Interview with big girls small kitchen
Joan Nathan on Food, France, and Hanukkah
Joan Nathan is truly the mother of Jewish cooking. She’s written 10 cookbooks on the subject, including the venerable tome Jewish Cooking in America, and her latest Quiches, Kugels, and Couscous: My Search for Jewish Cooking in France. So when I started thinking about the food and guides we wanted to feature on BGSK for Hanukkah, her name naturally came to mind.
I was lucky to be able to chat with Joan and ask her all our Hanukkah cooking, entertaining, and gifting queries. We talked about her favorite edible presents and how to get your home to not smell like latkes for days. She also shared with us the best holiday dishes from her new book, which in my opinion will make your cookbook shelf complete.
For a chance to win a copy of Quicjes, Kugels, and Couscous, visit our facebook page and comment on, like, or share this post!
From my kitchen, albeit small, to yours,
Phoebe, THE QUARTER-LIFE COOK
**Interview**
Phoebe Lapine: What was the first cookbook you owned?
Joan Nathan: Craig Claiborne’s New York Times Cookbook. And I still have it!
P.L. First job out of college?
J.N. I was a telephone girl in the NBC newsroom in New York. I was in charge of mail. But I liked it.
P.L. When did you know you wanted to write a cookbook dedicated to Jewish cooking in America, and why?
J.N. This is what I tell my kids: I just started doing what I wanted to do. (As I’m talking to you, I’m grabbing challah out of the freezer to bake and bring to someone’s house, so bear with me!)
P.L. Oh wow! Don’t burn yourself. Speaking of challah…For those of us who are less well-versed in Jewish holiday cooking traditions, when we think of Hanukkah, we think latkes. What are some of the unsung heroes of the Hanukkah table?
J.N. Well, as far as I’m concerned, you can’t go wrong with potato pancakes. I love them and so does everyone else in my family. So that’s what I make!
P.L. Are there any other Hanukkah dishes that you’re known for?
J.N. My brisket. Those two dishes are just foolproof. I think everyone can make good brisket and good potato pancakes. They are both inexpensive and easy.
P.L. Do you have any tricks for getting your apartment or home to not smell like potato pancakes for days after you’ve made them?
J.N. Most people in small apartments are working during the day. So what I do, is I try to make them a day or two in advance—even a week in advance!—and freeze them on cookie sheets on parchment paper, covered in plastic wrap. Then when it’s time for the party, I just quickly stick them in the oven to defrost and crisp them up. There is nothing worse than making potato pancakes when you have guests in the other room. Everyone keeps coming in for more—they’ll just pick them right out of the frying pan if you’re not careful. This way, you can do them at your own pace. As for the smell, I like it!
P.L. Do you have a go-to edible gift for this time of year?
J.N. Pecans, either candied or salted. Or preserved lemons in jars.
P.L. Presents in my family can get a little sad around day 5 or so of Hanukkah. Do you have any “stocking stuffer” equivalents for giving on the middle night of the holiday?
J.N. One thing that’s nice to do is to give a donation. A book is another one. We’re not huge on gifts in my family. The kids don’t really expect lots gifts now that they aren’t little anymore.
P.L. Well, I’m interviewing them next, so we’ll see about that!
J.N. Oh no!
P.L. You just published your 10th cookbook: Quiches, Kugels and Couscous: My Search for Jewish Cooking in France. What inspired you to choose France as the setting for your research?
J.N. I lived in France years ago, when I was younger. I went to Israel a lot later, so I wrote my first cookbook on Israel. I didn’t go back to France for a long time, but when I did, I realized that that’s really where I became interested in food, and also, that the Jewish population in France is the third largest in the world after Israel and the United States—and nobody had written anything about it! So I decided that’s what I wanted to do, and that’s what I did.
P.L. We hear Parisian kitchens are just as small as ours. Do have a dish from the book that’s especially great when you’re low on space?
J.N. There is a great apple cake that is good for Hanukkah. Or a chicken with fennel that’s really delicious and easy. It’s a nice winter dish.
P.L. Is there an equivalent dessert to the buche de noel for Jews in France?
J.N. Not really! They all probably buy buche de noel.
P.L. Your kids are around our readers’ age. What’s one golden piece of Jewish mother advice, cooking or otherwise?
J.N. Of course! I have huge pieces of advice. First of all: learn to cook. And learn to clean up. Those are the two things. If you learn to do that, there is nothing better for a mother—or a future mother-in-law!
P.L. Anything else our readers should know about you, Jewish cooking, or holiday entertaining?
J.N. I just think it’s really important to keep those holiday traditions alive, and to have fun with it. Because it’s the way you carry on a civilization—by passing on what you’ve learned from your parents, and things that were part of your childhood. So many of those traditions happen around meals. I really believe that the more a family cooks together, the more you’ll stay together. And the more memories you’ll have. So I encourage cooking and cleaning together. It can really be a lot of fun.
