Category Archives: Moroccan Sephardic

Passover 2019 Keftes de Prassa and a little music…..

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Passover is around the corner! We are getting busy cooking (and listening to some Passover music and some traditional renditions of the HAGGADAH in the Rhodesli Tradition by Neil Sheff, to get us in the mood! Listen along with us!)

While listening today, I was remembering the Birkat Amazon as I had learned it in Seattle, “Ya Komimos.” Thanks to my Facebook friend Louise Chiprut Berman, I immediately had the words at my fingertips. I could hear most of it in my memory, missing a line or two. Asking on Facebook, Bryan Kirschen was able to post Hazan Isaac Azose singing it exactly as I remembered! AH, such happy memories…..and the wonders of Facebook!
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Cooking with my Mom. Making Keftes de Prassa….a family favorite. We serve Prassa (leek patties) at Pesah as they are a spring vegetable.  We also serve them at Rosh Hashanah as part of the ‘yehi ratzonis’ – the Rosh Hashanah Seder.

Our family makes them without meat…..a good option for the vegetarians at your Seder. (some have the tradition of adding ground beef to their leek patties.)

This is my mom’s method for Keftes de Prassa.

Ingredients:

1 large onion – chopped

8 medium stalks of leek

3 eggs

2 tblsp matzah meal

1 C mashed potato or 1 C mashed potato flakes

pepper to taste

*optional pinch of red pepper flakes

Prepare leeks. Cut 1/4″ from top and bottom.

Cut in half vertically.

Soak and clean leeks throughly. (leeks, by nature, often have a good amount of fine dirt between leaves. Make sure to clean carefully) Soak, rinse, soak again (2 – 3 times).

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Cut into 1/2″ pieces.

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Boil cut leek and chopped onion in a pot of water ( covering mixture), until vegetables are soft and limp. Boil Potato separately until soft.

Drain (squeeze out) all liquid. Add additional ingredients. Blend into an even leek-onion-potato mixture. Shape into patties.

Fry : 2/3 C oil

Fry on medium heat until both sides are slightly browned.

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Drain on a paper towel. Divine freshly made…..can be frozen, sealed tight.

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Defrost and place on a cookie sheet and warm in the oven at 300 degrees for about 10 minutes, or until warmed throughly.

Enjoy!!!!!!

Love hearing what you’re making and doing for the holidays. Stay in touch with us here and on Facebook at ‘Bendichas Manos!’

~ Kaye & Marcia

Pesah 2018……It’ Almost Time to Gather ’round the Table

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Tomorrow is a cooking day…..and tomorrow night marks the first night of Passover – the first Seder. We’re all busy preparing our homes, shopping, and preparing for the holiday.  I thank you for allowing me to share one last message before we begin the Festival.
This is a time for gathering together. We read the Haggadah and tell the story of our delivery as a people from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the land of Israel. It is a cornerstone of our being a people. So central is the journey from slavery to freedom, from oppression to self-reliance, that we retell this story each year. We can only appreciate our freedom if we remember our enslavement. We can only appreciate our wholeness of we remember our brokenness. We can only appreciate our own land of Israel, a home for all the Jewish people, if we recall our desperation and desolation when we had nowhere else to turn.
So – we tell the story, year after year, from generation to generation. And with the telling, we serve our favorite foods. Again, passing from one generation to the next our savory dishes, favorite recipes, each with a special name, with special textures and flavors and all with their own memories. These are the stories – and the foods, that bind us together as a people and keep us connected as a family. How very strong is the bond that stories – and food – provides!
Our family Passover seder this year will bring together a big group – mashala!- all somehow connected to my grandparents, of blessed memory, Isaac (Hacco) Hasson and Sarota Benveniste Hasson. Both were born on the Island of Rhodes (at the time part of the Ottoman empire, Turkey), at the end of the 19th century. Could they ever had imagined that over a hundred years later, their children, grandchildren, down to their great great great grandchildren would still be connected, gathering together (in person and via Facebook) to remember their names, remember their stories, and together carry on the traditions that they, too, brought forth from the generations before them! How wonderful that is!
Our Seder will include readings, stories and songs in English, Hebrew and Ladino, the Judeo-Spanish of our Sephardic family. The foods will be leaven free with flavors and names related to our Turkish, Spanish, Mediterranean roots.
We hope the recipes, stories and links we’ve shared with each other help to entice, and enrich our experiences and strengthen our bonds.

