In a world where most jobs have us as “cogs in a wheel” working for low wages, without sight of a final goal for the company or ourselves.
Instead, as a Personal Chef I speak to people about what food means to eeds that would determine the choices of foods we will preparethem. Is it simply for nourishment? Must it be a work of art for them to enjoy it? Are there specific dietary n
For many years I heard the complaints and gave in. I kept kosher and like so many other people I found that my husband and son thought that they could not survive without pasta or Cheerios for 8 days. So, I gave in, I bought the Pesach version of pasta (yuck!) and the Pesach version of Cheerios (3 or four times the price per volume!) and found they were not very good.
I found some basic steps I could take to minimize the expense by avoiding the prepared or convenience items which I rarely use anyway and maximize the taste by using more fresh products.So, no cake mixes. No paying extra for broken matzoh (crumble it yourself if you need to!). Enjoy my brownie recipe using potato starch rather than flour!
First, think in terms of the Mediterranean diet or the Oriental diets. More vegetables, prepared different ways alongside smaller portions of proteins for dinners especially during the week. I love roasted vegetables (white and sweet potatoes, zucchini and more) alongside roasted or baked chicken as well as a stir fry of onion, garlic, mushrooms, peppers, zucchini and yellow squash and more. There is always salads like spinach with strawberry to spice things up.
Secondly, think a bit of flexibility on your menus. Burgers don’t need fillers such as matzoh meal or bread crumbs. Without that, they don’t need the egg t hold it together. Mix the ground beef with chopped onions and garlic and shape the burgers into sliders. Bake, grill or fry as normally would and enjoy! You can also add herbs in the mixture as you choose!
Thirdly, since my husband is now Gluten-Free as we found out he has Celiac I prepare his food without wheat. We love to make potatoes several ways. I make potato kugel (with or without carrots, zucchini or sweet potatoes for color), I make mashed potatoes with sauteed onion (using olive oil and no dairy or dairy substitute). Now according to many authorities quinoa is acceptable during Passover!! Hooray as we love it.
If you are in the area of Palm Beach County, Florida you can hire ChefHelen as your Personal Chef. ChefHelen can do the shopping for menus we have planned out together and prepare the meals in your home on YOUR equipment
Just call, email or text me to set up your free consultation. Chef Helen Gottesman
561-676-2078 .chefhelen@helenshomecooking.com
Check out my website at http://www.helenshomecooking.com
#matzo #KOSHERCHEF #Pesach #Passover #Recipes
In a world where most jobs have us as “cogs in a wheel” working for low wages, without sight of a final goal for the company or ourselves, as a Personal Chef I do everything soup to nets for each client. I find out what
Instead, as a Personal Chef I speak to people about what food means to them that would determine the choices of foods we will prepare for them. Is it simply for nourishment? Must it be a work of art for them to enjoy it? Are there specific dietary needs such as diabetic diet or salt free diet for clients that have been through heat failure or similar issues. Vegetarian or vegan is easy for me since I keep kosher I am very conscious of any indication meat, dairy and shellfish ingredients that would make a dish non-kosher or trayf.
Within the limitations of these health related issues, I find the dishes they most enjoy (or won’t go near). I am able to prepare some of my client’s favorites (and mine) with minor adjustments.
Two weeks ago I prepared one of my signature salmon dishes that normally is marinated in lime, ginger, garlic.oil and soy sauce for a salt free client. I removed the soy sauce for the recipe (I may try the liquid aminos in the future). It was delicious. The husband and wife said they never had such delicious food. I will be back in their kitchen this week to refill their fridge with the foods they most enjoy.
My most requested dishes include roast chicken, beef stew, chicken picata, baked marinated salmon. Roast vegetables, brownies, chicken matzoh ball soup, lentil soup. peanut butter cookies .and meat loaf.
People want healthy well prepared home-style dishes. They can’t believe how good this food tastes. When they tell me this, it is SOOO satisfying. Of course, making money doing what you love is pretty cool too!!
I can use the knowledge I acquired in college studying nutrition as well as the latest trending diet programs to tweak recipes and food choices to an individuals needs.
Call me, tell me what you need, or want. Chef Helen can put together weekly meals, dinners for 2, dinner parties, and of course baking. Always open to new ideas.
