by Gil Marks
When the Ottoman tomato stew reached the Maghreb, it was called shakshuka. Jews made a vegetarian version to render it pareve. Shakshuka became a popular working person's breakfast when cooked in a skillet with eggs and accompanied with fresh bread. Tunisian Jews, in particular, became recognized for their numerous egg dishes, including shakshuka, which they prefer with more fire and spice than Moroccans. In Algeria, the tomato base, called marqa, contains numerous vegetables and is served over the top of torn khobz (semolina flatbread).
Immigrants from the Maghreb brought shakshuka to Israel, where it was widely adopted and variously served as part of breakfast, a light lunch, or dinner. Israeli shakshuka features eggs, either poached on top or scrambled in the stew as in the Turkish menemen. For Sephardim, both of these methods of cooking eggs with vegetables date back to before the expulsion from Spain. The large-scale egg production of kibbutzim and moshavim meant that, even in tough times, eggs in Israel were relatively plentiful and inexpensive. As a result, a can of tomatoes, a few eggs, some bread, and a skillet meant that Israeli families—many of whom in the early days had only a range or burner and no oven—could quickly whip up a tasty and filling meal.
The Maghrebi tomato stew with eggs, shakshuka, still provides a healthy and filling breakfast.
The ingredients beyond tomatoes and eggs and the types of spices vary greatly from cook to cook and place to place. Shakshuka runs from mild to particularly fiery. Jewish tomato-based stews typically contain sautéed onion and garlic. Some cooks add various vegetables, notably bell peppers, artichoke hearts, cauliflower, eggplant, fava beans, okra, potatoes, and zucchini. There are even those who fry some merguez sausages or chunks of salami or hot dogs in it. A popular Israeli practice is sprinkling the eggs with za'atar. Israeli army cooks, to stretch the dish, typically add two handy ingredients, canned corn and baked beans.
For many years, shakshuka was an Israeli staple, served several times a week or nearly every day in some households and offered in many restaurants, but more recently, as Israeli culture and food has become more international, it has somewhat declined. Still, kibbutzim, army cafeterias, and upscale Israeli hotels commonly offer shakshuka as part of a breakfast buffet. It is widespread during the Nine Days before Tisha' b'Av, when meat is traditionally not eaten. Also in Israel, shakshuka has recently become a popular filling for sambusak and borekas (turnovers). Some families prepare a large pot of the tomato base for the Sabbath to serve with bread, then for Sunday breakfast reheat the remainder with eggs. At a mezze (appetizer assortment), shakshuka is sometimes accompanied with pita bread, couscous, or rice and a glass of chilled arak.
Israeli Tomato Stew with Eggs (Shakshuka)
4 servings
[PAREVE]
3 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 to 4 cloves garlic, minced
4 medium Anaheim chilies or red bell peppers or any combination, seeded and diced or sliced (optional)
2 pounds (4 cups) plum tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped, or 28 ounces canned plum tomatoes, squished
1 teaspoon paprika, ½ teaspoon ground turmeric, or ½ teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon sugar
About 1 teaspoon table salt or 2 teaspoons kosher salt
Ground black pepper to taste
1 to 2 tablespoons harissa (Northwest African Chili Paste (Harissa)) or s'chug (Yemenite Chili Paste (S'Chug)), 2 to 6 teaspoons hot paprika, or 3 to 5 drops cayenne sauce (optional)
4 large eggs
1. In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté until soft and translucent, 5 to 10 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté for 2 minutes. If using, add the peppers and sauté until tender-crisp, about 5 minutes.
2. Add the tomatoes, paprika, sugar, salt, pepper, and, for a more fiery stew, harissa. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes soften and thicken, about 20 to 30 minutes. Check the seasonings, as you will not be able to adjust them once you add the eggs.
3. With the back of a spoon, make 4 equidistant indentations in the stew. Carefully break the eggs, one at a time, into a small dish and slide one into each indentation. Cover the pan and cook over low heat until the egg whites are set but the yolks are still soft, about 5 minutes. Or divide the tomato mixture between 4 small baking dishes, make an indentation in the center of each, break in an egg, cover, and bake in a 400°F oven until the eggs are set, about 10 minutes. Serve immediately.
