Bring out your bread: Ollebrod/beer bread -- it is better than it sounds

I have just started cleaning out my freezer for Pesach and about half of its contents turned out to be bread. This was a good way to use it up.  It is also, believe it or not, one of my favorite desserts.  It is not bad for breakfast either.  It is not bread made from beer, but rather a porridge made of leftover bread.  Think pappa al pomodoro (Italian bread soup with tomatoes, olive oil and basil).  Or think Indian pudding.  I have never had luck with Indian pudding, but this is just as good, maybe better, and very easy to make.

Some background:  you may remember a scene toward the beginning of Babette's Feast.  After washing up in rural Denmark, Babette is enlisted to prepare meals for the local elderly population. Another volunteer demonstrates how it to prepare the local dishes.  One involves dried fish,  The other involves soaking stale bread in beer and water.  This is it.  Despite Babette's look of revulsion, it is really quite good.

Ollebrod (there should be a diagonal slash through the O but I can't get my editor to do it) may be the ultimate Danish comfort food.  Although it is often enjoyed (really) as a hot cereal at breakfast with milk or cream, we first had it at Acme, a "new"  Scandinavian restaurant in the village.  The food in general was quite good, though the service was abominable.  We were the oldest people there and the attitude was along the lines of "hurry up and finish your meal so we can give your table to someone younger, cooler and better looking."  But the ollebrod dessert was really memorable.  There was a pool of the bread porridge, toped with white chocolate foam and salted caramel ice cream.

I couldn't duplicate the chocolate foam at home, but the rest is pretty easy.  It is a great way to use up leftover bread:

Ollebrod/Beer Bread

Ingredients

• 6-8 slices of  brown bread  (see below)
• 2-3 cups dark beer
• Boiling water if needed to cover
• 2 inch piece orange rind, with no pith
• spices ( your choice of a combination of 1 cinnamon stick, 2 or 3 cardamom pods, 2 cloves and 1 or 2 allspice berries -- I just use the cinnamon and cardamom)
• 1/4 cup dried cherries, raisins or dates (I use cherries)
• 1/3 - 1/2 cup dark brown sugar  (the lesser amount only slightly sweet)
• large pinch salt

Method

1. If you are taking the bread out of the freezer, toast it lightly.  This is optional if it is stale.  Use of moldy bread is not recommended. 
2. Put the bread in a 2-3 quart pot and cover with the beer.  Set aside to soak about 1/2 hour.
3. Add boiling water if needed to cover the bread.  Add the remaining ingredients, bring to a simmer, and cook on very low heat for about an hour, until a puree.  Taste this and adjust for sweetness, adding a bit more sugar if you like, and cook a few minutes more. (This dish holds well in a low oven or on a blech overnight on Shabbat.  It also reheats well in the microwave.)
4. Serve warm with ice cream (salted caramel best of all, vanilla good, and for a pareve meal, coconut sorbet or soy ice cream acceptable) for dessert or with milk or cream for breakfast.
5. Serves 4-8 depending on occasion and appetite.

The bread:  I used a combination of old-fashioned hard pumpernickel and sourdough whole wheat.  Sourdough rye (without caraway) or pain levain would also be good.  Almost any brown, dark or whole grain bread will work.  

Peanut butter banana quesadilla

Maya and Andrew moved to Austin in November.  The disadvantage of this is that they are really far away.  The advantage is that we get to visit them there.  They live in a great neighborhood near South Lamar, and are walking distance from a great taqueria, a Lebanese baker and grocery store, a good bookstore, a branch of the Alamo drafthouse movie theaters, and the South Lamar location of the Kerbey Lane Cafe.  Being an Austin institution, Kerbey Lane specializes in locally sourced ingredients and excellent breakfasts and the menu has vegan and gluten-free sections.  Being an Austin institution, they serve queso (cheese melted in heavy cream) and you can get it on just about anything.

