The Food Maven Diary
[Archives]

[Previous Entry] [Diary Home] [Next Entry]

12/19/2006 Archived Entry: "Happy Chanukah, Merry Christmas"

Happy Chanukah, if the greeting applies. Merry Christmas, if that applies.

Apropos of Chanukah, I should mention here what has become of the Jewish cookbook I was writing. Or, I should say, the Jewish cookbook that I have written. It is finished, although I have to say that I am still polishing the prose here and there, retesting recipes, and actually adding more recipes and more anecdotes. I keep being asked by you all when it will come out. That is a very good question, and the answer is I don’t know.

I had a dispute with my publisher. (Don’t ask.) I bought back the rights to the book, which means I paid them back the money they had already paid me. Now I need to find a new publisher, which I have confidence will not be that difficult, given I have a finished work of which I am proud. The company that will be publishing my “Big Book of Southern Italian Food & Wine” (that’s the working title), has, contractually, first dibs on the Jewish book. But we’ll see. My editor is on vacation until after the first of the year.

Meanwhile, for the moment, I am back to cooking Jewish, or, as I like to call this food, Yiddish, after the language spoken by the people (my people) who cook it. There really is no such thing as Jewish food. Jews eat the same foods as the culture in which they live, except that they make the food adhere to Jewish dietary laws, the laws of kashruth. All the recipes in my book are strictly kosher. They are the old-time dishes I was raised on, and my mother was raised on, and my grandmother, and her parents, and parents’ parents were raised on. I love knowing I am eating something my ancestors did.

I have worked very hard to bring these recipes into the 21st Century, at the same time retaining the flavors of the past. For instance, although I do use schmaltz in some of my food, I use it sparingly, for its incomparable flavor, a flavor that makes it taste and smell like Yiddish food. Here’s another example, I make potato kugel high and light, not short, dense and gluey. I could go on.

Recently, I had a discourse, to put it politely, with the editor-in-chief of food magazine. At a party, she asked what I was working on. I told her I had just finished writing a book on Eastern European Jewish food, Yiddish food. She said “How disgusting!” With her affected Locust Valley Lockjaw accent, and I suppose to diffuse any thoughts of anti-Semitism that might well have crossed my mind, she was quick to tell me that she had a Jewish grandmother and that her grandmother’s food was “god awful.”

“I guess your Jewish grandmother was a terrible cook. That’s too bad. My Jewish grandmother was a marvelous cook, as was my other Jewish grandmother, and even my Jewish grandfather.” I didn’t know what else to say.

Speaking of wonderful Yiddish things to eat, I just took some potted flanken out of the oven. I bought three thick slices of flanken the other day – from the kosher department of Fresh Direct, the company that delivers groceries right to your door. I use Fresh Direct mainly for soda and seltzer delivery, so I don’t have to schlep it home myself. But while I am ordering, I add other staples I need that come in heavy amounts – flour, sugar, onions. My breakfast cereal is significantly cheaper at Fresh Direct, too, so I throw that into the order. And sometimes, like the other day, I can’t resist ordering some kosher flanken or kosher chickens.

All I did was salt and pepper the meat, then brown it well in a tiny bit of vegetable oil, toss out the spent oil and rendered beef fat, then sauté a couple of onions in a tablespoon of fresh oil. When they wilted, I deglazed the pan with a cup of water, then put the meat back in the pan with a couple of carrots cut into 2-inch lengths; a couple of celery ribs, cut into 2-inch lengths, and a bay leaf. Now, here’s the new trick I am using, a preview from the new book, which is tentatively titled “Arthur Schwartz’s New York Jewish Food: strictly kosher, mostly Yiddish recipes revisited:” I put the meat, covered, into a 250-degree oven. No need to watch it or tend to it at all, as you do when it cooks on top of the stove or at a higher temperature in the oven. Although I did, in this case, turn the slices of meat over after an hour. I cooked it for 2 hours and 20 minutes. Depending on the meat, it could take a little more or a little less. It should be fork tender when done.