Joan Talks Hanukkah Traditions with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Cookbook author Nathan to give demos
By Candy Williams, FOR THE PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Washington, D.C., food journalist and cookbook author Joan Nathan will be in Pittsburgh next week for at least part of the eight-day celebration of Hanukkah Dec. 21-28 -- but it doesn't mean that her family will miss out on the traditional foods that make the Jewish holiday special.
It does mean that Nathan is spending extra time in the kitchen this week.
Shortcuts and advance preparation are two ways a busy cook can keep the holiday traditions alive, according to the host of the PBS television series "Jewish Cooking in America," who will visit two Giant Eagle Market District stores next Wednesday to demonstrate some favorite Hanukkah recipes.
Even one of the holiday's most popular side dishes, fried latkes (potato pancakes), can be made in advance and frozen for a large crowd, she says. Simply drain them after frying, and place them in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, and place the sheet in the freezer. To serve them, crisp the latkes in a 350-degree oven for about 20 minutes.
"A lot of people have told me they buy frozen hash browns and save the step of shredding the potatoes," Nathan says.
For her family, Nathan usually serves brisket, which she also will prepare in advance and freeze. Another time-saver is her recipe for Speed Challah, which she learned to make from a caterer, Georgette Hamier, who cooked for a synagogue Nathan visited in France.
The Moraccan anise-flavored bread with sesame seeds "takes one hour from start to finish," Nathan says. "It takes a shorter time to make it than if you went to the grocery store and bought it. And it's really good. I make my challah a day in advance, shape it and bake it," she says.
In her book, "Quiches, Kugels, and Couscous: My Search for Jewish Cooking in France" (Knopf, $39.95), the most recent of 10 cookbooks she has written, she explains that Hamier has been cooking for the Jewish community in Bordeaux for many years, where she makes 10 challahs a week for the rabbis. She shared her recipe with Nathan when Nathan visited France to do research for her book.
Oil is an important ingredient in many foods served for Hanukkah because of its historical significance, Nathan says.
"The holiday commemorates the Maccabean victory over Antiochus of Syria some 21 centuries ago, she explains in her "Jewish Holiday Cookbook." "Going to cleanse and rededicate the Temple, the Maccabees found only enough sacred oil to light the menorah for one day. But a miracle occurred, and one day's supply lasted eight."
One of her favorite holiday memories occurred during a trip she took to Jerusalem many years ago, where she was amazed to see all of the lighted menorahs in people's windows.
"It was so pretty," Nathan says. "And when I went to someone's house for dinner, the men all helped, and everyone came together just for conviviality."
She says traditional foods are important to any holiday because of their link to the past.
"One of the roles of a parent is to create memories for their children," she says. "My children are in their 20s and 30s, and they still want the same foods they had growing up. It's a way of grounding them."
Carrying on family traditions is important to her mother, who, at 98, still prepares her chicken cacciatore recipe with tomato sauce for Hanukkah.
"She just made her potato pancakes for the holiday," Nathan says.
Pain Petri (Moroccan Anise-Flavored Challah With Sesame Seeds)
2 tablespoons active dry yeast
2 cups lukewarm water
2 large eggs
1/2 cup peanut or vegetable oil
8 cups flour, plus more for dusting
1 tablespoon salt
1/3 cup sugar
2 heaping teaspoons anise seeds
3 large egg yolks
1 tablespoon water
1 1/2 tablespoons roasted sesame seeds
Heat the oven to 375 degrees, and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
Put the yeast in the bowl of an electric mixer, equipped with a dough hook, and pour in the lukewarm water. Stir, and when the yeast is dissolved whisk in the 2 whole eggs eggs, then add the oil.
Add 7 cups of the flour, the salt, sugar and anise seeds to the bowl and knead with the electric mixer until smooth and elastic, adding more flour as necessary. Form into a round loaf, and poke a 1-inch hole through the center. Let the dough rest, uncovered, on a floured board, for about 10 minutes.
Divide the dough into 4 pieces, using a knife or dough cutter. Flour the board and your hands, and roll each piece of dough into a long cylinder, about 20 inches long. With the palm of your hands, flatten the cylinder, then roll it into a long rope, about 2 feet long, making sure that there are no seams in the dough. Then bring the two ends next to each other and twist to form a loose spiral. Place on one of the two parchment-lined baking sheets. Do this with the other three pieces of dough.
Beat the 3 egg yolks in a bowl and add about a tablespoon of water. Stir well and brush all of the egg glaze over the loaves. Sprinkle the sesame seedsover the loaves.
Bake for 10 minutes. Reduce the oven to 350 degrees, and bake for another 30 minutes, or until the loaves sound hollow when tapped.
