Unidentified group of young men, B’nai B’rith, Vancouver, 1950. (photo from JWB fonds; JMABC L.12155)
If you know someone in this photo, please help the JI fill the gaps of its predecessor’s (the Jewish Western Bulletin’s) collection at the Jewish Museum and Archives of B.C. by contacting archives@jewishmuseum.ca.
For more cartoons, visit thedailysnooze.com.
Leah Schapira’s and Victoria Dwek’s sunflower salad, from their most recent cookbook, Dairy Made Easy. (photo by Daniel Lailah)
There’s almost no need for me to try out the recipes from Leah Schapira and Victoria Dwek anymore. Their Made Easy cookbooks are “triple-tested” and I’ve reviewed enough of them to know that the recipes will result in delicious meals. But, an excuse to try a new dish, especially a new dessert – I just can’t pass that up.
This time, using Dairy Made Easy, which was released, appropriately, just before Shavuot, I made the sunflower salad, baked roasted veggie pasta and lemon curd ice cream, but there are other salads, pastas and desserts, as well as soups, appies, pizzas and breakfasts. While Schapira and Dwek favor more packaged/frozen ingredients than I prefer, and a little more salt and sugar, I find their recipes amenable to adaptation and feel completely at ease with replacing, for example, frozen cauliflower with fresh, and using less/more of almost anything. Even if the consistency or look isn’t quite as nice, the taste is every bit as good.
SUNFLOWER SALAD
1 head romaine lettuce, chopped, or 5 cups baby spinach leaves
2 mangos, peeled and diced
1/2 red onion, finely diced
Dressing:
4 oz. (115 grams) goat or feta cheese
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
Sunflower brittle:
1 tbsp butter
1/4 cup salted hulled sunflower seeds
1/4 cup sugar
In a large bowl, combine lettuce, mango and red onion. Set aside.
Prepare the dressing. In a small bowl, use a fork to mash goat cheese with olive oil, vinegar and Italian seasoning. You can also use a mini chopper for a smoother consistency.
Prepare the brittle. Melt butter in a sauté pan over medium heat. Add sunflower seeds and toast for 30-60 seconds. Remove from pan and set aside. Add sugar to the pan and stir constantly until sugar is melted, about three minutes. It should be brown and completely smooth. Stir in sunflower seeds, pour into a thin layer onto a sheet of parchment paper and flatten as much as possible. Let harden. Chop into small bits, using a mini chopper or the bottom of a can.
Toss salad with dressing. Top with sunflower brittle. Makes four servings.
BAKED ROASTED VEGGIE PASTA
1 lb fusilli or penne pasta
2 pints cherry tomatoes, halved
2 red onions, cut into wedges
1 zucchini, cut into half moons
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp garlic powder
kosher salt, to taste
coarse black pepper, to taste
6 oz. (170 grams) feta cheese
1 tbsp chopped fresh or frozen basil
Prepare pasta according to package directions.
Preheat oven to 400°F. In a nine-by-13-inch pan, combine cherry tomatoes, red onions and zucchini. (More veggies can be added to the mix; red peppers substituted for the tomatoes.) Toss with olive oil and garlic powder. Bake for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add pasta to vegetables and mix well. Season with salt and pepper.
Preheat oven to broil and broil for 10 minutes, stirring after five minutes.
Add feta cheese and basil; stir to combine (the heat will melt the cheese). Serve hot or at room temperature. Makes eight servings.
LEMON CURD ICE CREAM
1 graham cracker pie crust
5 egg yolks
juice and zest of 2-4 lemons (about 1/3 cup juice)
1 cup sugar
2 cups heavy (i.e. whipping) cream
1. Crumble piecrust (which can be made using graham cracker crumbs or crushed tea biscuits mixed with some melted butter) and sprinkle crumbs into the bottom of individual serving dishes, or one large serving dish. Set aside.
2. Combine egg yolks, lemon juice, zest and sugar over a double boiler. Cook, whisking constantly, until thickened, six to eight minutes. Let cool.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat cream until stiff. Gently fold two-thirds of the lemon curd into the cream, a little at a time. It’s not a problem if there are swirls of yellow in the mixture. Pipe or spoon over crumbled crust. Drizzle with remaining lemon curd. Freeze until ready to serve. Makes eight to 10 servings.
