|
Post by bjd on Feb 10, 2012 12:45:55 GMT
I have never heard of it either.
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Feb 10, 2012 16:55:34 GMT
Mockchoc, that's so interesting. It is a gala version of the plain cheese. Oh, Casimira -- how often you must have uttered that same sentence! Bjd's & Casimira's comments point up not only how much gets lost in migration, but how regional food has always been around the world. Maybe that kind of cheese was not part of where your families were from. I realize eggs are a symbol of rebirth & all that, but when you see how many are used for celebrating Easter in E. European cuisine it makes you wonder if chickens lay more in springtime. Anyone know? This recipe is not egg-cheese, but made from eggs and cheese: easteuropeanfood.about.com/od/crossculturaldesserts/r/paskacheese.htm
|
|
|
Post by mockchoc on Feb 11, 2012 6:17:09 GMT
Not sure if I was clear but I meant the borscht recipe. I know nothing of the cheese.
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Feb 11, 2012 7:13:38 GMT
Oh! I really misunderstood. I did think you meant the cheese.
|
|
|
Post by mockchoc on Feb 12, 2012 7:16:53 GMT
Sorry, I wasn't very clear. I wrote all about the borscht and it got lost in cyber world so when I wrote it again I was still thinking of the soup information.
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Sept 30, 2013 23:12:05 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2013 11:21:01 GMT
It sounds yummy. But, isn't it curious that it is called KUDZU as in the vine that is devouring the South? I combed through the ingredients expecting to see mention of this vegetation in the recipe.
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Oct 2, 2013 17:52:51 GMT
Deep Fried Kudzu is the name of the (truly cool) blog featuring the recipe. The two right-hand columns on the page with the recipe give much insight into the southern nature of the blog.
|
|
|
Post by lagatta on Jan 23, 2014 22:39:45 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 23, 2014 22:42:30 GMT
I'm wondering what makes the recipe more Jewish than Muslim. Looks not bad, though.
|
|
|
Post by lagatta on Jan 23, 2014 23:01:34 GMT
There is very little difference between Jewish and Muslim Moroccan (or any Maghrebi) cooking. Jews can (officially) consume alcohol, but there isn't a lot of wine in southern Mediterranean cookery anyway, as they have so many alternatives such as lemons. Muslims can (officially) serve meat dishes with butter or smen, but the Jews using olive oil in their couscous aren't exactly suffering. It isn't like Central and Eastern European cooking in which the pig plays a central role, and where the Jews didn't have nice olive oil to cook with.
In this particular case, Dafina is a slow-cooking dish that corresponds to the prohibition of "work" on the Sabbath. For some reason cooking is work, but serving meals isn't. I don't know whether very observant Jews do the washing up on the Sabbath, as none of my Jewish friends, even the ones who are vaguely observant, could be bothered with those (antiquated) strictures. And most are of course utterly nonobservant, but like such dishes out of family tradition.
|
|
|
Post by Don Cuevas on Mar 1, 2014 10:29:57 GMT
I'm wondering what makes the recipe more Jewish than Muslim. Looks not bad, though. Looks waaay overly complicated to me, and when I read "eggs in the shell", I quickly closed the window.
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Sept 21, 2017 20:08:57 GMT
Panicky question: how sour (or not) is borscht supposed to be? I like beet soup, but borscht is not part of my culinary background. There are tons of recipes online, plus I have several in cookbooks. Often it is referred to as a "sour soup", but other things I've read indicate that the Polish version is not sour. Casimiras recipe calls for a small amount of lemon juice. Some recipes say at least a quarter cup of vinegar, with reader comments saying that they double and triple that amount. My soup is on the stove right now, simmering in the final stages. It's made with fresh beef broth, fresh beets, carrots, tiny potatoes, wild mushrooms, fresh tomato, beet greens, and cabbage. Simply breathing the steam infuses me with vitamins, but will it taste right? By right, I mean acceptably in the accurate range. Thanks for any help, the quicker the better!
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Sept 22, 2017 4:04:57 GMT
I have never had borscht myself.
|
|
|
Post by bjd on Sept 22, 2017 5:25:08 GMT
It's not supposed to be sour. Beets are in fact a bit sweet so at the end of cooking, you add some vinegar (or fermented beet juice from a previous batch of soup, although my mother never did that) to taste. If you accidentally put too much, add a bit of sugar. I just reread this thread and saw that Casimira's recipe called for lemon juice. I always use plain (not wine) vinegar, but just one or two tablespoonfuls. Taste it and see if it tastes good to you. If it lacks a "little something", add more vinegar. If it's too sharp, add a bit of sugar.
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Sept 22, 2017 12:36:12 GMT
Thank you, Bjd! The soup was finished & ready to eat long before you posted that advice, but I now feel reassured that I did the right thing. I followed my instinct that the vinegar was only meant to balance the natural sweetness of the beets, not to actually make the soup sour.
It turned out beautifully, if I do say so -- a wonderful deep goldy-red color and absolutely delicious. After looking at many recipes, I opted to peel and shred the beets and cook them with the soup and would do that again. Other recipes call for pre-cooking them or using canned or bottled ones. Another said to use roasted beets, which would probably be very good, but I am too satisfied with the taste and texture of my borscht to experiment the next time.
My suggestion for anyone making this is to make a bunch, as all the peeling, chopping, and different steps such as cooking the beef broth separately make it fairly time-consuming. I ate some yesterday, have three liters in the freezer, a pint set aside to give to a friend, plus some still in the fridge for me to enjoy.
|
|
|
Post by bjd on Sept 22, 2017 15:46:28 GMT
Glad to hear your instinct worked well. As for the beets, I always use raw beets when I make beet soup. Just peel them and cut them up into small pieces, certainly not shredding them. My Polish aunt in Canada (aka the world's worst cook) makes hers with cooked beets and it never has that nice colour you describe.
