Jewish
food represents the history of the Jews from Biblical times and
through more contemporary eras.
Share your recipes. Wouldn't it be great to share, on
the web, some of your favorite recipes so we can all enjoy? Everybody
from different countries putting in their own traditional
recipes" Recipe EBOOK, created from all the recipes submitted,
is complete! I'll be happy to place them
on this web site for free. All you need do is send an
e-mail with the recipe or recipes to: JWebindex@Gmail.com
Books
Most books,
CDs, etc. can be ordered through my link to
Amazon.com.
"Adventures
in Jewish Cooking" - authored by Jeffrey Nathan and
published by Clarkson N. Potter
"America Cooks Kosher: The All season All Reason Kosher
Cookbook" - perfect for the novice to the connoisseur, for
every occasion from the Seder table to the Super bowl party
features over 320 recipes
www.bethtfiloh.com/cookbook
"The
Book of Jewish Food" -
authored by Claudia Roden and published by Knopf Publishing in
1996
"Eat
and Be Satisfied" - authored
by John Cooper and published by Jason Aronson Publishing Company
in 1991.
"Eat
Smart In Poland" - authored
by Joan B. Peterson and published by Ginkgo Press, Inc. PO box
5346, Madison, WI 53705 Phone: 608 233 5488 Fax: 608
233 0053 The company also publishes Eat Smart travel guidebooks
for food lovers for Brazil, Turkey, Indonesia,
Mexico and Morocco. www.ginkgopress.com
"Fat and
Be Satisfied" - authored by John Cooper and Published by
Jason Aronson, Inc., Northvale, New Jersey, and London. It
is a social history of Jewish food. It is not a recipe book.
It is actually a Genealogy of Jewish Food. The author starts
with Jewish food in the biblical times until the present. He
coves the Sephardic cuisine's and Ashkenazi cuisine as it was
adapted and it traveled around the world.
"The
Hadassah Jewish Holiday Cookbook" - edited by Joan Schwartz
Michel and published by Hugh Lauter Levin 1 212 451 6221 or
email
schamama@hadassah.org $25, including domestic shipping
"Holocaust Cookbook" - the creation
of Jonathan and Sarah Caras, this cookbook is a collection of
stories and recipes from survivors and their families. All
proceeds will go to the Jerusalem soup kitchen Carmei Hai'ir http://carmeihair.org.il
"Hungering
for America: Italian, Irish, and Jewish Foodways in the Age of
Migration" - authored by Hasia R. Diner. In this
fascinating survey of the eating habits and influences of Jewish,
Italian and Irish immigrants, Diner, a professor of American
Jewish history at New York University, charts with wit and
graceful prose the similarities and differences between these
three distinct groups.
Buy
from Amazon.com
"Jeff
Nathan's Family Suppers" - authored by Jeff Nathan and
published by Clarkson Potter/Publishers
www.clarksonpotter.com
"Kosher
by Design" - authored by Susie Fishbein, editor of The
Kosher Palette and published by ArtScroll. Included in the
book, besides recipes, is an explanation on the principles of
kashrut (kosher dietary laws) as well as a discussion on how food
traditions fit into the religious observances. www.kosherbydesign.com
"Kosher
Cuisine With Dulcie Braude" - authored and published by
world-renowned kosher cookery teacher Dulcie Radis Braude of South
Africa http://www.eichlers.com/db01.html
"Men
in the Kitchen" - edited by
Jerrold Markowitz and published by Fairfax, Virginia's
Congregation Olam Tikvah. Here is great news for men who
need help including shopping and boiling water which then moves
into easy-to-follow recipes for everything from Lenny Ben-David's
(former minister of the Embassy of Israel) scrambled egg recipe
using bottled Italian dressing to "potchkee stickers",
vegetarian chili, kung pao chicken, honey mustard chicken, and
strudel banana bread. To order call 1 703 425 1880
"Nana
Lena's Kitchen: Recipes For Life" - authored by Amy
Ostrower. An inspirational collection of short stories and
recipes from a Southern Jewish kitchen.
ISBN 1 - 59858-056-6
www.nanalenaskitchen.com
"Passover
Cookery: In the Kitchen with Joan Kekst"
- From the novice to the seasoned cook, the Jewish holiday of
Passover presents a host of culinary challenges. But whether your
goal is to create a new and distinct feast or to reproduce the
beauty and traditions of your grandmother's Seder,
Joan
Kekst paves the way in her book.
