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Forum -> Recipe Collection -> Shabbos and Supper menus
Traditional sefardi friday night meal
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yo'ma




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Aug 10 2015, 6:50 pm
For ashkenaz, I suppose it's gefilte fish, chicken soup, chicken, and potato kugel. With other things or not and obviously challah. I know each family has their own traditional one, but IMO that's a traditional ashkenaz one. Is there a sefard one? What is it if there is?
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finallyamommy




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Aug 10 2015, 7:15 pm
There's a Moroccan fish that we like to make when Sephardim come over. It has hot peppers, paprika, carrots, and cilantro.
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PAMOM




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Aug 10 2015, 7:58 pm
Esheschayil, can you post the recipe ?
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GreenEyes26




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Aug 10 2015, 8:11 pm
Following!
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Lady Godiva




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Aug 10 2015, 10:39 pm
There is no single traditional Friday night meal. It varies by region (and sometimes country) of origin.
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finallyamommy




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Aug 11 2015, 10:23 am
PAMOM wrote:
Esheschayil, can you post the recipe ?


½ bag cilantro in bottom of pot
3 carrots, quartered and halved
6 cloves of garlic
1-2 spicy peppers
fish on top of that in pot (edited to add what KIND of fish - I've only ever done this with Nile perch but I'm guessing any white fish might work)
sprinkle fish with salt, paprika, and another half bag of cilantro
½ cup of oil around and all over it
add water until fish is almost covered
boil for 10 minutes
turn down/simmer for half hour

This is copied exactly from how my neighbor gave it to me, but I sometimes bake the fish instead of boiling in water--it's then a lot more dry and can be put on a blech on shabbos :-)
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yo'ma




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Aug 11 2015, 11:52 am
Lady Godiva wrote:
There is no single traditional Friday night meal. It varies by region (and sometimes country) of origin.

Then what is the traditional food by whichever region or country that you know?
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invisiblecircus




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Aug 11 2015, 12:11 pm
For Persians it's khoresh and rice with tah dig. We serve green and Israeli salad as well.
We eat just one course, then bentch, then move to the sitting area and eat dessert which is usually lots of fresh fruit and maybe some biscuits.
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etky




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Aug 11 2015, 1:12 pm
invisiblecircus wrote:
For Persians it's khoresh and rice with tah dig. We serve green and Israeli salad as well.
We eat just one course, then bentch, then move to the sitting area and eat dessert which is usually lots of fresh fruit and maybe some biscuits.


My best friend is from a Persian family. When we were single I used to go to her family quite often for Shabbat. We're talking almost three decades ago but I remember a chicken stuffed with rice, some type of meatball in a yellowish sauce and lots of fresh green herbs scattered around the table. Also a zuchinni kugel but I don't think that was particularly Persian. No dessert as you said, but nuts and some sweets in the living room after dinner. I remember that they always had techina and perhaps some other salads to dip the challah in.
My friend married an Ashkenazi and unfortunately does not cook any ethnic Persian food for her family which I think is a shame (and I've told her so!).
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MagentaYenta




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Aug 11 2015, 3:27 pm
I grew up Ashkenazi, in NJ, about 20 minutes away from Lkwd. We always had a single course meal with fruits and nuts in the living room after. Desert was served much later if there was a cake etc. I don't know where this influence came from. It was only after moving to Los Angeles was I exposed to the many courses of a friday night meal that are more common on this forum. After moving to the PNW I continued simpler friday night meals and found that in my community this was very common. Our meals are much lighter, less sauces, and sometimes more ethnic foods from other cultures.
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Ruchel




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Aug 17 2015, 11:59 am
yo'ma wrote:
For ashkenaz, I suppose it's gefilte fish, chicken soup, chicken, and potato kugel. With other things or not and obviously challah. I know each family has their own traditional one, but IMO that's a traditional ashkenaz one. Is there a sefard one? What is it if there is?


My Sefardi grandmother wouldn't know from many of the things above. Couscous, little dips... she only tasted after aliya.

Sefardim run on 3 continents, they are even more varied than Ashkenazim.

