Boyos de Spinaca y Cheso
Last week on my recipe experiment day, I finally tried something I have been thinking about for years. My mother, Nona always speaks of how her mother could open up the Masa, or dough for boyos until it was transparent and paper thin. Once the dough was opened, she would add the filling, then roll it, coil it, sprinkle it with cheese, and bake it.
There is a Ladino web site called Savores de Siempre where I found a recipe for the masa. It is very easy and to my surprise it is not yeast dough like the one Nona uses when she makes bulemas, which I have posted on this site previously. No matter what you call them boyos, boyus, or boyuz they are delicious. You can use other fillings if you like, on the Savores de Siempre site she calls for potato and cheese filling. Thank you to Savores de Siempre for the wonderful Ladino and recipe!
This little nut filled boreka, with a slightly sweet, crisp crust, is simmered in syrup flavored with honey and lemon after baking. They are time consuming to make, so I only make them once or twice a year for special holidays. My youngest son Mitchell is excellent at finding their hiding place and devouring them ahead of the evening when I am planning to serve them. One year, I was about to prepare the dessert trays for a party, only to discover that the containers were empty!
Since anything containing honey is evocative of having a sweet New Year, it is traditional to serve these and other honey pastry such as baklava for Rosh Hashanah or Sukkot.
One of my favorite boreka fillings is eggplant and cheese or Handrajo. The smokiness of roasted eggplant combined with sharp cheese makes a sophisticated filling. These borekas are made just like the cheese and potato filled ones with the only difference being the roasted eggplant.
Sephardic people for the most part eat salty aged cheese, such as Parmesan, Kashkaval, and Kasseri and savory fresher cheeses like feta. My first encounters with sweet cheese came with cream cheese frosting on carrot cake, cheese cake, cheese Danish, and blintzes on a trip to New York during college.
A slice of cheesecake is a delightful balance of cheese with sweet including the hint of lemon and vanilla. A palate pleasing flavor, you like it the first time you taste it, no acquiring required.
Carole Capeloto Aiken is my big sister, an accomplished cook; she has seven grandchildren and knows how to please a crowd. She makes these fabulous almond biscotti with no added fat, no oil, no butter, and no shortening. We made them on Tuesday, very easy, and then, we had the inspiration to take a few and dip them in melted chocolate to see how that turned out. This is Carole’s recipe which she perfected over the years. She has thought through the details to achieve a certain economy, no wasting, easy clean up, and ingredients you would readily have on hand. These biscotti are perfect for dunking in coffee or tea and not to sweet. If you wan to try chocolate dipped, we melted several 72 percent dark chocolate bars and holding the tip of a biscotti with a tong, dipped it and then placed it to cool on a silpat lined cookie sheet.
My friend’s mother, Halena, is a woman to be admired. I posted a recipe of hers some time ago, specifically a gefilte fish recipe. This time, if you’ve read my post about the eighth night of Hanukah dinner we attended, you may recall I marveled at the Viennese dessert Halena served called Biscotten Torte.
Well today was one of many lucky days I have experienced in this life, and Halena came over, with her little leather bound notebook of treasured recipes with an embossed date of 1957 on the cover, to show me how to make the Biscotten Torte. Halena is not from Vienna but from Poland. The recipe came from another old Jewish family from Vienna. The mother and daughter of that family survived the Holocaust by hiding in France. The daughter left Paris and found her way to India, where, she met and married her husband. The couple immigrated to the United States after the war and relocated in Los Angeles.
The first generation of my family to come from Turkey, my grandmothers and my aunties, used to sit and rest a bit in the afternoon. After preparing dinner and finishing their housework, they traded bits of gossip about the community and themselves (char lashon) with a cup of Turkish coffee and a biscotio in hand. These circular biscuits topped with sesame seeds, are not sweet like cookies, nor are they savory. They are perfect for dunking in coffee, espresso, or even tea. Biscotios keep a long time in an airtight container and are very portable. It is good to keep a couple in a small plastic bag in the bottom of your handbag, just in case. I guess we all turn into our mothers or fathers as the case may be, eventually.
The hardest part of baking a Boyu is getting the dough right. I prefer yeast dough with that special aroma and olive oil taste, crispy with just enough chew, it is the perfect pocket for salty cheesy spinach filling. The trick for getting the dough to stretch effortlessly is to make a soft dough, don’t handle it too much, and let it rest by giving a double rise and a double stretch.
Tonight marks the end to the month-long group of holidays and celebrations that began with Rosh Hashanah and ended with Simhat Torah. After many dinners and trying out a lot of new crowd pleasing recipes, it is time to share with everyone some of the party menus, fantastic fall recipes, and desserts I took to places we were invited. Tonight as the fog blows in thick from the ocean across my balcony facing west, I feel autumn has definitely arrived, at least in the evenings here.
