by Gil Marks
Romanian Cheese-Cornmeal Dumplings (Papanash)
about 20 dumplings
[DAIRY]
16 ounces (2 cups) farmer or pot cheese
1 to 3 tablespoons sugar (optional)
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest (optional)
½ teaspoon table salt or 1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons softened butter or olive oil
About ½ cup fine cornmeal
1. In a food processor fitted with a metal blade, blender, or electric mixer, combine the cheese, sugar, zest, and salt. Add the eggs and beat until smooth. Beat in the butter, 1 tablespoon at a time. Stir in enough cornmeal to produce a firm but soft dough. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.
2. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a low boil. With moistened hands, form heaping tablespoons of batter into 1½-inch balls.
3. Drop the dumplings in the water. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, until cooked through, 10 to 15 minutes (they are done about 5 minutes after they rise to the surface). Remove the dumplings with a slotted spoon. If not serving immediately, keep warm in a 200°F oven.
Paprika
The Turks introduced chilies to the Balkans during their occupation of the region, but how they spread to Hungary remains a matter of contention. In 1526, the Turks began their bid to conquer Hungary, taking the capital Buda in 1529 and remaining in control until 1687, following the Ottoman defeat. Chilies had certainly reached central Europe by then, as the Bavarian botanist Leonhard Fuchs included three varieties in his Primi de Stirpium (Basel, 1545), a botanical collection with woodcuts. The plant was first recorded in Hungary in 1569, as "vörös törökbors" (red Turkish pepper), in a list written by a noblewoman of the foreign seeds she was planting in her garden. But the chilies were a decorative plant, not a food. Even at that early date, Hungarians associated chilies with the Turks. However, some posit that chilies were brought north by Bulgarians fleeing the Turks or by Ragusan (Croatian) spice merchants, many of whom were Sephardim; both of these sources are plausible, especially since the centers of Hungarian paprika, the towns of Szeged and Kalocsa, are in the south of the country near the border.
Originally, Hungarians called chilies either bors (black pepper) or the Teutonic pfeffer. By the early eighteenth century, these terms were supplanted in the country with the Slavic name for peppercorns, paprika (derived from the Bulgarian piperka). In Hungary, the term paprika means both the fresh pods as well as the powder made from grinding dried ones.
The Ottoman army did not share the chilies it brought or grew with the natives of the conquered lands, using the pods for their own food and medicine. Following the departure of the Turks, the plants were left behind, and the popularity of paprika quickly spread among Hungarian peasants. The original pa- prika chilies were hot—the degree of heat was determined by the variety and the presence of the placenta (the flesh that houses the seeds, located below the stem), which had to be removed by hand, a grueling task, then crumbled by hand or coarsely crushed in a mortar. Since paprika was locally grown and much less expensive than peppercorns, it emerged as the predominant plebeian seasoning and became an essential part of Magyar cuisine, used in classics such as gulyás (goulash). On the other hand, paprika was for a long time held in contempt by the Hungarian upper class, who could afford imported peppercorns and ginger. It was finally accepted by the elite in the nineteenth century, when Napoleon's campaigns and blockades prevented imported spices from reaching the region.
At the same time that paprika was gaining the approval of the Hungarian upper class, industrial advances led to improvements in its quality. Paprika first appeared as an ingredient in a cookbook in 1817 in Vienna, in a recipe for "Chicken Fricassee in Indian Style," and it was not until 1829 that it showed up in a Hungarian cookbook, which included the first recipe for paprikás csirke (chicken paprikash). Among the first American cookbooks to mention the spice was Aunt Babette's (Cincinnati, 1889), the spice cited only once, in a recipe for "Paprica (Hungarian Hash)."
In 1859, the Palfy family in Szeged developed a machine to both separate the veins and seeds of chilies and finely grind the pods, allowing for the mass production of milder paprika. Only in the 1920s did horticulturalist Ferenc Horváth of Kalocsa develop a sweet red pepper that contained very small amounts of capsaicin and was appropriate for drying and grinding into a spice—this pepper soon emerged as the predominant type in Hungary. The Hungarian red pepper, as well as its many hybrids, is a thick-skinned variety that does not lend itself to being eaten raw. Ground alone, even with the placenta and seeds, it produces a mild, flavorful spice, and when mixed with other varieties, the resulting blends range from mild to hot.
