by Gil Marks
Today, Israeli salad, a name primarily used outside of the country, is a standard side dish at most Israeli meals, both dairy and meat. At breakfast and dinner, it is traditionally accompanied with eggs, cheeses, yogurt, and olives. A spoonful or more is added to falafel and other pita sandwiches and it is a favorite accompaniment to grilled meats and schnitzel. Israeli salad is made at home, as well as found in restaurants, hotels, and kiosks.
The key to Israeli salad is ripe, fresh vegetables. The vegetables are cut into small, uniformly sized pieces, but the size of the dice is a matter of preference and much contention; some favor katan ("small," about a quarter inch) and others insist on dak (very fine). Many people prefer eating the salad soon after mixing for the crispest texture, while others let the dressed salad sit for a couple of hours until the vegetables begin to marinate and the mixture turns soupy.
Today in Israel, this salad is almost always made with unpeeled Beit Alpha cucumbers—the crisp, sweet, thin-skinned, slender four- to six-inch long seedless Israeli variety—and usually with plum tomatoes. Bell peppers and green onions are commonly added and sometimes fresh herbs, notably parsley, cilantro, chives, and dill. Bukharans make a version that is chopped very fine and enhanced with fresh cilantro and parsley. Occasionally, the basic ingredients are augmented with radishes, chickpeas, olives, feta cheese, and even croutons; the elaborate version is called, in the Hebrew vernacular, hakol salat (everything salad). Some modern versions even include unorthodox items, such as jicama. Lettuce, however, is never part of a real Israeli salad.
(See also Cucumber and Tomato)
Israeli Salad (Salat Katzutz)
4 to 5 servings
[PAREVE]
5 to 6 Beit Alpha or Kirby cucumbers, or 2 medium long cucumbers, diced
4 to 8 plum tomatoes, diced
2 medium green bell peppers, or 1 green bell pepper and 1 red or yellow bell pepper, seeded and diced (optional)
1 medium red onion or 4 to 8 scallions, diced (optional)
Dressing:
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil or vegetable oil
2 to 4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice or red wine vinegar
2 to 3 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
About ½ teaspoon table salt or 1 teaspoon kosher salt
Ground black pepper to taste
In a medium bowl, combine the cucumbers, tomatoes, and, if using, bell peppers and onion. Whisk together all the dressing ingredients, drizzle over the salad, and toss to coat. Serve at room temperature.
J
Jaaleh
The ancient Greeks believed that eating fruit at the beginning of a meal prepares the stomach to absorb heavier foods, a practice acknowledged in the Jerusalem Talmud. In this vein, Moses Maimonides offered the medical advice of eating lighter foods and fruit at the beginning of a meal. In accordance, many early medieval Jewish communities practiced the custom on Friday evening of reciting Kiddush over wine, then—before reciting Hamotzi over the bread—eating some fruit. This custom was still observed in Iraq and some other Middle Eastern communities as late as the end of the eighteenth century. However, a question arose as to whether a person needed to recite a final benediction over the fruit before reciting Hamotzi over the bread. To avoid this dilemma, many Sephardic sages forbade the practice, and it disappeared from most communities. The tradition was also known among medieval Ashkenazim, as Rashi noted a practice of eating fruit before all large meals. Later, Rabbi Moses Isserles required people to proceed directly from reciting Kiddush to the Hamotzi; therefore, Ashkenazim no longer enjoyed fruit at the beginning of their Sabbath meal.
Yemenites, on the contrary, continued the venerable tradition of eating fruit after Kiddush and before Hamotzi, customarily commencing all three Sabbath meals as well as any Seudat Mitzvah, such as weddings and brits, by nibbling on various goodies subsumed under the general term jaaleh, which is Arabic for "gratification" and "live in abundance." Jaaleh always begins with dried fruit and nuts, or, when in season, fresh fruit, over which people recite the Hebrew benediction "borei peri ha-eitz" (Who creates the fruit of the tree). Also commonly served are roasted fava beans or other legumes, over which is pronounced "borei peri ha-adamah" (Who creates the fruits of the earth), and finally small pieces of pepper-spiced roasted meat (shawiyeh) or spicy fish, over which is recited the generic "shehakol nehyah bidvaro" (that all things came to be by His word). Each person in turn, from older to younger, expresses the various benedictions before eating. These appetizers are accompanied with traditional songs and words of Torah before the recital of Hamotzi. Besides any health benefits, the various morsels that constitute jaaleh help the Yemenites to achieve the total of one hundred blessings traditionally recited every day, as they say a benediction over each item from a different category of food before eating it. When performing these various benedictions before doing the Hamotzi, Yemenites have in mind that the Birkhat Hamazon at the end of the meal will include the foods served before the bread. In Israel, some Yemenite families abandoned the practice of jaaleh at the onset of the meal and only eat it after the bread, while others serve it both at the beginning and end, accompanying the final jaaleh with spiced tea and more singing and conversation.
(See also Hamotzi and Birkhat Hamazon (Grace after Meals))
Jachnun
Jachnun is a flaky pastry cylinder baked overnight in a covered pot, sometimes alongside whole eggs.
Origin: Yemen
Other names: jahnoon, jihnun.
Yemenites, for special occasions, prepare breads and pastries from an unleavened ajin (dough) en- riched with clarified butter and made enticingly flaky by repeated folding and rolling, in a manner similar to the preparation of puff pastry. Individual dough cylinders called jachnun (a diminutive form of ajin) are traditionally cooked overnight in a low oven and served warm after the morning synagogue service for Sabbath dairy breakfast. Yemenites typically bake the cylinders in a special covered aluminum jachnun pot, widely available in Israel, but any pot or casserole dish works. The layers of the cylinders should be separate as well as dense, moist, and soft inside. Jachnun is usually accompanied with s'chug (chili paste), hilbeh (fenugreek relish), resek agvaniyot (cold finely chopped tomatoes), and with the eggs that baked alongside it. The pastries are also drizzled with a little honey.
Jachnun is different from another slow-cooked Yemenite Sabbath bread, kubaneh, which is made with yeast and baked in large balls. Melawah is made from the same dough as jachnun, but is pan-fried, not baked.
Yemenites brought jachnun to Israel, where today it is much beloved well beyond the Yemenite community; it can be found at many restaurants, hotel breakfasts, and bakeries, as well as in frozen packages at most groceries. Israelis enjoy jachnun not only on the Sabbath but also at any time during the week, especially as breakfast fare. Israelis, in turn, brought jachnun to America, where it is now common in many Middle Eastern restaurants.
Yemenite Flaky Rolls (Jachnun)
6 large rolls
[DAIRY or PAREVE]
1 recipe ajin taimani (Yemenite Flaky Pastry (Ajin)), divided into 6 portions
6 to 8 eggs in shells (optional)
1. Preheat the oven to 200°F. Grease an ovenproof pot or 8-inch square baking pan.
2. Roll the square ajin pieces into cylinders, but do not flatten. Place the dough cylinders in the prepared pan. If using, arrange the eggs in between. Cover with a piece of parchment paper or greased heavy-duty aluminum foil, then a tight-fitting lid. Bake for about 10 to 12 hours. Serve warm or at room temperature. For a slightly quicker version, bake at 250°F for about 6 hours.
K
Kaab El Ghazal
Kaab el ghazal is a crescent-shaped cookie with an almond-paste filling.
Origin: Maghreb
Other names: Algeria: cherek, tcharak msekker, tcherek, tcherek msekker; France: cornes de gazelles; Libya: kaak halkoom; Morocco: kabuzel.
These cookies, a Moroccan Algerian and Libyan favorite, are a sweet variatio
n of the widespread Middle Eastern turnover sambusak. The name kaab el ghazal is commonly mistranslated into English as the fanciful "gazelle horn," purportedly because the crescent shape of the cookie resembles this animal's long, curved horns. Incidentally, gazelles are now nearly extinct in Morocco. Actually, kaab el ghazal means "gazelle heel." The Arabic word kaab, a cognate of the Hebrew ahkaiv, (the source of the name Yakov/Jacob, who was born holding onto the heel of his twin brother) besides referring to a heel, denotes anything bulging or protruding; in the instance of this cookie, it describes the bulging filling.
