Orzo Salad

                Roberta's Revised and Annotated

          Phil's Aunt Shayna's Friend Joy's ORZO SALAD

Can be made a day ahead.  Or more than a day.  Vegetarian.  Vegan if you use soy cheese.  Firm tofu might be fine too, but R3A2 Moosewood Tofu Salad, to be posted soon, is my first choice with tofu.

     1 box orzo (16 oz)

          I prefer the rice shape to the teardrops.

          You can use any noodle, but orzo makes it easy to

          serve with a single big spoon.  

     1/2 big red onion, chopped

     1 pint kalamata olives, halved to remove pits. 

          Or sliced into smaller pieces. You can slice pitted 

          ones, but I find they have less flavor.

     3 Tb dill, fresh    )

     3 Tb parsley, fresh ) stems removed and chopped

          Who can accurately measure dill or parsley?

          I use 4 or 5 good-sized sprigs of each.  More is fine,

          too.

     12 oz feta (I like Bonfiore brand), crumbled by hand

           In Israel, cubes of white Bulgarian cheese work fine.

     4 Tb lemon juice

     1/3 c olive oil

     Salt to taste (I use very little, < 1/4 tsp, because feta 

            is very salty)

    

Start boiling the water and then do the chopping while the noodles cook.  When the noodles are al dente, rinse them but not so much that they get cold.  Add the rest of the ingredients to the warm noodles and mix. The warmth of the noodles melts the smaller crumbles of cheese and blends the flavors.  You could serve immediately but I refrigerate and serve cold or at room temperature. 

"Serve with tomatoes" wrote Joy but I never do.

Still tastes great a week later, if you have any left.

                           Laptop versions 5/7/01; 1/5/03; 4/29/05; 1/3/11 rjm

Spinach Squares (Fingers)

Libby's* Spinach Fingers (like a crustless quiche)

The night before, leave out to soften and thaw, respectively:
        1/2 to 1 stick butter (I use 6 T = 3/4 stick)
        two 10-oz packages frozen chopped spinach
I often use one 16-oz package, alone or with ~4 oz (2 stalks) chopped celery. Frozen broccoli, chopped or florets, is a good variation.

A few hours before, if you think of it:
Grate
        1/2 lb cheddar (grate it cold, then leave it out
                   to reach room temperature)
Also, take out of refrigerator to remove the chill
        6 eggs
        24 oz small curd cottage cheese (room temp is better)

Now to make the fingers:
Squeeze that thawed SPINACH in handfuls to make it as dry as possible. (Broccoli is much harder to squeeze, so the final product is a bit wetter.) Put in small bowl and set aside.

In large bowl, mix with spoon
        that BUTTER
        that COTTAGE CHEESE
        that CHEDDAR
Blend in, one at a time
        those EGGS
Mix in by handfuls, twiddling to separate
        that SPINACH (or broccoli, or either plus chopped celery)
Stir in
        3 rounds of 2 T flour each (6 T all together)
                   (use matzo meal during Passover)
        "seasoned salt" says Libby
Instead of 'seasoned salt,' I use nutmeg, garlic powder, onion powder, thyme, and pepper. I just sprinkle them on top of each round of flour so they are a nice but not solid dusting. I use no salt because I find the cottage cheese and cheddar salty enough.

Bake in a greased 9 x 13 pan at 325, 1 hr till firm and slightly brown on top (convection oven at 300 for 45 min is OK but doesn't brown). Cool a bit and cut up for serving/freezing. Libby calls this recipe "spinach squares" but I tend to cut narrow rectangles ("fingers") for New Year's Eve parties. I cut big squarish rectangles (12 per pan) for breakfasts.

"Good reheated. Freezes well." says Libby. YES! I make up about 3 batches for big parties a week or more ahead of time, then cut up and freeze. I reheat, in the microwave or whatever oven is going, in batches as needed, straight from the freezer. A breakfast portion, microwaved straight from the freezer, is ready in 2-2.5 min.

laptop versions: rjm 8/25/93, rev 12/4/01, 12/16/02, 6/1/04, 10/29/06
rev/post 11/25/12

Libby is my father-in-law's wife. She has given me a number of great recipes over the years. Stay tuned for her Apricot Bars and Cocoa Brownies (a good cake-y alternative to my fudge-style Killer Brownies which come from a recipe I found on a box of unsweetened chocolate years ago).

Tuna Mousse

MY MOTHER RUTH MORRIS'S TUNA MOUSSE

Notes

(a) All measurements are suggestions at best, especially since this recipe dates from the days when tuna came in 7 oz. cans.  Then it came in 6 oz. cans and I certainly didn't open a second can and put in 1/6 of it.  Now it comes in  5 oz cans but sometimes you can find 7 oz packets.  Using less than 7 oz. is OK but 5 would probably not be enough.  
(b) I made this in Israel in a faculty-housing kitchen and some of the guests were Orthodox.  The (minor) modifications improved it.

1. Chop fine and set aside
     2 Tb. parsley, minced
     1 Tb. minced green onion or 2 scallions, sliced 1/8"
NOTE: These two do not seem equivalent to me.  I use 2 scallions. In Israel, the scallions were HUGE so I used only 1, white and green parts, both. 
      Dill to be the equivalent of 1 tsp dry
I prefer fresh, using about 4 sprigs, maybe 1 or 2 Tb, if you measure.  More dill is always good.  I also set aside some for garnish.

2.  Chop and set aside separately from other vegetables
     1/2 c. cucumber, plus a little extra, separately,
             for garnish
Separately, I assume, because it is heavy so you don't want to beat it with the egg beater when the time comes.  It seems to me you could fold in all the vegetables at the same time, but maybe the minced ones disperse better if you beat them? 

NOW BEGIN THE REAL THING

3.  In a large bowl, sprinkle
     1 envelope unflavored gelatin
on
     2 Tb lemon juice (I use juice from 1/3 lemon)
and let stand for 5 minutes.

4.  Meanwhile, or toward the end of the 5 minutes if you have a fast boiler:  Boil
     1/2 c. water
Water must be boiling, says Mom.  She means that when you add the soup to the lemon/gelatin mixture, the water must have just boiled or the gelatin won't dissolve completely.

5.  Add to boiling water
     1 tsp. Carmel Parve Chicken-style soup mix or
          1 chicken bouillion cube
Then add soup to bowl with gelatin mixture and stir to dissolve all the gelatin.

6.  Stir in and then beat with egg beater until frothy  (or beat with a fork until you are tired of doing it, if you are on sabbatical and have no egg beater; you'll get a denser mousse, but a tasty one):
     that PARSLEY/CHIVE/DILL mixture
     1/2 c. mayonnaise
     1/4 c. milk (low fat is fine)
     1 tsp. prepared mustard (Dijon, e.g.)
     1/4 tsp. black pepper

7.  Fold in
     1 can tuna (7 oz.)
(regarding "7 oz.": see above. I use water-packed tuna, squeezed dry, and flaked with fork or fingers)
     that chopped CUCUMBER
Put into mold and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, or overnight if you can.

8.  Unmold and decorate with
      pimiento, says Mom
       a little chopped cucumber and a bit of dill, too, say I

HINT :   Using an 8" disposable cake or pie tin as a mold works famously because it is so easy to unmold.   Just set the pan in hot tap water for about 30 seconds.  In Israel I used a disposable cake pan out of necessity.  For sentimental reasons, I often use the molds I inherited from Mom, but a cake pan is just as good.
                            

rjm 1/20/97; 12/16/98; 1/3/00; 8/23/12
typos corr 10/17/12