Encyclopedia of Jewish Food
Page 62
Sephardic Sabbath Stew (Hamin)
5 to 6 servings
[MEAT]
¼ cup olive or vegetable oil
4 to 5 pounds (5 to 6 small) lamb shanks, lamb neck with bone, or beef short ribs (or 2 pounds beef brisket cut into 2-inch cubes and 2 pounds lamb or beef bones)
3 medium yellow onions, sliced
3 to 6 cloves garlic, minced
1½ to 2 cups dried fava, navy, or lima beans, or any combination, soaked in water to cover for 8 hours and drained
6 to 8 medium (2 to 2½ pounds) potatoes, peeled and halved or quartered
1 cup (6.75 ounces) wheat berries or long-grain rice
About 2 teaspoons table salt or 4 teaspoons kosher salt
About ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)
About 2 quarts water
5 to 6 eggs in shell
1. In a large pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the meat and brown on all sides, about 10 minutes. Remove the meat. Add the onions and sauté until lightly golden, about 15 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté for 1 minute.
2. Return the meat and add the beans, potatoes, wheat berries, salt, pepper, cumin, optional cinnamon, and enough water to cover. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer until the beans are nearly soft, about 1 hour.
3. Add more water if necessary. Place the eggs on top and push into the liquid. Cover tightly, place on a thin sheet of metal placed over the range top and knobs over low heat or in a 200°F oven, and cook overnight.
Italian Sabbath Stew (Hamin)
6 to 8 servings
[MEAT]
Meatballs:
1 pound ground chicken breast
½ cup fresh bread crumbs or matza meal
1 large egg
About ¾ teaspoon salt
About ½ teaspoon ground white or black pepper
1 clove garlic, mashed, or pinch of ground nutmeg (optional)
Greens:
2 pounds fresh chard or spinach
3 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
Hamin:
3 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
3 medium yellow onions, sliced
4 fresh sage leaves or 1 teaspoon dried sage
1½ pounds beef or veal marrow or neck bones
2 to 3 pounds beef chuck, whole or cut into 2-inch cubes
2 cups dried white beans
2 to 3 cloves garlic, minced
About 2 teaspoons table salt or 4 teaspoons kosher salt
About ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
About 2 quarts water
1. To make the meatballs: Combine all the meatball ingredients and form into ½-inch balls.
2. To make the greens: Separate the chard leaves from the stems. Cut the tender stems into ½-inch- wide pieces and the leaves into 1-inch pieces. In a large saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and sauté until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the chard and sauté until wilted. Top with the meatballs, cover, reduce the heat to low, and simmer until the chard is tender and the meatballs are cooked, about 20 minutes. Let cool, then refrigerate until shortly before using.
3. To make the hamin: In a large, heavy pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onions and sage and sauté until golden, about 15 minutes. In the order given, add the bones, beef, beans, salt, pepper, and enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer over a medium-low heat or bake in a 375°F oven until the beans are nearly soft, about 1½ hours.
4. Add more water if necessary. Cover the pot tightly. Place on a blech (a thin sheet of metal placed over the range top and knobs) over low heat or in a 200°F oven and cook for at least 6 hours or overnight.
5. Shortly before serving, stir the meatballs and chard into the hamin and let stand until heated through.
Haminado/Huevos Haminados
Haminado is a long-cooked whole egg.
Origin: Spain
Other names: Arabic: beid hamine; Greek: Selanlik yamurta, Yahudi yamurta; Ladino: guevos haminados, ouevos haminados; Uzbeki: tchumi osh sevo.
The Talmud, in a discussion of vows, mentions the inclusion of whole eggs in meat stews and, in a different location in a discussion of cooking on the Sabbath, mentions the roasting of eggs in warm ashes and in sand heated by the sun. These ancient methods gave rise to one of the most distinctive Sephardic dishes, long-cooked whole eggs, huevos haminados.
Originally, these eggs, known as huevos asados (roasted eggs), were buried in the hot ashes of an open hearth, commonly near the pot of Sabbath stew, and left to bake overnight Friday for Sabbath lunch. In the morning, the shell had turned a caramel color as had the egg inside, which also had shrunk to about half its size. Some North African and Calcutta Jews still prepare the eggs in this way, covering them in sand and/or ashes or the more modern aluminum foil and baking in a low oven overnight. A few Ashkenazim, particularly from parts of Austria and southern Germany, adopted the Sephardic manner, layering the whole eggs with ashes in a simple earthenware pot, sealing the lid with a soft dough, and baking them alongside the cholent (Sabbath stew) pot in the oven; the resulting cholent eiers (the Yiddish word for "eggs") were offered as the appetizer for Sabbath lunch.
