Bouikous con Kashkaval - Sephardic Cheese Buns

A very popular "lachmaniya" (literally, "little bread") in Israel today are these cheese buns, made from Kashkaval cheese. They are often served as a side dish with a dairy meal, or after the meal, with Turkish coffee. The recipe was brought to Israel by Sephardi (Spanish/Portuguese) Jews who lived in Bulgaria and Romania. Here is what they look like after a professional chef prepares them:   
Our Hebrew elective cooking class's results were not very different (we didn't get a photo of the finished product to prove my statement - but they really did turn out looking very professional - and tasting delicious!)  Since Kashkaval cheese is hard to find in the Bay Area and is not inexpensive, I substituted a blend of Monterey Jack and Cheddar cheese.

Reisheet kol, leeshbor beitza l'toch ha'ke'ara ha'g'dola. (First of all, crack open an egg into the large bowl.)

Achshav, l'hoseef et ha'kemach me'al ha'beitza. (Now, add the flour onto the egg.)

La'seem et ha'g'veena ha'm'goorad l'toch ha'ke'ara. (Put the grated cheese into the bowl.)

V'az l'hoseef et ha'g'veena ha'l'vana v'ha'feta l'toch ha'ke'ara. (And then add the white cheese - we used ricotta - and the feta cheese into the bowl.)

U'va'sof, l'hoseef et ha'chem'a na'mes. (And finally, add the melted butter.)

L'arbev et ha'kol eem kaf. (Stir everything with a spoon.)

V'az l'arbev et ha'kol eem ha'yada'eem. (And then stir everything with the hands.)

L'chalek et ha'batzek l'30 kadooreem. (Divide the dough into 30 balls - about the size of an apricot or golf ball.)

Leetbol et ha'kadooreem ba'gveena ha'm'goorad, v'az la'seem otam al ha'tavneet.  (Dip the balls into the grated cheese, and then put them on the baking dish.)

Achshav zeh moochan la'seem ba'tanoor.  (Now, it's ready to put in the oven.)

Below is the vocabulary we used for this lesson:

Preparing for our Edot Chamsa Family Workshop

During the past week day sessions, I completed our "tour" of Babylonian/Iraqi Jewish history, with a lesson about the rise and spread of Islam and its effect on the Babylonian Jews. Again, I used the "Heritage: Civilization and the Jews" dvd-rom program to bring the history to life.

Now that we've finished learning about the major events, eras, and personalities of Babylonian Jewish history, we are using the information we learned to prepare for our upcoming Edot family workshop (Sunday, February 23rd, during regular Religious School hours). This workshop will give the students an opportunity to share what they've learned with their families about the very first edah (Jewish Diaspora community) to be established. The final activity for this workshop will be to have each participant make his/her own copper foil Chamsa - an amulet in the shape of a hand with five fingers which Jews borrowed from Muslims sometime during the 8th century C.E.  The Chamsa is a perfect example of how Jews, living among other peoples and cultures, often borrowed symbols (as well as other cultural elements), giving them a "Jewish twist."

Our first order of business, which we began yesterday, is to summarize this history in the form of skits depicting scenes of four of the major events and eras - the destruction of Jerusalem and the First Temple by Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonian army, the arrival of the exiles to Babylon, the development of Judaism in Babylon, and the Talmudic Academy era. A fifth skit will share the Muslim belief about the origin of the Chamsa, also known as the "Hand of Fatima."

After dividing the students each session into small groups, I assigned each group one of the skits. I distributed a "Babylonian Jewish History Outline," which summarized what we had learned, and then gave each group a questionnaire to fill out relating to their specific assignment, to help them organize their thoughts.

It was during this activity, that the students began to realize how very different the ancient world was from their world today. To keep as historically accurate as possible, I had to explain that no one back then would have been named "Genevieve" or "Marvin" (just two of the many examples). I took a minute to share with the class what kind of names the Babylonians would have had, and what kind of names Judeans would have had. I had to remind the students that there was no electrical or gas power back then, and that Rabbis and their students didn't study in classrooms with whiteboards and desks.

For 45 minutes each session, the classroom was filled with what I like to refer to as "learning noise." Ideas were thrown back and forth, and by the time we had to wrap up the activity, every group had completed its questionnaire, and had a clear idea of what would be included in its skit.

A very big thanks goes to Michael, my T.A. first session, who works so well with the students!

Following our writing activity, we moved over to Room 202 for our weekly Hebrew Through Movement session. I'm focusing now on Shabbat vocabulary. I've also begun to introduce flashcards with the commands on them. Now that the students are familiar with the basic oral commands, they are slowly being given the opportunity to recognize what the commands look like in writing. I also hung up Hebrew signs around both classrooms, showing the Hebrew names for objects in the room such as "aron" (closet), "loo'ach" (board), "keeseh" (chair), and "shoolchan" (table). Gradually, I'll begin to introduce this vocabulary as well as "Jewish life vocabulary" (mazal tov, yasher koach, etc.) each time we meet.

La'lechet (Walk)

La'koom - Stand up

Zack, la'seem bakbook ya'een al rosh shel Rebecca; Rebecca, la'seem ner Shabbat ba'pamot al rosh shel Zack (Zack, put a wine bottle on Rebecca's head; Rebecca, put a Shabbat candle in the candlestick on Zack's head)

L'varech al neirot Shabbat (Bless Sabbath candles)

Leeshfoch ya'een l'toch kos keedoosh (Pour wine into kiddush cup)

L'varech al ha'ya'een (bless the wine) (Note - to introduce the Hebrew word for bless - l'varech - I covered my eyes. Of course, we only do this when we bless the Shabbat candles, but for now I want to use this hand symbol until I'm sure the children understand the word

Jordan, la'seem kos keedoosh al ha'beten shel Rachel; Rachel, la'seem bakbook ya'een al ha'rosh shel Jordan (Jordan, put the kiddush cup on Rachel's stomach; Rachel, put wine bottle on Jordan's head)

Jake, leeshfoch ya'een l'toch kos keedoosh (Jake, pour wine into kiddush cup)

On a very different note, Joel Siegel, our wonderful music director, has been out for a few weeks, suffering from back pain of unknown origin at present. On Wednesday, and again yesterday, our Edot students shared how much we all miss him on a card. We also all participated in saying a "Mi She'beirach" prayer (a healing prayer) for Joel during our Sunday morning t'fila session.

