Macaronim Kokos MiHodoo (Coconut Macaroons from India)

Our Hebrew cooking elective hopped over to the Indian sub-continent this week, to prepare a popular treat enjoyed by the Bene Israel Jews of the Kerala district of India. The recipe is very simple to prepare, and the resulting macaroons are chewy and delicious.

Put the flour, salt, and coconut into the large bowl (la'seem et ha'kemach, melach, v'kokos l'toch ha'ke'ara ha'g'dola) and stir them together (v'l'arbev otam be'yachad).

Then add in the vanilla and the sweetened condensed milk (az l'hoseef et ha'vaneel v'et ha'chalav matok u'm'rookaz). Interestingly, not one student in either session had ever seen or tasted condensed milk before!

Are you sure it's milk?

It's sweet and thick - yum!

Now stir it all together with the spoon  (achshav, l'arbev et ha'kol be'yachad eem ha'kapeet).

L'arbev eem ha'yadayeem (mix with the hands)...

Somebody help me get it off my hands! (Did we mention that the dough was VERY STICKY?!)

l'galgel et ha'batzek (roll the dough) into golf ball-sized macaroons...

...v'la'seem otam al ha'tavneet (and put them on the cookie sheet)

Maybe we can get enough dough off our fingers to make one more macaroon!

U'va'sof l'nakot (and finally, clean up)

When I shared that we would be preparing macaroons at the start of class, several students asked if they would be like the ones we buy in cans for Passover.  If that was the case, they wouldn't like them. Thankfully, these macaroons are much tastier (and chewier) than the canned ones.

Once we had finished cleaning up, and while the macaroons were baking in the oven, I reviewed the laws of kashroot that I had introduced to the students last week. Then I read the ingredients of two recipes which were borrowed by Jews in Poland and Germany, and asked the students to let me know if they heard me say any ingredients which would render the recipe unkosher. I also asked them to provide a substitute for the unkosher ingredient(s). One recipe was for a Polish potato soup; the other for wienerschnitzel. We learned that eastern Europeans almost always made a base of chicken or meat stock for their vegetarian soups, and always added in cheese for taste. And even though wienerschnitzel is made of chopped veal, chopped ham was always added into the recipe. We'll go over some more "original" recipes which had to be altered by Jews to make them kosher next session.