Avocado Matzah Toast
04/08/15

Avocado Matzah Toast Jewhungry Kosher blog

2011 Whitney is giggling like a little school girl right now. See, I was just starting out in this blog game and I already had a girl-crush on one special food blogger—-one Amy Kritzer from What Jew Wanna Eat. I loved her creativity. I loved that she didn’t fit into any textbook definition of “Jewish”. I loved that she gave voice to a Jewish crowd that loves Jewish food and their cultural identity. Plus, she’s funny. Fast forward 2 years and I’m receiving an email from her asking if I’d like to collaborate on an e-cookbook.  I mean, are you kidding me!?!?! I didn’t even have to think about it. YES! And then my husband was all, “You work full time, you have an infant and you are going to write a cookbook in 6 weeks!?!?” Again . . . YES!! Amy asked me!! Clearly, he didn’t understand the amazingness of the situation as much as I did. Marine scientists? What are ya gonna do?  Anywho, you can find out more about our cookbook in Amy’s post below so let me keep on gushing. I am extremely grateful to Amy for making this here guest post and for being a mentor to me in this blogging world. I truly admire her career. I admire her take on food. I admire her for her fun outlook on life and most importantly, I admire her for being incredibly successful and not taking herself so seriously. Check out the post and recipe below. I hope everyone is having a happy, peaceful and meaningful Passover.

 

Hello, y’all! Amy from What Jew Wanna Eat here. I’m pumped to guest post for Whitney today. I don’t remember how I first found Whitney and her adorable blog, but I was immediately drawn in by her candid stories and cuter than cute family (not to mention, mutual love of Jewy blog names).

Avocado Matzah Toast Jewhungry Kosher Blog

Last year, I got to know Whitney even better when we wrote a Passover e-book along with Sarah and Liz. Not only was it super fun chatting with Whitney and the girls on our weekly video chats, but I got to see first hand some of her creative recipes like Zucchini Fries with Horseradish Aioli and Mashed Potato Bar (um, can I eat a mashed potato bar every night?)  So when Whitney recently announced she’s expecting baby number two, I was obviously psyched, but sad to learn she had pretty much only eaten matzah ball soup her first trimester! I love matzah ball soup as much as the next Jew, but there is such thing as too much of a good thing.

Avocado Matzah Toast Jewhungry Kosher Blog

Now that it’s Passover, I thought Whitney could use some easy, kid-friendly, chametz-free noshes. My go-to breakfast of late is the Pinterest-worthy avocado toast, so I thought why not create a Passover version? This one has a Middle Eastern inspiration with za’atar, and a little kick from crushed red pepper (for my Texas roots).

 

Avocado Matzah Toast Jewhungry kosher blog

 

Avocado Matzah Toast with Za’atar and Radishes

 

Ingredients:

1 small avocado

1 teaspoon za’atar, or to taste (if not eating kitniyot, leave out sesame seeds)

½ lemon, juiced

2 matzot

¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper (optional)

2 radish, sliced thin with a knife or mandolin

1 hard boiled egg, sliced thin

Drizzle extra virgin olive oil

 

Directions:

In a small bowl, mash together avocado, za’atar and lemon juice with a fork. Carefully spread on matzah pieces, making sure not to break matzah. Sprinkle with crushed red pepper and garnish with radish, egg, and olive oil. Nosh!

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Krab Cakes with Zucchini Noodles & Avocado Crema
03/30/14

kosher krab cakes Jewhungry blog

It happened that when I was 10 years-old I got drunk.  I didn’t mean to get drunk.  To be honest, I didn’t know what ‘drunk’ was and it’s not like I set out to get drunk either.  It’s just that when a byproduct of your culture/religion is a beverage that can only be described as the simple child of the marriage between grape juice and cheap red wine, children will get drunk.  They just will.

Manischewitz was the game and I was the player.  The adults around our Passover Seder table were smart enough not to finish their required 4 cups of Manischewitz (it’s not even known as ‘wine’; that’s how sugary sweet and cheap Manischewitz is).  And so, when no one was looking I finished everybody’s cups.  I mean EVERYBODY’S.

krab cakes kosher jewhungry the blog

I don’t have to tell you what several glasses of Manischewitz can do to a 10 year-old.  Needless to say, there were stomach aches and there may have been a fetal position here or there but I did survive.  I also didn’t learn my lesson. Fast forward 9 years and there were definitely a few bottles of Manischewitz passed around a gathering of the only Jewish kids at my small Ohio liberal arts college in the name of celebrating Passover.  Because hey, nothing says ‘freedom’ like celebrating Passover in college.

krab kosher jewhungry blog

And now I’m nearly 34 and we’ve moved way beyond Manischewitz.  Heck, we’ve moved way beyond matzah.  Passover in our house still smells of the usual potato kugel and roast chicken.  But thanks to the glory of almond meal and quinoa and my own confidence in the kitchen, Passover food in our house is healthy, delicious and void of the overly sugary and overly processed.

