Well, It's been more than a year since I wrote anything here. Hopefully, I will not be so tardy anymore, and will come back to this page once in a while.
Meanwhile, just wanted to share a few food-related stories:
Here's a small one published by Beyond Bubbie:
beyondbubbie.com - my-grandmas-lekach

And, here's a picture of Vegan Cinnamon Rolls that my now-very-grown-up daughter made.

Hope to see you later soon!

Chanukah!

Can you believe that Chanukah came and is gone already?

Well, I can't. This year not only I made a party, but I actually made real yeast dough sufganiot, thanks to my sister-in-law's mother's recipe.
Tetya Galya, this one is for you:

They were not hard to make at all. Or, was it because I wanted to put my heart in them?
Anyway, here is the recipe for you:

1 tblspoon dry yeast
3/4 cup warm milk (or water)
4 tblspoon sugar (I use raw)
1 tspoon cinnamon
dash of salt
2 egg yolks
2.5 cups flour
2-3 tbspoons melted butter

First, combine yeast, warm milk and half sugar in a bowl and let stand for about
15 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients, but butter and mix the dough until soft ball forms.
Add melted butter so that it nicely covers the dough.
Cover the dough with a towel and let it rest overnight.
I made it on Friday afternoon and started making donuts motzei Shabbat. Was a bit worried, but they turned out great!

Next day, roll the dough out and cut in rounds. Put jam on each round and cover with the other dough round. Pinch the dough pieces together and brush with the egg white left from the egg yolks you used to make the dough.

Fry in hot oil and enjoy your delicious desert! Sprinkle it with powdered sugar, if desired

Morning Coffee Anyone?

Now, that I finally got myself the real coffee grinder, I am looking for the best beans. Any ideas?
How about these:

A glimpse into the "Prime" Empire

Here's an interesting article about the new direction the kosher restaurant industry is taking. Thought you might enjoy it

www.tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/118954/elevating-kosher-food

Here's a new salad recipe:

This is one of my favorite salads, which looks totally unpretentious, but is packed with flavor. Unfortunately, the prohibitive cost of pine nuts here, in New York, prevents me from making it as often as I would love to, but for a special occasion it is just great.
You may find this recipe on some Jewish Food sites or in some cookbooks, but I believe it's worth repeating everywhere:


The famous Arab geographer al-Muqadasi, writing in the year 985 CE, noted among the marvels of Jerusalem pine nuts, called kadam, which are unrivaled anywhere on earth.

Ingredients
200 grams pine nuts
Olive oil
A bunch of fresh coriander
A bunch of fresh parsley
Fresh lemon juice
2-3 garlic cloves, crushed
A little vinegar-wine
Salt

Roast the pine nuts carefully in a small pot on a low flame, using a little oil. It is important to stir constantly. Don’t do other things in the meantime! Stir all the time and make sure the pine nuts do not burn.

With a large, sharp knife chop the coriander and the parsley, place in a bowl and add the pine nuts, which have by now cooled.
Squeeze in lots of lemon juice, drip in a little olive oil, season with garlic, vinegar-wine, and salt. Taste, adjust the seasoning and serve. A few green onions, very thinly sliced, can be added to the salad.

Note:

Make sure to wash parsley and coriander MANY times in big bowls of water. These greens tend to be very dirty. For kashrut reasons, of course, I also leave them undisturbed for about 15 minutes in lots of salty water and then carefully pick them up from it washing yet again in clean water afterward.
Enjoy!

Back to life!

Well, it's been a long time and a lot has happened in my life. Hopefully for the best.
In any case, I have decided to continue with this blog promoting a few of my life-long passions - Jewish cooking (now, before Chanukah, is a good time, no?), Jewish education, Jewish Travel, etc.
I hope my long-distance daughter will still join me, at least in comments. We are in need of a healthier approach to food on the East Coast.
Meanwhile, I am also planning to put my recommendations for new books, culinary utensils and other things that I find useful.
Hope you will enjoy reading.

