1,000 Jewish Recipes (99 page)
Read 1,000 Jewish Recipes Online
Authors: Faye Levy
A light and lively change from the familiar mayonnaise-dressed carrot and raisin salad often served at Rosh Hashanah, this colorful salad pairs the carrots with dried cranberries. The dressing is mostly orange juice mixed with a little vegetable oil, which you can omit to make the salad fat free. The salad is pretty on its own, or spooned onto a bed of tender lettuce.
1 pound carrots (about 6 medium), coarsely grated
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4
cup dried cranberries
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4
cup strained fresh orange juice
1 to 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint or 1 teaspoon dried
2 to 3 teaspoons sugar, or to taste
Salt to taste
Put carrots and cranberries in a bowl. Add orange juice, oil, mint, sugar, and salt, and mix well. Serve cold.
Grated freshly cooked beets are so flavorful that they don't need much seasoning. Tart apples provide the perfect balance to their sweetness. Moisten the salad with a little orange or lemon juice and, if you wish, a drizzle of oil. Depending on the sweetness of the beets and the apples, you can add a touch of sugar also.
Beets are easiest to peel after they are cooked. Rinse cooked beets under cold running water and the peel will slip off easily. Be careful with beets because they stain clothes easily.
8 to 10 beets of 1
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inch diameter (about 1 pound, without greens)
2 tart apples, such as Granny Smith, peeled and coarsely grated
2 to 3 tablespoons orange juice
1 tablespoon vegetable oil (optional)
1 teaspoon sugar (optional)
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1.
Cover beets with water and cook in a medium saucepan, covered, 45 minutes to 1 hour or until tender when pierced with a sharp knife. Rinse and peel.
2.
Grate beets on large holes of grater and place in large bowl. Mix apples with beets, then add orange juice. Taste, and add oil and sugar, if using. Season with salt and pepper. Serve cold.
In addition to eating sweet foods for the Jewish New Year, some people avoid such sour ingredients as vinegar and lemon juice. Here is a salad dressing that doesn't require either. It takes advantage of the season's wonderful ripe tomatoes. True, tomatoes do have some acidity, but because it's balanced by their natural sweetness, tomatoes are not considered sour ingredients. The dressing is good with salads of greens, potatoes, pasta, or fish.
This is a delicate dressing flavored with herbs. If you like, you can add a little minced shallot or garlic. You can prepare the dressing a day ahead.
1
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2
pounds ripe tomatoes
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
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cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon minced fresh tarragon or basil
1 tablespoon minced fresh Italian parsley
1.
To peel tomatoes, cut out their cores, turn tomatoes upside down and slit skins in an X-shaped cut. Fill a large bowl with cold water. Put tomatoes in a saucepan of enough boiling water to cover them. Boil about 10 seconds or until skin begins to pull away from flesh. Remove tomatoes with a slotted spoon and put them in the bowl of cold water. Leave for a few seconds. Remove tomatoes and pull off skins.
2.
Cut each tomato in half and squeeze out its seeds. Cut each half into quarters, salt them lightly, and put them in a strainer. Let stand 15 minutes to drain.
3.
Finely chop tomato pieces and put them in a bowl. Add salt and pepper and whisk until smooth. Slowly and gradually whisk in olive oil. Add herbs, then adjust seasoning. Refrigerate until almost ready to serve. Serve at room temperature.
A Sephardic specialty, this delicious dish is sampled in many homes before the Rosh Hashanah dinner as a taste of a sweet New Year.
3
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pounds large quinces (about 6), peeled
1 strip of lemon peel
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4
cups sugar
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1.
Cut quinces in eighths and cut out core section from each piece. Put them in a large, heavy saucepan or stew pan. Add lemon peel and water just to cover the quinces. Bring to a boil. Cook uncovered over medium heat, carefully turning pieces over from time to time, about 50 minutes or until quinces are tender and about half the water has evaporated. Discard lemon peel.
2.
Add sugar and cinnamon to pan. Swirl pan to dissolve the sugar but try not to stir the quinces, so they hold their shape. Cook over medium-low heat, gently basting quinces from time to time, about 20 minutes. Quinces should be very tender and appear shiny and glazed; syrup should taste concentrated. Spoon quinces and their syrup into serving dishes. Serve cold.
Gefilte fish is the quintessential Jewish holiday appetizer. (The dish's name comes from the Yiddish for filled fish, because the mixture used to be put back into the fish skin before cooking.)
In old-fashioned Eastern European recipes, gefilte fish was made with a mixture of carp, pike, and whitefish. The reason is simple: these freshwater fish were the ones available. Today, cooks use a variety of fish. I started making it with whitefish and halibut when I couldn't find pike or carp, and it was so good that this is the way I usually make it. (The gefilte fish is more subtly flavored.) Serve it with horseradish, its traditional accompaniment, store-bought or prepared as
White Horseradish Sauce
.
If you have the whitefish filleted at the store, ask for the bones and head of the fish so you can make the stock for cooking the gefilte fish. This dish can be prepared up to 3 days ahead.
6 to 8 cups
Fish Stock for Gefilte Fish
One 3-pound whitefish (including bones and head), filleted, bones and heads reserved
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pound sea bass or halibut fillets
2 large eggs
2 medium onions, finely chopped
2 teaspoons salt
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teaspoon freshly ground pepper, preferably white
1 small carrot, finely grated (optional) plus 2 large carrots, sliced
2 tablespoons matzo meal
Leaves of tender lettuce, such as Boston lettuce
1.
Prepare fish stock. Pour strained stock into a large, deep pot.
2.
If whitefish fillets have their skin on, remove it: Set fillets on a board, skin side down. Slip blade of a flexible knife between flesh and skin and use it to remove skin of fish, sliding knife away from you with one hand and pulling off skin with other. Run your fingers carefully over fish fillets and remove any small bones remaining in flesh. Remove any skin or bones in the sea bass fillets. Cut fish into large pieces.
3.
Grind both types of fish in a food processor in 2 batches until very fine. (Move first batch to a large bowl.) Leave second batch in food processor and add 1 egg, half the chopped onions, 1 teaspoon salt, and
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teaspoon pepper. Process to thoroughly mix. Transfer to another large bowl. Repeat with the first batch of fish, egg, onion, salt, and pepper. Transfer to bowl with other batch and mix. Stir in grated carrot, if using, and matzo meal.
4.
Add sliced carrots to strained stock and bring to a simmer. With moistened hands, shape fish mixture into ovals or balls, using about
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cup mixture for each. Carefully drop fish balls into simmering stock. If necessary, add enough hot water to just cover them, pouring it carefully into stock near edge of pan, not over fish. Return to a simmer, cover, and let simmer over low heat for 1 hour. Let fish cool in stock. Refrigerate fish and carrots in stock for at least 4 hours before serving. (It can be kept 3 days in the refrigerator.)
5.
To serve, remove fish pieces carefully from stock and set them on a bed of lettuce. Garnish each with a carrot slice.
If you're looking for a terrific, easy-to-make Rosh Hashanah fish course, try this Sephardic style dish. The fish simmers right in the sauce and can be served hot or cold. You can prepare the sauce ahead and refrigerate or freeze it.
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8
teaspoon saffron threads
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
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cup diced red bell pepper
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2
pounds ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and pureed, or one 28-ounce and one 14-ounce can plum tomatoes, drained and pureed
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste