How to Run a Traditional Jewish Household

by Blu Greenberg

  Challah

  2 envelopes dry yeast

  ½ cup lukewarm water

  2 cups boiling water

  ½ cup vegetable oil

  2 tsp. salt

  2 tsp. sugar

  2 eggs, beaten

  7 to 8 cups flour, depending on atmospheric conditions that day

  In a small bowl, combine yeast and lukewarm water. Allow to stand about 5 to 10 minutes to work.

  In larger bowl, put in boiling water. Add oil, salt, and sugar, and stir until sugar is dissolved. Cool mixture to lukewarm and then add the yeast mixture. Add beaten eggs (reserving 2 tablespoons of egg mixture for brushing loaves before baking). Add approximately 3 to 4 cups of flour and stir, to make a smooth batter. Then add remaining flour to make a dough that is smooth and elastic and manageable. Knead dough for a few minutes. Shape into a ball and grease entire surface of dough lightly with oil and place in a greased mixing bowl. Cover with clean cloth, and set in warm (not hot) place until dough rises to double in bulk (approximately 2 to 3 hours). Knead again, and divide into two even balls to make two challot.

  Now “take challah”—remove a small piece of dough, the size of an olive, and throw into the oven, making appropriate prayer:

  Baruch ata Adonai Elohainu melech ha’olam, asher kidshanu b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu lehafrish challah.

  Blessed are You, Lord our God, Ruler of the universe, Who has sanctified us with His commandments, and has commanded us to separate challah.

  Cut each ball into 3 pieces. Roll each piece into a long strip, slightly tapered at the ends. Press the top 3 ends together and start braiding the challah until the end, and press the bottom ends together. Prepare the second loaf in the same way. Place the 2 challot on a greased baking sheet, or in 2 bread loaf pans, 9x5x3 inches (greased). Set in warm (not hot) place away from drafts. Cover with clean dish towel and allow to rise to double the bulk. For a crispy crust, add a spoonful of water to the reserved egg and brush onto the loaves. Sprinkle with sesame or poppy seeds—if desired. If you desire a soft crust, brush loaves with melted margarine. Bake in hot oven (400°) about 10 minutes. Then reduce heat to moderate (350°) and continue baking about 30 to 40 minutes, until desired brownness.

  If you bake challot in loaf pans, remove them from pans immediately when they come out of the oven, and place them on a rack.

  Gefilte Fish

  4 lbs. ground fish: pike, whitefish, pickerel, and carp are the popular varieties

  4 onions

  3 carrots

  3 stalks celery

  About 2 qts. water

  3 large eggs

  3 tbs. matzah meal (and if too loose, you may add a little more)

  Salt and pepper to taste

  1 tsp. sugar (optional in both broth and fish)

  Have fishman fillet and grind your fish. Take home the bones, skin, and head for the broth. Clean bones, skin, and head well, and salt.

  Into a large kettle, place cleaned heads, skin, and bones, 2 sliced onions, 2 carrots, 2 stalks of celery, salt and pepper to taste, and sugar if desired. Cover with 2 quarts of water. Cover pot and bring to boil.

  Using processor or grinder, grind 2 onions, 1 carrot, and 1 stalk of celery, and mix with ground fish. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and a spoonful of sugar, if desired. Turn into a mixing bowl, add ¼ cup of cold water, and keep blending the entire mixture. Then add the eggs, one at a time, and keep blending. Finally, add the matzah meal to make a nice consistency that you can handle. Check seasonings here. Wet hands with cold water, and shape round balls or elongated ones by rolling from hand to hand. Make size of balls depending on whether fish is to be main course or the appetizer. Drop each ball into the boiling broth carefully. The balls should not break when you drop them into the water. If one does, add a little more matzah meal to the remaining batter and blend. And then continue. Bring the pot back to boil, cover, then turn heat to low and simmer for about 1½ hours. Check the water from time to time to see that the pot isn’t dry.

  When done, allow fish to cool before removing onto a tray. Remove the carrots to use for garnishing. Then pour the rest of the liquid through a sieve, so that you can have a clear broth to serve with the fish, if desired. Serve hot or cold, with horseradish.

