PS this site will stay up for a month or two.

Challah is the quintessential Jewish Sabbath and holiday bread.  Bread baked from the staff of life has a spiritual essence that affirms our connection to the earth’s harvest and sustains us.  This Challah is sweet and moist.  It has a long stranded texture, due to the use of high gluten content flour and kneading in the food processor.  From one recipe, you can make one huge Challah or it makes two medium size Challahs for the Shabbat.  You could make ‘panezicos’ or individual rolls. 

2 packages active dry yeast (rapid rise is great)

1 cup warm water

1 teaspoon sugar

3 extra-large eggs room temperature

1/2 cup safflower oil

1/3 cup honey 

6 cups better for bread flour more or less

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon anise seeds (optional) 

1 egg beaten

Corn meal

Sesame seeds 

Preheat the oven to 350°.  Dust a large baking sheet with a layer of corn meal.  Corn meal acts like little ball bearings and keeps the bread from sticking without greasing the baking sheet. 

Proof the yeast in warm water with the sugar and honey. Proofing is to check if the yeast is active.  Place the yeast in the water and when it starts to foam you know the yeast is alive. Once the yeast and water are foaming, add the oil.  Check your room temperature eggs in a separate glass cup or bowl for any defects.  Place 3 cups of bread flour and the salt and anise in the bowl of a large food processor.  Pulse the flour to blend in the salt.  Add the liquids, including the eggs, and process until very smooth.  Add the additional 3 cups of flour and process until a ball forms, continue processing until the dough is a smooth ball, about 60 seconds total.  If the dough is sticky, add a little more flour until you have the right texture.  The dough should be silky smooth, not too soft nor to hard.  If your processor is too small, it may stall out after you add the second 3 cups of flour.  In that case remove the dough and knead by hand until very smooth and not sticky. Alternatively you could use a large stand mixer or knead the entire mess by hand like my mother used to do.

Place the kneaded dough ball in a bowl and cover with a loose piece of plastic wrap and then a tea towel.  Place the bowl in warm draft free place.  Let it rise about 2 hours or until doubled in volume.  Separate the challah.* Punch the dough down (it deflates).

Remove the dough from the bowl and gather it into a ball, then form a long cylinder.  Holding the cylinder at both ends, shake it longer and longer to about 3 feet.  Divide the dough in half for two Challahs.  Cut each half into three equal sections.  Roll and pull each section in to a log about 12 inches by 1 and ½ inches wide.  Braid your challah from the middle out to the two ends.  Seal the ends of the braids well so they will not open.  Once you have braided them, place the breads carefully on your corn meal dusted baking sheet.  Cover breads with a tea towel and let them rise again until double. Challahs are made in different shapes for different holidays, as you can see from the pictures.

When the loaves double in size, beat the last egg, and brush it carefully on the Challah with a light hand, taking care not to drip.  I prefer using a small silicone basting brush to apply the egg.  Sprinkle with sesame seeds.  Bake 30-35 minutes depending on the size, until dark golden brown.  Remove from the oven and place baked breads on cooling rack to preserve the crisp bottoms. 

Sometimes, I make the Challahs ahead and freeze them individually in heavy duty foil wrap.  I reheat them in the foil in the oven.  They taste freshly made when reheated like this.  You can make several batches at once and freeze.

Purim 2010

When my children were young I spent a lot of time fretting about what costumes they would wear to the Purim carnival and to the Megillah reading.  Incidentally the reading is not what one would think of , a decorous calm service in the synagogue.  It is a raucous recitation of the story with people talking out of turn, and every time the name of Haman is mentioned the crowd erupts booing, stamping their feet, and whirring their graggers into a loud cacophony.  Would Mitchell be the evil villain Haman, and Jacob be the blessed uncle Mordechai or the King Ahashverosh (phonetic).  No Queen Esther,  I only have boys. The celebration of Purim is full of costumes, goodies, parties and for adults, and libations.

Since I became a homemaker, I keep up the tradition of making Purim Platicos or Platicos de Purim otherwise known as Mishloach Manot.  I try to keep it to about 25-30 platicos.  What are Purim Platicos you may be wondering?  They are plates, baskets, boxes, and all manner of conveyances filled with sweets, fruits, and special goodies.  Since Purim is a happy festival, celebrated with a special meal, it is nice to remember your friends and family as well.  The next day after the Megillah reading, I drive around and deliver my Platicos to my list of family and friends.  I plan out a logistically short route, load the car, and go.  I try to enlist my kids to help but that is getting harder to do since they don’t live at home any longer.

One of the things my mother always baked was Folares.  Folares are pastry dough flecked with cheese in a cage like shape representing Haman’s (the evil villain in the Megillah) hanging noose.  Encased in the cage or noose is a hardboiled egg representing Haman’s head.  Haman meets his end in a noose on a gallows tower at the end of the Megillah, after failing in his plot to have the king hang all the Jewish people in the gallows he constructed.

