Egg Noodles

June 19, 2016

Author: Ellie Austin

My food story is as rich and mixed as my family heritage. My paternal grandmother came from Nanjing China. She liked to cook all things Chinese: eggrolls, noodles, noodle soup, and meat stew. My paternal grandfather was an Italian- American. He liked Italian cuisine like pasta, calzones, meatballs, and red wine. My mom’s family is of Scottish, English, and Native-American descent. They came to NYC from New England. My mom is a good cook. She makes some of the tastiest meals from beef, lamb, and venison. On major holidays or table is full of food from all different parts of the world.

Ingredients:

Flour

Water

Milk

Eggs

Salt

Butter

Pepper cheese

Preparation:

Mix flour, water, milk, eggs, and add salt

Knead, roll, and pull the dough as long as you can. (Long noodles symbolize long life.)

Cook in boiling water for 20 minutes.

Add salt, pepper, cheese, and butter to taste.

Orange Bundt Cake

August 27, 2012

Author: Joan Lynch

My mother-in-law, Bridie Lynch, emigrated from Ireland in her early twenties and met her husband, Michael, in Chicago. When I met my husband, Jack, I was immediately welcomed into a large, loving Irish family. My mother had died when I was 7 years old and we did not have a large extended family. I enjoyed meeting Jack’s 2 sisters and the many aunts, uncles and cousins who were an important part of their lives. My Bubbie, Bridie, had a good sense of what she could do to help out and make me feel comfortable with my “new family”. She loved our 4 children and welcomed each one enthusiastically.. The Irish were good cooks and they cooked simply. I have included a family cake recipe.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 sticks of butter

1 cup(s) Sugar

2 1/2 Cup(s)s flour

1 teaspoon Baking Powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2 rinds of oranges

2 eggs

1 teaspoon Vanilla extract

1 cup(s) raisins

1 cup(s) finely chopped walnuts

Sour Milk

1/2 cup(s) canned milk

1/2 cup(s) water

1 teaspoon vinegar

Glaze

2 Oranges

1 cup(s) Sugar

Preparation:

1. Cream butter and sugar

2. Combine flour and other dry ingredients and add to sugar mixture

3. Add liquid ingredients and beat well

4. Add raisins and nuts and beat again

5. Put batter in a lightly greased bundt pan and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour

6. Squeeze two ouranges and combine with 1 cup sugar. Pour slowly over cake when you take it out of the oven.

Ella Sax’s Rice Pudding

November 1, 2012

Author: David Sax

“Granny” Ella Sax’s signature dessert was her rice pudding, baked without dairy, studded with raisins, blanketed in cinnamon, and drenched in maple syrup. In her warm Montreal apartment, with its candy bowls and old world tchotchkes and hallways smelling of chicken soup, a casserole of rice pudding was always in the oven when we arrived from Toronto, as sure as her sweet and sour meatballs bubbled atop the stove. The aroma of those two dishes mingling in the same space form the perfume of memory for Granny Ella.

Granny grew up in Drummondville, a small Quebec town, east of Montreal, which is overwhelmingly French. I’ve been told she grew up in a priviledged family, with drivers, fine cars, and fur coats, but by the time we’d met, all that remained were photographs and antiques cluttering her apartment. My grandfather, Sam Sax, was a garment worker, and from what I heard, Granny Ella never let him forget that. She consistently held to the idea, throughout her life, that she was Austrian gentry, descended from landed Jewish nobility in the heart of Europe’s cultural capital. She dressed impeccably, accessorizing with scarves and costume jewelry befitting a duchess, and spoke as though she’d just stepped off a carriage into a ballroom, greeting everyone with a drawn out “Hellooooo Dahhling”. You could almost hear the waltz playing in the background.

The truth, however, was that Granny’s family was from Bessarabia, which, although technically in the far flung corner of the Austro-Hungarian empire, is in fact current day Moldova, about as Viennese as colonial Haiti was Parisian. Two years ago, I was visiting Romania, and ate at the house of a Jewish cook there, who served a baked rice pudding. It was nearly close to Granny’s, with no dairy, baked rice, raisins, and tons of cinnamon. The maple syrup, Granny’s decidedly Quebec touch, was replaced with fruit preserves, but otherwise it was similar in many ways.