The first time we went, they offered a breakfast quesadilla made with peanut butter, bananas and cheese.   I made it at 6 this morning for Harry and his Year Course friend Laina before they left to work as volunteers at the Firefly music festival in Delaware.  Harry said that it sounded disgusting until he tasted it.  I hate the term crackalicious, but I have to admit that it is a necessary one.  There are few other ways to describe dishes like this. Here is my take on this dish, which varies somewhat from that served at Kerbey Lane.  It is impossible to give exact quantities, so I haven't.  You can eat it as breakfast, lunch, or almost any time of day:

Peanut butter banana quesadilla:

1. Put two flour tortillas on a cutting board.  It will serve two if you use eight inch tortillas.
2. Spread each with a thin layer of creamy peanut butter.  (For a real addictive treat, you can spread one of them with Speculous Butter, a cookie butter which tastes sort of like liquefied graham crackers and is sold by Trader Joe's.)
3. Top one side with bananas, sliced about 1/4 inch thick.  One large banana is enough for an eight inch tortilla.  You will need more for larger ones.
4. Sprinkle the bananas with about 1/4 cup of a salty hard melting cheese, like Cotija, Asiago or Romano.
5. Drizzle some honey on the other side, and then put the two tortillas together in a sandwich.
6. Spray a nonstick skillet with oil spray if desired, and heat it on medium-high.   If not using spray add some oil or melt some butter in the skillet.
7. Add the quesadilla (which is what the conjoined tortillas have become) and cook for about three minutes.  Flip carefully, fully expecting that some of the filling will ooze out, and cook for about three more minutes.  It should be nicely browned on both sides and the cheese inside should be melted.
8. Cut into wedges and serve warm.

Soft scrambled eggs with feta, pine nuts and roasted broccoli

We had this dish at Barleyswine when we visited Austin last month. As is evident from the name, the chefs have a passion for beer and pork, but there is lots of other stuff to eat, and to drink as well. This dish was one of our favorites. Soft scrambling eggs slowly takes a little more effort than cooking them fast on high heat, but every once in a while it is worth it. They should be cooked with plenty of fat and are remind me of the bad old days when people thought that eggs were bad for you. This is a great brunch or supper dish and can be a nice main dish on Pesach during the week for those who feel that they aren't eating enough eggs.

The quantity below serves two, and it can be doubled or tripled in a larger pan. The keys to the success are almost constant stirring, low heat, and  making sure that all the toppings, the serving dish and plates are warm before combining and serving so that the eggs don't cool off.

Soft-scrambled eggs with feta, pine nuts, and roasted broccoli

Ingredients

• Small head broccoli stem peeled and separated into long florets
• Olive oil or olive oil spray
• 5 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream
• Salt and pepper (ideally freshly ground white pepper, but black will do)
• 1-2 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon sour cream
• 2 tablespoons pine nuts roasted lightly in a dry skillet
• 2 ounces feta cheese, diced

Method

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Beat eggs well in a bowl. Beat in cream and season with salt and pepper and leave at room temperature.
3. Toss the broccoli with oil or spray it (why would you spray it when you are already using so much saturated fat?), put on a baking pan, sprinkle with coarse salt, and bake for 10 minutes.
4. Broil until brown and slightly charred but not burnt, about another 5 minutes.. Set aside in a warm place.
5. Heat butter on low heat in a medium nonstick skillet until melted.
6. Add the beaten eggs and cook on low heat, stirring constantly. One you get the hang of holding them, two pairs of chopsticks work perfectly for this, breaking up the curds into small pieces. If you don't trust me on the chopsticks, you can use a whisk instead, a regular whisk with a conventional skillet or a plastic one in nonstick.
7. Meanwhile, set oven on the lowest setting, and put in  your serving plates, feta,  nuts and sour cream in separate heat-proof dishes.
8. Keep stirring the eggs, moving them around the skillet so they don't stick. The texture should be similar to that of a soft risotto.
9. When still very soft and slightly runny, mix in the sour cream and half of the pine nuts and feta.
10. Turn the eggs into the serving dish, and top with the remaining feta and then the pine nuts. Arrange the broccoli around the eggs, sticking the base of the florets under the eggs. If you have an extra floret, stick it in the center of the dish.  Next time I make this I will include a picture to this posting.
11. Serve immediately to two on warmed plates. Great with fresh baguette, whole grain toast, or matzah.

