May 15, 2013 | 9:00 am

A Healthier Shavuot: My Favorite Cheese Plate

Posted by Elana Horwich

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On Shavuot we Jews eat dairy - cheese blintzes, cheese kreplach, even cheesecake. Here's my idea. You don’t need to cook in order to feed your guests. Just choose the best quality items for a simple, yet fantastic, cheese plate.

Fyi, you only need to serve one type of cheese...if it is good, no one will be less happy. They will be thrilled that you chose a great one and that they get to eat it. Trust me.

WHAT YOU NEED

Wood chopping block to put cheeses and jam on...and crackers and olives too if you can fit. The more knotted and rustic looking the better. But even if its just a plain old wood cutting board as I often use, it will look glamorously delicious once we get it all decorated with food!

Cheese: my favorites are always made from goat or sheep’s milk cheese but I have a few from cow milk that I also love for a cheese plate. You can always ask “the cheese guy” for a taste at any decent gourmet market.

• Manchego (my go-to) - Sheep
• Any Italian Sheep’s Milk Cheese, except Pecorino Romano - you want a touch less aged, i.e. softer...not super soft...but soft-er than Romano. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, let it be. - Sheep
• Humboldt Fog - Goat
• Naked Goat - Goat
• Drunken Goat - Goat
• Boucheron - Goat Feta - Sheep’s Milk is my first choice or Cow’s Milk Feta
• Sharp WHITE Cheddar (don’t ever buy orange cheddar and double don’t ever put it on a cheese plate! Milk is not orange!)

Fig Jam: (available at Whole Foods or other specialty shops) If you can’t find fig jam, use another high quality jam that you would never have put on a PB and J as a kid. You don’t want strawberry cheese...just a hint of sweet fruit with your cheese.

Raw Honey*: if you can’t find fig jam or if you prefer. Raw honey will support the flavor of the cheese...regular honey will ruin it.

Olives: from an olive bar at a specialty market (canned olives are cheap and taste cheap.) Put a little dish on the side for the pits! Crackers: there are many crackers that will go well, but far many more that won’t. Don’t use Ritz or any cracker you liked as a child. Look for a crispy, thin and rustic tasting cracker. My favorite: Mary’s Gone Crackers - Herb Flavor*

Wine: Go for a Chianti, Montepulciano D’Abruzzo, a Nebbiolo on a winter night, a Prosecco for a dry bubbly in summer or winter or a Sauvignon Blanc for a crisp nuanced white. Try D-Cantor Wines for online ordering of great wines at reasonable prices. Enter “elana” for free shipping under promotion code.

*You can buy these products online here.

 

 

You may be surprised to learn that, beyond being insanely delicious, cheese can actually be very beneficial for your health if you know what to choose. I grew up hating cheese, but I later learned that it wasn’t cheese that I hated. It was those slices of orange oil that we Americans call cheese. REAL cheese is not orange…do cows have orange milk? Real cheese is made from an age old process that farmers used to preserve and utilize their cow’s milk and is good for us in many ways. I group cheeses together here, but let it be known that other than Parmigiano Reggiano*, I prefer and use mainly sheep and goat milk cheeses as they are easier to digest and absolutely delicious. Cheese:

The Good…

• contain all four fat-soluble vitamins A, E, K and D.
• high in calcium.
• cheese from grass-fed cows (Parmigiano Reggianno* and many French cheeses) contains high levels of CLA, a cancer-fighting, fat-reducing fat. (Is this why the French are so thin?)
• sheep and goat milk cheeses are easier on the digestive system, even for people with lactose intolerance.
• sheep and goat milk cheese are less likely to contain hormones and antibiotics.
• raw milk cheeses can be high in Omega-3s.
• includes Camembert which has natural probiotics, the same healthy immune-building bacteria found in yogurt.

The Bad…

• causes the production of mucus which creates overall stagnancy in the body.
• can aggravate all kinds of allergies.
• can cause breakouts in some people.
• can be high in cholesterol.
• is hard to digest for many people, particularly those who suffer from lactose intolerance.
• be careful with pizza and Mexican food; melted cheese can often cause more gas than unmelted.

*Watch video: Meal and a Spiel on Parmigiano Reggiano

If you live in LA and would like to take cooking classes with Elana, please visit mealandaspiel.com.