And finally, a very big YASHER KOACH (job well done!) to our Edot students who participated in putting together and presenting the Creative T'fila theme for this week's Sunday t'fila session. The theme they chose was school!

Vegetable and Fruit Kugel Cupcakes

This past week we began our third round of Hebrew electives for our 5th and 6th graders. For the first cooking class in this round, we prepared vegetable and fruit kugel cupcakes, a recipe from Joan Nathan. It calls for only 20 minutes of preparation time and 25 minutes cooking time, which was perfect for our time framework. When I first found the recipe, I thought it was a Passover side dish because of the matzoh meal. But looking closer, I realized that with baking soda as one of the ingredients, it could not be used for Passover.

If you don't mind the grating process, it's a very simple recipe to prepare. The students didn't seem to mind the grating at all.

New students to our cooking elective quickly learned what "leerchotz et ha'ya'da'eem eem sabon" meant - returning students quickly filled them in on the meaning even before they had a chance to look at the board. Personally, I learned a new vocabulary word myself - a sweet potato in Hebrew is "batata" (which I also discovered is the Arabic word for potato). Yardena, my co-teacher, shared that because until very recently there were no cupcakes in Israel, they use the English word.

L'gared gezer (grate a carrot) 

There were actually two carrots to grate

So much to grate - so little time!

L'hachzeek ba'ke'ara ha'g'dola (Hold the big bowl) v'l'gared et ha'ta'poo'ach (and grate the apple)

Nice grating style, Ben!

L'gared et ha'batata (grate the sweet potato)

L'gared et ha'gezer v'et ha'batata (grate the carrot and the sweet potato)

How far down do I dare grate the carrot? Leeshmor al ha'etzba'ot! (Watch the fingers!)

L'hoseef et kemach ha'matza, soda afeeya, v'chem'a namess (Add in the matzah meal, baking soda, and melted butter)

Achshav, l'arbev et ha'kol b'yachad (Now, stir it all together) - note, there are no black beans called for in this recipe. The can is for tz'daka

U'va'sof, la'seem et ha'eerboov ba'tavneet eem ha'kaf (And finally, put the mixture in the baking dish with the spoon)

Yesh harbei eerboov! (There's a lot of mixture!)

Achshav zeh moochan la'seem ba'tanoor (Now it's ready to put in the oven) - thanks for the help, Katie!

L'nakot et ha'shoolchan leefnei hafsaka! (Clean the table before recess!)

This time around, there were mixed reviews from the students. Some enjoyed the resulting cupcakes, and some thought we should have added sugar. Of course, after all the sweet desserts we've been preparing in past sessions, it didn't surprise me that some students thought the cupcakes were desserts rather than side dishes (after all, cupcakes are by definition small cakes!). I should also mention that since we have to also prepare gluten-free adaptations to all our recipes, I found a box of Yehuda gluten-free matzah at Safeway. I ground up 4 matzah crackers in the food processor (for 1/2 cup matzah meal), and it worked very well.

Date Chews for Tu Bish'vat

In honor of the Tu Bish'vat holiday (which we celebrated Wednesday evening and Thursday 'til sundown), our Hebrew cooking elective students prepared date chews. These are basically date brownies.

As usual, I presented the review words and new words on the white board, but since this was the final class in the second round of electives for this year, I wrote the Hebrew vocabulary on the board, but left the English translations for the students to fill in, to show me what they could recall.

Most of the students recalled the most-frequently used vocabulary.

We wasted no time in getting going on the preparation, beginning with the dry ingredients. La'seem kemach, sookar, melach, v'avkat afeeya l'toch ha'ke'ara ha'g'dola. (Put flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder into the big bowl.)

Achshav, l'arbev et ha'kol b'yachad b'toch ha'keara ha'g'dola. (Now, stir everything together in the big bowl.)

Leetrof et ha'beitzeem b'toch ha'ke'ara ha'k'tana eem ha'mazleg.  (Beat the eggs in the small bowl with the fork.)

Adding in the dates was a bit tricky. I had pre-chopped them the night before and had refrigerated them. When it came time to add them into the dry ingredients, the students had to pull the pieces apart to be sure they were distributed evenly in the mixture. Only then could they add in the eggs to bind everything together.

Leesh'foch et ha'beitzeem l'toch ha'ke'ara ha'g'dola (Pour the eggs into the big bowl)

V'az l'arbev et ha'kol b'yachad (And then stir everything together)

L'arbev eem ha'kaf, eem yad chazaka!  (Stir with the spoon, with a strong hand!)

V'l'arbev eem ha'yada'eem (And stir with the hands) - it was very sticky dough!

La'seem et ha'batzek l'toch ha'tavneet eem ha'kaf (Put the dough into the baking dish with the spoon)

L'sof, leefros et ha'batzek b'toch ha'tavneet (Finally, spread the dough in the baking dish) - with the spatula...

...or with the spoon - it was so sticky, it was hard to spread!

After cleaning up, the students noted down their first three choices for the third round of electives, beginning next week.

Please let me know if you'd like me to send you one or more of the recipes we prepared during the past 6 sessions. I'd be happy to do so.