Chicken Rub

It's been a while since I've had the time to sit down and cook much of anything. I've taken advantage of the fact that the last two days I've been feeling to gross to go anywhere as an opportunity to get into the kitchen for myself.

I had a bunch of chicken sitting in the freezer so I started throwing spices and herbs together to make a rub. I'm still working on the right proportions, but I found a great rub that I want to duplicate. It involves a mixture of Zatar, garlic powder, parsley, oregano, salt and little bit of ground black pepper.

I've been playing around with more Zatar than anything else, but that makes it a little too strong. I've put too much black pepper in, and that is obvious when that happens. The garlic is tough, and might not be necessary.

The first time I made the chicken, it was great with a little cheese on the top. I tried making it as a sandwich and in a pita. I'll keep playing around and maybe eventually it will come together as a perfect mixture.

Baby 2-Cheese Bareakas with Zatar

I found a basic recipe at the All Recipes website and as you have probably guessed, I changed it up a little. Basically, these are little appetizer type pastries that can be filled with just about anything. They are going to go really well with my salad and hard-boiled egg in the morning.

Ingredients
1 cup mozzarella cheese, shreaded
1 cup yellow cheese, shreaded
1/4 cup onion, chopped
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp black pepper
2 tsp parsley, dried
zatar

2 eggs
2 tbsp water
pastry crust - room temperature
flour

Instructions
30 minutes of prep time
23 - 30 minutes of cooking time

First mix together 1 egg, all of your cheeses, garlic powder, onion, black pepper, and parsley.
Put the bowl of this aside.

Crack the 2nd egg and mix it with your water in a small bowl.
Set this aside.

Turn your oven on to 175 celsius or 350 fahrenheit.

Lightly flour the counter top and your cooking sheets.

Roll out your pastry crust on the floured surface and cut it into 1.5in x 1.5in squares (The size doesn't really matter that much).
Put about 1 tbsp of your cheese mixture onto each square/rectangle of pastry crust.
Paint the edges with the water/egg mixture.
Fold the pastry over into whatever shape you like. I tried triangles, envelopes and rolls. This is entirely up to you. Just make sure that the edges that touch each other have some egg on them so it stays together.

Place them on your baking sheet.
Paint the tops with egg/water mixture.

Sprinkle as much/little Zatar as you want on the top.

Put in your 175 C (350 F) oven for 23 - 30 minutes.
Check on them and take them out wen they start to turn golden brown and have puffed up.

They are best when served warm.

Like anything, I'm glad I made this for myself before I tried to make them for anyone else. They didn't turn out to be the best thing I've ever made. They are pretty good, but I need to play with the cheese and find a blend that I like. I also need to find the right size to cut the squares into. According to the recipe, there were supposed to be only 12, and I ended up with 19. I think there was supposed to be more cheese in each one.

Not the best I've had, but also not the worst thing in the world. Play with the different blends of cheese, you can get some interesting combinations and I'm sure you can add some other things to bake into the pastry. I'll play again later and let you know how it turns out!

B'tayavon!

Challah From Scratch

I don't think it's my recipe to give away this time, but I emailed my mom asking her for her challah recipe. I just wanted to make some that reminded me of home. If you're wondering this is a very simple break recipe. It takes a little while to get things going and letting the dough rise and re-rise. By looking at the pictures I am providing here, you can tell there is a trick to getting the braids to work out the right way.

After preparing the dough I made a four-braided-challah. That did not work very well. The challah plumped up a little better but it's not that easy to make a 4-braided challah. For the second challah, I made a five-braid. This one worked a lot better and the rolls ended up turning out really well.

I love Zatar. It is a great spice to toss on just about anything. So I figured, why not?
Mom also suggested to put it on there, presumably because she knows how I feel about this flavor.

It worked really well and I loved the taste of both of the Challot. She did leave instructions on how to make sure that the Challah rises better and gives a more airy texture. I will do that next time. Shabbat Shalom.