Esther Levin’s Latke Recipe from the Old Country

December 13, 2011

Author: lafoodie

There are hundreds of recipes in Jewish cookbooks, American cookbooks, and on the Internet. Here’s a simple one that is a sure hit. But of course, best only when enhanced with some secrets from Rabbi Moshe Levin’s great-grandmother Rochel, passed on to her daughter, Ida, and then to his mother Esther.

Tips from Esther Levin: “Making latkes together, especially parents with their children, is a lot of fun. One of the great things about latkes is that they can be made in advance, so cooks and kids can make them together in the afternoon and serve the latkes when family and friends are ready to eat dinner, right after Hanukkah candles are lit. Latkes may be made up to 8 hours ahead. You can even refrigerate them or even freeze them if you made them earlier. But reheat them on a rack set over a baking sheet in a 350°F oven, about 5 minutes. IF they were frozen, first let them get back to room temperature.”

Esther’s cousin Mollie said that grating the potatoes, then soaking them briefly in water, and then squeezing out the liquid (as we’ve done here) keeps the batter from turning brown too quickly. However, remember what Bubbie Rochel said – not to pour out the starch, only the water. And believe it or not, Tante Beila used to add a little sour cream to the potato onion mixture before frying them so they come out golden brown, not burnt looking.

Ingredients:

1 lb potatoes Yukon Gold are best because of the high starch content

1/2 cup(s) onion finely chopped

1 large egg lightly beaten (Rochel liked it better with two regular size eggs)

2 Tablespoons Matzoh meal Tante Basya says all-purpose flour works too

1/2 teaspoon salt More will give you high blood pressure!

1/4 teaspoon pepper optional

Preparation:

Makes 10 good size latkes. (Adding a little flour will make it into a 12-16 portion batch if you want.) Double this recipe for a hungry crowd! And make sure you have enough sour cream and applesauce at the table for everyone, because they will pile it high on the dinner plate!

Preheat your oven to 250°F.

Peel the potatoes and coarsely grate by hand (Rochel didn’t have a Cuisineart), transferring the mixture to a large bowl of cold water. Soak the grated potatoes 1 to 2 minutes after the last batch is added to the water, and then drain well in a colander. Bubbie Rochel said, “Do NOT pour out the starch in the bottom of the bowl – only the water! Then use your hands to scoop out the starch and add it back into the mix.”

Spread the grated potatoes and onion on a kitchen towel and roll up jelly-roll style. Twist towel tightly to wring out as much liquid as possible. Only then should you transfer the potato mixture to a bowl and stir in the egg(s) and salt (and pepper if you wish).

Heat 1/4 cup oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet pan over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking. Uncle Yankel has a heart condition so Tante Beila coated the pan with cooking spray instead of oil, and of course she cut down on the salt. Make batches of 4 latkes, by spooning 2 tablespoons of the potato mixture per latke into the skillet, flattening them into 3-inch round shapes with a fork. (Rochel said, “Don’t press hard! Thin latkes are too crisp so they don’t come out so good.) Reduce the heat from high to moderate and cook until the undersides are browned, about 5 minutes. Turn the latkes over and cook them until the new undersides are browned, about 4-5 minutes more.

As each batch is done, place them on paper towels to drain and season with a tiny bit more salt (unless someone in your family has high blood pressure, as Zeideh Zalman did). Add a little more oil to the skillet as needed each time you make a new batch. Keep the latkes warm on a wire rack set in a shallow baking pan in your oven until all are ready to be served.

Potato Latkes

July 12, 2012

Author: Leo Beckerman

Leo Beckerman, co-owner of the new and wildly popular Wise Sons Deli in San Francisco, recalls his favorite thing about hannukah– his mother’s latkes. It was as much an event as it was a meal (yes, latkes for dinner). After hours of hand grating potatoes on her grandmother’s latke grater, a tool used only during the festival of lights, everyone would gather in the kitchen. Round blobs of potato and onion went into the cast iron skillet and sizzled to delicious brown crispiness. From the frying pan they went right to the paper towel to remove excess oil, but they rarely made it farther than that. Once on the paper towel, a latke was fair game for eager family members willing to brave the intensely hot potato pancake. A quick dip in sour cream or applesauce and right to the tummy. These nights were celebrated standing up in the kitchen as latke after latke came out of the oil, until all had burned mouths and sated appetites.

Ingredients:

3 lbs Russet potatoes

1 large Yellow onion

2 Whole Eggs Beat the eggs

1.5 Tablespoons Matzo meal

1 teaspoon Salt

.25 teaspoon black pepper

4 Cup(s)s Vegetable Oil for Frying

Preparation:

Cut half of the potatoes into quarters, then boil in salted water until soft, about 15–20 minutes. Drain and mash until smooth. Combine the mashed potato with the matzo meal or flour and set aside.

