Jewish

The frozen berry sabayon is smooth and creamy, like ice cream.

Though cheese blintzes rate as an all-time favorite in my family, I don't always have the time to prepare them in the usual fashion. Therefore, I created the following casserole, which has a fantastic flavor very similar to blintzes (some say it's even better); yet it takes only a few minutes to prepare. In fact, I make it often throughout the year. It is quite different from the popular cheese blintz casseroles made with frozen commercial blintzes. For my version, a layer of cheese filling is baked between two light layers of a special blintz-type batter. The casserole is then cut into squares for serving, making it a perfect choice for a dairy buffet and great for Shavuot. Since the first edition of this book was published, this layered blintz casserole has proven to be one of its most popular recipes. The dish is served at the famous Moosewood Restaurant in Ithaca, New York, where it has become a favorite brunch offering under the name "Easy Cheese Blintz Puff." And the recipe has appeared in a number of books and magazines. Like some of the other "creative" recipes in this book, this one appears to be on its way to becoming a classic of "new" Jewish cooking. <a name="note"></a>Notes: The types of cheese in the filling were determined after much experimentation with various mixtures. It is the best combination to produce the desired results of separate layers. The top of this casserole is rather plain. If desired, it may be sprinkled lightly with cinnamon or cinnamon-sugar before the casserole is returned to the oven for the final baking.

My Grammie Ethel was best known for her cookies and fudge. But she also made a mean chopped liver. What was remarkable about Grammie Ethel's chopped liver was how mild, light and fluffy it was—it didn't taste too much like liver. (This is important when you're eight years old and a finicky eater.) Her secret was the high proportion of hard-boiled egg whites to liver. And the hand-cranked metal meat grinder my grandmother used her whole life to grind the ingredients into a chunky purée. Low-fat chopped liver might seem like an oxymoron. After all, liver is one of the fattiest and most cholesterol-laden substances known to man. By replacing most of the liver with mushrooms (keeping just enough liver for flavor) and by roasting the ingredients in a hot oven instead of sautéeing them, we create a chopped liver that explodes with flavor and is mercifully light on fat. I'm sure my grandmother would have approved. Note: To be in strict accordance with the kashrut, you would boil, not roast, the chicken liver. (This is considered a more effective way to remove the blood.) Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes

Boxes of matzo farfel, very small pieces of matzo (about 1/4 inch wide), turn up in markets around Passover. Farfel is usually used in soups or for stuffing. This brittle can be eaten as candy or sprinkled over ice cream.

(Zucchini Meatballs) This dish, like stuffed artichokes and many others of this kind, is one of the many ingredients that go into a couscous. However, like the others, it is so tasty and delightful that it can be served as a main dish, and nobody will miss the couscous.

The torte and compote are each great on their own, if you have time to make only one of them. A kosher-for-Passover sorbet would be nice with this dessert.

Ilene Danuff of New York, New York, writes: "This recipe was created by my mother. I've substituted chocolate chips for the M&M's MINIs that she uses." Mandelbrot is a traditional Jewish cookie that resembles biscotti but is more tender. Claire Danuff sprinkles her cookies with cinnamon sugar before baking, but we prefer them plain. To try the topping, combine 1/4 cup sugar with 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon. Active time: 20 min Start to finish: 2 hr

The 2nd Avenue Deli in New York offers this satisfying soup.

In 1925 Wolff Brothers of Paterson, New Jersey, published a Yiddish English cook book with recipes culled from a kasha cooking contest run in all the Jewish newspapers throughout the country. "Recipes of thousands of Jewish dishes were sent us," they wrote modestly, "but we selected only the very best among them and these are listed here." The recipes included buckwheat blintzes, vegetarian buckwheat cutlets, and "a tasteful grits soup" made from their Health Food (merely unroasted buckwheat groats), green peas, and potatoes. The varnishke recipe was basically a kreplach-type noodle stuffed with kasha, buckwheat groats, and gribenes. Packaged bow-tie noodles,large and small, quickly replaced the flat homemade egg noodles in the American version of kasha varnishkes. The trick to a good kasha varnishke is to toast the whole-grain buckwheat groat well over a high heat for 2 to 4 minutes until you start smelling the aroma of the kasha. This will seal the groats so that there is a nutty, crunchy taste to them, a good foil to the soft taste of the noodles. When I make mine - a favorite in my family - I add fresh parsley and sometimes coriander. Although traditionalists use bow-tie noodles for this, try rigatoni, shells, or any other kind of noodle you like.

