by Gil Marks
The Bible mentions numerous plants and animals, but very few actual dishes. One particular biblical food, ashisha (ashishot plural), is recorded in four locations, including the statement that King David "gave to every one of Israel, both man and woman, to every one a loaf of bread, and a cake [from grains] made in a pan, and an ashisha." Many classic English translations render the word "cake of pressed raisins." However, the prophet Hosea mentions "ashishei anavim" (cakes of grapes), which would make it redundant. The Jerusalem Talmud recorded "Rabbi Yosa went to Rabbi Yossi and brought him lentils that were roasted, ground, mixed with honey, and fried. He said, 'These are the ashishim mentioned by the Sages.' "
Song of Songs records: "Support me with ashishot, heal me with apples, for I am faint with love." Thus these pancakes developed a reputation as aphrodisiacs. Kabbalists recite this verse with Havdalah at the end of the Sabbath, as the word ashishot is akin to the term for "multiple fires." Lately in Israel, ashishot have become increasingly popular on Tu b'Av (the fifteenth of the month of Av), the traditional day of searching for romance and matchmaking.
(See also Lentil)
Ashure
Ashure is a sweetened wheat berry pudding with nuts and dried fruit.
Origin: Turkey
Other names: Azeri: gavurga; Georgian: korkoti; Greek: koliva, kolyva; Turkish: ashura, assuré, aure, kofyas, trigo.
Cooked grains were used as a holiday dish in many ancient Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cultures. The Greeks were the first known to sweeten the dish with honey. In the Middle East, wheat became the most common grain, particularly hulled durum wheat berries (also called shelled or peeled wheat), which are white in color, lack whole wheat's flavor, and are stickier and softer when cooked. Subsequently, Jews, Muslims, and Christians of the Ottoman Empire adopted versions with dried fruits, nuts, and cinnamon.
The name ashure comes from an Arabic word for ten, related to the Hebrew for ten (ashurah), as Moslems hold an informal fast day on the tenth day of the lunar month of Muharram (the first month of the Islamic calendar), derived from Yom Kippur, observed on the tenth of Tishri. This date is also the traditional anniversary of the assassination of Hussein, the first Shia imam and, therefore, all too frequently a time of violence. Turks have a legend that the pudding dates back to when Noah and his family left the ark in northeastern Turkey on the tenth of Muharram and celebrated by making a dish using the little food reserves left—some grain, dried fruit, and nuts. Many Sephardim arriving in the eastern Mediterranean adopted the pudding and the name ashure, while some Turkish Jews opted for kofyas (probably a mispronunciation of kolva, itself derived from halva, a different grain pudding). Whatever its name, this widespread dish represents abundance and diversity in connection with collectivity and solidarity, combining several staple ingredients to create a flavorful and rich treat intended to be shared with others.
Ashure is always made in a large quantity in order to share. Because of its name, many people add ten ingredients. Some people make it dry, by stirring the sugar into drained cooked wheat, while others prefer a more liquid dish containing a sugar syrup. Some versions are enhanced with other Middle Eastern standards, including chickpeas, rice, rose water, and orange-blossom water. Many versions are pareve, but some add milk for creaminess. A simpler pudding made with barley, bulgur, or wheat berries is known as beleela and prehito. Syrians enjoy an anise seed— flavored version called sleehah.
Ashure is traditionally enjoyed on Rosh Hashanah (usually made with honey), Sukkot (representing the harvest), and especially Tu b'Shevat (Las Frutas), the wheat, fruits, and nuts incorporating the essence of the day. Since wheat berries resemble teeth, Middle Easterners and Georgians customarily serve them at a party to honor a baby's first tooth. Ashure is very rich and, therefore, generally served in small portions, commonly garnished with pomegranate seeds or whole almonds.
(See also Beleela and Wheat)
Near Eastern Wheat Berry Pudding (Ashure/Kofyas)
about 9 cups
[PAREVE]
1 pound (2¼ cups) wheat berries, soaked in water to cover overnight and drained
8 cups water
2 cups sugar or honey, or 1 cup sugar and ½ cup honey
Pinch of salt
1½ to 2 cups coarsely chopped mixed almonds, hazelnuts, pine nuts, pistachios, and walnuts (use any combination)
1½ cups raisins or dried currants, or ¾ cup each
1 cup chopped dates or dried apricots, or ½ cup chopped dried apricots, ½ cup chopped dates, and ½ cup chopped dried figs
1 to 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, or 1 to 2 tablespoons rose water or orange blossom water
Pomegranate seeds, or 1 cup white Jordan almonds or whole blanched almonds, for garnish (optional)
1. In a large pot, bring the wheat berries and 8 cups water to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally and adding more water if necessary, until tender but still slightly chewy, about 1 hour. Drain, reserving 2 cups of the cooking liquid.
