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Ella Sax’s Rice Pudding

November 1, 2012

Author: David Sax

“Granny” Ella Sax’s signature dessert was her rice pudding, baked without dairy, studded with raisins, blanketed in cinnamon, and drenched in maple syrup. In her warm Montreal apartment, with its candy bowls and old world tchotchkes and hallways smelling of chicken soup, a casserole of rice pudding was always in the oven when we arrived from Toronto, as sure as her sweet and sour meatballs bubbled atop the stove. The aroma of those two dishes mingling in the same space form the perfume of memory for Granny Ella.

Granny grew up in Drummondville, a small Quebec town, east of Montreal, which is overwhelmingly French. I’ve been told she grew up in a priviledged family, with drivers, fine cars, and fur coats, but by the time we’d met, all that remained were photographs and antiques cluttering her apartment. My grandfather, Sam Sax, was a garment worker, and from what I heard, Granny Ella never let him forget that. She consistently held to the idea, throughout her life, that she was Austrian gentry, descended from landed Jewish nobility in the heart of Europe’s cultural capital. She dressed impeccably, accessorizing with scarves and costume jewelry befitting a duchess, and spoke as though she’d just stepped off a carriage into a ballroom, greeting everyone with a drawn out “Hellooooo Dahhling”. You could almost hear the waltz playing in the background.

The truth, however, was that Granny’s family was from Bessarabia, which, although technically in the far flung corner of the Austro-Hungarian empire, is in fact current day Moldova, about as Viennese as colonial Haiti was Parisian. Two years ago, I was visiting Romania, and ate at the house of a Jewish cook there, who served a baked rice pudding. It was nearly close to Granny’s, with no dairy, baked rice, raisins, and tons of cinnamon. The maple syrup, Granny’s decidedly Quebec touch, was replaced with fruit preserves, but otherwise it was similar in many ways.

“This is my grandmother’s recipe,” the woman told me. “She came from Bessarabia.” When I came home, I told my father and my aunts, which soon provoked the usual arguments. “Mom was Austrian” vs “Mom was Hungarian” vs “No, she was Bessarabian”. What I thought was definitive proof proved no more final than her recipe itself, which omits what kind of rice to use, its consistency, and how much maple syrup. Like its namesake, it’s best shrouded in mystery, left up to the next generation to shape to their narrative.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 Cup(s)s Rice

3 Cup(s)s water

1 cup(s) raisins

1-4 Tbsp vegetable oil

2 egg beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup(s) Brown sugar

lots of cinnamon

1 apple peeled and grated

Preparation:

1. Cook rice in water just until all water is absorbed.

2. While rice is cooking, combine oil, eggs, vanilla, brown sugar and lots of cinnamon (the more the better) in a large bowl.

3. Combine with rice, raisins and apple until well mixes together, place in an 8-inch square pyrex pan, sprinkle liberally with cinnamon, and bake, covered, at 350 for 1 hour.

Serve warm with maple syrup.

 

 

 

 

Kate’s Plum Torte

December 28, 2012

Author: Lauren Gordon

 

 

Ingredients

1/4 lb (1 stick) butter, softened

3/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp sugar

1 cup unbleached flour

1 tsp baking powder

2 eggs

pinch of salt

6-8 plums, or apples, or fruit, sliced or split in half

1tsp cinnamon or more, to taste

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream butter and 3/4 cup sugar. Add flour, baking powder, eggs and salt and mix well. Spoon batter into an ungreased 9″ or 10″ springform pan. Cover the batter with fruit. Mix the cinnamon with the remained sugar and sprinkle over the top. Bake 40-50 minutes until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove and let cool.

