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Tag: Passover

An update from Aleph

An update from Aleph

Among other activities, Aleph in the Tri-Cities Israeli culture club is getting ready for Passover. (photo from facebook.com)

Looking back at 2015, Aleph in the Tri-Cities Society reports that last year’s food bank donations amounted to approximately 2,000 kilograms (more than two tons) of food items for the SHARE Family and Community Services Society and other missions around the Lower Mainland.

For Purim this year, Aleph cooked and delivered mishloach manot directly to the homeless. Community members prepared 100 trays with pasta, rice, beans, tacos and organic orange juice and distributed the food at the corner of Main and Hastings streets.

“We care. We do. Community connections” is Aleph’s slogan. The nonprofit has been helping the larger community and its neighbors since 2010. It operates as an Israeli-Canadian culture club, welcoming more than 120 young families, including many newcomers and other local Jewish families mixed with Canadian friends, all celebrating life through Israeli culture.

Aleph programs include marking the Jewish holidays and educational programs, such as Hebrew lessons, computer classes, nature walks for families, as well as providing donations to the food bank, networking and supporting each other.

The society is self-supported, relying on volunteers and donations to sustain itself. The community is preparing for Passover and will be holding a seder on April 22, 6 p.m. Anyone interested in becoming involved in the seder and other activities can do so through Aleph’s Facebook page.

 

Format ImagePosted on April 8, 2016April 6, 2016Author Aleph in the Tri-Cities SocietyCategories LocalTags food bank, Passover, tikkun olam, Tri-Cities

Iceland’s Jewish community gets boost from Chabad, the JI

Jewish Icelanders preparing and celebrating Pesach with Chabad last month. (photos from Rabbi Berel Pewzner via Karen Ginsberg)

During a trip to Iceland in 2010, I had the pleasure of talking with a small number of Jews who called Iceland home. My connections were facilitated by a former colleague who had served from 2006 to 2009 as Canada’s ambassador to Iceland and happened to know that one of her locally employed staff members had Jewish family roots. From that initial serendipitous connection, came several more and, with each interview, I was able to gain some perspective on what kind of Jewish community exists in contemporary times in the country. I titled the article, “Like driftwood from Siberia,” because it seemed the most poignant metaphor – like driftwood, most of the Jews known to be in Iceland sort of washed up on the country’s shores as a result of a marriage or where they had been taken by their studies.

Shortly after the original article was published in 2010 by the Jewish Independent and by the national Icelandic newspaper, which serves the Icelandic diaspora in Canada, I received a phone call from an American Chabad rabbi, Berel Pewzner, seeking information about my experiences.

I have come to know that Rabbi Pewzner is drawn to Jewish life in remote and unique locations around the globe, so I am not sure whether Iceland was already on Chabad’s radar in terms of a small Jewish population in need of support or whether something in the JI article struck a chord. Whichever it might have been, a recent note from Rabbi Pewzner informed me that Chabad student rabbis have been visiting in Iceland for Yom Kippurs and Pesachs for the last five years, “bringing the warmth of Judaism to all.” He shared with me that during these annual visits, the student rabbis have been able to identify and visit with more than 100 Icelandic Jews, including 15 individuals who were new to the rabbis this particular year.

photo - Jewish Icelanders celebrating Pesach with Chabad last month

photo - Jewish Icelanders preparing Pesach with Chabad last monthOn Pesach, Chabad provides matza for all among those 100 Jews who wish some and then, to everyone’s delight, they hosted more than 60 participants for a full seder this year. Some of these newly located Icelandic Jews have been located as far from Reykjavik as the Faroe Islands.

In 2010, when I first traveled there, Iceland’s economy was in very rough shape. Many Icelanders felt that the recession they were then in would not reverse itself as quickly as other recessions had, and that they simply had to get used to the fact that their assets, both financial and real, were worth very much less than they would have liked. For some – particularly those who had family or business connections in other countries – it was easier to leave Iceland and begin again elsewhere. Rabbi Pewzner tells me that this sentiment is much less in evidence today. To the contrary, there is a now higher level of in-migration to Iceland than in the past. According a 2013 Statistics Iceland report, migration into Iceland is highest from Poland and Lithuania, but the next highest migration comes equally from Denmark, Germany, Latvia, the United Kingdom and the United States. While it is impossible to know for certain why people migrate, this report suggests living conditions, family reunifications, policies around gender equality and because of the natural splendor of the country. In Rabbi Pewzner’s recent experiences, he finds that American Jews of all levels of practice have included themselves in the recent upswing in migration to Iceland.

A May 1, 2015, article by Jenna Gottlieb, published in the Forward, supports Rabbi Pewzner’s observations. It reports that about 50% of the Jews now known to be in Iceland gathered for Rosh Hashanah services. The Ashkenazi food is undoubtedly a draw but so, too, is the rather unique opportunity during the Days of Awe to see the aurora borealis over the nighttime Icelandic sky.

It is very much the case that the Jewish population in Iceland continues to come into the country “like driftwood from Siberia,” to study, work, or because they are part of an interfaith marriage. Most are more secular than religious, but the common thread running through the community is the desire to retain and, with Chabad’s help, maintain a connection to their Jewish heritage. While Icelanders are considered accepting of Jews as individuals, Rabbi Pewzner noted that the Icelandic government in recent years has been deeply critical of Israel for its recent military incursions into Gaza.