Shank
A cow or sheep's foreshanks or shins, the portion of the two front legs between the knee and the ankle, contain a large amount of connective tissue and little fat and, therefore, require gentle, slow braising to tenderize and produce a flavorful dish. This method is most commonly used for shanks of lamb or veal. Middle Easterners serve braised lamb and veal shanks with rice, Italians with risotto, Moroccans with couscous, and Romanians with mamaliga (cornmeal mush) or garlic mashed potatoes. In many families, braised lamb shanks rank as the favorite holiday dish; they are frequently the main course at a Mizrachi or Sephardic Passover Seder, and a shank bone (zeroah) is also included on the Seder plate.
Sharbat
Sharbat is a fruit syrup.
Origin: Persia
Other names: Israel: petel, tarkiz; Turkey: serbet.
Before the dawn of recorded history, Middle Easterners boiled certain sugar-rich fruits, notably dates and grapes, into a thick honey, known as dibs in Arabic and devash in the Bible. Then more than two thousand years ago, Persians began boiling lighter fruit juices with bee honey to make a concentrated syrup; they also prepared versions made from flower petals or almonds. The concept of these syrups perhaps originated in China and traveled the Silk Road westward. It appears that ancient versions were thicker, almost jamlike. After sugar arrived in the region from India around the sixth century CE, it was typically substituted for the honey. Until the arrival of the refrigerator, this process remained one of the few ways of preserving many fruits, such as cherries and berries, which have a short season.
Ever since these syrups were developed, Middle Easterners have counteracted the effects of hot weather and thirst with a refreshing drink made by mixing a little fruit syrup concentrate with cold water. Persians stirred the syrup directly into snow and crushed ice to create a frozen treat. Additions appear in fancier variations, such as the Persian faludeh, which is made with rice noodles and rose water. In many parts of the Middle East, ice and snow were stored in special icehouses and caves during the winter to last through the summer, and sold in marketplaces to chill drinks and make slushes.
The syrups became known as sharbat, from the Arabic sharba (a drink), which also gave rise to the English word syrup. With the advent of Islam and its prohibition of alcohol, sharbat took on even greater importance and to this day remains popular throughout the Middle East, where it is used as a flavoring agent for water and seltzer, and drinks made with it are still commonly served with meals. Many Middle Eastern Jews rely on beverages made with almond or lemon sharbat to break the fast of Yom Kippur. Sharbat also became a staple in India.
The Arabs, during their occupation of Sicily, introduced sharbat to Europe; the Italians renamed it sorbetto and around the early sixteenth century began to make iced versions. This led to the French sorbet, a fruit ice, which was purportedly introduced to France by Catherine de Médicis in 1533; the word sorbet first appeared in English in 1585. In the dairy-rich northern part of Italy, cream and milk were generally added to the fruit syrup, resulting in gelato. In a unique Turkish version, kariskik komposto, the syrup is flavored with a combination of apple, apricot, peach, pear, and quince. Around 1600, the Turkish serbet led to the English sherbet, which originally denoted a drink of fruit syrup and water, but in the late nineteenth century came to mean a frozen fruit mixture.
Toward the end of the nineteenth century, Turkish and Greek Jews brought their beloved fruit syrups to Israel. The fruit concentrates were
among the first processed Israeli foods and they were sold in glass bottles at every mahkolet (small market) throughout the country. Raspberry (petel) became the most popular and widespread flavor. The official Hebrew word for the syrup was tarkiz, although in the Israeli vernacular the generic word for these fruit syrups became petel.
In the era before most Israelis owned a refrigerator, petel, which keeps at room temperature, was commonly used to make drinks served with meals and snacks, and when entertaining. To Israeli children, petel was a cultural icon akin to soda in America. However, in the 1970s, with the popularization of bottled fruit juices and various foreign soft drinks, gazoz (petel with a squirt of seltzer) and the kiosks peddling it all but disappeared from the country. At the same time, petel lost its supremacy in Israeli lives, although it remains an important Israeli food.
