Category — Recipes

Talk about manna from heaven. Israel is home to Jewish people from more than 70 nations — and of course, they all brought their food with them. Schnitzel from Austria, Moroccan couscous, and today, even pastrami from Brooklyn can easily be found on Israeli tables.

Manna from Heaven/anonymous

Check out these cool-for-summer recipes from The Daily Beast for dishes you’d find in Israeli homes (think beet-and-pomegranate salad…)

Moonshine still confiscated by US government, circa 1921

It sounds like a whiskey and one that doesn’t leave you feeling very well in the morning.

But Country Captain is actually an American “curry,” a chicken dish made with bell peppers, onions and curry powder. I know — I’d never heard of it either. It’s one of those things where an editor calls and says “Know anything about….”

Here’s the backstory: Country Captain was supposedly brought to the U.S. in the 19th century by a British sea captain who’d served in India, where his ilk were called “country captains.” The dish (again, allegedly) landed in the South — perhaps Charleston, perhaps Savannah (the two cities have been duking it out for 150 years.) But the earliest written record of the dish can be found in a Yankee cookbook, “Miss Leslie’s New Cookery Book,” published in Philadelphia in 1857. So….provenance in contention. [Read more →]

Traditional Latke/by Jonathunder

Hanukkah starts tonight, which means Fany Gerson’s table is groaning with chili-spiked latkes, coconut-stuffed rugelach and, special for this year, sufganiot donuts filled with passionfruit curd.

“That’s my little spin on it,” says the Jewish-Mexican chef and founder of LaNewYorkina popsicle company.

While most Jewish Mexicans stick to brisket and noodle kugel, Gerson lets her holiday meals narrate her family’s flight from Russia last century to the life they made in Mexico City. She substitutes Mexican coconut sweets called “cocadas” for macaroons, garnishes matzo ball soup with cilantro and limes, and pan fries gefilte fish in a tomato-chili sauce. [Read more →]