 Just bought this:

Now I drink real coffee every day, can't believe I survived on an instant one

Challah!

This is my second attempt at the most important mitzvah - backing and taking the challah. It's way past midnight and I am too tired to write, but had to post this picture, mostly for my girls to see :-)
Specifically for my dad it has olives inside. For me - zata'ar. Can't wait to taste it tomorrow. No, wait - today.
B'H to be continued...


So now, that I have tasted it at the Shabbat table and so did my hosts, I can safely say:
Here's the recipe. This is for you, girls. B'H one day you will make it for your families.

1 tblsp active dry yeast
1.5 cup warm water
1 tblsp sugar

2 eggs
1/4 cup honey
1/3 cup oil
2 tsp salt
3 cups flour (sifted)
1.5 cups whole wheat flour (sifted)
1/4 cup coarsely chopped olives
1 tbsp za'atar

In a cup mix dry east with sugar and warm water. let stand for about 7 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a big mixing bowl put together eggs, honey, salt, oil and half the flour and mix it. Gradually add the rest of the flour. Don't forget to add the yeast mixture :-)
Once the dough starts forming a ball, knead it adding the flour so it forms nicely and stops sticking to your hands. Closer to the end add olives and za'atar and knead a little more to incorporate them.

Oil the dough ball, cover the bowl with plastic, parchment or foil and a kitchen towel and put it on a warm surface for about an hour.
For best results use this hour for Dvar Torah!
Prepare Baking Sheets that are large enough to hold two or three challot depending on the size you want. This amount of dough should be enough for 2 nice sized ones.

Split the dough in half and each half in 3 parts. Roll each part with your hands to form long rolls and make braided challot. Put them far enough from each other on a backing sheet.
If you want them to shine, brush them with egg-wash with a pastry brush and sprinkle with more za'atar or just sesame seeds.

Leave them in a warm place for another 40 minutes or so. Bake in preheated oven at 350 F for about 30-35 min.

If you gather your friends and have 3 times as much flour, you get a chance to say a brochah for a challah - the biggest mizvah a woman can do. (you can't do this along, unless you bake challot for a family of 10)

I only wish you father had a chance to try them.


Well, it’s been about a year and a half since this post and I've baked many challot since then. I have to say that I tried a few recipes, made them with raisins, plain, poppy seeds, olives, etc.
I believe that this one is the best recipe. You need to have about 1/3 of the whole wheat flour vs. regular white. Then, the challah will be soft, rise well and you will want more. Not too big a sin against your health/weigh watching considering we only eat bread once a week for Shabbat.
So, Challah it is!

Pesach - gefilte fish - cooking with Dad

The more I live on this earth, the more I think about the people that are no longer with me. In general Pesach – ‘zman heruteinu’ – G-d took us out of Egypt. But apart from His outstretched arm, there were people that had the courage to choose between right and wrong and move toward the unknown and wonderful.

Pesach – our own ‘zman heruteinu’ – was only possible because people had the courage to stand up to the powers much bigger than themselves with no knowledge of any possibility of their success. Without them the Iron Curtain might have still be up.

My own Pesach was only possibly because of a certain person that took his family out and gave this exodus his own last strength.

My grandmother, who celebrated Pesach her own way that somehow connected this Holiday with all her relatives gone in the fires of Babiy Yar, used to make this staple of Jewish Holiday cooking the way that no one did. Hers was, certainly, the best.

My dad, who is almost the age of my grandma when she last made this, comes to my apartment so that just the two of us can make her real Gefilte fish using my kosher-for-pesach meat grinder that I keep just for this once-a-year occasion. This turns to be, probably our most sharing one-to-one talk time. I look at him so strong and so weak at the same time and I think of my childhood, when he was the center of my universe and I feel that my universe has made a full turn and he is right there in the center, again. Some things I can’t even say to your face, but I hope that by some magic waves of the internet and additional Passover ‘nes’ my love and worry for you will reach you and my plea for your long and healthy (as much as possible) life will reach G-d.