May you enjoy your time together with family and friends; may you tell the story of our people and the lessons of our journey. May you tell stories and remember those of our families who are no longer with us physically, so their memories stay alive in our hearts and those of our children and their lives continue to bless us. May we keep the traditions of our ancestors and create new ones with our children. May our gatherings bring blessings – and may our hands, the hands that prepare these foods that nourish our souls and keep our traditions alive, always be blessed.
Pesah Alegre!
~ Bendichas Manos

Marcia Weingarten
http://BendichasManos.com
On Facebook: Bendichas Manos!

 

Keftes de Prassa … Pesah 2018

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After a whirlwind trip to New York for a very special wedding, I returned home and got into ‘Pesah Prep’ mode.  When I walked into my mom’s home on Sunday morning, she had already prepared and fried 6 dozen Keftes de Prassa!! She knows they are a favorite for so many in our family and she wanted to make sure she had them made and ready for the family to enjoy!!

We serve Prassa (leeks) at Pesah as they are a spring vegetable.  We also serve them at Rosh Hashanah as part of the ‘yehi ratzonis’ – the Rosh Hashanah Seder.

In our family, there are vegetarians – (other families make them with ground meat.)
This is my mom’s method for Keftes de Prassa.

Ingredients:

1 large onion – chopped

8 medium stalks of leek

3 eggs

2 tblsp matzah meal

1 C mashed potato or 1 C mashed potato flakes

pepper to taste

*optional pinch of red pepper flakes

*****(One side note – for ease of preparation: Trader Joe’s has packages of pre-cut leek in the freezer section – cuts down on preparation time!  Boil the leek for about 20 − 30 minutes until soft. Rise under cool water. Squeeze water from leek. (then squeeze again – and again. Then, just one more time – it is amazing how match liquid can be removed, and so doing will help ensure the best possible results.  Separately chop and boil the onion in a pot of water. Then continue as below.)

Prepare leeks. Cut 1/4″ from top and bottom. Cut in half vertically. Soak and clean leeks throughly. (leeks, by nature, often have a good amount of fine dirt between leaves. Make sure to clean carefully) Cut into 1/2″ pieces.

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Boil cut leek and chopped onion in a pot of water ( covering mixture), until vegetables are soft and limp.

Drain ( squeeze out) all liquid. Add additional ingredients. Blend into an even leek-onion mixture. Shape into patties.

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Fry : 2/3 C oil

Fry on medium heat until both sides are slightly browned.

IMG_8403

Drain on a paper towel. Divine freshly made…..can be frozen, sealed tight.

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Defrost and place on a cookie sheet and warm in the oven at 300 degrees for about 10 minutes, or until warmed throughly.

Enjoy!!!!!!

~ Bendichas Manos

Delicious Delicacies…the Flavors and Foods of our Heritage

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IMG_2400What is the thread weaving together the Rue Tigrane Pacha in the Egyptian coastal city of Alexandria, Shah Street in the cosmopolitan city of Teheran, and the Puerta de la Mar in the Old Town of Rhodes, once a part of Turkey and now a part of Greece? And what do ‘cahk’, ‘toot’ and ‘ashuplados’ have in common?

These are the tastes and the neighborhoods we once called home. “Cahk” is an Egyptian egg and sesame biscuit, “toot” a Persian marzipan delicacy shaped like white mulberries, and “ashuplados” are meringue clouds from the Island of Rhodes. These recipes and recollections, along with other multi-cultural delicacies, make up the new Sephardic Heritage Cookbook, produced by the Or Chadash Sisterhood of Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel in Los Angeles. The Sisterhood originally produced a cookbook in 1971, which has sold several thousand copies throughout the world over the past 40 some years.