This year I will fill my Purim Platicos with Folares, borekas (cheese and potato), black cherry filled hamantashen (a wonderful Ashkenazi Purim pastry representing Haman’s hat),  chocolate fudge brownies, pistachio biscotti, chocolate bars, and mini banana cakes.  I think I had better get baking.  Following, is the recipe for Folares, and in my earlier blog posts you can find the recipes for pistachio biscotti, banana cake, and cheese borekas.

1 recipe  of dough for cheese and potato borekas with the addition of 3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese to the flour.

12-16 eggs

10 drops of blue food coloring

Make the dough as for borekas, with the addition of 3/4 cup of grated parmesan.  Separate the dough into balls, a little larger then a golf ball.  Leave 1/3 of the dough aside to make the ropes for the top cage.  In the meantime, place the eggs in a saucepan , cover them with cold water and the 10 drops or so of food coloring and put them to boil.  When they have boiled for 10 minutes, pour off the water and let them cool. 

With a rolling pin, roll out the balls to about 4-5 inch circles.  Pinch the edges up to make a platform, or holder for the hard boiled egg.  When the eggs have cooled , place an egg in each of the platforms you have made.  With the remaining dough roll out thin ropes and place them criss-cross over the egg, attaching them to the base platform, so they stay in place.  Bake in a 400° oven for about 20 minutes until golden brown.  You can eat them at room temperature.  They are good for breakfast or served at a dairy Shabbat lunch.

On Purim, it is traditional to make Purim Platicos or Mishloach Manot, which are typically baskets of sweets and goodies and give them to family and friends.  I always include hamantashen as one of items in the basket.  Hamantashen are fantastic with tea or coffee and occupy a special nostalgic place in everyone’s heart.  

2 sticks of unsalted margarine (this way they are parve and can be eaten with anything)

1 cup of sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 teaspoons orange juice

2 tablespoons of grated orange zest

¼ teaspoon almond extract

4 cups of all purpose flour, unbleached

2 teaspoons fresh baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

Extra flour for working on board

1 12 ounce jar of black cherry preserves or any flavor of preserves you prefer, such as red raspberry or apricot.  You could also make the usual lekvar or prune filling. 

Combine the margarine and sugar in the bowl of your mixer.  Cream the ingredients on medium speed until light and fluffy.  Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and mix for a couple more seconds.  Add the liquid ingredients, eggs, orange juice, vanilla, and almond extract to the bowl and mix again.  When all is incorporated, carefully add the dry ingredients.  Turn the mixer on low-speed to start and then mix for a moment on medium until a ball forms. 

Remove the ball of dough from the mixing bowl with floured hands and roll it into a disc.  If you want to bake right away you may, or you can refrigerate the dough for up to overnight.  Divide the dough into four discs and wrap in plastic wrap if you are going to refrigerate. 

To bake the Hamantashen, preheat the oven to 350°.  Flour the granite or wood you are working on and roll out the dough into a rectangle about 1/8 to 1/6 inch thick.  Using a 3 inch biscuit cutter cut as many rounds out as possible.  Work fast and with a light touch to keep the dough from becoming too warm and soft.  Reform the left over dough and roll it out again with the rolling pin to utilize the rest of the dough. One batch of dough yields between 32-40 hamantashen.  Place a small rounded teaspoon of jam or other filling in the center of each round.  Pinch the dough round up to form a triangle, being careful not to let the filling ooze out.  

Prepare 2 baking sheets with silpat liners or parchment paper liners.  Place the formed triangles on the sheet to accommodate as many as possible without them touching as they expand a little during the baking process. 

Place the filled pans, one at a time, on a rack in the center of the preheated oven.  Bake until light golden color, around 20 minutes.  Remove hamantashen from the pan with a spatula and place them on cooling racks to keep the bottoms crisp.  Hamantashen should be stored in an airtight container when cool.  Hamantashen freeze well in an airtight container.

I phoned my cousin Louise Chiprut Berman up in Seattle and she remembers it was the whole fresh pods or the shelled beans cooked ‘con tomat’ style, which means simmered with tomato sauce and fried onions.  My sister Carole remembers a dish of cut up whole pods, when they were very fresh, layered on the bottom of the pot, with the beans on top.   I asked my mother but unfortunately, she said you just cook them, which I assume means you stew them with some fried onions to start and then finish braising in a little water and lemon juice.  It is sad to watch the vibrant woman who is my mother starting to forget things.  She will enjoy her 92nd birthday this summer.

