Jewish Recipes
165 recipes found
Chocolate Babka Rugelach
These festive, fudgy confections are a mash-up of two traditional Jewish favorites: rugelach and chocolate babka. They have a tender, flaky pastry wrapped around a bittersweet truffle-like filling that’s sprinkled with chopped nuts or cocoa nibs for a contrasting crunch. A topping of Demerara sugar adds texture, and a little flaky sea salt cuts the sweetness perfectly. These are best served within five days of baking (store them in an airtight container at room temperature). They also freeze well for up to one month, with parchment or waxed paper between layers.
Easy Matzo
At its most traditional, matzo is made from just flour and water. But adding a little salt for flavor and olive oil for richness yields an airy, tender matzo that’s easy to make. This version also includes a small amount of whole-wheat flour for earthiness, but you can use all white flour if you prefer. Matzos will keep for at least a week stored airtight at room temperature. (Note that these matzos are not kosher for Passover.)
Schmaltz-Roasted Brussels Sprouts
Roasting brussels sprouts in schmaltz — rendered poultry fat —gives them an incredibly nutty richness that you can’t get from any other fat. If you are making the schmaltz from scratch for this recipe (and you should if you want the gribenes), do use the onion, which lends an incomparable browned sweetness to the mix. The gribenes, which are the crispy bits of chicken skin that fry in the rendered fat, make an excellent garnish. (They may be strained out of store-bought schmaltz; if you don’t have them, just omit them here.) This recipe goes particularly well with a nice roasted chicken, whose flavor underscores the schmaltz.
Mashed Potato Latkes With Dill and Shallots
Latkes from grated potatoes are traditional and crispy. But I like this baked potato version because the flavor of the potatoes shines through, punched up with the pronounced seasoning of dill and parsley.
Haroseth With Chestnuts, Pine Nuts, Pears and Dried Fruits
Haroseth was served for Passover at Seders in Roman times, if not earlier, and versions exist all over the world, adapted for the fruits and nuts available. This recipe from Italy contains no spices, relying instead on a vibrant mix of fresh and dried fruit for flavor — so use the ripest and sweetest you can find.
Apple and Walnut Haroseth
This very classic Ashkenazi haroseth, which is a ceremonial part of the Passover Seder, is made from diced apple, toasted walnuts, a touch of cinnamon and a shower of sweet Passover wine. It’s meant to represent the mortar used by the Israelites when they were slaves in Egypt. The sweeter the apples you use, the less honey you’ll need to add at the end. But tart apples are nice here, too, as long as you balance their acidity. If you can’t get Manischewitz or another sweet Passover wine, ruby port is a fine substitute. You can make this haroseth one day ahead and store it in the refrigerator; just mix it well before serving to reincorporate any liquid that might have seeped out of the mix.
Challah Bread Pudding
This bread pudding is a dream of a dish to use up leftover challah, babka, brioche or a mix of day-old breads. (You can even add dry cake!) Bake this as soon as it’s assembled — useful for last-minute brunch — or dip each piece of the bread in the vanilla cream sauce ahead of time, then prop the pieces vertically in an attractive baking dish and refrigerate, so all you have to do the next day is pop the pudding in the oven before bringing it to the table. Not too sweet, the bittersweet chocolate and poppy seeds add a nice touch and taste without overwhelming the vanilla and cinnamon. Your guests will gobble this dish up.
Classic Beef Brisket With Caramelized Onions
This is a classic brisket recipe with no bells and whistles, just deep flavor, moist succulent meat and lots of caramelized onions. The only caveat: Buy a brisket that’s not too lean. You want it well-marbled with fat or the result will be dry, not juicy.
Libyan Aharaimi (Fish in Tomato Sauce)
Traditionally this Libyan Jewish dish is made with tomato paste, water and fish steaks, and served on holidays like Rosh Hashana. This twist on the classic uses the last of the summer tomatoes, reducing their purée into a thick, concentrated gravy. A few added spices make for a tangy sauce in which to poach sea bass or other fish fillets. Be careful to cook the fish just until slightly firm and flaky to ensure it stays tender. Serve it as an appetizer, as Libyans do, or as a main course. A simple bulgur pilaf makes a nice accompaniment.