Since that time, Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel has grown, evolved and become home to a growing number of Jews from throughout the Ottoman lands and the Middle East, as well as new generations of young families drawn to the warmth and vibrancy of the community. Each group has brought with them a cultural and culinary tradition that together create a beautiful ‘salad bowl’ of diversity that makes Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel such a rich and enriching place to call home.

The ‘Cookbook Group’ has been meeting for the past five years, sharing recipes and traditions from Turkey, Morocco, Rhodes, Iran, Israel, Curacao, Egypt and South America. Our diversity makes us unique – bringing new flavors and traditions to the table; always marveling at the similarities we share.

The new cookbook, replete with or stories and photographs of delicious delicacies, is a volume that all collectors of ‘Sephardica’ will want for their library……and ‘foodies’ and cooks of all backgrounds will want in their kitchen. Get a copy for yourself – and get a few for gifts!

Enjoy cooking ….and may your hands always be blessed!

~Bendichas Manos, Marcia

You can purchase them online at SephardicTemple.org. Books are $32 each + shipping (buy 3 or more and receive a 10% discount on books.) {Can be shipped anywhere in the US for an additional $5/copy}

It’s Beginning to Feel a Lot Like Pesah!

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With Pesah just around the corner, it’s time to share some favorite recipes.

I am including my mom’s Keftes di Prassa, leek patties, and Megina, Passover meat quajado.

What Seder would be complete without Haroset. Here is our family’s favorite, my cousin Sarita’s Haroset.

We have some delicious dessert recipes in our community. Check out our recipes for some of my mom’s best: ashuplados, mustachudos (a nut confection) , masa di vino (wine cookies), and marochinos (almond macaroons).

While you’re cooking, listen to Yehoram Gaon singing Un Cavritico. For the seder, we’ve included some of the Ladino lyrics for songs from our family favorites and one we’ve re-introduced, Mos Abastava,  the Ladino version of ‘Dayanu.’

As with all things Passover…..enjoy the opportunity to be with family and friends. Document your family recipes and traditions, cook together, enjoy the time. With each dish we serve and each traditional song we sing, we recall lovingly those family members who are no longer with us, whose recipes and memories are present at our table, and whose names we mention at various time throughout the evening (and throughout our many family gatherings).

As we retell the Passover story, so too, we retell our family stories. I love the fact that our grown sons “know” and talk about family members, several who passed away years before the boys were born…..but whose life lessons and stories are still very much a part of our family gatherings. Memories live on!

We would love to share some of your family stories with “Bendichas Manos” readers…..please feel free to send them on to us or share them with us on Facebook at Bendichas Manos!  Most important, share them at your seders. This keeps our histories and our stories alive!

Cook up all their favorites.  Enjoy the holiday.  May your hands always be blessed!

~’Bendichas Manos’

 

Passover – Pesah 2012

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With Pesah just around the corner, we have received requests for favorite holiday recipes. We are reposting with pleasure some of the more requested ones. Take a look; click on the various links, enjoy this special holiday time. Let us know how your cooking adventures turned out and please feel free to share family stories with us. We’ll look forward to posting many of them. More to come!

Happy Cooking!

~”Bendichas Manos”

Passover Megina – Meat Quajado (originally posted April 16, 2011)

One of the staples of our seder meal is a Megina, sometmes refered to as “mina”, or a “meat quajado”. My mom’s is made with crumbled matzah mixed in giving it a quajado like consistency once cooked, and able to be cut into and served in squares. The “mina” version is often made with layers of soaked and softened matzahs and constructed more like a meat lasagna. I am sharing the recipe as my mom makes it for our family and as she has taught it in community cooking classes. This is one of those dishes you can customize to your liking, adding different spices for a differnt flair ( think cumin or ‘ras el hanut’ or even cilantro instead of parsley, to name a few). This version is made with ground beef, although ground turkey could be substituted. Let us know what you think!