For those who can’t make it to Pips Neapolitan Pizza in Jerusalem for its panzanella, pictured above, the bread salad recipe here is similar. (photo by Barry A. Kaplan/Jerusalem)
Admittedly, I am very old-fashioned in my kitchen. I have two sets of antique, wood card-catalogue drawers where I store recipe cards, plus another set of drawers that a former neighbor, a wood worker, made especially for me. And, yes, I use these indexed recipes all the time. I have a variation of Post-it notes with a blue tab sticking up that I attach to any recipe cards I use very often so I can find them easily. When thinking about which recipes to share here, I went to the tab labeled “salads around the world,” and picked out these, as they’re perfect for summer.
BREAD SALAD
Italians call it panzanella. In Arabic, fatt means “crush” and, with the Turkish suffix oush, it becomes fattoush, particularly popular in Lebanon. Any kind of crusty, heavy, dense, day-old bread will work.
3 medium tomatoes, chopped, or 16 cherry or plum tomatoes, halved
3 Kirby cucumbers, cut up, not peeled
1/2 red pepper, chopped
1/2 green pepper, chopped
1/2 another color pepper, chopped
4 green onions, sliced
1/3 cup black olives
3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley or cilantro
2 cups cubed bread
8 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
Dressing:
1/4 cup olive or canola oil
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp paprika
salt and pepper to taste
Three to four hours before serving, combine oil, vinegar, garlic, paprika, salt and pepper in a jar. Close the lid, shake and set aside. In a salad bowl, combine tomatoes, cucumber, peppers, onions, olives and parsley. Add 1/4 cup dressing, mix and refrigerate about two hours.
One to two hours before serving, add bread cubes and toss; refrigerate for half an hour.
When ready to serve, sprinkle chopped eggs over salad and remaining dressing, and mix. Makes four servings.
ANTIPASTO SALAD
Traditionally, an antipasto is the first course served before an Italian meal, but this salad is a nice start for any meal.
2 cups bite-size pieces romaine lettuce
2 cups bite-size pieces head lettuce
1/3 cup shredded white cabbage
1/3 cup shredded red cabbage
1 small red onion, chopped
1 small red pepper, chopped
1 small green pepper, chopped
1/3 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1/8 cup chopped black olives
1/2 cup artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
1/3 cup mozzarella cheese, cubed
1/2 cup any other kosher Italian cheese, cubed
Dressing:
1/3 cup olive or canola oil
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 garlic clove, crushed
dash paprika
dash oregano
dash basil
dash dry mustard
Mix dressing ingredients in a jar. Close lid and shake well. Set aside.
In a salad bowl, combine lettuces, cabbages, onion, peppers, tomatoes, olives, artichoke hearts and cheeses.
Just before serving, pour dressing over salad and toss. Makes four servings.
ASIAN COLESLAW
When I serve Asian food, particularly stir fry, I sometimes would like a side dish other than rice or noodles, and this coleslaw fits. In Israel, we don’t have water chestnuts readily available, so I substitute with cooked kohlrabi, which is readily available and inexpensive.
1 cup shredded bok choy
1/2 cup shredded carrots
1 cucumber, diced
1/2 cup sliced water chestnuts or cooked kohlrabi
1/2 diced red pepper
1 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 cup bean sprouts
Dressing:
3 tbsp rice vinegar
1/3 cup sesame oil
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp low-sodium soy sauce
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 tsp ginger (optional)
In a salad bowl, combine bok choy, carrots, cucumber, water chestnuts (or kohlrabi), red pepper, cilantro and bean sprouts.
In a jar, combine rice vinegar, oil, sugar, soy sauce, garlic and ginger. Close with a lid and shake well.
Set aside.
Just before serving, add dressing and toss. Makes four servings.
Sybil Kaplan is a foreign correspondent, lecturer, book reviewer and food writer in Jerusalem. She has compiled nine kosher cookbooks. She leads weekly walks in English in the Jewish produce market, Machaneh Yehudah, and writes the restaurant features for Janglo, the oldest, largest website in Israel for English-speakers.
