3 British Jewish Mums Compete for "Best Matzah Ball Soup"

BuzzFeed UK has been running a series of videos in which members of different countries or ethnic groups taste dishes of different cultures and pick the winner in each category.

 In this episode three British Jewish mums taste and review each other's cooking to see who makes the best matzah ball soup (chicken soup).

Enjoy!

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They're Back! The Forverts' Yiddish Cooking Ladies Make a Savory Old World Noodle Kugel

Our favorite Yiddish chefs, Rukhl Schaechter and Eve Yochnowitz from the Jewish Daily Forward are back with a recipe for a savory old world noodle kugel.

We've been publishing most of their videos featuring Yiddish-flecked banter while they cook traditional dishes.

Since their Est Gezunterheit series started in 2010h, we've published 24 of their recipes and mini-glossaries of funny-sounding Yiddish words connected to the recipes. (Look for Est Gezunterheit in the Keywords list in the left column to catch up on any that you've missed.)

Here are some of the Yiddish words that we picked up during this episode:

Leffeleh = teaspoon
Pintel = middle
Tzvorech = cottage cheese
Lokshen = noodles

Pitter = butter

Op-pregelen = frying
Tsforech = cottage cheese
Smeteneh = sour cream

Patelniye = frying pan

Opgoss = sink 

Oysegeventlich = exceptional

 

Enjoy!

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A Delicious Passover Coronavirus Lockdown Project: Savta Shuly's Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Passover is almost here. Wednesday evening we will be sitting down to a very different Pesach seder. For most of us it will be a solitary experience, for one, two, maybe a few more family members.

The coronavirus lockdown or stay-at-home orders issued in most states is a test of our ability to come up with innovative ways of celebrating the festival of freedom. Thanks to the wonders of technology, many homes will light up with the presence of multi-generational family members in Zoom seders.

As always, involving children and finding ways for them to participate in the seder and pre-seder activities will be a high priority this year. 

We think that including children in preparing special Passover treats will give all of us a lift. So we're sharing one of our favorite recipes -- Savta Shuly's Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins -- a recipe that we use year-round with flour, but find just as delicious with cake meal and potato starch substituted for flour on Pesach.

If you're making these muffins year-round, use 2 cups of flour instead of the cake meal/potato starch mixture shown here.

UPDATE: The recipe and list of ingredients now appears below the video.

So follow along with the video, and include the kids in measuring and mixing. We're sure it will result in more smiles around the seder table and for the rest of the week, too.

Enjoy! 

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Savta Shuly’s Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

½ cup margarine 

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 cups flour (For Passover, use 1 cup cake meal and 1/3 cup potato starch)

½ tsp baking powder

¾ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

1 cup mashed bananas

¼ cup sour milk or orange juice 1 tsp vanilla

1 cup chocolate chips

Use one large and two medium mixing bowls. Cream margarine and sugar in largest bowl. Add beaten eggs and vanilla.

Beat bananas with orange juice or milk in one medium bowl

Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in the other medium bowl. Add 1/3 of dry ingredients to wet ingredients.Add half of banana mixture to wet ingredients. Add 1/3 of dry ingredients to wet ingredients.

Add remainder of banana mixture to wet ingredients. Add last 1/3 of dry ingredients.

Fold in chocolate chips. Spoon into muffin tin.

Bake in 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.

Jewish Traces in Unexpected Places: Jewish and Japanese Foods Fuse in Brooklyn

She is Japanese. He is Jewish. Together, they cook up all kinds of deliciousness. Meet Sawako Okochi and Aaron Israel. Their love for each other led to marriage, and their love of cooking led to Shalom Japan.

The Brooklyn restaurant merges Japanese and Jewish culinary influences. On the menu? Matzoh ball ramen and a lox bowl version of chirashi. 

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Jewish Food: More Than Just Matzo Ball Soup

Talking about Jewish food is both mouth-wateringly delicious and just a little complicated.

While Ashkenazi Jews (Jews from Eastern Europe) are used to foods like gefilte fish and matzah ball soup, these dishes would be foreign to a Jew from The Middle East, North Africa or Ethiopia who would prefer to chow down pkaila, shakshuka, t’bit or doro wat. 

What connects Jewish foods, apart from being delicious, is that they developed from economic necessity and were often a way for poor communities to create something tasty from very little. 

While some of these dishes have been forgotten over time, others are enjoying a culinary renaissance and gaining new generations of fans. So pull up a seat and join us on this delicious culinary journey as we take the lid off the culinary melting pot of Jewish food.

Yasher Koach to Unpacked (formerly Jerusalem U) for this enlightening video.

Enjoy!
 
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Brewing Tea the Yiddish Way, and in Yiddish (With English Subtitles)

So you think you know how to make a glezele tay (a glass of tea)? Do you think all it takes is to dip a tea bag into a glass of hot water? That's not the authentic Yiddish Way.

It takes Rukhl Schaechter and Eve Jochnowitz from Der Forverts (Yiddish version of The Jewish Daily Forward) to show you how to prepare tea the old־fashioned way and how East-European Jews used to drink it (hint: you need a sugar cube). In Yiddish with English subtitles.

The only thing that would make this "recipe" more authentic would be to serve it in a Yahrzeit glass.

Enjoy!

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What's Chanukah Without Latkes? L.A. Jewish Journal Editor and Reporter Reveal Secret Ingredient

With Chanukah just a few days away, it seems that everyone is making potato latkes (except in Israel, where jelly donuts (sufganiot) are the fried treat of choice). 

Latkes are easy to make, even for an inexperienced cook like Ryan Torok, a reporter for the Los Angeles Jewish Journal. But there is a secret ingredient to make the perfect vegan, gluten-free latke.

So the paper enlisted its editor-in-chief, Rob Eshman, to reveal it and demonstrate his cooking technique. 

