Kosher Food
The kosher, or ritually clean food is connected with the history of Jewry, dating back to antique Israel, to the book of Moses.
The main rules regarding food can be devided for 3 parts:
- First is the importance of clean meat. Edible, kosher meats are for example beef, poultry(except ostrich), lamb, goats, stag, gazelles, fallow-deers; antelopes, and ibex chamoises. All meat that is hunted is considered unclean as well as, pig, rabbit, camel, and horse’s meat too.
- The second rule applies to eating meat, too: only bled meat must eaten. The religious rule says that meats have to macerate in water for half an hour, one hour in salt, and then be flushed 3 times, so that every blood clot is washed out. The liver has to bled out before cooking, and the spire of the heart has to be cut off before preparation. It is important at the animal is killed by an expert, called the shakter, and he has to kill the animal with one cut, to avoid the needless suffering of the animal.
- The third rule is that lactic and meaty meals must be separate. Therefore, in Jewish cuisine preparing of these foods need different bowls and equipments.
Kosher Recipies
’Flódni’ is a typical Hungarian Jewish cake. It is similar to the ’zserbó’. The main difference is the number of the layers or stripes. Zserbó has three meanwhile flódni has five. We put poppy seeds, walnut, apple and plum jam between the layers of dough.
It seemed that I had a stroke of beginners luck. I had already been warned that for beginners it is best not to try complicated recipes. Anyway, to me it seemed pretty simple:
- crumple the raw materials
- prepare the filling
- divide the pastry up to five
- pile on the ingredients and after 1,5 hours baking the flódni is ready
Well, this is a bit complicated, but its not that bad.
Ingredients:
Dough:
50 dkgs flour
25 dkgs margarine
4-6 tablespoons powdered sugar
3 egg yolks
Approx. 1 dl wine
Fillings:
Approx. 6 dls of wine
25 dkgs of poppy seeds
25 dkgs walnuts
1 kg of apples
60 dkgs sugar
half a bottle of plum jam
1/2 packet of raisins
cinnamon
+1 egg for lubrication
Why do we need the egg?
I read about its use for the the first time was when I was searching for the recipe of ’barchesz’. So if you want a beautiful looking cake, it is best if you brush the top with a beaten egg. I usually used only the yolk for this purpose, but not very often, because I did not see any great results. However, my cake seemed to be so flawless that this new method became a permanent trick of mine, when it comes to usage of eggs in baking. I usually make at least one pie a week, and it is a pleasure not only to taste, but to look at. That is why I did not hesitate to use it before putting the flódni into the oven.
Afterlife of the flódni
I suggest you to cut up the flódni only on the following day (rest it one night) for the best results. Fortunately it is edible for up to one week. It was a pleasure and curiousity as well that eveb those people and complimented it so much who had never been ones to eat nuts or raisins willingly.
Anyway, this isn’t a light dessert, a slice contains 4172 kJs / 998 kcals.
I made honey cakes for the New Year, according to the Jewish traditions. ’Rosh Hanasa’ is coming soon at that time we wish eachother a sweet new year, that is the reason why we need plenty of desserts. Many people like to dip apples into honey, that is also considered to be a very popular dessert. Making fried apples is very easy. We make the pancake-like outside from kosher ingredients. We slice the apple, plunge the pieces into the batter. If you want to taste the best ever, eat the fried apple with honey. Speaking of popular sweets and baked goods, honey is a favourite ingredient, naturally because of its sweetness. I made ’Honiglekach’ which is really a gingerbread-like cake. What’s more, I used honey right from Israel. I made it in a round mold to fit the festive mood.
Ingredients:
1 cup honey
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup coffee
1,5 cups flour
3 eggs
3 dkg butter
Rum flavouring
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 fistful raisins
2 fistful ground walnuts
gingerbread spice mix
cinnamon
I made my Honiglekach using two different recipes. Instructions: first you should braise the walnut-pieces (without using oil). After put the raisins into a glass and sprinkle them with rum essence. Put it into the microwave oven for 1 minute, long enough to be soaked. Gently separate the eggs. The yolks should be mixed with strong coffee. Add the butter, honey, raisins and sugar as well. Boil again. Add the flour, the baking powder and the spices. It is important the two mixtures should be added gently, so as to preserve the consistency. Lubricate the baking pan with butter and sprinkle with flour. Pour the dough into the pan and sprinkle it with the walnut. Bake for 50 minutes at 180 degrees. If you’re successful, the result should be something like this:
It can be a bit strange idea to make muffins with ’rabbi-face’ but any (one that’s not so traditional or religious) holiday can it be a good event to make somebody smile with them. A friend of mine likes to decorate muffins, she showed these figures to me.
The preparation is quite simple, since the characters are not very detailed.
Steps:
1. Cover the muffins with nude marzipan. For decorating the best material is marzipan, but you can use fondant as well. Now I review the use of marzipan because it is much easier to work with. The best is to choose marzipan which has a softer texture. In this the amount of sugar is three-fold, that is why this is more easily convertible. Brush tops of the muffins with a light butter cream (stir soft butter or margarine with powdered sugar). I’ve tried various means, but the simplest is a finger. The marzipan should be stretched out for (approximately) 3-5 mm thick sheet. You should jag small, muffin-size pieces with using an appropriate-sized glass. Place the pieces on the top of muffins and smooth them out so as to obtain a flat surface.
2. Then the followings should be made: sideburns, eyes and eyebrows, beard, ’Kipa’, mouth and the most important part, the nose.