The recipe in this post was inspired by my intense craving for a former favorite meal of mine back in my treif (non-kosher) days.  When I was living in Athens, GA and working at the Hillel at the University of Georgia, I would indulge my ultimate Southern food cravings with occasional crab cake.  I’m not saying I’m proud of it, but I am saying I loooooooved it. And now that we’re a kosher home, I wanted to find a way to indulge my Southern cravings with my kosher kitchen. It was easy to make this recipe Kosher for Passover with the addition of some fresh and raw zucchini.  If you don’t have a Julienne peeler, you can cut them up into small slices or even shred them in a food processor.  However, if you want a Julienne peeler, they’re super cheap and you can get them on Amazon.

krab cakes jewhungry the blog

kosher krab cakes jewhungry bog

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Krab Cakes with Zucchini Noodles & Avocado Crema

Ingredients

  • 7 Sticks of imitation krab meat, coarsely chopped
  • 1 Small red pepper, diced small
  • 4 Green onions, diced small
  • 1 Jalapeno, diced small
  • Juice of 1/2 a lime
  • 1/2 Cup mayonnaise
  • 1/2 Cup matzah meal
  • 1 Bunch cilantro, diced small
  • 1 Tbsp cumin
  • 1/2 Tbsp kosher salt
  • 1/2 Tbsp pepper
  • 5 Tbsp cooking oil
  • 1 large zucchini, sliced into noodles with a julienne peeler
  • {For Avocado Crema} 1/2 Cup sour cream
  • 1/2 Cup mayonnaise
  • 1/2 Avocado
  • 1 Tbsp lime juice

Instructions

  1. In a small bowl, whisk together the sour cream, 1/2 cup of the mayonnaise, 1/2 of an avocado and 1 Tbsp of lime juice. Set aside.
  2. In a large bowl, combine the Krab meat, the remaining 1/4 cup mayonnaise, matzah meal, red pepper, green onions, jalapeno, cilantro, cumin, salt, and pepper. Mix well.
  3. Shape the crab mixture into eight small patties (about the size of your palm). Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
  4. In a large nonstick frying pan, heat the oil over moderate heat. Working in batches if necessary, fry the cakes until golden brown and crisp, about 2 minutes. Turn and fry until golden brown on the other side, about 2 minutes longer. Drain on paper towels.
  5. Serve immediately on top of zucchini noodles with avocado crema and top with a bit more cilantro.
https://jewhungrytheblog.com/krab-cakes-zucchini-noodles-avocado-crema/

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The Comfort List
01/01/13

Happy Solar New Year (us Jews following the lunar calendar, we like to clarify). 🙂

We hope everyone had a safe and yummy New Year’s Eve.

The end of one year and the beginning of another always makes me think of things I’m grateful for; those warm and cozy things/places/events/people/memories that make a person happy. A lot of people work that ‘gratitude’ list. You know, that Oprah-fueled list that’s one part mushy and one part Diabetes-inducing sweet. I applaud those people who actually keep a physical gratitude list. I personally can’t be bothered to pick up a pen and paper before bed every night and write 5 things I’m grateful for—-not because I can’t think of 5 things I’m grateful for but because I’m that lazy. And also, one of the things I’m grateful for is my big comfy bed and I like to be present and in that bed when I’m finally there so no amount of writing anything down is going to take that away (I’m very serious about my bed).

So rather than a gratitude list, we at Jewhungry wrote our own Comfort list. The Comfort List is part expected item (i.e. partner, baby, etc.) and one part indulgent (i.e. sweet, sweet, Panther coffee) because we all can’t be Oprah, right?

P.S. We stuck with 5. We coulda gone on forever with the lists but 5 seems like a nice round number.

Jeremy’s List:

1. Sally Field, my dog

2. My husband

3. Chocolate covered matzah

4. Hillary Clinton

5. Hot baths

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Sally Field, the Dog

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Jeremy and Andy

Whitney’s List:

1. Siona and Yonz

2. Macaroni and Cheese (am I that obvious?)

3. Chocolate chip cookies

4. Coffee (starting at about 7PM every night I start getting excited about the next day’s coffee. I gotta work on that ‘being present’ thing)

5. My bestie, Jackie

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Freshly baked

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Those little girl things that are so sweet.

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No surprise here.

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We are so similar it’s a bit frightening and totally meant to be.

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Yonz davens every morning. I find comfort in him, his blessings and his rituals

What’s on your comfort list?

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