Dateline: Two Days Before Rosh Hashanah

Every year as soon as the days start getting shorter, my instinct to start preparing for Rosh Hashanah kicks in.  Three weeks ago I placed an order with the kosher butcher and wrote out my menu plans for several dinners.  I started baking as well.  I am not preparing for one evenings celebration, but for a whole month of holiday dinners and lunches.  So far I have extended invitations to guests for 5 different occasions.
Restocking cupboards, rearranging furniture, and making sure to lay in a supply of aluminum foil and dishwasher soap is part of the preparation.  Last Wednesday, I turned on my back up refrigerator and freezer in anticipation of filling it soon.  I am so glad it still works!

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, I make smaller versions filled with cinnamon-scented pumpkin.  The kids at the table think of them as mini pumpkin pies, and they can easily eat five.
Make these up to 1 month ahead and freeze in an airtight container.  To reheat, defrost, and heat on a baking sheet in a 300º oven for 10 minutes
Filling
1 28 ounce can pure pumpkin
1 and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
½ cup brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
Dough
4 cups unbleached flour
2 teaspoons salt
3/4 cup safflower oil
1 cup ice water
Topping
1 egg, beaten
1 cup sesame seeds
Stir the filling ingredients together in a medium bowl.  The filling should not be runny and should retain its shape if mounded.
To make the dough, measure 4 cups of flour into a mixing bowl.  Add the salt and blend.  Whisk the oil and water together in a small bowl.  Stir the liquid into the flour with a fork.  Using your hands, gently gather the dough into a ball.  Squeeze the dough together but do not knead it like bread.
Divide the dough into pieces a little larger then an unshelled walnut.  Roll each piece in your hands to make a smooth ball.  Place the ball on a wood or stone surface and using a rolling pin, flatten it out into an even circle about 3 inches in diameter.  Do not flour or grease the countertop.  Take care not to roll over the edges of the circles, as this will thin out the edges.

I roll out 2 sets 24 at a time.  This number fits onto a baking sheet perfectly if you make three columns of 8.  After you have your first 24 circles, place a small teaspoon or so of filling in the center of each.  Fold the circles in half and seal the edges of the resulting half moon shapes by pressing down and then by twisting them into a rope like edge.  This signature edge (repulgo in Ladino, Judeo Spanish) takes a little practice.  Or use the tines of a fork to seal the edges.  Make sure no pumpkin is oozing out, or the borekas will leak when baking.  Repeat the rolling and filling with the rest of the balls.

Brush the top of each boreka with beaten egg and dip it in sesame seeds.  Place on the baking sheet.  I use a silicone baking sheet liner for easy clean up.

Bake borekas at 400 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes or until light golden.  Remove from the oven and place each one gently on a cooling rack.

Spinach Bulemas

SPINACH BULEMAS

Bulemas or Boyus, depending on what town your grandparents came from, are spirals of stuffed dough, baked in the oven until crisp.  Spinach and cheese filling is my favorite.  Yeast dough is stretched until, it is a long rectangle, then filled, rolled into a cylinder, sealed at the ends, and coiled into a nest.  They are traditionally served as part of a Sabbath or Holiday lunch. They freeze and reheat very well.

Leek and Ground Beef Patties

Kufte de Prassa

KUFTE DE PRASSA

Leek and Ground Beef Patties 

Somewhere between a meatball and patty is a kufte.  Made with ground beef, they are light and fluffy with a delicate crisp exterior, and redolent with the taste of autumn leeks.  Serve this recipe as one of the starters for a traditional Jewish New Years celebration.  They can be part of an appetizer buffet, or individually plated with a lemon wedge garnish and perhaps a dollop of hummus.
You can make the kufte that morning, refrigerate, and then reheat in a 350ºoven for 15 minutes before serving.  Kufte may also be made a week ahead and frozen in an airtight container.  Defrost in the refrigerator the night before and reheat as indicated.  Serve hot.
This makes about 48 kufte, two, or three per person.  Leftovers are delicious the next day.  Serve with rice and salad.

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

Stuffed Veal Breast

FENNEL AND PISTACHIO STUFFED VEAL BREAST

Stuffed veal breast is hard work to make.  It is a large unwieldy piece of meat, hard to fill with stuffing, and harder still to carve successfully.  Veal breast is my husband’s favorite. I make it every Passover and change out the panko crumbs called for in the recipe with crumbled matzo farfel.  All of that aside, the spectacular presentation, the succulent meat, and delicate flavor are worth the effort.

Honey Cake

EXTRA MOIST HONEY CAKE
I think I have tried at least 20 different honey cake recipes over the years. The cakes are always too dry and some are too crumbly. Last year I used my banana cake recipe for inspiration and came up with this. You could leave out the nuts and dried fruits if you prefer. This is very moist and freezes well.

