Ready For Easter Brunch

One of the most fun and delicious traditions is Easter brunch.It's a great way for family and friends to gather.Yet it does require a lot. The key is to be ready and well stocked for it.

One of the most important things to dois make a list of who is coming along with their likes and dislikes.If you have vegans coming remember to buy products like Morningstar Farms soy bacon and Just Egg egg substitute. Keep in mind that this last can also be used in baking. Also take into consideration kid's allergies. Keep the brunch free of nuts along with products that were processed where there were nuts.Gluten free is easy to get and create. There aremany gluten free flours so you can make everything from waffles to cupcakes .Once you have your list , ask yourself if the weather is nice enough for outdoor dining. You could set up tables and folding chairs set in various spits in the backyard or just have one set table. THis is also time to air out the good Spring linen tablecloth and napkins for indoor dining. Should there be a kid's table? Yes, They'll be a noisy , excited crowd after an Easter egg hunt fueled by chocolate eggs  Have fun favors you can get at your local dollar store or FIve Below or small cupcake liners filled with a Peep and jelly beans.

As for the food, you can easily ge tthe ham now along with any of the canned sides.Canned pineapple is a must have in many an Easter dinner so get it now before the stores sell out. Do you want to have an omelet bar? Try to buy eggs in the next few days, despite everyone using them for dying. Wal-mart has a good deal with eighteen eggs for only $3,13. You could get two containers with saving some for decoration.If you're planning on making egg cups make sure you have the right muffin pans for them. You  may have to buy a second one to accomodate a large crowd.If it's a true brunch , then it 's time to check your griddle to make sure it's working. the same thing for your waffle maker.That brings up the question do you have enough flour or Bisquick for waffles and pancakes? As for dessert , do you let guests bring their own creations or do you bake for the enire crowd? Now is the  time to buy the cake mixes , Dream Whip if you're making a lamb cake and confectioner's sugar for frosting. Also now is the time for buying the extras for baking like coconut and marashmallow for grass and bunny tails. Make sure your food coloring is usable and you have enough.

Easter brunch is a great way to celebrate the holiday. Make sure you're ready for it.Preparedness will go a long way in making a memeorable meal.

Matzoh Savory and Sweet

 Matzoh is one of those Passover essentials that can be used in a variety of different ways.It is a bread substitute as well as a flour one. It can be used for both savory and sweet recipes, all adding to the seder.

Matzoh is eaten during the entire Passover  and can be served soft like pita or crispy like crackers It has to be made from one of the five ancient grains, wheat, spelt barley rye or oat. Some sephardic communitiies allow it to be made with eggs ot fruit juice.it not only symbolizes redemtion and freedom but also humbleness , being called poor man's bread. It also commemorates when the Jews had to flee Egypt  and couldn't wait for their bread to rise. it can be used in all sorts of recipes. One of the most traditional is matzoh brei, an egg and matzo combination.This makes for a good breakfast or even a light lunch.It's  a mix of crumbled sheets of crumbled matzohs , caramelized onions and eggs. You can add chives if you want for more color or flavor. Of course there is matzoh ball soup, These are made with matzoh meal, eggs , chicken stock and schmaltz or chicken fat. If the last is too fatty for you then use kosher vegetable oil.  The're shaped into ping pong ball sized rounds and thne dropped into lightlly salted water to cook. They're then transferred to chicken broth for a satisfying light dinner.

Matzoh can do double duty as a base for sweet recipes. Keep in mind that matzoh brei can also be made sweet.It's still the same egg and crumbled matzoh base but orange water and a pinch of sugar are added.It's cooked in butter and served garnished with cinnamon and powdered sugar. Kosher apple sauce or jam can also be served with it.Matzoh is becoming popular in holiday candies. There is the famed matzoh crack which is homemade butter toffee evenly spread over four sheets Dark chocolate chips are scattered on top to melt over the hot toffee. Use a spatula to spread the chocolate over the sheets and top with chopped pecans and sea salt. Place the entire pan in the fridge to set and chill for forty-five minutes. Cut into squares and serve.Surprisingly enough matzoh can be turned into an ice box cake. Layers of matzoh are interspersed with vanilla or chocolate pudding mixed with Cool Whip. It's topped with a mocha ganache icing and then chilled.It can even be turned  into tiramisu . Soak the matzohs in a good strong brew and layer with a chocolate creme. Top with a chocolate ganache and sprinkle with espresso.