Also visit
Ten Quarts Press for more links
to Joan's Kitchen On Line http://www.joanskitchenonline.com/
If necessary, and if a Password Request comes up, just click on
Cancel.
"Saffron
Shores" - authored by Joyce Goldstein, chef, author,
teacher and Mediterranean cooking expert. Joyce celebrates the
exquisite flavors and arresting aromas filling Jewish kitchens
throughout North Africa and the Judeo-Arab world. More than
a collection of recipes, this book is a historical document that
opens up a window onto the customs of Jews from these exotic
lands. Published by Chronicle Books in 2002.
Available through Amazon.com Use the convenient link on the
left side bar.
"Spice
and Spirit: The Complete Kosher Jewish Cookbook"
- authored by Esther Blau, Tzirrel Deitsch and Cherna Light
"The
World of Jewish Cooking" -
authored by Gil Marks and published by Simon & Shuster in 1996
"Yiddish
Cuisine: A Gourmet's Approach to Jewish Cooking"
- authored by Robert Sternberg and published by Jason Aronson
Publishing in 1993
By Schelly
Talalay Dardashti
with permission to publish from
The Jerusalem Post - Nicky Schechtel
A family's
favorite foods provide clues to its past
Was your
grandmother's kugel sweet or peppery? Were her dolmeh
(stuffed vegetables) sharp or sweet-and-sour?
Genealogy
is not all names and dates. While we gather these
essential items, we also learn about our ancestors' daily
lives, encompassing history, geography, psychology,
anthropology and sociology.
A very
important part of this social history are Jewish food
customs around the world, which may provide clues to origin.
Four
fascinating books covering this topic are "Eat and Be
Satisfied" by John Cooper (Jason Aronson, 1991); "Yiddish
Cuisine: A gourmet's Approach to Jewish Cooking" by Robert
Sternberg (Jason Aronson, 1993); "The Book of Jewish Food," by
Claudia Roden (Knopf, 1996); and Gil Marks' "The World of
Jewish Cooking" (Simon & Shuster, 1996) If
interested, please use the Amazon.com hyperlink located at
the left side bar on this page.
Cooper's
book offers no recipes, it is the history of Jewish food
pure and simple, from biblical times through more
contemporary eras, and covers both Sephardi and Ashkenazi
fields.
From the
foods mentioned in the Torah to the dietary laws, Talmudic
age everyday, Shabbat and holiday food (and a special
section of Palestine and Babylon), he goes on to the Middle
Ages in Europe as well as Jews in Islamic countries.
One entire chapter is devoted to Sephardic food, and is a
delight, ranging from Spain to Portugal, Holland and to more
contemporary times. Central and Eastern European Jews
rate two chapters, one for everyday food and one for Shabbat
and the holidays.
Extensive
chapter notes, an excellent bibliography and a good index
complete the book. It is well worth obtaining a copy
to expand our knowledge of our ancestors' lives.
Sternberg
offers good recipes, interesting photographs, seasonal and
holiday menus, interesting line drawings with symbolism
explained, a map of Jewish Eastern Europe (1830-1914), a
glossary of Yiddish terms and pronunciation guide, and a
region by region presentation of preferred flavors, which
somewhat corresponds to a different types of Yiddish.
Litteh (Lithuania
and northern Poland): Popular herbs are dill and
sorrel - flavors tend to be understated, with natural taste
emphasized. Fish such as salmon and herring is enjoyed
by people from this area. Potatoes were the preferred
starch, eaten with every meal. Sternberg claims that
the Jews of this region developed the best potato kugels and
potato bread. Summer fruit soups were the mark of this
region.
The Ukraine,
where the best breads developed: dark or black breads,
bialys, bagels and challah. Borsht - beet soup - is
from here. In the meat department, roasts and braised
dishes were popular. Mandelbrot is here called
kamishbrodt. Stuffed cabbage is called prakkes,
holishkes or golubtses. Kasha - buckwheat is a
commonly used grain.
Galitzia
and southern Poland border Ukraine, Hungary, Romania
and
Germany. Sweet is common, even gefilte fish is sweet
with sugar, as compared to the Litteh's black pepper
version. The home of sweet-and-sour carp, sweet
challah. Spices include caraway seed in roasts,
vegetables. And elegant desserts, taking a pointer
from Hungary and Vienna.