“This is my grandmother’s recipe,” the woman told me. “She came from Bessarabia.” When I came home, I told my father and my aunts, which soon provoked the usual arguments. “Mom was Austrian” vs “Mom was Hungarian” vs “No, she was Bessarabian”. What I thought was definitive proof proved no more final than her recipe itself, which omits what kind of rice to use, its consistency, and how much maple syrup. Like its namesake, it’s best shrouded in mystery, left up to the next generation to shape to their narrative.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 Cup(s)s Rice

3 Cup(s)s water

1 cup(s) raisins

1-4 Tbsp vegetable oil

2 egg beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup(s) Brown sugar

lots of cinnamon

1 apple peeled and grated

Preparation:

1. Cook rice in water just until all water is absorbed.

2. While rice is cooking, combine oil, eggs, vanilla, brown sugar and lots of cinnamon (the more the better) in a large bowl.

3. Combine with rice, raisins and apple until well mixes together, place in an 8-inch square pyrex pan, sprinkle liberally with cinnamon, and bake, covered, at 350 for 1 hour.

Serve warm with maple syrup.

Chocolate Babka

December 26, 2012

Author: Chef Micah Wexler

Ingredients:

Challah

y:6 pieces

Bread Flour 172g or about 5 Cups

Water 112g or about 1/2 Cup

Yeast 1g or about .35 Teaspoon

Salt 3g or about 1/2 Teaspoon

Water 154g or about 2/3 Cup

Yeast 4g or about 2/3 Teaspoon

Sugar 71g or about 1/3 Cup

Bread Flour 400g or just under 3 Cups

Eggs 2 each

Salt 8g or about 2 Teaspoons

Butter, cubed 90g or about 2/5 Cup

Milk 14g or about 1 Tablespoon

Babka Filling

y:1qt

Chocolate chips 390g or about 2 Cups

Sugar 75g or just over 1/3 Cup

Salt ¾ tsp

Ground Cinnamon 1 ½ tsp

Butter 67g or about 3/10 Cup

Streusel Topping

y:1qt

AP Flour ½ cup

Powdered Sugar ½ + 1/3 cup

Butter 6 Tablespoons

Preparation:

Challah

1) Mix bread flour, water, yeast and salt til it becomes a dough.

2) Proof for at least 1 hr in a covered, oiled container. The starter can sit in the refrigerator

overnight to develop more flavor.

3) Mix water yeast and sugar in a stand mixer with the paddle, let sit for 5 minutes for the yeast

to bloom.

4) Mix in bread flour and the starter.

5) Gradually mix in eggs and then add in the salt and milk.

6) Add the cubed butter in pieces, then turn mixer up to medium setting until the dough comes

together. Allow to mix for approximately 8 minutes.

7) Proof dough for an hour, and then divide evenly into 6 balls. Store on a sprayed parchment,

covered with plastic wrap in the refrigerator.

Babka Filling

1) In a food processor, mix chocolate chips, sugar, salt, and cinnamon until crumbly.

2) Add cubed butter until the blend is crumbly and mixed.

Streusel Topping

1) In a stand mixer with paddle attachment, mix flour and sugar.

2) Gradually add cubed butter until pea-sized pieces form. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

3) Roll out two pieces of challah until approximately 1⁄2” thick.

4) Place 1/3c of the filling in the center of the dough.

5) Spread the filling all over, leaving a 1⁄2” border on one side.

6) Roll out the dough like a cigar toward the edge

7) Pinch the edges so that the filling doesn’t fall out. Repeat for the other piece of dough.

8) Once you have both pieces done, twist them together and pinch the edges.

9) Place in an 8×4 loaf pan, eggwash the top and cover with a handful of streusel.

10) Bake in 375F oven until golden brown.

Matzo Meal Rolls

December 28, 2012

Author: Ann Becker

These two recipes come from Janie Krantz who hails from Sioux City, Iowa, which she says had a large, vibrant Jewish community. She and her aunt think these are the right version of the recipes their Bubbie, Fanni Kantrovich who was from Kiev, used to make. Though who can tell when she always made everything impromptu with no recipe cards in sight!