You can get the recipe and read Ryan's account of the latke project in this week's issue of the Jewish Journal.

The resulting video should give even neophytes a head start on latke making. We're sure that many of our readers have their own secret tips and techniques to make the perfect latke, so if you'd like to share them, include them in the comments field below the video. 

Enjoy!

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The Forward's Yiddish Chefs are Back With a New Series - Starting With Itzhak Perlman's Potato Salad

Rukhl Schaechter and Eve Jochnowitz, the Yiddish-speaking chefs who appeared here for 20 episodes of their cooking program Est Gezunterheit, are back after their series sponsored by the Forward ended last year.

The new series called Timeless Delicacies offers shorter episodes featuring cultural reflections about food along with quick rundowns of recipes.

Reviving and expanding the series is one of the changes made to the Forward since Schaechter was appointed the new editor earlier this year. Schaechter is the first woman to helm the paper in its 119-year history, its first editor to have been born in the United States, and likely its first editor who is shomer Shabbat.

B'tayavon - Bon appetit!

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Jewish Kids Answer Timeless Questions About Jewish Food

Why is there a hole in a bagel? Why does a matzo ball float? What does a gefilte fish look like?

The Jewish Food Experience (JFE), a project launched in December 2012 posed these questions to a panel of experts (OK, they are a bunch of toddlers) and got some funny and endearing answers.

The Jewish Food Experience is a website that brings people together through the universal language of Jewish food, which is so much a part of Jewish culture, tradition and even religion. And food is a shared experience, so JFE also wants to help you make the most of times with families and friends.

On the website, local “foodies” including chefs, restaurateurs, wine experts, food critics and writers share exciting news, recipes and stories.It's a place to find Jewish food with modern twists, international flavors, tastes for holidays and occasions, the latest about the local Jewish food scene, volunteer efforts to fight hunger, food-related events and recipes that will include locally sourced and organic options as well as vegetarian, gluten-free and other dietary needs.

It's worth checking out, and we think you'll like the kids' answers to timeless questions about Jewish food.

Enjoy!

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The Forward's Yiddish Chefs Make a Tsimmes - Not One But Two

Making a tzimmes is a popular Yiddish expression for making a big fuss over something, probably because the dish involves a lot of chopping, slicing, and adding lots of ingredients including carrots, prunes, honey, and sometimes meat.

The Yiddish chefs from the Jewish Daily Forward are celebrating this holiday season by literally making not one, but two versions of the classic dish usually served on Shabbat and Jewish holidays.

Food is an important part of Jewish life, and that's why we include posts on Jewish cooking from time to time, including our annual visits to the Kosherfest show, which is coming up in November (watch for our on-the scene report in mid-November.)

We're especially fond of the periodic episodes of the Forward's cooking show, Est Gezunterheit, featuring Rukhl Schaechter and Eve Jochnowitz cooking while bantering in folksy Yiddish. We think the Yiddish words and phrases, especially those that are new to us, are even more fun than the recipes.

In this episode, they prepare two versions of tzimmes, one with meat, and one pareve. These versions are not overly sweet, and don't use sugar and honey. As usual, we include some Yiddish expressions translated into English.

Enjoy!

Tzikleipen = Sticking
Hiltzener leffel = Wooden spoon
Durchziktig = Transparent
Blee'en = Simmer
Lober bletter = Bay leaves
Deckel = Lid
Zaft = Sauce
Veyech = Soft

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Est Gezunterheit - The Forward's Yiddish Chefs Make Homemade Noodles With Cottage Cheese

Our favorite Yiddish chefs, Rukhl Schaechter and Eve Yochnowitz from the Jewish Daily Forward are back with their two recipes for homemade noodles with cottage cheese, one with fried onions and one without.

We've been publishing most of their videos featuring Yiddish-flecked banter while they cook traditional dishes.

Since their Est Gezunterheit series started four years ago, we've published 21 of their recipes and mini-glossaries of funny-sounding Yiddish words connected to the recipes. (Look for Est Gezunterheit in the Keywords list in the left column to catch up on any that you've missed.)

Here are some of the Yiddish words that we picked up during this episode:

Leffel = tablespoon
Leffeleh = teaspoon
Grate = ready
Gringer = easier
Bashits = sprinkle
Katchets ois = roll out
Loksh = noodle
Zeedendick = boiling
Tzeekleiben = sticking
Tsforech = cottage cheese
Smeteneh = sour cream

Enjoy!

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"Gefilte Fish Chronicles" Documentary Becomes a Musical in New York This Week

Three years ago we reported on a documentary called "The Gefilte Fish Chronicles," a film showing how the Dubroff sisters went about preparing a Passover seder for their very large family. 

The film focuses on  shopping for the perfect fish and meat through the cooking of enormous quantities of gefilte fish, cholent, and matzo brei, and celebrating the seder. It has been shown on PBS in the Pesach season for the last few years and has gotten rave reviews whenever it's shown on TV.

Whether or not you've seen this funny piece of nostalgia, you have another opportunity to see it in a new form, a musical, that was performed last year at the White House in honor of Jewish American Heritage Month. It's coming to New York this week, and will be performed at the JCC in Manhattan on Wednesday evening, June 11, at 8 pm.

As Ted Merwin writes in the current edition of The Jewish Week,

With music and lyrics by Matty Selman, the buoyant show begins in the present and then flashes back to family seders in the 1940s and ’50s. One of the non-Jewish actors, Iris recalled, “never expected the show to pack such an emotional wallop.” Then again, she reflected, “People feel comforted by Jewish tradition; it makes them feel safe. They want to know the recipes, the music, and the stories from the past.”

Here's a preview of the show, with commentary by executive producer Iris Burnett and lyricist Matty Selman.

Enjoy!

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