With a box grater or food processor with a grater attachment, grate the remaining potatoes and the onion and mix to combine. Using a piece of cheesecloth or a fine strainer, squeeze out any liquid from the grated potato–onion mixture, then transfer to a large bowl.

Add the egg, salt, pepper and mashed potatoes and stir well to combine. Form the mixture into patties, each approximately 3 inches in diameter by ¼ – ½ inches. Heat ½ inch of vegetable oil in a heavy frying pan over medium–high heat. When the oil is hot, add some of the latkes, taking care not to overcrowd the pan. Cook until golden brown on one side, about 3–4 minutes (if they are browning too quickly, reduce the heat), then flip and cook until golden brown on the second side, about 2–3 minutes more.

Drain the latkes on paper towels, seasoning with salt while still hot. Repeat with remaining latkes until they’ve all been cooked. Serve with applesauce and sour cream.

Basic Potato Latkes

July 20, 2012

Author: Rachel Cort

My Dad has taught me almost everything I know about cooking, food, baseball, fishing and Judaism; which means he’s taught me quite a lot. This recipe is from some old magazine or book but it is the latke recipe that we make every year at Hanukkah. I can remember being a little kid, standing on a chair and helping my dad flip the latkes or stir the batter. He is the reason why I can cook, why I identify with Judaism and why I am me.

Ingredients:

2 Pounds Idaho potatoes well scrubbed but unpeeled

1 medium Onion

2 Eggs

1/4 cup(s) matzos meal or all purpose flour

Salt and Pepper to taste

Vegetable Oil for Frying

Preparation:

1. Grate potatoes alternately with the onion (this keeps the potatoes from darkening), either by hand or in a food processor. With a food processor, either use a fine shredding disk, or cut the potatoes in half-inch dice, and then use the steel blade with an on-off pulse motion to yield uniformly grated potatoes.

2. Drain potatoes and onions.

3. Mix in eggs, then matzo meal or flour. Season with salt and pepper

4. Pour oil into a heavy skillet, preferably cast iron, to a depth of 1/4 inch, and heat. Oil should be very hot but not smoking.

5. Using a large tablespoon, form round or oval pancakes about 3 inches across, flattening them in the frying pan with the back of the spoon. Fry until golden on both sides.

Bubbe Ana’s Turkey Stuffing Supreme

December 28, 2012

Author: Ronna Dell Valle and Sharon Mason

Ingredients:

For a 12 lb. or larger bird

2 cups sliced onion (2 large onions, sliced)

1/2 ib. beef liver plus the liver from the turkey

1/4 cup vegetable oil

18 oz or larger box of Corn Flakes

3/4 cup water (you might not use it all)

1 tsp. thyme

Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Saute sliced onions in oil until soft, remove from pan and set aside. Pan fry livers in same pan until liver is no longer pink when cut in the center (do not overcook). Chop liver and onions together until fine, like a pate. Crush the Corn Flakes and place in a very large bowl. Add the liver mixture to the corn flakes and slowly add water, as needed, to help blend. Add thyme and other seasonings.

Rinse turkey inside and out and wipe dry with paper towels. Rub crushed garlic on the inside of the bird. Spoon in the stuffing. Extra stuffing can be placed under the skin of the breast and back of the bird. Make a mixture of oil and mustard and rub it over the skin of the entire bird after it has been trussed. Roast the bird at 325 degrees until the thermometer reads done.

Katz’s Latkes

February 6, 2013

Author: Jake Dell

Ingredients:

8 potatoes

4 eggs

1 cup flour

1 tbsp salt

1 tbsp pepper

2 onion.

Soy oil

Preparation:

1. Grate potatoes and onions.

2. Combine all ingredients.

3. Heat skillet with oil (about an 1/8 of an inch.)

4. Form patties with spoon and fry until brown and flip.

5. Repeat.

Greens and Beans

March 6, 2014

Author: Sarah Newman

Inspired by Yotam Ottolenghi’s cookbook, “Jerusalem”- an Israeli interpretation of simple greens dish.

Ingredients:

Spinach

Chard or kale

Onion

Garlic

Garbanzo beans

Olive oil

Honey

Schug (or chili paste)

Tahini

Salt and Pepper

Preparation:

Saute onion and garlic in olive oil. Add greens and cook until wilted. Add beans and continue to cook. Mix the honey, tahini, schug, salt and pepper and add to pan. Cook together for 3 minutes.

