Shabbat dinners are legendary at the Margolin household in Piedmont. Dawn and Sandy Margolin usually welcome another family or two to their oversized dining table. They light candles, say the blessings and follow all the traditions, including one of their own: Their Friday night menu never varies.
Dawn always makes her Spice-Rubbed Shabbat Chicken and Chocolate Banana Bread.
Since the family is sometimes invited out for Shabbat, Dawn said she can’t say she makes this menu every week, but “basically I’ve been making it for every Shabbat dinner I’ve hosted for 25 years.”
“Knowing what I’m going to make each week makes me comfortable inviting over guests without having stress about it. I ask the guests to bring the salad, because making salad causes me stress,” she says with a laugh.
Dawn, a religious school teacher and a Kindergym leader, also has shared these recipes with parents of many of her students as well as many of her guests, friends and fellow members of Temple Beth Abraham in Oakland. And now, believe it or not, her menu has become standard fare in many other homes.
Below are my adaptations of her recipes.
Spice-Rubbed Shabbat Chicken
Serves 4 to 6
4 Tbs. olive oil plus 1 Tbs. for greasing pan
11⁄2 tsp. salt
11⁄2 tsp. ground black pepper
1/8 tsp. ground red (cayenne) pepper
3 tsp. ground cumin
11⁄2 tsp. turmeric
whole chicken, 41⁄2 to 5 lbs.
3 large carrots cut into 1⁄2-inch slices
3 to 4 cups of 1⁄2-inch chunks of root vegetables (such as turnips, butternut squash or potatoes)
1 large onion, cut into 1⁄2-inch chunks
10 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 cup chicken stock
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease large, deep baking or roasting pan with 1 Tbs. oil. Mix salt, peppers, cumin, turmeric and remaining oil in small bowl. Remove excess fat from chicken as well as any organs that might be packed inside. Rinse. Rub 1 tsp. of the spice mixture inside the chicken and another 1 Tbs. on the outside. Place in greased pan. Scatter carrots, root vegetable chunks, onion pieces and whole cloves of garlic. Drizzle remaining spice mixture on top. Pour chicken stock over veggies. Roast for about 11⁄2 hours, basting chicken occasionally and turning and stirring vegetables in cooking liquid. Chicken is done when juices run clear when thigh is pierced with a sharp knife.
Dawn serves it with mashed potatoes, or adds the potatoes to the baking pan.
Chocolate Banana Bread
Serves 12
1⁄2 cup parve margarine (1 stick)
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 egg, beaten
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
1 cup parve semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 large bananas, cut into 1⁄4-inch slices
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt margarine and pour into 5×9-inch loaf pan. Sprinkle brown sugar on top. Mix well. Combine flour and baking powder, add to pan. Add egg and mix well. Add nuts (Dawn prefers no nuts) and chocolate chips. Do not stir. Heat banana slices in microwave for 2 minutes until fully softened. Drain if necessary. Add hot bananas to pan and mix well until the chocolate chips melt. Bake about 40 to 50 minutes until it looks set and the top springs back when touched. Turn out of pan. Cool on wire rack.
Faith Kramer is a Bay area food writer. Her columns alternate with those of Louise Fiszer. She blogs her food at www.clickblogappetit.blogspot.com. Contact her at [email protected].