Spaghetti - My Grandma's Recipe

Passover is over and I need my Chametz!! Mmmm....I can eat bread again and cereal and oatmeal and pizza and pasta!

This is one of the foods that I have been craving all throughout Pesach and that I crave most often in general. I don't mean out of all of my grandma's recipes. I mean out of all foods in the world. I'm not saying that it's my favorite. I love way too many foods to pick a favorite.  It's one of my favorites, but you'll notice I say that about so many of these recipes. When we went away this summer to Chicago and Denver, my mom offered to cook us a meal for dinner the night we flew back. Without hesitation I chose spaghetti. We ate very well on that trip thanks to my mother-in-law's cooking and the two Kosher restaurants in Denver, but I NEEDED spaghetti!!

This is one of those foods that I grew up on. My grandma would make it for us all the time. This is not Syrian spaghetti.  I only ate Syrian spaghetti (which is also delicious) when I would visit my cousin Ida in the summer. My grandma's recipe was her own creation. Now I make it all the time. Sometimes I make it with whole wheat noodles, sometimes with small curly noodles, whatever I have around. It tastes a little different depending on what shape noodle and if using whole wheat, but it is always delicious.

Grandma's Spaghetti

1) 1 pound spaghetti (or pasta of your choice)

2) 2 teaspoons of oil

3) Chicken - 2 legs and 2 thighs

4)1/2 onion

5) 1/2 can of small tomato paste

6) 1 (15 oz.) can of tomato sauce

Put the oil in the pot and add the chicken. Brown the chicken on all sides. Meanwhile, chop the 1/2 onion into small pieces. Take the chicken out of the pot. Put the onion in the pot and brown for 1-2 minutes. Add 1/2 the can of tomato paste. Add the tomato sauce. Fill the empty can of tomato sauce with water 2x and add to pot. Add the chicken back into the pot. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer. Cook for 1.5-2 hours.

When the sauce is almost ready, boil the spaghetti, but leave them hard. Add to the boiling sauce for 10 minutes and then shut the gas. 

Note: The sauce can be made ahead of time and frozen. 

By the way: Back when this blog was still about adding peanut butter and pesto to my grandma's recipes, Sarah and I added both pesto and peanut butter to our spaghetti. Actually, only Sarah tried it because I was pregnant and had a terrible peanut butter aversion. I never ended up publishing these pictures (until today) and then we decided to do away with our experiment, but here's to the good old days:

Sarah loved the addition of pesto to the spaghetti. SUCCESS!

She was not a fan of the spaghetti and peanut butter, however.  FAIL!

 

 

 

 

 

One more thing: What do you think of our blog's new look? We're probably going to still tweak it here and there and we would love any suggestions you might have!

Shurba - Syrian Chichen Soup with Rice

I made Shurba for dinner on Thursday night and again Sunday night. It was the perfect dinner for this cold weather that LA has been experiencing. (We recently were in New York and Chicago and know what REAL cold actually is, but even though it could be A LOT colder, LA still has been cold for LA).

Jimmy Kimmel made me laugh with his bit about LA's overreaction to the cold.

On Thursday I locked my keys in my car and waited in extremely windy weather for my dad to come and rescue me (Thank you so much, dad!) and was so beyond grateful that  by coincidence Shurba was cooking on the stove, waiting for me to come home. I had no idea when I had put up the soup earlier that day how much I would need that soup when I arrived home still shivering from being stuck in the freezing wind for 20ish minutes.

I took pictures of the soup on Thursday and they came out looking disgusting. I could not post those pictures on this blog!! Saturday night I got some sort of bug and was sick until Sunday afternoon. So on Sunday I figured that Shurba once again would be the perfect dinner. Mike offered to make regular chicken soup, but I decided to make Shurba instead so that this time I could try again and take some pictures that might actually look somewhat decent. Okay, they're not masterpieces. But for pictures quickly shot on my smartphone, I think they'll do.

