by Gil Marks
3. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or grease the sheet. Punch down the dough. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough ¼ inch thick. Cut out 3-inch rounds. Cut the remaining dough into thin strips. Place 1 egg, large end down, on each round and bring up the edges of the base to form a cup. Use several dough strips to secure the eggs to the bases. Place the pastries on the baking sheet. cover with a kitchen towel, and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
4. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
5. Brush the dough with the egg wash. Bake until golden brown, about 35 minutes. Transfer the foulares to a wire rack and let cool.
Fourma
Fourma is a meat pie or omelet.
Origin: Tunisia
Meat omelets and casseroles are a prominent component of Sephardic cuisine. The name of this large Tunisian dish is derived from the French forme (shape/form). It is either cooked in a skillet over a brazier or flame, or baked in a ovenproof dish in the oven. A version with rice is a traditional Passover dish; it is served as a main course accompanied with salads and matza (or bread during the rest of the year) or as an appetizer.
Tunisian Meat Omelet-Pie (Fourma À La Viande)
6 to 8 servings
[MEAT]
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
8 ounces ground lamb, beef, or veal
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 cups cooked long-grain rice or tagliatelle
10 large eggs, lightly beaten
About 1 teaspoon table salt or 2 teaspoons kosher salt
Ground black pepper to taste
¼ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (optional)
2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
1. In a large skillet, heat 2 tablespoons oil over medium heat. Add the beef, onion, and garlic and sauté until the meat loses its red color, about 5 minutes. Stir in the rice and let cool. Add the raw eggs, salt, pepper, and, if using, parsley. Gently stir in the hard-boiled eggs.
2. In a large skillet, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon oil over low heat. Add the egg mixture, cover, and cook until the top firms, about 25 minutes.
3. Loosen the sides, slide onto a large plate, and invert back into the skillet, browned side up. Cover and cook until set, about 10 minutes. Serve hot or at room temperature.
Fress
Fress, from the German fress (devour), is the Yiddish word for "eat a lot." A fresser is a person who eats a lot.
Fricassee
Fricassee refers to a dish in which bone-in meat (usually chicken) is cut into chunks, browned in fat with onions, and then slowly simmered in a small amount of liquid. As a verb, to fricassee means to prepare meat in a fricassee.
Origin: Spain, France
Other names: Ladino: armico de pollo, pollo sofrito; Morocco: fricassada.
In Everything But Money (1966), humorist Sam Levenson reminisced about his childhood in 1920s Brooklyn, noting, "There was also fricassee of chicken livers, fricassee of hearts, fricassee of necks, fricassee of chicken feet, fricassee of fricassee."
A popular dish in medieval Spain was olla poderida (powerful pot), an intensely flavored stew derived from the Sephardic Sabbath stew. Using a technique typical of Moorish and Sephardic cuisine, the cook browned the meat and poultry along with onions in olive oil, added water and flavorings, and then simmered the stew. The French adapted the dish, calling it potpourri. A particular form of the braised stew featured pieces of one type of either meat or poultry, and was referred to as fricassée, from the Old French frire (to fry) and casser (to break). The French term friquassée was originally recorded in 1485 in the first printed edition of Le Viandier (this was an altered version of a French manuscript from around 1300). The recipe in this book called for a cut-up chicken and chopped onion fried in lard; these were simmered in beef stock with ginger and verjuice (juice of unripe grapes).
Chicken fricassees along with the name became common in many cuisines, as they were an ideal way to tenderize older birds and produce a richer sauce; they could also be cooked over a fire, which was an advantage because few families possessed a home oven. The famous French dish coq au vin is simply a fricassee with red wine. In many countries, the term fricassee came to refer specifically to braised chicken with mushrooms in a white sauce made from cream. Since at least the sixteenth century, Germans have prepared a dish called hühnerfrikassee, which makes use of chicken giblets (hühnerklein) and other small pieces and is simmered in a cream sauce. This concept was foreign to European Jews, who used schmaltz instead of lard and thickened the sauce with only flour and no cream. Italian Jews created a form of fricassee called ngozzamodi di pollo con polpotte, consisting of odds and ends of chicken along with chicken meatballs and minus any cream.
