotes because honestly, kugel can't be described until you eat it, and I don't particularly like pudding myself so comparing it to that seems like a slap in the face to my favorite recipe).  It's pretty simple to make and can be served as a main dish or as a side, or as breakfast, or a snack, or really anything you want because it's that good.  

Ingredients:

• 6 eggs (separated)
• 12 oz. egg noodles (fine work best, but you can use wide too)
• 1/2 lb. cream cheese
• 1/2 pint sour cream
• 2 cups milk
• 1//4 cup butter (melted)
• 2 packages unflavored gelatin
• 1/2 cup sugar

Instructions:

• Cook noodles as directed on package, drain and mix with melted butter.
• Mix egg yolks, cream cheese, sour cream, sugar, and gelatin until creamy, slowly add milk (so you don't make a mess!); once mixed, add buttered noodles and coat them evenly with wet ingredients.
• Whip egg whites (I had to do this by hand this time, but using a mixer is 100 times easier and gives you fluffier egg whites, so if you have a mixer, use it!)
• Pour noodle mixture into a 9 x 13 inch baking pan and gently fold in egg whites (I like to keep as much "fluff" in the egg whites as possible, so don't beat them in, be nice to your whites).
• Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour, or until the top is golden brown.

And it's as simple as that!

I know it shouldn't be that shocking to me that not many people here know what Rosh Hashanah is, but really, NO ONE here knows what Rosh Hashanah is!  I couldn't believe my eyes when Publix had a table full of matzoh and matzoh ball soup mix in the front of the store.  Yes, I'll admit I'm glad to see they at least made an effort, but really?  Do they think that Jews eat matzoh for every holiday?  I mean the stuff tastes like styrofoam, why on earth would we eat it to celebrate the start of a new year?  So for those of you who may have never experienced or even heard of Rosh Hashanah, I'll give you the quick and dirty...

• Rosh Hashanah (ראש השנה) literally means "head of the year" or "first of the year"
• This year, it starts at sundown on September 4th and lasts through sundown on the 6th
• Apples and honey (below) are eaten to symbolize our wish for a sweet new year
• A shofar (ram's horn) is blown during synagogue 
• No work is permitted (I guess that's why I am writing this blog instead of actually working) 
• We say the words "L'shana tova" which means "for a good year"
• Following Rosh Hashanah is the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, a day of fasting and reflection; this year, Yom Kippur beings at sundown on the 13th and ends at sundown on the 14th of September

And there you have it!  I hope that you enjoy the kugel and have a fantastic new year!  L'shana tova my loves!