Shurba - Chicken Soup with Rice

On Thursday, I used brown rice. It was delicious with brown rice, just took longer to cook. The second time I made it, on Sunday, I followed the real recipe and used white rice. I also used a much bigger pot and made a bigger recipe the second time because I found that there wasn't enough on Thursday night. Although that was probably due to the fact that when I came home the brown rice still wasn't cooked so I raised the heat (because I was freezing and in desperate need of soup FAST) which probably caused a lot of the water to boil out. Anyway, it is flu season and I am reading articles that say that this is going to be an especially wicked flu season - so keep this recipe around. It will come in handy. Trust me, this is just what the doctor ordered.

Oh, and when I fed it to Katie I used my mother's trick of adding frozen peas to it. The peas cool off the soup and are also my daughter's absolutely favorite vegetable and add more nutrition to the soup. It was a great idea and Katie loved it!

Shurba - Syrian Rice Chicken Soup

1)1 package of bones/necks/or wings (I used wings)

2)2 chicken thighs

3)1 onion

4)1 tablespoon salt

5)1 teaspoon white pepper

6) 3/4 glass of rice

Put the chicken a pot with 5 glasses of water. Skim when it comes to a boil. Add the onion whole, salt, and pepper. Cook on low for approximately 1 hour (or until chicken is cooked). Add the rice and stir. Bring back to a boil and then lower the flame, cover, and cook until thickened (about 20 minutes if you use white rice, 40 minutes if you use brown). Taste and add salt or pepper as needed. 

If you have leftovers you may find that the rice has absorbed a lot of water and it is more rice than soup. Just add more water, heat, and add salt if needed. Or just eat it the next day as a rice dish. 

Banjan (Eggplant)

This meal was made possible because of that extra hour which most people get to sleep through, that extra hour in the morning when we fall back and say goodbye to Daylight Savings Time. My baby woke me up at 5 AM this past Sunday. If it was the previous Sunday it would have been 6 AM, but not that day since we changed the clock. And when you're a mother and your time is not your own and you can never get anything done because your baby makes a 5 second job take 10 hours, then an extra hour in the day can really come in handy (even if you are dead tired).  And so with that extra hour I was able to make this delicious Banjan dish while I was entertaining my baby (or being entertained by my baby) playing together with all of her toys, reading books, dancing to music, showing her the hand movements to The Itsy Bitsy Spider (which makes her laugh and laugh) and teaching her "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" (she kept touching her head). Talk about multi-tasking! It was a really fun morning and eventually at 9 AM (which used to be 10 AM), she fell asleep watching The Barenaked Ladies Video of "Another Postcard." If you've never seen it, you should definitely check it out; It is hysterical!

Chicken and Banjan (eggplant) another one of my favorites!

First put chicken in pan (I used 2 thighs and one chicken breast on the bone) and brown them on both sides.  I used frozen chicken. I tend to stock up on chicken and freeze it because a trip to the market is a pain in the neck now that we moved and no longer live one block from the Kosher market. Believe it or not, this recipe works well with frozen chicken.

Put 2 tablespoons of water in the pan and simmer chicken for 1 hour.

I used 2 eggplants but regretted not making more as I was licking the plate clean during dinner time. As you know, veggies shrink and while it seems like you are making a lot, if you have the time and patience use as many eggplants as you desire! Slice them and spray PAM on them, and cook in oven for about 8 minutes on each side.

When the chicken has simmered for an hour and looks cooked add the eggplant to the pot and try to coat the eggplant with the liquid in the pot. Add allspice and salt.  Now simmer for 30 minutes or longer (the longer, the better).  Check on it often to make sure that there is still liquid, and that the eggplant is not burning.

Warning**This dish is more of a side dish than a main course (depending on how much chicken you use of course!)

Banjan

1) 2 (or more) eggplants 

2) 4 pieces of chicken pieces

3)1 teaspoon of allspice

4)1/2 teaspoon of salt

4)1 teaspoon of oil

In a pot, brown the pieces of chicken on both sides in the teaspoon of oil. Add 2 tablespoons of water and simmer for an hour or until chicken is cooked.