May 13, 2013 | 9:00 am

Pescespada alla Mamma di Edo (Edo’s Mother’s Swordfish) [Recipe]

Posted by Elana Horwich

A word about the boy and his mom:

American girls can’t help but fall in love with Italian men like Edo. He has long dark curls that bounce in joy when he walks, grayish blue eyes that sparkle with depth and intelligence, and a smile that loves to come out and parade itself around like a flamboyant diva of the Italian 60’s. And he dresses well. Yet when partially disrobed one finds that his arms and back boast tattoos of gruesome monsters and a naked girl with a bloody slitted throat. He is like a golden retriever on bad acid: a huge underlying heart laced with danger that has made many an unsuspecting woman fall prey to the mysterious waggings of his tail.

Edo grew up quite alone. He was an only child to divorced parents in the once-royal now-industrial snobbish city of Turin in cloudy Northern Italy. Unlike a typical mamma italiana, Edo’s mother worked full-time and was forced to leave much of Edo’s rearing to a series of hired hands. In the summers when everybody went to the seaside on vacation, Edo went with Irma and Lino, an elderly couple, to a rented apartment on the Riviera where his mother met him on the weekends. Though happy to be free to run around the beach side town, particularly with the five daughters of the family occupying the apartment below, two of which he kissed, Edo missed his mom and felt sad to be the only kid on holiday without a family. His mother, sad herself that she could not be with him, sent Irma to the shore with a list of her favorite recipes to make for her son. La mamma di Edo made her love and presence known through food.

This is one of those recipes.

(By the way, for all those ladies who are wondering, Edo is now a happily married man and does much of the cooking.)

 

Ingredients:

(for 4 -6 people)

• 2 swordfish steaks, prime cut*, about 2 lbs.

• 1 lemon

• a healthy drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, about 2 tablespoons

• Salt, a generous pinch - about a ½ teaspoon

• Dried oregano, about a teaspoon

1. Light your grill or grill pan and let it get very hot.

2. On a plate or platter that you will serve fish on, squeeze the lemon. Add the olive oil, salt, and oregano. Use your finger to swirl it around and lick your finger to taste. Adjust seasoning. You want it lemony but with enough salt and olive oil to temper it.

3. Cook fish for about 6 minutes per side. It is done when a toothpick will go all the way through it without the resistance of raw fish on the inside.

4. Place fish on the prepared lemon platter.

5. Let sit for a couple minutes and then flip fish over.

6. Serve hot or at room temperature.

* Works well with other “steaky” fish such as tuna or opah.

See videos: Meal and a Spiel on Olive Oil and Meal and a Spiel on Salt

If you live in LA and would like to take cooking classes with Elana, please visit mealandaspiel.com.

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May 9, 2013 | 9:00 am

The Stardust Margarita [Recipe]

Posted by Elana Horwich

It’s a little known fact in the world that I used to work as a bartender. If you want to garner experiences that will shape the unique spiritual being that you are, it is imperative that at least once in your life you work nights for a raging alcoholic boss.

For me it happened at 21 and it happened in Rome. Stardust was the bar and Anna, 61, the alcoholic. Lo Stardust, as the Italians called it, was an adorable jazz club in the artsy Trastevere section of the city. I was thrilled to have the job and Anna was thrilled to have a bartender who didn’t like to drink much so there would be no one to add to the loss she swigged down every night by herself.

I welcomed the grotesque outbursts of anger and broken wine glasses as a breath of fresh air from the rigorous and perfectionist nice-jewish-ivy league life I was molded for. Gone were the days of thesis statements and parental approval and in were the raw nights of untamed rage and the free-flying smoke of endless super skinny cigarettes.  

Daylight careers foster intellect, perhaps, and usually promote organizational skills of some sort, and most often invite society’s accolades. But if your nights are dedicated to sleeping so you can wake up in the morning for a “good job”, you are missing out on a good chunk of life.

 Anna was a revolutionary of sorts. Stardust boasted the first Sunday Brunch in the city (with bagels!) and also decided to serve a signature cocktail, the margarita.

At this time in Rome (mid 90’s) cocktails weren’t even existent. Bars served strictly wine, beer and hard liquor straight up or on the rocks, which is why I was able to get a job as a bartender in the first place. But Anna decided to serve a margarita, shaken, in a martini glass. Salt on the rim, not an option. Where she got this idea, I have no idea. Mexican food was unheard of in Rome and guacamole unthinkable. But to this day, The Stardust Margarita is the best margarita I have ever tasted outside of Mexico.

Cheers, Anna.

PS. Anna always told me and the other girls who worked there to never use tongs to put the ice from the ice-maker into the ice-shaker. “Use your hands, its sexy!”

 

Ingredients:

• Tequila (Jose Cuervo and up, in terms of quality)

• Cointreau

• lemon juice (1/2 lemon per serving)

• Ice

• Ice shaker

1. Pour 1 shot tequila into ice shaker.

2. Pour 1/2 shot cointreau into ice shaker.

3. Pour lemon juice into ice shaker.

4. Put about 5 cubes of ice in there.

5. Shake vigorously in long “strokes” so that the whole thing chills quickly...you don’t want ice to melt.

6. Pour the Margarita into a martini glass or a tumbler with the ice if you prefer.

7. Cin Cin. (Cheers in Italian. Pronounced Cheen, Cheen.)

If you live in LA and would like to take cooking classes with Elana, please visit mealandaspiel.com.

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May 6, 2013 | 9:00 am

Lavender Latte [Recipe]

Posted by Elana Horwich

You know those beautiful movies set in the English countryside where proper English ladies drink tea served to them by servants amidst a field of flowers and the young damsel falls in love at the end with a gallant gentlemen whose family is the richest in the region? Well, this is that movie in a cup.  Creamy and soothing, this drink will transport you to a romantic dream land without any of the guilt. It is a perfect treat on a rainy afternoon or any night before bed. The lavender will deliver you to a peaceful slumber. Use the raw honey for a particularly indulgent  mood, but the stevia works perfectly and is my choice for everyday goodness.

Ingredients: (for one person)

• about 1 ½  cups unsweetened almond milk (for hot beverages I prefer Blue Diamond brand, it won’t separate when hot.)

• a teaspoon of dried lavender flowers (In Los Angeles I buy them at Groundworks Coffee. Look at your farmers market, specialty stores or online. )

• 1 teaspoon of raw honey (buy here) or a few drops of plain or Vanilla Creme Stevia Extract

The trick to heating almond milk is to not to set it on the stove and then forget it there. It will bubble over and make a mess! Put the almond milk and lavender in a small pot and bring to almost a boil. Turn off heat and let sit for five minutes or more. Then quickly reheat to desired temperature. Add sweetener, pour in a cup and kick your feet up somewhere cozy.

If you live in LA and would like to take cooking classes with Elana, please visit mealandaspiel.com.

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May 1, 2013 | 12:00 pm

Vigor Triggers: Spring Herbs

Posted by Elana Horwich

   

Mint is perfect for an after dinner herbal tea. It:

• aids digestion
• is beneficial for nausea and flatulence
• can help headaches or migraines. (Hint: take a little peppermint essential oil and rub it on your temples and scalp when you have a headache)

Parsley is no longer just that nasty curly thing on the Passover table. We now have easy supermarket access to the delicious Italian flat-leaf parsley which I like to remind my pasta class students is a "cooling herb." Cheese is taboo on top of spicy pasta or seafood pasta, but parsley is more than welcome as it cools the flavors, creating a perfect palatable balance. Beyond its culinary wonders, parsley:

• freshens breath.
• has diuretic properties.
• is high in iron.
• helps to flush out the glandular system.
• contains myristicin, a chemical known for preventing tumors.  (in fact, the National Cancer Institute includes parsely in a specialized group of vegetables with high anti-cancer activity.)

It’s unbelievable to me that fresh basil is not only a seemingly magical herb that transforms tomatoes into renaissance heaven, it’s working for your health too. Basil:

• contains many anti-bacterial compounds, fighting “bugs” that have become immune to antibiotics.
• just two tablespoons contain 60 percent of your daily recommended intake of Vitamin K.
• includes anti-inflammatory properties that sooth both arthritis and intestinal conditions.

According to my high school bio teacher, Mr. Miller, liking or hating cilantro (as some unbelievably do) is a genetic trait. In the alternative health world cilantro is:

• known as a chelator, which helps remove metals, such as mercury or aluminum, as well as other toxins from our bloodstream, and hence is important for any of us living and eating and breathing in this modern world.
• is rich in chlorophyll, the molecular structure of which is nearly identical to that of our blood. Chlorophyll builds blood  and hence it is no surprise that in Asian traditions cilantro is used to cure anemia​

To see more Vigor Triggers, click here.