Eli Ben Zaken, centre, with sons Ariel, left, and Eytan. His daughter, Ilana, is also part of the business. (photo from castel.co.il)
The third in a series featuring nine Israeli wine producers features Eli Ben Zaken of Domaine du Castel, in the Judean Hills, 10 miles west of Jerusalem. The first two articles – on Barkan and Shiloh wineries – were published in the Jewish Independent on May 2.
Christopher Barnes: When did you found the estate?
Eli Ben Zaken: There was no official foundation because I never thought of really making a winery. I planted in ’88 a few vines in a small plot next to the house in the Judean Hills, in Moshav Ramat Raziel. We made wine in ’92, we bottled it in ’95, it was a great success. Not many bottles – just about 600.
CB: How fast did you grow?
EBZ: We grew 2,000, 3,000 a year, and then eight, and then 12, 15, 20. By the year 2000, we made 80,000 bottles. Then we stayed around 80,000.
CB: Tell us a little about the terroir, the soils and the climate in the area that you make your wine.
EBZ: It’s a very good wine country. In fact, the region was making wine for the Temple thousands of years ago. It’s very good, it’s clay and limestone, it’s stony, it’s well drained because it’s hilly. It has a good influence from the sea compared to other regions, which are also very good, but different, like Upper Galilee and Golan Heights. They don’t have an influence from the sea because they are more continental. The days would be much warmer, but the nights also much cooler. They will have maybe more color and more body, but certainly they will lack the elegance that we have because of the influence of the sea, which is always keeping us at a balanced level of temperature. Usually, the heat is not too hot, and the summers are less cool, it’s true. Today, we can know the difference.
When I was the first to plant vines, by mistake maybe, in the Judean Hills in [the] modern era, today we have in dunam – a dunam is a 10th of a hectare – we have about 300 dunams, and the region has nearly 3,000 dunams. That means all the industry has understood the importance of the hills around Jerusalem and have planted vines.
CB: How many different wines are you making right now?
EBZ: We were making, at the beginning, one wine. In ’98, we added a second red wine. Our wines are blended wines with Bordeaux grapes, like cabernet, merlot, petit verdot, cabernet franc, malbec, they are always blended. The white is a chardonnay, 100 percent, barrel-fermented, classical Burgundy wine method. We’ve made a rosé for the past four years, which is merlot, cabernet franc, malbec – early picking, pressed like a white wine, and really it is very fresh and light, a nice summer drink.
CB: Tell us a little bit about the influences in terms of your winemaking. You mentioned that you made Bordeaux blends. Was that something intentional that you decided on, or how did you come about that?
EBZ: I really started making the things I like to drink. I was not bored drinking wine and, actually, I didn’t like it [at first] because I was given low-quality wine to taste. When I got into wine I was already in my thirties, and got more and more into gastronomy and drinking wine. When I decided to make some wine at home, it was really as a hobby.
CB: How would you say your wines are unique versus the other types of wines that are made in Israel?
EBZ: I don’t think I like the word unique in the sense that everyone is unique, not mine as opposed to the mass of the others. They’re also unique. As I said, what is very, very interesting is the terroir of the Judean Hills, the elegance of the wines. Someone was pointing out in an article I read lately that all the wines from Israel got top marks from Parker – the really “top, top” were Judean Hills wines. Somehow, at the end of the day, this is what appeals most, but then, I’m biased.
CB: Of course, of course. Is it a family business now?
EBZ: It is, yes. I have three kids. They aren’t kids anymore, the youngest is 41! They’re running the winery. I am the winemaker, but I have to ask for permission to do things. My daughter and my sons are in the business. I have a daughter and two sons. I let them make their own decisions.
I can say, at my age now, I can look back. I was led in that path without [the] intention … of becoming a winemaker or making a business of wine. I was led through that path by God, destiny – it’s hard to tell, but certainly I did things which, by chance, were firsts: the revival of the Judean Hills as a wine region, I brought the petit verdot first in Israel, I made blended wines when blended wines were the cheaper wines in the wineries in Israel and top wines were single varieties. I was lucky in the way I went, doing firsts.