I made this brisket as one of the items I served last Sunday in our Sukkah. It was part of an abundant buffet of small plates that could be prepared largely ahead of time and the same menu would be great for Chanukah, Holiday parties, family occasions,
During Passover and through out the year, I often purchase beets to make various salads or roast.
The beautiful fresh greens attached present a dilemma.
I have memories of my mother telling me that Nona (grandmother) made Fritada, Quajado, or bulemas filled with the beet greens. You can use really perfect leaves to make rice filled dolma or yaprakes.
I always feel guilty of somehow wasting, not being frugal, or these days not being responsible in caring for the earth’s bounty when I throw the greens out. This last Passover week, after serving roasted beets, steamed beets, and ground beets in the horseradish, I decided to use the greens. They were so fresh and vibrant from the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market. I used my Zucchini Quajado recipe for inspiration and substituted beautiful thick verdant green leaves and fuchsia stems from about three bunches of beets.
Last week I walked into the butcher and since I was the only one at the counter, it was very early; I was the only one there. I asked my butcher to play with me for a moment. He was kind enough to make thin slices of London broil for me to try out this idea I had in the middle of the night. Does anyone else out there dream about food and recipes in the middle of the night?
These would make a great party appetizer, either on a buffet or individually plated.
Last week when I made the Laffa bread I made these Kufte as well. My kitchen is still full of food that I compulsively overpurchase for the Passover Holiday. I took a three pound package of ground chuck meat out of the freezer and defrosted it in the refrigerator. Once you make these Kufte you can roll them up in Laffa bread with chopped tomatoes, salad, hummus, whatever you prefer.
Photo of indivdual bastillas awaiting a dusting of powdered sugar and cinnamon.
Many times I make Bastilla for Sukkot dinner parties since the presentation is so dramatic. Recently I made the filling layers and decided to mix up all the layers and fill individual triangle shaped bastillas. This small individual version makes a great appetizer or starter at parties. It is a wonderful buffet item.
Bastilla, a bit of Moroccan genius, is a dish to serve when you want to impress your guests and have time to cook. Having consumed various Bastillas and been intrigued and delighted with the combination of chicken, cinnamon, and almonds, I never dreamed of recreating it at home. Until that is a dear friend and fellow PTA cooking class teacher, introduced me to her version at one of our classes some years ago. It was delicious, crispy on the outside, a delight of contrasting textures and tastes enrobed in a phyllo crust.
I usually serve Bastilla as a starter to a meal. After baking in a springform pan, I remove the springform ring and place the Bastilla back in the oven until the sides are as gold as the top. To serve, dust with powdered sugar and slice it into pie shaped pieces with a serrated knife.
It looked so easy and my oldest son loves to mess around trying to smoke various cuts of meat and the next thing you know we own it. The boys screwed it together, I went down to my butcher Doheny Glatt Kosher Meats and purchased an entire brisket. Around 10 pounds worth!
We fired up the smoker according to the instructions, poured the hickory wood pieces for smoke into the hopper and I gave the brisket a dry rub. Try a new style of brisket this Chanukah. If you own a smoker and can cook outside, this was so delicious and we all enjoyed it.
I have decide to revamp some of my favorite recipes to reflect the new trends of tummy friendly things like gluten free, dairy free, and Paleo,without losing any of the great flavor. This banana cake has a super moist, almost pudding like texture and incredible deep rich flavor.
My vivacious friend Nina is an Israeli American whose family was originally from Romania. Her husband is originally from Iraq. As a result, Nina knows how to make all of the most amazing Israeli, Iraqi, Romanian, and Sephardic dishes.
Nina’s recipes are in her head, from a lifetime of cooking seven days a week. I had this idea to get together, cook, and write down instructions in English along with measurements, so I could make her recipes accessible to the average home cook. We set aside a day from 9 a.m. until 2p.m.
We made Green Bean and Tomato Stew with Beef, Beef Koubideh Kabob, savory Mushroom Borekas with puff pastry and Okra Stew. These dishes brought back food memories from childhood, spicy without too much heat, lots of tomatoes, lots of stuffed things, lots of vegetables. Sephardic comfort food. Serve them with white basmati rice or other rice pilaf.
Okra unfortunately, gets a bad rap because when it is prepared incorrectly it can have a slimy consistency.
While growing up in the Seattle of the 1950’s and 60’s, before its discovery by foodies worldwide, baklava was the quintessential holiday dessert in our Sephardic home. Baklava graced the dessert table on Chanukah, Rosh Hashanah, Sukkot, weddings, brisses, any important occasion. Once, I even begged my mother to make it for a home economics class pot luck, so the teacher would notice me. In lean times, I recall stretching the ground nuts with fine bread crumbs.