It was truly a gift to receive the recent communications from Rabbi Pewzner about how things are moving forward in Iceland, with Chabad’s support, for the Jews within the country.

On the occasion of the 85th anniversary of the Jewish Independent, it is also a reminder that the information that is shared through a community newspaper helps to build community in many places, near and far.

Should anyone wish to contribute financially to the costs of these activities in Iceland or learn more about Chabad’s work there, visit jewishcayman.com/donatetoday for more information.

Karen Ginsberg is a travel writer living in Ottawa.

Format ImagePosted on May 15, 2015May 14, 2015Author Karen GinsbergCategories WorldTags Berel Pewzner, Chabad, Iceland, Passover

A long wait for redemption

 

We were fortunate to be guests at two warm and spirited seders this year. As designated song-leader, I tried to ensure that the singing was fulsome and sufficiently rowdy to rescue late-night flagging energy levels. One heartfelt moment was singing Ani Ma’amin. Based on Maimonides’ 13 Principles of Faith, the song declares, “I believe, with complete faith, in the coming of the Messiah.” It’s a song familiar to attendees of Jewish summer camp and Holocaust remembrance ceremonies. It’s beautiful and haunting and, with its concise lyrics, contagious for group sing-alongs.

There was an Israeli-Canadian couple at the seder and so, after singing about the Messiah’s hoped-for arrival, I grabbed the opportunity to insert another song from my favorite genre: Israeli ’70s and ’80s pop music. Shalom Hanoch’s 1985 hit, “Waiting for the Messiah,” launched onto the Israeli music scene an iconoclastic cry of frustration: “The Messiah isn’t coming – and neither is he phoning.” The few at the seder who knew it sang and air-banded for a bit before turning solemn as we wound down the seder with Hatikvah.

In Ani Ma’amin there is the belief that the world will one day improve, if only we are patient. Hanoch’s song, by contrast, is an attempt at hard-edged realism.

In 1985, Israel was gripped by hyperinflation. “The stock market crashed,” he sang. “People jumped from the roof; the Messiah also jumped, and they announced that he was killed….” Serious political ills were also ramping up, with the Lebanon War fresh in the memory of an increasingly restless nation. And, with the intifada breaking out two years later, more would follow.

Even in the absence of belief, messianiam is an ever-present notion in Jewish culture. In the 17th century, there was Shabbetai Tzvi, known as the false Messiah; later, there was the rejection of modern Zionism among the ultra-Orthodox who believed – and still do – that the experiment in Jewish sovereignty should wait for the Messiah’s arrival. Then there is the belief of some within the Chabad movement that the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson may himself have been the Messiah. For my part, given that I speak only Hebrew to my kids, I’m stuck with phrases that I normally wouldn’t use in English – and which don’t always reflect my worldview – phrases like “what are you waiting for – the Messiah to come?” when my then toddlers would rest in a snowbank between their JCC preschool and the parking lot.

But what really struck me that night at the seder as we sang Hanoch’s lyrics was a two-fold question. First, which stance better fulfils the Judaic imperative of tikkun olam: the traditional belief in messianic redemption, or the belief that it is all up to us? And second, how can we agree on what of the many problems in the world are deserving of fixing in the first place?

Clearly, the world is in disrepair. Just within the last few weeks, for example, two infants died in unregulated South Tel Aviv day cares serving African refugees; Islamic militants of the al-Shabab Somali group slaughtered 148 Christian students at a university in Garissa, Kenya; bloodshed continues in Syria and Yemen; antisemitic attacks are on the rise, especially in France; and, in Canada, according to Make Poverty History, one in 10 children here lives below the poverty line.

Certainly, none of us in our lifetime will solve all the world’s ills, and with humanity’s imperfections, including our own mental and emotional flaws, our lust for power and the natural drive for accumulation amid scarcity, it’s hard to believe that widespread suffering will ever be overcome. Some believe that messianic yearnings lead to passivity; others that it spurs us to action.

But perhaps the biggest conundrum is how to agree on which of the world’s ills we should actually care about. For some, the criterion is whether the problem is local; for others it is the perception of how the solution will implicate their own well-being; for others it hinges on whether they think the problem is actually the fault of the sufferer. Whether or not one believes in the possibility of messianic redemption, or whether one believes that it is up to us mortals to repair the world, we would do well to start with something that is hard to contest: the importance of compassion for suffering wherever it is found.

Mira Sucharov is an associate professor of political science at Carleton University. She blogs at Haaretz and the Jewish Daily Forward. This article was originally published in the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin.

Posted on May 1, 2015April 29, 2015Author Mira SucharovCategories Op-EdTags Ani Ma'amin, Messiah, Passover, Shalom Hanoch, tikkun olam

The future to imagine

In the past several weeks, we have celebrated liberation and redemption on Passover. On Yom Hashoah, we mourned the victims of Nazism and the generations that never were. On Yom Hazikaron, we honored the brave defenders of Israel who gave everything for the dream of the Jewish people’s right to live as a free people in our own land. Then we joyously celebrated the realization of that dream on Yom Ha’atzmaut.

These four commemorations are drawn together in many ways by rabbis and thinkers. We are mere journalists, but if you give us a moment, we, too, have some thoughts that may be worthy.

There is a troubled narrative connecting the Holocaust and the creation of the state of Israel, a connection that is sometimes misunderstood and often deliberately misrepresented.

