It is a tradition on the second day of Rosh Hashana to eat a fruit that is either new to you or that you have not eaten for a long time. The technical reason for this is that we are meant to say a shecheyanu blessing which celebrates something new and given that it is the second day of the festival, the holiday itself is no longer new enough. Read on...
Be Fruitful & Multiply Celebrate Rosh Hashanah with a “New Fruit”
Bright and full of possibilities: that is what we hope for each New Year. And the pomegranate red and bursting with seeds is a wonderful way to symbolically capture those hopes. Coming into season just as New Year is celebrated, pomegranate’s ancient beginnings are referenced in the Torah, describing Israel as “a land of wheat and barley, and vines and fig-trees and pomegranates; a land of olive-trees and honey.” (Deuteronomy 8:8). Read on...
Black-eyed Peas - A New Years Tradition
Learn about this Libyan tradition for ensuring plenty in the New Year by eating a black eyed pea dish called Loubia.
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Culinary Prayer: Lesser-Known Rosh Hashanah Food Rituals
Rosh Hashana is all about prayer for the New Year; we sing it, we say it, we blow it and of course we eat it. The apples and honey aren’t just seasonal and don’t just taste good, they embody our hopes and wishes for the New Year. Read on...
In a season filled with symbolic meanings, the question of whether to eat nuts during these days of repentence has advocates for the yeah and the ney. There are those who definitely avoid nuts of all shapes and sizes during these ten days. Read on...
Bene Israel recipe being repeated by popular demand.
It is customary to distribute Halva to relatives and friends during Rosh Hashanah especially on the eve of Rosh Hashanah and the first morning of Rosh Hashanah.
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This delicacy is made to celebrate any good occasion. The Bene Israel make it specially to serve during the Mehendi Dinner (one day before the marriage) with dry potato vegetable.
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Cut off the stem end of the eggplant and save this as a "lid." Hollow out the eggplant by removing the seeds and flesh, being careful not to puncture the skin. Reserve the eggplant pulp to make another dish such as eggplant fritters. Read on...
Because the "dining room" of the sukkah is farther away from the area of food preparation, traditional dishes for this holiday are easily transportable, one-dish stews and casseroles like tsimmes, borscht, stuffed cabbage or kibbeh. Stuffed vegetables are a popular choice, particularly in Israel, where every Sephardic and Asian culture has a favorite recipe. Read on...
Sukkot: Recipes for Celebrating Jewish Diversity
Sukkot is a wonderful time to celebrate not just the bounty of the earth but also the diversity of Jewish life that comes together to make up the Jewish community. Both of those elements are joined in the blessings we say over the arbat haminim. Meant to represent the bounty and diversity of the plant world, the lulav, etrog, hadas, and aravah also stand in for the coming together of the disparate elements of the Jewish people. As we learn in the Talmud, a person does not fulfill the obligation of arbat haminim until “the four plants are bound together in one cluster. Read on...
New traditions for Chanukah evolved as annusim return to Judaism. In Santa Marta, Columbia. A small Havurah (fellowship) of Jews has been working with Rabbi Juan Mejia. Instead of Latkes on Chanukah, they eat patacones plantains fried in oil, which like many other Chanukah foods recall the miracle of oil at the Holy Temple in Jerusalem in ancient times. Read on...
Moroccan Jews have for generations married the orange with the tradition of frying foods in oil to commemorate the miracles of the oil in the temple. Oranges come into season just around the time we begin to light our Chanukah candles. In the early days of the State of Israel the Jaffa oranges were one of the countries leading exports. Read on...
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For many Jews, potato pancakes, known as levivot in Hebrew and latkes in Yiddish, are almost as closely associated with Hanukka as the menorah. Potato pancakes and patties have worldwide appeal. It seems like wherever the potato became available, cooks decided to make them into fried cakes. Read on...
The Tastes of a Kurdish Hanukkah
Sadly, the language, dress, music, folklore….the entire way of life of my ancestors is now almost exclusively confined to the pages of academic research. Food is often the last vestige of a bygone era to survive. It is what differentiates one ethnic group from another and it is also what binds them. Read on...
For years, whenever I wanted old Sephardic recipes for Passover and other holidays, I would visit Ida Dana. After Dana's sister died, and Dana started showing signs of dementia, Dana's niece realized that much of the food and culture she grew up enjoying was in danger of being lost. To keep the history, and the recipes, alive, she published a culinary memoir called The Ottoman Turk and the Pretty Jewish Girl. Read on...
For a Sweeter Passover, Old and New Sephardic Delights
On the 500th anniversary of Spain’s expulsion of Jews, King Juan Carlos went to a synagogue in Madrid and said, in essence, mistakes were made, welcome back. A little late, but Ana Benarroch de Bensadón appreciated it. Since the king’s pronouncement in 1992, she said, “We are applauded, and everyone is curious about our culture.” That curiosity included a greater interest in Jewish food, one reason her book of Sephardic dessert recipes gathered over several decades has been so popular. Read on...
The Spanish Roots of Classic Chicken Soup
The earliest recording of Jewish chicken soup dates all the way back to the 12th century. Rabbi Moshe ben Maimonides
Rinse fish: if using tuna, rinse it first with boiling water and then with tap water; if using Nile perch, rinse it with tap water. Place fish in sauce in a single layer. Place chopped coriander, pepper strips and chopped garlic on top of fish. Read on...
Clean turkey thoroughly. Soak matzah in a dish with the white wine, until soft. Fry the onion until the color is golden. Mix the onion together with matzah, then add the celery, rosemary, and walnuts. Read on...
Rolled Ratalu (Sweet Potato) with Nuts.
A specialty of the Bene Israel community; recipe courtesy of Rosy Solomon Moses of Mumbai, India. Read on...
There are two versions of this wonderful Syrian sweet. The pancakes can be tiny and topped with thick cream and a sprinkling of pistachios, or they can be large and stuffed with chopped walnuts or a soft bland cheese. Both kinds are soaked in a syrup that gives them a soft, spongy texture and a delicate perfume. Those topped with cream and the ones stuffed with cheese are specialties of Shavuot. You will find the stuffed ataif as variations. Read on...
Milk puddings with ground rice are ubiquitous in the Middle East. For the Jews they are the all-purpose dessert of the dairy table and the traditional sweet of Shavuot and Purim. In Turkey and the Balkans such a dish was called "sutlage”; in Syria and Egypt, as in the rest of the Arab world, it was "muhallabeya." Read on...
When in Rome: Celebrate Shavuot With Italian Foods
These are questions I’ve been pondering lately. The holiday of Shavuot, which starts at sunset tonight, recalls the giving of Torah, that pivotal moment when the people of Israel gathered at Mount Sinai and experienced direct divine revelation. It is pretty heady stuff. Read on...