Hungarian
cooks from Budapest are world renowned. Jewish
foods of the former Czechoslovakia are similar.
Paprikash, knaidelech, flourless tortes, sour cherry soup.
Seasonings are paprika, marjoram and caraway seed.
Bessarabia
(Kishinev is its capital), Romania, Carpathian
Mountain region. Gastronomically, this area is closer to
Romania and very similar, says Sternberg, to the Balkans.
Mummiliga (cornmeal mush), eggplant salad, gvetch (vegetable
stew) and roast pepper salad were virtually unknown in other
areas. Garlic and fresh vegetables are staples.
Bosnian Jews like to eat halva on Hanukka, ros de leche (rice and
milk) on Shavuot and sungat - a pie of leeks and
ground beef for Passover.
Sternberg
claims that only the Jews of Bessarabia and Romania
ever cooked meats and fish on outdoor grills.
These areas
were united by language, although there are different
Yiddish dialects. They shared a common culture,
religion and language, and they transported their traditions
and their kitchens when they moved around the region and out
into the wider world. Sternberg says that Yiddish
itself reflected the wanderings of the Jews: a Germanic base
incorporating Hebrew, Aramaic, Old French, Italian, some
Slavic borrowings from Polish, Russian and Ukrainian,
and written in the Hebrew alphabet.
Sprinkled
throughout the book are interesting tidbits, such as a
comment on paprika. In 1937, Hungarian-born American
scientist Dr. Albert Szent-Gyorgyi earned the Nobel Prize
for discovering that paprika contains more vitamin C than
any citrus fruit - but then the Hungarians
reading this already know that the red spice is both
delicious and healthy!
There are
interesting sections on the staples of the Yiddish kitchen:
oil, grains, listings of herbs and spices.
An
interesting discussion of the etymology on various names for
stuffed cabbage points up the movement among groups of Jews
historically. Sternberg's grandmother called them
prakke, but they are also called holishkes and golubtses (we
called them huloptches in our family).
He claims
that perhaps prakkes is the oldest name for the food, and
resembles the Greek yaprak (stuffed vine leaves).
Perhaps Sephardic Jewish immigrants called stuffed cabbage
leaves yapraki, which in Yiddish would have been yaprakkes
and eventually prakkes. No matter what you call them,
the are delicious!
Sternberg's
recipes are good, easy to follow and don't require unusual
off-the-shelf items - there were none in the old Yiddish
kitchen!
I
especially enjoyed the section on kasha. My (Lithuania
and Belarus) grandmother's pot roast with kasha was the food
of heaven, my favorite comfort food. We loved it.
The buckwheat grains are highly nutritious and the fragrance
of toasting-in-the-pan kasha is an automatic trip to
childhood.
We grew up
on this delicious dish, also prepared by my mother. My
husband, whose Persian culinary tradition focuses on rice,
has never felt quite the same way I do about these brown
grains.
In the
mid-1990s, we hosted two teens from Mogilev, Belarus
at our home in Nevada (after they had spent the
summer at Camp Ramah, in Palmer, Massachusetts).
After a
summer of camp food, I thought the best dinner I could give
them was this comfort food always made by my
great-grandmother who lived the greater part of her live in Mogilev.
Although
the teens were exceedingly polite in all other respects,
they let us know that they were horrified to come to America
to see kasha being served at a dinner party. I was
informed very respectfully that it was considered peasant
food and considered really not for civilized people or to
serve to guests.
The Mogilev
teens much preferred hamburgers and french fries! How
times change!
Claudia
Roden's book, and her earlier "A
Book of Middle Eastern Food"
are excellent.
Roden's
opening words hit home: "Every cuisine tells a story.
Jewish food tells the story of an uprooted, migrating people
and their vanished worlds. It lives in people's minds
and has been kept alive because of what it evokes and
represents." Her book combines both Ashkenazi and
Sephardi cuisines.
She
discusses the Haret el Yahoud, Cairo's Jewish
quarter, and its history. Yemenites and North Africans
began arriving in the Middle Ages. People arriving from
Iberia in the 16th century, joined in the 19th century by
those from Salonika, Smyrna, Istanbul, the Balkans and North
Africa. And even a few Ashkenazim escaping from
Eastern European pogroms. Even within the separate
communities, there were further divisions: "Italians
who followed the old 'Italki' rites, and Italians from
Livorno, who followed Spanish rites."
