A Special Fig and Date Filled Babka for Tu B'shevat Shabbat

Tu B’Shevat, the 15th of Shevat on the Jewish calendar—celebrated this year on Shabbat, February 11, 2017—is the day that marks the beginning of a “new year” for trees. 

This is the season in which the earliest-blooming trees in the Land of Israel emerge from their winter sleep and begin a new fruit-bearing cycle.

We mark the day of Tu B’Shevat by eating fruit, particularly from the kinds that are singled out by the Torah in its praise of the bounty of the Holy Land: grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates.

Because this year Tu B'Shevat falls on Shabbat, and Shabbat is the day to eat the traditional babka, we're sharing a new recipe for a special fig and date filled babka for Tu B'Shevat Shabbat.

Enjoy and Shabbat shalom!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.

The Yiddish Chefs Are Back With Babka (Three Kinds) and Banter

Over the past four years we have posted 19 episodes of Est Gezunterheit, the Yiddish cooking show by Rukhl Schaechter and Eve Jochnowitz, the chefs of The Jewish Daily Forward. 

We find the attraction not only the heimishe recipes for traditional Jewish foods, but also the back and forth conversation between the two chefs in Yiddish that gives us a few new (and sometimes funny sounding) Yiddish words for everyday foods and utensils that we encounter in the kitchen.

Today's episode brings us recipes for three varieties of Babka, the traditional Eastern European coffee cake that appears on the table on Shabbat in many homes. Rukhl and Eve prepare Apricot Butter Babka, Cinnamon Babka, and Chocolate Babka. So watch the preparation, listen to the banter, and learn a few new Yiddish words and phrases at no extra charge.

Here are some words and phrases that are new to us:

Apricosenshmear = Apricot butter
Sloy = Jar
Shoim = Foam
Shoim shlugger = Whisk
Raketke = Paddle
Heiven = Yeast
Opgeknoden = Kneaded
Katchet Ois = Rolled out
Kleipik = Sticky
Tzimering = Cinnamon
Gefluchten = Woven
Freerke = Freezer
Geshmack = Tasty

Enjoy, and tell us in your comments how the babka enhanced your Shabbat!

(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.)     

Purim is Almost Here: Ultimate Hamantaschen from Joan Nathan

According to an article by Joan Nathan in Tablet, the online magazine, hamantaschen, Purim’s traditional triangular cookies, are relatively new to the Jewish gastronomic scene. They most likely originated in Bohemia, in what is now the Czech Republic, just two or three centuries ago. 

Nathan, author of ten cookbooks and a regular contributor to The New York Times, Food Arts Magazine, and Tablet Magazine, writes:

The earliest American recipe I could find for mohn maultaschen (poppy seed tartlets, which we would recognize as hamantaschen) was in 1889’s “Aunt Babette’s” Cookbook: Foreign and Domestic Receipts for the Household—published by Edward Bloch, who was from the Bohemian village of Grafenried.

There aren’t that many ingredients, but that doesn’t stop bakers from having intense preferences; you’ll hear about mine in the video. However you make them, though, there’s one rule to follow: Save a few for yourself.

Editor’s note: The recipe calls for 1 teaspoon of baking powder, not 1 tablespoon as indicated in the text of the video.

Jewish Traces in Unexpected Places: Making Challah in the Moroccan Mellah

In Morocco, the old Jewish Quarter is called the Mellah (Yes, the name derives from the Hebrew word for salt. How it got the name is very interesting and you'll have to read about it here.) The art of braiding and baking challah is still very much alive there. 

This short video shows the rolling, braiding and shaping of traditional Jewish Challah bread to the accompaniment of some lively Moroccan music. Its preparation is one of the classes offered in the Moroccan hotels that are part of the Sans Souci Collection. Now, if only they included the recipe for the dough which seems unusually pliable and easy to work with.

This was filmed in the old Jewish neighbourhood of Marrakech, where today there are only a few families that still live and preserve these traditions. Enjoy!

(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.)