Jewish comfort food + Southern comfort food = one giant dose of comfort.
This fusion pairing of cornbread and cholent comes from our friend Sheila Leibovic, who hails from the great southern city of Atlanta. Cholent is one of those quintessentially Jewish dishes that we typically think goes so well with some spiciness — serrano peppers, say, or red chili flakes thrown in. During the time of mourning, though, adding extra flavors for enhancement felt a little…off. So we were grateful for these simple and hardy dishes on their own. Thank you, Sheila!
Cornbread
2 cups self rising white cornmeal
1\4 cup vegetable oil
1 1\2 cups non dairy soy or silk or milk if you prefer
1 egg lightly beaten
Mix all ingredients and pour into pre-heated iron skillet (with 4 tablespoons vegetable oil heated) or use muffin pans (nonstick). Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Bake 20 minutes.
Cholent
Prepare and cook in crock pot the night before serving.
2 lbs beef ribs cut up with bone-in (Kosher butchers will know what you need)
2\3 cup dried lima beans
2\3 cup dried pinto beans
2\3 cup dried pearl barley
1 cubed potato
1 chopped white or yellow onion
1\4 cup vegetable oil
1-2 tablespoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
Prepare cholent early evening (around 5 or 6 ). Pour oil in bottom of crock pot. Add beef, chopped onion, washed and dried beans. Pour 5 cups water over ingredients. Cook on high until 10 or 11pm. Cook on low until lunch next day. Ready to eat anytime after 10:00 am.
These Persian recipes came our way deliciously cooked by Jackie Ahdout. Growing up at Sinai Temple, Persian foods like tadig and kabob were something my family and I grew up with. So, even though they’re not our own culture, in a funny way, they are comfort foods for us. Plus, it’s impossible not to feel comforted by a hot stew. We love how healthy these particular comfort foods are.
Jackie also included a recipe for white rice (polo), below.
White Rice (polo)
Ingredients: (4 servings)
Basmati rice, 500 grams
Cooking oil
Salt
Saffron, 1/2 teaspoon
Wash rice twice and soak it in salted warm water for 3-4 hours. Drain the water. Pour fresh water in a large non-stick pot until it is half-full and bring it to a boil. Add rice and one heaping tablespoon of salt and continue boiling until rice slightly softens. Pour rice into a colander and wash it gently with slightly warm water. Pour 3 tablespoons of water and a few spoonfuls of cooking oil into the pan and add the rice. Let it cook on a high heat for ten minutes. Pour a few more spoonfuls of oil over rice. Cover the pan and cook over low heat for about 20 minutes. If cooking time is increased, a delicious crispy layer of rice (called ta-dig) will form at the bottom of the pan. Once its ready serve it on a large platter. Mix the saffron with ½ cup hot water. Add some rice to the saffron and add it to the rice for garnish.
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Zereshk-polo (Berry Rice)
Ingredients: (4 Servings)
Basmati or long-grain rice, 500 grams (Cook and serve it on a platter)
Cooking oil
Butter
Dried Berries (assorted), four spoons (Zereshk, cranberries, currents)
Saffron, 1/2 teaspoon
Salt
Black pepper
Directions:
Wash berries twice with cold water and drain the water. Add oil to the frying pan (butter optional) and fry the berries over medium heat for about five minutes.
Pour saffron in a small bowl. Pour in 2-3 spoons of hot water and mix. Fill the bowl with rice and mix well. Add saffron-rice and barberries to the rest of the rice and enjoy.
Can be served with roasted chicken or stew.
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Eggplant Stew (Khorshte Bademjoon)
Ingredients: (6 servings)
Veal or beef, 400 grams
Small eggplants, 8
Medium onions, 2
Tomato paste, 2 table spoons
Cherry tomatoes, small basket
Fresh lime juice, 2 spoons or sour grapes, one cup
Cooking oil
Salt
Black pepper
Directions:
Cut meat into small pieces and cook the meat with water in a large pan and bring it to boil. Once it started boiling, drain and wash the meat. Peel onions and slice thinly. Fry in oil until slightly golden. Add the meat to the onions and brown. Add turmeric, salt, pepper and ½ cup sour grapes (optional). Bring 2-3 glasses of water to a boil, and add to meat and onions and cook over medium heat for about one hour. When meat is cooked, there should be about one glass of water left.