Actually, the Polish version of beet soup uses only beets and a few dried mushrooms.Once you start putting in other vegetables, it's more Ukrainian or Russian beet soup. Very good too but different and more filling.
When I was a kid, Christmas Eve dinner started with just the beet soup broth in a cup (rather than in a soup bowl) accompanied by little mushroom-stuffed pastries.
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Sept 22, 2017 15:56:17 GMT
That broth with mushroom pastries sounds wonderful.
I have a food processor and one of the blades shreds coarsely enough for this purpose. That's probably not authentic, but certainly moved the process along nicely.
|
|
|
Post by lagatta on Jun 9, 2018 14:33:44 GMT
I don't know whether this recipe for ratatouille sandwiches should go here. They are from a Mizrahi shop in le Marais, and combine culinary influences from different parts of the Mediterranean: www.foodrepublic.com/recipes/ratatouille-pita-sandwiches/ They look yummy though! I have a friend who lives near the Jewish shopping area in the 19th. Wonder if there is anything similar up there?
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Jun 9, 2018 17:46:19 GMT
I simply cannot imagine ratatouille in a sandwich. I think they are abusing the term by referring to the various vegetables composing ratatouille without actually using the stewed dish itself.
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Jun 9, 2018 18:33:49 GMT
Really? I often put left-over cooked vegetables, including stewed ones, into a taco or a sandwich. Back when I lived where pita was easy to get, I'd quickly cook down vegetables from my backyard garden -- one okra, a small zucchini, whatever was there -- then shovel them into a pita with some cheese & heat until the cheese melted.
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Jun 9, 2018 19:31:15 GMT
Ratatouille has a ton of juice. It would be like making a sandwich with salsa.
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Jun 9, 2018 22:12:48 GMT
I know what ratatouille is like. But you'd drain the juice away from it before putting it on something. All vegetables exude juice when they cook and the ones in the picture look like stewed vegetables with the juice drained off. (and probably patted dry, then sprayed with something shiny so it would all look perky for the camera)
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Jun 10, 2018 15:23:35 GMT
Then don't call it ratatouille. Called it "stewed Mediterranean vegetables." I don't understand the obsession with giving things trendy names. If it is really good, people don't care about the name. A fancy name is just a crutch for inferior items.
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Jun 10, 2018 15:40:12 GMT
"Stewed Mediterranean vegetables" doesn't sound tempting, whereas calling it ratatouille (which is how those pita vegetables are being prepared) gives the customer an idea of what to expect. A fancy name can indeed be a crutch for inferior items, but ratatouille is hardly a fancy food and we don't know if those pita are inferior or not.
|
|
|
Post by kerouac2 on Jun 10, 2018 16:21:14 GMT
Ratatouille being a Mediterranean dish, it has nothing to do with eastern European or Jewish cuisine in the first place. Is this thread about fusion food?
|
|
|
Post by lagatta on Jun 10, 2018 18:15:35 GMT
It is a Mizrahi Israeli stand in le Marais. Jewish food is not only the Ashkenazi varieties. I didn't know where to put this thread. You are more than welcome to move it.
I started my thread with this sentence:
I don't know whether this recipe for ratatouille sandwiches should go here. They are from a Mizrahi shop in le Marais, and combine culinary influences from different parts of the Mediterranean:
I didn't want to start a new thread about one sandwich recipe from a food stand.
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2018 3:00:39 GMT
There was a really interesting piece in the food section of the NY Times this past Wednesday.
The Flavors of Mexico Come Home for Rosh Hashana.
"In the late 1920's a current NY chef's Jewish grandparents who were facing persecution, fled Ukraine and boarded boats bound for New York City. But, they weren't able to immigrate through Ellis Island, for reasons they can't quite remember-perhaps because of financial turmoil, preceding the 1929 stock market crash, or because of limits set a few years earlier on the number of immigrants from certain countries.
So they settled in the closest country that would take them: Mexico.
To feel at home, they cooked. They made matzo ball soup,challah, gelfite fish-dishes that were typical of Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine, born of scarcity and cold climates and seemingly far different from Mexican cooking, with it's abundant produce and aromatic spices.
But, over the years, the family's colorful surroundings crept into those monochromatic Jewish dishes.
The challah became laced with flowery Mexican cinnamon and tart apples, the matzo balls filled with herbs and onions, and the gelfite fish dressed in a guajillo pepper sauce.
This is the food the author Fany Gerson grew up eating in Mexico City.
While on the surface Mexican and Jewish cooking couldn't be more distant, they are both "very tradition-rooted, very proud, very family oriented. Both Mexican and Jewish cultures are very soulful"
Mexico has one of the largest Jewish populations in Latin America, numbering 40,000 as of two years ago"
|
|
|
Post by bixaorellana on Sept 9, 2018 3:44:31 GMT
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2018 5:31:12 GMT
Thank you for those links Bixa!!
I thought it was a really interesting piece.
When I was in NY my friend took me to the little Polish Town, a tiny 3 block section not far from where my mother grew up.
I bought some fresh kielbasa and some other items I could never find here, A beet horseradish, some Polish mustard, and one place had a steam table with ready cooked food. I bought some prepared foods that I hadn't eaten in many years. Some gulumkies,(stuffed cabbage with rice and ground pork) pierogis and fresh sauerkraut.
I ate it for supper that evening in the kitchen of the house I grew up in. It was rather bittersweet I must say, being there alone. Lots of old memories.
|
|