I won’t eat this today. I am letting it cool, then I will refrigerate it. Tomorrow, it will be easy to pull of the hardened fat that comes to the surface of the liquid, and I will have nice, lean, flavorful juices underneath. I could have put potatoes into the pan for the last hour of cooking, but instead I am going to use the pan juices as they are, pouring them over some kasha. The carrot and celery will be vegetables I’ll put on top of the kasha, but I’ll add a green vegetable, probably broccoli, on the side.

I am having a Chanukah party later this week. For that I am going to make sweet and sour flanken. You’ll have to wait for the new cookbook for that recipe. You don’t have to wait, however, for two good latke recipes for Chanukah. There’s both a traditional latke and a baked latke recipe on The Food Maven.

DID YOU KNOW?
There are more than 300 recipes on this website. Just put a key work in the “search” box and you’ll find all the recipes that apply to that word. Among other things you might want to make for Christmas or New Year, there’s the spoonable egg nog recipe from our dear family friends the Capalbos. Their family tradition has become our family tradition. Egg nog, after all, knows no religious affiliation, although if you keep kosher you’ll have to reserve it for a dairy meal. What makes it spoonable is whipped cream.

AND, ON ANOTHER JEWISH NOTE …DID YOU KNOW?
Nearly a third of the recipes in Naples at Table: Cooking in Campania are kosher without any changes. Another third or more that are kosher if you merely change the pork fat ingredient (for instance, pancetta) to olive oil, or if you leave out the cheese to garnish a meat-based dish.

There is what I call a kosher concordance to “Naples at Table” here, on the website -- a list of all the recipes that are kosher without change -- compiled by my friend Avi Keller, who is a member of the Lubovitch community in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Avi knows perfectly well that you can find many kosher recipes in non-kosher cookbooks. He is a mashkiach, someone who supervises kashruth in restaurants, etc.

I’M A PROUD PARENT
No, I have not had a child. But I have two cookbooks that I am especially proud of, “Naples at Table” and Arthur Schwartz’s New York City Food. As you may remember, “NYC Food” received the highest honor, Book of the Year (2005) from the International Association of Culinary Professionals. “Naples at Table” just went into its seventh printing, and continues to receive accolades from all over, including a recent honor from the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce.

The reviews I get from Neapolitan readers are my most cherished, however. Here’s one I just received via email from Frank Caserta, a newsletter subscriber like you.

“Both my parents were born in Naples. My grandparents were among the very early Neapolitan immigrants to settle down on Mulberry Street in Little Italy. Over the last 80 years, the family has owned a number of Italian (Neapolitan) restaurants in the old neighborhood. … Needless to say we are a food family that understands and appreciates good food, particularly dishes from Naples. Although I never worked in any of the family restaurants, cooking and food have been my passion and an important part of my life. I continually educate myself by learning and trying new recipes.

Last year a friend gave me "Naples at Table" as a Christmas gift. It is by far the best Neapolitan cook book I have come across, and I am an avid reader. Your obvious feel for the culture, people, and foods of Naples is remarkable. The recipes are very accurate and authentic. Unfortunately, when my Mom passed away, most the recipes went with her. No one took the time to formally note them. She made an Italian potato pie she called "gatto," which no one seem to have the recipe for. I was amazed to find it in your book, like so many other forgotten dishes from Naples that I grew up with. It is very difficult for an Italian food purest like myself, to admit that the best Italian cook book I have read, was written by a fellow named Schwartz, but that is the fact. My hat is off to you Arturo!
I am one of your fans.”

If you click on highlighted titles above, or on the Amazon.com logo on this website, or on the cover of “NYC Food” on my home page, you will be linked to Amazon in such a way that I get a tiny commission on the sale. It is these commissions that pay for the upkeep of my website and for the server that provides my newsletter. By the way, if you haven’t signed up for the newsletter, just put your email address in the box at the top of this page.

I am still making my offer of a beautiful, handmade Amalfi paper bookplate, with my personal initial stamp and personalized greeting and signature to anyone who forwards to me their receipt of a purchase – from Amazon or otherwise … Barnes & Noble will do, too … for either book. If you buy the book in a store, mail your receipt to Arthur Schwartz & Associates, 25 Plaza St. West, Suite 2B, Brooklyn, NY 11217.