Fry the tomato paste in a frying pan over a medium heat, add cherry tomatoes and a half cup sour grapes or limejuice. Add the mixture to the meat and let it simmer.
Peel eggplants and slice length-wise or cube to a thickness of 2”. Add salt on both sides and let it sit for five to ten minutes in warm water. Wash the eggplants, pat them dry and fry in oil on both sides over medium/low heat until golden. Once the eggplants are ready, add them to the meat and let it simmer for another ten minutes.
The Corn Pie is from Celia Szew, and the Cheese Blintz Souffle is from Laurie Levenson. Incidentally, Celia is from Argentina, and we suspect the corn pie is a dish that reminds her of “home.” Turns out, the idea of home has a lot to do with comfort food: one definition of it is food that has a nostalgic memory to it. While Wikipedia doesn’t list Argentina (or Mexico’s) comfort foods, we do know, of course, that every culture has particularly homey or nostalgic dishes.
Thank you to Celia and Laurie!
CORN PIE
Ingredients:
1 Pie Crust
1 can Whole corn kernel
1 can Creamed corn
2 large eggs
1 cup Shredded mozzella cheese
1 wedge Laughing Cow Original Creamy Cheese
1/2 a cup Grated Parmesan Cheese
Half a teaspoon salt
Half a teaspoon white pepper
Heat oven (350). Put empty crust on a shallow round baking dish, pierce all over with a fork and bake until cooked (not completely done).
In the meantime, mix together all the other ingredients. Remember to cut the wedge in thin slices.
Pour the mixture into the baked pie crust and put back in oven until done (about 20 min).
CHEESE BLINTZ SOUFFLE
1 sm. container sour cream
1 pkg. blintzes
2 eggs, beaten
Pinch of salt
2 tbsp. orange juice
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 stick butter, melted
Put frozen blintzes in casserole dish. Mix remaining ingredients and pour over blintzes. Bake 45-60 minutes at 350 degrees. Serve with sour cream, if desired. Serve warm or cold.
NOTE: Recipe can be doubled. Cherry and blueberry blintzes can also be used and are delicious.
Can substitute plain yogurt and egg beaters to lower fat and cholesterol in recipe.
We didn't have the foresight to photograph the actual dishes, but this is a pretty good representation.
The first recipe of Comfort Food Week is…Meatballs in Tomato Sauce.
Irene Saiger brought over this dish, together with Sheila Spiwak, plus spaghetti, garlic bread and salad. As mentioned, Irene is a truly gourmet chef (be sure to check out her blog). Seeing Irene and Sheila that first night, foil wrapped food in tow, was like a big blanket around our shoulders. Just what is it about pasta and meat that’s so comforting? To ponder…
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3 lbs. ground turkey (or beef)
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 1/2 tsps red chili flakes
1 tspn dried oregano
1/4 cup fresh parsley, coarsely chopped
4 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup bread crumbs
Combine all ingredients in large bowl and mix well. Make golf size
meatballs and sauté in olive oil, browning both sides.
Tomato Sauce
1 large onion, diced
4 tbs olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp chili flakes
1 28 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 15 oz. can tomato sauce
2 tbs tomato paste
1 tsp salt
1 sprig basil
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup dry red wine
Saute onion and garlic in olive oil till translucent. Add diced
tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste and sauté for several minutes.
Add seasonings, water and wine and bring sauce to a simmer. Gently
place browned meatballs in sauce, cover pot and allow to cook for
about 1 1/2 hours on a low flame.
Our family is lucky to be part of a special community that went into action the moment my Grandmother got ill. Meals were coordinated, and every day for well over a week, many caring friends were over at my parents’ home at all hours. Since that time, we’ve been pretty silent on this blog (it’s hard to start back up), but we want to try and get back into the swing of things. SO, without further ado, we present:
COMFORT FOOD WEEK, in which we will share some of the delicious recipes our friends brought over during our down moments.
The week of Shiva (the traditional Jewish week of mourning) is a difficult period. But the idea is to try and comfort mourners in 2 very important ways:
- Be there
- Provide for physical needs
My Mom didn’t have much of an appetite. You could see the prepared meals as an effort by the community to help her regain it. And while maybe the food itself couldn’t console, the love and caring with which it was prepared very much did. In times of sorrow, when words fail in their ability to express how much we care, we prepare food to help comfort .