Ingredients

1/2 c. Crisco

1 c. boiling water

1 t. salt

1 T. sugar

2 c. matzo meal

4 eggs

Preparation

Add fat to boiling water in a sauce pan. Stir in dry ingredients. Beat over low heat until mixture leaves sides of pan. Remove from heat and put in bowl. Beat in 1 egg at a time. Batter should be thick and smooth. Shape into 8 balls and place on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 1 hour until browned. Serve as rolls or cut in half and fill as a sandwich.

Strudel

December 28, 2012

Author: Janie Krantz

Ingredients

½ pound soft butter

2 c. flour

5 T. water

1 T. vinegar

1 egg

cinnamon

sugar

tart jam

nuts

coconut

powdered sugar

Preparation

Dough: Cut together the soft butter and flour like pie dough. Then add the next three ingredients and work together. Divide into 4 parts – refrigerate for an hour. Roll out very thin. Sprinkle with cinnamon, sugar, tart jam, nuts, and coconut. Roll up like a jelly roll. Seal ends. Bake 1 hr at 325 degrees on a flat pan. Cut while warm. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Amma Zahara’s Ka’aka

April 8, 2013

Author: Leah Hadad

Not my grandmother, Amma Zahra is my honorary Bubbie. She treated my siblings and me, as she would have had her own grandchildren. Growing up, I spent more time with her than I did with my grandmothers. When my mother was at work, she babysat us. She was my maternal great aunt. Yemenite Arabic draws a distinction between maternal and paternal aunts and uncles. Amma is the word denoting a paternal aunt. Zahra was also my mother’s name until she immigrated to Israel, upon which time she was assigned the name Sarah. Her aunt kept her original name – Zahra, the morning star.

Amma Zahara always seemed very old to my young eyes. She was believed to have been born at 1895, which would place her in her mid 60s when I was born. When I think back, she had to have been older than that. Even in my early memories, her face is a weave of deep, close-knit wrinkles. Her eyes imparted kindness and wisdom, and I remember her as warm and good-natured. From many miles away years later, she still occupies a special place in my heart.

In those simpler times, Amma Zahra fit the bill of an Eshet Hayil. I watched her cook, bake, clean, and do the laundry. She also found time for sewing, Yemenite style embroidery, and basket weaving. Her ‘kitchen’ was a small corner of her one room residence. There, she squatted in front of a portable, single-burner kerosene stove, prevalent in 1950s Israel. She practiced old-world cooking, utilizing every edible portion of the raw food; nothing was wasted.

While she kept herself busy, she always made time for her afternoon Yemenite coffee into which she dunked ka’aka. It was the time to visit with family, friends, and neighbors. Shoot the breeze. That generation knew to take the time for rest and to find joy in the small things. It is those simpler pleasures that I miss when I think about Amma Zahra and to which this ka’aka takes me back.

Ka’aka is a pastry type prevalent in the Arab world and is known also as ka’ak. There are many variations, sweet and savory. By sweet, I do not mean the sweet concoctions to which we are accustomed these days. Sugar was then used as a condiment, not a main ingredient.

In the recipe I offer here, I re-imagine the ka’aka I remember. In Israel, Yemenite immigrants adapted their cooking to local, cheaper ingredients. This pastry was most likely been baked originally with ghee – clarified butter – or olive oil; today, in Israel, it is baked with margarine. I am using butter and a mix of all-purpose flour and whole grain wheat because even the ‘clean’ flour in Yemen was in all likelihood less refined than ours. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

Makes 14-16 cakes

1 c unsalted butter

3 c AP flour  (350 g)

1 1/3 c whole wheat flour (150 g)

1/2 c sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp baking powder

2 large eggs

1/4 c ice cold water

2 Tbsp. Sesame or nigella (black seed)

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350°;

Place all ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix with a wooden spoon or by hand until dough comes together.  It will be soft and a bit tacky.  Alternatively, use a food processor and mix for about 7-10 min.;

Tear a chunk from the dough and with cup of your hands form into a ball (65 g).  It should be 2 “ in diameter;

Place on an oiled or parchment-covered baking sheet.  Press the ball gently with the palms your hands to flatten;

Spread seeds on top and bake for 25 min.  You could brush top with egg wash, but it is not necessary.

