1,000 Jewish Recipes (266 page)
Read 1,000 Jewish Recipes Online
Authors: Faye Levy
1
â
3
cup almonds
1
â
3
cup pine nuts
1
3
â
4
cups chicken or vegetable stock or water
3
1
â
4
cups water
1 cup wild rice, rinsed and drained
2 tablespoons olive oil or vegetable oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
1
â
4
teaspoon ground cinnamon
1
â
4
cup chopped fresh cilantro or Italian parsley
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1
â
4
cup toasted pistachios, shelled
Fresh cilantro or parsley sprigs
1.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Toast almonds and pine nuts in small baking dish in oven about 5 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool nuts on a plate. Reserve about 2 tablespoons almonds and pine nuts for garnish. Coarsely chop remaining almonds and pine nuts.
2.
Combine stock, 3
1
â
4
cups water, and a pinch of salt in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Add rice and return to a boil. Cover and cook over low heat for 50 minutes to 1 hour or until kernels begin to puff open.
3.
Heat oil in a deep skillet or sauté pan. Add onion and sauté over medium-low heat about 7 minutes or until golden. Add cinnamon and sauté, stirring, 30 seconds.
4.
Drain rice and add to pan of onions. Add chopped nuts and chopped cilantro. Heat together 2 to 3 minutes, stirring very gently. Season with salt and pepper. Serve hot, sprinkled with toasted pistachios and reserved toasted almonds and pine nuts. Garnish with cilantro sprigs.
CORNMEAL
 or
Â
Mamaliga is the Romanian version of polenta. Traditionally it is made of cornmeal cooked only with water and salt. It is pareve, so Romanian Jews serve it with
milchig
or
fleishig
dishes. Like polenta, it can be soft or it can be firm and cut into slices. Soft mamaliga is often served dotted with soft butter or margarine. Some cooks serve mamaliga slices plain; others bake or fry them. Mamaliga often accompanies saucy meat stews or vegetable casseroles like
Baked Balkan Vegetable Casserole
, or
Givetch
. In some families it's served with sugar and sour cream or mild cheese like pot cheese or cottage cheese for a casual supper.
Instead of water I sometimes use vegetable stock to give it a delicate background flavor.
1
1
â
2
cups yellow or white cornmeal
1 cup cold water
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups vegetable stock, water, or a mixture of both
Soft butter or margarine (optional)
1.
Put cornmeal in a bowl and slowly stir in cold water to make a smooth mixture. Stir in salt. Bring stock to a boil in a heavy saucepan. Gradually stir in cornmeal mixture. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring, 5 minutes; stir with a whisk if necessary to remove any lumps. Partially cover and cook, stirring very often, about 20 minutes or until mixture is thick.
2.
Serve soft mamaliga with small pats of butter or margarine, if using; or pour mamaliga into a shallow bowl or baking dish, let it set, and cut it into small squares.
 or
Â
Mamaliga that is brushed with butter and baked gains a delicate crust. Either make hot mamaliga and bake it this way, or use cooled, sliced mamaliga. (If using slices, simply arrange them slightly overlapping or side-by-side on a greased baking sheet, then bake as in recipe.)
2 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted, or vegetable oil
Salt and white pepper, to taste
Paprika to taste (optional)
Prepare mamaliga. Then, preheat oven to 400°F. Grease a baking sheet. Pour hot mamaliga onto sheet and use wooden spoon to pat it in a rough square about 1 inch high. Season melted butter with salt and pepper and use it to brush over mamaliga. Sprinkle lightly with paprika, if using. Bake about 10 minutes or until top browns lightly. Cut into slices or squares to serve.
You can use freshly cooked mamaliga for this dish, or use mamaliga that has cooled and has been cut into squares. Some people serve this rich dish with sour cream.
Kashkaval is a flavorful grating cheese that originated in the Balkans and is very popular in Israel. It is available in Israeli and some Middle Eastern and Eastern European grocery stores. If you cannot find it, substitute Swiss cheese.