I hate to admit it but those were pre food processor times and conscripted children had to grind nuts by hand with a Mouli grater. Children used old fashioned nut crackers to crack open walnuts. My mom and Nona used only walnuts in true Turkish style. I mixed up different nuts in this version just for fun.
Baba Ganoush, alternatively known as chatzilim (Hebrew for eggplants), or eggplant dip, with its smoky, earthy, strong garlic flavor is sublime on pita bread, crackers, or in falafel filled pita pockets. My favorite way to enjoy baba ganoush is in an Israeli mezze buffet, including hummus, many salads, and various grilled kabobs.
Sunday night was The Grammy Awards night here in Los Angeles. I decided to have the family over for a little barbecue and dinner. There were 17 of us. We have not gotten together since December and cousin Daniel’s wedding. I created a fun menu, something for everyone and I figured this would be a great menu for all the upcoming award season events coming up soon, such as Academy Awards and the Super Bowl.
I served:
Bottled Water, Cokes, Wine
Hummus, Guacamole, Pico de Gallo
Pastelitos, Pastelicos, Crudités, Small Pitas
Turkey Chili, Spaghetti with Meat Sauce
Grilled Vegetables, Cole Slaw, Green Salad
Barbecue Herb Steak, Beef Ribs, Roast Chicken
Blackberry Crostata, Banana Cake, Fruit Sorbet, Melon, Pineapple, and Berries
You could pair this menu down or make it grander. We all dressed casual and ate in the kitchen/great room. The television was on and the conversation flowed. Plastic throw away plates were a must. Enjoy. To Make Pastlicos follow t
White Beans with Short ribs
For some strange reason the weather has turned unseasonably cold again in Los Angeles. Although many would laugh at our (Los Angelinos) notion of ‘cold’, I don’t recall many times in the last 35 years when it has rained in Los Angeles in March. The birds are chirping, the air is thick with the perfume of flowers, and there is an ambient sound of buzzing bees, the gloom just doesn’t cut it.
In spite of my habit to switch menus to lighter spring fair by this time of year, I had the urge to cook something earthy and warm. I found some short ribs in the freezer and everyone loves white beans, Avicas, or some call them Fasulia. This is great for a week night dinner that you can cook in the morning, reheat, and serve. Make a salad and pick up some crusty bread.
Traditionally Sephardim eat a lot of braised and simmered vegetables, like green beans, okra, zucchinis, and artichokes. Many times, they combine them with meat. I tend to cook a little more California fresh style most of the time, serving crisp tender cooked vegetables. However, now in the interest of recording and sharing my Sephardic cooking heritage I am rediscovering some recipes while just writing down and quantifying others. This dish is for spring when artichokes and fava are just arriving and Sephardim serve it during Passover as well. If your tradition allows you to eat beans during Passover, give it a try.
I was inspired by a dish I ate at a local restaurant while having lunch with my cousin last week. We sat outside on a café table shaded by an umbrella and had a great time people watching as we chatted about old times. It was a lovely afternoon with clear blue skies, a slight sea breeze, and lots of visual entertainment.
This time of year when many people refrain from eating meat for a few weeks or the weather is too hot and oppressive to sustain an appetite for heavy dishes; this salad is a great alternative. Salad is refreshing and light and at the same time quite flavorful. This salad is a complete meal served with a small bowl of pasta and some crunchy baguette.
Alfajores are a most incredible short bread kind of cookie sandwich with Dulce de Leche oozing from the center and coconut clinging to the sweet caramelized filling. The cookie crumbles into buttery shards as you bite in and dulce de leche coats your tongue in velvety goodness. Alfajores are attributed to Argentina and one of the first manufacturers was Jewish from the Alfajores Successo company.
I tasted my first cookie on a recent trip to Florida with my sister. It was a girl’s trip and all we did was eat, shop, hang out at the pool, and talk, talk and talk. The local morning coffee shop we passed on our morning constitution sold Alfajores individually wrapped.
I decided to research and make these wonderful cookies and true to my principles I made my own Dulce de Leche, and made the dough with unsalted butter. With a little tinkering and a bit of trial and error for the details lost in translation this recipe is very workable and not hard to execute. Give them a try. I
Did you ever make apple pie and have the filling not sufficiently gel up, coagulate, congeal, set or thicken? I found the Thesaurus button on my new lap top computer. Well it’s embarrassing when that happens even though the pie tastes great. Rhubarb is a super source of pectin that causes the juices to congeal. I thought the flavors would be complementary so I decided to make apple rhubarb pie.