Byher it would have been fish in tomato, then chicken with veggies or veggie patties (potatoes they only discovered late in Greece and hence they didn't have it routinely and was not done on Pessach), then a compote (applesauce /compote) or chocolate cake, maybe.
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trying1




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Aug 17 2015, 12:42 pm
Don't know about any other sefardim but we are Moroccan and eat 'Moroccan Fish' and Chickpeas for the first course. We also make chachuka (like matbucha), some chatzilim dips and salads. Both the fish dish and chickpeas are hot.
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Mrs Bissli




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Aug 17 2015, 11:42 pm
As others said, there are much varieties (more so than Ashkenazi cuisines) by communities. I'll list some in each courses:

Challah: definitely nothing sweet, which would make it mezonot for us. Could be pitta (esp for lunch) but we use normal unsweetened challot. Hilbe (green goo made with soaked and ground fennugrek, ginger, coriander leaves lemon juice and a bit of peppers) is the standard dip for Indian of Iraqi origins.

There are several types of fish: the standard Moroccan fish, white fish fillets (could be salmon) cooked in tomato sauce with pickled lemon, corriander, peppers. I also make boulettes des poisson, which is basically unsweetened gef fish balls cooked in tomato sauce similar to above (but with slightly different spices, mine includes nutmeg and allspice). Or standard fried fish or fish pakora (fritter with chickpea batters, chopped onions, cumin, chili) or fish fillet in egg-lemony sauce or escaveche (though this tend to be more for lunch).

Soup really depends, but we're big on kubaba (stuffed dumplings, we use rice flour but many uses fine semolina). Could be yellow soup (turmeric, celery leaves) or purple (tomato, beetroot).

Chicken as main course, could be plain roasted or cut and cooked with apricot, or with tomato and aubergines. But tebeet (stuffed with rice) is for lunch, not fri dinner. Many families we know think they also need red meat mains esp with guests, so could be stuffed vegetables (mahasha) or some kind of meatballs or lamb. Indeed Persians are big on various khoresh.

Definitely rice. but we tend to serve ones with crunchy crust more for lunch (because we leave it on plata).

We tend to serve small varieties of vegetable side dishes, olives, pickles, pickled vegetables (like turnip with beetroot, cauliflower with turmeric), chards, if I use courgettes for mahasha, inside part is cooked with lemon and parve soup mix. Broadbeans, Chickpea salad, carrot salad, chopped radish, chopped fennel, many I serve again for lunch.

There are desserts aside from fruits. There's a lovely corn-starch thickened pudding that has rosewater, or poached quince. Orange cake (the one you boil the whole orange) with semolina, baklawa and basbousa (semolina cake with coconut). Though the strong part of pastry tend to be various (often filled) biscuits/cookies like biscochos or kaaks or stuffed fillo or atayif.
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MagentaYenta




 
 
    
 

Post Mon, Aug 17 2015, 11:46 pm
Mrs. Bissli, would you be kind enough to give me a rough recipe for your fish pakoras? TIA.
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Sake




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Aug 18 2015, 12:19 am
For our family it's almost always fish, salads, rice and dips. Occasionally for a treat maybe a bird (not generally chicken because my father had weird thoughts about chickens. He has PTSD so I never knew if the traditions he taught us were valuable to our history or simply silly.. but why risk it lol) we have soups in winter and fruit, nuts, sweet cakes for desert and by dessert that means it stays out until bed.
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Mrs Bissli




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Aug 18 2015, 7:26 am
MagentaYenta wrote:
Mrs. Bissli, would you be kind enough to give me a rough recipe for your fish pakoras? TIA.


1lb firm white fish (I use mostly cod or haddock), preferably skinless/boneless
1 small onion, finely chopped
4-5 stalks coriander, finely chopped
1 teasp equiv fresh grated ginger
1 egg
1/2 cup gram (chickpea) flour
a generous pinch of salt and cumin seeds (preferably whole but ground is ok), chili flakes or chopped green chili--depending on how much heat you like
oil for shallow frying

Cut off skin from fish and remove big visible bones (if not using skinless/boneless). Cut them in small chunks, and place them in a food processor (you may have to divide in batches). Pulse for several times to get fine mince, but NOT paste. Add all other ingredients except for oil (you may want to break up lumps from gram flour and add it gradually) till you get relatively stiff batter. Heat just enough oil in a frying pan to cover the surface. Drop about a generous heapful of a tablespoon of batter, then flatten a bit. (A bit like mini latkes) Fry about 2-3min on each side till cooked through and turns slightly golden. Remove to a plate with paper towel to absorb extra oil. You can reheat them in an oven or on plata, but these are best served straight away. You can also freeze once fried (but not as batter).
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MagentaYenta




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Aug 18 2015, 1:17 pm
Thanks Mrs. Bissli, I make pakoras of some type weekly. The fish part was intriguing. I don't use eggs in my pakoras I let the starch of the besan bind the ingredients. Maybe I'll add some water but with fish mince I may not need to. I also put a bit of baking powder into my besan, it makes them a bit lighter. As to the spices I have the full array and enjoy heavily spiced foods. I'm lucky enough to have an Indian Market a block away.