  Rena’s Favorite Recipe—Hamantashen

  Preheat oven to 365°

  Dough

  3 ½ cups flour

  1 cup sugar

  1 tsp. baking powder

  Dash salt

  1 cup melted Crisco

  3 eggs, beaten

  ¼ cup orange juice

  Rind of 1 lemon

  Filling

  2 lbs. prune lekvar or apricot lekvar

  Add to it:

  Juice of 1 lemon

  ½ cup chopped walnuts

  Rind of 1 orange

  1 or 2 tbs. bread crumbs (to make lekvar drier)

  Make dough by blending all the ingredients. Roll out on floured board until nice and thin. Cut out 2-inch rounds with open end of glass. Fill with lekvar recipe. Fold up 3 sides to make a tricorn. You can either leave center open or seal the dough completely. The open ones look prettier.

  Bake on greased cookie sheet, at 365°, for 25 to 30 minutes, until done as desired.

  (Purim) Hamantashen—Dairy or Parve

  Preheat oven to 375°

  Dough

  4 cups flour

  2 tsp. baking powder

  ½ tsp. salt

  1 cup butter or margarine

  1½ cups sugar

  2 eggs

  4 tbs. orange juice or pineapple juice

  ¼ cup club soda or seltzer water

  1 tsp. vanilla

  Filling

  2 lbs. lekvar

  Add to it:

  Juice of ½ lemon and rind of 1 lemon

  ½ cup chopped walnuts

  ½ peeled, grated apple

  Blend flour, baking powder, and salt. Cream shortening and sugar. Add eggs. Add flour mixture to creamed mixture, alternately with liquids. Add vanilla. If dough is too loose, add more flour.

  Roll dough to ⅛ inch to ¼ inch thickness. Cut dough with open end of glass to make two-inch circles.

  Place mound of filling in each 2-inch round. Pinch dough up on 3 sides to form a triangle. Place on greased cookie sheet and bake until lightly browned, about 40 to 45 minutes.

  Tzimmes for Shabbat or Rosh Hashanah

  ¼ cup margarine

  6 to 8 carrots, sliced

  3 sweet potatoes, chunked or sliced in 1-inch rounds

  3 peeled, sliced apples

  ¼ cup brown sugar

  A minimum of salt

  Water to cover all

  Cook in covered pot over low flame, for 1 to 1½ hours. You may add honey for Rosh Hashanah, or at any time. You can vary this recipe by adding some dried apricots, or a few prunes or whatever you fancy.

  Carrot Cake

  (Good any time; also for Rosh Hashanah)

  ¾ A cup oil

  ½ cup brown sugar

  1 beaten egg

  Add:

  1¼ cups flour

  ½ tsp. salt

  1 tsp. baking soda

  1¼ tsp. baking powder

  1 tsp. cinnamon

  Add:

  1 tbs. water

  1 tbs. lemon juice

  4 medium grated carrots (approx. 1½ cups)

  (Mixture should be moist but not drippy)

  Bake in small, round mold pan with open center at 350° for 40 to 45 minutes. The mold should be lightly greased.

  Potato Kugel for 5 to 6

  5 large Russet potatoes, peeled and grated

  1 onion, grated

  2 eggs (3, if small)

  ⅓ cup oil

  Salt and pepper to taste

  2 tbs. matzah meal

  Peel and grate potatoes—add grated onion. (All this can be done easily in a processor using the chopping blade rather than the grating one.)

  Add eggs and beat well, and then add oil, salt, pepper, and matz
ah meal.

  Pour into well-greased casserole pot and bake at 400° for at least 1 hour (usually, about 1 hour and 15 minutes).

  Tsholent for 8 to 10 People as a Side Dish

  (If you want to use this as a main course for 6 people, increase the amount of meat)

  1 ¼ cups large lima beans

  ½ cup red kidney beans

  1 cup barley

  ½ to 2 lbs. flanken

  3 large potatoes, in large chunks

  Coarse salt to taste

  Pepper to taste

  3 tbs. brown sugar

  1 tsp. minced garlic

  Paprika for color

  Check over lima beans, red kidney beans, and barley for any rotten beans. Discard those. Wash all beans and barley very well. Place in a large pot or Dutch oven. Cut up flanken and put into pot. Then fill with water to cover, with about 2 inches above the ingredients. Bring to a boil, and skim off the scum. Cover and cook for 1 hour, at medium heat. Add the potatoes which have been cut into chunks. Now cut heat down to very low and allow to cook for four or five hours on top of stove. When you put your tin on the stove for Shabbat, you place your finished tsholent on a hot spot and leave it for Shabbat. It will stay hot and won’t spoil since the tsholent will already be cooked. The trick is to keep it hot but not cooking.