Enjoy!

Savtah’s Custard

April 9, 2013

Author: Kitchen Tested

When I think back to my Savtah’s kitchen growing up, I can still taste the Israeli cous cous, sweet and sour tongue, candy cane ice cream, fluffy meringues and lots of pistachios. But one memory I don’t have is of this breakfast custard that my sisters rave about. My Savtah used to bake a dozen (or more) individual custards and leave them in the fridge for everyone to snack on all week. You could eat them at any time of the day but they were especially delicious at breakfast. So how could I not make this recipe in my own kitchen and hopefully start a new tradition with my husband and children. When I tasted my very first bite, I tried to picture myself standing in my grandparent’s kitchen with my sisters, snacking on custard right in front of the fridge. Sure, the memory isn’t real, but the custard sure is!

Originally published on Kitchen Tested.

Ingredients:

2 ½ cups water

1 1/4 cup non-fat dry milk

3 eggs

1 Tbsp honey

1 tsp vanilla

nutmeg, for garnish

*if you want sweet custard, add 1 Tbsp vanilla sugar

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare six custard cups with cooking spray and place them in a baking pan filled half way with water.

With an immersion blender, blender or food processor, blend the water, dry milk, eggs, vanilla and honey. If you want your custard to be sweet, add the vanilla sugar and blend. Ladle the custard into the cups and sprinkle with nutmeg.

Bake until set, around 35 minutes. Cool 1-2 hours on the counter then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 5 days…if they last that long.

Tsimmes

December 10, 2012

Author: Ronna Dell Valle and Sharon Mason

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lb. carrots, peeled and slice thick or use bags of baby carrots

1 (24 oz.) pkg. of pitted prunes

2 yams or sweet potatoes, peeled and cut in large cubes or very thick slices

1/4 cup OJ

1 Tbsp. Parve Margarine

1 cup water

1 Tbsp. brown sugar

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. cloves

Preparation:

Saute carrots in margarine in covered saucepan for 15 minutes. Add everything else and bring to a boil. Place in a baking dish and bake, covered (use aluminum foil), at 350 degrees, stirring and basting with the liquid until done (carrots & yams are soft and the liquid is “syrupy” in consistency).

Gvetch

December 27, 2012

Author: Ronna Dell Valle and Sharon Mason

My mother-in-law, of blessed memory, came to live with Reuben and myself when we had been married a year. She was a dear, sweet woman and we got along famously. She worked, as did I, until our first daughter was born a year later. Mom graciously offered her services as babysitter and we got to go out frequently. This particular Sunday, Mom suggested that she make us Sunday dinner. She made what I later learned was Gvetch. I was very angry with her. “Mom, why did you wait until you were living with us three years before making this delicious dish? I’m angry with you for not having made it long before this day.” Mom received this recipe from a Romanian lady; but, I think it is from the Middle East.

Ingredients:

1 medium size eggplant, peeled, sliced and cut into one inch cubes

1 cup rice

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 cup diced onions

4 ribs celery cut into one inch pieces

4 carrots, peeled and diced

1 cup water

1/2 cup frozen peas, defrosted, at room temperature

Preparation:

Place all ingredients, except peas, into a roasting pan and mix together. Bake in a 350 degree oven for one hour or until ingredients are soft. Mix every twenty minutes to prevent rice from sticking to the pan. You may need to add a bit more boiling water when stirring the dish if it seems to be too dry. Add defrosted peas before serving the dish. May be used as a main dish with a salad or used as a side dish with meat, chicken or fish. Salt and pepper to your own taste. Enjoy!!

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.