At some point, possibly when the place for cooking the Sabbath stew moved from the home hearth to the local large commercial oven, probably after the thirteenth century, eggs were also added directly to the hamin (Sabbath stew) to slow-cook overnight, becoming huevos haminados. The word huevos is Ladino for eggs and the adjective haminado means "warmed," from the Aramaic hamin (warmed) as well as from the most common name of the Sephardic Sabbath stew in which they were cooked. Because of the moisture in the pot, the eggs did not shrink like those baked in ashes and sand, and huevos haminados quickly grew more common than huevos asados. Eggs cooked for an extremely long time in the hamin have a softer texture and richer flavor than regular hard-boiled eggs, and their shells are transformed to a light brown hue. The secret is to keep the temperature below the boiling point, as too high a heat will dry out the eggs.
However, eggs cooked in a meat stew cannot be eaten with dairy. Therefore, dating back at least to the early fifteenth century, in order to have pareve eggs, Sephardim developed an easier technique of simmering them in water along with onion skins (thought from Talmudic times to relieve pain), usually saved from the previous week's cooking. The combination of a long cooking time and onion skins gives these eggs a brown color, creamy texture, and rich flavor. Red onion skins yield a vermillion hue. The onion skins, besides creating a color on the shell reminiscent of roasting, also cradle and protect the eggs during cooking and impart a somewhat smoky-nutty flavor. According to the Spanish Inquisition, one of the signs of Jewish food was slow-cooking whole eggs with onion skins. Sephardim in Greece sometimes add a little coffee or a few tea leaves for extra flavor and color. A little oil in the cooking water helps to remove the shells from the eggs. Later, Ashkenazim in a few parts of Poland and Byelorussia developed a custom of dying eggs for Passover, using onion skins for brown eggs and leaves for green eggs; these eggs were called valetshovnes.
Haminados, usually served warm, are ubiquitous at Sephardic celebrations and life-cycle events. These include the meal following Yom Kippur, birth commemorations, and a Seudat Havra'ah (the meal of consolation that follows a burial). There is a tradition that these eggs symbolize mourning for the Temple. On the Sabbath, haminados cooked with onion skins are served at desayuno (brunch) with cheese pastries, feta, and ouzo. These eggs are also the first course of the Passover Seder and are served throughout the holiday. Because of the similarity of the word hamin to Haman, the villain of the Scroll of Esther, haminados became a traditional Purim food and many Sephardim prepare pastries encasing the eggs, representing Haman in jail, called foulares.
Haminados are typically served as an appetizer
along with salt or a dipping sauce. In modern Israel, they are sometimes accompanied with hummus. Yemenites typically eat them with hilbeh (fenugreek relish). Egyptians chop the eggs and sprinkle them over ful medames (fava beans) for breakfast. Bukharans typically serve them with and sometimes cook them in the classic Bukharan Sabbath lunch rice dish, osh sevo. Cooks usually make a large batch of haminados before the Sabbath, ensuring leftovers to add to salads and vegetable stews during the following week. They are also baked in meat loaf and meatballs, minus the shell.
Sephardic Long-Cooked Eggs (Huevos Haminados)
12 servings
[PAREVE]
Brown or red outer skins from 10 to 12 onions, rinsed if dirty (about 4 cups)
12 eggs in shell, at room temperature
About 3 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil (optional)
In the bottom of a large pot or ovenproof casserole dish, arrange the onion skins. Place the eggs on top and pour in enough water to cover by at least 2 inches. Bring to a boil and, if using, drizzle with the oil. Cover the pot with a lid or foil. Simmer over very low heat or bake in a 200°F oven for at least 8 hours and preferably 12 hours. Remove the eggs from the cooking liquid, rinse, and pat dry. Serve warm or at room temperature. Store in cold water in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Variation
Omit the onion skins and oil and add ½ cup strong brewed coffee. Some cooks use both the onion skins and 2 tablespoons ground coffee.
