“Rabbi Shimon taught: ‘…Three who dine at a table and exchange words of Torah are considered as having eaten at God’s table…’”  (Pirke Avot 3:4)  I suppose a discussion of religion is considered verboten almost everywhere by certain people, but not in Jewish culture.  Then again, we like to talk politics in public, too!  But in the days of the Mishna, of course the conversation was only with the other people at the table.  After all, there was no e-mail, no phones…  and no text messages!  I remember, when cell phones were first becoming popular, my friend railing against people who would answer calls during dinner.  I agreed with her, but felt there should be some wiggle-room:  what if your friend is calling to say she’ll be late?  What if he needs directions to the restaurant?  Also, why should it bother me at the next table?  I understand if it is the person you’re dining with, but the “noise” argument makes no sense, since you wouldn’t be bothered by the people at the next table having a normal conversation.  Nowadays, we’re all used to this and most of us are pretty polite about it (music on the subway is a different story entirely, but I’ll restrain myself for now.)  Text messages, though around for years, have recently become more of a problem according to the NYT Dining section.

I am in a mixed marriage.  I am vegetarian and my husband and children are not.  If only I could have a plain old vegetarian kitchen life would be so good.  I could give away my fleishig things and have tons more space and much less confusion in the kitchen, not to mention I’d never have to wash another fatty greasy dish again.  I abhor buying and cooking meat and the times when I am alone cleaning up in the kitchen I view the mess like it is insult to injury.  You are probably thinking why is she doing it?  My plain answer is out of love for my family.

How could that be?  Well, when Shabbat rolls around chicken is what my hard working husband wants to eat.  For years I declined buying or cooking meat and then I was worn down when family and guests would grace our table and I would feel that sadly they preferred and were more satisfied when there were animals on the table.

Darkhei Noam’s Scholar-in-Residence program with Rabbi Daniel Sperber is hosting a Shabbat luncheon this Saturday May 16, 2009 from 12:30 PM – 2:00 PM in New York City’s Heschel School (270 West 89th Street between West End Avenue and Broadway.)

Join Rabbi Sperber, Milan Roven Professor of Talmudic Research at Bar Ilan University, rabbi of Congregation Menachem Zion in the Old City of Jerusalem and Darkhei Noam’s halakhic adviser, at a lunch and learn program following services.   Rabbi Sperber will be speaking on the topic of “Kosher & Food Ethics: Exploring vegetarianism, meat production, fair labor and other food related ethical issue.”

My parents’ shul and rabbi are mentioned in this article, which should make the notion of an intentionally eco-Kosher Shabbat meal seem that much more normal.  But it doesn’t.  Every meal I host, like nearly every meal my friends host, is vegetarian, with special emphasis placed on organics, etc, during the “food tour.”  This, too, should make it all seem so normal, but it doesn’t.  I have vegan friends (and was vegan myself for 6 years) who host with or request water challahs, no hard-boiled eggs in the cholent (the best part, if you ask me, or most people, judging by the fighting that sometimes happens over them,) etc.  I think the reason it doesn’t seem so normal is that it’s not really.  Are my friends and me, Jews who do the whole Shabbat/Kosher/observance thing and do it in this way, a subculture within a subculture?

Months ago I had an idea for a themed Shabbat dinner: I would invite all of my friends from Commonwealth countries, and have a Queen’s Shabbat. I could serve Commonwealth inspired foods, and it would be a fun night to hang out with friends from all over the world. Since I host Shabbat meals all the time, the idea didn’t seem particularly daunting, but I never seemed to get around to setting a date and sending out an invitation.

Right before Pesach I met with Rabbi Yoni Sherizen, who runs the Jewish chaplaincy programs in the UK. Jewish chaplains (usually a married couple) are sent to live in a college town or on a university campus in order to help provide Jewish services to students at the local university. It’s a lot like Chabad, but without the rebbe, and it’s especially important in the UK, where there have been crazy amounts of anti-Semitism on college campuses.

Yoni and his wife Dalia were incredibly helpful to me when I was at Oxford in 2004, and I was concerned about how dire Yoni told me the situation was in so many British universities. Plus, the falling economy has meant a lot of funders have had to cut back, and some universities are in danger of losing their Jewish chaplains.

This is the first in a new series of reviews of food-related apps for the iPhone that can help you find local, organic and kosher food at local markets, restaurants and on your travels. We’ll be reviewing a range of apps, many of them free, but we start with a look at a paid program: Kosher, by RustyBrick, which currently costs $4.99 from Apple’s iTunes app store.

Kosher‘s interface is cleanly designed. Essentially, it’s a front-end viewer for a database hosted on Shamash.org, which has listings of restaurants, groceries, butchers, kosher food stores and even caterers. The database also contains reviews that visitors to these establishments have submitted. But the app also has a host of iPhone specific features and goodies that make it a compelling purchase for any iPhone user who keeps kosher or has friends who do.

