Vegan carrot cake

 I've tried to make my favorite recipe vegan before and it didn't work so well. So I tried again today with a secret ingredient and it came out great.

2 cups shredded carrot

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup oil

1/4 cup water

Put this in a heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil and cook 5 minutes on medium, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat.

1 and a half cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp allspice

1/4 tsp salt

Sift all these together. Add the liquid plus 1/2 cup applesauce. Mix well.

Pour into loaf pan. Bake at 350 / 160 for 50 minutes. 

I made Schav!!! (Sorrel soup)

We got a bunch of farm greens including sorrel. So I decided to make Schav which I have never done. I left out the eggs and scallions. This is kind of like Portuguese kale soup but with a Russian flavor profile. The recipe is a mashup of two recipes I found online. One of the recipes called for sugar and lemon too, but I didn't add them.

o    4 tbsp oil

o    1 onion chopped

o    1 carrot grated

o    3 qt water or broth

o    4 medium potatoes

o    2 hard boiled eggs

o    2 bunches sorrel chopped

o    2 scallions chopped

o    2 tbsp dill diced

o    1tbsp salt adjust to taste

o    1 tsp pepper adjust to taste

Clean the sorrel and remove the stems. Chop onion and grate carrot.

Saute carrots and onions until soft. Add the water to the pot and season with salt and pepper.

Cut potatoes into cubes. Add the potatoes to the cooking ingredients. Boil for 10 minutes.

Prepare the sorrel and dill. Add to the pot.

Simmer for 10 more minutes.

Serve hot with a big dollop of sour cream or yogurt!

 

Pashtida with chard - Israeli comfort food

Pashtida means pie. The word comes from Italian originally, and entered the Jewish lexicon in the middle ages! Originally it meant a meat filled pie. Today in Israel, the word refers to a crustless quiche.

It's a comfort food because it's ubiquitous. If there's a shiva or other happy or sad occasion to cook for, someone will always make a pashtida. Lately even me. 

Chard is a common green in Israel. I don't know why but we don't have collard greens and we don't get much kale. If you can't get chard, the closest ingredient to substitute is spinach, but cook it for less time.

Additional note: I've been making this every week and have modified the recipe somewhat.  See the notes in the recipe below:

Ingredients:

1 leek or one large onion

2 cloves garlic - or less - you can omit this if you want.

1 bunch chard, chopped fine including stems. You can add more and add an additional egg. You can mix chard and kale or chard and spinach - just remember to cook each green for the time it needs - kale needs more time, spinach needs less.

2 or 3 eggs

1/2 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

200 g yogurt

1/2 cup grated cheddar or other cheese

salt and pepper

Other things that can add to the mix: chopped parsley or dill - about one tablespoon or two of either. 

Fry the leek or onion until translucent or slightly browning, add the chopped garlic and fry one minute, add the chard and cook for 3-5 minutes until it is soft.

Mix the other ingredients. Allow the vegetables to cool for a few minutes and then mix everything together.

The original recipe called for making this in a loaf pan, but I prefer a rectangular pan. Watch for how long to cook it based on the depth of the batter. Bake at 375 for 30-40 minutes until the pashtida is brown on top and set. Can be served hot or cold. 

I make this for mildly lactose intolerant so I use yogurt. The original recipe calls for cottage cheese. Of course anyone who lives here knows that US cottage cheese (and yogurt) are not the same as Israeli. So use your discretion, especially if you are in the USA.

Super easy green curry with Israel ingredients

This is adapted from a recipe online:

1 onion

1 large or 2 small zucchinis

1 head broccoli

1 cup green beans

1 can coconut milk

1 tbs soy sauce

1 tbs coconut sugar

Juice of one-half lemon

3-5 tablespoons Maxchup green curry sauce

Optional one package tofu cubed

Fry the onion in a large pot. Break the broccoli into florets. Cut the zucchini in spears. When the onion is soft and translucent, add the vegetables, coconut milk, and the other ingredients except the lemon. Add another can or more of water to cover the vegetables. Cook covered for 15-20 minutes until the vegetables are tender. Don't overcook. At the end, add the lemon. Serve over rice. 

Easy to read Massamun Curry recipe

Here's an easy to read Massamun Curry recipe adapted from an online recipe, with fewer ingredients and easy measurements.

You need:

• Cumin seeds - 1 - 2 teaspoons
  
• Olive Oil
• 5 tablespoons red curry sauce or paste (I use MaxChup brand available in Israel)
• 1 large onion, chopped
  
• 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled & cubed
  
• 4 medium potatoes, peeled & cubed
• 3 largish carrots, peeled & cubed
• 2 chicken breasts or 3-5 shnitzels and/OR
  
• 1 box tofu, cut in 1 inch pieces
• 1 can coconut milk (I use low fat. If using coconut cream, add only 1/2 can)
  
• 2 tablespoons peanut butter
  
• Juice of 1/2 - 1 lemon

In a large soup pot, put the cumin seeds over heat for 30 seconds, then add about 2-3 tablespoons olive oil and the onion. Fry until soft. 

Remove from heat and add the curry sauce, then add the chopped vegetables and stir until they are coated. 