Meri Bender’s Southern Californian Long Live Matzah Brei

October 31, 2011

Author: Aimee Bender

My mother’s adaptation of classic matzah brei for those with high cholesterol who steer clear of butter and egg yolks. I find that it’s still surprisingly good.

Ingredients:

8 eggs: six whites, two yolks

1/4 cup(s) Milk any kind of milk is fine

6-7 Pieces Matzoh

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 pinch salt and pepper

Preparation:

Put the 8 egg whites and 2 egg yolks in a bowl, whisk a bit, add a couple tablespoons of milk (any kind), whisk some more until frothy.

Soften matzoh in colander under water until a little less crisp/not quite soggy. Break it into bits. Mix bits with eggs until coated.

Cover bottom of frying pan with water, just barely covered, and add a drizzle of olive oil.

On very low heat, pour in the matzoh/egg mix. Stir slowly. Add a little salt and pepper if you like.

Keep it on low heat, stirring, as the water burns away. It sort of steams the eggs. Turn up heat as you’re finishing to get things a little crisper. Serve with whatever you like– applesauce, etc.

Bubbie Esther’s Chanukah Lasagna

June 20, 2012

Author: Dina Mann

My Bubbie has a Chanukah party every year. She has five daughters, 12 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren, so this is one of the few times when all of us get together and re-connect, as we usually see the whole gang only at family simchas, happy occasions. Every year Bubbie tries new things like Persian rices or Greek pies, but the lasagna is a staple that’s chocked full of veggies and sweet like my Bubbaloo!

Ingredients:

1 box of lasagna

1 container frozen spinach

1 zucchini

2 Carrots

1 large ricotta container

2 packs of shredded mozzarella

2 eggs

1 cup(s) sugar

salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste

2 bottles of tomato sauce

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 350˚.

2. Chop veggies and sauté in large pan and season with salt, pepper and garlic. ( Feel free to swap out these veggies for other such as summer squash, broccoli, peppers, onion…)

3. Bring water to a boil and cook lasagna noodles until mildly cooked. I prefer a little al’ dente as the noodles continue to cook in the oven.

4. In a large bowl, mix ricotta, eggs, sugar and 1 and 1/3 bags of mozzarella. Reserve the remainder of the mozzarella.

5. When veggies are cooked add to cheese mixture.

6. Pour sauce on bottom pan, layer with noodles, add cheese/veggie layer, layer with noodles, add sauce, layer with noodles, add cheese/veggie layer and top off with reserved mozzarella.

7. Bake at 350˚ for an hour and half.

8. Enjoy!

Yetta’s Turkey Burgers

August 21, 2012

Author:Larry Gast

My mother’s parents used to have the family over for dinner quite a bit. My grandmother, Yetta, would cook. She didn’t seem to love cooking. When referring to food, she said ‘diet, ‘fattening’ and ‘bad for you’ a lot. Yetta made us food because we had to eat. I don’t remember a lot of the dishes she served. I remember salad – generally big pieces of wet iceberg lettuce, big chunks of tomato and probably some kind of oil. 

I remember rolls, likely purchased from Dierberg’s, the local grocery store with an in-house bakery. I also remember turkey burgers. I ate a lot of them. They were fine. They were just seasoned enough. They were browned in a pan. I remember chunks of onion in them fondly. When I learned about the Beyond Bubbie project, I thought about what I’d make. And looking back at Yetta’s cooking, this is what I remember. So I called her and got her recipe. The instructions below are pretty true to her approach (she said eggs were optional; she didn’t use carrot.) I liked making these. They are simple, filling, and can be riffed on endlessly. I served it with some beet horseradish from The Gefilteria. When it was cold, I mixed in some sambal. Enjoy.

2 Cup(s)s Ground Turkey (I used Dipaola’s from the green market in New York)

1 Carrot grated

1/2 Onion grated or diced

1.5 Teaspoons Salt

1/2 teaspoon Pepper

4 Tablespoons Bread crumbs

2 Tablespoons Olive oil Add more to taste

Directions

Mix all ingredients in a medium-sized bowl.

Heat a cast iron skillet or a pan with canola oil to a decent level of heat. Meanwhile, make patties, trying to make each one the same size. Make patties somewhat flat to encourage even cooking.

Grill burgers til slightly to decently brown. Serve with greens, horseradish, sriracha, olive oil, and/or anything else.