Granny’s Country Greens

February 6, 2013

Author: Carla Hall

No Southern meal is complete without greens. Traditionally, they’re simmered long and slow until melty and soft. I love ’em that way, but actually prefer a little bite to them—both in their mustardy flavor and hearty leafy texture. Growing up in the South, I learned that the greens were sometimes besides the point. The pot likker—the leftover cooking broth—is what really matters, at least as much as the greens themselves. Traditionally, salt pork simmers alongside the greens to flavor the likker. I use smoked turkey wings to get a broth that’s just as tasty but has even more complex gamey, savory flavors. Be sure to serve this with Skillet Cornbread for sopping. And save any leftover likker to make soup. From “Cooking with Love.”

Ingredients:

2 pounds smoked turkey wings

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1 teaspoon crushed red chile flakes

2 quarts water

2 pounds collard greens, rinsed and dried

2 pounds kale, rinsed

dried Kosher salt and

freshly ground black pepper

Preparation:

1. In a large pot, combine the turkey, garlic, chile flakes, and water. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to simmer for 30 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, prepare the greens: Working in batches, hold the stems of the collards with one hand and the leaves with the other, folding up the leaves together like the wings on a butterfly. Pull the leaves down, leaving the stem clean. If the leaves are really large, cut them down the center. Stack a few leaves, then roll them like a cigar. Slice the roll into thin shreds. Repeat with the remaining collard leaves, then with the kale.

3. Add the sliced greens to the pot and simmer until tender, about 20 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

4. Remove the wings and let cool until you can handle them. Pull the meat from the wings, discard the bones, and return the meat to the pot. Serve hot.

Lemon Tahini Salad Dressing

March 6, 2014

Author: Rachel Newman

Ingredients:

Juice of 1 lemon

2-3 tbsp pure tahini

1 tbsp olive oil

1-2 tbsp tamari (optional)

½ tsp black pepper

1 tbsp water (optional)

Preparation:

Shake all ingredients in a jar. If not using tamari, add sea salt.

Savtah’s Famous Beef Tongue

April 9, 2013

Author: Kitchen Tested

Food memories are a huge part of my life, especially since I spend so much time thinking about food. When I think of my childhood, I think of comfort foods like tuna casserole, meatballs and rice, Wacky Mac, nachos, and homemade overnight potato kugel (thanks Mom). But those are just the memories from my own house. Sometimes I think about the Greek food I ate at my best friend Denah’s house and other times it’s the mouth-watering Thanksgiving stuffing in my Aunty Ellen’s dining room in Seattle. And one of my favorite memories is eating salmon skin sushi in Campbell River, Canada with my dad before our 10 day fishing trip! Well, this recipe post is devoted to another one of my favorite food memories.

When I think of my Saba and Savtah’s (grandfather and grandmother in Hebrew) dining room table, I think of Israeli couscous (I used to pick out the mushrooms and celery), sweet zucchini ring, cabbage borscht, homemade candy cane ice cream, pistachio’s in a bowl that my mom always told me not to eat, and beef tongue. As you can see, my Savtah was an incredible cook and I can keep going with my list of food memories from her house. She used to keep tins of sweets (meringue’s, mandelbrot cookies and hazen bluzen with powdered sugar) in a closet and I used to snack on them all the time. Okay, I need to focus! I can write about her cooking all day long, but right now, it’s about the beef tongue.

If you’ve never tried tongue before, this is the recipe you should start with! As I eat the sweet and tender meat, I wonder how anyone can dislike it and I realize it is all mental. If you can look beyond the fact that it is the tongue of a cow and that it actually looks like a tongue when it is sliced, you can join the club of people who are enjoying one of the most delectable meats out there. Go ahead…give it a shot! You won’t regret it.

Originally published in Kitchen Tested.

Ingredients:

1 beef tongue

1 onion

1 bay leaf

1 Tbsp pickling spice

pressure cooker

Topping Ingredients

2/3 cup brown sugar

2 diced onions

2 Tbsp lemon juice

15 oz can tomato sauce

1/2 cup water

white raisins

dried apricots

dried prunes

Preparation:

A raw beef tongue may not be pretty to look at, but it’s delicious! The first thing I did was set up my pressure cooker since I just got it in the mail. What a special moment for me to finally own my own pressure cooker. I remember my mom’s on the stove top, usually cooking chicken soup for Shabbos. Anyways, I placed the tongue on the rack in the pressure cooker with an onion, bay leaf and pickling spices. I filled the cooker halfway with water. I then spent the next 10 minutes trying to figure out how to close the top. I know it is so simple but I was trying to follow the directions and they were very confusing. When I finally figured out how to close the darn thing, I placed the temperature on medium-high and waiting until the jiggler (rotating) valve began to shake and hiss loudly, around 20 minutes. I then lowered the temperature to low so the pressure cooker wouldn’t explode. Yes, that can happen! At that point, the valve let out a light hiss. I set a timer for 40 minutes and let the meat do it’s thing.