2. In a medium saucepan, stir the reserved cooking liquid, sugar, and salt over low heat until the sugar dissolves, about 5 minutes. Increase the heat to medium and simmer until slightly syrupy, about 10 minutes. Pour over the wheat berries and toss to coat.
3. Add the nuts, raisins, dates, and cinnamon. Serve warm, at room temperature, or chilled. If desired, mound the ashure on a platter and garnish with pomegranate seeds.
Atar
Atar is a sugar syrup.
Origin: Middle East
Other names: attar, qater, sheerah, shira.
Most Middle Eastern and Balkan pastries—such as baklava, tishpishti (semolina cake), basboussa (semolina cake), and kanafeh/kadayif (shredded wheat dough)—are not inherently sweet on their own. Perhaps this is the result of too much sugar in a dough causing the pastries to burn in the intense heat of the Persian oven. In addition, phyllo is best when baked unsweetened, married only with butter or oil. Rather, these pastries obtain sweetness and moistness from the liberal addition after baking of a simple sugar syrup. This concept dates back about fifteen hundred years to when sugar largely supplanted honey in Persian cooking and syrups. Greeks and others in the Balkans call these various syrup-soaked pastries and cakes siropiasta. Sugar syrup is also used to sweeten halvas.
Atar (from the Arabic utur, "aromas") is typically composed of two parts sugar to one part water and is often enhanced with rose water or orange-blossom water and/or lemon juice. A little honey produces a mellower syrup.
When pouring syrup over pastry, the rule is to use cold syrup and hot pastry or vice versa. The contrast in temperatures allows the cake to absorb the syrup, producing a moist rather than soggy result. If the pastry dries out while sitting, it can be remoistened with another drizzle of syrup.
Middle Eastern Sugar Syrup (Atar/Shira)
about 2 cups
[PAREVE]
2 cups (14 ounces) sugar, or 1 cup sugar and 1 cup honey
1 cup water
1 tablespoon lemon juice, rose water or orange water
In a medium, heavy saucepan, stir the sugar, water, and lemon juice over low heat until the sugar dissolves, about 5 minutes. Stop stirring. Increase the heat to medium, bring to a gentle boil, and cook until the mixture is slightly syrupy and reaches the thread stage or 225 degrees on a candy thermometer, about 10 minutes. If using rose water, stir it in now. The syrup keeps in the refrigerator for several months.
Atayef
Atayef is a small pancake filled with cheese or chopped nuts, deep-fried, and drizzled with sugar syrup.
Origin: Middle East
Other names: ataif, gatayef, katayef.
Pancakes are among the most ancient of dishes, the type of food popular among nomads cooking over a campfire. In the ninth century, cooks of the caliph of Baghdad were making an unleavened crepe-like pancake called qata'if or qatayif (from the Arabic for "velvet"), prepared by pouring a thin flour and water batter on a heated sheet of metal. The predominant early us
e of the qata'if was wrapping it around a filling, notably lauzinaq (almond paste), then frying it and topping it with honey. The name and concept traveled across the Islamic world, as an anonymous thirteenth-century Andalusian cookbook included a recipe for the dish and the Turkish version gave rise to the Ashkenazic palacsinta and blintz.
In the eastern Mediterranean, qata'if evolved into a deep-fried, filled, leavened pancake drenched in sugar syrup. The original Arabic dish atayef, was made with a yeast batter, but more recently baking powder versions have become very popular. Atayef are fried in a thin layer of oil on only one side. The uncooked surface is then stuffed, technically atayef mehshi, with ground nuts or soft cheese, then folded in half to enclose the filling. The filled pancakes are then deep-fried, scooped from the oil with a mesh utensil called an apartand, and finally doused with atar (sugar syrup) perfumed with rose water or orange-blossom water. The atayef are frequently made in teams of two: one person filling and folding and the second frying the pancakes. Atayef are sold at Middle Eastern bakeries, but many cooks still prefer to make them at home.