Meat and Onions

November 30, 2012

Author: Ahuva Traube

My grandmother ob’m was a chalutzah, a pioneer in the land of Israel – a role she was exceedingly proud of. She left her home in Poland before WWII and went to Israel – or Palestine as it was then known. (Going to Israel saved her life, as the rest of her family – save for one brother – was killed during the war).During the years she was there she taught at Cypress, and she worked on a kibbutz. One of her jobs she had on the kibbutz was kitchen duty. She was taught a very basic lesson – one which she passed on to my mom, and my mom taught me. Here goes: Any time you brown meat with onions and garlic, it’s going to taste good. That’s it. Brown the meat first with onions and garlic. Everything else afterwards is just – pardon the expression – gravy.

Ingredients:

1 can be done with beef stew, pot roast, etc.

2 Medium Onions

Preparation:

Chop the onions – to taste! Smash or mince the garlic. Heat up the pan, and add a little oil. When the oil is hot, toss in the onions and garlic and allow to sweat a little. Season the meat with salt and pepper, and then add to the pot. Brown well on both sides, and then continue as you like. Turn it into a stew, a pot roast – whatever you like. Just brown the meat, garlic, and onions first – can’t go wrong!

Mo Rocca’s Momma’s Ravioli

February 6, 2013

Author: Mo Rocca

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil

Garlic

1 package of ground meat

Italian seasoning

Onion

Fresh or frozen spinach

Salt

Pepper

1 dozen eggs

Flour

Preparation:

Prepare the filling and let cool.

Directions as follows:

Place about a Tbsp. of olive oil in a large pan. Add a few pressed or a few tsp. of garlic in and sautee until brown. Add a package of ground hamburger, Italian seasoning, onions, fresh or frozen spinach, and salt and pepper. Cook until the meat is browned.

Prepare the pasta dough.

Directions as follows:

Place a dozen eggs in a large mixing bowl and beat for about 3-5 minutes. Add flour gradually until the dough is able to be turned out onto a floured surface and kneaded. Knead for a few minutes adding flour if needed until the dough is not sticky any more. Don’t over knead or dough becomes tough. Actually, if it’s still a little sticky, it’s ok because the pasta machine kneads it while it presses it. Cut the dough into pieces small enough to be put into the machine and set it on the widest setting. Put the dough through and gradually set the machine on smaller settings until it reaches the density you want. I usually put it on 3, I think. Place the dough onto a floured surface and start filling from one end folding the edge over the filling crop the ravioli and crimp it with a fork. Boil the immediately or let them dry and then boil or freeze.

Grandma’s Swedish Meatballs and Lingonberry Sauce

May 9, 2013

Author: Chef Zane Holmquist

Watch Video Here. 

The Holmquist family came to Utah at about 1910, as Mormon immigrants to Utah as Mormon pioneers they got homestead land from the church and had a dry farm. They went from being boat builders, building motors and engines for boats, to farming and a few had cattle. They eventually moved to Salt Lake City. But the family came here because of their religious beliefs and then ended up going back to Sweden for a while as missionaries and then returned to Utah. But a big group of Utahans are Swedish and all the Utah Holmquists are related and one family.

Ingredients:

Swedish Meatball Mixture:

2 lbs ground pork

1 lb ground veal

1/2 yellow onion

10 springs parsley

2 oz. Utah honey

Kosher salt/ pepper to taste

2 whole eggs

1/4 cup Panko bread crumbs

Lingonberry Sauce:

8 oz. of lingonberry jam

3 cups veal demi-glaze (can be found in specialty food stores)

3/4 cup heavy cream

*Combine all ingredients, simmer and reduce until sauce has a nappe consistency.

Preparation:

Small dice the yellow onion, pick parsley leaves from stems and finely chop.

Combine all ingredients together, mix thoroughly and place in refrigerator to rest overnight.

Roll mixture into 1 inch uniform meatballs. Place meatballs, evenly spaced, on a non-stick sheet pan.

Cook at 300 degrees Fahrenheit for approximately 8-10 minutes. Remove from oven and place in lingonberry sauce.

Serve & Enjoy!

Authentic Spanish Paella de Abuelita

May 20, 2013

Author: GambasandGrits 

My husband is about as American as you can get. Until recently, Sergio had spent nearly all his life in the Lone Star State, having grown up outside of Houston, Texas, attended University of Texas as an undergrad and relocated to Houston as an adult. He loves all things sports (particularly the ’Horns), can grill like a pro, and drives a Ford F150.

But what makes him even more American is the fact that he came from somewhere else. Sergio was born to a Spanish mother and Cuban father in Spain. His father had always dreamed of coming to the United States and, so dedicated was he to fulfilling this chosen destiny, that my father-in-law gave up 2 years of his life in a Cuban work camp before he was permitted to leave his country. Shortly after Sergio was born, his father’s papers came in, and off they moved to relocate in a foreign land (and, I imagine, the even more foreign town of Sugar Land).