Hamotzi
Before eating bread, including matza, a person recites the benediction Hamotzi. The Sages used the terminology of Psalms, "ha-motzi lechem min ha-arertz" (Who brings forth bread from the earth), in the formulation of this benediction. Strictly speaking, it is the farmer and baker who create bread. Judaism, however, views the benediction over bread as thanking God for creating nature and human intelligence, by which a farmer grew and harvested seeds, and a miller ground the grain into flour, and a baker mixed the flour with water, kneaded it, and baked it. This is part of Tikkun Olam (mending the world), the principle that God created the world incomplete so humanity could serve as partners in finishing the job of Creation, thereby transforming the world for good. Tikkun Olam is why medicine is encouraged in Judaism and not considered an affront to God. Human creativity is part of the human endeavor toward perfection, as manifested by reciting Hamotzi. Ritual hand washing is performed before reciting Hamotzi. Following the meal, Birkhat Hamazon (grace after meals) is recited.
(See also Birkhat Hamazon (Grace after Meals) and Bread)
Hamud
Hamud is a tart sauce or a soup consisting of vegetables, in particular celery, and redolent with lemon and garlic.
Origin: Syria
Hamud is Arabic for sour. Syrians and Iraqis serve hamud as a sauce over rice for the Sabbath and holidays. Some cooks transform the same ingredients into a soup, typically served with rice, by increasing the amount of water. In Egypt, a chicken carcass is simmered in the liquid, yielding a lemony chicken soup. Syrians add veal and sometimes also kibbeh mahshi (Middle Eastern fried stuffed dumplings) or meatballs for a more substantial dish. A more elaborate version with lamb is a popular Iraqi Rosh Hashanah dish. Some housewives serve both the soup and sauce versions at the same meal.
Potatoes help to thicken the liquid. Syrians and Egyptians enjoy the straight sour flavor from the lemon juice, but it tends to be too sour for most Westerners, who like to add a little sugar. Many Iraqis also favor a little sugar. Syrians commonly add a touch of mint. The dish is still called hamud when sweet-and-sour, but if all the lemon is omitted, the dish is referred to as helou (sweet), even if it contains no sugar.
Syrian Sour Sauce with Mint (Hamud)
6 to 8 servings
[PAREVE]
2 to 3 large cloves garlic
½ teaspoon kosher salt
4 cups water
3 stalks celery, diced
2 medium boiling potatoes, peeled and diced
2 to 3 medium leeks or 6 to 8 scallions (white and light green part only), sliced
3 to 6 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon chopped fresh spearmint leaves or 2 tablespoons dried spearmint
1 to 3 teaspoons sugar (optional)
Using a mortar and pestle or the flat blade of a large knife, mash the garlic with the salt. In a large saucepan, combine the garlic with the remaining ingredients and simmer until the vegetables are tender, about 35 minutes. Serve over rice.
Hanukkah
The Emperor Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who ascended to the Seleucid throne in 175 BCE, sought to replace Judaism with Hellenism and in 168, looted the Second Temple and outlawed the practice of Judaism. Then on the twenty-fifth day of the month of Kislev in 167 BCE, the day of the winter solstice and beginning of the Saturnalia festival, his Syrian forces desecrated the Temple. Long before Antiochus, the twenty-fifth of Kislev was the traditional date in Israel for the end of the olive oil harvest, as well as the last day on which that year's bikkurim (first fruits) could be brought to the Temple, engendering an ancient Hebrew celebration. The Hasmonean patriarch Mattathias and his five sons (Yochanan, Judah, Eleazar, Jonathan, and Simon), from a priestly family and better known as the Maccabees (Makabim in Hebrew), launched a revolt against Antiochus, the first known war fought for religious freedom. Three years later, after numerous battles, the Jews chased their oppressors out of Jerusalem. The Temple, however, lay in a state of physical and spiritual disarray. After rededicating the Temple on the twenty-fifth day of the month of Kislev in 164 BCE (some scholars say 165), the people replicated the eight-day holiday of Sukkot and Shemini Atzeret, which they had been unable to observe a few months before, and celebrated with the recitation of Hallel (psalms of praise) and the waving of palm branches.
