by Gil Marks
The traditional Ukrainian way to shape noodles was to roll out the pasta sheets and cut them into squares or rectangles about one and a half inches wide. Among Ukrainian Jews, the plain noodles typically mixed with kasha became known by the name varnishkes, called plaetschen in Poland. Eastern Europeans brought kasha varnishkes to America, where it became a popular comfort food as well as holiday fare. "In the mid-1800s, Augustus Goodman immigrated from Posen, Poland (then part of Prussia) and ended up in Washington, D.C., where he went into his family's business, baking hand matzas. During the Civil War, Goodman became a baker for the Union Army, making a different form of unleavened bread, hardtack. Following the War in 1865, he moved to Philadelphia and launched a matza bakery; in 1881, he relocated to New York City and, with his brother Isaac, opened another matza bakery. By 1888, the business had expanded and shortly thereafter, with the company renamed A. Goodman & Sons, Augustus branched out into making kosher egg noodles. Over the years, Goodman's repertoire of noodle products increased. During the early 1900s, probably influenced by the farfalle (butterflies) pasta of Italian immigrants, Goodman's began pinching the top and bottom edges of dough rectangles inward to the center, which Americans called bow-ties. These soon became the favorite form for eastern European Jews in America for making kasha varnishkes."
Kasha varnishkes was once served for Sabbath dinner, Hanukkah, Purim, and other special occasions, usually as an accompaniment to roast chicken and brisket; brisket and kasha varnishkes the traditional Hanukkah duo in some households. For years, kasha varnishkes was a standard at Jewish delis and dairy restaurants, like the now extinct Garden Cafeteria, Ratner's, and, another block south on the Lower East Side, Rapoport's. In Europe, the dish consisted predominantly of inexpensive kasha with a few noodles, while in America the opposite was generally true.
Although the passion for kasha varnishkes faded somewhat in the American Jewish community, through popular culture, it was introduced to the American mainstream. In a 1995 episode of the sitcom Seinfeld, Elaine is asked by a rabbi in her building, "Can I offer you some kasha varnishkes?" Although absent from earlier versions, the 1997 edition of the classic American cookbook The Joy of Cooking offered a recipe for "Bowties with Kasha (Kasha Varnishkes)." The Star Trek Cookbook (1999) included a recipe from the mother of actor Leonard Nimoy entitled "Kasha Varnishkas à la Vulcan," which noted, "This dish is particularly delicious when served with pot roast gravy. If you want to stay traditionally Vulcan vegetarian, you can make a brown mushroom gravy and use that instead."
(See also Kasha, Lokshen, and Varenik/Varenikes)
Ukrainian Buckwheat and Noodles (Kasha Varnishkes)
6 to 8 servings
[PAREVE or MEAT]
2 cups water, or 1 cup chicken broth and 1 cup water
About 1 teaspoon table salt or 2 teaspoons kosher salt
About ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
5 tablespoons schmaltz or vegetable oil
1 large egg or 1 large egg white, lightly beaten
1 cup (5.75 ounces) kasha (roasted buckwheat kernels), medium or coarse granulation
1 large onion, sliced or chopped
8 ounces bow-tie noodles, plaetschen (noodle squares), or wide egg noodles
1. Bring the water, salt, pepper, and 2 tablespoons schmaltz to a boil.
2. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, stir the egg into the kasha to coat the kernels. Transfer to an ungreased medium saucepan, place over medium heat, and stir until each grain is dry and separated, about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and gradually stir in the boiling water. It will sputter. Cover, place over a low heat, and simmer until the kasha is tender and the liquid is absorbed, about 12 minutes. Remove the kasha from the heat and let stand covered to firm and absorb any excess moisture, about 10 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat the remaining 3 tablespoons schmaltz over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté until soft and translucent, 5 to 10 minutes, or until golden, about 20 minutes. Set aside.
4. Meanwhile, cook the noodles in a large pot of lightly salted boiling water according to the package directions and drain.
5. Fluff the kasha and add the sautéed onions, then stir in the hot noodles. Serve warm. If you like the top lightly browned, bake in a 350°F oven for about 15 minutes. If it is dry, stir in a little chicken broth.
Kashk/Kutach
Kashk are dried balls of fermented cracked wheat or barley and yogurt whey that are usually simmered with water into a thick soup.
