You enter the kitchen, put on your apron and prepare to cook … but what is today’s mystery menu? You get your marching orders and bam! Let the chopping begin.
No, you aren’t a contestant on Food TV’s “Chopped.” You’re a volunteer for Mitzvah Meals, helping to turn out tasty meals for Orange County’s disadvantaged.
Mitzvah Meals was the brainchild of Monica Engel, who about 26 years ago conceived a plan to feed the hungry through her synagogue, Temple Beth Sholom in Santa Ana, quickly enlisting the help of another member, caterer Hollis O’Brien, owner of Parties by Panache in Brea.
“The people we serve are not necessarily Jewish,” O’Brien told me. While the recipients of the hot meals have changed through the years, at present, volunteers cook for the Southwest Community Center and the Ronald McDonald House.
“There is not a good system in this country to feed the hungry,” she said. “We have so much excess food, so much waste, and so many people going hungry.
“There’s not a good infrastructure for getting food to the people that need it or for finding the people that want to help out,” she said. “My goal long term is to make Mitzvah Meals a model for not only Jewish synagogues but for any organization that has access to a kitchen.”
Coordinator Richard Stein, who leads the effort on the third Sunday of the month, he alternates with Debbie Reaves, said, “These days I go to Smart & Final and try to be judicious with our money, but yet provide nutritious food, feeding 180 people. We make it work.
“Debbie feeds 240 on the fourth Sunday of the month, providing lunch with enough for them to reheat another lunch on the following day,” he added. “Some volunteers make desserts. Some people supply backyard produce.”
Stein said he also collects donations of produce from farmers markets that would otherwise go to compost or trash.
“Between the two I’m working with now, I’m collecting 400 to 500 pounds a week,” he said. “I would like to triple that. I’ve visited close to half the farmers markets in Orange County. Newport Beach will be starting soon and Aliso Viejo, as soon as I get volunteers to pick it up.”
A dedicated fund for Mitvah Meals through Temple Beth Sholom provides the necessary cash. Donations are gratefully accepted through their website, tbsoc.com.
“Like Debbie, I have several recipes that I rotate through premade shopping lists and instructions,” said Stein, a researcher at UC Irvine.
When I volunteered last Sunday, stir-fried chicken with rice was on the menu. I helped cut a mountain of fruit. Volunteers bring desserts, the perfect opportunity for me to try this interesting recipe from the New York Times for brookies, a mashup of brownies and chocolate chip cookies.
Fullerton’s Judy Bart Kancigor is the author of “Cooking Jewish” and “The Perfect Passover Cookbook.” Her website is cookingjewish.com.
BROOKIES
From the New York Times; yield is 24 bars
Ingredients
For the brownie:
• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for greasing the pan
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder, Dutch-process or natural
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt (Diamond Crystal)
For the cookie:
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 cup packed brown sugar, light or dark
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 1/4 cups chocolate chips or chopped bar chocolate
Method:
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and line 13-by-9-inch baking pan with parchment paper, leaving 2-inch overhang on 2 sides.
2. Brownie layer: In medium saucepan combine butter and granulated sugar, and heat over medium until butter melts. Remove from heat and whisk vigorously until well combined. Scrape mixture into medium bowl. No need to wash pan. Once mixture has cooled a bit, whisk in eggs one at a time. Whisk in vanilla. Add flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt, and stir to combine.
3. Cookie batter: Combine butter and brown sugar in same saucepan, and heat over medium until butter melts. Remove from heat and whisk vigorously until well combined. Once mixture has cooled a bit, whisk in eggs one at a time. Whisk in vanilla. Add flour, baking powder and salt, and stir. Stir in 3/4 cup of chocolate.
4. Using 2 cookie scoops, drop both batters into prepared pan. Pattern can be random, and one dough can be on top of the other; just make sure that once all batter is added to pan, you have an even thickness spread out across pan. Sprinkle remaining 1/2 cup chocolate on top.
5. Bake until top looks dry and set, and toothpick inserted into center comes out with moist crumbs attached, 20 to 22 minutes.
6. Transfer to rack to cool completely, about 45 minutes. Lift bar out using paper and transfer to cutting board. Cut into bars to serve.