Tomorrow, the first recipe we share will be TURKEY MEATBALLS in TOMATO SAUCE, by our dear friend and cooking role model, Irene Saiger (AKA Bamitbach).
There is no storm or blizzard, just a steady, slow, and unceasing snowfall that quietly blankets my heart and my being. That is how it feels without my mother.
I lost my Mother on January 13, 2012. Time compounds on itself, and each day the weight of her absence grows heavier. The emptiness of that quiet white tundra, is vast.
She was my teacher and guide for everything in life, she was the stencil after which I was drawn. From the moment I was born until the moment my mother passed away, all she did was give me love.
My precious Mother and I were a team. She was my constant guide, I was her faithful follower.
In the past few years, late in her life, my mother craved the foods from her youth. She wanted to once again taste her mother’s yellow string bean soup, or Palacsinta, the Hungarian crepes her mother prepared for dessert. She craved any and all of her mother’s cooking.
Please stay tuned, as the next several blog posts and recipes will be dedicated to the memory of my beloved mother.
Alex here. We have some sad news to share with you today. My maternal grandmother, Martha Schneider, passed away late last week. You may have heard her mentioned on this blog before. Martha Schlesinger was born in Budapest in 1923, moved to Tampico, Mexico at age 4, to Mexico City at age 18, to New York at age 24, back to Mexico at age 27, and finally to Los Angeles at age 41, where she lived and raised her 3 children (including my Mom, Susie) until she passed away on January 13th. If you caught the NPR story I did involving my grandparents, you got to hear her voice.
Martha Schlesinger, left, and her little sister Edith, c. 1928
My grandmother, like me, was not someone who particularly enjoyed cooking. She was fiercely focused on work, deciding to go to college at a time and place where it was unusual for women to do so. Eventually, she built an impressive career in fashion, first opening her own retail shops in Mexico, and later as a buyer for Bullocks near the company’s peak. Preparing meals wasn’t a big priority for her.
When I’d drive up the mountain to my grandparents’ home, with its bright blue pool and views all the way to the beach, my grandma would heat tortillas, warm some refried beans and whip up a bit of guacamole — similar to what you might find me eating when I’m sitting in my apartment starving away. But, like me, she loved to eat. Some of her favorites were steak and veal, standard old tacos, slowly sipping on a little shot glass of tequila, and the Hungarian dishes that my mother prepares, chicken paprikash and nockedli. When we’d have dobosh for dessert at Shabbat, it was always a cause for celebration.
Of all the places my grandmother lived and the cuisines she sampled, Mexican food was perhaps the strongest through line for her. I don’t think that’s too surprising. While much Eastern European food certainly is delicious, there’s a whole other rainbow of colors in Mexican cooking that can open up your palette. Those colors were scary for my grandmother at first, as the little girl and her littler sister, Edith, stepped tenuously into the streets of the Mexican port city where her family docked. But eventually, she found she couldn’t imagine life without those tastes.
There are so many “takeaways” from my grandmother’s life, but when it comes to food, here are mine:
You don’t have to be a gourmet chef to be a big part of the food life of your family, and you don’t have to enjoy cooking, either, for food to mean a lot. Loving food is a sign of someone who loves life and, in my grandmother’s case, it was a proxy for love of family. To her, a meal was always an excuse for us to “enjoy” — which, come to think of it, is one of the words she said most throughout her life.
Grandma, I’m remembering you and the food you loved — today, and always.
Recently, as part of a World Hunger Fundraiser, my daughter Amy recruited me to teach a cooking class to a small group of U.S.C. (University of Southern California) students in the university’s Hillel kitchen (see short video below). I opted for a simple recipe, which would be quick, easy and delicious, and which would allow for several short cuts if desired.
Many cultures have some version of a casserole — chilaquiles are Mexican one, while kugel is Jewish from Eastern Europe. Chilaquiles are layers of crunchy tortilla chips covered in a spicy (usually green) sauce, and then smothered in cheese and cream. Kugel is layers of noodles, often sweet. Guess there’s something universal about putting a bunch of stuff in a deep pan and baking!