These pancakes were popular early on among Middle Eastern Jews, as Ibn al-Qata'if ("son of the pancake maker) became a Jewish family name in Egypt. Syrian and Lebanese Jews enjoy atayef on special occasions, sometimes topped with a thick cream called ashta or kaymak. These small sweet fritters, along with fried savory cheese or vegetable omelets called edjeh, are ubiquitous on Hanukkah. Cheese-filled atayef are traditional on Shavuot. Atayef are typically served with tea or coffee.
Auflauf
Auflauf is a baked layered casserole.
Origin: Southern Germany, Austria
An auflauf can be either sweet (technically a suesser auflauf) or savory; it is commonly made up of whatever leftovers are available, including noodles, vegetables, cheese, fish, and fruit. It can be a quickly assembled breakfast dish or dinner dessert. Most variations contain beaten egg whites, technically an eierauflauf, rendering it a soufflé or soufflé pancake. Jewish variations of auflauf tend toward sweet, the most common today containing apples. The "Auflauf" in The International Jewish Cookbook by Florence Kreisler Greenbaum (1919) is made from a soufflé batter, which is baked, then spread with jelly. The recipe for "Auf-lauf" in the initial edition of The Settlement Cookbook (1901), a book containing many Jewish recipes, consists of stale cake or macaroons covered with a sponge batter and baked. In the 1943 edition, in addition to the macaroon style, the author included a souffle version with apples, indicating its relatively late development.
Aufruf/Arus
On the Sabbath morning before his wedding (Shabes oyfrufenish), the groom in an Ashkenazic synagogue is summoned to the bimah (platform) to recite the blessing over the Torah reading. In egalitarian congregations, both the bride and groom may be so honored. This custom is known as an aufruf (from the German "up call") by Ashkenazim. Similar celebrations are called Shabbat Haerusin (Sabbath of Betrothal) by Moroccans and arus (betrothal) by Syrians.
The Talmud relates that King Solomon built a gate in the Temple where the citizens of Jerusalem would sit on the Sabbath to honor and perform kindnesses for imminent grooms, reciting the blessing, "May He whose Presence dwells in this house rejoice you with sons and daughters." The gate was destroyed with the First Temple, but the custom of honoring the groom before his wedding remains, although the honoring is now done in the synagogue.
In traditional communities, women did not publicly read from the Torah, but instead a custom among Ashkenazim emerged in which the bride was entertained with singing, dancing, and food in her parents' home on the Sabbath afternoon or night before the wedding, known as forshpil ("prelude," from the German vorspiel), zmires (religious songs), and pikholts ("a wooden cutting board," once hung near the front door of the house alerting passersby to the location of the party).
Many Sephardim and Mizrachim call the groom to the Torah reading on the Sabbath following the wedding (Shabbat Chatan). The congregation is customarily treated to a mezze allegre (sweet assortment) featuring almond foods, including almond paste, Jordan almonds, and baklava.
Tossing symbolic foods at the bride and groom is an ancient custom of fertility and good fortune. Thus in many congregations after the prospective groom finishes his aliyah (Torah reading), the congregation showers (bevarfn, literally "peltings" in Yiddish) the groom with nuts, dried fruit, and particularly candy, signifying that his married life should be sweet. Afterwards, children gather up and enjoy the treats. A kiddush customarily follows the services.
Aufschnitz
Aufschnitz is an assortment of thinly sliced German cold cuts, some rather elaborate. Germans are quite proud of their favorite aufschnitz and serve them on the Sabbath and other special occasions.
Avgolemono
Avgolemono is a rich, creamy soup, thickened with eggs and made tart with lemon.
Origin: Greece
Other names: Ladino: sopa de huevo y limón.
The popularization of the lemon in the Mediterranean around the tenth century sparked a culinary revolution, the juice serving as a bright essence in itself as well as a flavor enhancer for other foods. Vinegar is too harsh to be a surrogate in many dishes. In numerous venerable foods, such as agristada, lemon juice was substituted for verjuice (unripe grape juice).
