Thursday, December 30, 2010

Cooking In Yiddish: Just What You've Been Waiting For - Cabbage-Stuffed Strudel


Est Gezunterheit!  The Yiddish Cooking Ladies Are Back!  And this time, with a recipe that you won't find in any cookbook or video by Rachael Ray or Martha Stewart.

Earlier this year we introduced you to Rukhl Schaecter and Eve Yochnowitz, the Yiddish-speaking cooking ladies from the Forverts, the Yiddish-language version of the Jewish Daily Forward.  We've shared recipes for Sour Cherry Dumplings and Horseradish Flavored Vodka with Nut Cake.  That's right!  Recipes that you'll never find in the pages of Gourmet Magazine.  But they're in Yiddish, so they must be good!

The Forverts promised a new recipe every two weeks.  So far, it's been closer to every two months, but who's counting?  This week a new video appeared, and we couldn't wait to share it with you.  What are they making this time?  Start smacking your lips!  Strudel dough filled with chopped cabbage and caraway seeds.  Yum!

The video is fun to watch, not just for the playful interaction in Yiddish, but also for insights in how to roll out strudel dough and how to let out your anger by playing "Whack a Strudel" against the kitchen counter 100 times.  

There's also an explanation of why the @ sign in internet addresses is called a strudel in Israel, and that the Yiddish/Hebrew word for (internet) domain is melucha (literally, kingdom).  If you follow the recipe, please let us know in your comments how it turned out.  Enjoy!

2 comments:

  1. I cook and have the ability to taste a food just by reading a recipe. This video is a delight at many levels. Although I don't understand Yiddish, it is so close to German that I felt much at home. Secondly, there is an old world charm and simplicity in the two women's approach to making the strudel; they are delightful women; and the whole presentation is so much preferred to the slick approaches we see on American TV where often the presenter is not a particularly skilled cook. Finally, with cabbage being one of my favorite foods, my mouth watered at the prospect of sitting down to eat such a dish. What a magical touch they have in stretching and thinning the strudel dough - this is a 14 minute video and I was captivated throughout. Peter Imperiale, New York City

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  2. Took me back to my childhood where only Yiddish was spoken and recipes were all "written" in my Mom's kappila. My only criticism is the way you provide the recipe at the end of your demonstration. It is too hard for me to write fast enough to get all the ingredients and I keep having to go back. Can't you make recipe easily printable? Look forward to more recipes of the heart.

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