Now that Pesach has come and gone and we are back into the swing of eating leavened things again I though I would share a great spring recipe with you.   I think I’ve mentioned before that my dad has always been the cook in my family – and fortunately he’s very talented at it.  One of my favorite “Dad meals” is a risotto he makes with fresh peas and parmesan cheese (and sometimes mushrooms as well).  Because of this recipe I have become a lover of risotto.

In my family if you helped cook the meal you didn’t have to clean up (this is especially relevant to Shabbat dinner) so I would always volunteer to help my dad cook.   Thinking back, this is probably one of the reasons I got interested in cooking.  On nights when he made risotto my job was to stir the risotto and add more liquid when necessary.  At the time it seemed like quite a tedious process but I now feel fortunate to have been given that job since the stirring and adding the right amount of liquid at the right time is the key to perfecting risotto.  Risotto is really incredible because it starts out as rice (Arborio rice to be exact) and through a specific (yet fairly simple) method of cooking it becomes very creamy and delicious.

Risotto is great as a main course or as a side for fish or meat.  I happened to get a beautiful bunch of asparagus in my CSA box so I decided to add it to some risotto, however, the other great thing about risotto is that it’s quite versitile.  Feel free to add other veggies, meats, fish, etc.  As usual please share your favorite risotto recipes!

One more thing… this recipe contains milk and meat.  I personally wouldn’t recommend leaving out the milk ingredients since they’re key to the richness so I would recommend substituting vegetable broth (or pareve chicken flavoring) for the chicken broth.

And now for the recipe…

I promise I will have more recipes from my CSA in the next few days (here’s a hint: collard greens) but today I want to take a break from the veggies to share something really outstanding!  Last weekend my boyfriend and I had one of his old friends over for a bit of a feast, here is the menu: Maui ribs (for the boys – I’m a vegetarian), fork-mashed potatoes, kale, braised fennel… and of course dessert.

My boyfriend and I had been to a french restaurant the night prior and shared chocolate mousse for dessert.  It was good but a bit heavy and dense for my taste.  The next day I started thinking about what to make for dessert and lacked inspiration so I asked him what he wanted me to make.  He clearly didn’t get his filling of mousse the night before and asked me to make more!  I had never made mousse before so I set out to find a good recipe.  I looked through many cookbooks but ended up looking to the chef who is a master of all things comfort food – Tyler Florence, though I did adapt his recipe slightly.  Tyler’s recipes never steer you wrong.  In fact, if you’re ever looking for some outstanding mac and cheese his is fantastic.

Ok, back to the mousse… it turned out to be quite simple and absolutely delicious.  My boyfriend and his friend agreed that it was restaurant-quality!  The best part is that if you have extra and cover it tightly with plastic wrap it will last in the fridge for a few days.  Since you can make this ahead of time it would be perfect for a dairy Shabbat lunch for those of you who don’t cook on Shabbat.  As a side note, the reason you want to keep it covered is that it will take on flavors of other things in the fridge – same reason you always want butter covered.  Now for the recipe…

(x-posted from the Forward)

The first time I came face to face — or rather, spoon to mouth — with a bowl of cholent, at the age of 24, I had no idea what it was. While I was growing up in a nonobservant home, my family had no need for such a meal, a hearty stew that simmers overnight in a pre-lit oven or slow cooker without transgressing the prohibition against cooking on the Sabbath. But as I learned (and tasted) more, I discovered a dish that can wrap even the coldest late-winter afternoon in warmth and comfort, and one that makes a valuable addition to any Jewish cook’s repertoire.

The custom of honoring the Sabbath with a hot meal is revered in Jewish tradition, but the Torah complicates things by stating, “You shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the sabbath day” (Exodus 35:3). As early as the fourth century, Jewish cooks began to perform culinary acrobatics to circumvent this halachic conundrum — finding ways to get hot food on the table without lighting a new fire. Renowned cookbook author Joan Nathan wrote in her book “Jewish Cooking in America”:

“For centuries, on Friday mornings [Jews] would assemble [their stews]. The dish was covered with a cloth or mixture of flour and water to form a crust. It started cooking on Friday before sunset and [was] left to warm all night over coals in a hot oven….”

Guess post by Miriam K at the Israeli Kitchen blog

eli’s note: There’s something special about bread, particularly challah.  In this guest post, Miriam takes on the differences between challah and weekly bread.