I wanted something more, so I started looking at cook books.  I found several recipes including one by Gil Marks,  a prolific Jewish cookbook author and two by Gregg Malouf  a chef and Turkish and Middle Eastern cookbook author,combining the fava with artichokes.  I had some artichokes in the refrigerator so I proceeded to make my own version of fava with artichokes, for a wonderful braised vegetable side dish. 

Traditionally Sephardim eat a lot of braised and simmered vegetables, like green beans, okra, zucchinis, and artichokes. Many times, they combine them with meat.  I tend to cook a little more California fresh style most of the time, serving crisp tender cooked vegetables.  However, now in the interest of recording and sharing my Sephardic cooking heritage I am rediscovering some recipes while just writing down and quantifying others.  This dish is for spring when artichokes and fava are just arriving and Sephardim serve it during Passover as well.  If your tradition allows you to eat beans during Passover, give it a try. 

4 large fresh artichokes

1 juicy lemon

1 bowl of ice water

2 pounds of fresh fava beans, shelled so you have about 1 and ½ cups of beans

1 onion diced

3 cloves of garlic minced

3 tablespoons olive oil

Sea salt

Pepper

½ cup parsley

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 cup water

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon lemon zest 

Scrape the zest off the lemon and set it aside to garnish the dish later.  Cut the lemon into quarters and squeeze it into the bowl of ice water.  To prepare the artichokes crack off all the tough outer leaves.  Take a sharp knife, trim the bottom of the stem, and then peel it.  Cut the remaining center leaves of the artichoke straight across above the heart, leaving the heart with the choke.  Using a sharp paring knife or a small melon baller remove the choke with the thistle fuzz exposing the heart. This creates a perfect little bowl for stuffing, but that is another recipe, for Passover.  Plunge this pared artichoke into the lemon water to keep it from oxidizing.  Repeat this procedure for the remaining artichokes.  One by one remove the artichokes and cut them in half and then depending how big they are, cut each half in quarters.  Each piece should have some heart and some stem.  Keep the artichokes in the acidulated water until you are ready to use them. 

Blanch the beans for a moment, in a pot of boiling salted water, and then remove the tough outer skin.  It should peel off easily. 

Heat a large sauté pan; add the olive oil and then the onions.  Sauté the onions briefly until translucent and then add the garlic and the artichoke hearts.  Sauté for about 5 minutes, season with salt and pepper and then add the blanched beans.  Continue to sauté.  When the mix starts to stick add the water, ½ cup at a time.  The water allows everything to steam through until tender without sticking.  When the water is almost all evaporated, add the lemon juice, parsley and honey.  Taste and add more salt and pepper if desired.  Stir for a bit longer until the artichokes are tender.  Garnish with the lemon zest and serve.  This dish is great served cold for lunch as well.

My mom always made lentils on a week night.  Sometimes they had meat in them like short ribs or sausages (sarsicha), but mostly they were vegetarian.  She used just plain brown lentils, the kind you get in any supermarket. They had a silky smooth texture and the flavors of parsley and cracked pepper were discernible in the mix. Their earthy taste is so comforting and satisfying, my own children love them still.   We call them lentejas (pronounced len-te-zshas) in Ladino, a Jewish Spanish dialect.  Many Sephardim make a dish called Mejedra,  lentils and rice cooked in the same pot and topped with fried onions.  Yum Yum! 

This soup or stew is easy to make, healthy, and economical.  Last night, we enjoyed lentils with Israeli salad, Spanish rice, and grilled chicken thighs.  On Sunday, for Valentine’s Day we ate lentils with grilled lamb chops, brown rice pilaf, sautéed broccolini, and fava beans with artichoke hearts.  Both meals were so good, give them a try. 

16 ounce package of dried lentils

1 large onion, diced

2 celery ribs, washed

2 carrots, washed and peeled

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/3 cup chopped cilantro, washed and dried

2/3 cup chopped parsley, washed and dried

1 and ½ teaspoon salt

Fresh cracked pepper

2 teaspoons cumin (optional)

3 quarts of cold water 

Pour the lentils into a fine mesh colander or sieve.  Run your fingers through them to check for any bad ones, rocks or other debris.  Rinse the lentils and place them on a towel or in a bowl to drain. 

Heat a stock pot or Dutch oven.  Place the oil and then the onions in the pan to begin to sauté, turn the heat down to medium.  While the onions start to cook, dice the celery and carrots very small.  Chop the parsley and cilantro.  

Add the celery and carrots after cutting them.  Season the vegetables with salt and pepper.  Add the parsley and cilantro and stir to combine.  Next, add the lentils then add the water.  Let the lentils simmer for about 1 hour.  Check the lentils after 40 minutes for the desired texture.  Add more salt and pepper to your taste. 

Cook the lentils to the thickness you prefer.  Some like them soupy or some like them thick.  Lentils keep for several days, can be reheated easliy, and they are great as lefltovers for lunch.