At the turn of the twenty-first century, more than thirteen thousand acres in Hungary, most of them on small farms, were planted with red peppers and the average Hungarian consumed a pound of paprika a year. The peppers ripen on the plant through the summer and are traditionally harvested by hand. The pods are then strung into long garlands and hung to sun-dry for three to four weeks—Hungarians insist that this produces a far superior flavor to oven-drying. The best-quality paprikas are stone-ground, preserving the color and flavor.
The government of Hungary currently recognizes twenty-two varieties of paprika and most brands are made from eight sweet varieties and two hot ones. Hungarians value both the flavor of mild paprika and the piquancy of the fiery ones. When the paprika contains the placenta, stems, and stalks, it is classified as koenigspaprika (king's paprika), while the milder paprika made only from the pod is classified as rosenpaprika. The mildest in heat is különleges (special quality), which has the sweetest, most delicate flavor, finest grind, and deepest red color. The standard Hungarian cooking paprika and the one most exported, designated in recipes as "sweet Hungarian paprika," is édesnemes (noble sweet), which has a bright red color, medium grind, complex flavor, and very slight pungency. Félédes (semisweet) is a mixture of sweet and hot paprika and has a red-orange color and slightly piquant, bitter flavor. Another major export is rózsa (rose), made from the placenta and seeds as well as the pods, resulting in a light red-orange color, relatively coarse grind, and a very mild pungency. The only Hungarian paprika with a real kick, made from hot varieties with the placenta and seeds, such as the two-inch, round almapaprika (apple pepper), is called erös (fiery).
Hungarians remain the foremost proponents of paprika's attributes, and some of their zeal has seeped into Ashkenazic cooking. In addition to being used as a garnish for egg salad and potato salad, sweet paprika (but not the hot types) is now a common ingredient in cholent (Sabbath stew), stew, pot roast, and chicken fricassee. It is used to season helzel (stuffed neck), kishke (stuffed derma), and poultry stuffing.
(See also Chili and Pepper, Sweet)
Paprikás
Paprikás is a meat stew that is slow-cooked in its own juices and seasoned with paprika.
Origin: Hungary
Other names: paprikash, pörkölt.
The most distinguishing feature of Hungarian cuisine is the liberal use of paprika. Eventually, the spice was generously added to the classic Hungarian gulyás (a soupy stew), called goulash in America, which was a peasant dish until the nineteenth century. The advent of paprika eventually gave rise to two entirely new types of stew: pörkölt (literally meaning "roasted"), which is little known in the West, and paprikás, which is called paprikash in America and is the same as pörkölt, but with sour cream added.
Most Hungarian households kept at least a few chickens for eggs and, for special occasions, an older bird would go into the paprikás, making it paprikás csirke. The cooking method can also be used for veal (borjú), beef (marha), or most other meats. The type of meat is relatively unimportant, as onions and paprika lie at the heart of a paprikás. The onions are not sautéed or browned in the typical manner, but rather are cooked, covered, with a little liquid to prevent burning, for an unusually long time. M
any Hungarians insist that chicken or goose fat is preferable for a paprikás, but vegetable oil makes a respectable substitute. Hungarian sweet paprika provides a bold, balanced flavor that does not overpower the few other ingredients. Aficionados and purists argue over whether it is appropriate to add tomatoes and/or peppers or whether paprikás should be seasoned with a little caraway seeds or marjoram; these additions are heresies to some, interesting variations to others.
The first recipe in any cookbook for paprikás csirke appeared in 1829 in Hungary, after the upper class had already come to realize the spice's virtues. Immigrants brought the dish to America toward the end of the nineteenth century. The Neighborhood Cook Book by the Council of Jewish Women (Portland, Oregon, 1912), in addition to including three recipes for "Hungarian Goulash," included one for "Chicken Paprika."