Critics have called Israel a “reparations payment” given to the Jews as recompense for the Holocaust. This formulation is a desecration, because there could be no recompense for the Holocaust. More to the point, it is false history. Israel was not given to the Jewish people. The Partition Resolution, significant as it was as a fulcrum for historical events, turned out to be another hollow United Nations vote. Israel came into being only because the Jews of Palestine, some from the Diaspora and a small group of idealistic non-Jews from abroad fought – some to the death – for the dream of a Jewish homeland.

The connection between the Holocaust and the creation of the state of Israel is not, as the popular narrative has it, because the world felt sympathy. If anything, the world wanted to create a place for the surviving remnant so that they wouldn’t have to take responsibility for them.

Where the genuine connection lies between the tragedy of the Holocaust and the joy of independence is in the realization that the Holocaust was a direct result of Jewish statelessness. Had Israel come into being a decade earlier, there may have been no Holocaust, or its magnitude would have been much diminished. That is one connection.

Another is the psychological effect the creation of the state had on Jewish people individually and collectively, in Israel and in the Diaspora.

After the Holocaust, the Jewish people worldwide could have been expected to plummet into individual and collective despair. Instead, Israel gave hope – and a future to imagine and to build after the collective future was almost destroyed. Whether Jews made aliya – or even visited – or not, Jewish Canadians helped build the state of Israel through a million acts of philanthropy and volunteerism.

Israel is many things to many different Jews. It is a resolution to 2,000 years of statelessness, the fundamental fact that was at the root of our tragedies. It is the culmination of the quest for sovereignty and freedom and, while Israel is not perfect by any stretch, we endeavor to work toward that ideal. Israel is the dream for which so many have given so much, as well as a complex, thrilling, sometimes infuriating, always cherished reality.

In the context of millennia of Jewish civilization, the comparatively new state of Israel is a part of all of us and we are all, in some way, a part of it.

Posted on April 24, 2015April 23, 2015Author The Editorial BoardCategories From the JITags Holocaust, Israel, Passover, Yom Ha'atzmaut, Yom Hashoah, Yom Hazikaron
Create your own clay camel

Create your own clay camel

How fast time flies. Passover is almost here again, and it’s time to prepare a new tutorial, I said to my 7-year-old daughter while getting out a magic box with colorful modeling clay.

At school, we are reading a lot about Passover right now, she said to me. When the Jewish people crossed the dessert, they had camels with them, who carried people and their belongings. Mom, can you teach me how to model a baby camel? Please, mom, can you?

Of course I can, my dear. Come over here, I said, inviting my daughter to join me at the table to work on the model of a baby camel. For the young readers of Jewish Independent, as always, I have prepared pictures to demonstrate the process. Find yourself a comfortable seat and start working on your creation!

image - Clay camel by Lana Lagoonca, steps 1-51. Take a few pieces of modeling clay and a toothpick. Mostly we will work with orange color, but we will also use some brown, white and black pieces.

2. Prepare equal amounts of clay to form the baby camel’s head, neck, body with two humps and four legs.

3-4. Bend the legs a little in the middle and finish them with brown cushion-like hooves, perhaps parted in the middle front. Connect the neck, body and hooves.

5. For the head, you can use white and black pieces of clay for the eyes. Or blue or green clay, if you have it. Take some brown clay and shape the nose and also give your camel a tuft of hair on top of its head.

6. Cover the tips of the humps and tail with tufts of hair as well. We have made our baby camel! You can now take your new little friend for a walk.

image - Clay camel by Lana Lagoonca - taking it for a walkIsn’t it great to make toys with your own hands? You will also make your family happy by adding your creation to the Passover seder table. If you take a picture of your baby camel and print it, you will have a real postcard.

Let your imagination guide you and join our art lab! Send photos of your artwork to curlyorli@gmail.com, and you may have a chance to win Curly Orli Goes to Vancouver, a book illustrated with clay pictures.

Wishing you a kosher and happy Pesach, dear friends! See you next time.

Lana Lagoonca is a graphic designer, author and illustrator. At curlyorli.com, there are more free lessons, along with information about Curly Orli merchandise.

 

Format ImagePosted on March 27, 2015March 26, 2015Author Lana LagooncaCategories Celebrating the HolidaysTags camel, Curly Orli, Passover, seder
Cooking to fill others’ tables

Cooking to fill others’ tables

Mere days before heading to Israel for a couple of weeks, Sara Ciacci, 90, called the Jewish Independent to make sure that I had received her new cookbook, Sara’s Kitchen: 90 Years of Devotion, 90 Recipes from the Heart (Gateway Rasmussen, 2015), and that I had all the information I needed about the Jewish Food Bank. For Ciacci, food and tzedaka are inextricably connected with life and community.

“Sara Ciacci is the beating heart of Temple Sholom’s kitchen,” reads the cookbook’s introduction. “From her kiddush lunches to the Sisterhood catering committee, second seders, women’s seders and the annual Yom Kippur break-the-fast, Sara has made a mission of nourishing her congregation since its earliest days. She is queen of all hamantashen, blintzes and latkes, and, every year, she and friend Leonor Etkin produce challot by the dozen for Temple Sholom’s High Holiday celebrations. Sara also makes the Vancouver Jewish Food Bank her priority, and all the hungry in our community will be the beneficiaries of all the money raised from the sale of Sara’s Kitchen.”

