Your best practices for Shabbos Lunch please

levial

Mon, Nov 30 2009, 1:42 pm

So this week we had guests Fri dinner and Sat Lunch. I didn't account properly for how people would/wouldn't eat. Plus I had people who wanted to help me serve, so instead of the 'let me put out just a few and refill if necessary" I had young ladies who plopped out every last drop of coleslaw, salad, schnitzel, etc.

So we got to lunch the next day and I put out chicken from the night before. Normally I would have different items to serve, but in this case my guest on lunch did not eat cholent and I felt compelled to have another protein out for her. The chicken was burned on the bottom. I know, I could have done a pot on the blech to prevent, but now I want to go a step further....

What do you serve on Shabbos lunch that works well/reheats well/isn't ice cold?

I've been to lunches where they serve cholent plus cold cuts on a plate.
I've seen a "deli meat" salad with slivers of said cold cuts.
Do you also divy up the kugel so it's not burned and clumpy next day?
Dessert: does it look bad to serve "leftover' desserts (I.e. I have four slices of ice cream pie and 4 of cheesecake, and I put it on a serving platter. What do you do to avoid this mish mash but not cook for the entire Israeli army just so you can "cut" a fresh cake in front of guests.

I would appreciate your thoughts for what works well.

Signed,
I don't want to be the eishet chayil with tasty but slightly burned on the bottom chicken for my guests.

Mrs Bissli

Mon, Nov 30 2009, 1:51 pm

I've also seen cholent + cold cut combo for lunch. Or cholent + schnitzels or cholent + chicken salad. OK, it's served cold but better than burned IMHO. For non-cholent protein, I'd normally do hamin eggs.

I also tend to fill up with salads and fish (tuna salad, smoked salmon, fried cods). Quiche, jachnoon and burekas also reheat very well.

Dessert: if I do a cake for Fri dinner, I'd just serve either biscuits or fruit salad for Shab lunch.

Ima'la

Mon, Nov 30 2009, 1:58 pm

Cookies or regular cake can be arranged (doesn't need to be super fancy or artistic) on a platter, so no one will know if it's "new" or "leftover."

An idea for kugel Shabbos day, is take a nice amount of your potato kugel and before Shabbos, wrap it up and put it in the cholent. It absorbs the cholent flavor and tastes yummy and then you don't need to worry about the bottom burning.

Mrs Bissli wrote:

For non-cholent protein, I'd normally do hamin eggs.

Mrs Bissli, I read this three times, saying to myself, "I know that she did not write that she serves 'ham 'n' eggs'!!!" (Don't worry - I figured it out!)

DefyGravity

Mon, Nov 30 2009, 3:14 pm

My standard Shabbos lunch menu:

I reheat everything on top a foil pan that's put on top of a plug-in blech.

- Oven baked shnitzel or grilled chicken cutlet
- Broccoli or cauliflower Kugel
- Roasted vegetables such as zucchini, sweet potato, cauliflower, eggplant
- Rice or couscous
- Butternut Squash kugel
- Lettuce salad
- Coleslaw
- Chickpea salad

imasinger

Mon, Nov 30 2009, 4:13 pm

DefyGravity wrote:

Could you please post your butternut squash kugel recipe?

DefyGravity

Mon, Nov 30 2009, 4:18 pm

Around 16 oz. winter squash
1 1/4 cup sugar (I use half splenda and some vanilla sugar)
1 cup vanilla soy milk
1 cup flour
4 eggs
Cinnamon

Cut the squash in half and bake until soft.

Put all ingredients including squash in a food processor (or mash by hand).

Place in two square or one 9"x13" pan.
Bake at 350°F for one hour.

Motheroftwins

Mon, Nov 30 2009, 5:35 pm

I have a different recipe for Squash Kugel - super easy and yummy!!

You can use any kind of squash, not just butternut and it tastes the same (winter squash, etc...anything orange)

1 box frozen squash (the birds eye frozen box)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
3 eggs
splash of pareve milk
cinn for the top
1 frozen pie shell - optional

defrost squash - I let it sit it fridge or on counter til it defrosts. then I squeeze the box over the sink to get rid of some of the water. mix squash, sugar, flour, eggs and milk. Pour into frozen pie crust or into a greased baking dish. cover the top w cinnamon. bake at 350 until its firm when u press the center maybe around 45-60 minutes.

solo

Mon, Nov 30 2009, 6:23 pm

I also have cholent as my main course for shabbat lunch.