The term fricassee probably entered Ashkenazic cookery in western Germany shortly after the Peace of Westphalia (1648), which increased contacts with the French, and then spread eastward, where it also became known as gehahkteh hindel. Ashkenazim, who utilized every part of the chicken, simmered the odds and ends—pupiks (gizzards), gorglach (necks), fliegelach (wing tips), and fisselach (feet)—into a hearty dish for Friday night dinner, at which it was served as either an appetizer or a main course. Cooks were able to stretch the dish by using the unattractive and less fleshy parts of the bird; as a result, a single chicken or even a few parts of one, along with a starch, could easily and amply feed a large family. Less frequently, fricassees were made from goose and veal. Chicken fricassee remains a standard Alsatian Sabbath dinner. Moroccans make a version introduced during the French colonization of the Maghreb, which is accented with cinnamon and turmeric.
In the first Jewish cookbook in English, The Jewish Manual (1846), the author's husband from a Sephardic background, offered an expanded definition of fricassee: "This is a name used for delicate stews, when the articles are cut in pieces." Braised versions are referred to in The Jewish Manual as "brown fricassee," while any foregoing this step are called "white fricassee." The author's fricassees are made from veal and not poultry. Already found in this work was the addition of meatballs, in this case encasing a hard-boiled egg.
The first American record of this term associated with Jews was in Jennie June's American Cookery Book (1866) by Jane Cunningham Croly in a section of "Jewish Receipts." Her recipe for "Brown Fricassee Chicken" directed: "Take a chicken, cut it up in pieces and fry them brown, either in the best sweet oil or rendered fat. Then take six onions, slice them and cover them in frying-pan with enough oil or fat to fry them; when soft take the cover off, so as to let them brown, then scald and peal two tomatoes, cut them up and put them in the pan with the onions to simmer a little. Put the fried chicken into a saucepan with the onions etc., add a little thyme, pepper, salt and a few grams of allspice, and enough hot water to make a rich gravy; cover it up and let it cook for half an hour or an hour, according to the tenderness of the chicken; a very small piece of garlic and mace can be added when cooking, if liked." Tomatoes would become a common addition to fricassees in America. Soon thereafter, the first Jewish cookbook in America, Jewish Cookery (1871) by Esther Levy, offered a recipe "To Fricassee Chicken," which was a white fricassee, in which readers were instructed: "Cut the chicken up, and lay the pieces in a saucepan, with enough water to cover them; season it well; after it has boiled a few minutes, skim the surface, and add pepper. When the chicken is boiled tender, take the pieces out, and pour off the water, if there is too much for gravy. When the chickens are fat, they require no suet. Lay the chicken back in the saucepan, and thicken with flour, and see it is seasoned sufficient."
The first edition of The Settlement Cookbook (1901) contained recipes for "Ganseklein or Fricasseed Goose," "Veal Fricassee," and "Chicken Fricassee"; the latter, similar to the version in Jewish Cookery, was a basic boiled chicken dish (not braised), which called for a little celery and carrots, and was flavored with a little ground ginger and thickened with flour.
In America, until after World War II, chicken was
relatively expensive and, therefore, poorer families continued to make fricassee using the odds and ends. A distinctive twentieth-century American augmentation by Ashkenazim, possibly adopted from the Italians in America, was the addition of small beef meatballs (mit klops) to further enhance the fricassee, because ground beef was then much cheaper than chicken. As Jews moved up the economic ladder, the amount of thigh and breast meat in the fricassee increased, but for the most part, the meatballs stayed. As certain chicken parts, notably the feet and beaks, became difficult or impossible to obtain, the main parts of the bird became necessary. In many Ashkenazic homes, housewives served the dish at special occasions. Chicken fricassee became a favorite comfort food, conjuring up images of a mother or grandmother holding sway over the stove. The ingredients and amounts in a fricassee are very informal and can be adjusted according to availability and taste—for example, adding fewer or more meatballs, using tomatoes instead of flour, adding peppers and other vegetables, adding rice, and so on. The essence of any fricassee remains the gravy, which should be rich, flavorful, and relatively thick. Fricassee is typically served with rice, noodles, barley farfel, or dumplings.
Frimsel
Frimsel is an egg noodle.
Origin: Western Germany, Alsace
Other names: Eastern Yiddish: lokshen.