1
â
2
to 1 cup grated Kashkaval or Swiss cheese
2 tablespoons butter, cut into bits
Sour cream (optional)
1.
Prepare mamaliga. Then, preheat oven to 350°F. If using hot, just-cooked mamaliga, butter a baking sheet. Spoon hot mamaliga onto baking sheet. Using wooden spoon or spatula, shape it into a rough square about 1-inch high. Sprinkle it with cheese and dot it with butter.
2.
If using cold mamaliga squares, butter a shallow baking dish and add a layer of squares. Sprinkle them lightly with cheese. Continue layering, ending with cheese. Dot with butter. Bake uncovered about 20 minutes or until mamaliga is hot and cheese melts. Serve hot; accompany the mamaliga with sour cream, if using.
Breads and Yeast Cakes
Jewish tradition dictates that every meal begin with a blessing over bread. Indeed, bread is so central to the Jewish culinary culture that its presence determines whether any other foods being eaten deserve to be considered a true meal, a
seudah
. If there is bread, it is a meal and a special blessing on the bread is recited before the meal, as well as a prayer of thanks afterwards. If there is no bread, any food eaten, no matter how substantial, is treated as a mere snack and a different, abbreviated prayer is said after eating it. A
seudah
is required by tradition for Shabbat and holidays. For Passover, matzo fulfills the function of the bread.
Jewish bakers have a reputation for their excellent bread. Challah, bagels, rye bread, pumpernickel, and more recently, pita bread, have been popularized by Jewish bakeries throughout the United States and in many European cities as well. Many of these are now available in supermarkets and kosher grocery stores. Of course, visiting bakeries ensures fresher, more delicious versions of these breads as well as special breads like bialys, flat onion breads called
pletzlach
in Yiddish, whole-wheat challah, and sweet breakfast breads and yeast cakes.
Challah
(or
hallah
) is the Hebrew word for "egg bread" that is also used in Yiddish and English. With its beautiful brown crust and golden yellow crumb, challah is festive and delicious and is the traditional bread for Shabbat and holidays. It is usually braided, but for the Jewish New Year, it is shaped in a spiral or dome instead. When prepared for an everyday meal, challah is often rolled into a cylinder and baked in a loaf pan.
The delicately flavored bread is a good accompaniment for food, but most bakeries also feature sweet challah, which I prefer for breakfast or snacks. Challah is usually baked plain or with raisins. The crust might be smooth or sprinkled with poppy seeds, sesame seeds, or both. Plain or sweet challahs are more commonly eaten, but savory challahs and challah made with butter or dairy products are now being made also.
Baking bread for Shabbat and holidays is a custom in many Jewish families. Often this bread is braided challah but Moroccan cooks might bake smooth round breads flavored with anise seeds, and Yemenites often bake pita bread instead.
Making your own bread is one of the most joyful experiences in the kitchen. The aroma of the bread baking and its fresh flavor are incomparable. Although letting bread rise takes time, you don't need to hover over it. Yeast dough is very forgiving and even if you've never made bread, you will find it surprisingly easy to make. It is versatile and can be made in a food processor or mixer, or by hand. There is no doubt that serving homemade bread helps transform a meal into a feast.
You also have much more control over the quality of the bread when you make your own. Recently I was surprised to read on a grocery-store challah label that it contained unhealthful hydrogenated fat instead of the traditional vegetable oil. If you keep kosher, you also have to watch out for milk or whey listed in the ingredients, which makes them not kosher for accompanying meat meals.
Many time-honored Jewish cakes and pastries, such as babka and cinnamon rolls, are made with yeast rather than baking powder for a simple reason: baking powder is a relatively recent invention, and before it became available, all cakes were leavened with yeast or with beaten eggs. These cakes remain popular today because yeast-risen dough has an incomparable flavor and texture. There is no reason to hesitate to make yeast cakes at home. Like challah, they are not difficult to make, and nothing surpasses their wonderful fresh-baked taste.