Shavuot
The one-day (two days outside of Israel) festival of Shavuot (Hebrew for "weeks") falls at the end of the seven-week Omer period after the onset of Passover. The Talmud refers to Shavuot as Atzeret shel Pesach (the Conclusion of Passover) and it is analogous to the holiday of Shemini Atzeret, which occurs at the end of Sukkot. Although Shavuot is one of the trio of Pilgrim Festivals mandated in the Bible, it is comparatively little known in America, even among many Jews. This relatively low profile is due partially to the brevity of the festival and partially to a scarcity of holiday rituals and symbols.
Agriculturally, Shavuot marks the end of the barley harvest and the beginning of the wheat harvest. It is also around the time of the first of the two annual fig crops. The Book of Ruth, which describes events occurring at this time of year, is read in the synagogue.
During the time when the Temple stood, two loaves of wheat bread were "waved before the Lord." This, along with the thanksgiving offering, is the only occasion when leavened bread was used in the Temple. In addition, the holiday is called Yom ha'Bikkurim as it is the first day of the year when the first fruits could be brought to the Temple.
After the Temple was destroyed and the Jews moved away from Israel, eventually losing their agricultural lifestyle, Shavuot took on a more pronounced historical meaning—commemorating the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai seven weeks after the Israelites departed Egypt. Rabbi Isaac Luria, the Ari, instituted the custom of Tikun Leil Shavuot, staying awake and studying the entire night of Shavuot.
In recognition of the harvest, as well as the trees that according to tradition flourished on Mount Sinai during the giving of the Torah, synagogues and homes are customarily decorated with flowers and greenery. In the Middle East, the synagogue is bedecked with an abundance of rose petals—hence the nickname "the Festival of Roses." Accordingly, Middle Eastern Shavuot fare is frequently flavored with rose water, and rose-petal preserves are commonly served with the meal.
The preeminent food symbol of the holiday among Ashkenazim is dairy, as Shavuot corresponds to the time of the year when young animals are able to graze and dairy products are in abundance. The Torah is compared in Song of Songs to milk and honey and the Bible refers to Israel as a "land flowing with milk and honey."
In addition to the biblical references, tradition recounts that after receiving the Torah and the laws of kashrut on Shavuot, the Jews could no longer eat the meat foods they had prepared beforehand or use any of the cooking utensils, which were now unkosher. Another legend relates that when the Jews returned to camp after receiving the Torah, they found that their milk had soured and turned into cheese. Therefore, it was necessary to eat dairy dishes and cheese on the first Shavuot. In addition to dairy products, other white foods, such as rice and white cornmeal, are considered symbols of purity and are customary on this holy day.
Since the bread offering is one of the few Biblical rites prescribed for this holiday, a special emphasis is placed on the Shavuot loaves. Ukrainian Jews top their long holiday bread with a five- or seven-rung ladder design, an allusion to Moses' ascent on Mount Sinai to receive the Torah and because the numerical value of the Hebrew word for ladder is the same as Sinai. Five rungs represent the Five Books of Moses; seven rungs represent the number of weeks from Passover to Shavuot, as well as the seven spheres of heaven. Many Sephardim prepare round seven-layered breads called siete cielos (seven heavens). Some communities developed a specially marked dairy bread on Shavuot. Greek communities make a honey and yogurt bread, while some German Jews prepare a cheese challah called kauletsch.
Sephardim often serve borekas (pastry turnovers), phyllo turnovers, sfongo/fongos (spinach-cheese nests), yogurt salads, sutlach (rice-flour pudding), and biscochos Har Sinai (mounded cookies representing Mount Sinai). Middle Eastern Jews typically make mengedarrah (lentils with rice topped with yogurt) and ruz ib assal (honey-and-milk rice pudding). Syrians typically enjoy calsones (filled pasta) and sambusak bi jiben (cheese turnovers).
Ashkenazic fare includes blintzes, noodle or rice kugels, knishes, kreplach, pirogen, vegetable salads with sour cream, kaesekuchen (cheesecake), strudel, schnecken, rugelach, kuchen, and cheese fluden (layered pastry). Two blintzes placed side by side resemble the two tablets that Moses received on Mount Sinai on that day, as well as the two leavened loaves waved in the Temple on Shavuot.
Shawarma
Shawarma is thinly sliced roasted seasoned lamb or turkey wrapped in flatbread.