Sergio became a naturalized citizen in 1991, an experience that plays out every day in the United States. So even though he is 100% American, he is also (as he jokingly adds) “50% Cuban and 50% Spanish”. As such, he has access to the authentic recipes of his abuela‘s kitchen, passed down orally through his mother.

Among the favorites is her recipe for paella. Paella is one of those dishes that, after you have made it yourself, you will wonder why you pay an arm and a leg for it in the restaurants. While a bit labor-intensive (you constantly have to monitor the paella to make sure the rice is cooking evenly), a good paella is relatively simple and cheap to make. Also, because of the novelty and communalism of it (truly a “family style” dish), it is great for dinner parties.

Ingredients:

1 regular white or yellow onion, diced

6 whole cloves of garlic, unpeeled

1/2 large red bell pepper, 1/2 of which is cut into thin strips, the other 1/2 diced

1 1/2 cups paella rice (or short-grained rice in a pinch)

1/4 pound chorizo (or your favorite sausage or ham), diced in 1/2 inch cubes

1 pound of seafood comprising:mussels and/or clams (in shell) and calamari

1 pound of shrimps (in shell with the heads, the larger the better)

a few threads of saffron

olive oil

salt, pepper and sugar, to taste

Preparation:

1. Place 3/4 pound of shrimp in 5 1/2 cups of water and, after reaching a rolling boil for 3 minutes, reduce to low-medium heat and allow to cook for 30 minutes (shrimp broth).

2. Cover bottom of paella pan in thin layer of olive oil, at medium-high heat.

3. Cook 1/4 pound chorizo just enough to render fat.

4. Once pan is hot, place 6 garlic cloves (still in their peels) in olive oil and remove when thoroughly browned.

5. Place 1 diced onion and and 1/4 red bell pepper, diced, and stir. Once onion is translucent, add calamari and continue to stir.

7. Add 1 1/2 cups paella rice, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of pepper and a generous pinch of sugar and continue to stir.

8. Remove shrimp from pot, remove the heads from the shrimp, deshell, devein and cut the shrimp into small morsels and mix with rice.

9. Add 1 cup of shrimp broth and 3-5 threads of saffron, and continue to stir until boiling.

10. As liquid boils off, continue to add 2 more cups of shrimp broth.

11. Boil for 5 minutes, covered (heavy or tripled-folded aluminum foil works well), and then lower heat to medium-low.

12. Leave for 10 minutes, covered.

13. Add remaining 2 cups shrimp broth slowly as it absorbed by the rice.

14. Arrange mussels/clams, shrimp (with heads) and 1/4 red bell pepper, sliced, on top.

15. Allow to cook for 5 more minutes, covered.

16. Remove from heat and allow to sit for 10 minutes, covered.

Notes

Paella does require a large, flat-bottomed pan for cooking the rice evenly- the key to a good paella. This does not necessarily mean you must go out and buy a paella pan (although if you cook it frequently enough, it is well worth it, as a paella pan can be used for plenty of other dishes), you can always ad lib and/or make smaller quantities.

Because paella rice must be cooked evenly, most stoves are not ideal to evenly distribute heat across your big-bottomed pan. A grill (charcoal or gas) is a great solution. Just be sure to pay close attention to your rice- it cooks quickly on the grill! Otherwise, turn on all burners to cover as much surface area as possible and rotate the pan to distribute heat evenly.

Fresh seafood (vs. frozen) really makes a big difference.

If you can’t find shrimp with their heads on, substitute chicken broth for shrimp broth and substitute more seafood or chicken for the shrimp.

Maria’s Chicken Paprikash

October 8, 2013

Author: Jackie M

Here at Beyond Bubbie, we had the opportunity to visit Maria Vero through Dorot, an organization that arranges visits to seniors on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It was wonderful to sit with Maria and chat with her about where she has been and where she is going. Maria was born in Hungary and moved to Paris in 1968. She then emigrated from Paris to New York, where she continued to study the violin, something she had done since she was a little girl. Her husband was a concert pianist and performed in places like Carnegie Hall. This chicken recipe is a staple of Maria’s kitchen. It is something she ate as a little girl and something she continues to eat today.

Ingredients:

1 onion

1 chicken

1 tsp paprika

a little water

2 tomatoes

1 green pepper

salt and pepper

Preparation:

1. Dice the onion and saute in large pan or dutch oven.

2. Add in paprika and saute.

3. Add a little water to the bottom of the pan.

4. Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper to taste.