Matzo brei with bananas, courtesy of Jeff Segall

I find that I generally make more matzo brei after Pesach that during the holiday.  During I may get around to it once or twice, but after you have to use up all that matzo.  Last year I found myself eating Sri Lankan style matzo brei several times a week until our home was matzo-free. So I was very happy when Jeff Segall, language teacher, sailor and musician, emailed around the variation that he makes which contains mashed bananas.  It makes a nice weekend breakfast, and will make it easier for me to finish the final boxes.

Matzo brei is a very personal thing, of the same order as pizza or bagels.  Just like it is hard to argue with people's taste in pizza and bagels, it is pointless to dispute their taste in matzo brei.  Some like it like a single cake, others scrambled.  Some like it soft, some crunchy.  Some salty, some sweet.  And some all of the above. For the record I am a scrambled crunchy person who likes his matzo brei with salt, pepper and something sweet.  Jeff uses a different soaking method than I do, and makes his like a large kugel.   His recipe is included at the end.  I tried to soak the matzos following his instructions, but I just couldn't do it.  I fell into default mode. So I don't expect you to follow my directions either.  But do try adding the bananas -- it is a real treat.

Banana Matzo Brei --Basic Recipe

Ingredients

• 5 matzos
• 4-6 eggs
• pinch salt
• 2 ripe bananas
• 1-4 tablespoons of butter
• cinnamon

Method

1. Soak matzos according to your preferred method.  Mine is to break them into more or less equal quarters and put them in a large bowl.  Fill the bowl with cold water, and let the matzos sit about 30 seconds.  Drain them while they are still crunchy,  cover them, and let them sit aside to absorb the water and soften.  It takes about 5-10 minutes, and they will soften further when you add the eggs.  I find that this way you don't have to squeeze out the excess moisture, because there is none.  However, as I said above, matzo brei is a very personal thing, and I don't expect anyone to change their preferred method on my account.  
2. Beat the eggs, add a pinch of salt (or a bit more if you are like me), and mix into the matzos.  If they have not softened all the way, let them sit for a few minutes more until they do.  
3. Slice, then mash the bananas, and mix them into the matzo and eggs.
4. To make like a single cake:  Heat a 10 inch nonstick skillet, add as much butter as your conscience, your cholesterol and your spouse allows, and pour in the mixture.  Spread it out and cook on medium heat until well browned.  Flip and cook until well browned on the other side.  Sprinkle with cinnamon and serve with honey, date honey, or maple syrup. 
5. To cook as pancakes:  Heat a 12 inch or larger nonstick skillet or griddle and add butter.  Drop about 1/2-3/4 cup of batter to make large pancakes.  Cook until brown, turn and brown on the other side, and serve as above.
6. Serves 3-4, depending on appetite. 

Middle eastern variation:  Omit the cinnamon. Add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of ground cardamom to the batter.  This is best served with date honey.

For the kid in all of us:  Mix in up to a cup of chocolate chips. Serve this with whipped cream. 

Jeff Segall's recipe in his own words:

Fill a large bowl about 1/3 of the way with lukewarm water. Take about 4-5 sheets of matza and break them along the natural fault lines. Each piece should be about three or four fault lines wide and be about 1/3 the length of a matza. Break them into the bowl. Soak them for at least a minute. Be sure they're completely soaked and soft. Then holding the matza with one hand, pour the water out. Press the matza gently to squeeze out the excess water. Into the matza pour 4-6 eggs that you have already completely beaten so that the yolks and whites are thoroughly mixed. (For a lower cholesterol version, use 4 eggs and 2/3 cup of liquid egg whites). This serves 3-4.  With a fork, pick up the slices of matza so that both sides of every piece are infused with the eggs. 