I really dont like serving left overs, and therefore never serve them myself.
there is just something icky about sitting down to lunch and having a (cold) repeat of the previous nights dinner.

because not everyone is guaranteed to like cholent I serve an additional protein. something that doesnt need to be heated up.
the easiest thing is a deli platter. if ur feeling fancy u can make a deli roll, or a corned beef. and if delis not in ur budget then how bout grilled chicken breast or schnitzel.
I also like to have at least one plain crunchy salad - like israeli, fennel, cucumber.....
if im feeling fancy ill make one not so healthy salad as well.
in the winter I leave my oven on and prepare yerushalmi and overnight potato kugel. (and have roasted potatoes and some other sort of kugel, apple broccoli,... fri night)

as for desert, why not serve 1 cake fri night and the other shabbos day. that way ull have enough of both.
or put down some cut fruit as well so there doesnt seem to be a shortage.

levial

Tue, Dec 01 2009, 10:21 am

Mrs Bissli, we also have hamin eggs but kubane, not jachnoon...DH is disappointed our non-Yemenite shul ends later, and the dairy breakfast kiddush we usually have post shul at my MIL's (kubane, brown eggs, cheese, salads, hilbe) is just not working here when we invite people. They're looking for meat. Even if DH goes to the early minyan and is home by 11, many guests are by the regular minyan and arrive between 12:30 and 1....and a more breakfasty kiddush doesn't impress. One guest actually asked if we would wait 30 minutes then serve meat (I was taking it as a hint she wanted to go?)

Sigh...thanks ladies for the ideas.

DefyGravity

Tue, Dec 01 2009, 10:35 am

solo wrote:

I really dont like serving left overs, and therefore never serve them myself.
there is just something icky about sitting down to lunch and having a (cold) repeat of the previous nights dinner.

It doesn't have to be cold. If I had you over, you'd never know if you were getting some leftovers from the night before. Shabbos lunch and dinner is both made at the same time, it's not like either one is older than the other.

solo

Wed, Dec 02 2009, 9:22 am

DefyGravity wrote:

solo wrote:

I really dont like serving left overs, and therefore never serve them myself.
there is just something icky about sitting down to lunch and having a (cold) repeat of the previous nights dinner.

sure, if I was by u for lunch id never know.
but if I was by u for all shabbat id know. cuz id have eaten it fri night.
serving apple kugel, potato kugel, lukshen kugel, schnitzel, chicken, and corned beef in addition to ur cholent sounds impressive.
unless uve been round friday night when those foods were already served.

geemum

Thu, Dec 03 2009, 6:57 am

I usually serve for shabbos lunch the same (more or less). this is my general menu:

start with mashed egg and chopped liver with salad
main course is cholent, fried shnitzel, sweet lokshen kigul (leftover from friday night rewarmed on the blech) and salads.

I cut the kigul into squares and serve on a tray so it doesn't matter that it's started the meal before.

freidasima

Thu, Dec 03 2009, 7:11 am

Shabbos lunch is always different than friday nite but the salads are always the same.

We have humus, techina, arbis, egg salad, cut up fresh cukes, peppers and carrots and lettuce and onion and scallions, all in separate bowls as not everyone likes everything. Often I make quinoa and edamame, and sometimes we have sliced broiled eggplant and maybe cabbage or sauerkraut. Those all get recycled for shabbat lunch. I know that when my son in law is here they will go so we always have extra. They also live walking distance so they aren't here for lunch anyhow.

Then comes the soup (which of course we don't have shabbos lunch) and then chicken or sometimes meat in gravy, with brown rice as a side dish.

Then dessert - cake, nuts, fruit.

Shabbos lunch we have the same salads, but then we have either schnitzl heated up or roast chicken without sauce heated up. We hold that if you are putting it on the non hot (not yad soledes) part of the blech you can add water from the kettle from the blech to the pot to keep it from sticking) So that's what we do. And I have either a kugel or an onion rolada or homemade french fries that we heat up dry so that's a different meat and a different starch. I used to make cholent but only with potatoes and barley and onions and at some point I got sick of it so we haven't yet had one this year. And then for dessert the same cakes and fruit, nuts only when my son in law is here on friday nite.

We never have deli or anything processed or preserved.