Origin: Persia
Other names: Arabic: kishk; Greek: trahana; Hebrew: kutach; Iraq: kushuk; Turkish: tarhana, tarhina.
Kashk is a fermented product encompassing the two enduring staples of the Middle East, grains and dairy. In the Middle East, a combination of agricultural and pastoral cultures, grains (primarily varieties of barley and wheat) and dairy products each provide nutritional elements lacking in the other. Much of ancient food technology was devoted to preserving scarce resources for as long as possible, and not necessarily to creating the most sophisticated and flavorful fare. Although whole grains could be stored for many months, if they were fractured—a common occurrence during threshing—the oil inside became prone to spoilage. Fermentation could extend the shelf life of dairy products, such as yogurt, cheese, and buttermilk, for a few days or so, but additional processing was necessary for longer storage.
Kashk was typically prepared during the summer, after the grain harvest, but while there was still a surplus of milk, as well as heat from the sun for aiding both fermentation and drying. Families set aside part of their harvest or purchased large amounts of wheat or barley, then coarsely cracked some of it between two rotating stones. The crushed grain was slowly stirred into warmed acidified whey drained from sheep or goat yogurt or cheesemaking, and the doughy mixture was salted and transferred to porous clay vessels to ferment for at least two or three days and sometimes up to two weeks. After it was properly fermented, the thick mixture was formed into coarse lumps and spread out to dry in the sun—a slow, thorough drying of at least a week or more. Finally, the kashk was crumbled into smaller balls and stored in clay vessels until needed. Kashk was reconstituted in water, then simmered into a thick, lumpy porridge, or simmered with available vegetables into a soup. When added to a liquid, the brownish lumps whiten somewhat and crumble easily, remaining relatively intact when cooked for a short period. Some people, unfamiliar with the process for making kashk, have mistaken the small kashk lumps for crusts of bread.
Throughout most of history, kashk was a home production run by women and children, although in the later twentieth century, commercial manufacturers, primarily in Turkey and Greece, emerged. Nevertheless, in many rural areas in the Middle East, this process continues annually to this very day. In Iran, kashk has taken on the meaning of dried whey or dried yogurt (without any grain), while kateh is now the Persian name of basic cooked rice.
The acid in kashk produced during fermentation, along with the salt and low-moisture content, acts to suppress spoilage. As a result, kashk can be stored for up to two years. The acid and fermentation also give the kashk its distinctive sour, nutty, yeasty flavor and smell, which vary according to the types of lactic acid bacteria used. Although members of one culture become accustomed to or even grow to love the flavor of a particular fermented item, that food is all too often offensive to other communities.
The Talmud relates that Rabbi Yochanan "would spit [in disgust] every time he was reminded of kutach ha'Bavli [Bavli means "Babylonian"]." The Israeli rabbis claimed three things about kutach ha'Bavli, the Talmudic term for the Persian kashk, in the process revealing its ingredients: "it clogs the heart, on account of the whey [nisyube de chalba, Aramaic meaning "separated from milk"]; it blinds the eyes, on account of the salt; and weakens the body, on account of the fermentation of the flour."
Kutach ha'Bavli is among the most commonly mentioned foods in the Talmud. Although it was a much-beloved dish among Jews in central Asia, kutach merited extreme
scorn among the residents of Israel. Persian Jews commonly ate kutach with bread, which the Israelis, who stressed fresh vegetables and legumes in their diet, found the practice of "eating flour with flour" in a meal at best puzzling. However, the principal problem with kutach for most Israelis was its taste.
The citation of kutach in the Mishnah, at least four centuries before the earliest record of kashk in a non-Jewish source, reveals that it was well established by at least 200 CE, around the time the Mishnah was compiled and, for the next several centuries, remained primarily a central Asian food. Kashk, along with other fermented dairy products that provided much-needed nutrition and protein, was an everyday food in the Middle East, as well as an essential part of the cached winter food supply and a vital resource in times of famine. The porridge was principally breakfast food but, depending on necessity and preference, often served as part of a meal or the entirety of a meal, especially during the winter. Kashk was ideal for soldiers, shepherds, nomads, and travelers of all sorts, requiring just a small vessel, a fire, and some water to produce a filling repast.