To this mixture add two thoroughly mashed sliced bananas. Stir the mixture together. Pour this mixture into a hot pan greased with butter or margarine. Let it sit and fry for less than a minute. Then Flip. Cook 2 minutes. If using a smaller diameter pan, flip once more, let sit as it bubbles away, and flip yet one more time.  Serve with cinnamon sprinkled lovingly and sparingly from above. If you want it even sweeter, add maple syrup to your portion.  Invite your friends.  They'll love you.

Khachapuri: Georgian cheese bread

Back in June I was delegated with cooking a Father's Day dinner, and I made this cheese bread, sort of a flat Georgian (as in Tiblisi, not Atlanta) calzone.  I ran into Naomi on the street and was bragging/complaining about having to cook my own dinner that day and I told her what I was making.  She said that I had to send her the recipe for the khachapuri.  I said I would soon, five months have passed, and since today is her birthday, I thought I should finally get around to posting it.

This is lightly adapted from the recipe in Paula Wolfert's The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean, which consists mostly of recipes from Greece and Macedonia, Syria, Southeastern Turkey (especially Gaziantep), and Georgia.  Many of Wolfert's later books have been justly criticized for being a pastiche of recipes from magazine articles, and Georgia doesn't really qualify as Mediterranean, but most of the recipes in this book are REALLY good, so who cares.  Believe it or not, I have tried a lot of khachapuri recipes in my day, and this one works the best.  I have modified it by making the crust a bit softer, and the filling a tangier, cheesier (American cheese consumption has tripled since 1970 so this would seem to be consonant with contemporary tastes) and more custardy.

So happy birthday Naomi -- maybe Tabitha will like this.  Most people do:

Kachapuri (Georgian Cheese Bread)

Ingredients

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup plain yogurt (lowfat is ok, nonfat isn't, nor is the thick Greek yogurt)
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• large pinch salt
• 6 ounces pound Greek or Bulgarian feta, or a bit more if you want, crumbled
• 8 ounces fresh salted mozzarella
• Salt and pepper to season
• 3 eggs, beaten well
• 1 tablespoon or a bit more of butter or oil to cook

Method

1. Set aside 1/4 cup of flour for dusting when you roll out the dough (you may need more). Put another 1/4 cup of flour in a mixing bowl,  blend in the oil and then the yogurt, stirring in the same direction. 
2. With a fork, mix the remainder of the flour with the cornstarch, baking soda and salt.  Add to the mixture in the other bowl a bit at a time, continuing to stir in the same direction.  When the dough being to adhere, dust with the flour that you set aside cover with a towel and set aside for 2 hours.  You can also put the dough in a plastic bag in the fridge overnight at this point.
3. Mix the cheeses, salt and pepper (I like it peppery, about 15 turns of the grinder) and the eggs.
4. Divide the dough in 2 even pieces, and pat one into a flat dish on a floured surface where you can roll it out.  Roll the dough to a circle about 10 inches, flouring the dough and the rolling pin and being careful not to break it.  If you can't get it quite this big, that is OK, just plan on using a bit less of the cheese filling.  
5. Put half the cheese filling in a disk in the center, leaving a large border around, about 5 inches.  
6. Bring the four edges of the dough together like an envelope to cover the filling and pinch with your fingers.  Pat into a 7 inch disk. Don't worry if it is not perfectly round. 
7. Repeat with the remaining dough and cheese.
8. Heat the butter on low in two 8 or 9 inch nonstick or cast iron skillets and transfer the pies to them, flat bottom side down. 
9. Cover and cook the pies about 15 minutes,  flip, cover and cook 15 minutes more.  By cooking the seamless side down first the top side will cook lightly, making it less likely that the cheese will leak.  Even if it does when you flip it, don't worry, it will just turn into tasty crusty cheese.
10. Ideally, these should be served at once, piping hot, but they can also be made in advance, wrapped in foil, and reheated in the oven.  They will even last for a few days in the fridge.  I have never tried freezing them.  
11. They are traditionally served with tkemali, a Georgian sour plum sauce.  Since this is not readily available, I have served it with prune or rhubarb sauce or a sour Indian chutney out of a jar. It is also just fine by itself. See the recipes below.