Rosh Hashanah 2009, 5670

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 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 left from the Sephardic people in food, art, architecture, poetry, and the ethnic makeup of the people in cities like Toledo, Barcelona, and Seville.  The history of Spain is full of famous Jewish physicians, advisors, and treasurers 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, and ultimately settling in parts of the Ottoman Empire centered in Turkey.  The Sephardic people took this route at the Sultan’s (ruler of the empire) invitation, as he welcomed us into his lands.
In these Mediterranean, cerulean blue skied islands and coastal towns my family found a safe haven where they would flourish for the next 400 years.  They lived a gracious life style indulging in the abundance of regional foods.  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 cooked and baked through the year.
The influences from Spain to the Eastern Mediterranean on the cuisine of the Sephardic people incorporated many flavorful ingredients in a context of Jewish dietary law, with rules about useable ingredients and combining.  This gives the cuisine a unique difference. Sephardic Jewish cuisine is a culinary heritage, rich with an enormous variety of vegetables,

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, they are great hors d’oeuvres for parties and special holiday dinners.  I always make them for Rosh Hashanah, Jewish New Year and Sukkot, Feast of the Tabernacles.  Be sure and count more then one per person when planning how many to bake.
Filling
2 pounds ground chuck meat
2 large onions finely chopped
2 tablespoons oil
1 cup finely chopped parsley
1 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground pepper
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons allspice
½ cup toasted pine nuts
1/3 cup long grain rice
1 and ½ cup water
Dough
4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup ice water
3/4 cup safflower oil
Topping 
1 beaten egg
½ cup sesame seeds
Preheat a large sauté pan until hot.  Add the oil and then the onions and turn the temperature down to medium.  Occasionally stir the onions with a wooden spoon, sautéing on medium heat until sweet and golden.  Push the onions aside and add the ground chuck and sauté until browned and starting to stick.  As you stir the onions and chuck meat, break it up with your spoons, so it becomes crumbly with no large chunks of ground meat intact.
Stir in the parsley; add the seasoning, and the pine nuts.  Next, mix the uncooked rice with the meat and onions.  Add the water to cover the mixture and place a lid on the pan.  Reduce the heat to low and let steam until all the water is absorbed and the rice cooks, about 15 minutes.  Cool the filling down before using.  It is best to make it the night before and refrigerate.  This much filling will require 2 batches of dough.
For the dough measure the flour into a bowl and add the salt.  In a two cup glass measuring pitcher, combine the liquids.  Beat the liquids with a small whisk to emulsify.  Pour the liquid into the flour and stir with a fork.  When the dough holds together, use your hands to finish gathering the dough into a ball.  All the flour will incorporate and the dough should be soft and pliable.  Separate the dough into 42 to 44 walnut size pieces.  Roll each small piece into a smooth ball.  With a rolling pin, roll each ball into a circle, no bigger then 3 inches in diameter, taking care not to go over the edges with the rolling pin and make them thin. 
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and prepare 4 rimmed baking sheets.  Place a heaping teaspoon of filling in each circle.  Close the filled circles by folding the dough in a triangle shape.  Place the Pastelicos on the prepared baking sheets.  Brush all the Pastelicos with beaten egg and sprinkle with sesame seeds.  Bake in a 400 degree oven until golden and crispy about 15 to 17 minutes.
After the Pastelicos cool, they keep well for two days in the refrigerator or I freeze them in airtight containers.  Reheat in a 300 degree oven for 10-15 minutes to re-crisp.

More East Coast Holiday

Shalom Bombay

On my recent trip to the East Coast, my goal was not only to visit my sister, but also to explore intriguing, ethnic, kosher, dining spots.  After a hard day of shopping, what better way to finish the day then a stop at an authentic, Indian food, hole in the wall in Teaneck, New Jersey?  We arrived late, hungry, and tired, but the delicious food soon had me re-energized for the long drive home.
We started our meal with Papri Chat, crisp crackers served with chopped potatoes, onions, mint chutney, and tamarind sauce, delivered to our table by a cheerful Indian girl with long chocolate-colored hair and a pleasant manner.
As in our Turkish restaurant experience, our strategy was to order too much, taste everything and pack up the leftovers.  The waiter resisted our ordering tactic and thought we were a bit eccentric, however, the customer is always right and we prevailed.
Vegetable Samosas, burning hot, with a trio of sauces, including tamarind sauce, green mint chutney sauce, and minced red chili sauce, were crisp and spicy with a melt in your mouth-filling.   Tandoori Chicken , red glazed, tender, and infused with Goan spice and flavorful Lamb Vindaloo were were luscious eaten atop basmati rice.  The beef stewed in a Rogan Josh curry with vegetables was soft and gelatinous in its thickend red gold juice.
We ordered a unique, house speciality, naan bread stuffed with nuts and dried fruits along with Vegetable Biryani or rice that contained green chili, cauliflower and cashews.  How could anyone eat so much food?  I enjoyed the food so much one mouthful just followed another, although we did pack up a lot of leftovers.
As a point of interest, while researching the topic of Samosas, I discovered that they are an Indian version of a Boreka!!!

Restaurant Review: Herzog Wine Cellar’s Tierra Sur

Chef Todd Aaron Showcases Local Produce at Winery

This last Thursday the 23^rd of July was another in a long string of perfect blue skied, mild summer days in Los Angeles.  I picked up my husband in front of his office and allowed ourselves just under 2 hours for the brief, but what we thought would be bumper to bumper rush hour traffic drive to the Herzog Wine Cellar’s restaurant Tierra Sur.  Much to our surprise the traffic soon thinned out and our drive to Camarillo was only an hour and ten minutes.

After entertaining ourselves for a bit at the nearby outlet mall, we drove to our ultimate destination down several side streets, or should I call them farm back roads through beautiful cultivated land part of. Soon we could see the Herzog winery