The Jewish Food Bank supports close to 400 Jewish individuals each year, according to its 2013-2014 report. Ciacci shared with the Jewish Independent an email she wrote to the Jewish Family Service Agency, which co-funds the food bank with Jewish Women International-B.C. and community donors. In it, she traces her memories of the service agency back 80 years, to the Depression era, when, like many families in the Jewish community, she writes, “my mother, two sisters and I needed help. I also remember Theresa Blumberg, the social worker who came to our home and found a reason to look in the food pantry, to talk with me and ask about school. She also found time to visit me during the 18 months that I was in the children’s preventorium for tuberculosis. It was Miss Blumberg who made sure that I had proper shoes and school supplies. My only possession from childhood is an 11th birthday book inscribed, ‘To my dear Sara, from Theresa Blumberg.’…

“My adult association with the Jewish Food Bank started in 1984 when our president, Jean Cohen, was helping a Jewish senior and found canned cat food in her cupboard. She did not have a cat. Jean brought the idea of a food bank for seniors and immigrants to our board. We then approached the Jewish Family Service Agency (JFSA) and an unofficial partnership was born. B’nai B’rith Women (now JWI-BC) would be responsible for collecting food and JFSA counselors chose the recipients. Hampers were provided based on a list that identified recipients only by a numbered card that specified their specific needs.”

Organized for a number of years by “two wonderful women who are no longer with us,” Renee Lifchus for BBW (now JWI-BC) and Isabel Lever from JFSA, “We packed the first hampers … in Safeway paper bags on the workbench in Carol Fader’s basement…. Hampers contained non-perishable food items that our members donated or collected from friends and family.”

In this tradition of community, several recipes in Sara’s Kitchen are Ciacci’s “by way of being begged, borrowed, copied, changed or invented.” The sources of these recipes are acknowledged, which adds to the community feel of this cookbook.

There are three chapters, starting with most everyone’s favorite meal: dessert. The second chapter comprises Passover recipes, the third, “and everything else.” There is an index for quick finds, a page on which to note your favorite recipes and their page number for easy reference, as well as a couple of pages to write in a few of your own recipes. Each section is headed by a full-color page of some of the treats waiting to be made.

The desserts section starts with a few tips, such as the need to chill cookie dough for at least an hour. Ginger snaps, blueberry drop cookies, and apple and honey cake bread pudding with butterscotch sauce are among the 36 pages of desserts to try after Passover.

In addition to the Passover conversion table – offering substitutes for flour and Graham cracker crumbs, for example – there is a spice guide, and pieces of advice offered throughout, such as how to ripen avocados more quickly and how to make radish roses. Appropriately, on page 90, is “Sara Ciacci’s Recipe for a Rich Full Life,” featuring nine wise ingredients.

Since I’m reviewing this cookbook in the Jewish Independent’s Passover edition, the recipes I tested are all kosher for the holiday: spinach vegetable kugel, red cabbage and almond crisps. Everything turned out according to plan, except the almond crisps, which were golden brown in about half the suggested time. I will remember this next time I make them because they are so good and easy to make, there will be a next time.

SPINACH VEGETABLE KUGEL

3 large carrots
10 oz package frozen spinach, thawed
1 medium onion
2 stalks celery
1 cup chicken [or vegetable] bouillon
3 eggs
3/4 cup matza meal
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat over to 350˚F. Grease an eight-inch square pan.

Cut up and grate carrots. Set aside. Chop spinach, onion and celery. Place in a two-quart saucepan. Add grated carrots and bouillon. Cook over medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes until vegetables are soft.

Place the eggs and matza meal in a mixing bowl. Stir in cooked vegetables. Season with salt and pepper. Spread the mixture evenly in the baking pan. Bake, uncovered, for 45 minutes. Cut into squares before serving.

RED CABBAGE

1 medium onion
1 average-size red cabbage
4 medium apples
1/4 cup canola oil or butter
1/2 cup water
3 tbsp (or more) red wine vinegar
3 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
3 or 4 whole cloves
1 tsp caraway seeds (optional)

Slice onion and sauté in oil/butter until translucent. Shred cabbage. Peel, core and slice up apples. Place cabbage in a pot and top with the sliced apples. Add water and remaining ingredients. Place on medium-low heat and simmer one hour (or longer), stirring occasionally until cabbage is tender.

Adjust vinegar/sugar to taste. Some lemon juice can be substituted for the vinegar.

ALMOND CRISPS
Perfect for Passover, these cookies also make a great gluten-free option at any dessert buffet.

3 cups sliced almonds with skins, lightly toasted
1/2 cup sugar
2 egg whites. at room temperature
1/2 tsp vanilla (optional)

Preheat oven to 350˚F. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, mix (do not beat) egg whites with sugar. Add vanilla. Stir in almonds.

Using a tablespoon, make mounds of mixture on cookie sheet and flatten into thin rounds with your fingers dipped in cold water or with the back of a spoon. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

Turn off the oven and leave cookies in the oven with door open for 10 more minutes.

Makes 20 to 22 cookies.

For copies of Sara’s Kitchen, contact Darcy Billinkoff at billi@telus.net.