So this old recipe is for all of you, my beloved – the ones gone to the world that we can’t fathom and the ones that are with me – let this Pesach be our new ‘zman heruteinu’ – freedom from negative emotions, freedom from guilt, from pain and sorrow. Every loss means something; we just need to figure out – what.

The sea upfront, the Pharaohs’ Army is charging behind
People are frightened. Which death is quicker? But wait…
The Sea has parted. Freedom?



About 4 pounds of fish bones, skin and trimmings
2 pound carp fillet
1 pound salmon fillet
1 pound white fish fillet
2 big onions
2 beets
2 carrots
¼ cup matzo meal
2 eggs lightly beaten
Salt (about 3 tablespoons) and black pepper

Wash all the fish thoroughly. Peel the onions and wash the skins. Wash, Peel and slice the beets and carrots. Dice one onion and fry it a little bit in olive oil. Slice the other onion.

Grind the fish meat two times with the fried onion to make the smooth mixture. Add eggs, a bit of water, salt, pepper, matzo meal and form small cutlets.
My grandma used to put the cutlets back into the skin, but I guess both my dad and I are already of a newer generation and we don’t do this anymore. We just form the fish cutlets and fry them a bit in the olive oil.

Meanwhile put all the fish trimmings, a bit a beets, carrots and onion into the big pot. Add the fig cutlets and alternate by the layers of vegetables. Once all the fish is gone, carefully add water to cover the mix and bring to a boil. Once it’s boiling turn the heat to low and simmer for a little less than two hours.

Cool completely and get the cutlets out on a platter.
Serve with chrain (horseradish)

Hamentashen

Did I say I love making deserts? Did I also say I only make non-individual ones - cakes, pies, etc. It takes so much time to make individual cookies, where does one get all this time?

But Purim is different. Purim is the only time of the year I make hamentashen (ozney haman, if you prefer).

Every year I start being anxious and exciting about the affair, knowing that with my way of life (work and school) every hour is precious. Every time I dream of finding that magic dough recipe that will be easier and less sticky to make, I ask around... This year I even asked some kosher facebook "friends" of mine. Every year I end up making ... my own :-) And they turn out great. My only sadness this year that my little 19-year old is too far away to taste them.

So, this is for you, Margo, if you ever want to make them yourself:

Dough:

3 cups sifted flour

1 cup sugar

2 1/2 teaspoons backing powder

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 tablespoons orange juice

2 sticks butter

pinch of salt

dash of grated lemon rind

Filling:

Poppy seeds

Fresh apples, cut ion small chunks

Walnuts cut in small pieces

A bit of orange marmalade

A bit of honey

A bit of sugared ginger

A dash of currants

Really you can use anything you want instead of the usual filling - go wild, it's Purim!

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.

Add eggs one at a time, mix well

Add vanilla and orange juice.

Add flour, backing powder and salt, mix and knead the gough a little bit until it forms the ball.

Refrigerate overnight or for a few hours.

When you are ready cut pieces of the dough you are working with and make sure to cover the rest of dough to prevent it from drying.

With the rolling pin roll the dough and cut up rounds. Place the filling inside and make triangle hat-like cookies. Bake for about 15-17 minutes at 350 F.

Enjoy your Purim!

Limmud

Yesterday I had a chance to talk about my favorite subject, food, of course, at Limmud FSU www.limmudfsuusa.com. Surprisingly, about twenty people showed up, although, I was expecting a much smaller number given the caliber of the presenters at the event. I was really happy to see so many young people eager to listen.

So for those of you who missed it, here are some interesting food history facts worth knowing:

Seven Products of the Land of Israel from the Torah:
“Wheat and barley, and vines and fig-trees and pomegranates; olive-trees and honey” (Devarim 8:8)

Up until the beginning of the last century olive oil constituted 20%-30% of the daily caloric intake of the inhabitants of Israel.