Call me at 561-676-2078 or email chefhelen@helenshomecooking.com so I can talk about helping you.
As a Personal Chef I talk to people about food. Most importantly I speak with my current and future clients about how food makes them feel. Food is emotionally charged. Some people had bad experiences, being forced to eat poorly prepared vegetables growing up that made them forever avoid healthy choices and add to their poor nutrition and poor health.
My goal is to turn that around for people. I talk to the potential client , preferably in their home. I find out what they eat and WHY. I am no therapist but giving people roast cauliflower or roast beets that are good enough to snack on has been the beginning of changing people’s lives.
I learn about their cultural food choices. while with my background as an Ashkenazic Jew, brisket and Pflaumen kuchen top my list as do my mother’s spritz cookies (recipes another time) for an Italian it my be meatballs and spaghetti or Lasagna. I find your comfort foods, your dietary needs (are you allergic to a specific food? are you kosher (my specialty!!) supposed to lower your fat or salt or do you just HATE peanut butter like I do?) .
I figure out the menu with your help. I shop for all ingredients on the way to your home and cook everything there.
Since my focus is kosher clients, by using the clients equipment I don’t have questions about anything getting mixed up.
561-676-2078 helen@helenshomecooking.com
Chef Helen Gottesman
Personal chef Helen Gottesman of Helen’s Home Cooking prepares a kosher holiday meal. (Bruce R. Bennett/The Palm Beach Post)
Before Helen Gottesman looks into the depths of the new year, she glances back to remember the sweetest, most flavorful dishes of her childhood.
The most vivid culinary memory of Rosh Hashanas past: Pflaumenkuchen, her Czech-German grandmother’s special plum tart.
“I remember the smell of the plums. My mother made a couple of dishes wonderfully, and one of them was my grandmother’s plum tart. She would use Italian prune plums. They came into season shortly before Rosh Hashana – and it was a short season,” recalls Gottesman, a New York native who works as a personal chef in Boynton Beach.
This is the great motif of Gottesman’s home cooking – comfort foods that pay homage to family memories. And as the Jewish New Year begins at sunset tonight, ushering in 10 days of reflection and repentance, she will greet it with prayer, introspection and kosher dishes reminiscent of her younger years in the Kew Gardens Hills neighborhood of Queens.
“We would always have the matzo ball soup and, typically, challah,” says Gottesman, 55, who now bakes eight loaves of traditional challah bread at a time.
Helen Gottesman prepares her plum tart (or pflaumen kuchen). (Bruce R. Bennett/The Palm Beach Post)
And because Rosh Hashana exalts the sweetest of foods – as in honey-dipped apples to beckon happiness – there was always a piece of that fragrant, open-face plum tart, a culinary prayer for a sweet life.
Today, in accordance with her Orthodox Jewish faith, Gottesman keeps a kosher kitchen. But “kitchen” is a movable notion for a woman who turned a love of cooking Shabbat dinner for friends – and a knowledge of nutrition and kosher standards – into a small enterprise she calls Helen’s Home Cooking ( helenshomecooking.com).
Usually, she cooks in other people’s kitchens.
“Because I focus on kosher cooking and I keep kosher myself, I’m aware that people are particular about anything that comes into their house,” says Gottesman, who shares her home with husband. Robert, an educator, and 16-year-old son, Adir.
So when she cooked an early Rosh Hashana dinner at a friend’s home on a recent weeknight, Gottesman worked with fresh ingredients her friend had shopped for and brought only the items her friend was missing. While other mobile chefs may carry their own knives and trusty spice kits, she used her friend’s cooking vessels and kitchen utensils.
On the menu that day: one soul-warming comfort dish after another. She roasted a chicken with sweet potatoes, white potatoes and carrots, a sweet noodle kugel with sugar and apples, a batch of almond-flecked green beans, a steaming pot of matzo ball soup and her grandmother’s plum tart.
It’s the kind of cooking that stirs easy conversation with friends and clients.
“If I’m in their kitchen, I hear their food stories, what they like and what they don’t, what their idea of comfort food is. For some, it’s lasagna. You never know. It all depends where and how they grew up,” says Gottesman.
She says a lot of her clients are seniors who don’t cook for themselves anymore. “And they don’t like the takeout places. Typically, what they want is the comfort foods they grew up with,” says the chef.
