Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site tymix.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!bellcore!petrus!sabre!zeta!epsilon!gamma!ulysses!allegra!oliveb!tymix!figmo From: figmo@tymix.UUCP (Lynn Gold) Newsgroups: net.cooks Subject: Re: Authentic Jewish recipes? Message-ID: <512@tymix.UUCP> Date: Thu, 12-Sep-85 22:30:39 EDT Article-I.D.: tymix.512 Posted: Thu Sep 12 22:30:39 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 14-Sep-85 04:48:49 EDT References: <1985@amdahl.UUCP> <623@bu-cs.UUCP> Organization: Tymnet Inc., Cupertino CA Lines: 169 Thanks to Barry Shein for such a great letter. I say this before I add MY two cents. > First, those that don't like my intuitive, rambling recipes can leave > the room now, go get one of the cook books. > Cookbooks, feh! I call my grandmother in Florida when I want recipes. > 2. Matzo Brie (no relation to cheese, just a transliteration of a word > I have only heard spoken, mabye 'Bry' is closer? rhymes with dry.): > > Take a bunch of matzo, break it up,soak it in water, drain it, add a few > eggs, add some salt, mush it together, fry it as one large 1" thick > pancake in a medium fry pan, gather everyone around to be amused as you > hopelessly try to flip it, remark how it tastes the same even if you did > break it. > > Serve with sugar or maybe jam, or just plain. A breakfast dish usually. > I've always seen it spelled "brei." This is one recipe that is made differently by everybody's mother/grandmother/etc. My family's recipe is a bit different... For one thing, we always dispensed with the pretense of calling it "brei" because we were all American-born and none of us spoke yiddish, save for what we picked up from TV and friends. Anyhow, here goes... FRIED MATZOH This recipe varies depending upon how much you want to make. For two servings, it goes about like this: 2 eggs (3 if they're small) 6 squares matzoh 1 T either rendered chicken fat* or rendered vegetable fat 1 T either margarine or butter (note: do NOT make it with chicken fat and butter if you want it to be authentic/kosher) salt and pepper to taste Take each square of matzoh and dampen under the faucet using warm water. Place on top of each other and allow to sit as you beat beat the eggs together in a bowl large enough to hold them and the matzoh. Add salt and pepper to taste. Break up matzoh squares into bite-sized pieces (don't worry if they look to small) and add to eggs. Mix well; allow the matzoh to absorb the eggs. While the matzoh is soaking, heat up a frying pan and melt the fat and butter/margarine. When fat is melted (eggs should be absorbed by now; if there isn't enough liquid for them, add either another egg or some water), dump matzoh-egg mixture into pan. Cook on medium heat, turning and stirring so the matzoh flakes cook - they should clump a little, but should not be so solid that you could flip the whole thing. When they are almost but not quite dry (about the way you'd like scrambled eggs to be), empty pan onto serving plates. Serve with salt and pepper (so people can add as they see fit). This dish is traditional Passover breakfast fare, although we sometimes have it other times of the year. *Rendered Chicken Fat - Put some chicken skins and onions into a medium-low frying pan. Allow to cook until skins look like all the fat that was in them isn't any more. Drain fat into container; refrigerate. > 3. CHICKEN SOUP (interferon optional :-) > > ... I hate > the resulting boiled chicken parts, do what you like with them. > (chicken salad? garbage disposal salad?) > > If you're smart you'll get a recipe for kreplach to go in the soup > (ground meat filled dough boiled with the soup) or knaidlach (dumplings > I think, I don't believe I've ever had a 'dumpling', hmm, dough balls > boiled with the soup.) > You just answered the question in the first of these two paragraphs with the second one. Kreplach is also the only good use I've ever heard of for (yuck) pot roast. Another thing my mother did with soup meat (besides feed it to the dog) was to make croquettes. I don't have her recipe on me though; this is largely because I have yet to attempt to make Chicken Soup out here. Knaidlach are matzoh balls; you eat them in place of kreplach on Pesach. > Just a list of dishes I grew up with you may want to look > in indices for (I could probably manage these on my own, but I doubt I > would write them down right): > > 1. Blintzes - sort of a sour cream/farmer's cheese filled crepe. I owe my grandmother a call anyway, so I'll have her recipe within a few days. > 2. Tzimmes (warning: starts with beef and prunes as ingredients) Not one of my favorites, but it's appropriate for Rosh Hashanah (literally - "The Head of the Year"). There was a recipe for it in a recent magazine; I believe it was "Woman's Day's Great American Cooking." It looked pretty close to what my family makes. > 7. Potato Kugel - sort of like a latke mash baked in a casserole Either my mother or my grandmother ought to have this one. Mom used to make this instead of latkes on Chanukah because she felt that latkes were "too greasy" (as was anything else that was fun to eat). > 8. Knishes - dough wrapped mashed potatoes or kasha (see below) > sometimes used more generically for various cabbage soups I am told. This is hardly authentic, but a good appetizer recipe. MINI-KNISHES Mashed potatoes (I confess to cheating; I use one recipe of instant) Cheese (American or Cheddar; about 4 ounces) Onions (fried - 1 medium) 2 cans of refrigerator crescent dough Mix potatoes, cheese, and onions together; keep warm, mixing occasionally, until cheese melts. Allow to cool. Take one square (2 attached triangles) of dough and roll it into a flatter, smoother square, making sure to smooth out the perforations. Cut into 9 smaller squares. Fill each square with 1 tsp. of the potato mixture, seal each one into a small ball, and put it, folded side down, onto a baking sheet. Bake 10-15 minutes or until golden brown on top. Serve warm or at room temperature. > 16. Stuffed Derma (Kishke) - fried, potato filled intestine, its > actually great, I think if you buy it you'll just get something > akin to the skin they use for frankfurters which may ease your mind. If anyone knows of a place were I can get kishka out here in the SF Bay Area, PLEASE let me know! I have not been able to find it anywhere. Waaaaaa! > > First, my background is Russian (orthodox, kosher), so opinions here may > vary, at the very least this is all Ashkenazic (east european.) > Sephardic, native isreali dishes are vastly different. I guess some of > this may be actually american jewish, but I was not that far removed > from the 'old people'. > My background is half non-Jewish Slovak (my mother), 1/4 Russian Jew (my father's father's parents; they came over during the Pogroms in the late 1800's), and 1/4 Egyptian Jew (my father's mother's parents; they came here from Alexandria, Egypt. My Egyptian great-grandfather, I am told, either came to Egypt from Germany or his parents did). I don't know whether I'm all Ashkenazic or part Sephardic. > Second, big deal. I like a lot of the stuff, but it really ain't the > best cuisine in my opinion, just very practical dishes with maybe some > weird ideas about spicing (citric acid??) I guess the various cold fish > dishes are an exception here, I love 'em and they certainly aren't std > american fare (and they are barely 'jewish', all identified with the > countries they lived in.) Also remember recipes were often driven by > dietary laws, custom and poverty. > I always disliked gefilte fish myself. Give me blintzes and latkes any day! --Lynn Gold Tymnet, Inc. UUCP: ...tymix!figmo ARPA: FIGMO@MIT-MC.ARPA