Schnitzel: Israeli Cutlets

The ultimate comfort food

By Adeena Sussman

In all my years living in and visiting Israel, I never tired of the crisp, freshly breaded and fried cutlets known as schnitzel. Adapted by immigrants from the classic Viennese Wiener Schnitzel made with veal, the Israeli version originally featured turkey, which was much more plentiful at the onset of the Jewish State than beef, or even chicken.

In Israel you'll find a wide variety of schnitzel, adapted to adhere to familial or ethnic traditions and tastes. I like mine a bit spicy and add sesame seeds for a subtle nuttiness. I also prefer a coating of bread crumbs, which provide a crisper crust than matzah meal, which is denser and absorbs more oil.

The spices here are only a recommendation--it's fun to adjust the herbs to your liking. The smaller tenders make a great snack for kids, and any leftover schnitzel is superb as a day-after sandwich, stuffed into a pita with some salad and a drizzle of tahini.

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The Jewish Biscotti

Mandelbrot: Almond Bread

The Jewish biscotti may have Italian roots.

By Adeena Sussman

It was a long time before I made the connection between mandelbrot, the twice-baked cookies commonly found in Ashkenazi Jewish households, and biscotti, the twice-baked cookies of Italian provenance.

It's unclear how and when Ashkenazi Jews began baking mandelbrot, but Joan Nathan, in her book Jewish Cooking in America, suggests that the large Jewish population in Italy's Piedmont region may have been responsible for disseminating the recipe to German friends and family.

Though the term mandelbrot literally means "almond bread," many modern varieties abound, some with the addition of butter, chocolate chips and dried fruit. This is a traditional recipe, similar to the one my grandmother used to serve with steaming glasses of tea.

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Leftover Challah Recipes

Beyond french toast.

By Leah Koenig

Last spring, I received quite the shock upon opening my freezer for its annual pre-Passover cleaning. Inside, bag upon bag of forgotten scraps and ends of challahs-past sat shivering and waiting for redemption. I hadn't meant to let my leftover challah situation grow so ugly, but there it was, staring me in the face. With only a few days before I needed to be hametz-free, I decided to feed some of the challah to my compost worms, and dump the rest of it (guiltily) into the garbage. But I promised myself that next Passover I would

Of course, there is little I can do about the weekly surplus of challah that builds up after Shabbat. The real conundrum is what to do with all those odds and ends that accumulate into a freezer full of old challah. Conventional Jewish wisdom seems to suggest one acceptable option: French toast.

According to Arthur Schwartz's Jewish Home Cooking: Yiddish Recipes Revisited, challah French toast first showed up on menus in the 1940s, but was made famous in the 1950s and 60s by two Brooklyn restaurants, Wolfie's and Cookie's. "At Cookie's and Wolfie's," he writes, "they served big, crisp-edged wedges of deep-fried, egg-saturated challah with a paper soufflé cup of cherry preserves."

These days, challah French toast is so ubiquitous that recipes for it regularly turn up in mainstream Jewish cookbooks, and even some non-Jewish ones. Decades from now, culinary anthropologists may point to challah French toast as an example of American Jews' distinct and fascinating contribution to traditional Jewish cuisine.

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Nontraditional Matzah Brei Recipes

Spice up the classic Passover dish with these sweet and savory variations

I always approach conversations about matzah brei with care. Holding an important place in Bubbe's Greatest Hits, discussions around the dish can get downright emotional. Never really getting the appeal of this Passover specialty, I was always surprised when people of great taste would rhapsodize about it. I mean, it's just eggs and matzah. Bland-on-bland to my mind …and tastebuds. But then I read the chapter on matzah brei in Jayne Cohen's Jewish Holiday Cooking, and I began to think of it as a blank canvas food, a dish to be built upon, as you would an omelette, or for my sweet tooth, french toast.

Looking back to another one of Bubbe's Greatest Hits, salami and eggs, and merging the flavors into matzah brei made the dish over for me, and gave it personal significance, bringing me back to Sunday night dinners at our kitchen table.

Oven-baked Matzah Brei Pudding takes this classic dish into dessert territory, and the chocolate doesn't hurt one bit either. Allowing time for the matzah to soak up the eggy chocolate pudding in the fridge will yield a moist and, ironically, bread pudding-like consistency. It's easy to take this dish over-the-top. Throw in nuts or coconut for texture, serve fresh from the oven with a scoop of ice cream, or a dollop of whipped cream for a heart-meltingly yummy treat. It's matzah brei as a year-round comfort dish.

Here are my recipes for Salami & Eggs Matzah Brei and Chocolate Matzah Brei Pudding.

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