There are recipe books that are much more than recipe books. From investigative works that stand out from the crowd to the usual compilations of trendy dishes or books by chefs in need of self-celebration. Jewish cuisine in New York (Hachette Cuisine) is as much a duty of memory and transmission as it is a cooking manual. Its author, Annabelle Schachmes, has written as many recipes as stories, that of the immigration of Jews from Europe to the United States, that of her great-grandparents and grandparents. It is also an opportunity to meet another side of “Jewish cuisine”, more introverted than that of the colorful Israeli cuisine of Yotam Ottolenghi, Anglo-Israeli master of the genre and who has the on the rise in Europe for several years.
Gastronomy: does novelty necessarily have to be innovative?
Great photos
This personal and universal book, illustrated with wonderful photos and drawings, shows to what extent cooking is a cultural act and that food is there, in the lives of people, whatever their destiny.
“I was not aware of the depth of Judaism in the United States, she explains. As some postwar Jewish movements faded in Europe, they grew there. Traditional recipes that were in danger of disappearing were “saved” by migrants who took them with them to the USA, because this country is made up of foreigners who were able to cultivate their uniqueness despite their assimilation. »
For example, bialys, small breads topped with onions, garlic or poppy seeds: no one cooks or eats them anymore in Poland, their country of origin, even though they are so popular in New York. The bustling metropolis has thus become the guarantor of the preservation of this very particular Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine. You can taste these specialties in delicatessen – the famous delis – or in appetizing storesstalls reserved for smoked fish and dairy products.
In the book, we find the star recipes
– pastrami, bagels, latkes, babka… But you can also discover this other “little kitchen” and subsistence which is boundlessly resilient, even if “It’s not great cuisine!” » warns Annabelle, laughing. Far from being as tasty as Israeli or Sephardic dishes, Ashkenazi recipes resonate with a singular taste, where the memory of an ancestor and that of a shared ritual take the place of delicacy. ” The matzo ball soup, it’s my life, I could eat it off a pig’s head! » she laughs with her solid sense of humor. It must be said that you can find these matza flour balls (for unleavened dough recipes) immersed in chicken broth in all New York delis, “while in France we mainly find them… at your mother’s house!” “. “It was really the United States that brought this dish out of homes and into restaurants, making it popular around the world,” continues the author, who also developed an addiction to pickled her-rings, marinated herrings. Stars of the appetizing stores, they are served with onions and a mixture of cream and buttermilk.
While sitting in the famous Katz’s deli, the journalist discovered an unknown dish, kishka, a kind of red sausage with matza flour and paprika designed to replace pork, prohibited by kashrut: “She’s ugly and not very good but she’s such a part of New Yorkers’ lives that we no longer ask the question!” » At Katz’s, there was also a dish that Annabelle refused to eat… A mixture of eggs, matzah cakes, cinnamon and sugar. A “lazy dish” ready for a few minutes, especially a souvenir dish, which her grandfather prepared for her when she was little and which all Jewish children have eaten in their lives. “I thought I cried when they handed me the plate, I loved it but I know that I wouldn’t eat anything other than my grandfather’s. »
2023-10-29 04:32:00
#Gastronomy #York #Dorado #Jewish #cuisine