Matzoh can be in both savory and sweet dishes Try it as a savory lunch or a delicious dessert. It's versatile anyway you use it.

Vegan For Holy Week

 Tomorrow is Palm Sunday, the beginning of the Christian Holy week. Some fast while ohers just observe Good Friday. However if you want to observe but not fast so muc then think about going vegan for a week.It's an easy practice for avoiding meat and other indulgences.

Home chefs can take a page from the Greak Orthodox. They forgo all meat , dairy and egg for their Lenten period which started on February 27th. Their's is a  strictly vegan until  their Easter Sunday which is a week after ours. it is an easy to do thanks to all the vegan products that have exploded on the market in the last few years. You can easily make both red and white chili using soy crumbles or plant based chicken strips.The crumbles cna be used to make a vegetarian Bolognese too, perfect with penne or spaghetti. Kids will love the chiocken nuggets that both Gardein and Morningstar Farsm sell. You may want to try the last's Veggetizers, small fun bites in such flavors as pizza and popcorn chicken for a quick weeknight meal.  Tey also have plant based taquito bites chorizo nacho bites and buffalo chicken wings.Their bacon is excellent , especially when served with Just Egg's egg substitute. This last is perfect for scrambles  and makes for a good breakfast or even breakfast for dinner. It can even be used in baking too.

Holy Week is also a good time to forgo dairy too. Again this is easy thanks to all the plant based milks out there. There are even chocolate versions sold in handy boxes with straws.Keep in mind that oat milk has the highest calories with 120 a cup. You may want to try almond or soy milk for lesser calories. What about ice cream, whipped cream and cheese.Again there are so many to choose from thanks to people going vegan. even Ben and Jerry have their own line featuring some of the best loved flavors like mint chocolate cookie and Colin Kaepernick's Change The Whirled. That ice cream giant Breyer's also sells  non dairy version of their most popular flavors. You can make your own using coconut milk maple syrup or cane sugar and vanilla extract. It will have a coconut taste but you can off set this with fruit juice to create a sorbet or  chocolate bits. THere is also vegan whipped cream thanks to Reddi Whip  producing both a coconut and almond version of their original. as for cheese, try Chao's . Theyy have both sliced  and shredded that are perfect for grilled cheese or in salads.

You can do some fasting for Holy Week by forgoing meat, dairy and eggs. It's easy nowadays, thanks to all the different products. You may continue it even after Easter.

Relying On Tradition

 The holidays teach us one thing - to rely on tradition.It's what guides us through celebrations and holy days. This also includes time homored recipes used in many an Easter or Passover meal.

This was on my mind as I bought spaetzle and risotto at Aldi's today. It's a Swabian German custom to have noodles and eggs on Good Friday, one of the holiest and most somber days of the Christian calendar. I'm taking a family tradition and updating it by subbing in the spaeztle for egg noodles. (although I suspect the original dish used them.) It's served with a side of sliced peaches as all German dishes have some kind of fruit incorporated in the dish.As for Easter it's a new tradition of risotto and fresh asparagus This replaces the old one of again the Swabian influenced ham served with beans and potato salad. I've made this every year for the past few years. Yes, I'll bake the Easter lamb cake  , following in my Mom's step. I'll mix in the Dream Whip  as she did for a denser, richer cake, but add my own spins. There willbe Just Egg instead of real eggs, almond milk instead of cow's. The icing will have vegetable shortening like hers in it to give it the perfect texture for the crumb coat and rosettes.I may give it a dash of either lemon or grapefruit juice just to zing it up.