5. Put chicken in pan with diced tomato and green pepper.

6. Bring to a boil.

7. Reduce heat and cover. Cook for a 1/2 hour on a small flame.

Green Bean Casserole Plus

March 6, 2014

Author: Puppett

The original family recipe called for frozen green beans. I loved it but felt it was a touch bland so switched to fresh veggies and added garlic and pepper. An old girlfriend said she liked to add pasta, so I tried it out and people love it!

Ingredients:

16oz fresh green beans

1 bunch fresh broccoli (or asparagus)

1 cup friselli pasta

2 cans/small boxes condensed mushroom soup

8oz fried onions

Garlic Powder

Pepper

Preparation:

Blanch green beans and broccoli. Cook pasta as directed. Mix vegetables and pasta with 6oz of fried onions and condensed soup. Mix in garlic and pepper. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 mins. Sprinkle rest of fried onions on top 5 mins before serving.

Joan Nathan’s Mother-in-Law’s Gefilte Fish

February 1, 2013

Author: Joan Nathan

The gefilte fish in Joseph Wechsberg’s mouthwatering description is unfortunately a dish of the past. Today, most people buy frozen or bottled brands. Good cooks, however, insist on preparing the homemade variety for Friday night and the holidays. My late mother-in-law, Peshka Gerson, made it twice a year, at Passover and Rosh Hashanah. She used her mother’s recipe, handed down orally, from Zamosc, Poland. Her only concession to modernity was making individual patties rather than stuffing the filling back into the skin as described by Wechsberg. In addition, her filling was less elaborate. Years ago, when I asked Peshka for her recipe, two of her sisters-in-law were present. They all agreed that the rule of thumb is one pound of fat fish to one pound of thin. They also preferred the Polish custom of adding a little sugar. (Lithuanians say sugar is added to freshen already unfresh fish. Needless to say, Lithuanians do not add sugar to their gefilte fish.) Peshka, Chuma, and Rushka disagreed, however, on the seasonings. Chuma insisted on more salt, and Rushka explained that a little almond extract would do the trick. They both took me aside, promising to show me the “real” way to make gefilte fish. I have used their two suggestions as variations on Peshka’s basic recipe. Make your fish Lithuanian or Polish, with sugar or without, but just remember—it’s the carrots and horseradish that really count! I have been making this recipe since the mid-1970s. The only difference is that I cook the fish for twenty minutes. My mother-in-law cooked it for two hours!

Ingredients:

Fish:

• 3 pounds carp (meat)

• 1 1/2 pounds whitefish, pickerel, or rockfish (meat)

• 1 1/2 pounds yellow pike or buffel (meat)

• 6 onions

• 2 tablespoons salt, or to taste

• 6 eggs

• 3 tablespoons sugar

• 1 /2–1 cup matzah meal

• 3/4 cup water

• 1 teaspoon almond extract or 1/4 cup ground almonds (optional)

• 1 1/4 teaspoons pepper

• Horseradish (bottled or fresh)

Stock:

• 4 stalks celery, cut in 4-inch slices

• 3 onions, sliced

• 6 carrots, sliced on the bias

• 8 cups water, or enough to cover bones with 1 inch to spare (use less rather than more)

• Bones of fish (and heads, if desired)

• 1 tablespoon salt

• 1/2 tablespoon freshly ground pepper

• 1 tablespoon sugar

Preparation:

1. Place all the stock ingredients in a large kettle with a cover. Bring to a boil, then partially cover and reduce the heat to a simmer. While waiting for the pot to boil, begin preparing the fish.

2. In a wooden bowl, add to the ground-up fish all the other ingredients listed under Fish, carefully chopping very fine and blending. You can also use the grinder on a mixer. Wet your hands and form the fish into fat, oval-shaped patties, carefully sliding each into the simmering stock.

3. Simmer over a low flame slowly for 20 to 30 minutes or for 2 hours. Allow to cool in the pot and carefully remove all the patties, placing them on a platter.

After the fish has been removed, strain off the cooking liquid. This stock should then gel when chilled; if it does not, simply add a package of unflavored gelatin, following instructions on the package.

4. Serve the chilled gefilte fish with the jellied fish stock, horseradish, and of course the carrots.

Chopped Liver

February 25, 2013

Author: Varda

Elizabeth wasn’t her real name. The daughter of Lithuanian immigrants, her Hebrew name was Hasia Leah. Her “greener” parents called her, “Lizzie.”

When it came time for Grandma to go to school, the teacher took the roll. When she came to “Lizzie Schaffer,” she told my grandma, “From now on, your name is Elizabeth.”

And so it was.

I didn’t have Grandma for very long. Grandma died when I was five. She had rheumatic fever as a child, and only later on did they discover that it had affected her heart.

She was always frail and spent a great deal of time in the hospital. One night, she told my mother, “I’ve had enough,” and in the morning, she was gone.