Challot in Mahane Yehuda, Jerusalem

Challah was never ordinary bread when I was growing up. Challah was special in a special way. It had to be braided and baked a golden brown, taste slightly sweet, and have a particular moist texture. With or without raisins, white or whole wheat, it had that special challah look and taste. We would tear into the thick, fresh slices so good for mopping up cholent gravy, and once more our souls would fill with satisfaction.

When I came to Israel, an entire new challah horizen opened. The Yemenite, Sephardic, and Ethiopian communities make challot that look and taste different from the Ashekenazic braided loaf I was used to. Many Sephardim prefer not to cut their Shabbat bread with a knife, so their challot are braided into soft, round loaves that are easy to tear apart with the hands. Others simply serve pitta. Ethiopian dabbo is round and sweetened with honey. And the Yemenite jachnun and kubana, baked overnight, are breads I’d never dreamed of. But no matter how different Shabbat breads are from each other, each community bakes them in the traditional way for Shabbat and Yom Tov. Weekday bread, no matter how attractive and tasty, is weekday bread.

As my time at Adamah (the Jewish farming fellowship) fellow came to a close, I felt like our season as farmers also came full circle.  For me personally, the experience on the farm also marked my transformation from an Artistic Administrator for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (a fancy-clothes wearing, stress filled employee) to a pickler, meditator, Carhartt-wearing farmer and much more chill person as well.

At the beginning of Adamah in September, when the weather was still warm (though it’s hard to remember back that far!), we went to our field, the Sadeh, on a Monday morning to take part in the shechting (kosher slaughter) of nine of our male goats. It was an incredibly challenging day, to say the least – and even more surreal because just one day before we’d hosted “Feast in the Field,” a beautiful brunch complete with fancy food from the Sadeh and celebration, all in the same location. That said, the shechting took place with intention and with respect, not unlike the experience I had almost one year earlier at the Hazon Food Conference, where we shechted three goats.

Tuesday night at Yeshiva University, a crowd of more than five hundred came to watch their best and brightest duke it out over the connection between kashrut and ethics…and by duke it out I mean have a calm and respectful conversation based on Torah and tradition. “These are the giants of the generation.” Ari Hart, a member of the Uri L’Tzedek leadership team, said of the panelists.

The panel has received a lot of attention. The New York Times covered it, and an article on the YU website gives a run down of the conversation and the basic ethical conundrum. What it doesn’t do is give any sense of the soaring heights of rhetorical fervor reached by Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz of Uri L’Tzedek (though the Times did refer to his delivery as “Jeremiah-like” for whatever that’s worth).

While his fellow rabbis were in conversation about what the halakhic connection is between ethics and kashrut, the dictum not to assume guilt before it’s been proven, and the need to let secular authorities do their job, Rabbi Yanklowitz delivered a ten minute oratory complete with lectern thumping, gesticulation, and repetitive phrasing that filled the room with such intensity, I think it broke the microphones. It could have come hot off the press from Obama’s speech writing team, and it got the crowd going wild.

I’ve been thinking a lot about manna lately.  For a fun project called G-dcast!, I’ve been studying the parsha in which we first read about manna – that mysterious substance that is like coriander seed but also is supposed to taste differently for everyone, based on your age (honey for small children, bread for youths, and oil for the elderly, according to Wikipedia).

But here’s my favorite thing about the manna: It might be pretty common knowledge that you’re not supposed to take more manna than you can eat in one day – except on shabbat – but have we really thought that through?  If you do take extras on any regular day of the week, and there are leftovers, it gets rancid and maggoty overnight.  But on Shabbat, there won’t be any manna, so you are supposed to take manna for two days on Friday morning and it won’t go bad overnight.  So, that makes sense, moving on.  But stop – think about it.

And then read more below the fold!

Growing up, one of my favorite foods was my mom’s Shepherd’s Pie.  It was a great comfort food, perfect for a blustery fall day, or a Shabbat dinner in February.  I loved Shepherd’s Pie so much that when I went milchigetarian my mom took mercy on me and made up a vegetarian version of her traditional recipe.  The veggie version is fantastic, and has satiated many a carnivore in its time.  An added bonus for both of these recipes: they’re completely kosher for Passover, too.  Sherpherd’s Pie is a great dish to serve on the sixth day of Passover when everyone is sick at the mere sight of matzah.

This week I was really craving Shepherd’s Pie, but over the years I’ve found that I despise making mashed potatoes.  My mom used to use some instant mashed potatoes, but I couldn’t see myself buying instant anything, and anyway, I was kind of in the mood for sweet potatoes, too.  My solution was to come up with a re-imagined version of Shepherd’s Pie.  Instead of mashed potatoes, I used a combination of sweet potatoes and Yukon gold potatoes, cubed and roasted.  Between layers of the roasted potatoes I had a nice thick layer of vegetarian ratatouille with fake ground beef.  Yum!

All three recipes below the jump!