40 minutes later, I turned off the heat and kept the cooker closed until the pressure subsided. If you don’t have the patience to wait, you can push the valve and the pressure will leave the pot faster. Just be careful of the steam. When I opened the top, a beautiful piece of cooked tongue was revealed!

I let the tongue cool until I could handle it with my hands, then I took it out of the pressure cooker and peeled it. I know that sounds a little gross, but it didn’t take long at all. I refrigerated the tongue over night, but you only need it to cool for a few hours. I also saved the onion to use in the sauce. I suggest you do the same.

The following evening, I took the tongue out of the fridge and sliced it (not too thin). I then layered the tongue in a pan and made the sauce.

I boiled the brown sugar, 1 onion from the pressure cooker and 1 raw diced onion, lemon juice, tomato sauce and water and poured it over the tongue. Tip: You can also use this sauce for meatballs. That’s what my Savtah used to do.

I added the white raisins, apricots and prunes over the sauce. There is no right or wrong way to do this. Use as much or as little as you like.

I covered the pan and placed it in the oven at 350 degrees for 1 hour. I then uncovered it and the tongue continued to cook for another 30 minutes. This gave the sauce and dried fruit a chance to caramelize before I served it. And that’s it! Nothing to it, right?!? For a side dish, I just roasted some green beans and mushrooms with olive oil, salt and pepper and chowed down! Just like my Savta used to make it.

This post was submitted by Kitchen Tested.

Tags: apricots, bay leaf, Beef, Beef Tongue, brown sugar, dried apricots, dried prunes, Kitchen Tested, lemon juice, onion, onions, pickling spice, pressure cooker, prunes, raisins, tomato sauce, tongue, water,white raisins

Grandma Sylvia Abraham’s Holupchus (Sweet and Sour Stuffed Cabbage)

October 26, 2012

Author: Chadley

Grandma Sylvia always advised me, “If you can read, you can cook.” Her mother died when she was very young and she was raised by her father, so when she married Grandpa Alex, she’d never learned to so much as boil an egg. After her wedding, she came home and cracked open her newly purchased Joy of Cooking, and the rest was history. Over fifty years of marriage, and even to the end of his life when cancer curbed his appetite, my grandfather refused to leave even a morsel of Grandma’s cooking — from anyone’s plate — uneaten. Although the reason may have been Grandpa’s Depression era mentality, I prefer to think it was because the cooking was so delicious.

In the kitchen of their Bethesda, Maryland house which I visited every Friday throughout my childhood, the dishwasher was Grandpa’s domain as he had a highly complex loading strategy which we all tried and failed to grasp. Everything else in that narrow, formica-covered space with the mushroom-patterned wallpaper, however, was Grandma’s turf. One of her specialties which I have searched for ever since, to no avail, was a big heaping dish of little fried, salty, whole fish called smelts. How she managed to get a 5-year-old to gobble down plates of whole fish, with the dead eyes staring out at you, is even more of a mystery to me now that I’m a parent of two picky eaters.

Like so many Bubbes, Grandma single-handedly prepared Passover dinners for a dozen hungry mouths with barely so much as a sit-down. But I don’t believe any other Bubbe in the world ended a Seder with her particular party trick. Once the plates were cleared and put into the dishwasher according to Grandpa’s incomprehensible mathematical algorithm, my grandmother would finally collapse at the table, pull off her apron, and roll back her sleeve. From there I can only describe what she did from the perspective of the child I was — My grandmother became a female, Jewish Popeye. With her palm placed lightly on her forehead, her bicep flexed, she then proceeded to pop and bounce her exceedingly large arm muscle in a staccato rhythm so that it danced like a Mexican jumping bean. This was a crowd pleaser for the whole family, and the grandchildren were left to wonder what made their Grandma so well-endowed in the bicep area. Maybe it was her cooking.

