Hay un articulo nuevo hoy en el glosario castellano, sobre los “huevos jaminados”. Se lo encuentra aquí.
Category Archives: Holidays (fiestas judias)
Guëvos Haminados / Huevos Jaminados (Glosario)
Filed under Escrito en castellano, Glossary, History, Holidays (fiestas judias)
Ashkenazi Mina, Anyone?
Dear Janet,
My grandparents Nissim, and Virginia, originally came from Istanbul, and the area in Bulgaria just over the Turkish border. I grew up eating borekas, spinach pies, haviar (tarama), biscochos, et al. But there is one dish my grandmother made that although I’ve researched everywhere haven’t found anything remotely similar. Unfortunately no one’s left alive who can even remember what it was called. The ingredients were ground liver, raw eggs, chopped walnuts, rye bread, and possibly chopped onions/celery. The raw ingredients were combined making a paste, which was then spread into a greased baking pan about 1/2 an inch thick, the top glazed with beaten egg, and baked. When cut and served it was quite firm, and dark brown on top. Have you ever heard of anything similar?
Thanks so much for all your hard work, it’s been an enjoyable read.
Alan
Wow. When we talk about Jewish cooking being adaptive, I suspect this may be a prime – and very personal – example. Off the top of my head, this sounds like a Sephardic rendition of a classic Ashkenazi dish from Eastern Europe: chopped chicken liver. Neither rye bread nor chopped chicken liver are part of Sephardic gastronomy. Continue reading
Filed under History, Holidays (fiestas judias), Your Questions Answered
Pepitada
PEPITADA (“peh-pi-TAH-dtha”) is a Ladino word indicating a beverage ‘made from fruit pip (seeds)’. The “-ada” suffix is the equivalant of “-ade” in English, as in lemonade. Pepitada is a milky-looking drink made by steeping crushed melon seeds in cold water, straining them and adding a little sugar and perhaps a few drops of orange flower essence, rosewater or honey (the secondary flavorings vary regionally throughout the Mediterranean). You think the makers of Gatorade were innovators? Pepitada is a straightforward health tonic: easy on the stomach, refreshing and loaded with potassium, it replenishes electrolytes. Pepitada is mostly associated with breaking fasts (perhaps especially the fast of Tisha b’Av, which falls in summer smack in the the middle of melon season) but is also an excellent means of coping with the intense heat of deep summer.
Filed under Glossary, Holidays (fiestas judias)
A grain by any other name: more about Kolva
I’ve mentioned before how recipe names morph, which can make research tricky. Early in April, in response to a question submitted here, I wrote about a wheat pudding called colva or kolva. The one reliable reference I had found was a 1922 survey on nutrition, thoroughly secular and with no discussion whatsoever of religion or culture. I presented the recipe here – I couldn’t dig deeper at the time – and that was that. But I wasn’t satisfied.
And with good reason, as it turns out. A little more work on the name and I got to the root of near-eastern wheat puddings: colva… kolva… kholva… khalva… halva. Halva! Of course. But halva is just sweet sesame paste, right? Nope. According to Wikipedia, ‘halva’ (or halvah or halavah or halweh, etc.) is the Arabic root word for ‘sweet’, period. Candy. And as a generic it applies to a huge range of grain-based sweet confections “across the Middle East, Central Asia, South Asia, the Balkans and the Jewish World.” Who knew?
In my house (in America) halva was just one thing – crumbly, bittersweet sesame paste candy – but halvas turn out also to be made from semolina, bulgur, sunflower seeds, carrots, even gourds, and often with the addition of pistachios, almonds, walnuts or peanuts. Continue reading
Filed under Holidays (fiestas judias), Other Reading, Recipes
SEPHARDIC FOOD 