3. The sideburns: make thin wire-like pieces with using your finger from black marzipan, these will create loops. There must be two pieces for both sides. Slather the surface with a mixture of butter and powdered sugar (use a fine brush) and then paste on both sides.
4. Beards: cut a triangle from the stretched sheet of black marzipan with using a pizza slicer and then another piece of it from the upper part. Paste the beard as well.
5. ’Kipa’: cut a smaller piece of marzipan in half and place it to the muffin’s top.
6. The most important is the nose, the bigger the better. The nose should be from nude marzipan. It is important not to use melted marzipan, so before using it is necessary to put it in the fridge for a while. Knead a cylindrical shape. Flatten half of the marzipan on a suitable surface. The other part should be peaky. Actually, the figure needs to be sharp-featured. Place two small black balls of marzipan on the nose.
’Child-friendly’ plum cake
During the fall, plums are abundant and inexpensive, so naturally i decided to make something tastey out of this fall fruit. First I thought, plum cream soup, but my two-year-old niece quickly voted me down, so I stuck to the original plan, the plum cake. She helped me bake the dessert, because the recipe is so simple that even the liveliest child won’t lose interest.Sticking the plums into the dough can be an adventure in itself for kids, so the cake is now her absolute favorite.
Ingredients:
Pastry:
30 dkg flour
15 dkg strong white bread flour
3 teaspoon baking-powder
20 dkg margarine
20 dkg sugar
3 eggs
Filling
cinnamon
1 packet of vanilla sugar
50 dkg plum, (chopped in larger pieces)
Preparation:
First mix the whipped margarine with sugar. (I prefer if the margarine to be soft, almost like a liquid, it is easier to work with, so I put it into the microwave oven for half a minute, and I added the sugar only after.) After I added the eggs and the flour with baking powder. I poured the dough into a buttered baking dish – of course, with the help of my busy niece – and placed the plum-pieces (poured by the vanilla sugar and cinnamon) on top of the pastry. We pushed the plum into the dough. It should be baked for approx. 40 minutes in an 180-degree oven.
Before baking ’Saturday cakes’ for the first time, I started to search for a recipe, and finally it seemed to be the most sympathetic:
The dough:
1/2 kg flour
40 gs sugar
1 egg
30 gs yeast
200 mls lukewarm water
60 gs butter
7 gs salt
+ 1 egg for lubrication
Of course, I had already searched for the useful pieces of information before many days. I wanted to know exactly what is considered to be kosher, what is allowed and what is prohibited. Finally, I decided to cook ’barchesz’ on my own and I wish to keep the basic rules.
First I sifted the flour so as to avoid a bug’s getting into the dough. I broke the eggs up into a separate glass, and I used the original yeast, not an instant one. It is important to keep the salt far away from the yeast, otherwise our cake will not be ’clean’.
Swelling the cakes, increasing the offering
Kneading the barchesz is a separate issue, the original recipe says that 20 minutes is needed for doing it (what is more, according to an experienced gastro-blogger, we should use a machine for it). Anyway, for me 10 minutes was pretty enough to finish an excellent dough, so please do not afraid of using your hands, you can get perfect results.
Nipping a ’victim’ from the raw material is a cardinal point. Two versions can be found on the internet. According to the first, we have to collect the ’challah’ all the year, and burn them at the feast of ’Pészach’. The other version says that it is much better to burn them away immediately.
Talking about my cakes, none of them happened because it did not meet the sacrificial rules.
The liquid ingredients of the dough
In order to say blessing, nearly all of the liquids should be water. If there is less water in the liquid than the other liquid ingredients (eg. oil, eggs, honey, fruit juice..), you should separate the Challah without blessing.
The quantity
In order to be able to separate the Challah and say the blessing, you should use at least 1,6 kgs flour to the dough.
Spinning
Spinning the cake needs many patience but the easiest way can be discovered soon. I have tried two different forms, but I must be more expert for spinning from six.
What is Challah?
One part of ’barchesz’ dough should be offered as a sacrifice to God. This part is called Challah. The offering’s separation from the dough is one commandment of the Torah’s 613 ones, and it is one of the three main ’mitzvas’ that can befound int he Torah and requires especially for women. English speech areas the word ’Challah’ is often used for the ’Barchesz’ itself.
Why exactly challah?
When the Jewish people entered to Israel and settled there, God required that presents should be given to the ’Kohens’.
One of these prescribed presents was the Challah, namely a certain portion of the dough. The Challah, in addition to functioning as a gift of God is part of our bread. This is the best best way to express that we really believe, God feeds us.
I was very curious about the recipe of this meal. After some quests I realized that the kosher kitchen had always been a part of my everyday life,even if I didn’t know it. Anyway, the easiest recipe for egg-cream is a Jewish food as well. I was so happy with this discovery that I soon made the cream. It was a delicious dinner served with toast.
After we gorged well, I started to search for the origin of the recipe, but I could not find it anywhere. It seems to be evident to know that the Polish egg is a Jewish one.
Otherwise, the recipe is very simple. Boil three eggs, crush up with using a fork, peel and cut two medium-size onion, and mix it with a large spoonful of mustard and goose grease. It can be flavoured with salt, pepper, red pepper. It can be served with toast, bread or salty barchesz, any of them can be a very delicious choice.
It is useful to know that goose grease is one of the most easily digestible fats. It is completely free of cholesterol. Its positive health effects nears to olive oil or other rivals. Making cakes with using goose grease is much healthier than with margarine.