The Jews in Alsace specialized in breeding fat geese whose livers they chopped and made into a paste (chopped liver) and out of which Jean-Pierre Close, the chef of one of Loius XIV’s commanders in 17th century developed ‘pate de fois gras.’

The art of making Stuffed Cabbage was developed for the dish to be served on Simchat Torah as the rolled cabbage reminds us of the Torah scrolls.

The earliest recipe for gefilte fish (stuffed pike) appeared in a manuscript written in Germany in 1350.

My Daughter's Bithday Shabbat

For the last cooking assignment I’ve decided to make something that would be vegetarian and would remind me of the several places our people live in thought the world. I took the recipe from the “Olive Trees & Honey” book (p.74) and it is under the name of “Moroccan Eggplant Relish”. Did I tell you that the book lists every dish’s name is the language most commonly used for it? So this one is apparently in Arabic-French mixture “Zeilouk d’Aubergines”. However it reminded me of a rather traditional salad the Tat Jews of Caucasian region of Caspian Sea made so often. These days one can try a number of variations of it in Israel. The taste would probably vary depending on the origin of the chef making it. Israelis made cooking with eggplant into an art in itself. I, usually, am not so fond of it (I would never eat babaganoush), but sometimes I like it and my view of it reflected the outcome of the dish, which turned out more like vegetable relish than an eggplant one.

Making it was fun for multiple reasons. First – I was making it for my daughter, whom I haven’t seen for 10 months and who is keeping to her vegetarian diet and her sustainability goals for all this time. How interesting that our readings in this class have finally brought me to the same subjects. When I mentioned to her that there exist theories that G-d originally wanted the humankind to be vegetarians, she acted as if the idea was so natural to her that she could not understand why I was surprised.
Second – over the last couple of years I have become (dare I say) friends with another vegetarian girl in her late teens ready for college and much better writer than me. We often discuss our food intake differences and now I wonder how young people brought up here in the free world have different views than us, their parents. Yet they are our continuation. Because of both of these amazing girls I’ve actually become more interested in the subjects like eco-kashrut and vegetarian kashrut. I have to publicly thank them for it.
Back to the recipe though:
2 Medium-large eggplants (peeled)
1 tablespoon kosher salt
¾ cup olive oil
2 onions, finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 green bell peppers, seeded, deribbed and coarsely chopped
1 ¾ pounds plum tomatoes, skinned and chopped
3 tablespoons tomato paste
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon ground cumin
Ground black pepper
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
¼ cup fresh cilantro or parsley (I used a mix of both)

The eggplants need to be cut crosswise, then lengthwise, the diced and left in a colander under some salt for about an hour until they “sweat”. After that, rinse them under the cold water and pat dry several times until they are dry completely.
In a large saucepan fry the eggplant in heated olive oil in 3 to 4 batches until golden and get them off to paper towel to drain.
In the same pan fry the onion, garlic, peppers and sauté until softened 5 to 10 min. add the tomatoes, paste and spices and bring to a boil.
Return the eggplant to the pan and simmer over medium heat for about 20 min stirring occasionally. Stir in the vinegar and cilantro.

Mine turned out a little too hot for some taste, but that’s how we liked it on the shores of the Caspian Sea :-). It was a real vegetarian Shabbat, my daughter’s 19th birthday. I didn’t miss the meat one bit.

Cholent

Our new assignment was to cook something that we’ve never cooked before and talk about this practice in relation to the immigrants’ experiences in the States.

This was very interesting for me for a number of reasons:

First, believe it or not, I have never made a cholent. My kitchen is very small and I have always been reluctant to buy a slow cooker for fear that I have no space for it anyway. So my Shabbos lunch would always mean a blech, hot kitchen and tons of questions on the laws of reheating: yad soledet bo and the like. Nightmare all in all. But, I just got a brand new KitchenAid slow cooker for my birthday from my niece and nephew-in-law!!! Yey for the best family! I would have never bought it myself. I had to try it.

