Tag Archives: Rhodes

January 26, 2009 · 9:17 pm

More on Boyos: a revised conclusion / Mas Sobre Boyos

Your participation is not only encouraging but proving to be very, very helpful; it is our collective personal experience that leads me toward what I believe are the right conclusions for so many unanswered questions about Sephardic food. 

Recently, for example, I’ve been wondering why there are so many variations of boyos that, apart from the name ‘boyo’,  seem to bear no resemblance whatsoever to one another.   Why on Earth would cookies and biscuits  be categorized as buns (which is what ‘boyo’ means)?   I did draw one conclusion, based on how recipes evolve, which I included in the glossary (read that post here).  But that conclusion, for all its logic, didn’t quite satisfy me.  Thanks to your participation, I now know why:  The common denominator is one of technique.  Continue reading →

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December 21, 2008 · 4:47 pm

Cuajado (glossary)

CUAJADO (“kwä-ZHÄ-thō”)

Cuajado translates as either ‘coagulated’ or ‘having curds’ and describes any number of savory baked dishes made from a combination of mild, fresh curd cheese such as cottage or farmer, plus additional cheeses with varying degrees of saltiness, lots of eggs, a little matza meal for binding and copious amounts of one fresh, watery vegetable or another – spinach, zucchini, eggplant, leek or tomato.  Some recipes use bread as a binder and others mashed potato, depending on the vegetable used and your particular tradition or preference.  The texture is soft but not mushy, something like a savory bread pudding with the emphasis not on bread but on grated, shredded or mashed vegetables.  The cheese is used in a way that imparts flavor without dominating the texture.

Closely related to cuajado is fritada (fri-TÄ-tha), which translates as “a fried thing.”  It is no more than cuajado made on top of the stove in a skillet.  Fritada is very similar to Spanish tortilla (and Italian frittata) but unique in its inclusion of cheese.  It is the cheese, I believe, that marks these egg dishes as Jewish food; during the Inquisition, cuajado and fritada were already long considered as such and preparing or eating either one – especially if eaten on a Saturday – could have gotten you tossed into prison. 

Cuajado and fritada are indeed very typical Sephardic dishes for the Sabbath; they can be made ahead of time and taste best not hot but warm or at room temperature.

Cuajado is not to be confused with cuajada, which is a rennet custard traditionally made from ewe’s milk.

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March 26, 2008 · 5:14 am

Sepharad: WHAT Am I Doing Here?

I moved to Spain in 2005 to do Sephardic culinary research at the oldest source: Sepharad. Spain. I am half Sephardic and grew up in a New York suburb eating ridiculously delicious food, Spanish-Jewish food, in the style of the Island of Rhodes. I’ll get to that eventually – and often – but for now back to what brought me to Spain.

When I began teaching Sephardic cooking my own repertoire was limited, and in trying to learn more I read whatever “Sephardic” cookbooks I could find. The more I read, the angrier I got. Typically, the books I found in English – those most readily available – were not written by Sephardim, and they were just plain bad on several levels: either not particularly good recipes; or recipes so adulterated as to no longer be Sephardic; or filled with outrageously inaccurate information about Sephardic history, culture, language. Like the notion that we’re all dead and gone – tell that to all my relatives. Too much “authoritative” information based on heresay or on very, very lazy research, about my soul food, my heritage, and Spain‘s and the world’s. So I started a website. And then, inevitably, I moved to Spain and started digging, and without even trying very hard I found a goldmine of information. It’s all here if you know what to look for and how to ask (and who to ignore).

Last year I opened a restaurant up the coast from Barcelona, so my free time has dwindled down to, uh, none at all. No more traveling for now, little time to write and less time to maintain the website, which I haven’t updated in eons (and am taking offline).  But I do want to share what I know about our food – why its made a certain way, or why it’s called by a certain name, where this dish or that comes from, how it survives in the mainstream Spanish culinary repertoire. And my ongoing discoveries. All of this matters, not just to me personally, or to the Sephardic community in general, but for the sake of historical accuracy.

As does how to prepare it so well it’ll knock your socks off.  Of course I’ll get to that.

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