Origin: Turkey
Other names: chawarma, shaurma, showarma; Turkey: döner kebab
Roasted lamb with flatbread is an ancient Middle Eastern combination, dating in Jewish cookery to the biblical paschal lamb of the Passover Seder wrapped in soft matza. The more recent shawarma is a similar combination consisting of highly seasoned marinated slices of meat, originally lamb, stacked about two feet tall on a skewer and slowly roasted on a vertical spit in front of a flame. The word shawarma, from the Turkish çevirme (rotating), is the Arabic name for what the Turks call döner kebabs (döner means "one that turns"). The dish originated in Anatolia around the 1830s, after the invention of a mechanical vertical rotisserie, also called a cone tower, and soon emerged as the favorite Middle Eastern fast food/street food, prepared fresh to order. As the rotisserie turns, paper-thin slices of caramelized meat are shaved from the roasted surface using a very sharp knife; the falling shards are piled into a pita or laffa. Turkish versions tend to be spicier than those from Greece. Turkish immigrants introduced the döner kebab to Germany and England, where they eventually emerged as the favorite fast food.
Jews from the Near East brought a love for shawarma with them to Israel, and the enjoyment of the dish soon spread to Ashkenazim and Sephardim as well—shawarma rivals falafel as Israel's favorite street food. In the early years of the state, when few homes had an oven, small shops and kiosks could purchase or jerry-rig a rotisserie, providing a practical method for roasting meat for a casual but filling meal. Because lamb was relatively expensive, Israelis typically began substituting locally raised turkey, frequently with a little lamb fat added for flavor and moisture. The meat is commonly served with Israeli salad or chopped tomatoes, tahini sauce or amba (curried mango condiment), and pickles. Recently, frozen packaged turkey shawarma and packets of shawarma spice mix have appeared in Israeli groceries.
Shechita
According to the Bible, humans had originally been assigned a vegetarian diet, but later Noah and his descendants were granted permission to eat animals. God said to Noah, "Every moving thing that lives shall be for you for food, as the green herb have I given you everything." Later when the Israelites are on the verge of entering the Promised Land, God declares, "According to the desire of your soul, you shall eat meat," which connotes not a commandment to consume meat but rather a concession to human cravings. The Talmud explained the biblical passage, "The Torah here teaches a rule of conduct that a person should not eat meat unless he has a craving for it... and even then he should eat it only occasionally and sparingly." Consequently, the Bible permits the killing of permitted animals for food in prescribed ways—through shechita, the act of ritual slaughter o
f animals and fowl. If an animal or fowl is killed otherwise than by shechita, it is not kosher. Shechita is not applicable to fish. A shochet (slaughterer) is a person trained to perform ritual slaughter. This is different from a butcher (metzger in Yiddish and itleez in Hebrew), although the two jobs can be performed by the same person if qualified. The Torah decrees a positive commandment to employ shechita in slaughtering animals, as well as a negative commandment forbidding the consumption of any meat not obtained through shechita.
Shechita is designed to be the most humane method of killing, causing the least possible pain to a live, unimpaired animal. The act of shechita in ruminant animals entails cutting, in a single knife stroke, through the majority of both the windpipe (trachea) and gullet (esophagus); fowl can be cut through either of these organs. In addition, the carotid arteries and jugular veins along both sides of these organs are severed at the same time, which is helpful in removing the blood from the animal. The area in which the knife must cut ranges from the large ring (cricoid cartilage) in the windpipe down to the top of the upper lobe of the lungs; in an adult cow this region is generally more than 12 inches. The result of shechita is a quick, thorough draining of blood (dam nefesh), a substance strictly forbidden for consumption. This intense loss of blood and dramatic drop in blood pressure renders the animal unconsciousness irreversibly and almost instantaneously, in about two seconds.
Some critics—as part of an attempt to eliminate meat eating altogether or sometimes simply as a matter of anti-Semitism—claim other methods of slaughter are more humane than shechita, without knowing or acknowledging the reality of the situation. For example, the now-common Western practice of stunning an animal (captive-bolt shot and electric shock) frequently requires numerous repetitions of the shot to the head to produce unconsciousness, commonly causing damage to the skull and brain, which is not only painful but renders it treifa (unkosher).
