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Can you tell us about a cool recipe you tried recently?

Beer Bread

It takes just three minutes and three ingredients to create this hot, crusty, home-baked beer bread!

I’ve never been a fan of beer, but strangely I love the smell of it and I’m always game for some fresh, crusty home-baked bread. This recipe is truly awesome — three ingredients, easy to remember, and no waiting for dough to rise. Baking truly doesn’t get any easier.

The flavor of this bread is similar to sourdough bread, but without any of the fuss. The fermented yeast in the beer gives it a slight tang, making the bread flavorful on its own, and it’s absolutely out of this world with our easy, homemade dips. I’ve also added fresh rosemary, garlic cloves, and/or Kalamata olives for variety.

YIELDS 1 LOAF

• 3 cups self-rising flour (see note)
• 3 Tbsp sugar
• 1 12-oz (354-ml) bottle of beer

Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Line a 4x8-inch (10x20-cm) loaf pan with parchment paper.

Place all ingredients into a bowl and stir with a wooden spoon until combined. Pour batter into parchment-lined loaf pan.

Bake for 50–60 minutes, or until loaf sounds hollow when the bottom is tapped.

Note: Convert regular flour into self-rising by adding about 1 tsp baking powder and a small dash of salt per cup of flour.

—Sarah Faygie Berkowitz

Quick & Easy Cowboy Steak

Use your favorite rub (my go-to is Simply Gourmet Chili Lime Rub), 1 crushed garlic clove, about 1 Tbsp olive oil, and 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar. Smear over both sides of the steak. Sear for 5 minutes per side, then pop it in the oven at 325°F (160°C) for 20 minutes. Excellent on oyster steak or other meats as well.

—Rivky Kleiman

Reader Feedback

I’m embarrassed that it’s taken me so long to write and thank you and Miriam Lea Ungar of Far Rockaway for her most fabulous, delicious, Basic Whole Wheat Challah (published in Cooks Compete after Pesach, Issue 790).

Before I discovered this recipe, the cost (read: pressure) of making homemade challah on Friday (or at all) always greatly outweighed the benefit, so we intelligently opted to buy… Thanks to Mishpacha and Miriam Lea Ungar, I’ve been making this recipe every single week! In a way it feels even easier than baking a cake!

It rises quickly, contains accurate measurements, and doesn’t even need a mixer. The challah is delicious and stays fresh for three days! I even make it Erev Shabbos.

No words suffice. Thank you for giving me back this mitzvah!

P.S. I adjusted the recipe and use ¹⁄₂ cup less sugar.

—Shiri Diamond,
Sanhedria, Yerushalayim

Review It!

For a long time (almost 16 years!), I resisted buying a baster. I know, it’s one of those things that every house has, but no one uses. And it is for that reason exactly I refused to buy one. I have many other gadgets and appliances that I seldom use, but for whatever irrational reason, that was my red line. I will not buy a baster.

Over the years, though, I have learned that the key to a lot of really delicious (and beautiful looking) food is the basting. I baste A LOT. In many of my recipes you will find a note to baste every 5–10 minutes for the last bit of cooking. And I get that it can feel burdensome, and yet I still insist. Because it does help build flavor and color, and since eating is a full sensory experience, food looking good is equally important to food tasting good.

Side note: Brown food can be beautiful. By beautiful I mean the best-looking version of what it is!

Anyway, back to the baster.

Since I found that a spoon is just as useful in scooping up liquid to pour over whatever is cooking, I refused to use the baster.

Until one day, I didn’t.

And whoa. Life changing.

Not in the way, say, discovering the secret to perfect chicken soup is, but you know what I mean.

It changed my cooking experience.

They’re just easier to use. They gather much more liquid than a spoon so you can cover more of the dish at once, and unlike the spoon which sometimes scrapes the food, it slips right into any nook or cranny available to get the juice!!

So, yeah, is it a little annoying to clean? I’d say it’s a 6 on a scale of 1 to 10 because you have to unscrew the cap, and it does take up a weird space in the drawer. I will admit that.

Is it still worth it to buy? Well, I just bought a second one so that on Friday mornings I can baste my Moroccan fish and my chicken at the same time, so I’d say that’s a big yes!

—Danielle Renov

(Originally featured in Family Table, Issue 823)