But I still managed to store up some treasured memories of Grandma. I remember how I used to love to ride around her apartment in her wheelchair (by that time, she was too weak to walk) and how she always had a china dish of nonpareils on a corner table in her living room. This was the only place I ever saw those chocolate discs adorned with the little white candy shots. Nonpareils are indelibly linked for me with my Grandma, she of the careworn face and hair that was whiter than snow. Only much later did I see nonpareils at a shop in Israel, where I now live, and immediately thought, “Grandma!”

Grandma used to save ribbons from gifts in a heart-shaped candy box, from some Valentine’s Day long ago. These, she took out whenever I came for a visit, and I would play with them. Today, the thought seems so odd and out of place to me, that a collection of ribbons could hold my interest. My children play with iPads and iPods. If I gave them a box of ribbons, they would be bemused, to say the least.

But for me, this was something so special, this box of ribbons. It was sheer luxury to run my hands through the satiny ribbons, to note the details that made one ribbon different from another, this one shot through with silver, that one silky, another one stiff and gauzy. And the colors! Every color a girl could love: orchid, candy pink, fuchsia.

I wish I knew more about my Grandma, but I don’t. So I filled in the blanks by asking my mother. “Did you learn to cook from Grandma?” I asked her. My mother laughed.

“Grandma gave us pasta with ketchup and never heard of garlic. But she made three things well: fudge, sugar cookies, and chopped liver. No one could make them like Grandma. And no one ever will. She never wrote her recipes down.”

“Grandma cooked the way people did in the old days. She put in half an eggshell of this, and a handful of that. That’s why no one will ever be able to duplicate those recipes. I miss her fudge!” my mother exclaimed.

I never got a chance to taste my grandmother’s cooking because she was already so fragile when I knew her. But at least my mother was able to preserve the simple Jewish recipes that my Grandma used to make for the holidays. I learned to make chopped liver just as my Grandma did, just as my mother did and does. Everyone who tastes it says it’s the best chopped liver they ever had. Even those who don’t like chopped liver love mine.

I once had a family over for Shabbos. The wife said she was on a diet, so she’d only have a taste of the chopped liver, liver is so fattening. She took a smidgen on her plate, declared it delicious and said, “Just another little taste.”

I discreetly watched as she slowly carved away a sliver at a time until there was a small neat square of liver in the center of the serving plate. It was now time to clear this course and bring out the next, the main course. But something told me to leave the liver on the table.

By the end of the meal, sure enough, she had polished off the entire plate of chopped liver. Well, we had helped. But most of it went to my lady guest, who talked the good talk about diet, but simply couldn’t resist my Grandma’s chopped liver. No one could.

It begins with schmaltz. You simply cannot make real chopped liver without a generous amount of schmaltz. Is it healthy? Of course not.

Do I have time to make schmaltz, with its necessity for long, slow simmering? Of course not—I’m a working mother, a communications writer at http://www.kars4kids.org

But personally, I wouldn’t want to die without having tasted chopped liver with real schmaltz and so I do from time to time, at least on holidays and special occasions. It’s well worth those extra minutes off my life. What would I do with them anyway? What’s an extra minute without having tasted chopped liver??

Ingredients:

Fat and skin (the choicest selection for this purpose is on either side of the chicken breast), about half a cup (I save it up as I cook chickens, freezing in plastic wrapped bundles until I have an amount sufficient to make schmaltz)

1 small onion, thinly sliced

1 small bay leaf

3 whole peppercorns

Pinch of salt

1 lb. kashered* calves liver

2 hardboiled eggs

1 small onion

Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

For the schmaltz, cut up the fat and skin into postage stamp-sized pieces. Place in small saucepan. Add rest of ingredients. Cook on very low heat, carefully swirling pan every so often to prevent the cracklings (griebnes) from sticking to the bottom of the pot.

Schmaltz takes long, careful cooking. It is done when the griebnes are almost brown. Pour the contents of the pot into a strainer over a heat-resistant bowl. Leave the pot inverted over the strainer to capture every last drop. Discard bay leaf and peppercorns from griebnes in strainer. Cool and then store schmaltz and griebnes separately in refrigerator while making the liver.

For the chopped liver, put the liver, eggs, and onion through a meat grinder. Grind twice. Add enough schmaltz to pleasantly moisten the mixture and make it spreadable. Add salt and pepper to taste (you won’t need much as the liver and schmaltz are already salty). Chill. Spread on a flat plate. Score with a knife into serving-sized squares. Sprinkle griebnes over the top and serve

Note: Griebnes are also delicious sprinkled over a bowl of chicken soup.