Roden has
always been asked the question, "Is there such a
thing as Jewish food?" And her answer now is
'yes' (it wasn't always!).
The food of
Jewish communities has always adopted that of the
surrounding communities, but the result has been tempered by
dietary laws and experiences, leading to a distinctive
cuisine.
Jews were
always great travelers, either by choice or force.
They were international businessmen, linking East and West
as early as the 7th century, organizing camel caravans,
visiting Mediterranean ports. They were among the
first arrivals in South America. But the
qualifier was their mobility.
Unfortunately,
our history is one of migration and exile to foreign places,
the disappearance of certain communities and the
establishment of new population centers. From the Jews
carried away by the Assyrians to the dispersal after the
destruction of the temple, they took their culinary
traditions and favorite foods with them.
Cooper
and Roden both mention anthropologist Joelle Bahloul who
researched the cuisine of the Algerian Jews, "The
culte de la Table Dressee".
Bahloul claims that every family has its own gastronomic
code, which indicates regional origin, identity and status
in the "old country." The code indicates
certain dishes served at specific times and preserved in
certain families. Bahloul says the symbolism created
combines myth, history and moral significance.
Mark's
recipes are authentic, his historical comments are
interesting. The photographs are fascinating and each
recipe tells another story of a family or a community.
He offers a lot of information on smaller communities around
the world: Ethiopia, Azerbaijan, various
communities in India. And he asks, as do all
the books on this subject, "What is Jewish
food?"
It appears
that it is food which represents the spirit of a community
of Jews as it moves from everyday life to life-cycle
celebrations and holidays. It allows us to imagine
Shabbat dinners of centuries ago, whether in Warsaw, Poland
or in the Mahalleh of Teheran. It is Persian
gondi or matzo balls from Mogilev, each adorning a
special chicken soup, spiced with turmeric or with dill and
carrots.
All the
books, and there are more out there, present Jewish foods of
diverse cultures, their history and their importance on our
families' tables today, no matter where we live.
It's All
relative welcomes readers' inquiries. Write City
Lights/Jerusalem Post, PO Box 28398, Tel Aviv 61283; Fax
02-639-0277 Schelly Dardashti e-mail address:schelly@allrelative.net
JewishFoods
"Vegetable Vendors - Market Scene" by Liebermann
in Amsterdam
Cuban
Food - recipes by Tina Wasserman for Yucca Root Fries with
Mojo sauce; Malanga-crusted fish fillet; Salada De Moros and
Christianos (Cuban Black Bean and Rice Salad) and Torte De Guayba
can be found in The American Jewish World of December 15, 2006
issue.
Jewish Food
Mailing List Archives - a wide array of Hamish daily, Shabbat,
and other holiday recipes submitted by list members from around
the world http://www.jewishfood-list.com/
It won't be
long before every though, action, lifestyle and predilection will
be found on the web, so it comes as no surprise that there is a
kosher food site at http://www.kashrut.com/
KAWA - the
kashrut authority for Western Australia dedicated to
offering kosher consumers the widest possible choice http://kawa.iinet.net.au/
Kosher - a
Hebrew word meaning 'fit' or 'proper'. The dietary laws are
as old as the Bible's Book of Leviticus. For food, kosher
means meat that's properly slaughtered from mammals that chew
their cud and have cloven hoots. The law allows eating fish
with fins and scales, but excludes all shellfish. It forbids
eating meat with food containing dairy products, or even preparing
them with the same utensils.
With the advent
of electricity, kosher and Jewish-style food has changed
tremendously. The United States produces about $500 billion
worth of packaged foods annually, of which $170 billion is
certified kosher. The number of kosher-certified products
grew from 18,000 in 1989 to 23,600 in 2002.
Bagels:
How can we pass on the quintessential Jewish Food ... the bagel?
Like most foods, there are legends surrounding the bagel, although
I don't know any. There have been persistent rumors that the
inventors of the bagel were the Norwegians who couldn't get anyone
to buy smoked lox.
Think about it:
Can you picture yourself eating lox on white bread? Rye? A
cracker? N a a a! They looked for something
hard and almost indigestible which could take the spread of cream
cheese and which doesn't take up too much room on the plate.
And why the hole? The truth is that many philosophers
believe the hole is the essence and the dough is only there for
emphasis.