My Mom’s (Kaye Israel) Recipe for Passover “Megina” (meat casserole) {sometimes called Quajado de Carne or Mina}

2 C chopped onions
2 lbs ground meat
2 tblsp oil
1/2 tsp pepper (to taste)
1 tblsp salt
1/4 c parsley, chopped
10 eggs
1 C farfel (soaked in warm water, and squeezed dry) or 4 sheets matzah (soaked in warm water, squeezed dry and crumbled)
touch of red pepper flakes (optional)

Brown meat with onions in oil; transfer to bowl and allow to cool. Add salt, pepper, parsley and farfel (or matzah). Add 2 beaten eggs at a time until 8 eggs are mixed in.

Grease 9 x 13 inch pan (pyrex type) and heat in oven for 2 – 3 minutes. Pour mixture into pan. Spread remaining 2 beaten eggs to top of mix. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool. Cut into squares and serve. Delish!!!!

I am including this link, complete with some pictures, of one of our favorites, my mom’s Keftes di prassa.

What Seder would be complete without Haroset. Here is my cousin Sarita’s recipe.

We have some delicious dessert recipes in our community. Check out our recipes for some of my mom’s best: ashuplados, mustachudos (a nut confection) , masa di vino (wine cookies), and marochinos ( almond macaroons ).

I have also added the link to the beautiful Moroccan custom of “Bibhilu”

Finally, a link to Yehoram Gaon’s recording of one of our favorite Ladino Pesah songs, Un Cavritico .

As with all things Passover…..enjoy the opportunity to be with family and friends. Document your family recipes and traditions, cook together, enjoy the time. With each dish we serve and each traditional song we sing, we recall lovingly those family members who are no longer with us, whose recipes and memories are present at our table, and whose names we mention at various time throughout the evening (and throughout our many family gatherings).

As we retell the Passover story, so too, we retell our family stories. I love the fact that our sons, now in their 20’s, “know” and talk about family members, several who passed away years before the boys were born…..but whose life lessons and stories are still very much a part of our family gatherings. Memories live on!

We would love to share some of your family stories with “Bendichas Manos” readers…..please feel free to send them on to us! Most important, share them at your seders. This keeps our histories and our stories alive!

Some final Pesah recipes, links and “The Blessing of Bibhilu”

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A final post before Pesah. First, some links for desserts for your Seders or for during the week. Our previous posts for “marochinos” (almond macaroons), “mustachudos” (nut confections), “masa di vino” (wine cookies) and “ashuplados” (merguines), are always winners!! This year, as well, I want to share with you some great finds from some of the favorite blogs I follow.

I’m looking forward to trying this “Passover Raspberry or Strawberry Tart” by Jamie Doueck, posted on ‘The Jewish Hostess’. Also, “Matzah Toffee with Almonds”, posted on ‘Serious Eats‘ looks delicious and divine!! As always, my friends, Linda Capeloto Sendowski, is always cooking up something fun and special at ‘the Boreka Diary’ Finally, from ‘the Jew and the carrot’, a compendium of great Passover recipes from some of the best the web has to offer. Take a look and see what’s going on in the world of Passover food bloggers!!

One more tradition for Passover to mention again. My cousin Avi Abikzer, whose family is from Morocco, introduced the tradition of lifting the Seder plate above the heads of each family and reciting a blessing called ‘Bibhilu‘…. “Bibhilu yatzanu mi’mitzrayim” (in haste we came out of Egypt). {in this clip, Avi and Leah’s son, Evan, passes the plate over the heads of the guests as his father recites the Bibhilu blessing}

At synagogue yesterday, a friend asked if we have this custom, and I responded that it was introduced to us and we adopted it. She told me that they do it at her Seder table as her husband’s family came from Turkey, and it was their custom there.

A few years back Rabbi Daniel Bouskila wrote a story which appeared in the Los Angeles Jewish Journal titled “The Blessing of Bibhilu“. Perhaps it is a tradition you might choose to bring to your table.

