Babbo Modenese Crumbly Cake

This cake is amazing, and amazingly simple to make. It’s buttery, nutty, and… crumbly, of course. Perfect with a nice cup of coffee, tea, or a glass of sweet wine. The recipe was created back in 1999, when Babbo restaurant was still in its infancy. It became an instant hit and an all-time favorite. The recipe in the book suggests pairing the cake with a sweet and peppery ricotta cream, as well as figs cooked with honey and sweet wine – doesn’t this sound just out of this world?! The cake is so delicious on its own that you can serve it as is or with some seasonal fruits. What can I add to this besides say – you got to try it!

Another winner recipe from Mario Batali and his pastry chef, Gina DePalma, from his Babbo cookbook which I highly recommend you add to your cookbook selections. Lots of terrific recipes! And easy ones too, even though they are recipes from a restaurant.

Modenese Crumbly Cake

By Gina DePalma, Pastry Chef
For 9 -inch springform pan

Ingredients:

For the Streusel:
½ cup pine nuts
2 tablespoons light brown sugar, packed
¼ cup granulated sugar
¾ cup unbleached, all-purpose flour
¼ cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

For the cake:
¾ cup pine nuts
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup semolina flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ cup light brown sugar, packed
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
¾ cup (1 ½ stick) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes
3 eggs
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract


1. To make the streusel: Combine the pine nuts, sugars, and flour and pulse to combine. Add the melted butter and pulse until the mixture is combined and forms pea-size crumbs. Set aside.

2. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Spray a 9 -inch springform pan with nonstick cooking spray.

3. Spread the ¾ cup of pine nuts evenly onto a baking sheet and toast in the oven until light golden brown, approximately 10 minutes. When the pine nuts have cooled, place them in the bowl of a food processor along with the flour, salt, semolina, baking powder, light brown sugar and half cup of the granulated sugar and pulse to combine. Add the cold butter cubes and pulse until the butter has dispersed and the mixture is finely textured.

4. In a small bowl, combine the eggs, olive oil, lemon zest, and vanilla. Add this mixture to the pine nut mixture and pulse to combine, then process for about 30 seconds to completely emulsify the batter. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan and sprinkle evenly with the streusel.

5. Bake the cake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until it is golden brown and cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean ( I find that I need to bake it 50-60 minutes – N.). Cool for 10 minutes, then remove the sides of the pan and allow the cake to cool completely.

The recipe for Sweet Black Pepper Ricotta is here.


Have a wonderful and crumbly, ehhh... cozy weekend!
Nurit

UPDATE: My mother-in-law, Anka, baked the cake. Here is the photo they took. She says it smelled so good, they ate it right out of the oven.

More cakes for the weekend:

Apple, Cinnamon and Walnuts Cake
Black Forest Chocolate Roulade
Bread Pudding with Spiced Rum Sauce

Kitchen superstar Wolfgang Puck shares his secrets

I’ve been posting a lot about kids and food lately, getting your kids in the kitchen, how-to for cooking or baking with your kids, cooking gifts for kids, etc etc.

It’s time to start posting recipes again. I know this is really what you are looking for, right?! I see on the polls’ results so far that most replies are from readers who like to cook and cook often. Please vote your voice on the right side column. There ->>

I saw this article “Kitchen superstar Wolfgang Puck shares his secrets for introducing new tastes to your kids” on Parent & Child magazine, and Wolfgang Puck is one of my favorite chefs, so if you're interested, click here to read more.

A summary:

Encourage your kids to imitate you.
... Trying to force your children to eat a food typically results in bad feelings, making mealtime a chore and a battle. Instead, allow your kids to become curious about foods and develop their own interests. Let them wonder why you like something and then taste it to find out.

Make one dinner for everyone.
“One of the most important things you can do is avoid making separate meals for children and adults,” Puck advises. If you raise a child to think that there are special foods for kids (like macaroni and cheese or chicken fingers), they’ll believe that, and chances are they won’t be as willing to try anything else.

Offer variety, the spice of life.
From the very beginning, expose your little ones to as many flavors as you can, a little bit at a time.