Blintzes:
Not to be confused with the German war machine. Can you
imagine the 1939 newspaper headlines: "Germans drop
tons of cream cheese and blueberry blintzes over Poland - shortage
of sour cream expected." Basically this is the
Jewish answer to Crepe Suzette.
Borscht -
a purple colored soup made from beets and ammonia. Always
eaten by elderly Jews who slurp noisily. Ahh machiah!
Cholent:
This combination of noxious gases had been the secret weapon of
Jews for centuries. The unique combination of beans, barley,
potatoes and bones or meat is meant to stick to your ribs and
anything else it comes into contact with. It is called
"sholet" in Hungary.
Recipe - servings: 6 to 8. Time required: Overnight
soak plus 8 hours baking
Ingredients:
1 cup small dried white beans
1/4 cup oil
6 small potatoes, peeled
2 large onions, sliced
3/4 cup barley
2 pounds boneless short ribs, chuck, or beef brisket
1 beef marrow one, cut in slices, or soup bones
3 uncooked eggs in shell
1 head garlic, broken in cloves, but not peeled
12 to 16prunes
2 cups chicken broth
2 cups beef broth
Water
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
2 teaspoons sweet paprika
2 tablespoons hone
Preparation
In bowl, soak beans in cold water six hours or overnight.
Heat oil in large Dutch oven; brown potatoes on all sides, add
onions and sauté lightly. Remove and set aide.
In
bottom of Dutch over, place drained beans, barley, short ribs,
bones, eggs, potatoes, onions, garlic and prunes. Heat
broth and add with enough hot water to barely cover. Add
salt, pepper, paprika, and honey. Cover and bake at 250°
for 8 hours, until meat is tender and most of the liquid is
absorbed. Add more water, if needed. Skim off fat.
Makes 6 to 8 servings. And enjoy!
At a fancy
Mexican restaurant (kosher of course) I once heard this comment
from a youngster who had just had his first taste of Mexican fried
beans: "What! Do they serve leftover Cholent here too?!"
My wife once tried something unusual for guests: She made Cholent
burgers for Sunday night supper. The guests never came back.
Not one of my favorites.
Chrane - a
Jewish eye-opener but also known in some circles as horseradish.
Corn
Beef - what else can one say?
Dolma - grape leaves
stuffed with meat and rice
Dushpara - meat dumplings
Gebrokht -
soaked matzoth usually made during Passover (Pesach)
Gifilte
Fish: a tasty mix of congealed fish and transparent slime
jelly. Only fortunate Jews and lepers indulge in this
delicacy.
A few years ago,
I had problems with a filter in my fish pond and a few of them got
rather stuck and mangled. My grandson looked at them and
commented "Is that why we call it 'GeFiltered Fish'?"
Originally, it was a carp stuffed with a minced fish and vegetable
mixture. Today it usually comprises small fish balls
eaten with horse radish (Chrane) which is judged on its relative
strength in bringing tears to your eyes ... at 100 paces.
In essence, it is a tasty mix of congealed fish and transparent
slime jelly. Only fortunate Jews and lepers indulge in this
delicacy.
Glezzele
tea:Glezzele is the diminutive Yiddish term for "gluz"
or glass. A "Glezzele tea" therefore
translates literally as a "little glass of tea."
Haelsli -
stuffed chicken or gooseneck
Kasha
Varnishkes: One of the little-known delicacies which is
even more difficult to pronounce than to cook. It has
nothing to do with Varnish, but is basically a mixture of
buckwheat and bow-tie macaroni (noodles). Why a bow-tie, you
ask? Many sages discussed this and agreed that some Jewish
mother decided that "You can't come to the table without a
tie" or, G-d forbid "An elbow on my table?"
Kharcho - a spicy, rich soup of lamb and rice
Khulketin (aka Khulpches)- fried meat cakes with
Matzoth meal
Kibba - a
semolina dumpling stuffed with ground meat. A favorite among
Iraq Jews
Kishka:
You know from Haggis? Well, this isn't it. In
the old days they would take an intestine and stuff it.
Today we use parchment paper or plastic. And what do you
stuff it with? Carrots, celery, onions, flour and spices.
But the trick is not to cook it alone, but to add it to the
Cholent and let it cook for 24 hours until there is no chance
whatsoever that there is any nutritional value left.
Knadel (K'naidlach)- a good definition would be a delayed atom bomb, but it
really can be a delicious stuffed dumpling. Also referred to
as 'matzo balls'. It is a food substance made with Styrofoam
and sponges. If you don't agree, then you never ate my
mothers.