Add the coconut milk and water to cover. Stir in the peanut butter (At this point, if you want to make half vegan and half meat, split the curry into two pots.) 

Add tofu or chicken as desired. (You can also make it without either.) Bring to a boil and simmer for 25-30 minutes until the potatoes and carrots are done. 

Before serving, add the lemon juice.

My entire family eats this!!! (No small feat.) Served with rice it makes one meal for four and one plus meal of leftovers. YMMV.

Gail's kale soup

I made my own vegan kale soup based on a recipe I found on food.com and what was in the house. 

Here's what's in it:

3 cloves chopped garlic

1 diced carrot

1 large bunch of kale, sliced

2 large potatoes cut in small cubes

3 plum tomatoes, peeled and chopped

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

3 bay leaves

2 tablespoons organic vegetable broth powder (aka soup mix)

1 teaspoon brown sugar

1 tablespoon red curry sauce

1 teaspoon paprika

8 cups water (possibly more)

 

I fried the garlic and carrot in olive oil, added everything else and cooked about 40 minutes. My daughter and I are happy. 

 

 

What I learned this week

This week I attended a webinar by Mark Divine, author of The Way of the Seal and creator of SealFit and Unbeatable Mind coaching. I happened to run across his book on a free shelf here in Tzur Hadassah a few years ago and worked some of it, and I happen to have a student who is interested in Navy Seals.

The training was about leadership in times of VUCA - Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity. Hello 2020. (I've linked above. There's teaching, followed by a sales pitch, followed by Q & A.)

He said we can move from this to Vision, Understanding, something beginning with C maybe Communication, I'm going to choose Compassion and Agility. Let's go!

I have some reservations about the diversity of the organization and about learning from the military but I take my cue from Pirke Avot 4:1 - איזהו חכם - הלומד מכל אדם - Who is wise? One who learns from every person. Plus I actually love what this guy has to say. 

One of the most powerful things I learned in the session came from one of the questions, where a participant referred to the OODA Loop. OODA stands for Observe, Orient, Decide, Act. 

The terminology comes from the military and security field, but I find the concept immediately applicable to our current situation and the anxiety I see many around me facing.

I start at the beginning - what do I choose to observe. All week I have been observing many of my neighbors exercising, and today I saw a beautiful group of four elderly women exercising in the park. I observed two of my students who have done pretty much no assignments all year suddenly work on assignments this week successfully. I learned this years ago - what leaders pay attention to gets attention. It's in the Big Book in the story now titled Acceptance was the Answer where he talks about his magnifying mind. I choose what I pay attention to.

Next comes orient - how do I orient myself to what is happening around me? This is where bias and previous experience, even intergenerational experience comes in. I watch people around me orienting to what they see with anxiety. I watch my students orienting to an assignment with an "I can do" or "I can't do" attitude. There is no doubt that we are living in times of unprecedented difficulty. How do I orient myself to that? Our local rabbi is teaching us a course, "how did sages in times past respond to pandemics?" Guess what? There's a lot of wisdom out there to help us orient to this situation. How I orient is also based on my commitments - what is my vision? The Dalai Lama has been giving open talks about how to respond with compassion in uncertainty. 

Deciding and acting are then based on our observations and orientation. Mark Divine described how Navy Seals have a bias toward action. He described another loop - shoot, move, communicate. Now I'm not a fan of shoot, but I'm a fan of act. We have a saying in AA - "you can't think your way into right action, but you can act your way into right thinking." I have also learned - self-esteem comes from doing esteemable acts. This is why chores are so important right now (note to self - teach that unit on chores to 9th grade). And daily meditation. Mark Divine advocates it, AA advocates it, and I'm a huge fan. I've started doing a daily yoga nidra meditation (thanks Margo Helman).

Yesterday I also attended a huge teaching - the memorial service for my friend Rabbi RBO. Per (RBO's preferred pronoun) was a huge role model who throughout life achieved so much. It was amazing to see how per found per niche in the past 7 years of work with JQ International - an organization serving LGBTQ youth and adults from the orthodox community, and how that was the culmination of a lifetime of learning, growth and work. We have a word in Hebrew - assiyah - that doesn't translate well into English - it can be translated as action, activity or achievement but really, it's doing. In the doing is how we manifest who we are meant to be. I know we are human beings and not human doings, but there is something about מעשה ידינו the work of our hands here on earth, the ways we touch others. If you want to learn more about RBO, see this slide show from yesterday with some wonderful video interview parts. Per memory is a blessing and I was so inspired to be with over 100 people remembering per life.

Last night I attended an online class on optimal distance learning, but not before I had a fantastic day of online teaching with my 8th grade class. And I voted! Today's action involves my weekly Friday doing of writing letters to two Jewish men in prison through the Aleph Institute penpal program. As much as this pandemic sucks, it would be so much worse to be alone in prison without family and friends. So I've been doing this for 18 weeks and since their sentences are long, I hope to be doing this beyond when the pandemic ends. And it will end. And when it does we will still be in need of Vision, Understanding, Compassion and Agility. So let's pay attention to how we Observe, Orient, Decide and Act this week. Do what you love. Do what makes you feel good. Do what helps others.