Format ImagePosted on March 27, 2015March 26, 2015Author Cynthia RamsayCategories LocalTags cookbook, Passover, recipes, Sara Ciacci, Temple Sholom
Bold, new menus for Pesach

Bold, new menus for Pesach

Paula Shoyer’s eggplant parmesan, featured in her latest cookbook, The New Passover Menu. (photo by Michael Bennett Kress)

The New Passover Menu by Paula Shoyer (Sterling, 2014) emboldened me. It was the whole package: the full-color photos, the clear text (blue for tools and ingredients; black for instructions), the organization by menus, the exotic-sounding nature of some of the offerings (gratin dauphinois, anyone?) and Shoyer’s dedication of the book:

“For all the kosher baker fans who asked me to write a cookbook of savory recipes. But, as my friend Suzin Glickman believes, you should still eat dessert first.”

Shoyer, of course, is famous for her baking. Bestselling The New Passover Menu joins her dessert bestsellers The Kosher Baker: Over 160 Dairy-Free Recipes from Traditional to Trendy and The Holiday Kosher Baker. She is a contributing editor to several kosher websites and cookbooks, as well as magazines, and is also a consultant for kosher bakeries and companies. She is no stranger to the Jewish Independent, as an internet search will show, and so it was with excitement that we received her latest cookbook.

In the press material accompanying The New Passover Menu, Shoyer says, “These recipes have been inside my head for years. As a book of 65 recipes, it offers not every possible Passover recipe but rather the best possible versions of food and desserts adapted for the Passover holiday.”

It lays out full menus for the two seders, as well as a Shabbat and Yom Tov menu, and menus for the holiday week, including lunch suggestions. There are several breakfast options and, of course, a lengthy list of dessert choices.

There is a chart of Passover cooking and baking substitutes, and a brief discussion of the holiday and its preparations (removing chametz and kashering the kitchen). Shoyer shares some memories of her seders past, and this leads into a description of the Passover table, the seder plate and its symbolic items, matza, salt water and wine.

Each recipe includes the preparation time, cook time, what items can be prepared in advance (and how long in advance) and all the equipment that will be needed. A brief paragraph accompanies each recipe, either a personal story about it or advice on cooking with some of its ingredients.

It was hard to narrow the selection of which recipes I would try. Since one of my taste testers is vegetarian, I shied away from such tempting creations as Seared Tuna with Olives and Capers with Kale Caesar Salad, and Moroccan Spiced Short Ribs. I opted instead for one main dish – eggplant parmesan – and something unique (and easy to make and transport) that I could bring to my host’s seder – banana charoset.

The New Passover Menu emboldened me in a couple of ways. First, I felt confident to adapt right from the beginning. So, for example, while Shoyer did not call for the eggplant slices to be sprinkled with salt and let sit for awhile to reduce their potential bitterness and bring some of their moisture to the surface (which I dabbed away with paper towel), I did it just in case. The recipe lists tomato sauce but, not wanting to buy or make any – as so many bought brands contain a lot of sodium and to make my own sauce would have been one more thing to do – I used a can of crushed tomatoes and added garlic powder, oregano and pepper to it, ingredients already included in the recipe. Finally, Shoyer offers a frying and a baking method for the eggplant slices, and I picked a middle version: I coated the slices as if for frying but then baked them, drizzling a little olive oil over them once they were laid out in the pan.

As for the banana charoset, I kept to the recipe for the most part, only adding more wine than recommended to brighten it up. I think the banana I selected for the mixture was on the too-ripe side. One thing to note with the charoset is that it tasted even better the next day, so I’d make it in advance if possible. The bold part of this recipe is that I pretty much insisted on bringing it to a seder once I’d tasted it.

The following recipes are reprinted from the cookbook, so the “I” and “my” from here on refers to Shoyer. Enjoy!

EGGPLANT PARMESAN

Serves: 12–15. Prep time: 10 minutes. Cook time: 20 minutes to fry eggplant; 35-40 minutes to bake. Advance prep: may be assembled one day in advance, fully baked three days in advance, or frozen; thaw completely before reheating. Equipment: cutting board, knives, measuring cups and spoons, two shallow bowls, large frying pan, nine-by-13-inch baking pan, silicone spatula.

Eggplant parmesan is one of my favorite Italian dishes. It is best made by my brother Adam Marcus, who has paid his rent for occasionally living with us by lovingly making his master version of this dish with a homemade sauce. Although I try to avoid frying foods (except for doughnuts and chicken once a year), I find that eggplant parmesan tastes better made with breaded and fried eggplant slices. If desired, you can grill the slices in the oven until fork-tender and then layer and bake as described below. If you go the healthier route, sprinkle the oven-roasted slices with some garlic powder, salt and black pepper. Depending on the size of the eggplants, you will end up with two or three layers in the pan.

1/3-1/2 cup oil for frying
3 large eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups Passover breadcrumbs or matza meal
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
salt and black pepper
2 medium eggplants, not peeled, sliced into 3/4-inch-thick rounds
1 1/2–2 cups tomato sauce
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, or more as needed
1/3 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Place a large frying pan on the stovetop and add 1/3 cup oil. Pour the beaten eggs into a shallow bowl. In another bowl, stir together the breadcrumbs, garlic powder and oregano and season with salt and pepper to taste. Heat the oil over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, fry the eggplant slices in batches, browning both sides, until fork-tender, about 10 minutes per batch. Transfer to a plate covered with paper towels. Add more oil to the pan between batches if the pan gets dry.