She dreams of opening a healthy kosher café one day, “a place of coffee, homemade breads and vegetarian items.” But for now she cooks wherever a kitchen welcomes her.
“I love cooking,” says Gottesman. “When I start cooking, I can get a little carried away and my husband tells me, ‘Don’t you realize there are only three of us in this house?'”
PFLAUMENKUCHEN (PLUM TART) WITH MUERBETEIG DOUGH CRUST
TO MAKE THE CRUST:
1 cup margarine
3 cups flour
2 egg yolks
1 lemon
1/4 cup sugar
Cream margarine and sugar, add flour then egg yolks along with grated rind of lemon along with the juice. Chill dough for at least half an hour and then pat into large pie tin with fingers.
TO MAKE THE PLUM TART:
Muerbeteig dough
6-9 Italian prune plums
1 teaspoon sugar
Cut plums into eighths and place them skin side down in the pie pan starting with the outside going halfway up the side. When all of the space is covered, sprinkle with sugar and bake for about 30 minutes at 350º. Tart is done when crust is lightly browned. Allow to cool completely before serving.
ROAST CHICKEN WITH VEGETABLES
Serve with vegetables on the side.
1 chicken cut into eighths or serving size pieces
1 large sweet potato or 2 medium, peeled and cut into chunks
2 white potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
1 large onion sliced or cut into chunks
1 zucchini, sliced
Garlic, a few cloves
1/2 red pepper, thinly sliced or diced
Salt and pepper, to taste
Paprika, to taste
In a roasting pan place bed of vegetables and mix them up and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Then, top with chicken pieces skin side up. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and paprika.
Place in preheated 350º oven. After 30 minutes, turn chicken pieces over and sprinkle salt and pepper and paprika on the chicken if you have not already done so. When this is done (it will be browned) turn chicken pieces back to skin side up and cook for another 30 minutes. (Cooking time is about 1 hour, 15 minutes to 11/2 hours.)
STRING BEANS ALMONDINE
1 to 11/2 pounds string beans
1 tablespoon margarine
1/4 cup almonds, slivered or sliced
1/4 red pepper, slivered
Salt and pepper, to taste
Cut tips off string beans. Either leave beans whole or slice into 1 to 2 inch pieces. Place into boiling salted water until they are tender, but still bright green in color.
Drain the string beans. In the same pot, melt margarine and lightly sauté almonds. Add red pepper and cook to soften slightly. Then add the string beans to heat through.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper and a squeeze of lemon, and serve.
Recipes by Helen Gottesman, http://www.helenshomecooking.com
I am reposting this from 2 years ago… counting down to Pesach/Passover.
To the observant Jew, preparing for Passover has many challenges and opportunities. I will plan ahead and not drive myself crazy.. I took an hour this morning and went through my pantry to review what I wanted to use up prior to the holiday (2 started boxes of whole-wheat pasta and one of lasagna noodles). I look through packages, especially baking items and spices to see they are not expired (the experts suggest keeping the dried spices no longer than 6 months), I HAD TO DIVEST MYSELF OF THE CREAM OF TARTAR. A recent client asked me to make baking powder biscuits , insisted she had baking powder and found at the last minute that it expired in 2002, long before she moved to Florida!
.I also go through the medicine chest and find expired over the counter meds and prescription meds. We don’t use a lot of meds so this was a quick process.
By Wed evening there will be no food going out of the kitchen and dining room….I hope.
Chef Helen
Helen@helenshomecooking.com
561-676-2078
This image shows a few dried mushrooms. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
A new client asked for this soup and after taste testing it. I had to make it for us at home. it is my new favorite! the original recipe, which I adapted, is from Classic Kosher Cooking by Sara Finkel.
1 large onion
1 bay leaf crumbled
3 Tablespoons margarine
1/2 pound mushrooms sliced
2 Tablespoons flour
8 cups water
2/3 cup pearl barley * I used 1 cup
1 stalk celery diced
1 carrot diced ** I sed 3 for addl flavor and color
2 tsp salt or to taste
1/4 tsp pepper
**3 to 4 addl dried and reconstituted mushrooms (my addition)
Saute onion and bay leaf in margarine until tender
Add mushrooms and saute until mushrooms are golden, Push vegetables aside and stir in flour until smooth, Gradually stir in water, Add remaining ingredients Bring to boil and simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Serves 8
matzo ball soup (Photo credit: derek7272)
Fill a small stock pot with water and add a bit of salt. While this comes to a boil add chicken necks and backs (if you like not wasting the chicken) or some chicken thighs, Once it comes to a boil, add 3 to 4 peeled and roughly chopped carrots, 2 turnips and 2 parssnips (also peeled and roughly chopped along with 2 ribs of celery. a large onion and few cloves of garlic. allow to simmer for at lest two hours (covered or not).
