Back in Time

Our own twists to the traditional recipes handed down through generations.

I come from a long line of legendary cooks…and eaters! My mother’s family (the Rabinowitzes) is huge, and our holiday feasts, or even impromptu get-togethers, were hardly what you might call intimate gatherings.
   Memories of happy times spent together are indelibly wrapped in the tastes and flavors of the dishes we all enjoyed. You taste something you haven’t eaten in decades and instantly you’re transported back in time. Every recipe tells a story. As we cook and celebrate, we add our own twists to the traditional recipes handed down through the generations.
   As we look forward to Sukkot, I am reminded of those boisterous family gatherings and the dishes we so enjoyed. Sukkot, also known as the Feast of Tabernacles, is the harvest festival mentioned in the Torah (Leviticus 23:34-39). Immediately following the fast of Yom Kippur, Jews the world over begin constructing sukkot (booths) in preparation for the joyous feast that begins four days later.
   The sages of the Talmud prescribed the measurements and method of erecting the sukkah within which people would eat and sleep during the holiday. How our forefathers must have rejoiced to enjoy the fruits of their labors, closer to the heavens, as the growing season culminated in bushels of plenty.
   Because the “dining room” of the sukkah is farther away from the area of food preparation, traditional dishes for this holiday are easily transportable one-dish stews and casseroles, such as the stuffed cabbage featured here, one of my Aunt Sally’s many specialties. Even into her nineties, she worked with her daughter, Marilyn, to make the stuffed cabbage for their large family gatherings, each roll lovingly shaped. In fact, everything from Aunt Sally’s kitchen always looked as good as it tasted. Her maxim: “When you’re cooking, you can’t do anything else at the same time.” I always think of that when I’m cooking and the phone keeps ringing and I can’t remember if I’ve added the salt. Aunt Sally would gradually add the extra lemon juice, brown sugar, honey, and salt during the 2 hours of cooking, she and Marilyn in frequent consultation as they tasted the sauce. Make life easy and freeze the rolls up to six weeks ahead. First, cover the dish tightly with heavy-duty aluminum foil. When ready to serve, thaw and then reheat, covered, in a preheated 350∞F oven until piping hot, 30 to 40 minutes.
   Stuffed cabbage – quintessential Jewish food, right? Not really exclusively ours.    “During the medieval period, peasants in either Turkey or Persia began stewing cabbage leaves wrapped around grains and pounded meat as a way of producing a more substantial dish and stretching limited resources,” writes rabbi and food historian Gil Marks in the “Encyclopedia of Jewish Food.” Stuffed vegetables were introduced to Ukraine and Poland during the sixteenth century, and cabbage, as the most readily available, became a popular vehicle, taking various names, such as holishkes, golubtzes or prakkes. Tomato sauce wasn’t added until the nineteenth century.
   Recipes vary geographically as well. “Jews from Hungary, Italy, Romania and northern Poland prefer a savory sauce, Sephardim enjoy a tart sauce made by adding a little lemon juice, and those from Galicia and Ukraine favor a sweet-and-sour sauce,” Marks explains. Aunt Sally’s recipe is typical of the sweet and sour, meat-filled Ashkenazic versions popular in America. “Stuffed cabbage became traditional Ashkenazic fare for Sukkot because cabbage was abundant in Eastern Europe at that time of the year. In addition, filled foods symbolize abundance.
   “Today, stuffed cabbage filling consists primarily of ground meat, but throughout much of history, meat was a minor element or even absent. In a time when meat was expensive, mixing a little meat with a lot of filler – besides stretching resources, the filler lightens the texture and binds the meat – and wrapping the mixture with readily available cabbage leaves, usually the less desirable outer ones, proved an ideal and practical way of making something special for a festival or the Sabbath. Middle Eastern and Romanians typically add rice in the stuffing, while Jews from northeast Europe used bread or barley.”
   A variety of other stuffed vegetables are a popular choice for the holiday as well. Just in time for Sukkot, fall’s firmer-skinned vegetables make wonderful edible containers. My cousin Samra prefers acorn squash, which Nature has provided with a handy bowl just begging to be stuffed. Her favorite recipe comes from her Aunt Joan, who would fill the squash with a creamy spinach stuffing, crowned with Parmesan and breadcrumbs.
   “Aunt Joanie was more like a sister to me than an aunt,” Samra told me. “From the time I was little, she lived in our home. She had the sofa in the porch room of our two-bedroom, one-bathroom house. Nannie lived right behind us. I thought it was paradise!”   

Joan Kalish’s Spinach-Stuffed Squash

Highlight of a dairy meal under the sukkah.