The kaab dough was traditionally made with smen, clarified butter, but more recently fresh butter has become commonplace, while oil is substituted for meat occasions. The dough is flavored with orange-blossom water and frequently cinnamon. The filling is a mildly sweet almond paste (mazhar), which some cooks like to dye with a little green, or other-hued, food coloring. The traditional manner of forming the cookies was rolling out individual balls and folding the sides over to completely enclose the filling, then bending the cookie into a crescent. A more recent and easier version calls for rolling out the dough in a sheet, cutting out triangles, and rolling them in such a way as to partially expose some of the filling. In Fez, the cookies are dipped into sugar syrup flavored with orange-blossom water. Algerians dip their version into sugar syrup and then roll it in chop toasted almonds or sprinkle it with confectioners' sugar; when left uncoated, they are tcherek el-aryan (naked).
Kaab el ghazal appear at Moroccan celebrations, notably weddings and the minor spring holiday of Lag b'Omer. Similarly, Algerian Jews serve tcherek and Libyan's kaak halkoom for special occasions. They are usually served with naa-naa (mint tea).
Moroccan Almond-Filled Crescents (Kaab El Ghazal)
about forty 3-inch cookies
[DAIRY or PAREVE]
Filling:
2 cups (7.5 ounces) blanched almonds, lightly toasted
1 cup confectioners' sugar or ¾ cup granulated sugar
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)
1 tablespoon egg white
About 2 tablespoons orange-blossom water
Several drops green food coloring (optional)
Pastry:
3 cups (15 ounces) all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup clarified butter, unsalted butter, or margarine, chilled
About ½ cup orange-blossom water, or 3 tablespoons orange-blossom water and 5 tablespoons water
Orange blossom-water-flavored Atar (Middle Eastern Sugar Syrup (Atar/Shira)) or confectioners' sugar for dipping
1. To make the filling: In a food processor fitted with a metal blade, finely grind the almonds, sugar, salt, and, if using, cinnamon. Add the egg white and enough orange-blossom water to make a firm, cohesive paste. If using, add enough food coloring to produce the desired green hue. Cover and refrigerate overnight or for up to 2 weeks.
2. To make the pastry: In a large bowl, combine the flour and salt. Cut in the butter to make a mixture that resembles coarse crumbs. Gradually stir in enough orange-blossom water to make a mixture that holds together. Knead briefly to form a soft, pliable dough. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
3. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or lightly grease the sheets.
4. On a lightly floured surface, roll 1-inch balls of dough into thin rounds about 3 inches in diameter. For each cookie, roll a heaping teaspoon of the almond filling into a 2-inch-long crescent shape and place on top of a dough round, near the lower edge. Fold the upper half of the dough over the filling and pinch to seal. Using a fluted pastry wheel, trim the curved edge. (For large cookies, form into 6-inch rounds and fill with 1 heaping tablespoon filling.) Bend the cookies into a crescent shape and prick with the tines of a fork to vent the steam.
5. Place the cookies, 1 inch apart, on the prepared baking sheets. Bake until just lightly colored but not browned, about 12 minutes. Let the cookies stand until firm, about 3 minutes, then dip in the syrup to cover. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Kaak
Kaak is a ring-shaped pastry or bread, sometimes sweet and sometimes savory.
Origin: Iraq
Other names: Hebrew and Arabic: kahk, kaik; Ladino: biscotcho, biscocho de huevo, biscotcho dulce, roskita.
The Babylonian Talmud, on several occasions, mentions a special ancient Middle Eastern bread, kaak; the name presumably derived from an Aramaic term for teeth, kaka, as the tenacious cakes certainly required plenty of molar grinding to eat. In one instance, the Talmudic discussion specifies that the kaak was shaped, although the exact form is not recorded, before the bread was baked. In another place, kaak are described as small loaves that do not "bite" one another, meaning they do not touch and attach to each other during baking, connoting their independent formations. The spread of sugar in the medieval Arabic world led to a sweetened form of this venerable pastry. Recipes for several types of kaak appeared in the cookbook Kitab al-Tabikh (Baghdad, 1226); the shape of those small ancient breads was in a ring.