 

Delicious Apple Pie

December 28, 2012

Author: Lois Brenner

Ingredients:

Filling:

12 large Granny Smith or Pippin apples, peeled, sliced 1/3″

3/4 cup brown sugar 1/2 cup white sugar

1/3 cup bisquick

1 heaping tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp nutmeg (fresh grated)

1/2 tsp salt

2 Tablespoons each lemon and orange juice

1/4 cup good cognac

3-4 Tablespoons unsalted butter

Crust:

2 cups flour or Bisquick

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup unsalted butter

1/3 cup vegetable shortening

Preparation:

Mix apples slices with filling ingredients. Add juices and cognac last, mixing well.

Stir flour and salt together. Cut in shortening and butter. Add just enough water to make soft dough. Can use food processor, do not over mix.

Roll out crust, flute edges to seal 10″X14″X2″ pan. Sprinkle with granulated sugar, make slits in pie to allow steam to escape. FIlling should be bubbling when the pie is done!

Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes, then at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, till crust is brown, apples juicy. Cover with foil tent if top becomes to brown.

Serves 10

 

Ruth Levy’s Apple Chrimslech for Passover

October 2, 2012

Author: Myrite

Ruth Levy left Germany soon after Kristalnacht as a child but took this special passover tradition with her. Chrimslech are like apple latkes and in her family they were always served on a green plate. Her four sons devoured them for breakfast, and she passed on this tradition to her family. The original Green plate cracked years ago, but she glued it together and still serves chrimslech on it for her grandchildren (who have also mastered the recipe). You can see Ruth’s video making chrimslech with her granddaughter Raphaelle Levy- soon! For now check out the trailer of Dishing up The Past.

Ingredients:

2 Matzah

3 eggs

1 grated apple

a few tbsp. of chopped almonds (can be bought whole and chopped in food processor)

sugar (to taste)

cinnamon

salt

Matzah Meal (if needed)

Olive or vegetable oil or butter

Powdered Sugar

Preparation:

1. The night before – soak the 2 pieces of Matzah in water. Let sit overnight. In the

morning, squeeze out all the water.

2. Separate egg yolks and whites. Reserve whites. Place yolks in a bowl and beat.

3. Place egg whites in a second bowl. Beat until stiff. Place in refrigerator.

4. Add soaked, drained Matzah, apple, almonds, a few tsp. of sugar, a pinch of

cinnamon and a dash of salt. Mix well.

5. Fold in egg whites. If the mixture is very liquid, add some matzah meal

6. Heat up oil or butter

7. Cover the bottom of a pan with oil or butter, when it is hot spoon the batter into

circles as you would a pancake. Flip over when brown.

8. Place cooked Chremslach onto paper towel-line to drain oil

9. When ready to serve, heap onto a plate and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Posted in Appetizers

Tags: almond, almonds, Apple, Apple Chrimslech, Apple Chrimslech for Passover, apples, butter,Chrimslech, Chrimslech for Passover, cinnamon, egg, eggs, matzah, matzah meal, Matzah, Matzah Meal, matzos, matzos meal, oil, olive oil, Passover, Pesach, powdered sugar, salt, sugar, vegetable oil

 

Infamous Noodle Kugel

July 28, 2014

Author: Lila Wachter

 

 

Noodle kugel is a traditional Jewish European dish that can be served hot or cold. It is similar to the kugel that my grandfather ate in Poland and it helped remind him of the connection to his past home, especially since he lost most of his family in the Holocaust. (Sophie M, Lila’s granddaughter)

Ingredients:

1 12 oz, thin egg noodles

1 grated apple

3 eggs beaten

1 cup sugar

3/4 canola oil

3/4 cup orange juice

3 kbs matzah meal

*I do not add salt*

1/2 cinnamon

Directions:

Boil noodles till tender. When slightly cool, add all ingredients together 9″ pan (spray with pam) Bake at 350 degrees for 3/4 hour or until top of noodles are brown.

Sprinkle top of noodle with a little sugar and cinnamon.

Posted in Baked Goods and Desserts, Side Dishes

Tags: Apple, cinnamon, egg, Kugel, matzah, matzah meal, noodle,oil, orange juice, Passover, pasta, sweet, Workmen's Circle