1,000 Foods To Eat Before You Die: A Food Lover's Life List (108 page)

Although the dish is most typically served chilled, according to the celebrated Alsatian chef André Soltner of New York’s much-missed Lutèce, it is sometimes served hot, with the court bouillon playing the role of a still-liquid sauce instead of a semi-set jelly.

Further information and recipes:
The World of Jewish Cooking
by Gil Marks (1999);
Quiches, Kugels, and Couscous
by Joan Nathan (2009);
La Cuisine Juive en Alsace
(in French) edited by Freddy Raphaël (2005);
From My Mother’s Kitchen
by Mimi Sheraton (1979).
Tip:
It is not a good idea to buy carp in warm months, from May to October; when water is warm, carp swim to the bottom for cool water, taking in a quantity of mud that shows up in a muddy flavor, much like that which catfish can take on.

An elegant leavened bread.

The gracefully braided, golden-brown challah of the eastern European Jews is surely one of the world’s most beautiful breads. And with its creamy-white, soft-textured interior and shiny, golden crust, it is also one of the most elegantly delicious, a briochelike confection that falls just this side of cake.

Challah
is the Hebrew word for “priest’s portion,” and to be considered kosher, a small portion of its dough must be sacrificially burned in a hot oven. Most traditionally, it is the bread of the Sabbath and other special religious holidays, for which it may be baked into various symbolic forms. During Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the autumn High Holy Days of the Jewish new year, and also for weddings, the dough is shaped in a rising spiral that suggests a huge turban or a coliseum fashioned from bread; the spiraling, round form signifies the eternal cycle of life. For Hanukkah, the festival of lights observed with candles that are lit for eight days, loaves may be baked in the shape of a menorah candelabra. For still other holidays, the bread might be shaped as a ladder (the better to climb to heaven) or a sheaf of wheat (to signify hopes for a plentiful harvest).

Such celebratory breads tend to be a bit sweeter than those served for ordinary sabbaths, due to the addition of golden honey to the dough and its use as a glaze for the crust. Most delectably, the soft but reassuringly substantial bread has its soothing, salty-sweet flavor and its very thin, golden crust accented only by the crunch of poppy or sesame seeds.

Leavened with yeast and absent of dairy products, challah is pareve, which means that under kosher laws it may be eaten with both meat and dairy meals. But if meat isn’t being served, a luxurious spread of butter (slightly softened so as not to tear the tender crumb) is delicious on a thick (never thin) slice of challah, especially if sprinkled with coarse salt. That enticingly gritty finishing touch is just as welcome if the butter is replaced by the rendered chicken fat called schmaltz (see
listing
)—these days undoubtedly served with a side of Lipitor.

Sephardic and Mizrachic Jews honor their versions of challah, generally dotted with dried fruits and aromatic spices, and closer to sweet coffee cake—though it may be somewhat less magical to those raised on the simple, more pervasive Ashkenazic bread.

While fresh challah is in a class of its own, the bread is almost equally cherished in its
semistale, leftover state. Then it can be thickly sliced and used for what has to be the world’s best French toast, the spongy bread absorbing plenty of the beaten egg and milk mixture (preferably vanilla-scented), all to be slowly fried in sweet butter until golden brown. Leftover chunks of challah can also be the basis for inspired bread puddings, especially good when they include tart apple slices and dark currants. A spritz of schnapps applied halfway through baking couldn’t hurt either, whether for the pudding or the baker.

Where:
In Jaffa, Israel
, Abulafia Bakery, tel 972/3-683-4958;
in Brooklyn
, Lilly’s Bakery Shop, tel 718-491-2904,
lillysbakeryshop.com
;
in New York
, Hot Bread Kitchen,
hotbreadkitchen.org
; Breads Bakery, tel 212-633-2253,
breadsbakery.com
;
in Montreal
, Hof Kelsten,
hofkelsten.com
.
Dine-in, retail, and mail order:
In New York
, Eli Zabar, tel 866-354-3547,
elizabar.com
;
in Ann Arbor, MI
, Zingerman’s, tel 888-636-8162,
zingermans.com
.
Further information and recipes:
The Book of Jewish Food
by Claudia Roden (1996);
Joan Nathan’s Jewish Holiday Cookbook
by Joan Nathan (2004);
foodandwine.com
(search sephardic challah);
cookstr.com
(search traditional challah; rosh hashanah challah);
epicurious.com
(search chernowitzer challah).

The sweet spread that completes the seder table.

Although it stands as a symbolic reminder of the mortar used by the Jewish slaves who built the pyramids in Egypt, the fragrant spread called
charoset
deserves more than a once-a-year ritual appearance at the Passover seder table.

