When starting a conversation about Jewish cuisine, one cannot help butIt should be noted that the Jewish people have been famous for their cooking skills for centuries. This applies to cold and hot dishes and, of course, sweets and pastries. Jewish cuisine recipes tell about the lifestyle, national tastes, history and traditions of this people. They are inextricably linked with their religious customs, which impose certain restrictions on the choice and mixing of certain types of products. For example, there is a strict ban on the consumption of pork by Jews, as well as on the combination of milk and meat. At the same time, Jewish cuisine contains elements of rational nutrition. Basically, its priorities are products with high nutritional and biological value, which have a large amount of proteins, minerals and vitamins, and are easily absorbed by the body. Such essential products include fish and poultry. The high biological value of food is achieved by skillfully using products of both plant and animal origin. An example of this is their national food - kugol or various stuffed dishes. Jewish cuisine, the recipes of which limit the use of spices, strives to preserve the natural taste of the dishes. When cooking, methods of heat treatment of products such as boiling, stewing, stewing under a lid with the addition of water are used. It should be noted that one of the features of this national cuisine is the widespread use of rendered chicken or goose fat. It is used to fry onions and roots, cold appetizers are seasoned with it, and minced meat is added to it. To finally understand what dishes Jews prefer, let's name their main favorite dishes: chicken and meat broths with croutons, mandlen or homemade noodles. In the summer, they eat cold soups, they especially like beetroot soup. Of the main courses, they often have tsimmes, sweet and sour meat, and forshmak from herring on their table. They really love stuffed chicken, fish, and chicken neck. And dough products are a special song! They are varied in shape, taste, and filling. Favorite ingredients in baking are poppy seeds, honey, and cinnamon. But the most valuable thing in Jewish cuisine is the simplicity of its dishes. Any housewife who uses the recipes below to taste the national cuisine of the ancient people can feel it.
Herring forshmak
Ingredients:
- lightly salted herring - 2 pcs.,
- boiled eggs - 3 pcs.,
- processed cheese - 2 pcs.,
- boiled carrots - 1 pc,
- butter (softened) - 200 g.
Preparation:Clean the herring, remove the skin and take out all the bones. Chop it very finely. Put the eggs, carrots and processed cheese through a meat grinder. Combine everything. Add soft butter. Mix everything thoroughly to get a homogeneous mass. The forshmak is ready. All that remains is to arrange it beautifully on a plate. Forshmak is eaten by spreading it on bread, like a sandwich.
Tzimmes
Ingredients:
- carrots - 600 g,
- sour apples - 300 g,
- raisins - a handful,
- flour - 2 tablespoons,
- sugar - 2 tablespoons,
- butter - 3 tablespoons,
- salt - a pinch.
Preparation: Cut the carrots into strips.Sprinkle it with flour and rub it with your hands. Peel and core the apples, cut into strips. Put the apples and carrots in a saucepan, adding raisins, salt, sugar and butter. Fill the contents halfway with water and simmer over medium heat until the carrots are done. Tsimmes can be eaten both warm and cold. It can be served as a separate dish or as a side dish for meat.
Liver Pate (Gehakte Leber)
Ingredients:
- beef liver - 250 g,
- bun - 1 slice,
- chicken (goose) fat - 2 tablespoons,
- eggs - 2 pcs.,
- onion — 1 piece,
- green onions - 30 g,
- salt pepper.
Preparation:Clean the liver from films and ducts, cut into small pieces and fry, but it is better to boil for 7 minutes, stirring. Then mince the liver together with the soaked bread pulp. Add fried onions, salt, pepper, melted goose (chicken) fat, mix everything very thoroughly until smooth. Transfer to a plate, garnish with slices of boiled eggs and green onions. Note: goose (chicken) fat can be replaced with butter.
Gefilte fish (stuffed fish) stewed
Ingredients:
- fresh fish (carp, pike perch, pike, etc.) - 1 kg,
- onion — 4 pcs.
- salt - 1 tsp,
- pepper - 1 tsp,
- eggs - 2 pcs.,
- cold water - 1/3 cup,
- sugar — 1/3 tsp,
- carrots - 3 pcs.,
- bun - 1 slice 2 cm thick
Preparation:Clean the fish, gut it, and carefully remove the skin. Separate the flesh from the bones and mince it. Add a loaf of bread soaked in warm water, finely chopped onion, eggs, pepper, and salt. Knead the minced meat well, gradually adding water, and fill the fish skin with it. Put onion skins and sliced carrots on the bottom of the pan, and on them - the skin filled with minced meat, and the head, giving the fish a whole look. On the sides, it should be lined with the remaining carrots and onion skins. The fish should be completely covered with water. Put on the fire, bring to a boil, and then simmer for two hours on low heat.
Stuffed neck (Helzl)
Ingredients:
- flour - 1.5 cups,
- grated onion - 4 tbsp,
- lard - 0.5 cups,
- salt - 1.25 tsp,
- black pepper - 0.25 tsp,
- red pepper - 1 tsp,
- goose neck - 1 pc. or chicken necks - 2-3 pcs.
Preparation:Carefully remove the skin from the existing neck. Sew up one end. Mix flour, lard, onion, peppers and salt. Stuff the neck skin with this mixture. Then sew up the other end. The stuffed neck can be stewed with chicken or boiled separately in broth. Before serving, remove the threads and cut into slices, garnish. This dish can be made a little differently: take onion chopped with a knife instead of grated, and instead of lard - fat, finely chopped.
Poppy seeds (Monelakh)
Ingredients:
- poppy - 1 cup,
- nuts - 1 cup,
- honey - 150 g,
- sugar - 5 tbsp,
- vegetable oil - 1 tbsp,
- cinnamon - to taste.
Preparation:Mince the poppy seeds and mix with chopped nuts. Melt honey in a saucepan, add sugar, cook until the sugar is completely dissolved. Put poppy seeds and nuts in this syrup. Cook for 15-20 minutes, stirring frequently. After that, put the mass on a wooden board greased with oil and let it cool a little, smooth it out into a layer 2 cm thick. Sprinkle with ground cinnamon and cut into diamonds or squares. Jewish cuisine recipes are designed to fully comply with all the laws of religion on food consumption - kashrut, which is translated from Hebrew as "suitable". Each nation has its own characteristics and traditions. And we must pay due respect to Jewish cuisine, which in terms of its taste is among the best cuisines in the world. We recommend reading:
