Two Great Recipes for Yom Tov!

Broiled Eggplant with Veggies and Meat Sauce

Since I have no rhyme or reason (Ask Eden Pearlstein aka EPHRYME– he’s the Rhyme department, and my son in-law) for why this recipe is only for Rosh Hashanah let’s create a new minhag and make it for Pesach too. 

WARNING! This recipe is a “potchke” lots of steps but worth the effort. (Maybe that’s why I make it only once a year for family because to feed this to the Ohr Chadash hordes would keep me in the kitchen for an unexaggerated millennium).

Brush thick rounds of eggplant with olive oil sprinkle with kosher salt and granulated garlic then broil until browned. Prepare thin rounds of potatoes and zucchini while you make the sauce by browning ground meat, I often use turkey or veal, with finely chopped onions and parsley. I add one can of crushed tomatoes and some dry red wine, salt and pepper, and a dash of…  SPOILER WARNING! – SECRET INGREDIENT ABOUT TO BE REVEALED -cinnamon. I start layering with onion rings on the bottom of the olive oiled baking pan then potatoes, then meat sauce then zucchini then more sauce and top it all with the broiled eggplant. 

Over the top I pour some white sauce made by gently sautéing potato starch in olive oil and adding chicken broth stirring constantly until you have a creamy consistency breaking up the lumps as you stir. Bake in 350 degree oven till bubbly and the top starts to brown about an hour.

 Apricot Chicken

This is a much easier and faster recipe. This is my general and preferred style of cooking except for the very few “potchke” recipes I allow through the radar. This one is good for an erev yom tov like the one we’re going to have tomorrow when we plan to galavant off to Jerusalem to enjoy FREE DAY at the Israel Museum and the Botanic Gardens.  Chani (my daughter) and Eden (her D.L.H.) did this with us last year!

Plop some chicken pieces in a baking pan slosh some sauvignon blanc or other white wine over ‘em, shmear on some apricot jam, scatter some dried apricots all around,sprinkle on some salt pepper granulated garlic and paprika and you’ve got easy street! 

Go jump in the shower while it’s baking at 375 degrees till brown and fragrant, about an hour and a half, and you even have time to do your nails and get all gussied up for a really good relaxed Yom Tov.

Happy Tasty and Kosher Pesach Everyone!