Share the excitement of food.
Invite your children to help you cook—it’s an honor and a great learning experience. Eating out every once in a while, when your budget allows, can also be a wonderful way to get kids excited about new foods, if you do it right. Go on the early side before kids get tired and the restaurants get busy. Choose a family-friendly (I love that he uses this term and not “kid friendly” – N.) place … “It’s also important to eat together at home regularly before taking children out to restaurants,” Puck advises. “You can’t expect them to know how to behave at a table if they’ve never done it before.”

Teach children about what’s on their plate.
Take your kids to a grocery store, farm, cheese shop, bakery, or farmers’ market, so they can see where their food comes from and what it looks like before it lands on the table... Kids will love exploring the enchanting collection of shapes and colors. Teach them how to tell when a fruit is ripe or which bumps and bruises to avoid. When they feel like little experts, they’ll be more willing to eat what they helped you choose.

Previous posts from me about this topic:
Kids menu – Is it good for them? Is it good for you?
Stuffed peppers – a picky eater's nightmare?
Encourage good eating
U-pick farms
NY Times: Picky Eaters? They Get It From You
Kid-friendly tips
Backyard Vegetable Garden

New recipes coming soon!

Nurit

Gingerbread houses at the Sheraton, Downtown Seattle

If you are looking for something fun to do for the holidays, go see the Gingerbread Village at the Sheraton Seattle Hotel. Local architects and chefs from the Sheraton Seattle team up to design, bake, and build gingerbread houses and creations with a superhero holiday theme.

Time: Mon-Thu, Sat 10am-6pm; Fri 10am-7pm; Sun 11am-5pm. Ongoing Daily 11/25/08 - 1/4/09; check with location for exceptions.

Cost: Free, with a suggested donation to JDRF Northwest raises critical funds for type 1 diabetes research and education at our special events in Washington and Montana throughout the year.

Sheraton Seattle Hotel

(Sixth and Union)
1400 Sixth Avenue

Seattle, WA 98101

More holiday “stuff”:

Holiday Gift Ideas for Kids Who Cook
Cooking with Kids: “Feast Lesson”
Cookies
Kids menu – Is it good for them? Is it good for you?

What fun holiday attractions do you have where you live?

Enjoy Your Fat

“Enjoy your fat” and “Enjoy your meat on the bone” are the dedications Jennifer McLagan wrote for me in my copies of her cookbooks “Fat” and “Bones. And I say “Halleluyah” and of course I am also Very Happy about my two new cookbooks. However, I do need to buy a new bookcase. And by the way, this weekend’s cake is being baked in the oven right now. It is Apple, Cinnamon and Walnuts Cake from “The Book of New Israeli Food” and the aroma is driving me crazy. Oh, boy. And now back to “Fat”.

Photo copied from Kim Ricketts Book Events web site

So last night, at a beautiful loft on Capitol Hill, at a books event, we saw and heard Jennifer McLagan. Jennifer is a chef/food writer and the author of the James Beard award winning book, Bones, who came to town to share with us her new book, Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, with Recipes. This awesome event was a collaboration of Kim Ricketts Book Events, Michael Hebb from One Pot, and Caffe Vita. We had a lot of fun and I can’t wait until they do their next books event. I highly recommend that you participate in it too.

With all the wine we drank, the dim lights, and the background music I’m not sure I captured all the right details, so I do apologize in advance for any error I make. And do correct me if you were there in a more clear-headed condition and know better.

We sat next to Tess and Ryan and across from Nicky and Chad. Tess, as it turned out, reads my blog and even cooked some of the recipes. That was a very cool experience for me as this was the first time I met someone who reads my blog who, until yesterday, was a complete stranger (unlike relatives, friends, or parents from my kids schools who read my blog). We had a great time talking with them about food, wine, and all kinds of other good stuff.

For dinner, we had:
Duck Rillettes (juicy shreds of meat held together by fat)
Dandelion Salad with Hot Bacon Dressing
Roasted Marrow Bones
and, Cassoulet

Not need to say it was heavenly.

For dessert we had amazing, and I can’t stress the word “amazing” enough to describe the wonderful Chocolate Truffles from Theo chocolate, made by Chad. The flavors: ginger, burnt sugar, and figs and fennel. Divine. I can’t choose which one was my favorite. I liked them all. A lot.
To end the meal, we had freshly brewed coffee by Caffé Vita.