Using a silicone spatula, spread about 3/4 cup of the tomato sauce in the bottom of a nine-by-13-inch baking pan. Place one layer of eggplant slices on top. Sprinkle with one cup of the shredded cheese. Cover with a second layer of eggplant. Pour another 3/4 cup sauce on top and use the spatula to spread the sauce on top of the eggplant pieces. Sprinkle with one cup of the shredded cheese. If you have more eggplant slices, place them on top, then add some tomato sauce and more shredded cheese. Sprinkle the parmesan all over the top.

Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until the eggplant layers are heated through and the cheese is melted. If you assembled the dish in advance and stored it in the fridge but did not bake it, bake for an extra 20 minutes.

BANANA CHAROSET

Makes three cups (serves 25 for seder). Prep time: 10 minutes. Advance prep: may be made three days in advance. Equipment: cutting board, knives, measuring cups and spoons, food processor, box grater, silicone spatula, small serving bowl.

photo - Banana charoset, from Paula Shoyer's The New Passover Menu
Banana charoset, from Paula Shoyer’s The New Passover Menu (photo by Michael Bennett Kress)

Charoset is the element on the seder plate that represents the mortar used by the Israelite slaves to build bricks. Growing up, I had seders almost exclusively at my parents’ house or a handful of other relatives’ homes, and everyone made the same charoset: walnuts, apples and sweet wine all smooshed together. It was only when I began hosting my own seders that I discovered a wide variety of charoset recipes from every corner of the world where Jews have ever resided. This recipe comes from my friend Melissa Arking, who is a fabulous cook. I added chopped walnuts at the end for some texture.

You can buy nuts already ground, with the skin or without. I have a coffee grinder dedicated to grinding nuts. You can also use a food processor, as long as it can reduce the nuts to a fine grind, almost like a powder, when you need almond flour for baking. If you grind nuts for too long, you will end up with nut butter.

3 large ripe bananas
2 cups ground walnuts
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp sweet kosher wine
2 apples, shredded on the large holes of a box grater
1 cup walnut halves, chopped into 1/3-inch pieces

In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal blade [a hand blender also works], place the bananas, ground walnuts, sugar, cinnamon and wine. Process until the mixture comes together. Transfer to a small bowl, add the apples and chopped walnuts, and stir to combine.

Format ImagePosted on March 27, 2015March 26, 2015Author Cynthia RamsayCategories Celebrating the HolidaysTags charoset, eggplant, Passover, Paula Shoyer, recipes, seder
Charoset’s many variations

Charoset’s many variations

Ashkenazi-style charoset: apples, walnuts, cinnamon and red wine. (photo by Yoninah via commons.wikimedia.org)

What Passover seder symbol is common to all communities but is not mentioned in the biblical passage that enjoins us to eat the paschal offering, matza and bitter herbs? Charoset.

Charoset is loosely defined as a paste of fruit, spices and wine, symbolic of the mortar used by the Hebrews when they were slaves in Egypt.

The word is of unknown origin but may be from the word heres, meaning clay, because of its color. The custom of eating charoset is thought to have come from the time of the Babylonians, who dipped food in relishes or sauces to add flavor.

Some years ago, I surprised all my seder guests by serving both the traditional Ashkenazi version and a Sephardi version of charoset, which everyone loved and wanted in future years.

The New York Times Passover Cookbook, edited by Linda Amster, says that the Iraqi version of charoset is one of the oldest and most time-consuming recipes, dating back to the Babylonian exile of 579 BCE. Made into a jam from dates, grapes, pomegranate and honey, it was a sweetener in the ancient world and is still used by Iraqi, Burmese, Syrian and Indian Jews.

The Talmud says charoset must be sharp in taste and similar to clay in substance and color. Differing geographies is one of the reasons there are differing charoset recipes.

Ashkenazim tend to use apples, chopped almonds, cinnamon, red wine and perhaps even matza meal; sometimes walnuts or other nuts are used. Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews tend to use fruits that grew in Eretz Israel in biblical times, such as grapes, figs, dates, almonds and pomegranates. Israelis often turn charoset into a dessert by adding bananas, dates, orange juice and/or sugar.

Abraham Chill, author of The Minhagim (The Customs), writes that each ingredient symbolizes something different from the Egypt experience. The mixture as a whole stands for the mortar used by the Jews in making bricks, and the cinnamon resembles the color of the bricks they made. Wine represents the blood of the Jewish infants thrown into the Nile. Almonds are used because the Hebrew word for almond, shaked, is also a word that means to accelerate, as G-d accelerated the end of slavery. Apples are used because it was said that Jewish women during that time gave birth to their babies under apple trees in order to avoid detection by the Egyptians.

In her book The Jewish Holiday Kitchen, Joan Nathan states that charoset is “one of the most popular and discussed ritual foods served at the seder.” She says the fruits and nuts refer to verses in the Song of Songs, which mention an apple tree and the garden of nuts; the red wine recalls the Red Sea.

Because the maror or bitter herb is so strong, some say that the real purpose of charoset is to allay the bitterness. As part of the seder, the charoset and maror are placed between matzot to make a sandwich, which is said to have been invented by the first century CE Rabbi Hillel, hence, its name, the “Hillel sandwich.”

There are as many variations on the ingredients of charoset as there are Jewish communities.

Jews from the island of Rhodes use dates, walnuts, ginger and sweet wine. Jews of Salonika, Greece, add raisins. Other Greek Jews use walnuts, almonds, pine nuts, raisins, cinnamon, cloves and red wine and spread it thickly on matza. Turkish Jews include orange.