My version here is made with chicken, so it doesn’t include any dairy products. Instead of using chicken, you do have the option of using cheese where you would the chicken. My guests always rave about this dish…but little do they know how simple it is to make. Now I am giving all of my secrets away. It calls for either freshly made tortilla chips (by frying your own) or store-bought chips. Also, it calls for tomato sauce, which you can make fresh, or you may use the canned stuff if you are short on time. I don’t know about you, but I have a lot of tortilla chips left over from New Year’s Eve and other recent celebrations. So this Friday night, before the chips go stale, I am going to use them to make a delicious Chicken Tortilla Kugel.
Chicken Tortilla Kugel
Ingredients and process for Step I
One bone-in whole chicken breast
a small piece of onion
1 whole garlic clove
Salt and pepper to taste
As if you were going to make a simple chicken soup, boil the chicken breast along with onion and garlic, and season with salt and pepper. When it is tender and well cooked remove it from the broth, allow it to cool, and then shred it. It should provide about 2 cups of shredded chicken. Set it aside, and preserve the broth for the sauce.
Ingredients and process for Step II
18 corn tortillas or store-bought tostadas or tortilla chips
¼ – 1/2 cup canola oil, if you are using the fresh tortillas
Warm the oil in a small frying pan, over medium heat.
Fry each tortilla one at a time until it becomes golden and crisp.
As you remove each fried tortilla from the oil (which is now a tostada), place on a paper towel and wipe off excess oil with another paper towel.
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Ingredients and process for Step III
15 oz. can tomato sauce or 4 small ripe tomatoes
2 cups chicken broth chicken broth
¼ of a small white onion
1 garlic clove
1 jalapeno pepper (or more if you want a spicier sauce)
1 tablespoon of fresh cilantro
½ teaspoon salt
Place all of the above ingredients in a blender and liquefy until very smooth.
Place 1 tablespoon of canola oil into a small saucepan and heat very well until oil begins to smoke a bit, add the sauce from the blender and bring it to a boil. Allow the sauce to boil for 2 minutes and then lower the heat so that sauce continues to simmer and stays hot. When the tostadas have cooled, break up 6 of them (each tostada should make about 4-5 pieces) in a rectangular oven safe baking dish, and spread them out evenly. Sprinkle about 1/3 of the shredded chicken evenly over the tostada pieces or chips. With a ladle, spoon the sauce evenly over the first layer of tostada pieces and shredded chicken. Repeat the process and form a second layer, or even a third layer, ending with a layer of the shredded chicken. Cover tightly with foil and place in hot oven for 30 minutes.
Remove from oven and garnish with diced onion, cilantro and avocado pieces if desired.
Happy Tuesday, and hopefully you’re still deep in holiday season relaxation. Alex here.
Just a heads up for the people who missed it: I did a story about the connections between food and memory, and Mexican and Jewish cooking, and it ran Sunday on NPR’s Weekend Edition (Christmas Day). Here’s the link. It was cool to hear our family on the air, but of course we may be slightly biased.
Some of you folks may be reading this blog because you heard the story on NPR. To you I say, thanks for listening, reading, and subscribing!
I thought it would be cool to share some other pictures from the trip to Mexico City during which I reported the story. (I asked for help crowdsourcing cookbook research for that trip, and many people shared comments and suggestions — more on that soon, as the NPR piece has kept me busy.) Happy Holidays to you and your families! All photos are credited to my lovely sister, Anita Schmidt.
Justo Sierra Street in downtown Mexico City. The doors of the synagogue are visible on the left.
Inner courtyard of the Nidjei Israel Temple in downtown Mexico City
The interior of the temple has been beautifully preserved. Anita and I are standing with our grandmother where she greeted guests at her wedding (higher quality image fortcoming).
Ceiling of the temple (higher quality image forthcoming)
Me and my grandmother in the old temple kitchen where Mrs. Shlejter cooked her delicacies. You can see grease stains on the walls and ceiling.
Me in the old temple restaurant where my great grandfather looked forward to eating when he visited Mexico from New York. Shout out to Anita (again) for a very cool shot.
My Grandfather, Bertsi (Bertolon) Schlesinger declared one day to My Grandmother Lily, that he was going to set out for America. They were in Budapest, Hungary, and they had two little girls, my mother Martha, (Marto-Lenke), and my Aunt Edith, (Editke). The growing Anti-Semitism in Hungary in the late 1920′s had become too much for him.