Others are also relying on family recipes. Many will be observing Passover starting April 5th. There will be variations on moms' and grandmothers' brisket recipes.  Home chefs may add cayenne pepper for some spike and heat.Others will try a brown sugar rub that gives the surface a crackly crust.. Tzimmes, the carrot and stewed prune side dish is always served  but the family recipe will get some new ingredients.It could be lemon or lime juice to cut all that sweetness or maybe star anise .Kugel that Passover staple may be savory on a few tables this year.It's suually a sweet dish but there are several savory ones that feature spinach and mushrooms. Easter is usually ham or lamb. A few home chefs are eager to try Eric Kim's pineapple ham featured in Wednesday's New York Times Food section. This is like a retro dish from the Fifties, complete with golden pineapple rings. The glaze is made with Dijon mustard ,brown sugar and fresh juice from both pineapples and lemons. Some may use their granny's recipe and add a ginger ale based glaze on it. as for th elamb, it's usually baked with rosemary sprigs.and fresh lemon juice. There will be updating with an olive oil rub or the addition of red wine vinegar.

Tradition guides us.it guides our cooking.It gives the template for traditionak dishes that can be given new spins and updates.

Remembering With Comfort Food

 How do we honor our relatives long gone?At this time of the year Christians places palm crosses on their graves for Palm Sunday. The Chinese have another tradition for a Spring holy day that honors family.Quingming or Tomb Sweeping Day is when food and family entwine.

Regular contributor and author of Made In Taiwan (Simon Element Publishing) Clarissa Wei wrote about this vry ancient holday day in yesterday's New York Times Food section. Quingming or Tomb sweeping day goes back 2,500 years as a  Chinese folk practice.It's very similar to the Mexican tradition of Dios de Muertos or Day  of the Dead on November 1st. It's celebrated on April 5th this year and followed by those of Chinese origin throughout the world. However the actual act of sweeping tombs is becoming obsolete thanks to tombs being phased out. Goverments across Eastern and southeastern asia have phased these opts pusing for creamtion instead there are columbarium, structures that can store thousands of cremation urns. Even though these structures are cleaned regularly , families still leave offering of flowers, fruit and homemade dishes. Years ago families would bring a whole roasted suckling pig to the cemetery to first offer to the ancestors and then feed themselves. Now it's much smaller offering with simple pots or plates of food. Some even leave fast food which is frowned upon because the ancestors would not like it. The sprits would be tortured according to Nancy Fam, a Malaysian Chinese.

Ms. Wei offers different recipes gathered from various families. She has sweet and sour fish from Gemma Lin. This is striped sea bass is wok fried after being marinaded in rice wine and stuffed with scallions and ginger.It's served with a zingy tomato paste sauce that also has white vinegar , soy sauce and ones birds eye chile Yellow bell peppers and cucumbers are also added.  Cherry Tang  whose uncles brought suckling pig to their ancestors' tomb has siu yuk or crispy pork belly .This is an eleaborate dish that does take two days to create. It's first boiling the cut in a mix of water, Shaoxing wine , scallions, star anise and ginger along with white peppercorns. This is left to simmer for an hour and then left to cool afterwards. The pork belly sis then rubbed with five spice powder, grown ginger and ground white pepper. This is left to sit in the fridge for eighteen hours and then roasted in tin foil in a 450 degree Farenheit.Nancy Lam gives us chicken rice with shallot sauce.This is boiling a whole chicken in a blend of ginger, scallions and water for twenty five minutes. Reserve a tablespoon of the broth . Put the chicken in a large ice bath and then prepare the sauce. This  is a mix of shallots, jalapenos, ground bean sauce and sugar. Lime juice is added for some punch. The chicken is slcied and served over rice with the sauce.

There are many ways to honor relatives long gone. Tomb sweeping day is one of those, families honor those who came before them with good food and honor.

Reshaping The Croissant

 Nothing beats a good croissant.There's something about those layers of crackly buttery goodness and chewy melt in your mouth middle. Yet there are patisserie bakers and innovators who want to reinvent this French classic. Will these be the new cronut? There's the question.