One large pie: You can also make a single large pie by rolling the dough into a 14 inch circle and using a large 12-inch skillet to cook it. You will have a pie about 10 inches round. It will look much more impressive, but also be more difficult to  handle, so you are better off making the two pies the first time you try it.

Sauces:  Saute about 3 cloves of sliced garlic in oil until soft but not brown.  Add a sliced fresh red or green chili with the seeds, or 1/2 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes.  Add a cup or two of sliced rhubarb (in the spring) or pitted sliced Italian prune plums (in the fall) , 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and if you want it a bit sweet, 1 tablespoon of brown or white sugar.  Cook for about 10 minutes until it becomes a sauce.  Add a handful of chopped fresh coriander and cook a few minutes more.  This chutney also goes nicely with roast chicken. I have never tried it with cranberries in the late fall or winter, but I don't see why it wouldn't work, though I would add more sugar.

Matzo Brei, Sri-Lankan and Galitzianer style

I am not going to provide a standard matzo brei recipe -- most people have their favorites already, and anyone else can find one in a cookbook or on the internet. However most recipes fall squarely into the category of breakfast foods, a French-toast substitute made out of the bread of affliction and usually served sweet. (Personally, I like mine with salt, pepper, cinnamon sugar, and sometimes date honey.)

Here I offer two savory matzo breis:

Matzo Brei, Sri-Lankan style (Kotthu Roti)

Kotthu Roti (Litvak style)

Our Montreal cousins often go to a Sri Lankan restaurant in their neighborhood called Jolee, which serves a dish called kotthu roti which is made of leftover bread, chopped up, and fried on a griddle with seasonings, eggs, veggies and other ingredients. It is a great way of using up leftovers. This is popular street food and supposedly, in Tamil cities in Southern India and Sri Lanka, the night is permeated by the sound of bread being chopped on griddles for kotthu roti. It is so popular that a lot of bread never makes it to the leftover stage and is produced especially for this dish. My first reaction on tasting it was that it was like a South Asian matzo brei, and this year I finally tried it:

Ingredients

• 6 matzos
• 1-3 tablespoons oil
• 1/2 tablespoon cumin seed
• 1/2 tablespoon mustard seed (if you swing that way, see below)
• 1/4 teaspoon turmeric (optional)
• 1-2 cups chopped oniony stuff (white parts of scallions, shallots, red or yellow onions)
• 1-3 green chilies, chopped
• 10-20 curry leaves (optional, if available)
• 4 -8 oz. finely shredded cabbage
• 1-2 medium tomatoes, seeded and chopped (you can also substitute a chopped sweet red pepper)
• salt
• 1-4 eggs, lightly scrambled and salted
• handful of fresh coriander

Method

1. Break matzos into medium size pieces. Put in a large bowl and cover with cold water, and leave for about five minutes. You may need to weight the matzos down so that they are covered. Drain well, even if the matzos are still a little hard. Leave it in the bowl, covered, while you gather and chop the other ingredients, and it will continue to soften. (Matzo brei cooks better if the matzo is not oversoaked.
2. Heat oil in a very large nonstick skillet until very hot.
3. Add the mustard and cumin seeds, and heat until the cumin darkens slightly and the mustard pops.
4. Add the curry leaves and stir.
5. Add turmeric and stir.
6. Add onions (sprinkle with salt) and chilies and stir until soft but not brown, about 5 minutes.
7. Add cabbage and cook until wilted. Brown it a bit if you want.
8. Add tomatoes and stir fry a few minutes. Add a bit more salt.
9. Add the matzos and let it sit for a few minutes, and then stir fry about 10-15 minutes, until lightly browned and no longer soggy. They will sort of swell and crisp lightly at the same time. Taste for salt and add more if necessary.
10. Push the mixture over to one side of the skillet. Pour a bit of oil onto the exposed part of the skillet, and add the eggs. Let it cook undisturbed for about a minute, and then scramble and cook until done. Stir to incorporate into the other ingredients.
11. Add fresh coriander, stir and serve to the relief of people who are getting very bored with their diet as Passover starts to drag.