K'naidlach is Yiddish derived from the German Knoedel, also a
dumpling. It is not unlikely that Jews in the non-Germanic
world also invented matzo balls in one form or another, or that
in linguistically Germanic Holland, Sefardim called them Kleis
-- or that they adopted the name or the entire dish from the
German-speaking Jews in Holland. From a posting by
Michael Bernet.
Kreplach:
It sounds worse than it tastes but a good description would be
"Kosher style ravioli". . There is a Rabbinical
debate on its origins: One Rabbi claims it began when a
fortune cookie fell into his chicken soup. The other
claims it started in an Italian restaurant. Either way it
can be soft, hard or soggy and the amount of meat inside, depends
on whether it is your mother or your mother-in-law who cooked it.
Kugel - a
yummy blend of overcooked noodles, raisins and curds of ripe
cheese Not fun to look at.
Latke:
a pancake-like structure, not to be confused with anything the
House of Pancakes would put out. In a Latke, the oil is in the
pancake. It is made with potatoes, onions, eggs and matzo
meal. Latkes can be eaten with apple sauce, but NEVER with
maple syrup. There is a rumor that in the time of the
Maccabees, they lit a Latke by mistake and it burned for eight
days. What is certain is you will have heart-burn for the
same amount of time. You might also consider that a potato
pancake fried in castor oil, bread bits, and lightly seasoned with
balsa wood. Smells like old boxer shorts.
Matzo
Kleis - made with Matzos. Stuffed Monkey, Peas and Kleis.
Kleis is made with Matzo and is definitely a Germanic term.
The German word Kloss pl Kloese (also Klops) is German for
dumpling. In German-Jewish usage, that became Kleise or
Kleese (pr. Klay-se).
Matzoth:
The Egyptians' revenge for us leaving slavery. It consists
of a simple mix of flour and water-no eggs or flavor at all.
When made well, it could actually taste like cardboard. Its
redeeming value is that it does fill you up ... and stays with you
for a long time. However, it is recommended that you eat a
few prunes soon after.
Mummiliga - a hot yellow-corn cream of wheat dish served
with sour cream - originally a Ukrainian dish
Pirogue -
or also spelled pirogues - is a filled with meat, or potato
dumpling.
Prakkes -
also known as Galuptzi, Cholupches or Holishkes or Holubtsy
and Galabki (Polish) depending on where you came from - is a meat
filled cabbage leave dish. The word originally meant small
pigeon meat stuffed in cabbage leaves in Ukranian.
Retach -
encore! 'Nuff said?
Saltenoses
- Alex & Shulamith
Neumark neumarks@prodigy.net
sent this recipe to Alfred A. Goldberg alfran@ix.netcom.comwho then posted the
following recipe to me and a few other 'Litvaks'. I
hope you enjoy the end results. The recipe is about 50
years old and comes from the King David School recipe book
in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Batter
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup of water
Cheese
Mixture
1 lb. cream
cheese
pepper
salt
1 egg
Sugar to taste
Make a
stiff dough. Roll thin, cut into rectangles 2 1/2
inches by 4 inches. Place a soupspoon of cheese
mixture on each rectangle, and roll up. Press firmly.
Put two
pints of water and 1 teaspoon salt in a pot. Bring to
a boil. Place Saltenoses in the pot and boil for five
minutes. Drain and place in a buttered pie dish.
Add 1/2 cup milk, 3 ounces. butter, 1 cup cream, 1
tablespoon sugar and cinnamon to taste. Bake at 350
degrees for 1 hour. Enjoy!
Schinah - the Moroccan
equivalent of Cholent
Shashlik - grilled cubes of marinated lamb, beef or chicken
Titzkebroidt -
in English it translates to "breast bread, because it is
sliced by holding it between the arm and the chest.
Tsibeles -
all this and herring too! Onions, of course.
Tzimmis -
a Yiddish word meaning fuss and comes from the German "zum
essen" to eat It also means a type of stew usually made
from carrots and prunes along with chunks of meat. I get so
hungry from just thinking about this.
Argentinean
Jewish Eating
Eduardo's Cuisine - a web site dedicated to promote the
Argentinean way of eating, to the Israeli community http://welldonefood.hypermart.net/
Chinese
An
interesting historical fact:
According to the Jewish calendar, the year is 5765.
According to the Chinese calendar, the year is 4702.
