Category Archives: Recipes

April 24, 2009 · 8:18 pm

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 →

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April 1, 2009 · 9:56 pm

Kolva

My Nona used to make me a sweet whole wheat dish that she called Colva when I lost my baby teeth. Do you have a recipe for this? I think it’s cooked wheat seed and honey?            Alyse Elias Matsil

Kolva and assoureh are two kinds of  wheat puddings eaten in Greece, Turkey, Armenia and Syria.  To my knowledge, neither is specifically Sephardic.  They are delicious, made with different combinations of dried fruits, nuts and honey –  a far, far cry from that box of Wheatena.   The following recipe for kolva comes from a 1922 comparative study of nutrition among world populations, Foods of the Foreign-Born In Relation To Health by Bertha M. Wood.  No short-cuts here – it calls for soaking & boiling whole wheat for 12 hours – and it’s about as basic as it gets.  Which may be just right.  I haven’t made kolva and I’ve got questions of my own, but I offer it for you to try or to compare to your own recipe for kolva, if you’ve got one.

This kind of recipe can easily be halved.

  • 1 pound wheat
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup seedless raisins
  • 1/2 cup chopped almonds
  • 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
  • 1 cup mixed fancy candy (Note: I’m not sure what was meant by “fancy candy” in 1922.  I suspect it may refer to glazed fruit – candied citron, etc. – if someone else knows better, let us know!)

Soak the wheat in water for ten or twelve hours.  Rinse well, and boil it in fresh water.  Remove the wheat from the fire before it cracks.  Strain, and then spread it overnight on white muslin.  Roast the flour in a pan by itself until light brown.  Allow to cool.  Add the sugar, almonds and walnuts.  Add this mixture to the boiled wheat, and mix in also the spiced fancy candy.  Serve cold.

I’d love to hear from anyone else who’s familiar with kolva.

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February 20, 2009 · 3:32 pm

Poached Figs / Komposto de Figos

To everything there is a season, and a reason.  Sephardic custom – all Spanish custom – is to finish everyday meals with a very simple but specific category of desserts:  things soft, light, sweet and simple.  It’s the time for puddings, custards, flans and simple fruit dishes, cold in summer, warm in winter.  Cakes and more elaborate desserts – and lots of them! – are for festive occasions.   This was certainly the norm in our house, and I suppose it served us well by establishing sound eating habits with room for the occasional exercise in outrageous excess (When we were growing up, large and lavish birthday or holiday meals were immediately followed by a second meal, equally large and lavish, called dessert).  Continue reading →

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February 1, 2009 · 11:20 pm

Candied Baby Eggplant / Berenjenitas en Dulce

Dear Janet,
In Morrocco, 50s and 60s, I used to eat a Sefardi dessert I never found in any kosher or Sefardi cookery book… small aubergines or berenjenas en dulce. Maybe with honey or syrup.  La Senora Amalia was keeping this recipe for her family… So delicious!  Thank you — Mary, UK

Cooked sweets – purees, compotes, marmalades, pastes, hard candies and whole preserves – are a very important component of Sephardic culinary traditions and social customs.  Whole fresh and dried fruits, citrus peel, flower petals, seeds, nuts and even vegetables are transformed into sweets of various forms, textures, colors and flavors, to be served, with tea or coffee and perhaps a little pomp, when company comes.   My own grandparents and great grandparents, from Rhodes & Adalia, favored sweets made from quince, almonds, apricots, prunes, figs, tangerine peels, rose petals, apples, dates and sesame.  There are also recipes for lemons, grapefruit, pears, sour cherries, grapes, tomatoes, pumpkin and, in Moroccan tradition, eggplant (in case you’re wondering, eggplant is actually a fruit).  The list goes on.

Here is one of two candied eggplant recipes from “Dulce lo vivas,” a beautiful collection of Moroccan Sephardic desserts by Ana Bensadon that I will write about this month.  The book is only available in Spanish; the translation below is mine.   The departures here from Ottoman-style fruit preserves are the very lengthy cooking time and the combination of spices.   Traditional Ottoman fruit preserves call for milder flavorings – at most only one of the spices used here, plus rose or orange flower water or, as my dad would say, a little lemon juice.

recipe

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