 3 small (1 to 1 1/4 pounds each) acorn squash

2 boxes (10 ounces each) frozen chopped spinach 

Vegetable cooking spray, for greasing the baking pan

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter or margarine 

1 cup chopped onion 

1 small package (3 ounces) cream cheese, cut into cubes 

1 teaspoon garlic salt, or to taste

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

3 to 4 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

2 tablespoons plain dry bread crumbs

 

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. 

2. Cut each acorn squash in half. Remove the seeds and fiber. (I like to use a serrated grapefruit spoon or a melon baller for this.) Place the squash halves, cut side down, in a 13 x 9-inch baking pan, and add water to a depth of about 1/2 inch. Bake until the squash is tender and can be pierced with a fork, 30 to 35 minutes. 

3. Meanwhile, cook the spinach according to the package directions, drain it well, and then squeeze it dry between paper towels.

4. Remove the squash from the baking dish, but leave the oven on. Wash the pan and lightly grease it with vegetable cooking spray. Place the squash halves, cut side up, in the prepared pan. Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter and brush it over the squash halves.

5. Melt the remaining 3 tablespoons butter in a large skillet over medium heat. When the foam subsides, add the onion and cook until soft, about 4 minutes. Then add the drained spinach, cream cheese, garlic salt, black pepper, and cayenne. Reduce the heat to low and stir until the cheese melts. 

6. Divide the spinach mixture evenly among the squash shells. Sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese and bread crumbs. Bake until heated through and golden brown on top, about 20 minutes. Serves 6

Note: After baking the squash halves, if any of them wobble, cut a thin slice from the bottom so they can stand up straight.

Source: “Cooking Jewish: 532 Great Recipes from the Rabinowitz Family” (Workman, $29.95) by Judy Bart Kancigor

Aunt Sally Bower’s Stuffed Cabbage

2 large green cabbages, cored

Meat Mixture

3 pounds ground beef

1 medium-size onion, finely chopped (1/2 cup)

1 cup soft (stale) challah crumbs

2 large eggs, beaten

2 teaspoons kosher (coarse) salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

Sauce  

2 cups chopped onions

1 can (28 ounces) chopped tomatoes, undrained

1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste

5 to 9 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, or to taste

3 tablespoons granulated sugar

3 to 4 tablespoons dark brown sugar, or to taste

2 to 4 tablespoons honey, or to taste

2 to 3 1/2 teaspoons kosher (coarse) salt, or to taste

1/2 teaspoon black pepper, or to taste

1. Three days prior to serving, wrap cabbages in plastic wrap or seal in plastic bags. Freeze to soften leaves. The night before cooking, set them on counter to thaw. Then separate leaves.

2. Place separated leaves on clean Turkish towels (Aunt Sally’s preference) or paper towels to dry.

3. Combine meat mixture ingredients in large bowl, and mix well. Depending on size of cabbage leaf, spoon 1 or 2 tablespoons of meat mixture onto root end. Roll leaf up from bottom, covering meat. Tuck in sides of leaf and continue rolling, forming a fairly tight cylinder. Larger leaves can be cut in half; trim and reserve any hard pieces. Repeat until meat mixture is used, placing rolls, seam side down, on large platter or baking sheet. Leftover cabbage will be used in sauce

4. Chop leftover cabbage pieces, measure out 3 cups, and place in Dutch oven or other large, heavy pot. Stir in onions, chopped tomatoes with their liquid, and tomato paste. Add 5 tablespoons of the lemon juice, the granulated sugar, 3 tablespoons of the brown sugar, 2 tablespoons of the honey, 2 teaspoons of the salt, and the pepper, and stir to mix. (Think of these flavorings as merely the outline of your sauce, which will later develop into a fully rendered canvas.) Arrange stuffed cabbage rolls, seam side down, on top of sauce (there will be more than 1 layer of rolls), and cover pot.

5. Place pot over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 2 hours. Then, using a slotted spoon, transfer cabbage rolls to ovenproof serving dish (a 17 x 11-inch dish should hold them all in one layer, or use several smaller ones).

6. Taste sauce and add remaining 4 tablespoons lemon juice, 1 tablespoon brown sugar, 2 tablespoons honey, and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt – OR more or less of each, according to your preference. (If sauce is too thin, with the rolls safely tucked into serving dish, reduce sauce by simmering a few minutes while executing your final taste test.) Pour sauce over stuffed cabbage rolls, and allow to cool. Then cover dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate for a day or two. When ready to serve, bring them to room temperature.

7. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

8. Reheat the cabbage rolls, covered, until piping hot, 30 to 45 minutes.