sweet couscous and the 7th night

around this time — the six & seventh nights — i always seem to feel a bit sad that, in another day or two, the holidays will soon be over for us and "the rest of the world" is just only beginning their full revelry and merriment. while others will still have christmas trees blinking and presents underneath them, the smell of pine wafting through the air, holiday music in the background and fireplaces crackling away, my home will be back to the normal everyday routine and unadorned. and when everyone else will wake up to open presents, many jewish families will be planning which movies to see on december 25th and where to "go for chinese" this year. mmmm, eggrolls. yes, that's what many of us do when nothing BUT nothing is open on the 25th of december, save for the corner stores, local video/dvd shop and of course, the theatres and chinese restaurants. i am sure we must be their biggest cashpull in north america on that day. some traditions die hard.

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the seventh night of hanukkah is a special night. it actually has a name and is called (c)hag ha'banot [חג הבנות], or loosely translated, festival of the daughters. it commemorates the heroism of judith [יהודית], the jewish woman who killed the enemy, the assyrian general holofernes, and helped in saving the jewish people after the destruction of their holy temple, central to judaism.

photo: wikipedia painting by Christophano Allori, dated 1613

judith's importance as a heroine has been featured on various menoras of antiquity [medieval] and is a popular named given to jewish girls to this day. this is the basis for the evening of the seventh candle in countries of north africa such as morocco, tunisia and algeria. it is also the evening of two important events: the slaying of holofernes and the new moon of the month of tevet [טבת] or as it is called in hebrew, rosh (c)hodesh [ראש חודש]. rosh (c)hodesh is also significant as it is usually celebrated by women.

this celebration on the seventh night is primarily observed by women, and with much enjoyment. dancing and feasting are high on the list. dairy foods are eaten and to drink, is milk and/or buttermilk. in particular, a dish of sweetened couscous either very simply made, as seen below, or more elaborately prepared with a variety of sweet dried fruit. i seem to have some remote memory of salty feta filled burekas being served near the last day of hanukkah which is probably related to the salty cheese in the story of how judith made holofernes very thirsty forcing him to drink copious amounts of wine and eventually lead to his demise once well-inebriated.

to read more about this celebration, read the ritualwell article. of note is that women can celebrate this at home. the authors explains the how and why.

i will add here that i have seen this being noted as a celebration which takes place on the occasion of the 6th candle. rosh (c)hodesh this month takes place over two days.

here are two recipes for you to try (and the burekas 0ne from the link above).


sweet couscous

serves 6 (dairy)

According to The Book of Jewish Food, sweet couscous is a festive Jewish dish in North Africa. In Morocco, it was served at Hanukkah in bowls with wooden spoons. It is the custom to serve cold milk or buttermilk with it, in little tea glasses.

Ingredients:

1 cup couscous
boiling water
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon unsalted butter or margarine
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon confectioner's sugar, or to taste

1/3 cup raisins, soaked in warm water for a few minutes

Directions:

Prepare the couscous: Place 1 cup of couscous, salt, margarine and 1 cup of boiling water in a large bowl; stir to mix, cover the bowl with a plate and allow it to sit for 10-15 minutes. At this point, some recipes call for occasional stirring with a fork to fluff it while it is steaming; others call for not stirring until it is fully steamed. If the couscous is still crunchy, add 1/4 cup more of boiling water, cover and let sit another 5 minutes. Then stir it to fluff and separate the grains of couscous.

Claudia Roden offers serving ideas:

serve this shaped as a cone, sprinkled with lines of cinnamon and confectionery sugar down the sides, and raisins if you wish; with a mixture of toasted pine nuts, chopped almonds and pistachios; with dates and chopped almonds on top.

recipe excerpted from jewz.com


ricotta latkes — לביבות גבינת ריקוטה

a light dairy latke which cookbook author gloria kaufer-greene says predates potato latkes. these, therefore, must be quite old. potatoes only came to ashkenazi jews in recent history from south america.

you can cut the recipe in half and use a smaller container of ricotta if it is only for a few people. a full recipe yields about 30 - 2 inch (small) latkes as per the author though i get more than that. they are very light and one can easily consume many. they are very, very good.


ingredients:

one 15 or 16 oz container ricotta
4 eggs
6 tbsp AP flour
2 tbsp butter, melted
1 or 2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 - 2 pkgs vanilla sugar [my addition]

method:

mix all together in a blender or food processor and blend until creamy. the batter will be like a thinner than regular cheesecake one.

fry on medium heat until golden brown in butter. they will puff up a bit but not stay that way. take care when flipping them as they are fragile. i would not recommend crowding the pan.

serve with conserves, jam and/or sour cream.

enjoy!

festive food fair

anna of morsels & musings downunder in australia has kindly invited me to participate in this year's festive food fair — a celebration of food from around the world for the upcoming holiday season. if you want to participate, click on her link and get your submission in by dec 1st!

thanks for all your hard work, anna.

