Recipes-Week 3: The Jews of Arabia and the Middle East
Torshi Left Pink Turnip Pickle
(popular among families from Egypt, Syria and Lebanon)
1 kg turnips
1 beet, raw or cooked, peeled and cut in slices
3 or 4 garlic cloves, cut into slices
850 ml water
3-4 Tbsp red or white wine vinegar
2 ½ tbsp salt
Peel the turnips, cut in halves, quarters or eighths and put them in a jar interspersed with the slices of beet and garlic. In a pan bring the water, vinegar, and salt to the boil, stirring to dissolve the salt. Then pour over the turnips. Let cool before closing the jar.
Sambousak bi Tawa
(Iraqi recipe traditionally served during the Purim festival.)
Filling:
250 g chickpeas, soaked overnight
1 large onion, chopped
3 Tbsp oil
250g ground chicken or 2 boned and skinned breasts cut into small pieces
Salt
2 tsp cumin
¼-½ tsp cayenne pepper
Dough:
2 2/3 cups (400g) self-raising flour
½ tsp salt
About 1 cup of the water in which the chickpeas were boiled
1 egg yolk mixed with 1 tsp of water, to glaze
Drain the chickpeas and boil them in fresh water for 1 hour until they are tender. Drain and reserve their cooking water.
For the dough, mix the salt into the flour and add the lukewarm chickpea water gradually—just enough to make a soft dough that holds well together. Knead for a few minutes, until smooth and elastic, adding a little flour if it is too sticky. Cover with plastic wrap and leave for at least an hour at room temperature.
In the meantime, make the filling. Fry the onion in oil till golden. Add the chicken, salt, cumin and cayenne pepper and cook, stirring, for a few minutes, cutting up the chicken even smaller. Blend the drained chickpeas to a paste in the food processor with about 4 Tbsp of their cooking water. Add to the chicken and onions, stir and mix very well.
Now take little lumps of dough the size of a walnut, roll into a ball, and roll out thin on a floured surface with a floured rolling pin into rounds about 12 cm in diameter. Put a Tbsp of filling in the middle of each round. Fold the dough over the filling and pinch to seal well. The pies were always deep-fried in not very hot oil till browned or bake them. Arrange them on oiled trays, brush the tops with egg yolk mixed with 1 tsp of water and bake at 150C for 35-40 min or until golden. Serve hot or cold.
Shirin Polo Sweet Jeweled Rice
(Iranian Jewish recipe)
2 ½ cups (500g) basmati rice
About 1 ¼ tsp salt
Finely pared peel of 2 oranges, finely shredded (or 1/3 cup commercial chopped candied peel)
½ cup (100g) sugar
1/3-1/2 cup dried pitted sour cherries
1/3-1/2 cup dried cranberries
5-6 Tbsp sunflower oil
¼ tsp saffron powder
1 cup split blanched almonds
Wash the rice, then soak it in cold water with 1 tbsp of salt for at least 1hour.
To make candied peel, pare off the orange peel, leaving behind the white pith and shred it finely. In a small pan, boil the peel in plenty of water for ½ hour to remove the bitterness, then drain. In the same pan, put the sugar with 1/3 cup of water and bring to the boil. Add the drained peel and simmer for about 20 min.
Soak the sour cherries and cranberries in water for 15 minutes.
Bring about 2 litres of water with about 2 tbsp of salt to the boil in a large saucepan. Pour the drained rice into the fast-boiling water, let it come to the boil again and boil hard for about 8 minutes or until the rice is partly cooked and still a little firm, then drain in a colander. Pour the oil in the bottom of the pan. Stir the saffron in and pour the rice back in.
Mix in the candied peel (drained of syrup), the drained cherries and cranberries, and almonds and stir very well, so that all the rice is evenly coloured yellow with the saffron and imbued with oil.
Put the lid on and steam at the lowest heat for about 20 min until tender. Or put the rice in a baking dish, cover with foil, and bake at 180C for 30 minutes.
Date Preserve (Syrian Specialty)
500 g fresh dates
About 30 blanched almonds
2 ½ cups sugar
1 cup water
Juice of ½ lemon
Skin and pit the dates. Try to pull the pit from the stem side so as not to make too big a hole.
Replace the pit of each date with a blanched almond. Simmer the sugar and water with the lemon juice for 5 minutes. Add the stuffed date sand simmer 20 minutes. Let them cool and then lift out and put in a jar, covered by their syrup.
Recipes-Week 2: The Jews of Northern & Eastern Europe
Piroshki/Knishes made with Potato Dough (My Favourite of the week. Leah)
(Makes about 40)
1 cup mashed potato
¾ tsp salt
3 eggs, lightly beaten
3 cups (450gm) flour
1 egg yolk for glazing
Blend the potatoes, salt and eggs and then add enough flour to make firm dough. Knead, adding a little flour if necessary, until the dough is very smooth and elastic.
