Shabbos Gourmet

For a number of reason's, I've included a target of three dinner guests per semi-annual cycle, and have done a good job fulfilling this. I like making dinner.  And it seems a decent way to address post-retirement loneliness.  I've been letting my wife select the guests, but a couple of times I have.  Dinner always becomes my challenge to execute.  It comes in several stages.  Menu first, largely now templated:

1. Kiddush with standard Kiddush wine
2. Motzi with two loaves of Challah that I make myself
3. Either an appetizer or a soup, recently the latter
4. A Salad
5. An Entree, typically poultry
6. A Starch, typically a kugel
7. A vegetable, always a fresh one
8. A dessert, nearly always a pareve cake
9. Beverage wine, in the $10 vicinity

And then I need to assess equipment.  Kiddush cups we use weekly and have extras.  For milchig dinners, rare, we have small stem glasses from previous wine tastings.  I make challah with a stand mixer and a granite pastry board.  The dough hook is a great convenience, but the last two seemed excessively kneaded.  I like the texture better when I knead it by hand.  It requires a large bowl to rise, then the second rise in its baking tray.  For Pesach I make chicken soup with real chicken, usually thighs which are the least expensive of the parts.  The meat can be harvested later for stir-fry.  And matzoh balls are a guest expectation.  However, for other soups I use premade commercial stock, chicken for meat meals, vegetable for dairy meals.  The soup's character comes from what else is added.  I've made fish soup, I've made Moroccan Harira, minestrone is versatile.  It requires a very big stock pot for chicken soup, the next size down for the others.  And except on Pesach, I serve it in a dedicated tureen for fleishig meals, a white porcelain bowl with matching ladle.  

Salad is sometimes highlighted by the vegetables, sometimes by the dressing.  Israeli salad, cucumber salad are staples.  With Asian dressing it is plain greens.  I have big bowls, metal, porcelain, and glass for fleishig, a wooden salad set obtained on a cruise for milchig.  And always with a dedicated salad fork and spoon set, of which I have a few.

The entree poses my greatest challenge.  I like to be adventuresome but not too adventuresome as this can be difficult to salvage once botched.  As much as I enjoyed Iraqi Tabyit made in a crockpot for myself using a whole chicken, the likelihood of error is too high.  For Thanksgiving and for Seder, reliable and easy is a half-turkey breast, coated with olive oil, then seasoned with whatever suits me that afternoon, placed in the oven about two hours before needed, removed at about 90 minutes, then carved with an electric knife, except on Pesach.  A whole chicken made in the manner of NY Times expert recipe always comes out flawlessly, and offers variations.  This requires a cast iron pan to make part of the chicken sizzle and keep the over very hot.  For chicken parts, I prefer cacciatore, easy to make, and allows me to use rice as the starch and presentation.  And something spicy, either Iraqi or Indian, always makes a good entree.  As much as I once like to make pot roast, the price and availability of suitable hunks of beef have prohibited this.

Kugel is mostly noodle.  I like Hasidic noodle kugel.  Rarely potato for guests.  Always matzoh kugel for Seder.  And sometimes barley kugel.  And for soppy poultry entrees, rice is better.

Vegetables vary largely by season, though I have staples.  Carrots are available, easy, and versatile.  They can be boiled, glazed, or seasoned Moroccan style.  Asparagus come on sale in the spring, so a staple of Seder.  Green beans have a season.  These are usually just boiled.  The bar mitzvah caterers add thinly sliced almonds but I don't.  I've made ratatouille, more trouble than it's worth.  And squash always works well, butternut in the fall which has many preparations, and zucchini or yellow squash in the warm months which is usually best sauteed.

Dessert nearly always requires an oven and some time to cool, so it is typically prepared while the challah is on its first rise.  Pareve can be a challenge.  Honey cake, apple cake, nut tortes, all classics.  While cheesecake and rugelach are also recognizably Jewish, they are dairy.  I've made baklava and strudel, each impressive, though each far more labor intensive due to the filo dough.

So that's what our shabbos guests can anticipate.

I can anticipate two days of washing fleishig dishes.  A stand mixer and two attachments.  Large pots, large bowls, oven worthy pans, a pastry board, a wooden cutting board, and utensils of all types.  Dinner plates, wine glasses, serving plates, kiddush cups.  Two days worth.  And satisfaction for an effort that always has something to show for it.