The Shabbat Table – Perfect Flavours!

Crockpot Onion and Flanken Soup from Perfect Flavors by Naomi Nachman. Photos by Miriam Pascal (Mesorah Publications/November 2018).
Perfect Flavors: Creative, Easy-To-Prepare Recipes Inspired by My Family and Travels by Naomi Nachman (Mesorah Publications/November 2018)

Good Shabbos, Shabbat Shalom! I was thrilled to learn that cookbook author Naomi Nachman’s newest cookbook has been published just in time for Chanukah gift-giving: Perfect Flavors: Creative, Easy-To-Prepare Recipes Inspired by My Family and Travels (Mesorah Publications/November 2018). Talk about perfect timing!

Naomi Nachman is a cooking teacher, food columnist, recipe developer, and personal chef. She is the author of the bestselling cookbook, Perfect for Pesach: https://thecjn.ca/food/cookbook-perfect-pesach. In her latest book, Perfect Flavors, Naomi shares her passion and enthusiasm for cooking, serving, eating, and sharing amazing food every single day. For Nachman, it’s all about cooking the food that we love for the people we love.

In Perfect Flavors, Naomi Nachman shares many of her favourite recipes collected over the years from her global travels, as well as old favourites with a new twist. The well-known food media personality was in Toronto last May to host the Kosher Chopped competition at GuruFest, hosted by Toronto’s kosher guru, Shlomo Assayag, in support of Chai Lifeline: https://thecjn.ca/food/gurufest-toronto-kosher-event-of-the-year.

You can listen to my podcast, Gabbing with Naomi Nachman: The Aussie Gourmet on Norene’s KitchenCast: https://noreneskitchencast.simplecast.fm

“I feel so privileged to have experienced international food adventures and to be able to share my favourite recipes with home cooks everywhere,” Naomi says. “Within the pages of my latest book, you, too, can enjoy Aussie meat pies from Sydney and authentic pad thai served on the streets of Thailand, as well as easy to prepare everyday recipes, all in the comfort of your own kitchen.”

Perfect Flavors contains more than 130 delicious and creative kosher recipes with tips and variations. Eye-popping photos by renowned food photographer Miriam Pascal accompany each recipe. Naomi also provides information on kitchen essentials, and herbs and spices. Whether you’re looking for elegant and sophisticated cuisine or a quick and wholesome meal, you’ll find what you need among these delicious, doable recipes.

Recipes include:

Aussie Meat Pies

Kale Salad with Roasted Beets and Chickpeas

Mushroom, Tomato, and Herb Salad

Beer-Battered Broccoli

Dill-Infused Crepes with Mushroom-Cheese Filling

Salt-Crusted Branzino

Shawarma Turkey Burger

Thai Peanut Drumsticks

Jerk Rubbed London broil

Harissa Carrots

Praline Sesame Mousse

Lotus Butter Cookie Bars

 

Nachman shares, “All my recipes use fresh, simple and delicious combinations of ingredients that you can get all year long and create interesting meal choices. With Perfect Flavors, I invite you, through my recipes, into my home, to pull up a chair at our table and enjoy.”

You can meet the vivacious Naomi Nachman in person at Kitchen Art, 2821 Bathurst St., Toronto, where she will be launching Perfect Flavors on Thursday, Nov. 8, 2018 at 11 am. http://www.kitchenartcanada.com

Growing up in Australia and watching her mother and grandmother prepare amazing meals, Naomi developed her love of innovative cooking. In 2004, she started her own kosher personal chef business, The Aussie Gourmet. Sharing her enthusiasm for creative recipes, Naomi gives cooking demonstrations across the globe and produces kosher cooking competitions across North America.

Naomi hosts a weekly show, Table for Two with Naomi Nachman, on the Nachum Segal Network. The program covers all food-related topics, and in addition, she covers food and travel trends in a monthly magazine column for Mishpacha Magazine. As a contributing editor for The Jewish Home newspaper, her articles and recipes are published weekly across the country. Naomi is also a recipe developer and brand ambassador for several major food companies, representing them across several media platforms.

Naomi lives in Woodmere, New York with her husband and children. For more information, visit her website, www.TheAussieGourmet.com. Here’s the link to some of her excellent how-to videos: http://www.theaussiegourmet.com/cooking-videos/

Naomi shares: “I happen to have two favourite fish dishes; one is Moroccan salmon (also known as “chraimi”). Chraimi is a traditional Moroccan recipe in which one cooks salmon in a flavoured tomato sauce.”