Serves 3-4 for lunch with a salad.

Why don't you soak the matzos with the eggs? Most recipes call for soaking the matzos in egg after the water soak, but that leaves you with a texture too similar to regular matzo brei and not enough like kotthu roti. The matzo will steam and soften in the skillet and doesn't need to be soaked in egg for this dish.

Mustard seeds: (You may skip this section if you eat kitniyot. You may also skip this if you don't know what kitniyot are and therefore don't care whether you eat mustard seeds on Passover or not.) I personally follow David Golinkin (http://www.responsafortoday.com/engsums/3_4.htm ) on the issue of the prohibition of kitniyot and consider it a "foolish custom." I have never been much for stringency, and if Ovadiah Yosef eats it, why can't we? (Not that he would ever eat in my house anyway.) Besides, my grandfather said that our last name, Divack may have been derived from Dweck, a common Syrian name and that we might have some Middle Eastern ancestry. For grains like rice I can almost understand holding to the stringency, but mustard seeds? Would anyone every mistake ground mustard with flour from one of the forbidden grains? Adding prohibition to prohibition is contrary to the joy of the holiday which already has enough restrictions to keep us all busy. That having been said, you can skip the mustard seeds, use only cumin and it will be fine.

Other ingredients: You can really make this with what you want -- these are the vegetables that I had on hand. I used mostly scallions, since every year, we have a plate of scallions that we intend to use to whip each other while singing dayenu, and always forget to do it, so it was a good way to use up the scallions. Shallots are probably the most authentic, but use what you have. The same goes for the other veggies. I liked the cabbage and tomato combination (don't overdo the tomatoes) but you could add other greens, shredded zucchini (I would salt this lightly first and then rinse to eliminate the extra moisture), and chopped green beans, if you consider them acceptable during the holiday. If you want, instead of the eggs, it would also be good with some leftover shredded roast chicken. In any case, you need to use plenty of oil.


Galitzianer-style savory Matzo Brei:

Over 30 years ago, Celia, the mother of my mother's friend Susan, made this matzo brei. She said that the got the recipe "From a Galitzianer woman." In retrospect, I wonder if the original inspiration was Tamil. I can't believe that people who put sugar in their gefilte fish would think a such a wonderful, savory thing to do with matzo brei.

To make it, make matzo brei the ordinary way: soak and drain the matzo, and then add one beaten egg per board. For about 4-6 pieces, grate in one medium to large onion and season with plenty of salt an pepper. Cook in vegetable oil or schmaltz (chicken fat) in a non-stick skillet. This should be scrambled and not pancake-style. I like it best somewhat long cooked until at least some of the pieces are browned, crisp and chewy. This is a perfect side dish with any dish with gravy. like a brisket, or even with a plain roasted chicken if you are sicker of potatoes than you are of matzo.

Sweet potato and pecan pancakes for Thanksgiving morning breakfast

I usually post recipes soon after I make them, so that any of the latest tweaks and improvements can be included. I haven't made this recipe for a few years, but I am posting it tonight since as soon as I make it tomorrow morning , we have to clean up and leave for Worcester, Massachusetts for an intimate Thanksgiving dinner with 50 of our favorite people. My daughter is home, however briefly, for Thanksgiving and I promised her I would make these pancakes, in part as an incentive to get her up and us on the road early. It worked as well for Harry and for Andrew and Bruce, friends who were staying with us. Besides, they are fabulous and worth making even if you don't have a long awaited guest to feed, and they will hold you to the main meal later.