As with most Jewish cookbooks, the recipe for chicken paprika in The Neighborhood Cook Book omitted any sour cream, a substance cooks in a kosher kitchen would not add to a chicken or meat stew. Instead, Jews substituted the term paprikás for pörkölt—the latter name was not particularly popular in an English-speaking kosher kitchen anyway, because it was suggestive of a pig. As with many other Hungarian foods in America, paprikash made its way into the general Ashkenazic kitchen and then into the American mainstream. Many Jewish delis and Catskill hotels featured chicken paprikash (Jewish-style without sour cream), although usually an Americanized version, which omitted the traditional cooking method and used mild American paprika in place of the Hungarian sweet version. Today, quite a few European-style restaurants in Israel offer chicken paprikás on their menus—some versions are kosher, while some contain sour cream. Among American Jews, the dish came to be considered fare that while not elegant was special enough to offer to company, particularly as it was an easy dish to prepare. In the movie When Harry Met Sally, Billy Crystal, drawing on his Jewish humor, improvised a line during lunch in a restaurant: "Waiter, there is too much pepper on my paprikash."
For many Hungarians, chicken paprikás remains a great comfort food as well as festive fare. Paprikás is traditionally served with cucumber salad (kovászos uborka) and Hungarian dumplings, such as galuska or nokedli, or noodles, such as tarhonya and tészta.
Hungarian Chicken Paprikash (Paprikás Csirke)
4 to 6 servings
[MEAT]
¼ cup schmaltz or vegetable oil
2 large yellow onions, chopped
About ¾ cup chicken broth or water
2 to 3 teaspoons sweet paprika
1 (3- to 4-pound) chicken, cut into 8 pieces, or 8 (about 3½ pounds total) chicken thighs, bone-in and with the skin on
About 1 teaspoon table salt or 2 teaspoons kosher salt
Dash of ground black pepper
2 medium (1 cup) tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped (optional)
1 sweet banana pepper, seeded and chopped (optional)
1. In a large skillet or pot, heat the schmaltz over medium heat. Add the onions and sauté until slightly softened, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in ¼ cup broth, cover, reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer for 1 hour. Check the onions occasionally to see if they are in danger of burning. If so, add a little more broth.
2. Remove the skillet from the heat, add the paprika, and stir for 1 minute. Place over low heat, add the chicken, and toss to coat and seal in the juices. Add ¼ cup broth, salt, and pepper. If using, scatter the tomatoes and banana pepper over the top. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Check occasionally to see if a little more liquid is needed.
3. Invert the chicken pieces and, if the stew seems as if it might burn, add the remaining ¼ cup broth. Cover and simmer until fork-tender and an instant-read thermometer inserted in the thighs registers 175°F, 15 to 25 minutes.
4. Transfer the chicken to a heated platter and keep warm. The cooking liquid should be a very thick, intensely red gravy. If it is too watery, increase the heat to high, boil until thickened, return the chicken, and toss to coat. Serve warm.
Pareve
The Yiddish adjective pareve—also commonly spelled parev, parve, and parveh—means "neutral," referring to foods and utensils that are neither meat (fleishig) nor dairy (milchig). These include fruits, vegetables, grains, fish, eggs, honey, water, and minerals.
The term pareve probably derived from the Old Czech párov (pair/dual), as pareve food can be paired with either meat or milk and has dual usage. The word pareve appeared centuries after the Yiddish fleishig and milchig, the latter terms dating from around the late fourteenth century. Today, the word pareve is widespread, but that is a relatively recent development due to its adoption by Polish Jews around the early nineteenth century. Previously, in rabbinic literature a paradigmatic case (e.g., "like fish") was used to express the intent of pareve, while Sephardim conveyed the concept with "neither keso [cheese] nor karne [meat]." The equivalent term was minikh in Western Yiddish, minnich in Holland, and bur in Lithuania. Although stami (derived from Aramaic by way of Yiddish) is the official term in modern Hebrew, paravi or parve is more commonly used on the street and also on food labels. The first printed record of the word in English was in the promotional cookbook The Story of Crisco by Marion Neil (Cincinnati, 1913), which explained, "It is what is known in the Hebrew language as a 'parava,' or neutral fat." In a nonculinary usage, pareve also came to designate a milquetoast personality.