By the twelfth century, a popular treat among Franco-German Jews was vermesel or verimslish, fried strips of dough in honey. This was originally an ancient Roman dish known as vermiculos (Latin for "little worms"), which the Talmud called iytree from a Persian word for string, the source of the modern Hebrew word for noodles. Shortly thereafter, the name of this fried pastry, vermesel, was adopted for the recently introduced boiled strips of egg dough, which are now known as noodles. Around the fourteenth century, egg noodles had become frimsels in Western Yiddish. The use of a Jewish term frimsel rather than a contemporary Teutonic one indicates that noodles probably initially reached western and central Ashkenazim via Italian Jews rather than from non-Jewish Germans.
Initially, the predominant use of noodles by Ashkenazim was in soups. By the late fifteenth century, chicken soup with noodles was replacing the fried dough vermesel as the first course for Ashkenazic Friday evening dinners. The first American Jewish cookbook, Jewish Cookery by Esther Levy (1871), provided a recipe "To Make a Good Frimsel (Or Noodle) Soup." The author suggests "frimsel soup, as that will keep best over night," as the first course for Saturday dinner (then meaning lunch). Almost the exact recipe for "Frimsel Soup" appeared, along with other Ashkenazic recipes, in a February 23, 1896, article in the New York Times entitled "The Shoket, and Kosher and Trefa Dishes—Where to Buy Meats," discussing Jewish food practices. The introductory sentence to the recipes read, "As our Christian readers may like to try some genuine Hebrew cookery, we give a seasonable menu, which is both economical and savory."
Eventually, the pasta came out of the soup and was transformed into a variety of noodle dishes. Alsatians love noodles, which they generally serve rather simply. A prevalent Friday night food is called frimsels and spätzles, which consists of cooking noodles, then heating two-thirds of them with butter or schmaltz, frying the remaining noodles in oil until crisp and golden, then mixing the plain and fried noodles; this dish is unknown among eastern Europeans and reflects the German influence on the culture.
Montague Glass, a lawyer and writer noted for his humorous depictions of early twentieth-century American Jewish life, in his novel Elkan Lubliner: American (New York, 1912), included this exchange:
"There's some dessert coming," Mrs. Lesengeld said.
"Dessert after this, Mrs. Lesengeld," he replied, through clouds of contented smoke, "would be sacrilege, ain't it?"
"That's something I couldn't make at all," Mrs. Lesengeld admitted. "All I got it here is some frimsel kugel."
"Frimsel kugel!" Scharley exclaimed, laying down his cigar. "Why ain't you told me that before?"
A quarter of an hour later he again lighted his cigar, and this time he settled back in his campstool for conversation, while Mrs. Lesengeld busied herself about the oil stove.
(See also Chremsel, Lokshen, and Pasta)
Fritada
Fritada is a flat, thick, vegetable-laden omelet.
Origin: Spain
Other names: cuajadas, quajados, tortilla de hueveos.
In ancient Rome, some egg dishes were cooked in a skillet over a fire, as recorded by Apicius. One of these dishes, ova spongia ("sponge egg," denoting its texture), was an omelet consisting of eggs, milk, and olive oil. By the twelfth century, Sephardim would call similar omelets tortilla de huevos (little round of eggs), a name still common in Mexico. Later, under the influence of the Italian frittata (fried egg pie), the name changed, as there is no double t in Spanish, to fritada.
By the thirteenth century, egg and vegetable dishes were so identified with Sephardim that the Spanish Inquisition considered them a sign of Jewish cooking, which could lead to arrest. Until relatively recently, few people had a home oven, so in order to bake, most people had to use the local baker's oven. However, schlepping the dish across town or farther, and only when the baker was off duty, tended to be a major bother. Therefore, most housewives preferred cooking the egg mixture in a large skillet over a brazier; the omelet was either cooked covered or inverted after the bottom set. Fritadas were cut into wedges for a warm side dish or entrée, or divided into smaller squares to serve at room temperature as an appetizer.