Regular contributor Julia Moskin wrote about this in today's New York Times Food section .As she has pointed out it's been ten years since thebirth of Dominic Ansel's cronut, that strange tasty hybrid of jelly doughnut and croissant. What's happening now with this elegant bread? Surprisingly a lot. At Lysee; in New York's trendy Flatiron section baker fills croissant spirals with hazelnut chocolate ganache and then packs them in round cake pan. They''re baked in around cake pan and when cooled torn off like pull apart rolls. Celebated French pastry chef Cedric Grolet nestled  dozens of tiny croissants in a frangipane or almond cream lined tart crust for an Epiphany cake. Then there is Amadou Ly who created the interesting hybrid the laminated baguette. This is taking baguette dough and wrapping it in a thin layer of croissant dough around it. The result is almost like having a thin layer of salted butter on the bread. Chef Ly  is a master in lamination , also creating  twists of dough painted with chocolate ganache to create a kind of inside otu babka. There is even croissant cereal, made by Gautier Croissard at his Apartemente 4 in Brooklyn Heights.

The croissant is nothing new. According to Ms. Moskin the Chinese have subing, while the Balkans have their phyllo dough,North African msemen, South asian roti paratha and Eastern European strudel. An Austrian chef brought the recipe to Paris where butter rich pastries were de rigeur for centuries.Its' ancestry comes from defeat over the Ottoman Empire taking over Vienna or Budspest around the mid 1680's. The bakers were the ones who sounded the alarm against the Turks and asked only that they create a bread, the kipferl to celebrate the Turk's defeat. The standard recipe is flour, yeast butter and milk. The mark of a good croissant baker is based on the shaping.Clean cut  and sharp likes are the test of a good baker. A croissant should be tightly rolled anf golden brown all over.Pale patches and puffiness are often signs of the pastry being made with hydrogenated fats instead of butter. The exterior should be crackly enough to break into shards.Beyond that anything is up for grabs. They can be stuffed with chocolate ,jam or almond paste. kate Reid  of Lune Croissanterie in Melbourne Australia fills her with such interesting combinations like pastami and sauerkraut , chocolate and peanut butter and Vegemite and cheese.

Will the croissant be reinvented again. The answer is yes. It's a blank canvas for so many creative bakers that a different kind will be coming soon.

Your Spring Baking Musts

 Spring gives us a busy baking season, almost as busy as winter. There are the holidays, Easter , Orthodox Easter Passover and Ramadan along with all sorts of showers and college  graduations. Are you ready for the baking that comes with them.

Of course ingredients should be at the ready. There should be flour for the Easter and Orthodox Easter cakes and breads. You should be stocking up on confectioners sugar for icings.As the holidays progress think about bargain shopping for eggs (still expensive) along with deals on butter and cake mixes.It's also time to get those pastel gel icings if you don't already have them. Once the ingredients are taken care of then its time to look at your molds. Thsi also includes candy and cake pop molds too. Most cake molds last decades if they're made from good aluminum or even steel. If you're a neophyte when it comes to baking lamb and egg cakes now is the time to buy the molds. You can get a cute bunny cake mold at your local Wal-Mart for under seven dollars. Michael's has the silicone molds for cookies as well as Easter themed  cupcake papers. Buy these now instead of waiting for next week. if you're planning on making a lamb cake for the frst time then head to Amazon.  They have the Wilton one for $24.00 and you can have it sent overnight. Also get ready for candy and cake pop making. Make sure you have plenty of sugar along with lollipop sticks and decoarations.

It's shower and graduation season once the holidays are over and done. D o you have large baking pans for sheet cakes along with the tiered ones for showers and smaller weddings? If not you may want to invest in RAQK one hundred pieces cake pan set plus decorating supplies. This is a must have have for any home baker planning on supplying the cake for any shower. It comes with a large, medium and small sized springform cake pans along with icing nozzles , a cake leveler to create more layers and three scrapers to create fancy sides on the cake. It's a great buy on Amazon for $23.99. Of course showers and some grad parties also have smaller cakes for easy nibbling. Do you have enough cupcake pans for a crowd of fifty or sixty ? It pays to buy another tin  which can also be used for muffins if you're planning on a brunch shower.  Check your supply of pie tins for baking that shower staple quiche ,Most showers usually have three different versions so it pays to have a few sturdy tins. These can be used later on to create ice box  pies or ice cream filled ones. Do you also plan on baking petit fours for shower teas.If not you can buy one or two now and try practice baking with them.

Be ready for Spring baking. Make sure you have the right ingredients and the correct molds. doign this will make holiday and baking for all t hose patrties a snap.