If you live in LA and would like to take cooking classes with Elana, please visit mealandaspiel.com.

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April 29, 2013 | 9:00 am

The Faces and Fruits of Mumbai’s Crawford Market: A Photo Essay

Posted by Elana Horwich

            

If you live in LA and would like to take cooking classes with Elana, please visit mealandaspiel.com

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April 24, 2013 | 9:00 am

Cooking Mistake Number One

Posted by Elana Horwich

I will never forget my summer of grad school at Middlebury College in Vermont.  I was in the Italian School which meant that we had to speak in Italian, dine in Italian, play soccer in Italian and have secret rendezvous with the half-black/half-white Puerto Rican in the adjacent French school in Italian.

One day I was making pasta for a group of friends, most of whom were undergraduates because they had time to waste. I sautéed some garlic in olive oil, then added canned tomatoes and some salt and fresh basil and went upstairs while waiting for the flavors to infuse.

Mistake number one of cooking: never go farther than earshot of your sauce. While I was away, Charlie, a cute undergrad, tasted my sauce, decided it didn’t have enough flavor (which it didn’t, it was left there to build flavor) and so chopped up some onions, threw them in the pot and sprinkled a hefty dose of ground dried garlic in there too.

First of all, while I attempt to keep calm after all these years, onions are often a great ingredient in a tomato sauce as they sweeten the sauce and can give it a more earthy flavor, but  onions would need to be sautéed in the olive oil first. Throwing onions in a tomato sauce while it is still cooking will just boil those onions, creating an entirely different texture and flavor. Basically it will taste like soupy American spaghetti sauce, which is not exactly what I was aiming for.

Secondly, powdered garlic has no place, and I repeat, no place in the Italian kitchen or in any kitchen for that matter. Feel free to use it in your dog’s food to keep away the fleas or as an antibacterial add-in for your toilet scrub, but for the love of God, if you put it in your pasta sauce don’t ever, EVER, tell me about it. I have enough anxiety about useless nonsense things as it is.

 

For Elana's Simple Basic Tomato and Basil Sauce recipe, click here.

If you live in LA and would like to take cooking classes with Elana, please visit www.mealandaspiel.com

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April 22, 2013 | 9:00 am

Ingredient Number One: Love

Posted by Elana Horwich

They say in Italy that each sauce or each dish comes out differently depending on who is cooking it. Even with the exact same ingredients and measurements. Just the way someone stirs the sauce and connects with the sauce is enough to create a unique and personal outcome. In other words, you can taste the love.

Therefore, there is nothing you can do more to piss me off in the kitchen than to start stirring my food. If the wooden spoon is on the side, it’s there resting for a reason. Americans always come in the kitchen and start vigorously stirring and tasting like it’s some sort of spaghetti sauce rodeo. Whoooooah. Hold your horses people. That is not the way to stir a sauce, not my sauce at least. Actually, don’t touch my sauce at all. It’s mine.

You don’t walk into an artists studio and start slapping paint on his canvas. You don’t go into an operating room and poke your finger in a liver to see what it feels like. Do you walk into the Oval Office, go over to the President’s desk and mess up all his papers? No.  Make your own damn sauce.

When you make a sauce, that sauce is your baby. You don’t abandon it. You don’t ignore it. You care for it with all the love in your heart. Thank you, I can now hear all the uppity new mothers shouting in unison at me. Love your pasta sauce like your baby? You don’t know what it’s like to have a baby. My baby needs me. I don’t have time to sit around and love sauce.

Well, if you don’t have time to sit around and love sauce then don’t cook. Cooking is about love.  When your baby needs you, that is not the moment to cook. Wait until the baby is sleeping or when your spouse can care for him or her for an hour, or wait until the babysitter comes if you have one. Find peace and use that time to be with the food. It probably will relax you and invigorate you more than you thought. And one day your grown baby will really appreciate it. Trust me.

And yes, I don’t know what its like to have a baby. But I can promise you, I will never stop loving the food I make, even if I have to make it less often. Ingredient number one is love. 

 

If you live in LA and would like to take cooking classes with Elana, please visit www.mealandaspiel.com

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