Sweet potato and pecan pancakes

1. Bake a large sweet potato at 350 degrees for about 1 ½ hours or until very tender. Cool, peel and mash. You will need about 1 ¼ cups for the pancakes. This is best done the night before. (Any leftover sweet potato is fine as long as it dosen’t have too much seasoning.
2. Sift together 1 ½ cups flour (you may include up to ½ cup whole wheat if you want, but don’t overdo it along with 3 teaspoons baking powder and 1 teaspoon salt.
3. Put the sweet potato puree in a separate bowl. Add ¼ cup melted butter (ideally) or vegetable oil, 2 beaten eggs, and 1 ½ cups milk. Stir until you have a smooth puree.
4. Stir the moist ingredients to the dry ingredients, about 1 cup at a time. Don’t over mix or over beat. The secret to good pancakes is that the batter should be lumpy rather than smooth. If it looks to wet, as a bit more flour.
5. Stir in about ½ cup of chopped toasted pecans, and a few gratings of fresh nutmeg. Let the batter sit a bit while you heat your griddle on medium heat. I find nonstick or impeccably seasoned cast iron works best, though I use nonstick since I can never keep my cast iron seasoned impeccably.
6. When the griddle is hot, grease it very lightly (remember, these are cakes and they are baked, not fried, even if it is on top of the stove) with butter or oil.
7. Drop tablespoons of batter on the griddle. Bake until bubbles begin to appear and it looks a little dry around the edges.
8. Flip the pancakes and cook on the other side until done.
9. Serve hot with butter and maple syrup.

My wife claims that her mother used to warm maple syrup and butter together for her brother. My mother in law disputed this until they day she died. (She said that she did it for both of them.) I think that melting the butter in the syrup is excessive -- better let each person to put each on in the proportion they want. However, warming the syrup is a nice touch, and if the butter is at room temperature, it won't cool down the pancakes too much.

You can also make this with sliced slightly underripe bananas, but add a bit more flour because they are a bit moister. I frankly like it better without.

Roasted cauliflower and eggs

If you haven't discovered it yet, roasted cauliflower completely blows boiled or steamed out of the water. Instead of mush, you get a beautifully caramelized vegetable. It is also a cinch, can be varied in interesting ways, and combined with eggs in various forms, makes a nice main dish.

All you do is:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Wash the cauliflower and separate it into medium florets. Dice the center stem as well, and if you want it, the thick ribs from the leaves, pulling off the strings like you would do for celery.
3. Oil a large baking sheet or jelly roll pan with a peanut or olive oil, or spray it with oil spray. (If you want to make clean up a lot easier, line it with foil first. Sprinkle it with coarse salt --we usually use Maldon sea salt for this and much else.
4. Put the cauliflower on the sheet, spray and sprinkle with salt.
5. Bake. How long does it take? It depends (on the density of the cauliflower, how hot your oven really is, the type of pan and how crowded it is, etc.), so taste, but about 15-20 minutes should do it, until the cauliflower is lightly browned. If you are going to cook the cauliflower more later and like it on the crisp side, less is more.
   
6. Broil for a about 5-10 minutes more until done how you want it. Well browned is nice, carbonized is excessive.
7. Serve hot, warm, room temperature or cold. It is great dipped into tahini or hummus, and is even better in one of the following egg dishes.

Variation #1: instead of spraying, toss the cauliflower with oil.

Variation #2: after tossing the cauliflower with oil, sprinkle it with curry powder. (I use a sieve for this to make it a bit more even.) After Madhur Jaffrey's Invitation to Indian Cooking came out in the early 1970s, I did not use curry powder for over 20 years. My loss. Although her opposition to prepared curry powder was a useful corrective to what passed for Indian food inthose days, I hope we have all moved beyond the ostentatious attachment to authenticity.

