Ava Frescas con Anjinaras or Fava Beans with Artichokes

Last week while I was doing my early Wednesday morning walk through the famed Santa Monica Farmers Market, I spotted something new for sale.  On several vendors’ tables, there were mounds of large, verdant green, puffy, yet crooked beans.  In a word fresh fava beans had arrived for early spring.  I have a memory in my head of a prized dish

Weekday Lentil Soup

Lentils are one of the most nutritious foods on the planet used as part of a complete protein in vegetarian diets or used as a low calorie, vitamin and fibre rich part of any diet.  There are many different colors of lentils,  with different cooking times and textures.  Lentils are a staple in the Middle and Near East and India, while cooked in some European countries also.  They can be paired

Cheese and Potato Borekas

   

Consumed in great quantities, loved by all, the flaky dough and flavorful fillings beckon you to eat yet another one, the irresistible Boreka.  Borekas are usually a savory but occasionally sweet filled turnover.  There are many kinds of dough and infinite variety of fillings.  Various versions can be found in Turkey, in Israel and throughout the Middle East.Sephardic Jews or broadly speaking those with Spanish origins, from Turkey and the Greek Island of Rhodes traditionally eat

Boreka Video

Take a look at my first attempt at a food instruction video.  It is a funny, but instructonal video showing how to make cheese borekas.  Enjoy.

Green Bean and Tomato Stew (Fasoulia con Tomat y Carne)

Sometimes everyone in my household is running in a different direction

Biscotios de Huevo, Sephardic Tea Biscuit

The first generation of my family to come from Turkey, my grandmothers and my aunties, used to sit and rest a bit in the afternoon.  After preparing dinner and finishing their housework, they traded bits of gossip about the community and themselves (char lashon) with a cup of Turkish coffee and a biscotio in hand.  These circular biscuits topped with sesame seeds

Rice, Beans and Kuftes, Thursday Night Dinner

 

If you speak with anyone from the Sephardic community in Seattle, Washington, you will find that virtually everyone, me included, ate avicas con arroz or beans and rice on Thursday nights for dinner.  Usually this dinner also included

Pumpkin Borekas

PETITE PUMPKIN BOREKAS

Borekas are the Sephardic Jewish version of the turnover or empanada.  Turkish in origin, the Sephardic Jews adopted these pastries as their own.  I make borekas with homemade dough, the way my mom and my grandmother did, and bake them until crisp and golden.  Once a year for Jewish New Year

A Sephardic Rosh Hashanah

A Sephardic Tradition for Rosh Hashanah

My family has a unique culinary heritage, migrating from the Holy Land to Spain; my ancestors lived and flourished in the Golden Age for centuries.  The Golden Age was a time of religious tolerance in Spain’s history from around 711  to the 13^th century, an age of civility, poetry, enlightened medicine, and delightful cuisine.  If you visit Spain today, you will find influences in art, architecture, poetry and the ethnic makeup of the people left from their presence in cities like Toledo, Barcelona, and Seville.  The history of Spain is full of famous Jewish physicians and various advisors to the ruling caliphate.

When times changed and Jews faced the cruel expulsion edict by Queen Isabella (1492), my ancestors chose an escape route, heading east, along Mediterranean shores.  Ultimately, they settled in parts of the Ottoman Empire, centered in Turkey.  The Sephardic people took this route at the Sultan’s invitation, as he welcomed us into his lands.

The Sephardim settled in exotic places like Salonika, Rhodes,and Turkish cities and towns.  In these Mediterranean, cerulean blue skied islands and coastal towns my family found a safe haven where they would flourish.  They lived a gracious life style with family and friends, indulging in the abundance of regional foods with which to create holidays and celebrations.  From an elaborate afternoon coffee time called La Tavla de Dulce (the tray of sweets) to this Rosh Hashanah feast, my mother, grandmother, and great grandmothers used local fresh ingredients.

The influences from Spain to the Eastern Mediterranean on the cuisine of the Sephardim were truly incredible.  This part of the globe features much  fine cooking and sophiscated flavors.  Jewish dietary law with rules about useable ingredients and combining gives the cuisine a unique difference.

Now that I represent the next generation of Sephardic home cooks I put my American influence into the mix and the cuisine continues to evolve.  Sephardic Jewish cuisine is a culinary heritage, rich in the diversity of vegetables, grains, fruits, honey, and spices that reflect the regions traveled by my family.  Some of the best ritualized tasting happens at the Jewish New Year’s Eve dinner, after sundown.

Our tradition is to make a Seder,

Pastelicos (meat and rice borekas)

 PASTELICOS WITH MEAT AND RICE 

Pastelicos are triangular borekas with a savory meat and rice filling.  As with other Sephardic pastry, you can find versions in different shapes, with different dough and different spice blends.  This is the recipe my mother always made, but with the addition of the cinnamon and allspice.  A Pastel is a pie in Ladino or Judeo Spanish, and these individual small ‘pies’ use the suffix indicating smallness.  Crispy, savory, and beautiful,