here are my submissions:

traditionally, most goodies for hannukah are cooked in oil to commemorate the holiday. potato latkes are traditional ashkenazi fare whereas sweetened pieces of dough, deep fried and then either bathed in syrup or stuffed with a filling are the sephardic tradition.

also known in greek as loukoumades, lokma are addictive .... we eat platefuls of these at hanukkah and other holidays like purim.

deep-fried deliciousness!

lokma (bimuelos)

makes a lot. i suggest cutting the recipe in half if it is just for a few people or a small family. they can be made a few hours ahead and are meant to be served at room temperature. do not cover with plastic wrap or they will stick to it! use tin foil. they will be good the next day, too .... if there are any left!

see my post called, lokma lessons, and read it before starting this to get a visual idea of what you will be doing. this version does not use eggs or honey and is suitable for vegans.

ingredients:

2 to 2 1/4 c AP flour
1 1/2 tsp dry yeast [like fleischmann's reg or *rapidrise]
2 tsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 c (up to 2 c) water [warm]
1 tbsp margarine melted
1 tsp lemon juice
1 - 2 tsp orange flower or rose water [optional]
orange or lemon zest [optional - add to dough]

3 c sugar
1 1/2 c water
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 -2 tbsp orange flower or rose water [optional]

finely ground or chopped pistachios
lemon or orange zest

method:

dissolve the yeast in 1/2 c water with 1 tsp sugar. when proved, add the rest [3/4 c] of the water, salt and sugar to the yeast and then the lemon juice and the flour and melted margarine. start with 2 c of flour. if it is too thin you may add the rest of the flour. mix well to make a thickish batter. add enough water to make a thick pancake like batter. let this rise for about an hour to an hour and a half. it needs to double.

*if you're using the rapid rise yeast, put all the dry ingredients together and add the wet ones. then continue recipe.

while that doubles, make the syrup. add sugar, water and lemon juice to a pot. put on medium heat and stir until all is dissolved. bring to a small boil and let syrup cooking WITHOUT STIRRING for about 10 to 15 minutes. if you stir you may seed/crystallize the sugar and ruin it. test after 10 minutes if it is thick enough. it should be a thin syrup but not too thin. sort of like maple syrup. add the orange or rose waters at the end, if using. keep aside as you make the lokma.

after the batter doubles, heat oil for deep frying. be careful!

put some oil in a small cup about a 1/4 c. with a tablespoon. coat the spoon with oil and dip into the batter and carefully add to the oil. we make small — think quail egg size — balls. re-dip the spoon every few times. fry the balls until golden about 3 minutes or so. turn them in the oil to make sure both sides brown. place them on a paper towel to absorb the oil. make sure that the oil is at the correct temperature — too low and they fry too long, absorb a lot of oil and become very hard and too hot, they will fry too quickly, taste raw and burn.

when they are all fried, rewarm the syrup and dip the pastries in it. the rule of thumb is always hot pastry to cold syrup or cold pastry to hot syrup to aid in absorption.

place on a platter and serve extra syrup to drizzle.

garnish with the lemon or orange zest and pistachios.

you may want to halve the recipe to try it out or if you are not serving many people.

enjoy!

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biscuits bretons

butter cookies from brittany

picture to come soon!

ingredients:

1 1/2 c (3 sticks or 12 oz) unsalted butter, @ room temperature
1 1/4 c sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 extra large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 c cake flour

3 tbsps whole milk, for "wash"

method:

with an electric mixer on slow speed, cream the butter, sugar and salt together.

slowly add the egg and vanilla, continuing to beat on slow speed.

add the flour all at once and mix, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl once.

turn the dough out onto a piece of plastic wrap and pat into a 1/2-inch rectangle.

cover completely with the wrap and place in the refrigerator for about 1 hour, or until firm.

preheat oven to 35o°F. line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

on a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough until 1/4-inch thick.

with a 2-inch diameter, fluted round cookie cutter, cut out the cookies and place one inch apart on prepared sheets.

gather the scraps and refrigerate until firm enough to roll out again.

take a skewer or with the back of a knife score a tic-tac-toe design on the cookies. brush them with milk and bake for 10-15 minutes until a light golden color.

cool on a wire rack.

makes approximately 40 cookies. store in an airtight container.

whichever festival or tradition you celebrate,
happy holidays!

eid sayeed

as my friends today celebrate the ending of their month-long fasting of ramadan — and i thought the yom kippur fast was brutal — they attend services this morning to celebrate the eid al-fitr. it is their celebration of the breaking of the fast. more about the celebration here and here.

there will be a gi-normous celebration at our olympic stadium [at least it's being used for something — an inside (montreal) joke].

this celebration usually will go on for three days with gift giving and lots of eating. this is a gift from my friend.

i am rationing out eating these delicious bakhla'wa. trust me, i can polish them off in one sitting, if forced. ;p .... these are only a few of the ones i received.

to get a glimpse & idea of the variety of these mouthwatering pastries that are available, visit this parisian tunisian site which shows you a grand selection. the website is in french. don't worry, just look at the pictures. ...umm, i'll take a dozen of each, s'il vous plaît!

eid mubarak!