  Method #2

  Another method is to cook the tsholent on the top of the stove for 1 hour, add the potatoes, and cook for another ¾ hour, and then place in oven at 275° for the rest of Shabbat. Do not stir tsholent, either on top of the stove or in the oven.

  Method #3

  Place all the ingredients in an electric Crock Pot, cover with water, the same as recipe #1. Turn to Automatic, which will start the Crock Pot; it will adjust itself to simmer even though the arrow will still be pointing to Automatic.

  Cheese Blintzes (Crepes) for Shavuot

  Leaves

  1 cup flour

  1 tsp. salt

  1½ cups milk or water

  3 eggs

  Filling

  4 to 5 packages farmer cheese 2-2½ lbs.

  Add to it:

  2 egg yolks beaten

  1 tbs. butter

  1 tbs. sugar

  Pinch salt

  ¼ tsp. vanilla

  Prepare leaves first. Place flour in bowl, add ½ teaspoon salt. Make a well, then gently add liquid into well, a little at a time, and draw flour into liquid. Keep stirring, until all flour is absorbed with liquid, and batter has no lumps. Then add eggs, which have been lightly beaten. Mixture should be light, smooth, and more to the watery side.

  Use 7-inch frying pan. I use the Wear-Ever SilverStone frying pan, which is excellent for blintzes and crepes, as the batter never sticks to its bottom. Heat the frying pan over moderate flame, using very little butter. Pour about 2 tablespoons of the batter into pan, and shake it around to cover the entire bottom. Place the pan on the burner. You will see the sides of the leaf getting a little dry. Flip leaf onto a clean dish towel so that the bottom side is on top. Grease pan with paper towel pad each time before pouring in batter for leaves. Continue making each leaf separately, and turn them onto a clean towel. CAUTION: each leaf only takes about a minute, so don’t leave the stove.

  When all the leaves are made, place the cheese filling on one end of each leaf, and start rolling the dough over the cheese. Then fold over sides, and continue rolling until you have a blintz, neatly sealed. Place them on a buttered dinner plate until you are ready to fry them. Heat oil in pan, turn to moderate heat, and place blintzes in to fry, turning once to brown. Remove and serve hot.

  Noodle Pudding with Cheese for Shavuot

  This is a good substitute for blintzes on Shavuot, and much easier to make.

  ½ lb. fine or medium noodles, cooked

  1 lb. farmer cheese

  ½ lb. cream cheese

  ¼ cup unsalted margarine or butter

  ¾ cup sugar

  1 cup sour cream

  3 eggs

  1 tsp. salt

  1 tsp. vanilla

  Combine all ingredients and bake in greased oblong pan. (I use a foil pan.) Cook at 350° for 1 hour.

  Salt and Pepper Noodle Ring for Shabbat

  ½ lb. cooked fine noodles

  3 eggs

  3 tbs. oil

  Salt and pepper to taste

  Cook noodles in salted water, for about 8 minutes. Drain in colander. Beat eggs and add to noodles. Add oil, and salt and pepper to taste.

  Bake in greased kugel pot or baking dish for 1 hour, in moderate oven, 350°-375°.

  Sweet Noodle Pudding

  (Also to be used as side dish for Shabbat)

  ½ lb. cooked noodles, fine or medium

  2 tbs. oil

  3 eggs, separated

  1 cup sugar

  3 peeled, sliced apples

  ¼ cup raisins

  1 tsp. cinnamon

  ½ tsp. vanilla

  Add oil to cooked noodles. Add egg yolks, sugar, and other ingredients. Beat egg whites stiff, and fold into mixture. Bake in greased pan or round casserole dish at 375° for 45 minutes, or until done.

  Sponge Cake

  (This is my special first recipe—and I am still making the same one after forty-nine years of marriage)

  Preheat oven to 350°

  1½ cups flour

  1½ tsp. baking powder

  Dash of salt

  6 eggs, separated

  1½ cups sugar

  ½ cup very cold orange juice or water

  1 tsp. vanilla

  Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt several times. In a very dry bowl, beat egg whites with half of the sugar until stiff but not dry. (Beaters, too, should be absolutely dry!) Set bowl aside.