In addition, the porridge, considered by its proponents to be very healthy and nutritious, was commonly served any time of the year to nursing mothers, infants, the sick, and the elderly. Rav Gaza, a Babylonian, rebutted the Talmud's criticism of kutach, explaining, "I was in the West [Israel] at one time and made that same dish [kutach], and all the sick of Israel begged me for it." Maimonides, while a physician in Egypt, in an official medical letter written to the son of Saladin, prescribed kashk to be drunk and included his recipe, made primarily with barley, vinegar, and salt.
In the ninth century, the word first appeared in Arabic, pronounced kishk, while the Turks called it tarhana (from the Persian tar "soaked" and khan "food") and sometimes added chopped vegetables, such as onions and chickpeas, and spices, including dill and mint, to the dough. During the Ottoman domination of the Balkans, the Turks introduced the dish to that area, where it was adopted as everyday food and the Greeks pronounced it trahana. Trahana soups are still widespread in the Balkans and packaged dried trahana is commonly available in markets. Medieval Hungarian tarhonya was identical to kashk, but after the concept of pasta arrived in central Europe, tarhonya evolved into a basic egg noodle dough.
This ancient dish had an impact on Ashkenazim as well, although not as kutach. When kashk made its way to eastern Europe, it became kasha, a word used in Slavic languages for any type of cooked grain porridge (with or without the dairy); in Yiddish, kasha came to mean only toasted buckwheat groats. When kishk was stuffed into intestines, it became kishke.
Greek Wheat Soup (Trahanas)
6 to 8 servings
[DAIRY]
1½ cups (9 ounces) trahana (kashk)
1½ cups water
5½ to 7½ cups vegetable broth or water
¼ cup vegetable oil, olive oil, or clarified butter
Salt and ground black pepper to taste
¼ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley or 1 cup feta cheese (optional)
1. In a medium bowl, soak the trahana in 1½ cups water for at least 30 minutes.
2. In a large, heavy pot, heat the oil over medium-low heat. Add the trahana and stir to coat. Add the broth, salt, and pepper and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the trahana is tender and the soup slightly thickened, 10 to 15 minutes. If using, stir in the parsley.
Kebab
Kebab denotes an array of Middle Eastern grilled or broiled meat dishes; in America, it typically refers to shish kebab, while in Europe it more commonly indicates doner kebab (shawarma) and in Israel kebab means skewers of ground meat patties.
Origin: Persia, Turkey
Other names: Farsi: kabab; Turkey: kebap.
The Persian poem The Rubáiyyát of Umar Khayyám (c. 1100 CE) contains a famous quatrain, usually mistranslated, but actually reading, "Here with a loaf of bread beneath the bough, a flask of wine, a kabab [not kitab, which means "book"], and thou."
In medieval Persia, kabab (pronounced kebab in Arabic) denoted chunks of meat that were variously roasted, baked, fried, or stewed. The Persian term kabab probably derived from the Aramaic word kabbaba (burning/charring). The term was used in the Babylonian Talmud in discussions of Temple animal offerings that they not be kabbaba (burned). The Persian term was adopted by medieval Arabs and Turks as kebab, and has come to mean different things in different places. The Iraqi cookbook Kitab al-Tabikh (Book of Dishes) by Muhammad ibn al-Hasan Al-Baghdadi, written in 1226 but based on a collection of ninth-century Persian- inspired recipes, contained recipes using meatballs called kebab. Among the book's medieval Arabic meatball dishes were mudaqqaqat hamida ("sour meatballs," flavored with verjuice), raihaniya (meatballs with spinach), buraniya (meatballs with eggplant), and naranjiya (orange stew with both meat chunks and meatballs).
Roasting small chunks of meat is a process dating back into antiquity. Middle Eastern nomads and later soldiers cooked meat over an open fire. Smaller pieces of meat need less fuel than large cuts, so cooking these chunks was practical in an area where wood and even brambles were in limited quantity; this cooking technique was also valuable when time was of the essence. It was the Turks around the sixteenth century who popularized the usage of kebab to refer to grilled and broiled meat. In the Ottoman Empire, the Turkish term sis (sword/skewer) was attached to the Persian term for roasted pieces of meat, called sis kebab. In the late nineteenth century doner kebab became a synonym for shawarma.