The recipe on the package of matzoh meal lists 3 eggs, e/4 cup of matzoh meal and 1/4 tsp salt, my rercipe is just a bit different. Beat up the eggs in a small bowl, add the salt, water (1/2 an eggshell full for every 2 eggs) and some fresh chopped dill and or parsly. Then add the matzoh meal. When it is mixed, chill it in the fridge for an hour or more and the matzoh meal wuill have a chance to absorb the liquids. At that time, with wet hands, make mrble walnut sized matzoh balls in your hands and drop them into the slowly boiling soup. (If the soup is not boiling, the matzoh balls fall apart in the soup….yuck) Cover the soup and let it cook for another hour . then serve with matzoh balls…
Tov Ta’am…yummy
For more details. call Chef Helen at 561-676-2078 or http://www.helenshomecooking.com helen@helenshomecooking.com
As my friend Jeff Popper answered when asked what a Matzoh Ball was, he answered, the only edible part of the matzoh
Image via Wikipedia
Check out the deals! the menus! cooked in your house or mine! From $35/person. dinners for 8
Call 561-676-2078 today! <!– MainHead:End –><!– 3 –>
For more information, call Helen <span class=”hiddenSpellError” pre=”Helen “>Gottesman</span>, 561-676-2078 in Palm Beach County, Florida and surrounding area. Schedule now or email for more info at helen@helenshomecooking.com
Beef Brisket braised with loads of onions and a tomato base.
Roast Chickens whole or in eighths , prepared with fresh herbs
Bread Stuffing
Noodle Kugel with Fruit
Potato Kugel
Roast Root Vegetables
Sweet carrots
String Beans Amondine
Dessert
Brownies Plain or with Raspberries swirled through.
Muerbe Teib/ Pflaumenkuchen
Featured in article in Palm Beach Post last year, Coookie diugh type crust with plum slices and a sweet topping.
Fruit Crisp
Apples , Peaches or other season fruit with crispy oatmeal laced topping
Call 561-676-2078 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 561-676-2078 end_of_the_skype_highlighting today!
For more information, call Helen Gottesman, 561-676-2078 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 561-676-2078 end_of_the_skype_highlighting in Palm Beach County, Florida and surrounding area. Schedule now or email for more info at helen@helenshomecooking.com
Beef Brisket braised with loads of onions and a tomato base.
Roast Chickens whole or in eighths , prepared with fresh herbs
Bread Stuffing
Noodle Kugel with Fruit
Potato Kugel
Roast Root Vegetables
Sweet carrots
String Beans Amondine
Dessert
Brownies Plain or with Raspberries swirled through.
Muerbe Teib/ Pflaumenkuchen
Featured in article in Palm Beach Post last year, Coookie diugh type crust with plum slices and a sweet topping.
Fruit Crisp
Apples , Peaches or other season fruit with crispy oatmeal laced topping
I am making 2 seders for 5 (my house) and a seder for 14 (client). I had to multiply my usual matzoh ball recipe, using just 2 eggs. I used 10 eggs and an appropriate amt of water, oil. salt. pepper, and matzoh meal. I ended up with 78 small matzoh balls which are now cooking separately from my already cooked soup. they will be puffing up as they cook. I will package them separately from the soup (and the chicken) for my client…can’t wait to eat tomorrow night.
Chef Helen
helenshomecooking.com
Helen Gottesman is a Personal Chef in Boynton Beach Florida
Helen uses natural ingredients, basing her recipes on fresh meats, fish, dairy and lot and lots of vegetables. The dishes use fresh herbs and less salt and no fillers . MSG is not in her repetoire nor is dried soup stock. Instead she starts off her cook dates by making fresh chicken or beef stock if it is needed in her dishes.
Noiw doesn’t that sound delicious!!
