Category Archives: Holidays (fiestas judias)

October 7, 2011 · 6:14 pm

Sephardic sashimi, with a twist

“My father would eat an appetizer which was raw fish with lemon squeezed onto it. I think it is called LAKADA, made from mackerel. He would eat it with greek olives and bread.
I am a Sephardic Jew who grew up in Brooklyn and now live in Kansas City and would like to know how my mother prepared this dish for my dad.” – Joseph

The recipe name you’re trying to remember is lâkerda, the Turkish name for an appetizer of marinated raw tuna or of bonito, which is indeed a kind of mackerel (When made with bonito, it is called palamida, which is the Greek name for that fish). Both are oily, blue fishes. I’m not partial to mackerel, but I love raw tuna marinated in lime juice and this is essentially the same thing.

The technique is very straightforward; probably the most difficult part of making lakerda is cleaning and boning the fish. How you approach that will depend upon the kind of fish you’ve got, and what’s available at the fish market depends upon where you live. If you don’t know your way around fish, Continue reading →

6 Comments

Filed under Holidays (fiestas judias), Recipes, Your Questions Answered

Tagged as appetizers, fish, Ottoman

September 28, 2011 · 8:18 pm

This Rosh Hashana, make beets, not enemies

The symbolic foods of Rosh Hashana are chosen for specific attributes or for their Hebrew names, which sound like the words naming qualities or states of being that we hope to attain in the new year. When you delve into it, the word play turns out to be pretty lame – just a lot of bad puns – but who am I to pick on the Talmud. And they’re mostly about sweetness and abundance, which is nice. Several are also about being freed of enemies one way or another. This theme figures big on Rosh Hashana; it’s repeated while eating dates, leeks and beets, not one or two but three ceremonial foods of the holiday – talk about hedging your bets.

Continue reading →

Sharope: white spoon sweet (Q & A)

Hello, Janet, Have you ever heard the word “sharope”? When I was a child, my grandmother who was Turkish would make a sweet, white paste which she kneaded on the tile floor. We would then snip off pieces and eat them. They tasted of vanilla, and the texture was like a paste, softer than caramel, and not formed. Can you help? – Yael

Yep! Sharope (shah-ROH-peh) is a spoon sweet. It’s a kind of meringue – a marshmallow creme, really – in which hot sugar syrup, rather than dry granulated sugar, is beaten into egg whites for a long, long time with a wooden dowel. Dry sugar separates quickly from beaten egg whites, but the cooked syrup is more stable and doesn’t separate (this, by the way, is also the process for making Italian meringue), so this is a sweet you can make and store in a jar. Sharope might be flavored with lemon or almonds or, as in your grandmother’s case, vanilla, which would be delicious. I’ve never heard of anyone kneading sharope on the floor! It’s not usually so dense to even allow for that kind of handling, although the longer you beat the meringue, the more taffy-like it becomes. I’m guessing your grandmother either beat the meringue for a VERY long time or that she added mastic, which is what gives Turkish ice cream its taffy-like texture (For further explanation, take a look at my post about Dondurma).

If you’re familiar with Marshmallow Fluff, it’s pretty close to sharope – but it ain’t the same.

Thanks for your question, Yael. A good one!

21 Comments

Filed under Glossary, Holidays (fiestas judias), Your Questions Answered

Tagged as Ottoman, Rosh Hashana, sharope, sweets

March 19, 2010 · 10:46 pm

Oops! A few quick remarks about Pandespanya

Pandespanya (sponge cake) can be made at Passover substituting matza cake meal for flour.

At other times of year, I love the texture obtained making it with regular flour; however, if you want a superfine texture, use cake flour instead. It’s pretty amazing.

2 Comments

Filed under Holidays (fiestas judias), Recipes

Tagged as cake, Passover