A Moroccan friend told me she used some of the seven species from the Bible in her charoset: dates, almonds, nuts, pomegranate seeds, figs, wine and cinnamon. Jewish Daily Forward Food Maven columnist Matthew Goodman once wrote in the Forward that Moroccan Jews sometimes make charoset paste and roll it into balls. He says this is a legacy from Jews of medieval Spain, who made the balls of apples, dried fruit, almonds, cooked chestnuts, sugar and cinnamon (but no wine) and then drizzled the balls with white vinegar before serving.

Jews of Venice use chestnut paste, dates, figs, poppy seeds, walnuts, pine nuts, orange peel, dried apricots, raisins, brandy and honey, while Jews of Bukharia use nuts, almonds, dates, raisins, apples and wine. Egyptian charoset contains dates, nuts, banana, apples, wine, cinnamon and pomegranate seeds.

An Iraqi woman told me that instead of a paste type of charoset, they would buy a special date honey and sprinkle chopped nuts on top. Goodman, again in the Forward, explained that its foundation is a syrup, halek, made by boiling dates, straining the liquid and then reducing it over a low flame until thick. Halek is one of the earliest of all sweeteners and may be the source of the reference in “land flowing with milk and honey.” Chopped walnuts or almonds are then added to the syrup. Jews of Calcutta also follow this custom.

A Dutch woman told me that she makes a chunky mixture with more apples and only a few nuts, plus cinnamon, sugar, raisins and sweet wine. Jews from Surinam in Dutch Guiana use seven fruits and coconut.

Following the injunction to have a sharp taste, Persian Jews use dates, pistachios, almonds, raisins, apples, orange, bananas, pomegranate seeds, sweet wine, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, vinegar and black pepper. Likewise, Yemenite Jews use dates, raisins, almonds, nuts, figs, dates, sesame seeds, apples, pomegranate seeds, grape juice, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and black pepper. Jews from Afghanistan pound charoset in a mortar with a pestle and use walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds, apples, sweet wine, pomegranate seeds, dates and black pepper.

One exception I have found to Ashkenazim following the strictly sweet version was a friend whose father’s family came from Galicia. He recalled that their charoset was made from apples, nuts, wine, cinnamon and horseradish.

Here are but a few recipes.

CLASSIC ASHKENAZI CHAROSET

6 chopped apples
1/3 cup chopped nuts
1/4 cup raisins
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup red sweet wine

Combine apples, nuts and raisins. Add cinnamon, sugar and wine. Depending on your preference, this can also be made in a food processor.

DATE CHAROSET

1/2 cup seeded, finely chopped dates
1/2 apple, grated
1/2 cup chopped almonds
1/8 cup red wine
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger

Combine dates and apple. Add nuts, wine, cinnamon and ginger.

SEPHARDI CHAROSET

1/2 cup chopped dates
1/2 cup chopped raisins
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup chopped almonds
1/4 cup red wine
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/8 tsp cinnamon

Combine dates and raisins. Add walnuts, almonds, wine, lemon juice and cinnamon. Form into balls.

SPICY CHAROSET

12 figs
1 1/2 cups pitted dates
2/3 cup raisins
2 seeded oranges
2/3 cup almonds
1/2 cup dry red wine
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp cinnamon

In a food processor, coarsely chop figs, dates, raisins, oranges and almonds. Try to keep the fruit chunky unless you prefer it pureéd. Pour into a bowl. Add wine, cayenne, cinnamon and blend.

Sybil Kaplan is a journalist, foreign correspondent, lecturer, food writer and book reviewer who lives in Jerusalem. She also does the restaurant features for janglo.net and leads weekly shuk walks in English in Jerusalem’s Jewish food market.

Format ImagePosted on March 27, 2015March 26, 2015Author Sybil KaplanCategories Celebrating the HolidaysTags Ashkenazi, charoset, Passover, recipes, seder, Sephardi
Chicken for Pesach midweek

Chicken for Pesach midweek

A tagine is a North African, slow-cooked savory stew, named after the earthenware clay pot in which it is cooked. (photo by Iron Bishop via commons.wikimedia.org)

After the sedarim, by midweek, you may be looking for some creative ideas for Passover dinners. Here are three dishes I frequently serve.

A mina is a traditional Sephardi savory layered pie, which is a great way to use up leftover chicken. In Spain and Turkey, it is called mina; in Egypt, maiena or mayena; in Algeria, meguena; and, in Italy, scacchi. The pie is also popular among Jews from the island of Rhodes and Yugoslavia.

A tagine is a North African, slow-cooked savory stew, named after the earthenware clay cooking pot, whose base is flat and circular with low sides. The cover is cone or dome shaped, which traps the steam and returns the condensed liquid to the pot, thus requiring very little liquid when cooking. In a chicken tagine, vegetables or dried fruit, nuts and spices are added.

Finally, leek patties known as kyeftes de prasa in Ladino, kifte in Turkish, keftas or keftes in Greek, are popular among Mediterranean Jews for Passover. I like to add chicken to mine.