These crunchy cookies are a new version of classic Mandelbrot, which means almond bread in German. Here, recipe tester Selma Brown Morrow uses hazelnuts instead of the usual almonds. To add an elegant look, she dips the cookies into melted chocolate and seals them in holiday bags.

Cardamom adds a lovely accent to the compote and the filling, which is made with soft farmer cheese for creamy texture.

This is a very simple, yet remarkably satisfying dish. Even though it's traditionally a Passover recipe, I liked it so much as a child that I used to ask my mother to make it for me all year long. It's the comfort food that most reminds me of her. (Fried matzoh is what I've called this dish since childhood, though I know that others refer to it as matzoh brei.)

Hoop cheese is available at Jewish delicatessens and in the refrigerated deli section of some supermarkets.

(Hasidic Caramelized Noodle Pudding) The Chmielnicki massacres in Poland in 1648, the apostasy of the false messiah Shabbetai Tzvi in 1666, the subsequent partition of Poland, and other problems shook the Jewish communities of eastern Europe. Some Jews found an answer in the freedom offered by the Enlightenment (Haskala in Yiddish). Others turned to Kabbalistic healers and miracle workers. One of these holy men was Israel ben Eliezer, commonly called the Ba'al Shem Tov (Master of the Good Name). By the time of his death in 1760, he had created a full-fledged religious movement known as Hasidism and, within a generation, the bulk of the Jews in central Poland, Galicia, and the Ukraine were Hasidim. Beginning in the late 1700s, groups of Hasidim began moving to the Holy Land in order to live a more fully religious life. They brought with them the traditions of eastern Europe, including their manner of dress and foods. It was among the Hasidim of Jerusalem that this distinctive noodle kugel, which features a tantalizing contrast of pepper and caramelized sugar, was popularized.

My mother-in-law remembers the kapparah tradition in Poland. Early in the morning of the day prior to Yom Kippur, a fowl was whirled about her head, while she thought about turning over a new leaf. Her father would whirl a rooster, her mother a hen, and her brothers and sisters a pullet or a cockerel. The ceremony was repeated for each child. She was always frightened by the fluttering feathers. After the whirling, her mother would race to the shohet and have the fowls ritually slaughtered to make food for the meal before the fast. All the fowls would be cooked, and any extras given to bachelor relatives or to the poor. Chicken soup would be made for the kreplakh and the boiled chicken eaten as a mild main dish. Yemenite Jews also eat chicken before the fast of Yom Kippur, but much earlier in the morning, at about 10:30. Their soup is dipped with the kubbanah bread. Note: Making a children's version of hawayij is a great introduction to Middle Eastern spices. Take the children to a spice store where they can pick out the spices themselves. Hawayij is basically a combination of cumin, coriander (omit if using fresh), curry powder, ginger, black pepper, and turmeric. Add spices according to your children's tolerance for strong and unusual flavors. You can omit them altogether if you wish.

Sfratti means "sticks" in Italian, as well as "evicted," for at one time landlords were allowed to persuade unwanted and delinquent tenants to leave by force of a rod. A similar practice was employed to chase away Jews during all-too-frequent periods of expulsion. This nut-filled cookie, a popular Italian Rosh Hashannah treat, got its name from its resemblance to a stick, the Jewish sense of humor transforming an object of persecution into a sweet symbol.

A comfort-food treat that's great for brunch. This version takes less time than most because the noodles aren't precooked.

To make this bread easier to prepare, shape the dough into two loaves after the second rising instead of forming braided loaves, as is traditional. Place each loaf in a buttered 9x5x3-inch loaf pan and continue as per recipe.

Rugelach are classic cookies in the Jewish culinary repertoire. The surprise ingredient in this version--cottage cheese--makes for tender, rich cookies.