What can I say? You want to be there at their next event.
I do.

Fresh Wild Pacific Northwest Salmon

Hey, I just realized that this blog exists for almost 4 months and I still haven’t given you a single salmon recipe! How could that be?

Salmon are now “in season”. Meaning, they are swimming back to their home here at the local lakes, rivers, streams, and creeks. We went to see them during Issaquah Salmon Days Festival 2008. The salmon were dying while we were dining and having fun. What a life.

The first time I saw the salmon return from their exhausting journey at sea, to swim against the current, spawn in Issaquah Creek, and then die, was about 8 years ago. I thought that salmon have such a tragic life, and what a magnificent fish it is. I vowed to never ever eat salmon again. But they are just too good to say “No” to.

So anyway, it is time for a salmon recipe, and what better recipe to give you than by a local celebrity chef, who appeared on Iron Chef America and won against the legendary and almost invincible Iron Chef Japanese, Masaharu Morimoto? Do you know who I am talking about? Of course, it’s Tom Douglas.

This recipe is adapted from his cookbook Tom's Big Dinners by Tom Douglas

Salmon with sweet fennel butter
Makes 4 servings

1 ½ - 2 lb. salmon fillets, cut to 4 portions
½ stick unsalted butter, softened/room temp.
1 teaspoon fresh fennel fronds (or dill), chopped
½ tablespoon orange juice
½ teaspoon orange zest
½ teaspoon honey
Salt and ground pepper

Reheat broiler and place the oven rack about 7 inches from the heat element (or broil in a toaster oven).
Season salmon with salt, fresh ground black pepper, and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil on both sides.
Mash all the other ingredients together in a bowl to make the flavored butter.
Cook salmon under the broiler about 7-10 minutes until nicely browned on top.
Serve each fillet with a tablespoon of flavored butter.

Side dishes: I’m considering zucchini pancakes, roasted potatoes with whole grain mustard, and/or roasted fennel. Will see how it goes...

Enjoy your salmon,
Nurit

Tuesday, 8 PM:
I ended up making the Zucchini Pancakes and mustard roasted potatoes for side dishes from the “Barefoot Contessa At Home Everyday Recipes You'Ll Make Over And Over Again” cookbook.

Very delicious!

Thanksgiving-y Chicken Dinner

Our friends, the M. family, cook chicken every Friday. What a great idea! I used to drive myself crazy thinking what to cook for dinner every Friday. We like to have a nice dinner to celebrate the end of the week and beginning of the weekend. So, I embraced their idea and was looking for a recipe with home-style feel that will warm the heart and soul with seasonal spices and down to earth ingredients.

Dinner tonight was inspired by a recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks “Nightly Specials” by Michael Lomonaco. I cook from this book very often for the reason that it has many wonderful recipes like: Philly cheese steak; Roasted corn chowder with shrimp and tarragon; Beef and porter stew; Moroccan lamb stew; Alpine baked pasta; Coconut-scented basmati rice; Paella with chicken and sausage; Toasted barley and butternut squash; Pan-roasted halibut with asparagus, fava beans, and thyme broth; Floribbean-style tilefish pan-fried with limes, chiles, tomatoes, and avocado; Steamed bass with lemongrass and chile-coconut broth; Bitter greens and honey almonds… The list goes on and on, you got the picture.

I’ll just mention that the book has a recipe for the best French fries ever! And a very nice Flourless chocolate cake.
Anyway… let’s move on.

There is a recipe in the book for “Braised chicken with butternut squash, walnuts and sage” that I wanted to make. But I made so many changes in it that I think I can call it my own by now. I decreased the amount of spices to give the chicken a milder flavor than the usual Thanksgiving-y robust cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg combination so typical to recipes for the holiday season. And of course, like always, I made a few shortcuts, and added more vegetables. The result was terrific.

Thanksgiving-y chicken
Makes 4-6 servings

1 onion, medium diced
4 carrots, peeled and cut to large pieces
½ butternut squash, peeled, seeded and diced large
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and diced large
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon cloves
½ teaspoon ground ginger
Salt and ground black pepper
4 tablespoons olive oil
4 whole chicken legs, divided to thighs and drumsticks
2 tablespoon butter, cut to small pieces
Sage for garnish, optional

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a big pan, toss the vegetables with salt, pepper, the spices, and olive oil.
Generously sprinkle chicken on both sides with salt, black pepper, and olive oil. Add to the pan with veggies and mix so chicken gets some of the spices on it. Arrange nicely in the pan, chicken skin side up. Spread butter on top.