*Consult a rabbi on how to Kasher liver, if you cannot purchase liver already kashered. The kashering process involves broiling, so the liver is already fully-cooked after kashering and may be used in any recipe requiring cooked livers.

Varda Epstein is the mother of 12 children, a blogger at The Times of Israel and Judean Rose, and a Communications Writer for Kars4Kids http://www.kars4kids.org, the car donation charity.

Mother’s Chicken Escarole Soup with Matzo Balls

July 16, 2012

Author: Joan Nathan

My ninety-eight year old plus mother loves order and hates chaos. She is precise and unwavering about everything – the way she runs her family, her house, her kitchen. And for her, there is only one way to prepare for holidays: she cooks a week, two weeks, sometimes a month ahead, freezing the rugelach, the chicken, the plum pies, but never, never the matzo balls.

Just before she turned 90, my mother switched from using a whole chicken, to chicken legs in her chicken soup because she finds more flavor in the legs, and besides, the legs are often on special in her supermarket. From an Italian restaurant in Providence, she learned to swirl in escarole at the last minute, before she adds her matzo balls.

Ingredients:

6 whole chicken legs

20 Cups water

2 celery stalks sliced into 2 inch chunks

2 whole carrots cut into 2 inch chunks

1 large onion peeled and quartered

1 parsnip cut into 2 inch chunks

2 Tablespoons chopped fresh dill

2 Tablespoons chopped fresh flat leaf parsley

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

8 Ounces escarole

Matzo Balls

3 Tablespoons chicken fat or vegetable oil

6 Large eggs, separated well beated

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg

1 3/4 Cup(s)s matzo meal

1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat leaf parsley

12 Cup(s)s water

Preparation:

To Make the Soup:

1. Put the water in a soup pot, add the chicken legs and bring the water to a boil Simmer slowly for 2 hours, uncovered, skimming off the fat and foam as they rise to the top of the soup.

2. After 2 hours, add the celery, carrots, onion, parsnip, dill and parsley. Continue cooking slowly, uncovered, for another hour.

3. Set a strainer over a large bowl and strain the soup. Season it to taste with salt and pepper. Refrigerate the soup, covered, overnight.

4. The next day peel off the layer of fat that has formed on the soup’s surface. Bring the soup to a boil in a large pot (or freeze it for another day). Before serving, swirl in the escarole and add the matzo balls (recipe follows), cooking for a few minutes.

To Make the Matzo Balls:

1. In a medium bowl, mix the chicken fat or vegetable oil with the eggs, salt, nutmeg, matzo meal and parsley. Refrigerate for a few hours or overnight.

2. Bring the water to a boil in a large pot. Take the matzo mix out of the refrigerator and, after dipping your hands into a bowl of cold water, gently form balls the size of large walnuts. Add salt to the water, and drop in the balls. Simmer slowly, covered, for about 20 minutes, remove from water with a slotted spoon, and add to the soup.

Moroccan Fish from Israel

March 12, 2013

Author: JDCEntwine

Recipe courtesy of Rachel Tachvilian from Beit Shemesh, Israel. Read more about the JDC and Israel.

Ingredients:

• 4 slices tuna or Nile perch (if available)

• 2-3 ripe tomatoes

• Salt (for marinating fish and for sauce)

• Lemon juice

• 1⁄4 teaspoon turmeric

• 1⁄2 teaspoon chicken-flavored

(meatless/”pareve”) soup mix

• 2-3 cups boiling water, plus more

boiling water if using tuna

• Handful of fresh chopped cilantro

• 1 red pepper, chopped

• 1 long chili pepper, preferably dry, cut

into wide strips

• 1 clove fresh garlic, peeled and

chopped

• About 1⁄4 cup vegetable oil

• 1 tablespoon sweet red paprika

Preparation:

Sprinkle salt and lemon juice over fish and let marinate for 30 minutes. In the meantime, prepare sauce by peeling the tomatoes and placing them into a wide pot. Add salt, turmeric, and soup mix and bring to a boil. Mash cooked tomato mixture (can use a potato masher), then add 2-3 cups boiling water to the pot. Bring sauce to a simmer.

Rinse fish: if using tuna, rinse it first with boiling water and then with tap water; if using Nile perch, rinse it

with tap water. Place slices of fish on top of sauce in the wide pot. Lay chopped cilantro, pepper strips, and chopped garlic on top of fish. Bring mixture to a boil. In the meantime, thoroughly combine the oil and sweet paprika in a separate dish and add to the fish mixture. After the fish has boiled for 10 minutes, reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer fish for about 30 minutes more. Serve fish with sauce, hot or at room temperature.

Serves 4 people