– This article is reprinted courtesy of the Grape Collective, an online publication for all things wine. For more information, visit grapecollective.com.
Tapioca pearls cluster at the bottom of a green apple Calpis green tea. (photo by Lauren Kramer)
It’s a typical summer barbeque scene: parents clustered in groups catching up on each other’s lives and kids running amok in games of barefoot tag, stopping only briefly for refreshments as afternoon turns to evening. When they refuel, though, it’s bubble tea they’re reaching for, that sweet, sticky, frothy beverage that’s slurped through giant straws. Part meal, with its candy-like tapioca beans, and part beverage, bubble tea has become a natural choice for many kids and preteens. A mixture of fruit juice and tea, it’s a drink that’s both a plaything and a thirst quencher. What’s more, it delivers an explosion of flavor, an instant sugar rush that’s as fun to drink as it is to look at.
“At bubble tea shops, young people are ordering their bubble tea the way coffee aficionados order their Starbucks,” said Julia Montague, a bubble tea fan and my companion on this hot afternoon. We’ve just taken a seat at Zephyr Tea House in Richmond (7911 Alderbridge Way), positioning our massive pink straws into a shared glass of taro milk tea. A burst of taste that can only be likened to a gummy candy milkshake hits our palates, an energizing, refreshing encounter that brings us right back to childhood.
Enter a bubble tea shop and you have to be decisive. First choice is the type of tea – black, green, milk or herbal? Each category has some 30 varieties, from kiwi black to mango green, pudding milk to sesame and hazelnut milk. Once you’ve narrowed that down, you choose the bubbles you want: pearl, otherwise known as tapioca balls, coconut jelly, pudding, grass jelly or coffee jelly. Finally, you determine if you want your tea hot or cold.
We order a tall glass of Zephyr milk tea next, the house special that comes with coffee jelly, black sugar, creamer and black tea, served with whipped cream on top. The mocha-colored drink is punctuated by balls of black jelly, delivering another major whammy of sweetness – one that almost demands a food accompaniment, just to neutralize the sugar.
Bubble tea made its first inauspicious appearance in Taiwan in the 1980s, when some food entrepreneur mixed the light taste of tea with fruit flavoring, shaking it up to even out the flavors and naming it for the bubbles that would form when the mixture was combined. Later, someone reinforced the name by adding tapioca balls to the drink, as well as a large straw through which they could be consumed.
The beverage became a hit, particularly with younger folk. Bubble tea shops started popping up all over Asia and in parts of North America heavily populated by Asian immigrants, like Vancouver and Richmond, where you don’t have to search hard to find bubble tea and, when you find it, it’s eye candy in the purest form.
At the Pearl Castle Café (3779 Sexsmith Rd.), which is not far from Zephyr, the bubble tea menu features an entire page of listings for each of the black, green, milk and green milk tea. Between innovative flavors like green apple Calpis green tea, tangerine green tea with dried plum, caramel green milk tea and wheat germ green milk tea, it’s hard to narrow it down.
Our Calpis tea arrives looking like a piece of art. A layer of beer-like foam sits on the top, the drink’s bright green hue contrasts with the black tapioca pearls that cluster at the bottom. For contrast, we try hot jasmine green tea, whose soothing, subtle jasmine flavor is combined with sweetened condensed milk, providing another major sugar rush.
We exit the restaurant fired up with energy and ready to take on the day, a heady mixture of calories and sugar coursing through us as four tall glasses of bubble tea work their way through our bodies. One thing’s for sure: this is no end-of-the-day soother.
Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond, B.C. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net.
For more cartoons, visit thedailysnooze.com.
For more cartoons, visit thedailysnooze.com.
Group of women holding honor scroll certificates, State of Israel Bonds, Marjorie Groberman second from the left, Vancouver, B.C., 1971. (JWB fonds, photographer Franz Lindner, JMABC L.14624)
If you know someone in this photo, please help the JI fill the gaps of its predecessor’s (the Jewish Western Bulletin’s) collection at the Jewish Museum and Archives of B.C. by contacting archives@jewishmuseum.ca.