Divide the dough in 3. Roll our 1 piece into a rectangle 12 in by 9 in. (30 cm X 23 cm.) Spread a third of the filling over the surface of the rectangle to within about 1 ½ cm from the edges. Roll up the dough lengthwise with the filling inside. Place the roll on a greased baking sheet, seam side down and tuck the edges underneath.
Do the same with the other 2 pieces of dough and the filling. Brush the tops with the egg yolks mixed with 1 tsp of water and bake in a preheated 180C oven for about 40 min or until golden brown. With a fine-serrated knife, cut into 2 ½ cm slices while warm. Serve hot.
Filling: Add 4 medium onions, chopped and sautéed in 3 Tbsp oil to
1 kg potatoes, cooked and mashed
Salt and pepper to taste.
Tzimmes (carrots were a staple vegetable across europe)
750 g carrots, sliced.
3 tbsp oil
Salt
Juice of 1 orange
¼ tsp ginger powder
2 tbsp honey
Sauté the carrots in oil, stirring and turning them over. Add the rest of the ingredients and water to cover. Simmer gently, covered for 1/2 hour or until the carrots are tender Remove the lid towards the end to reduce the liquid to a shiny glaze.
Lokshen Kugel with Apple
¾ cup currants or raisins
4 tbsp rum (can skip)
250g medium egg noodles
Salt
3 eggs
2/3 cup sugar
¾ cup walnuts or almonds, coarsely chopped
Zest or 1 orange or 1 lemon
4 tart apples
Juice of ½ lemon
Soak the raisins in the rum (or water.) boil the noodles in l lightly salted water until well done-rather soft.
Beat the eggs lightly with the sugar. Add the nuts and the currants together with the lemon/orange zest. Drain the noodles when they are done and stir them in.
Peel, core and coarsely grate or chip the apples and mix with lemon juice, then add to the egg and noodle mixture. Mix very well and pour into a loaf pan lined with baking paper brushed with oil. Or pout into a oiled baking dish and cover with foil. Baked in a preheated 180C oven for about t50 min, or until lightly browned on top and turn out.
Recipes-Week 1: Jews of North Africa & the Mediterranean
Source: (The Book of Jewish Food-by Claudia Roden)
Torta di Mandorle e Cioccalata (from the book: Dal 1880 ad Oggi: La Cucina Ebraica della Mia Famiglia –, author Donattela Limentani Pavoncello, a collection of dishes once cooked in the Rome ghetto)
1 ½ cups (250g) blanched almonds
7 oz (200g) dark, bittersweet chocolate
1 ¼ cups (250g) sugar
7 egg whites
Oil and flour or matzo meal for the cake pan
Finely chop the almonds and chocolate together in a food processor, the add the sugar and mix well. Beat the egg white stiff and fold in to the chocolate-and-almond mixture. Oil a preferably non-stick and springform 9-inch cake pan, then dust with flour or matzo meal. Bake in a preheated 300F (150c) oven for 1 hour until firm.
Tranches d’Orange au Sirop
Orange slices cooked in syrup
Can serve slices sprinkled with a little cinnamon and chopped pistachios and with a blob of cream.
A dish of Tunisia/Morroco/Italy
4 large sweet oranges with thick skins
5 cups (1 kg) sugar
2 cups (500ml) water
Juice of ½ lemon
Wash the oranges and leave to soak in cold water for at least an hour.
Cut into thick slices (about 1 cm) and remove the seeds. Put the sugar, water & lemon in a large pan and bring to the boil. Put the orange slices in, pressing them down into the syrup. Put the lid on and simmer gently for 1-1 ½ hours, or until they are very soft. Lift out the slices and arrange on a serving dish. Reduce the syrup by simmering, uncovered until it has thickened enough to coat a spoon, and pour a little over the slices. (Leftover syrup can be kept in a covered jar.)
Spinaci con Pinoli e Passerini
Spinach with Pine nuts & sultanas
Famous Venetian Jewish Specialty. Same dish found in Spain.
750g spinach
1 onion, chopped
3 Tbsp sunflower oil
3 Tbsp pinnuts
2 Tbsp raisins or sultanas, soaked in water for 15 minutes
Salt & pepper
Wash the spinach in plenty of water. Do not need to remove stems unless they are big and hard. Drain, and squeeze out the excess water.
In a very large pan (spinach is bulky), fry the oinion in the oil tillsoft. Add the pine nuts and stir till lightly browned. Add the drained raisins or sultanas and stir. Then press the spinach down into the pan with no added water. Put the lid on and leave over low heat until the spinach crumples into a soft mass. Season with salt and pepper and stir well. Serve hot or cold.