She continues: “My other favourite fish dish is my grandmother’s gefilte fish. My late grandmother (Bubby) used to make the best homemade gefilte fish. She made it very sweet in the Polish cooking style—as she grew up in Vilna. My Bubby would sit at my mother’s kitchen table in Sydney, Australia mixing huge bowls of ground fish with matzah meal, eggs, salt, pepper and TONS of sugar. Our house would smell of yummy fish cooking in the sweet broth of fish heads and carp skin. Nowadays, we wouldn’t even consider making our own fish from scratch. We have so many companies that make their own frozen logs for us to buy; making gefilte fish is now super easy.

I make both chraimi as much as I make gefilte fish. I had the idea to make chraimi sauce and then drop gefilte fish balls into it. The results were terrific! I was rather pleased that I had blended two styles of traditional Shabbat fish (Ashkenazi and Sephardi) into a unique appetizer. I served it hot on Friday night and the leftovers cold for Seuda Shlisheet — both were perfectly delicious. For the recipe for Chraimi Gefilte Fish, click here: http://www.theaussiegourmet.com/fish/chraimi-gefilta-fish/

Another favourite dish is her Bubby’s Stuffed Cabbage, which makes the perfect fare for Shabbat. Click here for the recipe: http://www.theaussiegourmet.com/main-dishes/my-bubbys-stuffed-cabbage/. Her Crockpot Onion and Flanken Soup (below) is also a perfect way to warm up the guests at your Shabbat Table.

Recipes (below) reprinted with permission from Perfect Flavors by Naomi Nachman. Photos by Miriam Pascal (Mesorah Publications/November 2018).

Crockpot Onion and Flanken Soup from Perfect Flavors by Naomi Nachman. Photos by Miriam Pascal (Mesorah Publications/November 2018).

CROCKPOT ONION AND FLANKEN SOUP

Meat — Yields 8 servings — Freezer friendly

Naomi shares: “Who doesn’t love a big bowl of onion soup? However, making it can be time-consuming, as you have to sauté the onions for a long time while stirring them. This recipe allows you to skip the sautéing, as your crock pot does all the work for you.”

 

12 onions sliced into half-moons

1 Tbsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup canola oil

2 pounds bone-in flanken

4 cups beef, chicken, or vegetable broth

3/4 cup red wine

1/4 cup red miso paste

 

  1. Combine onions, salt, pepper, and oil in a crockpot; stir to combine.
  2. Add flanken to the crockpot; cover with onion mixture. Cover; cook on high for 4-5 hours, until onions are golden brown.
  3. Add broth, wine, and miso paste; stir to combine. Cook on high for an additional hour.

Cook’s Tip:

  • Miso paste is a paste made from fermented bean curd. Used primarily in Japanese cooking, it adds umami, depth of flavour, to the dishes. Miso paste is available in a variety of colours; the darker the colour, the stronger the flavour. I use them interchangeably.
Turducken capons from Perfect Flavors by Naomi Nachman. Photos by Miriam Pascal (Mesorah Publications/November 2018).

TURDUCKEN CAPONS

 Meat — Yields 8 servings — Freezer friendly

Naomi writes: “Thanksgiving has always had a special meaning to me. I came to America on Thanksgiving and met my husband exactly a year later on Thanksgiving. This recipe is a twist on a turducken, which is a deboned chicken stuffed into a deboned duck, stuffed into a deboned turkey, with layers of stuffing between each bird. This is a dark meat chicken capon stuffed with turkey and wrapped in duck fry. It’s a whole new take on turkey.”

 

Stuffing

2 Tbsp canola oil

1 small onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry

1 cup (tightly packed) cubes day-old challah or bread

1-pound ground turkey

1 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp chilli powder

1 Tbsp pure maple syrup

8 chicken capons (dark meat chicken cutlets)

1 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp onion powder

3 (3-ounce) packages duck fry or pastrami

2 Tbsp pure maple syrup

1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

 

  1. Prepare the stuffing: Heat oil over medium heat in a large frying pan. Add onion; sauté, stirring occasionally, until translucent, 5-7 minutes.
  2. Add garlic and spinach; cook for an additional 5 minutes. Add bread cubes; cook for 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat.
  3. Add turkey, salt, thyme, chili powder, and maple syrup to the spinach mixture. Stir until combined.
  4. Assemble the capons: Preheat oven to 350°F.
  5. Place about 1/4 cup turkey stuffing onto the center of each capon; then roll up. Place capons, seam-side down, in a large baking pan. (Do not overcrowd the pan; use 2 pans if necessary.)
  6. Sprinkle salt, paprika, and onion powder over the tops of the capons, then drape duck fry over each one.
  7. Combine maple syrup and balsamic vinegar; brush mixture over the top of each capon, reserving some of the mixture for Step 8.
  8. Cover tightly; bake for 1 hour. Uncover, brush again with maple syrup mixture, and bake for an additional 10 minutes, uncovered. Slice and serve.

Cook’s Tip:

  • For a unique side dish, bake any remaining stuffing in muffin tins at 350°F for 30 minutes.