Today, shish kebab a term adopted in English around 1913—known as shashlik in the Caucasus, basturma in Georgia, and frigarui in Romania—refers to any type of meat cut into cubes of one inch or slightly larger in size, including lamb, beef, and chicken, and grilled on skewers. In parts of the Arab world, roasted pieces of meat are called lahm mishwi, although in Iraq, they are known as tikka. Some of the most widespread modern Persian kababs are kabab-e barg, strips of marinated lamb threaded on skewers and grilled; kabab-e koobideh, ground beef, chopped onions, and parsley pressed around a skewer and grilled; joojeh kabab, grilled chicken chunks; and mahi kabab—samek kebab in Arabic—grilled fish chunks. In Persian restaurants, grilled meat, or a combination of kababs, served on a bed of fluffy saffron rice and usually accompanied with grilled tomatoes is called chelow kabab.
Whatever the terminology, roasted skewered pieces of meat are ubiquitous from India to the Caucasus and Balkans. Many versions call for marinating the meat and also helps keep it moist during grilling. Turkish kebabs tend to be spiced with cumin, while Persians typically favor cardamom and turmeric. Many Greeks like a little marjoram.
Oval ground meat patties on skewers are called kufta kebab/kefte kebab in Arabic, kebab in Iraq (kubbeh are Iraqi ground meat dumplings), köfte kebab in Turkish, and luleh kabab (tube) in Persian, the latter sometimes containing toasted chickpea flour. The most common Iraqi way to eat the grilled elongated ground beef patties is as laffat kebab, wrapped in flatbread and sprinkled with sumac and sliced onions.
Kebabs, whether chunks or ground meat, are particularly important among Persian, Kurdish, and Turkish Jews, many of whom enjoy them on a weekly basis as well as at celebrations, such as an engagement party or Shevah Berachot (festive meals in the week following the wedding). Middle Eastern Jews popularized their native kebabs in Israel, where they became integral to the cuisine and culture. On Israel Independence Day and during the week of Sukkot, as well as on other days when Israelis typically enjoy grilling and picnics, some type of kebab is always on the menu. Kebabs are also ubiquitous in Middle Eastern restaurants in Israel and Israeli restaurants in the West. Kebabs are usually served with rice and/or flat bread, although Kurds frequently enjoy ground meat kebabs with bulgur.
(See also Kefte, Kufta, and Me'orav Yerushalmi)
Middle Eastern Ground Meat on Skewers (Kufta Kebab)
8 servings
[MEAT]
2 pounds ground lamb or beef chuck
½ to 1 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf
parsley
6 scallions or 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 to 4 cloves garlic mashed with about 1 teaspoon salt
About ¾ teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, ½ teaspoon cayenne, or 2 tablespoons dried mint
Vegetable or olive oil
1. In a large bowl, combine the meat, parsley, scallions, garlic, pepper, and cumin.
2. Prepare a charcoal fire by heating coals until they reach medium heat and are covered in a light gray ash, about 20 minutes. Set the grill rack about 5 inches over the coals.
3. Divide the meat mixture into 8 equal portions. Shape each portion around a flat or two-pronged skewer into 1½-inch-thick ovals about 4 to 6 inches long. Brush with the oil. Or divide the meat mixture into 16 or 24 portions and shape each portion into a 2-inch oval, using 2 to 3 ovals per skewer.
4. Grill or broil the kebabs, turning occasionally, until browned on all sides, about 15 minutes.
Kefir
Kefir is a fermented, effervescent milk product produced from a complex mixture of bacteria and yeast.
The first kefir was produced by letting milk sour naturally, resulting in the generation of carbon dioxide, alcohol, and the aromatic compounds that set kefir apart from other cultured milk products. The various microorganisms and casein are symbiotically grown together in colonies called grains. This makes kefir unique, as no other milk culture forms grains. These grains contain the bacteria and yeast mixture clumped together with casein (milk proteins) and complex sugars. They look like pieces of coral or small clumps of cauliflower and range from the size of a kernel of wheat to that of a hazelnut. The grains ferment the milk, incorporating their friendly organisms to create the cultured product. The grains are typically left in the milk for six hours to a day. Before kefir is drunk, the grains are removed with a strainer—never a metal one, which can kill them—and they are added to a new batch of milk.