That means that for 1,063 years, the Jews went without Chinese
food.
Food played
an important role in the interplay between Jews and Christians in
many countries, but certainly in Italy. The Christians came
to the ghetto in their search for unusual and tasty foods.
Cooks and bakers did not balk at trying Jewish recipes, according
to Ariel Toaff, in his book "Manfiare
alla Giudia" or "Eating
the Jewish Way" Another Italian Jewish cookbook is "La
Cucina Nella Tradizione Ebraica"
(Giuntina Editore, 1998) and 'The classic cuisine of the Italian
Jews" authored by Edda Servi Machlin and published by Giro
Press - $35.
The various
Jewish ethnic groups that settled in the ghetto nearly five
centuries ago, lived in extremely crowded conditions and preserved
their identities in their cuisine.
The ghetto was a
lively, dynamic melting pot of distinctly different European and
Mediterranean cultures, including Jews from other areas of Italy
including Sicily and Calabria, Spain, Portugal, Germany and the
Ottoman Empire.
Eggplant,
considered "Jewish" delicacies, and are now identified
with Italian Cooking. For a Christian, Toaff writes,
"Eating an artichoke cooked Jewish-style, or sampling a piece
of matzo was tantamount to taking a trip to a foreign land".
An edict issued
in Reggio Emilia in 1701 barred Christians from receiving and
eating the unleavened bread of the Jews -- matzo. And in
1775, Pope Pius VI stipulated a heavy fine for both Jews who sold
or gave matzo to Christians and Christians who obtained matzo from
Jews. Italian Jewish bakers, in fact, prepared various types
of matzo for Passover; plain matzo for the intermediate days of
the holiday, strictly controlled ritual shumura matzo for the
Seders, and, for refined tastes, the so-called 'rich' or fancy
matzo, a sweet delicacy made with white wine, eggs, sugar, anise
and goose fat.
There is even a
kosher-for-pasta pasta --- called 'sfoglietti" or "foglietti,"
these are noodles made with flour and eggs, but without water,
that are quickly dried and baked in a hot oven and then served in
soup with sauce.
Also, there are
dishes dating back to the Renaissance or Medieval times including
'scacchi' or 'checkers,' squares of matzo soaked in capon broth,
browned in goose fat and baked in alternating layers with cooked
greens or poultry giblets. Venice cooks, didn't bake this
dish, but rather cooked it in a pan on top of the stove, with
legumes - peas, fava beans or lentils -- which are considered
kosher for Passover in the Italian tradition.
A typical menu
for a Seder in the central Italian city of Urbino on April
10, 1892, included, among other things, scacchi and a form of
Passover pasta in broth, boiled meat served with goose salami,
salad and desserts made from marzipan, matzo meal and quince
preserves.
Venice
was famous for unleavened cakes in the shape of snakes, round
sweets made from eggs, sugar and matzo meal, unleavened cakes
stuffed with marzipan and flat, doughnut shaped cakes rolled in
sugar and cinnamon.
Tuscan
Jews ate thick cakes made from matzo and egg, and in Ferrara,
the specialty was matzo fritters made with egg, honey, cinnamon,
candied citron, pine nuts and raisins.
Jews in Rome,
forced to live in a ghetto until 1870, were famous for lemon
sorbet, almond cookies and 'pizzarelle con miele' -- matzo that
was soaked, squeezed dry, fried in olive oil until crisp and
served covered with pine nuts, raisins and heated honey.
In 1738, a writer
described charoset made of 'apples, pears, figs, almonds, hazel
nuts and similar things, cooked in wine'. Some Jews used
ingredients such as dates, raisins, cinnamon, pine nuts and --
particularly in parts of northern Italy -- boiled chestnuts.
Other Italian
dishes include:
Bollo - a
holiday sweet bread with dried fruit affixed to the crust.
It is very light cake and sweet and usually served as a dessert.
This food traces its history back to the Portuguese immigrants who
emigrated to Venice hundreds of years earlier. Bollo is a
Portuguese word for all kinds of delicious cakes.
Frizinsal
- thought to be of Ashkenazic (German-Jewish) origins is a
combination of sweet and salty flavors in a dish with meat, a
taste that seems un-Italian to Italian Jews. It
usually consists of goose salami and raisins.
Risi Gialli di
Sabato -
a Jewish dish that combines rice with saffron. Saffron is
said to have been brought to Italy from Asia Minor by the Jews for
their Sabbath rice. This dish is similar to risotto
Milanese.