Makes 4 challahs.
Note: You also can make 2 larger challahs or twist 2 cylinders together to make 1 long braid and twist that into a round challah, but the baking time will be a bit longer.
Friday Night Chicken Provencal With Fennel and Garlic
1/4 cup olive oil
3 large fennel bulbs (about 4 pounds), cut in half and 2 tablespoons of the fronds chopped
1 whole head of garlic, cloves peeled and separated
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
Chicken thighs and legs (about 3 1/2 pounds)
1/2 cup white wine
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
Heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Add the fennel bulbs and the garlic, and saute slowly over a medium heat for about 30 minutes, turning occasionally with tongs. Season with salt and pepper, and carefully transfer to a baking pan, shaking the excess oil back into the skillet.
Heat the oven to 375 degrees and season the chicken with salt and pepper. Saute the chicken in the oil until browned on all sides.
Arrange the chicken on top of the fennel and garlic. Deglaze the skillet with the wine, scraping the sides and bottom with a wooden spoon. Reduce the wine and juices by half and pour over the chicken. Then, cover the chicken with aluminum foil and bake in the oven for 35 minutes. Remove the foil and continue cooking for another 5 or 10 minutes until the chicken is tender and the fennel cooked. Serve sprinkled with the parsley.
Makes 6 servings.
Tarte a la Compote de Pomme (Apple Sauce Tart)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
9 tablespoons cold unsalted butter or pareve margarine, cut into small cubes
2 tablespoons ice water
2 cups thick applesauce
1 apple, peeled and thinly sliced
Put the flour, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Add the butter or margarine little by little, and pulse until crumbly. Add 2 tablespoons ice water, and pulse until the dough comes together in a ball, adding a bit more flour if necessary. Remove the dough, shape it into a disk, wrap it in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Heat the oven to 425 degrees and roll out the chilled dough to a circle about 10 inches in diameter. Press it evenly into a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom, bringing the dough up the sides almost to the top of the pan and keeping an even thickness throughout. Make holes all over the bottom and along the sides of the shell with the tines of a fork, and bake the shell for 8 to 10 minutes or until it is lightly browned. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly.
Lower the oven temperature to 400 degrees. Spread the prepared applesauce in the pie crust, putting the sliced apple in a circular pattern on top. Return the pie to the oven and bake for 30 minutes more.
Makes 8 servings.
Joan in the Baltimore Jewish Times
By Rochelle Eisenberg
Those who have ever glanced through a cookbook written by celebrated kosher cookbook author Joan Nathan — let alone prepared recipes from its pages — know that it’s not merely the food that makes it so palatable. Within the pages of her books, the writer tells stories behind what is being served.
It’s those stories, plus some delectable recipes she will share, that will be behind Nathan’s upcoming appea-rance at the Goucher College Hillel next Wednesday, Nov. 2, at 8 p.m. The program, free to the public, will kick off Goucher’s “Jewish Culture Week.” Sponsored by the college’s Judaic studies program, the Office of the President, Goucher Hillel and the Posen Foundation, the week is designed to showcase the richness of Jewish cultural life over the past 3,500 years.
Nathan — whose cookbooks incl-ude “Jewish Cooking in America” (Knopf) and “Quiches, Kugels, And Couscous: My Search For Jewish Cooking in France” (Knopf) — says she expects to demonstrate making several items, including challah, and talk about the foods of the Jews of France, as well as the journey food makes.
It is this journey, and the stories that accompany so many of her recipes, that make Nathan so fascinating. “When Joan demonstrates, she throws in asides and you are glued to the story. How many ways can you talk about challah? But she brings in bits of history to make it interesting,” says one of her closest friends, Carol Brown Goldberg, a Baltimore native who lives in Washington, D.C.
As we speak by telephone, Nathan shares some of her own stories about researching her book on French Jewish cooking. Take apples, she says. “Everyone loved Jewish apple cake,” she says. “In Maryland, even the Christians had Jewish apple cake.”
What separated Jewish apple cake apart from other apple cakes was the use of oil, not butter, she says. That made the cake parve, and thus a dessert that could be eaten with meat on Shabbat and holidays. But Jewish apple cake is not always the same in all countries of the world, as in America where it has more flour than the French version.
“Food is a bridge between ancient Israel,” Nathan says. As the Jews traveled so did the food, reinventing itself as individuals moved between countries. In ancient Israel, she says, the Sabbath stew featured lamb or goat, fava beans and chickpeas. In Eastern Europe, it evolved to include kidney beans and beef. In the United States, potatoes and barley were added.
Perhaps what really interests Nathan is that “through food, people talk about their past.” She shares one story in particular about a woman who was hidden during World War II, who did not speak about her past. One day, Nathan was making challah with her and she opened up about the local priest who wouldn’t give up the Jews.
