Read 1,000 Jewish Recipes Online
Authors: Faye Levy
1,000 Jewish Recipes (103 page)
 or
Â
When I was growing up, this sweet potato casserole was a family favorite. The mashed sweet potatoes were lightly sweetened with brown sugar and flavored with orange and sweet spices. It was enriched with pareve margarine but you could substitute oil, or, for meatless meals, use butter. Sometimes my mother garnished it with maraschino cherries but I prefer to omit these.
2 pounds medium orange-fleshed sweet potatoes
2 tablespoons soft margarine or butter or vegetable oil
2 to 4 tablespoons brown sugar
1
â
4
cup orange juice
2 teaspoons grated orange rind
1
â
2
teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of cloves
Salt to taste
1 large egg
Corn flakes, lightly crushed
1.
Put sweet potatoes in a large saucepan with water to cover and a pinch of salt and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer over low heat about 30 minutes or until tender. Drain and let cool.
2.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Peel potatoes. Mash them with a potato masher. Stir in 1 tablespoon margarine, 2 tablespoons brown sugar, orange juice, orange rind, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Taste, and add more sugar if you like. Stir in egg.
3.
Grease a 1
1
â
2
- to 2-quart casserole. Add potato mixture. Sprinkle with corn flakes. Dot with remaining margarine or drizzle remaining oil. Bake about 40 minutes or until top is firm and light golden at edges.
To represent the wish for a year with plenty of produce, Sephardic Jews serve greens such as spinach. Often the greens appear in flat omelets, which are cut into wedges and served as an appetizer, or in these savory cakes.
Two 10-ounce bags rinsed spinach leaves, large stems removed
3 to 5 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1
â
2
cup all-purpose flour
2 large eggs
1.
Cook spinach in a large pan of boiling salted water 2 minutes or until just tender. Rinse with cold water. Squeeze spinach to remove excess liquid. Chop finely.
2.
Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a medium skillet. Add garlic and sauté over medium-low heat, stirring, about 30 seconds. Add spinach and sauté about 2 minutes, stirring. Season with salt and pepper.
3.
Mix flour, eggs, and
1
â
4
teaspoon salt in a medium bowl to a thick batter. Add spinach mixture and mix well.
4.
Heat 3 tablespoons oil in a heavy skillet over medium heat. For each cake, drop 2 or 3 tablespoonsful spinach mixture to pan and flatten to form a cake. Fry about 2 minutes or until golden brown on each side. Transfer to paper towels to drain. Stir batter from time to time and add more oil to pan if needed. Serve hot.
Black-eyed peas are popular as a Rosh Hashanah food in many Sephardic homes and can sometimes be found fresh in their pods in Israel. Finishing cooked beans with well-browned onions is a technique I learned from Lebanese-born Suzanne Elmaleh of Jerusalem. For Rosh Hashanah the beans are served as a side dish with chicken or meat, but for other meals they're delicious accompanied simply by hot, cooked rice.
For this dish you can use dried black-eyed peas, the form in which they are most commonly available. If your market carries the frozen kind, you can use them to save time; simply cook them according to the package directions.
1 pound dried black-eyed peas
10 cups water
1 pound ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and diced, or one 14-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained
2 large cloves garlic, chopped
1
1
â
2
teaspoons ground cumin
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon tomato paste
3 or 4 tablespoons olive oil
2 large onions, chopped
1
â
4
cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
1.
Pick over dried peas, discarding pebbles and broken or discolored peas. Put them in a large saucepan and add the water. Bring to a simmer. Cover and cook over low heat about 1 hour or until just tender.
2.
Drain peas, reserving 1 cup of cooking liquid. Put peas in a saucepan. Add tomatoes, garlic, cumin, salt, and pepper to peas. Mix tomato paste with
1
â
3
cup reserved cooking liquid and add to pot. Bring to a simmer. Cook over low heat for 10 minutes to blend flavors.
3.
Heat oil in a heavy skillet. Add onions and sauté over medium heat, stirring often, about 10 minutes or until deeply browned. Add onion mixture to pot of peas. Cover and heat gently 3 minutes. Stir in 3 tablespoons parsley. Adjust seasoning. Serve hot, sprinkled with remaining parsley.
 or
Â
In this colorful Middle Eastern stovetop casserole, the chard leaves cook with garlic to form a sauce for the other vegetables. Chard is a traditional vegetable on the Sephardic Rosh Hashanah table. You can also serve this as a winter side dish for a Shabbat roast chicken or with braised beef. It reheats beautifully.
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 large cloves garlic, chopped
6 cups rinsed finely chopped red or green chard leaves
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cups thin slices red or green chard stems
3
â
4
pound carrots, cut into
3
â
4
-inch dice
3
â
4
pound baking potatoes, peeled and cut into
3
â
4
âinch dice
1
1
â
2
cups vegetable or chicken stock or broth
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1.
Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large, deep nonstick skillet or sauté pan. Add garlic and sauté 15 seconds over medium-low heat. Add chard leaves with liquid clinging to them and sauté about 30 seconds. Cover and cook for 2 minutes or until wilted. Remove mixture from pan.
2.
Add remaining 1 tablespoon oil to pan. Add onion and sauté over medium heat about 3 minutes or until beginning to turn golden. Add chard stems, carrots, and potatoes and sauté, stirring, 2 minutes. Add stock, salt, and pepper and bring to boil. Cover and simmer over low heat for 15 minutes.
3.
Return chard-garlic mixture to pan and cook for 10 minutes or until vegetables are tender, adding a few tablespoons water if pan becomes dry. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve hot.
Steaming couscous above a savory meat and vegetable broth, such as in
Rosh Hashanah Couscous with Meat and Vegetables
, is the traditional way to prepare it. I learned how to steam couscous from my mother-in-law's neighbor, Hannah, who was born in Tunisia and now lives in Givatayim, Israel.
To steam couscous, you need a couscous cooker called a couscoussier or couscoussiere, in which the stew simmers in the bottom pot and the couscous cooks in the steamer above it. Steaming is necessary to cook the raw couscous, which can be purchased in bulk at some Middle Eastern stores. Most of the packaged couscous is precooked but you can steam it if you wish, so it will have a more delicate texture; many people prefer its flavor.