  Beat egg yolks with remainder of sugar. Gently add flour alternately with orange juice or water until all are blended. Fold in egg whites by hand, into yolk mixture—gently, until all is blended. Blend in vanilla.

  Pour into spring tube pan, 10 × 4 inches, which must be dry: no grease. Tap pan lightly on floor to release any air bubbles. Place in moderate oven at 350° for 50 to 55 minutes. Test by pressing index finger gently on top. If it springs back, the cake is ready. Don’t let the cake get too brown on top, as that will also dry up the sponginess. Turn cake upside down, immediately, and allow to cool on cake rack. When cool, loosen cake with a knife, going all around; then unspring sides of baking pan. You can then run a knife under the bottom of the sponge cake, and you can remove the cake. If you are using a regular tube pan, which I use, you have to turn the cake upside down immediately and cool the cake. Loosen the cake with a knife, going all around, while keeping the knife close to the side of the pan and going down to the bottom of the pan. If you use a cut of brown paper to fit on the bottom of the tube pan, the cake will also be easier to take out. You can use this recipe for strawberry shortcake or any other cake you want to layer with fruit.

  Chicken Soup

  3 qts. water

  3-4 lbs. chicken

  3 ribs celery

  2 or 3 carrots

  1 parsnip

  1 root

  1 leek or 1 onion

  2 sprigs dill (optional)

  Salt and pepper to taste

  Clean chicken well. Place all ingredients in a 5-quart pot. Cover with cold water and allow to come to boil over moderate heat. Skim the scum and foam that rises to the top as the soup boils. Then turn down the heat to simmer. Cover pot and simmer for 1½ to 2 hours. Taste for seasoning. Remove chicken from soup. Add sprigs of dill for 3 to 5 minutes—no longer—and remove dill immediately from soup. If you don’t like dill, the soup will be as delicious without it.

  Knaidlach for Chicken Soup

  4 eggs

  1 tsp. salt

  Dash of pepper

  ½ cup water

  ⅓ cup melted shortening

  1 cup matzah meal

  Stir eggs lightly with fork. Add salt, pepper, water, and melted shortening. Stir in matzah meal. Place in refrigerator for 15 minutes
or longer, if desired. Make balls; drop them into 2 quarts of boiling water, to which 1 tablespoon of salt has been added. Cook for about 20 minutes; remove from water when done.

  Stuffed Cabbage for Sukkot, Simchat Torah, or Whenever

  12 to 15 large leaves of cabbage

  1½ lbs. freshly ground beef

  1 medium onion, grated, or 2 sautéed onions

  ⅓ cup uncooked rice, selected and washed

  Salt and pepper to taste

  There are 3 methods for softening cabbage leaves. One: pour boiling water over a cored cabbage; water should cover the top of the cabbage. Cover, and allow to soak for 15 minutes. Two: Shortcut. Cut out core of cabbage. Place in freezer for at least 24 hours. When cabbage defrosts, (allow several hours), the leaves will be pliable and ready to stuff. Three: Core cabbage, remove leaves, steam in a colander over boiling water for several minutes, until leaves are pliable enough to roll.

  Now here are two sauces in which to cook the cabbage:

  Sauce #1

  2 large diced onions, melted in

  ⅔ cup brown sugar. Add

  2 cans tomato sauce (16 oz.)

  1 can of water

  2 tbs. lemon juice

  Handful of raisins, if desired

  Bring to a boil. Season if necessary, with additional salt and/or lemon juice.

  (This sauce is also good for sweet-and-sour meat balls.)

  Sauce #2

  1 10-oz. bottle of ketchup

  2 large cans whole cranberry sauce

  Bring to boil in a wide-bottomed pot.

  Combine the chopped meat, onion, and rice. Salt and pepper to taste. Place meat filling in cored end of leaf. Roll up once until meat is covered, then fold over the sides, and continue rolling to end of leaf, tucking in all edges.

  Place some leftover leaves on bottom of dutch oven or large pot. Pour sauce into large pot. Place the stuffed cabbage in pot.

  Make sure the sauce covers the stuffed cabbage. Turn the heat to moderate, and, when the cabbage begins to cook, turn down to simmer. Allow to cook approximately 1½ to 2 hours. Check to see that sauce doesn’t boil out. If necessary, add more sauce and seasonings.