Chicken Soup With Tiny Veal Meatballs
Schmaltz and Gribenes
Schmaltz is rendered poultry fat, in this case made from chicken, while gribenes are its crispy, crackling-like byproduct that comes from bits of chicken skin. The key to this recipe is to go low and slow: You want the fat to cook gently and thoroughly so it renders completely without burning. Some would argue that the onion is mandatory and not optional, but if you plan to use the schmaltz for very delicate recipes, or sweet recipes (chilled schmaltz works wonderfully as the fat in pastry dough), feel free to leave it out. Your schmaltz won’t have as deep a flavor, but it will be more versatile. Schmaltz will last for at least a week in the refrigerator and up to six months in the freezer. If your butcher won’t sell it to you, the best way to obtain chicken skin and fat is to collect trimmings in the freezer every time you buy a whole bird. Or you can strip the skin and fat from chicken thighs and save the skinless meat to use in other recipes.
Savory Babka With Ricotta and Herbs
This cheese-filled bread has the same soft, rich dough of a traditional babka, but instead of being filled with cinnamon or chocolate, it has an herb-speckled, garlic-scented ricotta swirled throughout. Some optional chopped ham or olives give the bread an even saltier tang, but you can leave it out for something milder. Leftover babka makes excellent toast or — if you want to take it to another level of gooeyness — grilled cheese sandwiches.
Onion Poppy-Seed Rolls
Cholent Brisket
Braised Pot Roast With Pomegranates
Citrusy Brisket With Spring Lettuces
This is a bright, zesty take on braised brisket, in which the meat is cooked with lemon and orange juice, along with plenty of onions and dry white wine. It makes for a lighter-tasting sauce than the standard rich, brown gravy, with a tangy, citrus flavor. For serving, the tender slices of meat are topped with a crisp herb salad, adding even more freshness to the plate. Serve it with mashed or roasted potatoes to soak up all the caramelized, oniony juices.
Corned Beef
Molly O'Neill brought this recipe to The Times in 2000. It calls for brining the meat for 8 to 12 days, but you can cheat. Even a few days will yield tender results.
Latkes
These crisp potato pancakes are the ultimate in holiday comfort food. (Don’t skip the sour cream and applesauce!) Get them sizzling away in a heavy-bottomed skillet until beautifully browned, and arrange them on a plate lined with paper towels as they finish. They won’t last long.
Joyce Goldstein's Pickled Salmon
Matzo Brei with Caramelized Apples
This recipe is adapted from the restaurant Jane in downtown New York. There, the chef Glenn Harris offers a matzo brei that is an expanded version of his mother's. Mr. Harris's mother, in Brooklyn, made sweet matzo brei with honey or jelly, or matzo meal pancakes the size of silver dollars sprinkled with sugar. His version is much more elaborate, with cubes of caramelized apples, a vanilla-honey sauce and mascarpone.
Sufganiyot (Orange-Scented Jelly Doughnuts)
Some Jewish foods take a lifetime to love. It can take years of practice to truly enjoy the baby food flavor and clammy texture of gefilte fish. And as festive desserts go, the dry honey cakes baked for the Jewish New Year are hardly alluring. This may explain why American Jews have enthusiastically embraced a Hanukkah treat popular in Israel, sufganiyot, or, as we know them, jelly doughnuts. Fragrant with sugar and jam, sufganiyot (the plural of sufganiya) have become a sweeter symbol of the holiday, especially for children.
Poppy-Seed Torte
Hamantaschen With Poppy Seed Filling
Purim, which celebrates the biblical story of the Jews’ deliverance from a plot to kill them by Haman, minister to the Persian king, is a special time when people drink, dance and play jokes. Gifts of food called shalah manot are distributed, which include fruit, cookies and, of course, hamantaschen.
Aylenish Rugelach With Orange, Walnuts and Cinnamon
Once upon a time, good Jewish housewives (known as balaboostas in Yiddish) all knew how to make pastries like strudel, rugelach and schnecken from scratch, using a cream-cheese-enriched dough supposedly stretched thin enough that you could read the newspaper through it. This was a day’s work, but with the arrival of good-quality puff pastry on the market, modern bakers can quickly (“aylenish” in Yiddish) produce this close cousin: a sweet, fragrant filling of nuts, spices and dried fruit wrapped in rich dough. Orange marmalade gives a tart undertone (and the faintest suggestion of a Christmas fruitcake), but apricot or raspberry jam are also considered classic.