Cauliflower with eggs, North-Indian style

1. Heat 1-3 tablespoons fat of choice in a very large nonstick skillet on medium-high heat. Peanut or vegetable oil or ghee would be nice.
2. When hot, add 1 tablespoon of whole cumin seeds.
3. When they begin to sizzle and darken a few shades, add a dried red chili or two if you like and then add add 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon turmeric and stir.
4. Add one large onion, cut in half and sliced thin. Salt lightly and cook until soft and at least lightly browned. The more fat, the easier the browning, but you don't necessarily want them crisp here.
5. Add ginger, garlic and green chili to taste. (For example, a 1 inch piece of ginger peeled and chopped fine, 5 cloves of chopped garlic, and a chili or two, seeded if you want the flavor without some of the heat. You can use more, less, or none at all of these).
6. Stir for a few minutes, and if you want add 1 tablespoon ground coriander and 1 teaspoon ground cumin. If you add these spices, you might want to also add a diced tomato or two (canned is better than OK), which will round out the dish and give the spices more time to loose their raw flavor. Stir and cook a few minutes more, lowering the heat so the spices don't burn.
7. Add the cauliflower (or as much of it as you want or can fit) , and if you have any roasted potatoes lying around, add them too (they are worth making for this) and fry together, stirring occasionally, until the flavors are well blended and the cauliflower is hot.
8. Make a well in the center, add a little more of your cooking fat, and add 1-4 eggs, beaten lightly and salted.
9. Cook until the eggs are set, stirring a bit, and then break them up and mix with the cauliflower. Sprinkle lightly with garam masala (Indian mixed roasted spices) or ground roasted cumin.
10. Turn into a serving dish and garnish with a handful of chopped fresh coriander.
11. Serve with flatbreads -- chapatis or parathas best, good pita more than acceptable. This makes a great main dish with a salad (esp a yogurt and cucumber salad). It is often my wife's main dish of choice.

Cauliflower Kookoo (Iranian fritata)

We had this the Friday night for dinner when we were having Persian Jewish food and a number of the guests were vegetarian and therefore missed out on some of the best Chicken with Quince we have ever made (not our skill, but the quince were incredibly flavorful). It is extremely simple.

1. Brown a medium-large halved sliced onion in olive oil.
2. Mix the onion, 6 or seven beaten eggs, and a handful of chopped fresh together. Stir in some cauliflower -- we used about half a head here.
3. Heat a 9 inch nonstick skillet on medium high heat.
4. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Heat until it shimmers.
5. Add the egg mixture and shake the pan to even it out.
6. After about a minute, when you start to see sizzling around the edges, turn the heat to low and cook about 20 minute until the eggs are almost set.
7. Broil 5 minutes to finish cooking and brown the top.
8. Good hot, warm cold, and reheats well.

Shakshuka with Cauliflower

Shakshuka is a Tunisian Jewish dish served in a lot of Israeli restaurants. It is just eggs poached in spicy tomato sauce. We found that it is very nice with roasted veggies, cooked the sauce before you add the eggs. Here is our variation with cauliflower:

1. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil on medium heat in a 10-12 inch skillet with a cover.
2. Add 5 or more cloves of chopped garlic. Do not brown.
3. When soft, as a chopped jalapeno, leaving seeds in if you want it hot and stir a bit.
4. Add a handful of chopped flatleaf parsley and stir a bit, then add 1 tablespoon tomato paste and stir.
5. Add a 15 oz can of chopped tomatoes -- I am partial to the chopped cherry tomatoes from Italy under the del Valle label. Add salt to taste.
6. Cook about 15 minutes until the oil begins to separate, adding a bit of water if it is too thick.
7. Add a cup or two of roasted cauliflower and heat through.
8. Turn heat to medium low, make 4 depressions, and add 4 eggs. Cover the skill. Cook gently about 4 or 5 minutes. The white should still be set but the yolk soft.
9. Serve with pita bread for dipping. (I like thick pita with this -- the kind produced by Pita Express in Brooklyn in excellent here.) It tastes best when you eat it together from the common skillet, but these days of H1N1, you may want to serve it on plates. Use a spatula to take the eggs out so they don't break.