Nathan was recently included in “The Brisket Book: A Love Story With Recipes” (Andrews McMeel Publishing). The author, Stephanie Pierson, spent a day with Nathan and writes about their conversations over brisket. Nathan also provides several different brisket recipes, adapted from her cookbooks, for the book.
Nathan calls brisket a true comfort food and points to two camps of brisket connoisseurs — those who prefer sweet versions and those who like savory ones. Nathan admits she is in the latter camp.
A fan of onions, which she sautes first to bring out their sweetness, Nathan says she likes to add a little wine, tomatoes and bay leaves to her brisket. For her, an ideal brisket meal would include a butternut squash puree and farfel or Israeli couscous to soak up the gravy.
When researching “Quiches, Kugels, and Couscous,” Nathan discovered it was impossible to find an American-style brisket in France. The French, she says, cut around the muscles of the meat and use smaller pieces instead of the large five or six-pound “hunk” of meat Americans are accustomed to.
Speaking about her upcoming visit to Baltimore, she calls Charm City a town of Jewish traditions. Nathan says she’s looking forward to people sharing with her both old recipes and the folklore surrounding food.
Shabbat Menu Inspired by Chefs
Some of the most memorable and creative dishes I've tried have been introduced to me by chefs. Here are some of my favorites that are easily recreated at home. Try them for tomorrow night's Shabbat dinner, or any festive dinner you're planning.
I'd love to hear your feedback! What are some of your favorite Jewish restaurant dishes? What made the dish so special? Do you have the recipe?
Babka à la Française - Babka Rolls with Olive Tapenade
Choucroute de Poisson au Beurre Blanc - Fish Sauerkraut with Wine and Butter Sauce
A Morning with Joan
"You really think so?"
Joan Nathan asks this earnestly when I use the words 'food world luminary' to describe her.
When you think of the stories behind Jewish foods and culinary traditions, you think of her, I explain. She's the preeminent authority on the delicious subject. So, yes. Past cookbooks of hers such as Jewish Cooking in America, The Foods of Israel Today, several holiday books, and the subsequent television and radio programs she's done and regular articles she writes chronicle recipes contributed from Jewish peoples across the globe and the rich stories behind them.
Nathan, who lives in Washington, sat down with me for an interview before the start of Rosh Hashana. After offering some slices of challah bread as a snack (along with being a cookbook author, she's ever the Jewish mother), I relish the delays, stops and starts of our chat as a glimpse into the life of the writer-cook-book promoter. Her assistant has set the table for a small dinner she is hosting that evening for another food journalist and is boiling down apple cider for the main dish of ancho-cider glazed hens. With her assistant and an intern, it's the home kitchen in which she tests all the recipes that go into her book. She compiles an guest list for an event in Paris around her book. Will the Rothschilds come if she invites them? Can the furniture delivery men place a new couch one more inch to the left? Does she have time to run a few extra errands before dinner that evening and leaving for Martha's Vineyard for the Jewish New Year the next day?
As with other cookbooks of hers, an expansive introduction serves as a historical primer, getting into the arrivals of different populations of Jews in the country, the foods and traditions they brought with them, and how France influenced these traditional dishes as people have assimilated. Recipes are peppered with anecdotes, both from the author and her subjects, and asides that draw you into the people and families who have passed them down and now passed them on through the cookbook.
She also suggests a smattering of sample menus for shabbats, holidays and other occasions borrowing from Alastian, North African, French and Pan-French traditions that are the heart of her search for Jewish cooking in France. A favorite of hers that would work great at your Yom Kippur breakfast is Tarte aux Quetshes, an Italian Plum Tart from the Alsace-Lorraine region:
Crust
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter or margarine, cut into 8 pieces
1 egg yolk
Filling
3 tablespoons plum or other fruit jam
1 tablespoon brandy
1 1/2 pounds Italian blue plums
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1/4 cup sugar
1) To make the crust, pulse the flour, sugar, salt and butter or margarine together in the bowl of a food processor fitter with a steel blade until crumbled. Then add the egg yolk, and pulse until the dough comes together.
2) Put the dough in the center of an ungreased 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Dust your fingers with flour, and gently press out the dough to cover the bottom and sides of the pan. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
3) Preheat the oven to 450 degrees, and bake the crust for 10 minutes. Reduce the oven to 375 degrees, and bake for another 5 minutes. Remove the crust from the oven, and let cool slightly. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees.
4) Mix the jam with the brandy in a small bowl, and spread over the bottom of the crust. Pit the plums and cut them into four pieces each. Starting at the outside, arrange the plums in a circle so that all the pieces overlapp, creating concentric circles that wind into the center of the pan. Sprinkle with the cinnamon and lemon zest.