The rich fruit spread is made in two lovely versions, delectable either for breakfast or tea-time on toasted English muffins, matzos, or firm, lightly sweetened, toasted pound cake. The Ashkenazic standard is a chopped blend of tart, juicy apples, walnuts, red kosher-style sweet wine, sugar, cinnamon, and powdered ginger; Macintosh apples are the perfect choice with Macouns as good stand-ins. Sephardic Jews prepare a richer, midnight-dark mix, chopping dried fruits such as dates, raisins, and figs with walnuts or pistachios, and simmering the lot in wine and spices such as cinnamon and cloves. Both types ripen to maximum flavor when prepared in advance and chilled for twenty-four hours before serving. The Ashkenazic version, if refrigerated, will keep for three days, while the Sephardic will keep for several weeks,

Further information:
The New York Times Passover Cookbook
edited by Linda Amster (2010);
Jewish Cooking in America
by Joan Nathan (1994);
epicurious.com
(search sephardic charoset; traditional apple-walnut charoset).
Tip:
For Ashkenazic charoset, the fortified red aperitif wine Dubonnet is a good substitute for kosher sweet wine.

Crisp, golden, and buttery, these puffy packets of creamy, vanilla-and cinnamon-scented cheese are among the Jewish Ashkenazic staples that have gone mainstream, and small wonder. Topped with a cooling drift of sour cream and perhaps a few ripe berries on the side, cheese blintzes are as welcome for dessert as they are for breakfast, lunch, and dinner main courses. And though cheese is by far the best filling for these sheer crêpes that are lightly fried on only one side, sweet or savory ingredients such as apples, berries, or even ground meat or mashed potatoes are also favored by many.

Texture and delectable flavor trump any origin story here, but for what it is worth, blintzes most likely surfaced in the nineteenth century in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. (The word
blintz
is Yiddish, but probably came from
blin
, the Russian word for crêpe or pancake.) Soft, comforting, and addictive, they are often associated with the Jewish holiday of Shavuot.

Where:
In Tel Aviv
, Hungarian Blintzes, tel 9723-605-0674,
hungarianblintzes.rest-e.co.il
;
in New York
, Veselka, tel 212-228-9682,
veselka.com
; Café Edison, tel 212-354-0368,
edisonhotelnyc.com
; Carnegie Deli, tel 212-757-2245,
carnegiedeli.com
;
in Chicago
, Manny’s, tel 312-939-2855,
mannysdeli.com
;
in Boynton Beach, FL
, Flakowitz, tel 561-742-4144,
flakowitzofboynton.com
;
in Houston
, Kenny & Ziggy’s, tel 713-871-8883,
kennyandziggys.com
;
in Bellevue, WA
, Goldbergs’ Famous Delicatessen, tel 425-641-6622,
goldbergsdeli.com
;
in Montreal
, Beautys, tel 514-849-8883,
beautys.ca
.
Dine-in, retail, and mail order:
In New York
, Russ & Daughters, tel 212-475-4880,
russanddaughters.com
; Barney Greengrass, tel 212-724-4707,
barneygreengrass.com
;
in Ann Arbor, MI
, Zingerman’s, tel 888-636-8162,
zingermans.com
.
Further information and recipes:
The Book of Jewish Food
by Claudia Roden (1996);
The New York Times Jewish Cookbook
edited by Linda Amster (2003);
cookstr.com
(search cheese blintzes).
Tip:
Once blintzes are filled and formed, they can be frozen before the final frying. Do not thaw before cooking, but fry slowly over low flame so that the fillings heat up before the crêpes become overly brown.

With its aromatic, paprika-bright sauce and its soothing flavor of softly, sweetly simmered onions and garlic, chicken fricassee with meatballs is a quintessential home-style dish almost every Jewish mother used to make, assuming
she had roots in eastern Europe. Undoubtedly a riff on the traditional Hungarian chicken paprikash, it differs based on rules of kashruth. Where Hungarians would use butter or lard and finish the sauce with sour cream, kosher cooks avoid pork products and the mixing of meat and dairy. The result is a leaner, more pungent dish with a clear, fiery red sauce rather than a rosily creamy one.

The dish also strays in its inclusion of meatballs, and often of chicken giblets (excepting the liver). Sometimes it’s even made in a meatballs-and-giblets–only version, without chicken.

Whatever the protein, the flavor begins with those onions and garlic, very slowly simmered in schmaltz, corn oil, or margarine. Sections of chicken cut into eighths (skin on, bones in) are braised in this mixture for a bit, and then the paprika—sweet, with or without a pinch of the hot—and a good pinch of thyme are added. After a couple of minutes (once the paprika has lost its raw smell), chicken broth or tomato juice is poured in, and, if needed to prevent scorching, a little water.

After about twenty minutes, the formed meatballs are carefully laid in the simmering sauce, the pan shaken gently to help them settle in. They are fragile while raw, but become sturdier after being poached for about ten minutes.

It’s a good idea to prepare chicken fricassee several hours, or even a day, before it is to be served, so that any grease that coagulates on top can be removed. Sides of fluffy white rice or grainy, nicely gritty kasha are recommended for their powers of absorption.