Parsley
Parsley, from the Greek petroselinon (growing among the rocks), is a native of the eastern Mediterranean. It is the world's most popular herb, long valued for its mildly bitter, grassy flavor as well as its healthful properties. In much of Asia and Europe, it is added to salads, soups, stews, and casseroles. In the Levant, parsley is the star of tabbouleh salad. Parsley is one of the items commonly used as karpas at the Passover Seder.
(See also Karpas and Seder)
Parsnip
Parsnip is a native of northeastern Europe. Its English name, as well as the Yiddish name pasternak (from the Middle High German), is derived from the Latin term for the plant, pastinaca. The surname of author Boris Pasternak was imposed on his grandfather, who was purportedly descended from the Sephardic scholar Isaac Abravanel, by the Russian authorities in Odessa.
Wild parsnips are too bitter and woody to eat, but parsnips were cultivated to produce a sweet, tapered, white root. Since it was first improved more than two thousand years ago, the parsnip has served as one of the primary vegetables of northeastern Europe, where the root is treasured for its sweet, nutty flavor as well as its storage abilities. The Roman writer Apicius recorded several recipes featuring this vegetable, including parsnips simmered in white wine and olive oil with cilantro, and parsnips mixed into a vegetable sausage. With the increased popularization of its relative the carrot in the fifteenth century, and then the potato in the mid-nineteenth century, the usage of the parsnip dramatically decreased.
Cooking intensifies the parsnip's sweetness and flavor; therefore, it is usually added to stews and soups, especially Ashkenazic chicken soup. It is also typically mashed or pureed in pancakes, timbales, or ravioli filling. The sweetness of parsnips is complemented by salty and bitter foods, such as dark leafy greens. The parsnip holds its own as the base for a soup, as well as in latkes and as part of a tzimmes.
Passover (Pesach)
Passover, called Chag ha'Matzot (Festival of the Matzas) in the Bible, is a seven-day holiday (eight outside Israel). The first and last days (the first two and last two outside Israel) have restrictions against creative work, although unlike the Sabbath, cooking is allowed. As with Shavuot and Sukkot, Passover has both a historical and an agricultural connection. Passover commemorates the Exodus from Egypt following centuries of oppression and slavery. It also falls at the onset of spring and the barley harvest and coincides with the time when the shepherds and goat herders brought their flocks in from winter pasturing for the birth of their babies.
The Haggadah has offered guidance during Passover for more than a thousand years; here, an example from 1350 Barce
lona, before the expulsion of the Jews from Spain.
Hand matza is made today by Ashkenazim in the same way as it has for centuries. Here the schieber (slider) transfers four freshly baked matzas from the oven to the cooling rack. Unbaked matza hang on the pole in the rear left awaiting their turn in the oven.
Today, Passover is the most widely observed of all the Jewish holidays and the Passover Seder ("order" in Aramaic) is the most practiced of all the Jewish rituals. During the Seder, the Passover story is recounted and relived through a progression of symbols and ceremonies as recorded in the Haggadah (literally "retelling"). The story of the Exodus has appealing universal themes—hope and freedom, redemption and justice, family and community—and is told in a uniquely Jewish way. It is a holiday celebrating ancient national events that centers on the family. The Seder provides one of the increasingly rare opportunities for several generations of a family to gather together.
Due to the various dietary regulations resulting from the proscription of chametz, Passover fare differs from that of the rest of the year. Among Ashkenazim, a prohibition emerged against eating legumes (kitniyot) on Passover, as well as rice, corn, and some seeds. On the other hand, Sephardim, prolific rice and legume consumers, not only reject these prohibitions, but frequently feature these foods at the Seder. Over the centuries, creative cooks have found ways to adapt some of their everyday foods, as well as create new ones to meet the special requirements of Passover. Traditional Ashkenazic Passover fare includes borscht, schav (sorrel soup), gefilte fish with chrain (horseradish), gebratener hindle mit matzafullung (roast chicken with matza stuffing), carrot tzimmes, matza kugel, potato kugel, matza brei (fried matza), blintzes, compote, ingberlach (ginger candies), and eingemachts (preserves).