I'm looking forward to enjoying this.
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Frumdoc




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Aug 18 2015, 5:12 pm
Ashkenaz is not as uniform as you think. For example, have you heard of the sweet/ salty gefilte fish line? An imaginary geographical line which runs diagonally across E Europe differentiating those who would only make sweet gefilte fish (Polish and West) and those who only make salty (Lithuania/Latvia and East of the line).

And potato kugel is strictly only for shabbos day always roast paprika potatoes on Fridays nights, and Friday nights always have a hot, cooked apple based dessert. Shabbos day some always have to have some kind of smoked meat, cold pressed or salt beef, or sausages. Deli roll is unheard of where I come from, as are knishes. But smoked salmon/ baked salmon is more common as the fish rather than gefilte. Or fried fishballs, another ?German tradition. And sides of pickled onions, cukes, olives and other veg. Very Russian, esp with beets.

Shabbos lunch is not the same without chopped liver and eggn'onion, with the eternal shmaltz v mayo, and fried v raw onion debate.

There are some really interesting variations. Europe is a big continent with many cultures. Sadly many are being forgotten. There are amazing recipe books from my grandmother's day with such fascinating ingredients and combinations.

Not that sefardic food isn't great and varied, but there is much more to Ashkenazi food than chulent, kugel and dry roast chicken. Healthy, flavorful and exciting options.
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November




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Aug 18 2015, 5:51 pm
Hey frumdoc, would you share some baked apple desserts? Pretty please?
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etky




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Aug 19 2015, 1:53 am
Frumdoc wrote:
Ashkenaz is not as uniform as you think. For example, have you heard of the sweet/ salty gefilte fish line? An imaginary geographical line which runs diagonally across E Europe differentiating those who would only make sweet gefilte fish (Polish and West) and those who only make salty (Lithuania/Latvia and East of the line).

And potato kugel is strictly only for shabbos day always roast paprika potatoes on Fridays nights, and Friday nights always have a hot, cooked apple based dessert. Shabbos day some always have to have some kind of smoked meat, cold pressed or salt beef, or sausages. Deli roll is unheard of where I come from, as are knishes. But smoked salmon/ baked salmon is more common as the fish rather than gefilte. Or fried fishballs, another ?German tradition. And sides of pickled onions, cukes, olives and other veg. Very Russian, esp with beets.

Shabbos lunch is not the same without chopped liver and eggn'onion, with the eternal shmaltz v mayo, and fried v raw onion debate.

There are some really interesting variations. Europe is a big continent with many cultures. Sadly many are being forgotten. There are amazing recipe books from my grandmother's day with such fascinating ingredients and combinations.

Not that sefardic food isn't great and varied, but there is much more to Ashkenazi food than chulent, kugel and dry roast chicken. Healthy, flavorful and exciting options.


Thanks for the culinary "tour". You're right that Ashenazi food kind of gets lumped together and regional differences are overlooked. I think that if one wants to search for reasons it would be the fact that for the past half century, more actually, the overwhelming majority of Ashenazic Jews (those who survived the Holocaust and those who remained ethnically Jewish) emmigrated to places like the US where the modern life style discouraged retention of labor intensive ethnic specialities. Or Israel, which is a Jewish melting pot where Sephardic food quickly predominated and most Ashkenazic Jews, who were secular, (not talking about haredim whose culinary habits were not part of the mainstream) were not of a mind (au contraire actually) to carry on culinary traditions, much of which related to Shabbat and holidays.
This is in contradistinction to Sephardic Jewry who remained traditional both in life style and in religious values far longer than the Ashkenazim.
I have a cookbook that I inherited from my grandmother published in the US in 1918 (my copy is a bit older). It is called "The International Jewish Cook Book -1600 Recipes According to the Jewish Dietary Laws with the Rules for Kashering; the Favorite Recipes of America, Austria, Germany, Russia, France, Poland, Roumania, Etc. " by Florence Kreisler Greenbaum. Reading it is an education in Ashkenazic cookery and I'm sure that the book is not at all exhaustive in its survey of the specialities of each and every region. Nowadays, a small number of these dishes have become emblematic of generic Ashkenazi cuisine and the rest, for the most part, have either fallen by the wayside or have become obscure and largely unknown.
That said, the same process is probably affecting Sephardic cooking now. Modern life style discourages home cooking, especially of the labor intensive, painstaking sort and pushes toward cultural homogeneity.
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