Roast for 50-60 minutes until nicely browned and skin is crispy. (If you like the meat falling off the bone, after 60 minutes of cooking time, reduce the temperature to 350 and roast for another 20-30 minutes.)
Add sage for garnish before serving.

Have a wonderful dinner.
Nurit

More dinner ideas:

A simple yet delicious fall stew

Grilling in the rain

Weekly meal plan - October 14th

Work & Cook: How to cook a dinner party for 6+5+2 on a conference day?

A cake for the weekend: Amazing strawberry shortcake

I have already mentioned that fall is here and winter is coming soon, right?! (Sorry about that). (Like you didn’t know…). The side effect of the weather change is that strawberries are going to disappear from the markets and stores pretty soon. Peaches and nectarines are already gone. So, a minute before they vanish until next summer, I had to have strawberry shortcake.

I’ve seen strawberry shortcakes at some festivals and fairs during summer (even at the Strawberry festival in Bellevue), but to my big disappointment, they make them with fake whipped cream, non-organic strawberries and yucky biscuits. All frustrated, I have made it once at home but the shortcake recipe was just OK. So today I thought: “Nancy Silverton will not disappoint me” and turned to her cookbook “Desserts”.

Before I continue, I must note that most of the people I know never made real whipped cream at home! Some never tried, some gave it up , and some try to substitute with that fake whipped cream in the can with the spray top, or whatever it is called, with all the bad stuff in it (words no one knows what they mean under “ingredients”) to save time/effort.

Now is a time for a little story. It’s very personal, though.
Back when I was in high school I was addicted to… strawberries and whipped cream. We had a hand mixer at home but my mom never bought real fresh heavy cream. We had POWDERED cream in a box. Hmmm… never mind. I used to whip it with a hand mixer. Then one day the electricity was out and I had to have my daily shot of cream! So, very resourceful me, I took a jar with a lid and shook the hell out of it.

Lesson of the story: if you are afraid to whip some real cream at least once in your life, or won’t invest in a mixer, not even a hand mixer, try the jar trick. It's not the real deal but will be so much better than any powdered of fake liquid cream. I promise.

Making cream is very very easy. Instructions below.
If you still don’t feel like giving it a try, don’t be sad, you can still enjoy the amazing strawberry shortcake using sour cream or crème fraiche

Tips for making home-made whipped cream:
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1-2 tablespoons sugar

Whisk the cream with mixer or a whisk (or jar) until it looks like this.

Now you need to start watching it closely because it’s going to be ready any second.
And that’s it!

I tried the recipe with sour cream. It tastes good.

But nothing triumphs real heavy cream. So I made it again and tasted it.

Sometimes I hate my job. Oh, wait, this is not my job. I’m blogging for free, ha ha ha.

Amazing strawberry shortcake

Adapted from Nancy Silverton “Desserts” cookbook

Makes 8 servings

Shortcake biscuits:

2 ¾ cups flour
2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, diced
1 cup heavy cream + 1 tablespoon for brushing the dough

The filling:
3-4 cups strawberries, sliced/diced mixed with 2 teaspoons sugar
1 cup raspberries, optional
1 cup heavy cream (or substitute crème fraiche/sour cream) whipped with 1-2 tablespoons sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Adjust oven rack in the middle of oven. Line baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt into a bowl of a standing mixer (I think a food processor will work too, but I haven’t tried it). Add butter and mix on low speed, using the paddle attachment, for 5-10 minutes, until the mixture is the consistency of a fine meal, and pale yellow in color. Pour in the cream and mix until the mixture just comes together in one mass.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently 3-4 times until it forms a smooth ball. Don’t overwork it.
Now here comes a major shortcut I took instead of rolling and re-rolling the dough:
Divide the dough into 8 equal parts. With your hands shape them to small discs, like a thick cookie shape. The biscuits expand but don’t rise much when baked.

The biscuits can be formed and refrigerated up to 2 hours before baking.