Today, ring-shaped pastries are enjoyed by Jewish communities from the Maghreb to Calcutta; the pastry was introduced by Iraqis to India in the nineteenth century. There are three predominant extant Jewish forms of these ancient pastries: hard yeast-bread rings, in the original savory and later sweetened versions; a flourless nut-paste type (kaak bi loz), ideal for Passover; and the more recent savory and sweetened cookie variations leavened with baking powder. In the Levant, Arabs use kaak to denote large soft bread rings coated with sesame seeds akin to bagaleh. Lebanese Arabs use kaak to refer to round flatbreads with a handle-like hole, which is typically split open and spread with cheese. In modern Iraq, the term kaak has also taken on the meaning of "valve" and "faucet."
Before a holiday or celebration, typically the women of the family as well as female friends gathered to turn out large batches of kaak, in what was as much a social event as a culinary occasion. Until the advent of the home oven, these cookies were prepared at home and arranged on metal sheets, then carried to the closest local bakery to cook. Unlike the dairy graybeh (Middle Eastern butter cookies), Jewish kaak are always pareve, made with oil. Originally, kaak were eggless, but many modern versions include eggs, as well as more fat, for a richer and lighter pastry. The dough is usually flavored with anise and sometimes other spices, including a standard Turkish spice blend called rihat el kaak, consisting of equal parts toasted and finely ground anise (yansoon), fennel (shammar), and mahlab (ground sour cherry kernels). Iraqis sometimes add raisins to the dough (kaak eem tzmukim). Many recipes are closely guarded family secrets passed on from mother to daughter. Some people prefer unadorned cookies, while others coat the rings with sesame seeds, making a version technically called kaak sumsum. Proficient home bakers pride themselves on being able to produce batch after batch of uniform shapes; a few experienced cooks are able to determine by eye precisely the number of kaak that can be made from any batch of dough. Today, kaak are sold at numerous Israeli bakeries, as well as those in America near large Middle Eastern communities, and consequently many people now buy these pastries. Still, there remain cooks who insist on homemade.
References to a bread called kaak in the Middle East date back to the Babylonian Talmud and have long referred more specifically to a savory or sweet pastry or bread ring. Bakers pride themselves on making perfectly uniform shapes. These are the cookie version coated in confectioners' sugar.
Like their ancient namesake, contemporary Jewish kaak are always quite hard, which makes them ideal for dunking into tea, coffee, and anise liqueur. Among the advantages of dry, very hard cookies is that they can be stored for a rather long time without refrigeration or freezing, if they are not consumed first. So for millennia, housewives have kept a container on hand in case of unexpected guests. These cookies are customarily served on the Sabba
th at a desayuno (brunch) or as part of a mezze (appetizer assortment). They are also common at all festivals, except Passover (when flourless almond versions are enjoyed), and at weddings, brits, and bar mitzvahs. Salty ones are offered to break the fast of Yom Kippur. On Rosh Hashanah, they represent the circular nature of life, while the anise and sesame seeds symbolize fertility, plenty, and a multitude of good deeds in the year to come.
(See also Biscocho and Rosca)
Middle Eastern Bread Rings (Kaak)
about 48 medium rings
[PAREVE]
1 package (2¼ teaspoons) active dry yeast or 1 (0.6-ounce) cake fresh yeast
1 1/3 cups warm water (105°F to 115°F for dry yeast; 80°F to 85°F for fresh yeast)
1 teaspoon sugar or honey
½ cup vegetable oil or shortening
1½ teaspoons table salt or 1 tablespoon kosher salt
3 to 4 tablespoons anise seeds or 1 tablespoon ground anise, or 2 tablespoons anise seeds and 1 tablespoon ground anise
Pinch of mahlab (optional)
About 4 cups (20 ounces) bread or unbleached all-purpose flour, or 3½ cups flour and ½ cup semolina flour or fine semolina
Egg wash (1 large egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water) for brushing
About ½ cup sesame seeds (optional)
1. Dissolve the yeast in ¼ cup water. Stir in the sugar and let stand until foamy, 5 to 10 minutes. In a large bowl, combine the yeast mixture, remaining water, oil, salt, anise, optional mahlab, and 2 cups flour. Gradually add enough of the remaining flour to make a mixture that holds together.
