Anna are large green apples, with red flushes on their skin. They are crisp and sweet. The tree is heat-tolerant. Some people haven’t liked the flavour when compared to apples grown in colder zones. Cooking Tips Anna Apples are suitable for fresh eating or cooking. Storage Hints Anna Apples will store for up to two…
Jewish Food
Bagels
Bagels are chewy because they are boiled before they are baked: possibly the only bread that is made in this way, aside from some varieties of bread Pretzels. Dough made with yeast is formed into rings and allowed to rise. When the dough has risen, the rings are dropped for a few seconds into boiling…
Barnea Olives
Barnea Olives are medium-sized olives that can be can be grown for oil, black olives or green olives. For oil, the olives have a 20% to 23% oil yield and produce an oil that is considered good quality. As table olives, the flesh separates easily from the pit. The tree can start bearing olives by…
Bialys
Bialys are round, low, chewy yeast-risen Polish / Jewish bread rolls with an indentation in the centre at the top that is filled with chopped onion. Sometimes, they are sprinkled with poppy seed as well. Bialys are not good day-old; they really need to be eaten as a soft, fresh roll. They can be eaten…
Challah
Challah is a Jewish yeast-risen wheat bread. It is traditional on the Jewish sabbath. Challah is a rich bread, but not as rich as brioche, even though there is no dairy (butter or milk) to keep it parve, nor any eggs either, though it might be brushed with egg before baking. It is made from…
Charoset
Charoset is a sweet, dark-coloured fruit paste in Jewish cuisine. There are many different recipes for it. Some versions are finely-minced; some are puréed; some are boiled down to a thick syrup and then have ingredients such as nuts added. Ashkenazi – apples, honey (or sugar), cinnamon, kosher wine, nuts (such as walnuts.) Not puréed,…
Chopped Liver
Chopped Liver is a dish made from chicken liver. Some say calves’ liver can be used instead, but others say calves’ liver is too strong tasting. It is slimy, lumpy, and grey, with a texture close to French pate du campagne, though there are two camps of preference: finely ground or coarse. The chicken livers…
Falafel
Falafel is made from made from cooked, ground, seasoned beans. The ground beans are rolled into small balls or formed into patties which are then either pan-fried or deep-fried. When shaped into balls, the balls are usually 1 to 2 inches wide (2.5 to 5 cm.) The cooked bean balls can be served on a…
Galia Melons
Galia Melons are an Israeli hybrid between Honeydew and Cantaloupe type melons [1]. They are closely related to Ogen melons. The skin matures from a dark green to beige or golden-green covered by netting. When ripe, there will be a crack in a circle at the base and the entire uncut melon should smell sweet….
Gefilte Fish
Gefilte fish is a stuffed fish dish in Jewish cuisine. They are small, greyish balls or patties, similar in concept, if not appearance and taste, to French quenelles. To make it, fish is chopped up finely, mixed with a few other ingredients such as eggs to act as a binder, shaped into oblong patties (usually),…
Goose Fat
Goose Fat, or as some cooks say, “that old white magic”, is a cooking fat rendered from the flesh of geese. Many people swear by the taste for cooking things in. There are two types of goose fat: brown and blonde. Brown fat is the fat that you get while roasting a goose; it renders…
Halvah
Israeli Halvah © Denzil Green So you think you know from Halvah? There are many versions of Halvah: Greek, Indian, Iranian, Israeli, Pakistanian, Turkish, etc. Every country thinks their version of Halvah is the best, or that it is original to them. The nougat-like version that uses crushed sesame seeds, tahini and honey is just…
Hockmesser
A hockmesser is a Yiddish word for a knife with a single, slightly curved blade, and no side handle. Instead, the handle is on the top; you press down as you chop. In this, it is similar to a single-bladed mezzaluna. It is used in conjunction with a wooden bowl. It is used in preparing…
Jaffa Oranges
Jaffa Oranges have a thick skin that peels easily. Inside it is a pale orange with only a few seeds. The flesh is sweet and juicy, though not juicy enough to be used for juice production. The orange can be left on the tree and not picked until it is needed. History Notes Jaffa Oranges…
Jewish Food
Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as “Jewish food”, but rather perhaps “Jewish foods.” There are different culinary worlds and traditions within Judaism, just as there are for instance within Catholicism — Scottish Roman Catholics cook very differently from Spanish Roman Catholics. In Israel, there are two main branches of Jewish cooking, Ashkenazic and…
Kadesh Olives
Kadesh Olives are used to make green table olives. With an oil content of less than 3%, they are being marketed as a “low-fat olive.” History Notes Developed at the Volcani Research Centre in Israel.
Kosher
Kosher is a Jewish religious term applied to food, meaning prepared or produced and packaged under supervision of a Kosher inspector, called a “meshkiach.” Jewish dietary laws are very closely tied in with their religious laws, which were designed to unite a group of tribes, give them a common identity, and to make them different…
Kosher Salt
Kosher Salt © Denzil GreenKosher salt is a coarse salt. Some brands will contain no additives; other brands may contain some anti-caking agents. At one time, Morton Kosher Salt contained sodium ferrocyanide. Usually, kosher salt will be non-iodized. In homes, it is generally used more in the kitchen during cooking rather than as a table salt. A…
Kosher Wine
A wine marked “Kosher” does not mean that the wine is free of additives, as some people have come to believe. It may or may not be additive-free, but the main thing that makes a wine Kosher is how it was handled. For a wine to be Kosher, Gentiles must not have touched it at…
Krembo
Krembo. Supplied courtesy Mrs Levy, Tel Aviv © Denzil Green Krembo is a cookie made in Israel only from October to February. It consists of a thin round biscuit at the bottom, with a marshmallow-like foam on top of that. The whole cookie is thinly coated in dairy-free chocolate. It is very tall for its…
Latkes
Latkes © Denzil Green Latkes are Jewish potato pancakes. The Eastern European version of Latkes is the one most familiar in Europe and North America. They are made with made with grated potatoes, eggs, onion and matzo meal and served with applesauce or sour cream. There are other varieties: in Syria meat is added, in…
Lox
Lox is cured, unsmoked salmon. Despite popular confusion, it is not smoked. Lox was sort of “invented” in Brooklyn, New York. Pacific salmon would be shipped east packed in salt. It was allowed to stay in the salt for 3 months, then it was soaked in water to leach most of the salt out. Now…
Matzo
Matzo is a flat bread made in thin sheets made from white wheat flour and water with no leavener. Despite the absence of leavener, Matzo bread isn’t heavy. It is baked in very hot ovens so that air trapped in the dough expands and make the bread light. The bread comes perforated so it is…
Matzo Balls
Matzo Balls © Denzil Green Matzo balls are small, round dumplings for soup. The dough is made from eggs, water, salt, pepper, matzo meal and schmaltz (chicken fat.) You form the stiff dough into small balls or drop by the tablespoonful into the boiling water or soup. They generally end up very light and fluffy,…