When driving in the area, be careful, as deer sometimes meander across the roads. (photo by Lauren Kramer)
I’ve lived in Vancouver for just 14 years, so I know I’ve just barely begun to discover all the beauty in the Lower Mainland and beyond. But recently, when I suggested to friends who’d lived in the city all their lives that they join us in Port Moody, their response stunned me. “What’s there?” they asked. It occurred to me then that though I’ve been taking the (close-to) hour-long drive to Belcarra every year I’ve called British Columbia home, for many, even locals, it remains one of the Lower Mainland’s best-kept secrets.
Be warned: the beauty doesn’t start until Barnet Highway, when you leave the congestion of Vancouver and Burnaby behind and enter a landscape of lush forests and ocean vistas. The trees tower on both sides of the highway as you turn onto Port Moody’s Ioco Road and any residue of stress is replaced by a clear sense of joie de vivre, or what I like to call “B.C. moments,” those rare times of year when you sigh in wonder at the sheer exquisiteness of this province and say to yourself, “This is why I live here.”
The curvaceous Ioco Road is home to some of Port Moody’s most luxurious homes, many of them nestling the sloping hillside and prefaced by rolling lawns, manicured flowerbeds and, for those perched overlooking the ocean, private docks. Between the acreages are forested sections with wildflowers and towering trees aplenty. With our car’s sunroof open, we saw eagles glide gently in the blue skies above us, the sun warm on our shoulders.
One of my favorite summer destinations in this area is the Village of Anmore, a semi-rural residential community that’s home to White Pine Beach on Sasamat Lake. The lake’s sandy beach and warm waters are a perfect playground for kids building sandcastles, athletic swimmers and those who want nothing more than to drift away on an inflatable mattress and soak up the sunshine. The air is filled with the delighted shrieks of children playing in the shallows as families grill their meals on portable gas barbeques, the smells lingering in the air. Our sandwiches didn’t seem quite so tempting!
You have to be organized if you’re headed to White Pine Beach and, in my house, that means preparing the night before for the day ahead, packing picnic baskets, shopping for food, and ensuring that towels, swimsuits and beach paraphernalia are ready for an early departure. On weekends, the parking lot fills up by 9:30 a.m., and those spots are coveted. Once they’re all occupied, the gate on Sunnyside Road closes to vehicular traffic and access to the lake requires a long walk. Still, it’s well worth it to have a rejuvenating day on the lake that reminds you how good it is to be alive.
If you’re keen to kayak, canoe or challenge yourself to a long hike, continue north up Sunnyside Road until you reach the glacial waters of Buntzen Lake, a larger body of water surrounded by numerous hiking trails. The Buntzen Lake Trail, an eight-kilometre route that circles the lake, is a glorious walk through the shady forest and one of the shorter hiking paths in the area. The massive lake offers an off-leash canine beach, a large grassy picnic area shaded by towering hemlocks, a swimming beach and a dock from which kids can learn to fish – a skill they’ll be able to use every summer. For $45 you can rent a kayak for a full day from Anmore Grocery ($60 for a canoe, 604-469-9928) and, if you’ve not stocked up on provisions, call ahead to order croissants, muffins and/or sandwiches.
After a day on the beach, it felt glorious to drive around Port Moody, soaking up its views. As we careened along Bedwell Bay Road, we admired the mansions, envious of their ocean views. While at the Belcarra picnic area, Burrard Inlet glimmered before us, a rocky beach begging to be explored at low tide, preferably with ice cream in hand.
Sure, we got lost on those winding roads, but that was all part of this glorious day drive. At one point, we slowed for two deer that cautiously picked their way across the road right in front of us, posing cooperatively for photos before they disappeared into the forest. The road clear, we headed back into Port Moody, stopping at Suter Brook Village to replenish on smoothies and healthy snacks. Then, we reluctantly traded the wonderfully rural ambience in Port Moody for the road construction, stoplights and heavy traffic of Burnaby and Vancouver, knowing one thing for certain: we’d be back for sure this summer.
For maps and information on Belcarra Regional Park, which encompasses Belcarra, Anmore and Port Moody, call 604-520-6442 or visit metrovancouver.org.
Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond, B.C. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net.