Meanwhile slice the eggplants and place them on a tray. Spray with PAM and cook in oven on 350 degrees for 8 minutes on each side.

When the chicken has cooked, add the cooked eggplant to the chicken. Season with the allspice and salt and mix the liquid that is in the pot with the eggplant. Simmer for another half hour. If you have the time you can simmer it for even longer, just make sure to keep checking on it to make sure that it isn't burning.

Bizeh Peanut Butter Makeover

I can't believe it. I just came to post a new blog and noticed that I still haven't posted the Peanut Butter Bizeh yet. Oops. Well here it is.
I mentioned that the real Syrian recipe is made with meatballs, but that my grandmother always made it with chicken. So I figured that for this one I would make it the "authentic" way with meatballs, if you consider peanut butter meatballs authentic.
The result: Success!!
I actually didn't taste it. I wasn't feeling well so I fed it to Mike. When he took his first bite he didn't like it. But as he kept eating it he decided that he actually liked it. He ate the leftovers the next day for lunch and told me that he loved it!! I said, "Really! The peanut butter was good with the peas?" He said, "Peanut butter? Oh yeah. I forgot there was peanut butter in the meatballs." Hmmm.... And since I didn't taste it I can't say whether he is crazy for not noticing the peanut butter or if it really didn't make a difference. Either way, he loved it!!

Peanut Butter Meatballs and Bizeh

1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 pound ground beef (I used chicken)
2 tablespoons chili sauce
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 teaspoon salt, and 1 more teaspoon of salt
pepper to taste
1 egg
1.5 tablespoons oil
1 bag of frozen peas (16 ounces)
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1.5 cups water

Mix peanut butter with ground meat, onion, chili sauce, salt, pepper, and egg.

Form into small meatballs.
In a medium pot, saute the meatballs in the vegetable oil over medium heat for 5 minutes, or until brown.

Add the peas, allspice, salt and water. Cook, covered, over low heat for 1 hour or longer, until most of the water is gone and the peas are brown.

Bizeh Pesto Makeover

When Naomi came over for dinner, we decided to make bizeh with pesto. All I did was add a few scoops of basic pesto to the bizeh, so the dish wasn't completely changed, just a bit different. I really liked how the pesto gave it great flavor, but didn't overpower the delicious peas. So, with Naomi, my mom and dad, and myself all being judges, the Result: Success.

For people trying out bizeh for the first time, I wouldn't recommend adding the pesto. Because the regular peas with chicken is so yummy and has great flavor, I felt the pesto was an unnecessary change. That isn't to say that I didn't love the new bizeh, only that I would prefer it without the pesto.

Pesto and Bizeh Recipe:

The Bizeh recipe with 3 tablespoons of pesto mixed in.

You see the big clump of pesto on top? I mixed it in and then continued to cook the peas until they were toasty.

Bizeh

One of my favorite recipes!! Bizeh means peas and this is the way my grandma would make them. The recipe you would find in Syrian cookbooks is usually made with meatballs, but my grandma would make it with chicken. Personally, I like it better with chicken. I made this for a meal once and one of my friends couldn't stop raving about it even though he claims he's never liked peas. So, even if you think you're a pea hater, give this recipe a try!

Bizeh with Chicken

2 chicken legs and thighs
1 tablespoon of olive oil 
1 16 oz bag of peas
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon ground all spice
salt & pepper to taste

1)Brown the chicken on both sides in olive oil
2)Add 2 tablespoons of water
3)Put on lowest flame and simmer for 1and a half hours (check on it so it doesn't burn)
4)Add package of peas, all spice, salt and pepper and shake the pot so the oil from the bottom gets all over the peas.
5)Cook for an hour (Check 1/2 hour to make sure it doesn't burn. It is done when the peas are brown and toasty.)

Unfortunately, I never took a picture of the way the bizeh looks when it's all nice and toasty and ready to eat. When it looks like the picture above it is not ready yet. Keep cooking. You don't want it to be burnt, but you want the peas to be brown and caramelized.