There are two times a year that my entire family comes together — Rosh Hashanah and Passover. Although both holidays have their respective traditions, Passover is particularly special. Exhausted mothers and grandmothers have spent the last month before the holiday cleaning their homes with arduous rigor. They have cooked every day, while also having to…
Last year, the Conservative movement issued a teshuva, or ruling, that kitniyot — i.e rice, beans and legumes, traditionally avoided by Ashkenazi Jews at Passover — are now permissible. For those who feel liberated by this decision (perhaps feeling that the dictum to avoid chametz is enough of a manacle), you may also be overwhelmed…
In 1916, the New York Board of Health issued a concise 36 page recipe book aimed at Jewish American homemakers. Published bilingually in both Yiddish and English, “How to Cook for the Family” contained recipes for such “plain, substantial and wholesome” dishes as tomato soup, beef stew and cornstarch pudding. So far as we can…
Most foods of Jewish ritual are well known to the larger Jewish community. The entire seder is focused around a series of symbolic foods that are familiar to almost all Jews. However, the foods of smaller and lesser known Jewish communities around the world are often lost as their numbers dwindle and dishes are prepared…
T’beet, a chicken stuffed with rice and spices and cooked buried in more rice and spices, was the traditional Sabbath lunch of the Babylonian Jews of Iraq for generations. I say “was” because apart from the older generation of exiled Iraqi Jews, like my mother and a few relatives, very few people make this dish…
Just like the elements of the seder plate or oil fried latkes, most Jewish holiday foods recall the story of the holiday. Purim is no different — we feast on hamantaschen that represent Haman’s hat (or pockets, or ears, depending upon which story you buy). But one of the central themes of Purim, hippuch or…
Makes 6 Cups 2 cups long-grain basmati rice Salt 1 teaspoon saffron threads or powder 3 tablespoons olive oil 2 leeks, green and white parts, finely diced 1 teaspoon dried lime powder, or 1 preserved whole lime 1 cup minced fresh flat-leaf parsley 1 cup minced fresh cilantro 1/3 cup minced fresh dill 1 cup…
The judge in the Aipac trial just ruled that defendants Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman can subpoena 15 government officials to testify in their trial, scheduled for early next year. The list of subpoenas assures that the trial will be the best show in town, with Condoleezza Rice, Steve Hadley, Paul Wolfowitz and Doug Feith…
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