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Baklava
2 cups chopped
walnuts or ground pistachios or almonds or a combination
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons ground cardamom
2 tablespoons rose water
1 cup oil, or melted butter or margarine
1/2 cup hone
16 once package phyllo leaves
Oil 15" x
10" baking pan. Pre heat oven to 300-325 degrees.
Mix together nuts, sugar, cardamom and rose water.
Trim 3 sheets
phyllo fit bottom of pan. Brush with oil and sprinkle some
nut mixture over. Put 3 more phyllo leaves over it, brush
with oil and sprinkle with nut mixture. Repeat layering
until pan is full. Put 2 sheets of dough on top and brush
with remaining oil
Bake 30 to 50
minutes, until crisp and golden brown. Remove from oven and
let cook, then with sharp knife cut into diamonds. our honey
on top and around edges and carefully lift pieces onto a serving
platter. Serves about 12
-from Iranian
Kosher Recipes by Ester Moreh of the Ester Chapter of Hadassah in
Great Neck, N.Y.
Ka'ik ib Fis'dok (Flourless Pistachio Cookies from Abadi's
Cookbook in the April 2007 issue of Hadassah Magazine.
Makes about 24 large or 16 medium sized cookies
1 1/2 cups shelled, raw pistachios
2
large egg whites
1-2 tsps orange flower water, to taste (optional)
3/4 cup granulated sugar (Confectioners' sugar (optional)
1.
Pulse pistachios in a food processor until finely ground, but
not past. 30-45 seconds. Reserve.
2. Beat the egg whites on high speed using an electric mixer
until stiff peaks form. (If using orange flower water, fold it
into the beaten egg whites)
3. Gently pour the sugar over the stiff egg whites and fold in
with a wooden spoon. Fold in the ground pistachios until
full mixed into the egg white mixture.
4. One TB at a time, spoon the pistachio "dough" on baking
sheets lined with parchment, leaving 1 inch between each cookie.
5. Bake at 350° until lightly golden around the edges, about 15
minutes. Allow to cool for half an hour before removing
from the sheet. (Cookies may be stored in an airtight
container between layers of parchment paper and kept frozen for
up to 3 weeks.)
6. To make kosher for Passover confections' sugar, process 1/3
cup plus 2 TB potato starch and 2/3 cup superfine sugar in a
food processor for about 2 minutes.
7. Dust cookies with confectioners' sugar and serve with mint
tea.
Sephardic
Foods
Burekas (Turnovers)
2 1/2 cups water
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp. salt
8 cups self-rising flour (more if needed)
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup grated cheese
No-stick vegetable spray
1. Bring water,
oil and salt to a boil. Remove from heat and quickly stir in
flour, until consistency is that of soft pie dough. Knead
until smooth, adding more flour, if needed.
2. Shape into
walnut-sized balls. Place in bowl, covering with waxed
paper.
3. Roll balls
into flat ovals (3x4 inches). Fill each oval with 1 rounded
tsp. of Potato Filling.
4. Fold ovals
into turnover shape and cut outer edges with rim of a glass.
Brush tops lightly with egg and sprinkle with cheese.
5. Coat baking
pan with no-stick spray. Place Burekas on top and bake at
400 degrees for 30 minutes, or until brown. Yield: 60-70
Potato Filling
for Burekas
3 lbs. potatoes, cooked and mashed
1/2 lb. cottage cheese, mashed
2-4 eggs
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tsp. salt
Mix ingredients together well until fluffy
"While not
purely Sephardic, as much of the cuisine existed before the
arrival of Jews from the Iberian peninsula in 1492, the taste
interplay between North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula is
evident in many a bite," says Joyce Goldstein, noted chef and
author, explaining that established Portuguese and Spanish Jewish
communities were already in Tunisia from earlier migrations before
the expulsion from Spain."
Joyce claims that
local ingredients and the use of specific spices create signature
flavor profiles in each part of the Mediterranean world. But
North African Jews play with the fullest spice spectrum, infusing
foods with garlic, ginger, cumin, cayenne, coriander, hot pepper
and caraway. And tweaking taste buds further, they also
sprinkle min, cinnamon, and dried rose petals into recipes, along
with complex homemade spice mixtures." See the complete
article, written by Linda Morel, in the American Jewish World of
August 23, 2002.