CHICKEN MINA
6-8 servings

2 cups cooked, shredded chicken
1/2 cup chopped scallions
1/2 cup chopped Italian parsley
1/4 cup chopped mint
1/4 cup chopped dill
5 eggs
6 matzot
chicken soup
olive oil
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1/4 tsp nutmeg

  1. Preheat oven to 350˚F. Grease a rectangular or oval baking dish.
  2. In a bowl, combine chicken, scallions, parsley, mint and dill. Add two eggs and blend.
  3. In another bowl, combine three eggs, tomato sauce and nutmeg.
  4. Place matzot in bottom of a deep dish. Pour enough chicken soup to soften, about three minutes.
  5. Place two matzot in greased baking dish. Brush with olive oil. Spread half the chicken filling on top. Add two more matzot, brush with oil and spread rest of chicken filling on top. Top with remaining two matzot.
  6. Pour tomato sauce on top. Bake for 45 minutes. Cut into squares to serve.

CHICKEN TAGINE
8 servings

1 cup matza meal
8 pieces of chicken
4 cups chopped onions
2 cups chicken soup
1 1/2 – 3 cups prunes, apricots or other dried fruit
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tsp lemon peel
1 cup slivered almonds
oil

  1. Place matza meal in a shallow dish. Dip chicken pieces in the meal.
  2. Heat oil in a soup pot. Add chicken and brown. Add onions, chicken soup and dried fruit and simmer until chicken is cooked.
  3. Add cinnamon, ginger, lemon juice, lemon peel, and almonds. Simmer another 20 minutes.

CHICKEN-LEEK PATTIES
6-8 servings

3 leeks
1 cup chopped onions
2 cups chopped cooked chicken
2 eggs
1 cup mashed potatoes
1/2 cup matza meal, plus extra
salt and pepper to taste
1 beaten egg
oil

  1. Place cut-up leeks and onions in a saucepan with water, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes.
  2. Drain and chop. Add chicken, eggs, 1/2 cup matza meal, mashed potato, salt and pepper and blend.
  3. Place egg in one shallow bowl and additional matza meal in the second bowl. Take chicken mixture and make into patties. Dip into beaten egg then in matza meal for coating.
  4. Refrigerate for awhile at this point if serving later. Before serving, heat oil in a frying pan and fry until patties are brown on both sides. Drain on paper towels.

Sybil Kaplan is a journalist, foreign correspondent, lecturer, food writer and book reviewer who lives in Jerusalem. She also does the restaurant features for janglo.net and leads weekly shuk walks in English in Jerusalem’s Jewish food market.

Format ImagePosted on March 27, 2015March 26, 2015Author Sybil KaplanCategories Celebrating the HolidaysTags chicken, Passover, recipes, seder, tagine
Add culinary flair to Pesach

Add culinary flair to Pesach

Grilled salad with chicken is one of the many tempting dishes in A Taste of Passover.

Every now and then, there’s a new recipe book that blows you away with innovative, easy-to-make dishes combined with tantalizing photographs that render you hungry within a couple minutes of flipping through the glossy pages. A Taste of Pesach (ArtScroll, 2014), a project of Yeshiva Me’on Hatorah (in Roosevelt, N.J.), is one such book. It promises to reinvent your Passover menu and inspire you with creative culinary twists and turns during this hungry time of year.

image - A Taste of Pesach  coverMany schools and communities have tried the same technique of compiling a recipe book and selling it as a fundraiser, and that’s how this one had its genesis seven years ago. But while most of those fundraiser books have a short lifespan before they’re recycled or mislaid, A Taste of Pesach is unlikely to follow the same trajectory. For one, it’s a gorgeous book you can’t wait to page through and one you’d be proud to hand over as a gift to a newlywed child or close friend. For another, it’s chock full of irresistible culinary eye candy, with recipes that are for the most part easy, calling on ingredients that are readily available. Look through the book and you find yourself murmuring, “Hmm…. I can do this.”

The mothers who volunteered the 150-plus recipes for A Taste of Pesach are a diverse group but they all want the same things at the end of the day, write the editors in the book’s introduction. “Food that will get rave reviews, user-friendly, visually attractive recipes with accurate cooking times and yields and recipes that have broad appeal and that work. We’re just like you,” they write.

Most of the recipes don’t require a huge spirit of adventure in the kitchen, but rather call for a minor stretch in their use of different ingredients than you might typically incorporate. The sweet potato crisps salad, for example, is a lettuce-based green salad to which strips of fried sweet potato are added as a garnish just prior to serving. The image of this dish is so tempting, it makes you want to reach in and steal a piece of crisp off the topping. This is true for the majority of the recipes, each one prefaced with a photograph and categorized by chapter into appies, soups, salads, fish, poultry, meat, sides, dessert, cake and cookies, and gebrokts. The recipes are accompanied by handy tips on how to make their preparation easier and faster, or how to plate it most attractively. There are traditional old favorites like gefilte fish, chremslach and kugels, and more modern twists or reinvented dishes like unstuffed cabbage, pastrami and spinach-stuffed chicken and cashew-butter muffins.

Extra eye candy is offered in the chapter headers, which display images of seder plates reflecting different times, styles and tastes. Passover is not a time of year that usually excites Jewish taste buds, but A Taste of Pesach promises to add flair, creativity and innovation to your table – without stretching your culinary skills to their limits.

Lauren Kramer, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond, B.C. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net. This article originally appeared in Canadian Jewish News.

Format ImagePosted on March 27, 2015March 26, 2015Author Lauren KramerCategories Celebrating the HolidaysTags Passover, recipes, seder, Yeshiva Me’on Hatorah

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