Afterwards, the surviving Hasmoneans seized power and became a corrupt dynasty, and their machinations eventually led to the tragic entry of Rome into Judea in 63 BCE. Five centuries after the Maccabees, while compiling the Talmud, the Sages ignored the military angle of the episode as well as the then-despised Hasmoneans. Instead, they related another tale: The priests found only a single small vial of ritually untainted olive oil, enough to burn in the Temple's seven-branched candelabra for barely one day, but the flame lasted for eight days.
Daniel Moritz Oppenheim, one of the premier Jewish painters of the modern era, commemorates Hanukkah in Germany, circa 1880. The holiday would include roast goose, apfelmus (applesauce), and, for a special treat, some families enjoyed fritlach (fruit fritters).
The menorah in the Sanctuary was not perpetually burning, but rather was lit every evening shortly before sunset, then after the flames died out the following morning, the cups were cleaned and fresh wicks and oil were added. The Talmud estimated the amount of pure olive oil needed to burn through the longest night of the year, about fifteen hours in the month of Tevet, to be half a log, measuring about six tablespoons; therefore, a half a log of oil was daily poured into each cup, no matter the time of year, and left to burn out.
Hanukkah ("dedication" in Hebrew) commemorates the rededication of the Temple by the Hasmoneans. Light is the preeminent theme of this eight-day festival, one that is particularly apropos at the time of the year when daylight once again begins to increase. Despite Hanukkah's prominent position in American Jewish life, before the twentieth century, it was a rather minor winter festival with no rituals in the synagogue and only a few prayers added to the services. The central ritual of Hanukkah is the kindling after sunset each evening of an eight-branched candelabra containing oil or candles with a ninth higher or lower branch for the shamash ("servant/caretaker" used to light the others). A single candle is lit on the first evening and an additional candle is added on each successive night reaching a total of eight for the final day. The candelabra is called a hanukkiyah by Sephardim and a menorah by Ashkenazim.
A popular Ashkenazic custom is the spinning of a four-sided top—called a dreidel/dreydl (a diminutive of the German word dreyen, "to turn") in easter
n Europe, trendl and kreisel (to spin) in Western Yiddish, verfl (a word for "dice") in Northeastern Yiddish, and sevivon in modern Hebrew—derived around the seventeenth century from a German gambling game. This was followed in the eighteenth century by the custom of giving teachers and children Hanukkah gelt (Yiddish for "money"), typically a few small coins used to wager in games, which in the mid-twentieth century was largely replaced with chocolate coins. Another modern American culinary custom is baking sugar cookies in the shape of menorahs, dreidels, stars of David, and other holiday-related symbols. The practice of giving Hanukkah presents is also a modern American phenomenon derived from the Christmas celebrations.
Moroccans had a custom on the day following Hanukkah, called the "day of the shamash," the ninth day corresponding to the ninth candle, for the children to collect any leftover Hanukkah candles in the neighborhood and burn them in a bonfire as they danced, sang, and ate leftover pastries.
Because it formerly held a minor status and had not been ordained a day of feasting like other Jewish holidays, Hanukkah initially failed to inspire any specific festival dishes. Indeed, until around the fourteenth century, there were no records of any traditional Hanukkah fare. Then two types of foods became popular symbols— dairy foods and fried foods.
The tradition of dairy products, particularly cheese, was first mentioned in the fourteenth century by the Spanish rabbi Nissim ben Reuben Gerondi (known as the Ran). This custom grew out of a misunderstanding of one of the books of the Apocrypha, Judith, composed around 115 BCE. There are actually four different extant manuscript versions of Judith, none surviving in the original Hebrew. The narrative, replete with anachronisms and misnomers, tells of Nebuchadnezzar (who reigned from 605 to 561 BCE), sending his Assyrian general, Holofernes, to conquer Judea and laying siege to Bethulia (perhaps Meselieh), a fortified town on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Judith, a young righteous widow from the town, infiltrated the enemy camp, fed Holofernes salty cheese or milk (in those days probably indicating a form of loose yogurt) to induce thirst, plied him with wine to slack his thirst until the general fell into a drunken stupor, then cut off his head with his own sword. In response to the loss of its leader, the enemy army panicked and fled. The timing of this story actually predates the Greek period by four centuries, but during the Middle Ages, when Jews no longer possessed the original text of Judith, the oral tale became associated with the Hasmonean revolution and Judith became variously the aunt or daughter of Judah Maccabee.