Jewish Cooking Boot Camp: The Modern Girl's Guide to Cooking Like a Jewish Grandmother (10 page)

1. Preheat the oven to 200°F.

2. Sprinkle a clean, flat surface with flour.

3. Pinch off a chunk of dough, leaving the remaining dough covered as you roll out each
chunk.

4. Place the first chunk of dough on the floured surface and roll into an 8- to 9-inch circle.

5. Sprinkle the circle of dough with cinnamon sugar.

6. Cut the circle into half, quarters, and finally eighths, forming 8 narrow triangles.

7. Put % teaspoon raspberry preserves on the large edge of each triangle. Then roll the triangle tightly into a crescent, or kichala. If some of the preserve seeps out, that's okay.

8. Dip the kichala in cinnamon sugar mixture and place it on a cookie sheet.

9. Repeat with the remaining triangles.

10. Set the pan full of rolled kichala in the 200° oven for 30 minutes to rise.

11. After 30 minutes, raise the temperature to 325°F and bake the kichala for 20 to 25 minutes or until lightly brown. Remove them from the cookie sheet and cool on a wire rack.

12. Repeat this process for each pan, making sure to lower the oven temperature to 200° for
30 minutes to allow the kichala to rise before baking them.

* Just open the oven door for a few minutes to cool the oven to 200°.

This is a delicious way to serve asparagus. You can put extra lemon sauce in a serving dish on the
side. The sauce goes really well with the stuffed flank steak.

1. Put a small amount of water (enough to just cover the asparagus) in a saucepan, add salt,
and bring to a boil.

2. Rinse and pat dry the asparagus stalks. Bend each spear to snap off the woody stem; you
still might have to cut them to fit into the pot.

3. Boil gently for 2%2 to 3 minutes, until the asparagus is bright green and still firm.

4. Drain the asparagus and leave it in the pan until ready to serve.

5. For the sauce, combine the margarine, sour cream, mayonnaise, lemon juice, and pepper,
and stir over low heat just until hot. Do not boil.

6. When ready to serve, place the cooked asparagus on a platter and pour the sauce over it.

7. Garnish the plate with thin slices of lemon.

`Anytime a person goes into a delicatessen and orders a pastrami on white bread, somewhere
a Jew dies."

-MILTON BERLE

We Markses are terrible at fasting. In fact, we usually spend the last hour or two of the day
deciding what we will eat to break the fast. Traditionally, we break it with the usual fare:
bagels, lox, and cream cheese with platters of lettuce, tomato, and onion; kugel; and always
tuna salad for my sister-in-law Sarah. If you're hosting a large group, this is the easiest way
to go, but you can always substitute deli meats (turkey, pastrami, corned beef, roast beef) if
you don't want to go the dairy route. An assortment of bagels is usually easy to secure (stick
to plain, whole wheat, and "everything" if you're unsure, and add a rye bread or rolls for the
picky), and any good deli can give you the right amount of toppings if you let them know how
many people you're expecting. As for the homemade part, we've given you a primer on some
easy dishes to add to the table: the tuna with dill, cucumber salad, and fruit for the classicists, and some breakfast favorites like challah French toast and blintzes for those who want
something hot. Feel free to borrow from any of the other chapters (the onion kugel is a great
addition) to fill out the menu, and don't forget the homemade rugelach. These pastries will
bring back memories for just about everyone and are a sweet ending to a long day of fasting.
Fresh fruit (See Basics chapter) is always enjoyed and appreciated as well.

Moderately Priced Red:

Louis Jadot Beaujolais Villages
(Beaujolais, France)

Special-Occasion Red:

Tablas Creek Cote de Tablas Red
(Paso Robles, California)

Moderately Priced White:

Dr L Riesling (Mosel, Germany)

Special-Occasion White:

Sokol Blosser Evolution White (Oregon)

This is pretty much a classic. We can't think of a breakfast that we've given or been to that doesn't
have it. Many serve it with different toppings on the side, such as strawberry or pineapple jam,
powdered sugar, sour cream, or fresh raspberries.

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

2. Melt the margarine and pour it into the bottom of a 9 x 12-inch glass baking dish.

3. Place the frozen cheese blintzes in the dish, seam-side down.

4. Beat the eggs in a separate bowl and add the sugar, sour cream, and vanilla, mixing
well.

5. Pour the mixture over the blintzes.

6. Bake at 350° for 30 to 40 minutes. The top should be lightly browned.

7. Remove the blintzes from the oven, cool a few minutes, and sprinkle with powdered
sugar.

This yogurt-dressed fruit salad is an easy and delicious side dish. It goes well with deli sandwiches
or bagels and lox. Roz makes it all the time and keeps it in the refrigerator for dessert. This recipe
can easily be doubled or tripled for large crowds.

Mix everything together and refrigerate for at least 6 hours, the longer the better.

Long ago we were obsessed with the tuna salad at a restaurant near our old house.
We couldn't figure out what made it so delicious. When we finally asked the owner, it turned
out that the secret was in the dill. We've been making it this way ever since!

1. Mix all the ingredients and refrigerate for about 2 hours.

2. Serve on a platter covered with romaine lettuce and garnish with seedless red grapes. Or
if you prefer, garnish the salad with black and green olives.

* This salad can be made a day ahead of time.

This contribution to our breakfast is usually the first dish to disappear. Special thanks to our
daughter-in-law/sister-in-law Sarah for her fantastic recipe!