5) Return the tart to the oven, and bake for about 30 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown and the plums are juicy. Remove the tart from the oven, sprinkle on the sugar, and serve warm or at room temperature.
Joan Nathan will be at the National Geographic Society tomorrow evening (Tuesday, October 4) at 7 p.m. to talk about her latest book Quiches, Kugels, and Couscous: My Search for Jewish Cooking in France with a reception and tasting of some of the recipes to follow. Tickets are $48 and can be purchased in advance or at the door.
Joan’s Comforting Kugel on HuffPost
The word "comfort" carries a burdensome meaning for me. When you are raised in an environment where anything that smacks of the easy way out is considered the lazy approach to life, you start to judge anything overly comfortable in a negative way. For example, you would never allow yourself to sit on a sofa and watch TV in the middle of a sunny, brisk Saturday afternoon. You're supposed to be outside, riding a bike or going to a museum or, if you really need to be seated, reading a book. And not just any book. You would never read a bestseller or anything with Oprah's seal of approval. You're stretching your brain, challenging your vocabulary, taking yourself on a trip to another time or place. And if these activities make you a little uncomfortable, whether mentally or physically, so much the better, it means you probably "grew" as a person. And everyone knows growing can hurt a little.
As much as I resent the part of me that won't let me off the productive hook when I want to be a lazy sloth, I suppose I understand why my parents instilled this way of thinking. It's true, if you're on death's door you're never going to regret having read War and Peace instead of The Notebook. (I've read neither by the way.) And you won't think, "Why did I bother standing in line to see the Mona Lisa when I could have been watching a dubbed episode of Will & Grace in my hotel room?"
But when it comes to mourning a death or, as during these Jewish High Holy days, marking the end of a day of reflection, repentance and fasting, comfort food is in order. You deserve comforting because you are either in the midst of emotional distress or are coming off putting your stomach through extreme discomfort. That's why it has always made complete sense to me that the foods most often found on a shiva buffet are the same ones arranged around the table at a Yom Kippur break fast. They are all designed to nurture and restore you in a gentle and unprovocative way.
After the funeral for my mother's step-mother several years ago, we went to my mother's step-sister's house where the table legs were shaking under the weight of more food than even this large, grieving crowd could ever have eaten. You've got to hand it to my people, we know how to over-feed. This side of our family wasn't plagued with the discomfort-trumps-comfort ethos. When we were kids, each of my cousins had her own room furnished with a bedroom set, wall-to-wall carpeting and a television. I bet the summer they turned nine my aunt and uncle didn't make them read Tom Sawyer and The Price and The Pauper, in addition to the school's reading list. I was so jealous. And all these years later they had a big, comfy sectional sofa in the den facing an enormous TV where the men had already started to watch a football game.
Anyway, aside from Passover and the stray box of Golden's Cheese Blintzes in the back of the freezer, I was raised in a family that didn't do a lot of culturally Jewish eating. I was very late in my discovery of the pleasures of smoked fish. But at Nanny's shiva I piled my plate high with orange, buttery salmon, scoops of creamy white fish salad, sliced tomatoes and a toasted bialy. Having eyed a fruit salad and a platter of rugelach, I knew to save room for dessert.
And then I approached a lasagna pan, cheeses and butter still bubbling, topped with what looked like corn flakes and swirled with apricot jam. It was a noodle pudding, or kugel, and I hadn't seen one since I was a little girl hanging out in the cozy kitchen of the Orthodox Jewish couple who lived next door. Back then I didn't understand the appeal of baked egg noodles, cottage cheese, dried fruit and cinnamon. That's because I was a moron. Kugel is one of the most delicious inventions. Imagine getting a warm, sweet hug from someone who adores you. That's what kugel tastes like. It doesn't judge, it doesn't challenge. It just says, "Enjoy, bubbela."
So I hit the books and found Joan Nathan's recipe for "Noodle Kugel Served at the American Embassy in Rome" to be my favorite. Maybe I like the dash of pedigree applied to the very homey dish by way of its connection to the diplomatic service? Whatever the reason it is fantastic and results in my father saying, "This is your best kugel!" every year as if he hadn't had the exact same one the year before. I add a bit of orange zest because I like the citrusy contrast against the mellow creaminess. Serve it warm and allow yourself to be comforted and loved. War and Peace can wait till tomorrow.
For more stories with your recipes, please visit In Sweet Treatment
Adapted from Jewish Cooking in America, Joan Nathan 1998
Ingredients
1/2 pound wide egg noodles
2 cups cottage cheese
2 cups milk
1/3 cup butter melted
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, divided
1 Tablespoon orange zest
1/2 cup plus 2 Tablespoons sugar, divided
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup sour cream or yogurt
1/4 cup dried currants
1/4 cup chopped dried apricots
1/4 cup sliced almonds
Directions
Preheat oven to 350, butter a 9 x 13 glass baking dish and set aside.
