Food -
Jewish Specialties - Kasha to Matzo
The word "Kasha"
(kasza in Polish, каша in Russian and Ukrainian) is commonly used in
modern English to describe roasted whole-grain buckwheat or buckwheat
groats. This is an old Slavic term and sometimes it is used in its
original meaning—a meal that consists of boiled buckwheat, sometimes
mixed with milk. This is one of the oldest known meals in Eastern
European cuisine, at least a thousand years old, and second in its
significance only to bread.
Today, the meaning of the word kasha is extended to include a whole
family of porridges, from oatmeal to boiled millet and rice. One notable
Russian example is "Guryevskaya Kasha", which is believed to have been
invented by Russian Minister of Finance Dmitry Guryev in early 1800s.
The exact recipe is rather complex, but essentially it is a viscous
semolina porridge, mixed with sugar, vanilla, nuts and pieces of fruit
(apricots).
Kishka (Polish: kiszka; Russian: кишка, kishka; Ukrainian: кишка,
kyshka), is a Slavic word meaning gut, or intestine.
It is also an Eastern European blood sausage made with pig's blood and
buckwheat or barley and traditionally served at breakfast. It is named
after the pigs' intestines that are used as a casing. Jewish cuisine
includes kishka made only with buckwheat kasha; pork products and the
blood cannot be used in kosher cooking.
A knaydel (pl. knaydlach) is a Jewish foodstuff. It is a small
dumpling usually made out of matzo meal and eaten in chicken soup.
A knish is an eastern-European Jewish or Yiddish snack food. It
is a dumpling covered with a dough shell that is either baked or fried.
In the most traditional version, the dumpling is made entirely of mashed
potato. Another version has the dumpling made of a combination of mashed
potato and ground beef.
It is similar to the Slavic pierogi, the Spanish and Latin American
empanada, and the South Asian samosa.
Unlike normal dumplings, which tend to be round in shape, knishes are
flatter. The commercial versions are similar in shape to frozen fried
fish fillet patties. The eastern-European versions are hors d'oeuvre
sized while the New York City versions are the size of hamburgers.
Kreplach are small noodles filled with ground meat or cheese,
usually boiled and served in soups. Kreplach are a traditional Jewish
dish often served on the day before Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) or
on Hoshana Rabbah (the 7th day of the Festival of Booths) or on Purim
(the Feast of Lots).
Kugel (Pronounced koo-gel or ki-gel) is a traditional Jewish
dessert or side dish. The word is Yiddish for ball, but it is sometimes
translated as pudding or casserole, and related to the German Gugelhupf.
Made from bread and flour, the first kugels were plain, and salty rather
than sweet. About 800 years ago, their flavor and popularity improved
when cooks in Germany replaced bread mixtures with noodles or farfel.
Eventually eggs were incorporated. The addition of cottage cheese and
milk created a custard-like consistency which is common for todays
dishes.
In the 17th century, sugar was introduced, giving home cooks the option
of serving it as a side dish or dessert. In Poland, Jewish women
sprinkled raisins and cinnamon into recipes. Hungarians took the dessert
concept further with a hefty helping of sugar and some sour cream.
While less renowned than their sweeter cousins, savory kugels have
always existed. Early noodle recipes called for onions and salt and were
tasty at room temperature. Over the centuries, inspired cooks have
skipped the noodles, substituting potatoes, matzah, carrots, zucchini,
spinach or cheese.
Today many people crown casseroles with corn flakes, graham cracker
crumbs, ground gingersnaps or caramelized sugar. Inspired cooks may
layer the dish with sliced pineapples or apricot jam.
In 1950, the Bundt pan was developed for cooking kugel, though it
eventually became known as a pan used for a variety of other cakes.
Potato pancakes or latkes (sometimes spelled latkas) are a dish
consisting of a pancake-esque clump of grated potatoes fried in oil.
They are called "latkes" in Jewish tradition. Potato pancakes are a
European food and not specifically a Jewish one. Potato pancakes very
likely originate in Eastern Europe where they are still eaten in large
amounts, in areas like northeast Poland, for instance, which knows many
varieties. One of favorite Polish foods are "Placki Wegierskie" which
are basically Potato pancakes with a thick spicy Hungarian goulash
inside. "German potato pancakes" are the same as latkes.
Potato pancakes are also associated with the Jewish cultural tradition
in the United States and Europe. They can be and are served any time,
but traditionally form part of the menu during the celebration of
Hanukkah. Eating potato pancakes is not one of the mitzvot of Hanukkah;
that is, it is not a fundamental part of the Hanukkah rituals, and has
no religious significance. However, it is seen as appropriate to eat
foods cooked in oil during a festival that celebrates the miracle of the
Hanukkah oil. In Israel, potato pancakes—where they are known as 'levivot'
('levivah' singular)—are familiar and well-liked, but sufganiyot (jelly
doughnuts, singular sufganiyah) are considered to be more Israeli.
Latkes are often eaten with sour cream or applesauce.
Various recipes for potato pancakes vary in the degree of fineness to
which the potatoes are grated. Some are grated to long strips, others to
a fine powder. Both latkes and potato pancakes bear a distant
resemblance to the American dish called hash browns; however, hash
browns are merely coarsely grated potatoes with no binding ingredients
or flour. The French dish commonly known as "potato gallette", is also
similar but the sour cream is an internal ingredient rather than a
topping.
Lox is salmon, typically a filet, that has been cured, and then
often it is cold smoked. The cold smoking does not cook the fish,
resulting in its characteristic smooth texture similar to the raw
product.
Variations on the name are lox (Yiddish), lax (Swedish), laks (Norwegian
and Danish) and lachs (German).
It is often served with cream cheese and/or on bagels.
Matzah balls (also matza balls, matzo balls, or matzoh balls) are
a traditional Jewish food made from matzah, the unleavened bread used
during the Passover holiday. Matzah balls are roughly spherical and
range from fluffy to dense and doughy in texture; they can be anywhere
from a few centimeters in diameter to the size of a large orange. They
are most commonly served in chicken broth or soup as "matzah ball soup,"
a dish that is somewhat akin to a soup or thin stew with dumplings.
Matzah balls are a very common Passover food among Ashkenazic Jews and
are sometimes eaten at other times of year; Sephardic Jewish customs
often vary.
Matzo (also Matzoh, Matzah, Matza, Hebrew מַצָּה maṣṣā), an
unleavened bread, is the "official" food of Passover. When the Jews were
leaving Egypt, there was no time for the bread to rise, and the
resulting food was matzoh. For Passover, the ingredients for matzoh are
flour and water.
Five grains are forbidden for use during Passover in any processed form
but dry-roasting and as matzoh: wheat, barley, spelt, rye, and either
oats (according to Rashi) or two-rowed barley (according to Rambam's
interpretation of Mishnah Kilayim 1:1; Yerushalmi Challah 1:1). (Wheat
and spelt are both in the genus Triticum and anything else in the genus
is likewise forbidden. Oat-grain is practically gluten-free and belongs
to a different tribe than wheat, spelt, rye and barley.) Millet and teff
are borderline; it takes a few days for them to rise. Dough made from
the five grains is considered to start rising if it is inactive for 18
minutes from the time it gets wet; if longer elapses before it is put in
the oven, it is no longer matzoh. Shmura ("watched") matzoh (Hebr.
מַצָּה שְׁמוּרָה maṣṣā šəmūrā) is made from grain that has been under
special supervision from the time it was harvested to ensure that there
was no additional moisture.
Matzo can be ground to form coarse or fine Matzo meal, which is often
used as a substitute for flour in Passover cooking.
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