Not family, nor the Beautiful Danube, not the passionate Hungarian Csárdás Music, nor the food he was so accustomed to, could dissuade him. One day, in 1927, he set out in search of a better life, and a more secure future for he and his family. He crossed the Atlantic on a big ship, and disembarked in the Port of Tampico, in the State of Tamaulipas, on the Gulf Coast of Mexico. My Grandfather got settled in Tampico, and sent word to my grandmother that she and their little girls should join him as soon as possible.
One day, shortly after my grandfather sent for them, my grandmother and her two little girls boarded a ship and traversed the Atlantic for two weeks, heading for Tampico. It broke my great-grandmother’s heart to see her daughter and little granddaughters leave their native Hungary. She and her husband owned a beautiful restaurant in Budapest where my grandmother had learned to cook, and also where she entertained the clientele in highbrow style, for she was a concert pianist.
When she arrived in Tampico, my grandmother tried to adjust to life there, but could not. She missed her mother terribly, and she couldn’t adjust to the language nor the food. She didn’t like those round discs made out of corn flour, called tortillas. She didn’t like beans, nor the spicy sauces and other typical foods in that new land. She decided to take her little girls and go back to Hungary. She remained in Budapest for several weeks until my grandfather convinced her that their future lied in Mexico, and to give it another chance, and so she did, and she found herself again on a ship back to Tampico.
Gradually, my Grandmother adjusted to her new life. She learned the language and the cooking, yet she continued making the same dishes that she had learned from her mother in Hungary. She began to love tortillas and spices so much that she served them side by side with her Hungarian dishes, and she found they made a good accompaniment.
My mother and her sister, and eventually their little brother, were raised in Tampico, Tamaulipas, practically the only Jewish kids in town, in the 1920′s, 1930′s and 1940′s.
I vividly remember my Grandmother Lily preparing this recipe for many of our Sunday afternoon meals in Mexico City.
Ingredients for my Chicken Paprikash
1 teaspoon canola oil
2 chickens cut in 10
1 onion diced
5 fresh red pimentos diced
2 garlic cloves minced
1 cup roasted red pimentos from a jar, chopped
2 cups tomato sauce
1 tablespoon fine Hungarian Paprika
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 cups water
Method
In a large saucepan heat the teaspoon of canola oil. Add the chicken pieces skin down, and allow them to brown for ten minutes. Turn the pieces over and brown the opposite side for another 10 minutes. I do this in two batches, removing the browned pieces to a large bowl, as they are ready.
When finished browning the chicken, remove some of the chicken fat which has been rendered during the browning process, and set it aside, (The fat may be discarded, refrigerated or frozen for other use, such as in my Kosher Tamale recipe).
Retain about 2 tablespoons of fat, and keep the saucepan over a high-medium heat. Add the onion and mix for about 3 minutes. Add the fresh red pimentos, mix in well with the onion, and then add the minced garlic, followed by the roasted pimento. Stir for three minutes and add the tomato sauce, bringing the mixture to a boil. Add the paprika, salt and pepper, stir and add the water. Remove the skin from the chicken pieces and place them back into the saucepan, into the sauce to finish the cooking process. Bring to a boil, lower the heat a bit, cover, and cook at a high simmer for one hour.
While the chicken is cooking prepare the Hungarian Dumplings or Nokedli.
Ingredients For Nokedli
Large pot filled with boiling water
2 eggs
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup water
Just under 2 cups all-purpose flour
Method
Fill a large pot with water about 3/4 to the top. Place it over high heat and while it begins to boil, prepare the dough.
Combine the eggs, salt, and water and beat well with a whisk. Add the flour a little bit at a time and mix well, until you have a soft but sticky dough. With a teaspoon take very small amounts of dough and drop them one at a time into the boiling water. If you stick the spoon into the boiling water, these slide right off.
When the dumplings rise to the surface they are ready. Using a slotted spoon remove them to a large colander. Make batches of about 20 dumplings at a time, to avoid overcooking. Repeat the process until you have finished all of the dough. Rinse the dumplings in gently running, cold water.
Plate the Chicken Paprikash in a large rectangular serving dish and cover it generously with the sauce. Separately, plate the dumplings, and top them with a generous amount of the sauce as well.
