The Man:

Arieh Goldstein, age 34, 4 kids

Works in the chevra kaddisha

Netanya, Israel

The Plan Friday Night:

Store-bought Challah, Techinah, Chummus, Tomato Dip, and Fried Eggplant Dip, Cabbage Salad, Parsley-Pesto, Salmon, Chicken Soup with Knaidlach, Confetti Chicken (Peas Love & Carrots), Potato Kugel, Green Beans, Lotus Truffle Pie (Overtime Cook)

The Plan Shabbos Lunch:

Store-bought Challah, Dips, Cabbage Salad, and Gefilte Fish, Eggs and Liver, Cholent, Peach Punch,

Covering the Shabbos Shift

My wife was hard at work in the covid ward, which put me on the front lines of... making Shabbos. We’re avid readers of Mishpacha, so when my wife suggested signing me up for

Man with a Pan, I thought, Sure, why not? The kitchen isn’t foreign to me; I enjoy cooking and baking. Since my wife is a nurse and works crazy shifts (including nights), I often pitch in with the cooking, so doing the whole Shabbos shouldn’t be a problem. This was the perfect week to give my wife a break. She’s a nurse in the corona ward and would be working a double shift from 3:00 p.m. on Friday afternoon until 7:00 a.m. on Shabbos morning. If I took over, all the Shabbos cooking would be off her head.

Menu Planning

The rules we created were pretty simple. I had to cook everything myself (which I did, minus the challah that I bought, and my nine-year-old daughter insisted on helping to peel the potatoes for the kugel), but I could ask my wife for advice.

The first step was planning the menu, which I did on Sunday. My wife, Pnina, put in a request for two recipes:

the chicken for Friday night and a Lotus truffle pie for dessert. She’d seen both recipes recently and wanted to try them but hadn’t had a chance to do it yet herself, so she thought it would be a fun change if I made them. After lots of back-and-forth, looking through cookbooks, and discussing things with my mother, I decided that everything else I made would be foods we already know and like. With little kids around, I wanted to be sure they’d eat.

For salads there would be homemade techinah, chummus, and tomato dip, and a fresh cabbage salad with the fish course. On Friday night, the first course would be parsley-pesto salmon (a recipe we got from a family friend), then chicken soup, Confetti Chicken from Danielle Renov’s new cookbook, potato kugel, and green beans. For dessert, I’d make Miriam Pascal Cohen’s Lotus truffle pie from Overtime Cook. Shabbos lunch would be salads and gefilte fish, followed by eggs and liver, then cholent. And for dessert, peach punch.

Down to Business 

Right after Shacharis on Wednesday morning, before going to work, I did the shopping, making sure that it would be delivered in the evening by the time I was home. After the kids were in bed, I made the dips and the Lotus truffle pie.

Late Thursday night, I cooked the eggs and gefilte fish. The fish wasn’t so hard. Put water in a pot with a nice amount of sugar, black pepper, salt, onion, and carrot and add the loaf of gefilte fish. Then I peeled vegetables for soup, fried some onions for the liver (which burned a little instead of being caramelized), then added some spices and mixed in the liver. I hoped the liver wouldn’t taste burnt due to the onions, since I didn’t have time to restart them. Now for the peach punch, which is very simple. I drained one large can of peach halves and add whip. Blended with the hand blender and done. Friday morning before going to work, I fried onions and garlic, peeled and cubed some potatoes, added beans, water, meat, and bones, and the cholent was up. I let it cook on a low flame; I’d the man add the spices and barley when I got home from work. I put the chicken soup on the fire also and asked Pnina to turn off the flame when it was ready, then off I went.

