feeling festive?

ok i'm not really feeling super festive either... but i made these lovely hamentaschen a couple of weeks ago for Purim, the Jewish festival of Esther. Yeah I really do have my own festival I'm not just being self-centred. It's all about how I was a really hot lover and persuaded the king not to kill all the jews. Well that's what I got from a cursory torah reading the other night.

Anyway, the food, the food.. Hamentaschen (=Haman's pockets) are meant to look like the hat that the evil Haman wore. Why are they named after his pockets then? I don't know.

I used this recipe from the pie queen and made the apricot filling she gives as well as a poppyseed filling of my own invention. The poppyseeds were a winner with my family but the apricot stuff was damn good too. And it gave me an excuse to buy the middle-eastern dried apricot sheets I'd been eyeing off for years. All in all the Hamentaschen were crowd pleasers, with their biscuity dough and sweet three sided hat-like appearance. And my housemate Adam kept saying I'd been doing biblical baking which was pretty cute.

Sorry for my lame posting absences.. I'll be back shortly.

ogorki a-hoy

The picture above is an old German satirical picture from the wonderful Food Mania. I tried to figure it out but I couldn't. Something about the economy going to shit and immigration? Anyway, some gratuitous stories about pickles to accompany it...

1) On Saturday night people were amused at John's Russian party that I had brought a jar of pickles with me. But the pickle chaser is my favourite - nothing better gets the taste of a shot of cheap vodka out of your mouth and nothing complements good vodka better.

2) When my sister Marion was seeing The Pianist in Poland there was a man sitting behind who didn't have very good eyesight - a woman accompanying him was explaining things to him. The mood was sombre and grim, as you'd expect in a holocaust film, until a scene which featured a big jar of pickles. "What are they?" the man said "Ogorki" the woman whispered. "What?"
"OGORKI!". I still think of this and chuckle whenever I see a jar of Polski Ogorki - the only style pickle to eat.

3) When I was about 12 we took my friend Chris Evans on a family camping trip. He had never eaten pickles before and had to be goaded into trying them. He thought they were really weird. I thought he was a freak for not loving them. Luckily my friends now have better taste. On a recent camping trip with 4 mates we had to buy 2 jars of Bick's Polski Ogorki everytime we hit a town.

what am i, chopped liver?

Well, preparations for the Polish/Russian birthday feast are well underway. I made this vegetarian chopped liver and it's pretty tasty. For anyone who doesn't know - chopped liver is a traditional Sabbath dish for Eastern European jews. It's thought that Pate might have originated in this dish, also made by Jews in France long ago. And of course it's become a classic NY deli sandwich - chopped liver on rye, with lettuce, tomato and sliced onion.

I first tried vegie chopped liver at B & H Dairy, an awesome little Kosher diner in the East Village. There's no meat at B & H, just amazing Challah french toast, greasy blintzes and a changing roster of wonderful soups - Borscht, Matzoh Dumpling.... And I love the flirtatious old guys there.

Anyway, the chopped liver recipe above is well worth a try even if you don't have a nostalgic longing for B & H. Think of it as a walnut and lentil pate if that makes it seem more appetising. Sarah was a little disappointed because she'd always thought chopped liver referred to little jelly-ish cubes of liver... somehow "what am I, cubed liver?" doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

We also spent Saturday night cooking - making and freezing a big batch of Pierogi. I love Pierogi, which are kind of Polish ravioli - little half-moon dumplings that can be served fried or boiled. We had three fillings: sauerkraut; potato and dill; and apricot and cottage cheese. We used this recipe and it wasn't nearly as tricky as I thought - it just takes a little while. We tripled the dough quantities, which is why we were still boiling them at midnight. Sarah was much better than me at rolling the dough out thinly so we have a variety of dumplings. I guess that's what home cooking is about though - they don't look like they came out of a packet.

Ooh yeah honey, we're gonna be a feasting.

on latkes and donuts

I love my mum. Not just for everything she taught me about eating (and cooking), but for the cute clippings and links she sends me. Today, in the spirit of Channukah - we have the thrilling article Latke vs Hamentash: A Materialist-Feminist Analysis. [Latke are the grated potato pancakes eaten at Channukah, Hamentashen are small pastries eaten at the festival of Purim]

Check this choice quote:

The material conditions of latke production are stressed in the best-known analysis of the latke as a factor in the oppression of women, Emma Goldman's famous "blood of our foremothers" speech (with which I assume many of you are familiar). In it, she asked, "How much of the very blood of our foremothers' knuckles have we battened and fattened on every Chanukah, for surely their lifeblood is invariably an ingredient in our latkes? Could oceans of applesauce or mountains of sour cream ever fully mask the salty tasteof the tears of our "onion-grating sisters?"

Of course, I was a little upset about the discussion of Purim (the festival of Esther) in which I'm described as a "male-identified scab." That's what you get for being a beautiful virgin bride - jeaulous feminists!

Anyway.. how can you not love Channukah - a festival devoted to oil! Last year, due to a disaster with ordering the ponchke (traditional Polish donuts), we hit upon a new tradition - Marion ran down to the Italian pasticceria on Smith St and they whipped up 20 fresh Italian donuts (I think they're called bombolini). So we got to wash down our latkes with ricotta donuts as well as the more traditional jam ones. Now if only I could find a place that made my Roman favourites - donuts filled with Nutella!

I'm still finalising the menu for my Russian/Polish vodka feast so all suggestions welcome.