Cook noodles as per package instructions, drain and set aside.
In a large bowl, combine combine cottage cheese, milk, butter, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, orange zest, 1/2 cup sugar, eggs, salt, sour cream/yogurt, currants and apricots. Fold in noodles.
Pour mixture into baking dish, sprinkle with remaining teaspoon of cinnamon, then 2 Tablespoons of sugar. Top with sliced almonds.
Bake for 45 minutes to one hour until firm.
Let cool a bit before serving. Can be made ahead and refrigerated. Warm up before serving.
Yield: 8-10 side dish servings.
Joan Answers Rosh Hashanah Cooking Questions on PBS.org
Joan Nathan Answers Your Rosh Hashanah Questions
September 28, 2011
In preparation for Rosh Hashanah, we collected your cooking questions for Joan Nathan. Joan is the author of numerous successful cookbooks, such as “Jewish Cooking in America” and her most recent “Quiches, Kugels and Couscous: My Search for Jewish Cooking in France.” The former served as the inspiration for Joan’s PBS cooking show, “Jewish Cooking in America with Joan Nathan,” which was nominated for a James Beard Award in 2000.
Cooking for Rosh Hashanah is not always easy, and we received several excellent questions for our expert. Joan has answered the six best questions below!
“Hi Joan, With all the hectic preparations (in our case two days of Rosh HaShana back to back with Shabbat!) we concentrate so much on what to cook for the holiday that sometimes we forget that our families have to eat in the afternoon before the holiday begins! Any suggestions on something that’s easy to prepare and healthy, and will hold them over until the night time festivities?” – from Sara of “Creative Jewish Mom“
Sara, I am confronted with the same problem. This year I am making a chicken salad from the chicken from my soup, putting a little mayonaise, celery, coconut flakes, and curry. We will see who eats it. I also might make pasta with pesto and the last green beans of summer from our garden. I can make it in advance with a nice salad and there it is. Hope this helps.
“Hello, I would like to know if your Rosh Hashanah meal has changed since your childhood to reflect the changing times. For example the use of olive oil instead of margarine or incorporating the symbolic foods in nontraditional ways. Shana Tov, Sarah” – from Sara of “Food Bridge”
Sarah, Yes it has changed a bit. Of course olive oil instead of pareve margarine in cooking, more vegetables and fewer kugels, and crisps instead of pies for desserts. I like to incorporate the fall season into my food and of course also incorporate all the foods I have learned about and loved when interviewing people. But I do like to still have tradition in my holiday meals. So for Rosh Hashanah, for example, my chicken soup might change by having some carrots from my garden floating in it with matzo balls with fresh ginger in them. But the basic taste will be there. We may try different kinds of local honey for dipping our local apples. My salads are always North African. This time roasted pepper and carrot for prosperity. My challah is always the same, but I make it. My mother bought it. The chicken might vary each year for Rosh Hashanah eve. The day of Rosh Hashanah we do tashlich in a stream behind our house. And Rosh Hashanah evening we will have brisket and this year the kugel with it will be Alsatian bread kugel with the last rhubarb from my garden instead of the usual plum and pear kugel of Alsace. Desserts will be my family’s plum tarte and traditional Jewish Apple Cake. So I guess we incorporate the new and the very old! Shana Tova. – Joan
“How do you strike a happy balance between people wanting all the old standards, pot roast, tsimmes, potato kugel or whatever you have at your house, and the desire to mix things up a bit?” – from Karen Beck
Karen, As you can see from the answer to Sarah, I mix things up a bit as you say but also keeping health in mind. I do not make all the dishes everyone likes. I leave lots for Shabbat dinners. We can’t eat all the good dishes at once in the Jewish repertoire! And I am one person! Hope this helps. – Joan
“Is there a way to help families that are vegetarian but still want to respect our traditions as well? Can you recommend or help us with resources? Thank You. Shana Tovah.” - from Wingedangelflies
Absolutely. For starters there is a very good vegetarian broth in my Quiches, Kugels and Couscous or just use Miso and float your matzo balls in it. We always think of meat as a centerpiece but look at Asian food. There is no centerpiece so pick out your favorite Jewish vegetarian dishes — there are loads and you will have a wonderful meal. All my books are loaded with them. Shana Tova!
“Why do many recipes call for unsalted butter, then add salt? Is there much of a difference between salted and unsalted butter?” - from Nancy
Nancy, I like to use unsalted butter for baking and salted butter for everything else. You always want some salt in whatever you are cooking so when I make a crust or cookies with unsalted butter I add a pinch of so. Anything else you have to add salt so why not use salted.