Wishing you a joyful and meaningful Pesah, and good times with family and friends!

~”Bendichas Manos!”

Keftes di Prassa con Carne AND an Egyptian Leek Mina

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I posted the recipe for Kefte di Prassa (leek patties) earlier this week. The recipe is as my mom has made them for all the years I can remember. Morrie Y. Angel has asked for a recipe that includes meat. Although we’ve never made them this way, I recall a year that Lenora (di Morris) Mizrahi (z’l) made them with meat and brought them to our Seder. I called her daughter, June Grossman, to see if she could share the recipe. She referred me to her sister-in-law, Sue (di Edward) MIzrahi. Sue took out her cookbook, and found the recipe (“handwritten on a gin rummy score sheet of Morris and Lenora…. incidentally Lenora won that particular nightly game by 36 points”). These are family heirlooms! Here is Lenora Mizrahi’s recipe for Keftes di Prassa con Carne as shared by Sue:

10 medium leeks
2 large potatoes boiled and mashed (approximate 1 cup)
1 lb ground beef
2 eggs beaten
1 tsp salt
pepper (to taste)
1 tbs chopped parsley

oil for frying

Soak and clean leeks well. Cut leeks into 1/4 inch pieces and boil in water until soft. Boil potaoes until soft, about 15 minutes. Drain well. Add leeks and mashed potatoes and mix well with ground beef. Add eggs, chopped parsley, salt and pepper. Form into patties. Fry until golden brown. Remove from frying pan onto absorbent paper towels (on top of brown paper bags).
Can be frozen and then reheated.

*MW: I asked Sue how long she warmed them when removing from the freezer. She responded: “When I would ask Madre how long to cook them she would say…”Ija, you’ll know,” but I don’t…I just guess each time and hope for the best!!!”

A great recipe….and memories of a great lady!!! Thanks, Sue, for sharing the recipe (and stories!).

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In addition, I am linking a blog I enjoy called “the carrot and the jew”. There was a posting this week by Elizabeth Alpern where she writes about an ‘Egyptian Leek Mina’, a variation on our Pesah megina. Looks yummy! Check it out and perhaps, try something new this year!

Lots of cooking going on! Enjoy. “Bendichas Manos!”

Mimouna….a celebration marking the end of Passover

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Passover will end this Tuesday evening.  The Moroccan Jewish community marks the occasion with a wonderful celebration called “Mimouna”, an evening filled with symbolic foods,  special delicacies and good wishes. Thank you to Rabbi Daniel Bouskila for sharing this story about Mimouna with us to share with “Bendichas Manos” readers!

We are blessed with many and varied traditions in our communities…..May we all have the opportunity to share in this beautiful, traditional celebration at some point, and appreciate the “salad bowl”, the colorful and meaningful variety of those traditions we share.

http://www.tabletmag.com/life-and-religion/29821/it-is-risen/print/

It Is Risen

At the end of Passover festival known as Mimouna, Moroccan Jews return to yeasty treats in grand style

BY LARA RABINOVITCH | 7:00 am Apr 2, 2010

Many Jews will mark the end of Passover unceremoniously, with a slice or pizza or a piece of toast. Yet for Moroccan Jews, and increasingly for other Jews as well, the transition back to eating bread and other yeasty foods is celebrated in grand style with a feast known as Mimouna.

Traditionally, Mimouna is celebrated in Moroccan homes after sundown on the last day of Passover with a sumptuous spread piled high with sweet delectables, including stuffed dates, candies, brightly colored jams made of carrots, beets, or citrus fruits (known as mazune), and zabane (almond nougat). Most importantly, mufleta, thin pancakes doused in honey, are eaten with abandon. Thus in a similar way to how Yom Kippur is ended with an elaborate breakfast, on Mimouna tearing into a plate of freshly baked food signals the end of matzo-filled days and the start of something new.

The Mimouna table is not set as usual but is covered with “an array of symbols that are basically variations on a theme,” explains Continue reading →