Before baking, brush the biscuits tops lightly with heavy cream and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until they are golden brown.


For strawberry sauce – optional:
Take half of the strawberries and mash with a fork, or process in a food processor.

Assembling the shortcakes:
Cut biscuits lengthwise carefully.
Spoon whipped cream/sour cream/crème fraiche.
Top with strawberries and/or strawberry sauce.


Have a summery and sweet weekend.
Nurit

More cakes:
Cake for the weekend: Black Forest Chocolate Roulade
Cocoa-Marzipan Pound Cake
Rose-orange cheesecake
Sour Cream Coffee Cake
Crostata with Summer Fruit
Blueberry crumb cake

jamie’s dinners by Jamie Oliver

(The photo is copied from Jamie Oliver's web site and apears in his cookbook).

My friend T. brought me this cookbook for my birthday. I cooked Oliver’s recipes in the past and didn’t go crazy for them because of their simplicity – they don’t call him The Naked Chef for nothing (no, he doesn’t cook naked). Back then I was into more French style cooking, very elaborate, many steps, the more complicated the better, etc.

I changed my style of cooking after realizing two things: 1) I cook for hours and the food is gone in 20 minutes, and 2) I spend hours in the kitchen instead of spending time with my precious husband and kids. So I have done some serious rethinking. Then I started watching Jamie Oliver’s and Ina Garten’s shows on the Food Network channel and learned how I can prepare fabulous meals in no time.

It was a very helpful lesson as a personal chef too. Cooking in other people’s home the way I did before I would have had to move in with them. Not sure they would have liked that so much.

So this book is right kind of book for me now. I tried these recipes below. They were so easy to make and a no brainer. It’s a good book for the home cook (ooh, a rhyme!) who doesn’t have much time (another rhyme!).

Here is the recipe to the chicken in the photo above, taken from Jamie Oliver’s web site. It is basically, put everything in a dish and cook it ‘till it’s done.

Tender and crisp chicken legs with sweet tomatoes

This recipe takes literally minutes to put together but then requires slow, gentle cooking. However, in return for your patience, what happens in the pan from just a couple of ingredients is an absolute joy and never fails, so it’s a good one to serve if you have guests.

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 4 chicken legs, preferably free-range or organic, jointed

• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

• a big bunch of fresh basil, leaves picked, stalks finely chopped

• 2 big handfuls of red and yellow cherry tomatoes, halved, and ripe plum tomatoes, quartered

• 1 whole bulb of garlic, broken up into cloves

• 1 fresh red chilli, finely chopped• olive oil

optional:

• 1 x 14 oz. can of cannellini beans, drained

• 2 handfuls of new potatoes, scrubbed

Preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4. Season your chicken pieces all over and put them into a snug-fitting pan in one layer. Throw in all the basil leaves and stalks, then chuck in your tomatoes. Scatter the garlic cloves into the pan with the chopped chili and drizzle over some olive oil. Mix around a bit, pushing the tomatoes underneath. Place in the oven for 1½ hours, turning the tomatoes halfway through (I didn’t touch the pan until it was done – N.), until the chicken skin is crisp and the meat falls off the bone.

If you fancy, you can add some drained cannellini beans or some sliced new potatoes to the pan and cook them with the chicken. Or you can serve the chicken with some simple mashed potato. Squeeze the garlic out of the skins before serving. You could even make it part of a pasta dish – remove the chicken meat from the bone and shred it, then toss into a bowl of linguini or spaghetti and serve at once.

Jamie's recipe for Lamb with chickpeas, yogurt and pan-roasted veg

serves 4 – 6 (even 8-10, perfect for a holiday meal, or a big dinner party – N.)

1 leg of lamb, butterflied and opened up like a book

2 teaspoons coriander seeds

3 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely choppeda large bunch of fresh cilantro, chopped

a large bunch of fresh mint, chopped

1 x 14 oz. can of chickpeas, drained

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

juice of 1/2 a lemon

1 x 500ml tub of natural yogurt (I used goat yogurt - N.)