“Hello Joan – I’m not Jewish – but used to do hair in So. California and had many Jewish bosses and friends who fed me. I loved Kugel, and recently found a recipe in a magazine – but – it’s made with brown rise. Isn’t it supposed to be made with noodles?” – from Sharon Lee
Sharon, Kugel which is a kind of casserole really can be made with anything. The original kugels were more like bread puddings and originated in Alsace Lorraine and Southern Germany. You can see modern versions in New Orleans where many Alsatians went. This was basically a dish made with leftover bread, eggs, fruit of the season if available like pears and prunes and even onions. Then eventually people used leftover noodles, potatoes, and even rice. I love kugel so look at any of my books and you’ll find them, both savory and unsavory, but I do not believe I have any with rice! – Joan Nathan
Joan Talks Honey with the Jewish Week
Spread A Little Sweetness Around
Don’t reserve honey just for dessert. Use it to punch up chicken, vegetables and soup.
It’s sweet, it’s sticky and it is a constant on the dinner table for Rosh HaShanah. Honey is drizzled on apples, challah and fingers throughout the Jewish holiday, virtually guaranteeing a sweet-filled year. From swirling a tablespoon in tea to slathering it on a scone or biscuit, honey has many sweet applications. But don’t reserve the golden, syrupy liquid just for dessert: pair honey with anything from poultry to vegetables to grains results in a tasty and no-less-symbolic dish for the High Holy Days.
Honey can go with “just about anything,” said Levana Kirschenbaum, cookbook author and former owner of an eponymous New York restaurant. “Glazed carrots with ginger would work very well with a little honey, or orange juice, chicken tagine with prunes and almonds would be great with honey,” she said. “Even a little honey in a salad dressing to offset the acidity.”
Joan Nathan, award-winning cookbook author of works such as “The Jewish Holiday Kitchen” and “Jewish Cooking in America,” said she will often “smear [honey] on chicken” along with a variety of spices, since “it caramelizes it.” She also includes honey in tzimmes, a traditional carrot dish, or with brisket cooked with dried fruit. And some people, she said, “put honey in cholent.”
And while the traditional honey found on most supermarket shelves is neutral in flavor, there are many varieties available in well-stocked or speciality stores.
“I love the buckwheat [honey],” Kirschenbaum said. “It has this very rugged, very intense taste.”
“I always have on my table date honey,” said Nathan. “And even though it’s “really not honey at all,” but a syrup derived from the fruit, it is actually believed to be the ‘honey’ referred to in the Bible, and eaten by Jews of that period. “It wasn’t until maybe the Crusades that the Franciscans brought honey bees to Israel, to Palestine,” Nathan said.
Carrot Ginger Soup
Courtesy of Levana Kirschenbaum’s “The Whole Foods Kosher Kitchen.”
1/3 cup olive oil
2 large red onions, quartered
2-inch piece ginger, grated
1 tbs. curry, a little more
if you like it hotter
3 large carrots, grated (about 4
cups packed)
¼ cup honey or maple syrup
3 quarts (12 cups) water
½ cup millet (or other quick-cooking grain: steel-cut oats, teff, amaranth, etc.)
1 tsp. allspice
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tbs. orange zest
Salt to taste
Freshly ground pepper to taste.
Heat the oil in heavy pot. In a food processor, coarsely grind the onions and add to the hot oil. Reduce the flame to medium and fry, stirring occasionally until very dark brown. This step will take about 20 minutes. Add the ginger and curry and cook, stirring 2 more minutes. Add all but last ingredient. Bring to a boil. Reduce the flame to medium and cook covered for 30 minutes. Adjust the texture and seasonings. Makes a dozen ample servings.
Honey-Orange Chicken
Courtesy of Joan Nathan’s “The Jewish Holiday Kitchen.”
2 eggs
2 tsp. water
1 cup breadcrumbs or matzah meal
1 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
Two 3-pound fryer chickens, cut up
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup hot water
1/4 cup honey
1 cup orange juice
2 tbs. grated fresh ginger
or 1/4 tsp. ground ginger
Beat the eggs with 2 teaspoons water. In a separate bowl, mix the breadcrumbs with the salt and pepper. Dip the chicken, one piece at a time, in to the egg mixture then the breadcrumb mixture.
Heat the oil in a heavy skillet and brown the chicken pieces on all sides, them remove to a casserole dish.
Heat the oven to 325 F.
Mix the hot water with the honey, orange juice and ginger. Pour the sauce over the chicken. Bake for 45 minutes, basting occasionally.But don’t reserve the golden, syrupy liquid just for dessert: pair honey with anything from poultry to vegetables to grains results in a tasty and no-less-symbolic dish for the High Holy Days.