In addition to the thick sauce, cooks in the Mediterranean developed a thinner soup version, avgolemono ("egg-lemon" in Greek), a rich, silken soup with a tangy but well-balanced lemony flavor. The eggs contribute both thickening, without dairy, and flavor. The rice or orzo, which imparts a little starch, also helps to thicken and stabilize the soup, as well as transform it into a more substantial dish. Some cooks add a pinch of saffron for a more intense color. Tunisians include a cinnamon stick and a touch of cayenne. Fresh lemon juice is a must, but do not overload it or the soup will be sour, not zesty, too much of a good thing.
In Greece, this mixture is one of the keystones of the cuisine and the ultimate comfort food, considered healthful and curative, in the manner of Ashkenazic chicken soup. Similarly, many Balkan and Turkish Jews eat avgolemono to break fasts. In some Mediterranean communities, the soup is part of the meal before and after Yom Kippur. It is also frequently served as the first course for Sabbath dinner and on Rosh Hashanah. Avgolemono is so beloved, that Greek Jews developed a Passover version incorporating matza, as well as pareve variations. Avgolemono is frequently accompanied with a Greek salad and phyllo pastries.
(See also Agraz and Agristada)
Greek Chicken Soup with Egg and Lemon (Avgolemono)
6 to 8 servings
[MEAT or PAREVE]
8 cups chicken broth or vegetable broth, strained
¾ to 1 cup long-grain white rice, brown rice, orzo, or bulgur
About 1 to 1½ teaspoons table salt or 2 teaspoons kosher salt
Ground black pepper to taste
1 bay leaf
12 to 14 (3-by-½-inch) pieces lemon zest (optional)
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
4 to 5 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1. In a large pot, bring the broth to a boil. Add the rice, salt, pepper, bay leaf, and, if using, zest. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer until tender, about 7 minutes for orzo, 20 minutes for white rice, 40 minutes for brown rice, or 20 minutes for bulgur. Discard the bay leaf and zest.
2. In a medium bowl, lightly beat together the eggs and yolks. Gradually whisk in the lemon juice. Remove the soup from the heat and gradually beat 1½ cups of the hot soup into the egg mixture, beating continuously. Gradually stir the egg mixture back into the pot. Simmer over low heat, stirring constantly, until the soup thickens, about 5 minutes—do not boil or it will curdle. Serve hot or chilled.
Avicas
Avicas is a stew or soup dish made of white beans simmered with tomatoes and onions.
Origin: Greece, Turkey
Other names: avikas, fijones con carne fijonicas.
Before Columbus' voyages to the New World, fava beans (a
vas in Ladino) were a staple of Sephardic cookery. Afterward, haricot beans, in particular, small dried white beans (fijones in Greek), quickly supplanted the fava, becoming commonplace both in everyday and festive Sephardic cooking. White beans are generally seasoned sparingly in order not to overpower the delicate flavor. They are used to make a simple yet filling salad common at weekday meals as well as a Sabbath mezze (appetizer assortment), and cooked with stuffed grape leaves (yaprakes con avicas).
The most widespread and popular of these bean dishes are white bean and tomato stews and soups, called avicas, a diminutive form of avas (as haricots are smaller than favas). Cooking legumes with tomatoes and onions or leeks is a signature of Sephardic cuisine in Turkey and the Balkans. Adding meat and more liquid results in a soup called soupa de avicas or simply avicas. To stretch the dish, potatoes may be included. On the other hand, reducing the amount of water produces a thicker avicas, usually vegetarian, which is served as a side dish over rice or couscous, or with bread to sop up the caldo (sauce). Unlike the sweet American style of baked beans, avicas is always savory.
Arguably, no area relished avicas more than Salonika, where it was enjoyed as everyday food as well as Sabbath fare. The vegetarian version is served with rice at dairy meals, including during the ten days preceding the fast of Tisha b'Av and for Thursday night dinner. Bean stews proved particularly advantageous for the Sabbath, when no cooking was permitted, as they could stay on the fire for several hours or even overnight without drying out or losing texture. In some areas, they replaced the traditional Iberian hamin (Sabbath stew). Soupa de avicas with meat was a popular Friday night entrée, typically accompanied with yaprakes finos (stuffed grape leaves), pastels (meat pies), and spinach-filled borekas (turnovers) or ojaldres (phyllo triangles). Leftover soup was kept in the oven to simmer overnight, in the manner of a Sabbath stew, and then served for lunch with arroz (rice with tomatoes).
Sephardic White Beans (Avicas)