12 baby turnips, scrubbed

a bunch of baby carrots, scrubbed, tops left on

1 butternut squash, unpeeled, cut into 8 wedges

2 red onions, peeled and quartered

1 whole bulb of garlic, broken into cloves

2 teaspoons ground cumin

extra virgin olive oil

Score the lamb on both sides. Using either a pestle and mortar or a food processor, grind or whizz up the coriander seeds with the garlic, fresh coriander, mint and half the chickpeas until you have a paste. Season the paste or "marinade" with salt and freshly ground black pepper, then add the lemon juice and yogurt. Place half of this flavored yogurt in a large plastic bag and add the lamb. Put the other half of the flavored yogurt in the fridge. Tie the bag up to seal it and turn it around to allow the yogurt to coat all the lamb. Leave to marinate for at least an hour, but up to 24 hours in the fridge.

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas 6. Place the turnips and carrots in a roasting tray with the squash, onions, garlic and remaining chickpeas, then sprinkle with the cumin, salt and pepper. Drizzle with olive oil and toss together to coat. Remove the lamb from the marinade, then place the meat directly on the oven rack with the tray of vegetables on the shelf below. Cook for about 1 hour, tossing the vegetables halfway through. Serve the lamb well cooked with the vegetables and flavored yogurt on the side.

I am a fan.
Have an easy and fun time cooking!

To buy the book, click here.

If you liked this cookbook review, you might be interested to read:

Beef Goulash

Jewish Cooking For Dummies cookbook

Thanksgiving-y chicken dinner

Nurit

Beef Goulash

Rosh Ha-Shana (a Jewish holiday) is coming soon and people are looking for good recipes. Naturally, some are asking me, but regardless, I feel pressured to post something, and it must be good, and easy, of course. So here is a winner recipe for beef goulash by one of my favorite top chefs, Wolfgang Puck (you will find more recipes on his web site, click the link).

I make this Goulash very often.

Wolfgang's Beef Goulash
Serves 6

*see my comments in ( ). I hope you won’t find it confusing. This is just to show you that cooking is no science. It is magic ;-)

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (or canola oil)

4 cups onion, thinly sliced (2 onions)

1 tablespoon sugar3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon caraway seeds, toasted and ground (I use 1 teaspoon ground cumin, no toasting)

1 1/2 – 3 tablespoons sweet paprika (3 tablespoons in the book)

1 teaspoon hot paprika (or regular paprika/Spanish)

1-2 tablespoons minced fresh marjoram leaves (I use oregano)

1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme leaves (I just put the whole thing with the stem)

1 bay leaf

3 tablespoons tomato paste

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

4 cups chicken stock (or 3 cups + ½ cup water)

2 1/2 pounds beef shank, cut into 2-inch cubes (I use beef chuck)

1-2 teaspoon kosher salt (2 in the book)

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1. In a large sauté pan, heat the olive oil and sauté the onions and sugar until caramelized. Add the garlic and caraway seed. Cook another minute.

2. Add the sweet and hot paprika, marjoram, thyme and bay leaf. Sauté another minute, until fragrant (1 minute).

3. (add all the other ingredients at the same time…) Add the tomato paste. Deglaze with the vinegar and the stock and add the pieces of beef shank, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer and cook until very tender, about 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.

4. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.

If there are any leftovers, I add them to soup. I’ll post a recipe for lentil soup where I use even just the sauce of the Goulash without the beef soon.

I highly recommend this book. It is one of my most favorite cookbooks. Many very easy recipes, and quick, perfect for a weekday cooking when we don’t have a lot of time to fix something good.

Other recipes I have cooked from this book:

Chinese five-spice spare ribs
Wine braised brisket of beef with caramelized pearl onions and dried apricots
Honey marinated beef satay
Pan-seared steaks with port-Dijon-cream sauce
Eggs en cocotte with smoked salmon and horseradish cream (it is much easier than it sounds)
Buttermilk-marinated chicken breasts
Whole roasted garlic chicken
Marjolaine cake
White and dark chocolate chunk cookies
Linzer cookies
Pizza
Minestrone soup
The list goes on and on…

Click to read more about the book: Wolfgang Puck Makes It Easy by Wolfgang Puck.

You might be interested to read other reviews:

Jewish Cooking For Dummies cookbook

jamie’s dinners by Jamie Oliver
Thanksgiving-y chicken dinner

Happy Holiday and happy New Year!

Nurit