Persian Rosh Hashanah Menu
It has been a month or so since I started the Jewish Cooking Group on Facebook and I am thrilled to see it taking on its own organic life. This week I was at a conference on food writing at the Greenbrier -- a great experience by the way -- and had an idea. Once a month I will share a menu with recipes for "Shabbat with Joan" or recipes for whatever holiday is coming up. Please try them, give us your feedback, and finally, share your own recipes with us. Food plays such an important role in Jewish culture – many of the most treasured family memories are of times spent in the kitchen or around the table. So when we share recipes, we share our traditions.
I will also put the menu on my website, www.JoanNathan.com. The recipes may in part come from an article I will have written for the New York Times or from Tablet Magazine.
This month the food will be Persian, the first Jewish food of the Diaspora. I would especially love to hear your thoughts about the food and any traditions associated with it.
I hope you enjoy the recipes from this menu!
Sweet and Sour Stuffed Grape Leaves
Persian Chicken Soup with Gundi (Chickpea Dumplings)
Salad of Fresh Herbs – dill, cilantro, cucumbers, scallions, and radishes
Persian Sweet Rice with Onions and Carrots
Fesenjan – Walnut-Pomegranate Chicken
Persian Fruit Compote
Joan Speaks with Sam Sifton
Q&A: Sam Sifton on His New Job, Delis and Bagels
Last week, news of Sam Sifton, the New York Times Restaurant Critic being promoted to the National Editor of the Gray Lady, shook the culinary world. Sifton, 45, served one of the shorter stints as restaurant critic at the Times but had gained a following toward the end of his tenure. He infused his articles with culture, history, erudition, and lots of humor. He also helped put Brooklyn on the culinary map, much to the chagrin of longtime Vogue critic Jeffrey Steingarten.
Sifton came to the Times as dining editor in 2001, a post he held for three years. Then he became Cultural editor until 2009 when he was chosen to succeed Frank Bruni as Restaurant Critic, a post he held for two years.
While being National Editor is a plum position and means that he is going up on the New York Times ladder, his foodie fans will be disappointed that he is moving on. Between his last weeks as restaurant critic and the beginning of his new post as national editor, Sifton found time to answer a couple of questions for the Jew and the Carrot.
Joan Nathan: For most people it would be a dream come true to eat out at NY’s top restaurants. But being a critic is a different story. Is it a relief to no longer have to eat out all the time?
Sam Sifton: I suppose that working as the cultural editor took a little time to get used to. Other than the brutality of the weekly deadline, I had my own schedule, but I missed being in an office. I guess the grass is always greener. Now I suppose I’ll miss the flexibility of my schedule as restaurant critic. I’ll miss a lot of the good restaurants but not the bad restaurants.
Q. Showing your interest in food, what role will food play in your post as the national desk editor?
A. Food is going to be part of traveling around the country. The Times has Kim Severson in Atlanta who is terrific, Campbell Robertson in New Orleans, A. G. Sulzberger in Kansas City, and Adam Nagourney in LA is big food maniac. The paper will reflect all these people.
Q. What is your favorite bagel place in NYC and why?
A. I think that asking about what bagel is your favorite is like haggling about what pizza place you like best. I loathe the bagels closest to my house in Brooklyn. I guess I would say Terrace Bagels. I wouldn’t go from Brooklyn to the Upper West Side for bagels!
Q. What do you think of the new age delis that are popping up?
A. Wasn’t New York always filled with delis? We all mourned their passing and now we are excited about new ones, albeit in Canadian forms. Luckily Barney Greengrass and Russ & Daughters are still here.
Q. Will you miss going out to dinner every night?
A. Of course I will miss going out to dinner but I am looking forward to being a regular somewhere where a waitress knows you again and again. I still have a few weeks of cleaning my plate so I won’t say more but I really look forward to being a regular.
Read more: http://blogs.forward.com/the-jew-and-the-carrot/143025/#ixzz1YYbeTlHO
Joan's Recipes
"Harissa - Tunisian Hot Chili Sauce"
from
Quiches, Kugels, and Couscous: My Search for Jewish Cooking in France
"Babka à la Française - Babka Rolls with Olive Tapenade"
from
Quiches, Kugels, and Couscous: My Search for Jewish Cooking in France
"Choucroute de Poisson au Beurre Blanc - Fish Sauerkraut with Wine and Butter Sauce"
from
Quiches, Kugels, and Couscous: My Search for Jewish Cooking in France
"Salade à Ma Façon"
from
Joan Nathan’s Jewish Holiday Cookbook
"Fesenjan (Walnut-Pomegranate Chicken)"
from
Joan Nathan’s Jewish Holiday Cookbook
"Persian Sweet Rice with Oranges and Carrots"
"Persian Chicken Soup with Gundi (Chickpea Dumplings)"
from
Jewish Cooking in America