The Race Is On

I get home from work at about 1:30 on Friday, and Pnina had to leave to work at 2:30, so I wanted to accomplish as much as I could in that hour, before I’d be on my own with the kids. I started by making the pesto sauce for the salmon. Parsley, mayonnaise, mustard, soy sauce, some garlic, olive oil, and honey blended with the hand blender. I poured it over the salmon, let it marinate a while, then put it into the oven. In the meantime, I spiced the cholent and decided to try the plan

kishke. I’ve never done that before, but I decided to wing it. I made up a recipe, which unfortunately did not come out as good as I hoped. I then sautéed garlic and mushrooms for the green beans. Added green beans, some chicken soup mix, and sesame seeds, and done.

At this point Pnina needed to leave. I packed up some salads, salmon, and green beans for her to take with her, and she had a bowl of chicken soup for lunch before she left.

Now I was on my own. The kids were behaving nicely and time was on my side, since Shabbos was still several hours away, so I decided to add another salad. I egged and crumbed eggplant slices and fried them. On Shabbos I’d add pine nuts, scallions, and sweet chili sauce.

Then came the Confetti Chicken. I diced the peppers, floured and fried the chicken, and added stock and wine. Then I made the cabbage salad, followed by the kneidel mix. I shaped the mixture into balls and added them to the soup. Now it was time for the kugel. My daughter really wanted to help me here, so I settled her with a peeler and the potatoes. Once they were peeled, I grated them, then added onions, eggs, oil, salt, and pepper, and got that into the oven.

Unexpected Glitches

As my mother taught me, part of cooking and baking is tidying up. And Pnina wasn’t here to finish cleaning the kitchen after me, so next I washed all the dishes and cleaned the countertops. I had two hours to go to Shabbos. The hot plate was up, the kitchen was clean,

and the kugel was in the oven. And then it happened. There was a blackout. At first I thought I’d blown a fuse somewhere, but no, it wasn’t only in our house. The entire neighborhood had no power.

After an hour of suspense, which I used to bathe the kids, the electricity came back on. One hour to Shabbos, the kugel had to finish baking and I had to reheat all the food and get it all

back on the hot plate. I switched off the oven just in time to light the candles. (When my wife is at work, I light the candles at home while she lights at work.)

Weekend Review

Besides the power cut, which wasn’t part of my plan and not in my control, and burning the onions for the liver, and the dry kishke, everything tasted amazing. And because we don’t often do desserts, my kids were excited that I’d made two of them!

Would I do it again? I don’t know. I definitely help my wife with making Shabbos every week, but it’s never been fully on me before. It was a lot of work, but I enjoyed it — and, like they all say, it really made me appreciate everything that my wife does!

The Wife’s Take

I grew up in a home where the kitchen was the woman’s domain, so after our wedding, when Arieh wanted to help with the cooking, I was surprised but pleased. Very quickly I saw that he was a very capable chef, which is a huge help, considering my job. He’s often left alone for supper with the kids while I’m at work.

Most weeks he pitches in with the Shabbos cooking too. So when I saw the Man with a Pan column, I knew it was right up his alley. And he did great. I took most of the Friday night meal to work with me. The chicken wasn’t ready when I went to work, so I had some of it cold on Shabbos morning, and it was delicious. I don’t usually make desserts every week, so that was a fun perk too.

I’m hoping he enjoyed it as much as I did and decides to do it again sometime soon!

Parsley-Pesto Salmon

• 4–6 slices salmon fillets

SAUCE

• 3 Tbsp mayonnaise

• 2 Tbsp mustard

• 1 Tbsp honey

• 1 Tbsp olive oil

• 3 cloves garlic

• 1½ Tbsp soy sauce

• approximately 10 sprigs fresh parsley

• ½ cup dry white wine

• 1 cup water

Lay salmon in a 9x13-inch (20x30-cm) pan. Blend all sauce ingredients together with an immersion blender. Pour over the salmon and allow to marinate for about half an hour. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for half an hour.

Peach Punch

• 1 large can peaches, drained

• 1 8-oz (250-ml) container pareve whipping cream

Using an immersion blender, blend the peaches with the whip.

(Originally featured in Family Table, Issue 718)