In the nineteenth century, as the home oven became more commonplace, many cooks began to bake these large omelets like a casserole, eliminating the frying and saving a lot of bother. Initially, baking the omelets was a less common practice than frying, but today baking is the more widespread method. When the same ingredients are baked, the dish is technically a quajado (coagulated) or, in the Balkans, a sfongo. However, these terms became interchangeable in many Sephardic communities. As a result of baking, fritadas went from being round to frequently being square or rectangular. When made with only cheese and no vegetables, the dish is called huevos kon keso.
Unlike the ancient Roman ova spongia, fritadas are not so much about the eggs—which generally are used only to hold the other ingredients together—but rather a means of showcasing vegetables, and a way to use and enhance leftovers. Most also contain cheese. Fritadas are similar to the Persian kuku, although the latter are generally pareve. The Italian frittata tends to have a little more egg than the fritada and the French omelet has a lot more egg.
At least one, if not several, fritadas are commonplace at almost any Sephardic family get-together. Spinach, a favorite Passover vegetable, is the most popular fritada flavoring, but fritadas include vegetables of all sorts, notably eggplant, leeks, potatoes, tomatoes, and zucchini. The addition of bread, matza, or mashed potatoes reflects a Turkish influence. Meat omelets are popular on Passover and may also be served as a side dish at Sabbath dinner. At the Sabbath desayuno (brunch), cheese and vegetable fritadas are served at room temperature.
Sephardic Vegetable Omelet (Fritada de Verduras)
4 to 6 servings
[DAIRY or PAREVE]
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
½ cup dry bread crumbs, matza meal, or mashed potatoes; or 2 matzas or 2 to 3 slices white bread, soaked in water until soft but not mushy and squeezed dry
3 cups cooked cauliflower florets; 3 cups chopped cooked leeks; 1 pound boiled, peeled, and thickly sliced russet potatoes; 1 pound chopped fresh spinach or 10 ounces thawed frozen chopped spinach; 3 cups peeled, seeded, and chopped tomatoes; or 3 cups cooked coarsely grated zucchini
1 cup (4 ounces) grated kashkaval, mozzarella, Cheddar, Gouda, Muenster, or Swiss cheese, or pot cheese (optional)
About ½ teaspoon table salt or 1 teaspoon kosher salt
Ground black pepper to taste
1 tablespoon olive or vegetable oil
Yogurt for garnish (optional)
1. In a large bowl, combine the eggs, bread crumbs, vegetable of choice
, optional cheese, salt, and pepper. The mixture should be slightly loose and lumpy, and not overly liquidy or smooth.
2. In a 9- to 10-inch skillet, heat the oil over medium- low. Add the egg mixture and cook, puncturing the bottom in several places to allow the liquid to seep through and lifting the sides to allow the liquid to seep under, until the eggs are set but still wet, about 4 minutes.
3. Loosen the sides, slide the fritada onto a large plate, and invert back into the skillet, browned side up. (Proficient cooks flip the fritada in the pan.) Cook the second side until set, about 3 minutes. Alternatively, for a casserole, spread the oil in an 8-inch square baking pan, place in a 375°F oven to heat for about 2 minutes, add the egg mixture, and bake until golden brown and firm, about 30 minutes.
4. Let stand at least 10 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature. Cut into large squares or wedges. If desired, serve with dollops of yogurt.
Fritter
A fritter is a small deep-fried cake, made from either a thick batter or from pieces of food dipped into a batter. It may be sweet or savory.
Other names: Austria: plinz; French: beignet; German: krapfen, kuchel, pfannkuchen, puffer; Hebrew: mahahfay zeeloof; Italian: frictelle, frittelle; Ladino: birmuelo, frita; Yiddish: fritlach, fritteln.
Frying pieces of dough in fat is an ancient method of pastry making, dating back at least 4,500 years, perhaps to the Egyptians; when the dough is fried, the moisture inside the dough puffs up the pastry and lightens it without the use of modern leavenings. Among the various types of flour offerings for the Temple, the Bible records a bread that was made by mixing fine semolina flour with olive oil, kneading the mixture with lukewarm water to make a soft unleavened dough, coating the thin loaf with additional olive oil, then frying it in a marcheshet (deep pan). According to commentators, this pan received its name because the dough vibrates or sizzles (rachash) as it cooks, making movement and sounds indicative of the frying action. An inscription from the time of Rameses III (c. 1200 BCE) depicts two cooks deep-frying strips of dough in a pot over an open fire.
