The Yiddish-speaking chefs from the Forverts, the Yiddish-language version of The Jewish Daily Forward, are back for the holiday season with a couple of recipes that could make it easy to prepare a pre-Yom Kippur fast meal or one of the meals for the week-long holiday of Sukkot, which starts next Wednesday evening.
The ladies, Rukhl Schaechter and Eve Jochnowitz, chatter and make small talk in Yiddish while preparing Chicken Fricassee and a vegetarian dish of rice with apples.
We've run most of their cooking episodes since they started the series in May 2010. To see the other episodes, just type Yiddish cooking in the search box in the left column of this web site.
One of the kicks we get out of the series is the painless Yiddish lesson that comes from listening to their banter as the English translation appears in subtitles. For example, gehakte knobbel has much more character than minced garlic, and hoit is much more expressive than chicken skin.
The recipes in this series, including this one, are not what you'd find in a fancy fusion restaurant, but they do offer a look back at the life of Jews in Eastern Europe. Not a bad thing as we head into the Yom Kippur fast and the joyous Sukkot holiday.
It's going to be a busy and short Friday, so we'll take this opportunity to wish all of our readers an easy fast and a G'mar Chatima Tovah. May we all be sealed in the Book of Life for a happy and healthy year. We'll be back on Sunday with more of our usual mix. Enjoy!
(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS: THE VIDEO IS NOT VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY. YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.)
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These woman are Goddesses!
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting the video of the Yiddish Chefs. I have derived three significant benefits from that video that I would like to share with you.
ReplyDeleteThe first is that now I have another gluten-free replacement for kugel for Shabat and Yom Tovim. Yay!
The second is a “eureka “moment.
Ever since, I was a child, I always wondered why my mother’s cooked rice tasted like porridge, and was no pleasure to eat; while the rice at the local Chinese restaurant was granular, fluffy, and very tasty. I found my answer in Fanya Lewando’s recipe for Yom Tov Rice, featured in the aforementioned video. Her instructions were to cook 1 ½ cups white rice in 3 cups water. However, the instructions that accompany the rice cookers, sold on the market today, and used by most Asian families, ask for a proportion of 1 ½ cups white rice to 1 ½ cups water. Using less water prevents the rice from getting mushy. Finally, the mystery of the unpalatable, porridgey, Ashkenazi rice has been solved.
The third pleasant surprise is the versatility of the recipe.While the Yiddish Chefs adapted it for Rosh Hashana by substituting honey for sugar, I have adapted it for Succott and Thanksgiving by substituting pure Maple Syrup for the honey. In addition, I found the quantity of almonds suggested in the video to be inadequate. [Perhaps the 6 chopped apricot pits called for in the original pre-war recipe contributed a more defined taste; however, substituting 6 chopped almonds, suggested by the Chefs, added nothing to the flavor or texture of the dish]. Consequently, I increased both the amount and kind of almonds used. Furthermore, instead of using an uncovered tureen-style baking dish, as portrayed in the video, I used a shallower, Pyrex glass baking dish. Finally, in deference to those that are concerned about the health risks of cooking with too much oil, the consensus around our dinner table was that the amount of oil suggested by Ms. Lewando was not unreasonable, but might be reduced without compromising the taste of dish.
Here is Allan Becker’s Succot and Thanksgiving Version of Fanya Lewando’s Yom Tov Rice
Rice:-
1 ½ cups white rice with 1 ½ cups water
½ tsp salt
[For a healthier version, substitute brown for white rice, using 1 ½ cups brown rice with 3 cups water]
Apple-nut mixture:-
¼ cup or more of slivered almonds
2 green apples, peeled, grated, and squirted with lemon juice
¾ cup golden raisins or dried cranberries
Seasoning:-
¼-cup or less coconut or olive oil
4 tbsp pure Maple Syrup
¼ tsp salt
1/8th tsp pepper
Instructions:-
Cook rice according to rice cooker instructions or directions on rice package.
Combine apple-nut mixture and set aside
Prepare seasoning and set aside
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Place cooked rice in a large mixing bowl
Add seasoning to rice and stir in gently
Add apple mixture to bowl and blend well
Transfer rice-apple mixture into a greased, [sprayed] Pyrex glass baking dish, using a size 12 x 14 inch dish for a crisped-top version, or a size 8 x 8 inch dish for a fluffier consistency.
Bake uncovered for 30 minutes.
Yield: six portions
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