Ingredients:

1 lb Lean, raw beef chopped (i.e. hamburger meat), salted and peppered

2 Large Onions 1 chopped fine, 2nd onion chopped medium

2 Cup(s)s Rice cooked (1 cup cooked rice to put in stuffing, prepare 2nd cup cooked rice to accompany servings of holupchus)

1 tablespoon Water

1 Eggs slightly beaten

1 whole Cabbage (one head)

2 Cup(s)s Tomatoes canned, broken up a bit so that tomatoes aren’t whole

1 tablespoon Matzah meal optional

1/2 cup(s) Golden raisins or to taste

4-6 Tablespoons Dried mint or to taste

Pinon nuts optional; to taste

1 tablespoon Honey or more; to taste

Several pinch Ginger

2 Tablespoons Brown sugar or more; to taste

1 Lemon (juice of 1 lemon)

Preparation:

Boil enough water in a large pot to cover about 2/3 of the cabbage head, the goal being to steam it and soften the leaves. Put cabbage in and cover pot. Pull off outer leaves as they soften. This will probably have to be repeated several times as you work towards the middle. All leaves should be soft enough to fold but not overcooked. This is best to do a little ahead so that the cabbage cools enough to work with.

Mix together the raw beef, 1 onion chopped fine (save the other onion for later), 1 cup cooked rice (prepare and save the 2nd cup rice to serve with the holupchus), the tablespoon of water, the egg, and the optional matzah meal. Roll up the meat mixture into small balls for filling little cabbage leaf packages that should be folded up like envelopes, open side down.

When all cabbage rolls have been put into a large pot, put in on top the tomatoes, the second onion (chopped into medium sized chunks), the honey, the ginger, the brown sugar, and the juice of one lemon.

Cover and simmer on low heat 1 hour – 1 1/2 hours approximately, tasting as you go.

Serve the holupchus with the cup of cooked rice. You can prepare more rice to accompany this if you want to serve the holupchus as a main course rather than as an appetizer.

Enjoy the sweet and sour goodness!

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.

Chremsels

March 12, 2013

Author: Gloria Kobrin

My Mother made chremsels for Passover every year that I can remember. When my husband and I started taking our family away for Passover, she used to freeze a few for me to eat when we got back. My mother hates to cook; but for some reason this was a recipe to which she was committed.

Warning: these chremsels are not crepe like or even pancake like. They are dense and relatively heavy but full of flavor. This recipe has been handed down from my Great Great Great Grandmother Ida who was born in Russia. I’ve adjusted it a bit-but have retained the integrity of the original recipe.

Ingredients:

6 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

8 ounces water

4 tablespoons melted schmaltz plus ½ cup schmaltz for frying

3 cups matzah meal

Equipment

1 medium mixing bowl

1 skillet

1 cookie sheet lined with parchment paper

Preparation:

1. Beat eggs in mixing bowl. Add sugar, salt, melted fat and water. Mix well. Stir in matzah meal. My forebears say that the consistency should be “thick-but not too thick-like mustard”. Chill mixture for one hour.

2. Preheat oven to: 350 F.

3. Place two tablespoons schmaltz in skillet over medium heat. Wait until fat starts to sizzle a bit and then drop chremsel batter into fat with a wooden spoon. Scrape all the batter off the spoon and then flatten chremsels a bit with a metal spatula. Fry about two minutes on one side and then flip chremsels to the other side. Make sure chremsels are golden brown on each side even if you have to turn them again. As chremsels are browned, place them on parchment paper.

4. Place browned chremsels in oven and bake for 20 minutes. Serve hot.

Note: My family eats them plain. My husband’s family eats them with white horseradish.

Yield: 24

Posted in Appetizers

Tags: Chremsels, eggs, Gloria Kobrin, matzah meal, matzah, Passover, salt, schmaltz, sugar, water

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