Second, I am an immigrant and the abundance of kosher food here in Brooklyn is so remarkable to me that I do feel a little like the people Hasia Diner is talking about in her book “Hungering for America”. When my family started to observe kashrut a couple of years before we emigrated, the only place to buy kosher meat was the main synagogue. And that meat did not even resemble the lamb shanks I had for the cholent. And here comes another mix. My family is Ashkenazi, but my husband was born in Derbent, a small town on the Caspian Sea near Baku (Azerbaijan, presently a separate country), where quite a few remnants of Ashkenazi families settles among Tat (Gorsky or Caucasian Jews, that trace their wanderings to the times of the exile after the First Temple Destruction), so we have quite a bit of Sephardi-like preferences in our food. Therefore, the recipe may sound weird a little, but here it goes. I took:

2 lamb shanks
½ cup dried white beans
¼ cup barley
1 turnip
1 carrot
1 potato
2 onions
½ zucchini
kosher salt
black pepper
olive oil
3 cloves of garlic
A bit of herbes de provence
A dash of cumin
1 bay leaf
A dash of dried basil
About half a cup dry red wine
About half a cup tomato paste

Firstly, I put the beans to soak before I went to work Friday morning. When I came home, I put the olive oil in a skillet and browned the shanks on the high heat. Then added the onion, sautéed a bit, added garlic and cut up vegetables and cooked just for a bit with wine, maybe 3 to 4 minutes. Since I was very short on time before Shabbos (cholent needs to be at least 30% done before the start of Shabbos), I had to rush, otherwise I probably would have taken the time to remove the shanks and deal with vegetables separately.
Then I put everything together in the slow cooker, added some water and put it on high for about 50 minutes, which gave me enough time, then set it on low and …..

Voila – Cholent!

For my first try it actually turned out quite tasty, I did not even have to salt or pepper it more

Miriam’s Kitchen – Sweet & Sour Cabbage.

Well, cooking is not new to me. I have at least 3 shelves lined with cookbooks, kosher and not. But blogging about it – this is definitely the first.

The idea was actually in the air bouncing off between me and my “run-away” living all the way across the country for almost 9 months now. Maybe this will be more than just class entries, but another way of connecting us.

In any case, I am almost done with this amazing book. It reminds me so much of my own grandmother, whom I, of course, took for granted. She was the best cook I knew, that’s for sure.

So for my first assignment – to make some Jewish dish I have never made before and blog about it, I decided to make something we don’t really like much in my family and took a sweet and sour cabbage recipe.

Here’s the list of stuff I needed:
1 red cabbage (about 5 lb)
½ cup margarine or olive oil
Salt & Pepper
½ Teaspoon nutmeg
3 Tablespoons white vinegar
3 Tablespoons brown sugar
½ cup white raisins
½ cup dried currants
2 cups peels & diced apples

Well, the first thing I have to tell you is that I never go exactly by the recipe. So this time was no different. First, I could not find kosher dried currants (of course!). Never mind – I used a bit of fresh cranberries. I buy these in large quantities. They usually show up in our stores right after Sukkoth and I throw the bags in the freezer to use all year round. My baby (meaning my almost 19 year-old) likes to eat them straight from the bag – no sugar added.
Next I decided I don’t want to use so much sugar. So I used a little less.
Next I thought why not add a bit of chopped mixed nuts that were left over after the strawberry cake that I made for my birthday the same day? So in the nuts went.
Lastly, I poured a little red wine.

The only pain in this recipe for a kosher person is to check/clean the cabbage. I hate buying pre-shredded cabbage. It is usually too thick and dry. So like my rebetzin taught me, I cut the cabbage into chunks, spread the leaves, wash it, and put it into a huge bowl of very salty water for a while. Then I carefully pick the cabbage up and wash it again under running water.

And then I shred it very thin.
Cabbage goes into the heated oil (I don’t like margarine) with salt, pepper & nutmeg.
After a minute I added everything else and in 5 minutes or so turned the heat down. The cabbage then simmered for about an hour.

Surprisingly enough it turned out pretty good. Even my mom said so :-)