{"id":11566,"date":"2015-03-27T00:19:12","date_gmt":"2015-03-27T07:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=11566"},"modified":"2015-03-26T17:34:33","modified_gmt":"2015-03-27T00:34:33","slug":"cooking-to-fill-others-tables","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2015\/03\/27\/cooking-to-fill-others-tables\/","title":{"rendered":"Cooking to fill others\u2019 tables"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mere days before heading to Israel for a couple of weeks, Sara Ciacci, 90, called the Jewish Independent<\/em> to make sure that I had received her new cookbook, Sara\u2019s Kitchen: 90 Years of Devotion, 90 Recipes from the Heart<\/em> (Gateway Rasmussen, 2015), and that I had all the information I needed about the Jewish Food Bank. For Ciacci, food and tzedaka are inextricably connected with life and community.<\/p>\n

\u201cSara Ciacci is the beating heart of Temple Sholom\u2019s kitchen,\u201d reads the cookbook\u2019s introduction. \u201cFrom her kiddush lunches to the Sisterhood catering committee, second seders, women\u2019s seders and the annual Yom Kippur break-the-fast, Sara has made a mission of nourishing her congregation since its earliest days. She is queen of all hamantashen, blintzes and latkes, and, every year, she and friend Leonor Etkin produce challot by the dozen for Temple Sholom\u2019s High Holiday celebrations. Sara also makes the Vancouver Jewish Food Bank her priority, and all the hungry in our community will be the beneficiaries of all the money raised from the sale of Sara\u2019s Kitchen<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Jewish Food Bank supports close to 400 Jewish individuals each year, according to its 2013-2014 report. Ciacci shared with the Jewish Independent an email she wrote to the Jewish Family Service Agency, which co-funds the food bank with Jewish Women International-B.C. and community donors. In it, she traces her memories of the service agency back 80 years, to the Depression era, when, like many families in the Jewish community, she writes, \u201cmy mother, two sisters and I needed help. I also remember Theresa Blumberg, the social worker who came to our home and found a reason to look in the food pantry, to talk with me and ask about school. She also found time to visit me during the 18 months that I was in the children\u2019s preventorium for tuberculosis. It was Miss Blumberg who made sure that I had proper shoes and school supplies. My only possession from childhood is an 11th birthday book inscribed, \u2018To my dear Sara, from Theresa Blumberg.\u2019…<\/p>\n

\u201cMy adult association with the Jewish Food Bank started in 1984 when our president, Jean Cohen, was helping a Jewish senior and found canned cat food in her cupboard. She did not have a cat. Jean brought the idea of a food bank for seniors and immigrants to our board. We then approached the Jewish Family Service Agency (JFSA) and an unofficial partnership was born. B\u2019nai B\u2019rith Women (now JWI-BC) would be responsible for collecting food and JFSA counselors chose the recipients. Hampers were provided based on a list that identified recipients only by a numbered card that specified their specific needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Organized for a number of years by \u201ctwo wonderful women who are no longer with us,\u201d Renee Lifchus for BBW (now JWI-BC) and Isabel Lever from JFSA, \u201cWe packed the first hampers … in Safeway paper bags on the workbench in Carol Fader\u2019s basement…. Hampers contained non-perishable food items that our members donated or collected from friends and family.\u201d<\/p>\n

In this tradition of community, several recipes in Sara\u2019s Kitchen<\/em> are Ciacci\u2019s \u201cby way of being begged, borrowed, copied, changed or invented.\u201d The sources of these recipes are acknowledged, which adds to the community feel of this cookbook.<\/p>\n

There are three chapters, starting with most everyone\u2019s favorite meal: dessert. The second chapter comprises Passover recipes, the third, \u201cand everything else.\u201d There is an index for quick finds, a page on which to note your favorite recipes and their page number for easy reference, as well as a couple of pages to write in a few of your own recipes. Each section is headed by a full-color page of some of the treats waiting to be made.<\/p>\n

The desserts section starts with a few tips, such as the need to chill cookie dough for at least an hour. Ginger snaps, blueberry drop cookies, and apple and honey cake bread pudding with butterscotch sauce are among the 36 pages of desserts to try after Passover.<\/p>\n

In addition to the Passover conversion table \u2013 offering substitutes for flour and Graham cracker crumbs, for example \u2013 there is a spice guide, and pieces of advice offered throughout, such as how to ripen avocados more quickly and how to make radish roses. Appropriately, on page 90, is \u201cSara Ciacci\u2019s Recipe for a Rich Full Life,\u201d featuring nine wise ingredients.<\/p>\n

Since I\u2019m reviewing this cookbook in the Jewish Independent\u2019s<\/em> Passover edition, the recipes I tested are all kosher for the holiday: spinach vegetable kugel, red cabbage and almond crisps. Everything turned out according to plan, except the almond crisps, which were golden brown in about half the suggested time. I will remember this next time I make them because they are so good and easy to make, there will be a next time.<\/p>\n

SPINACH VEGETABLE KUGEL<\/strong><\/p>\n

3 large carrots
\n10 oz package frozen spinach, thawed
\n1 medium onion
\n2 stalks celery
\n1 cup chicken [or vegetable] bouillon
\n3 eggs
\n3\/4 cup matza meal
\nsalt and pepper to taste<\/p>\n

Preheat over to 350\u02daF. Grease an eight-inch square pan.<\/p>\n

Cut up and grate carrots. Set aside. Chop spinach, onion and celery. Place in a two-quart saucepan. Add grated carrots and bouillon. Cook over medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes until vegetables are soft.<\/p>\n

Place the eggs and matza meal in a mixing bowl. Stir in cooked vegetables. Season with salt and pepper. Spread the mixture evenly in the baking pan. Bake, uncovered, for 45 minutes. Cut into squares before serving.<\/p>\n

RED CABBAGE<\/strong><\/p>\n

1 medium onion
\n1 average-size red cabbage
\n4 medium apples
\n1\/4 cup canola oil or butter
\n1\/2 cup water
\n3 tbsp (or more) red wine vinegar
\n3 tbsp sugar
\n1 tsp salt
\n3 or 4 whole cloves
\n1 tsp caraway seeds (optional)<\/p>\n

Slice onion and saut\u00e9 in oil\/butter until translucent. Shred cabbage. Peel, core and slice up apples. Place cabbage in a pot and top with the sliced apples. Add water and remaining ingredients. Place on medium-low heat and simmer one hour (or longer), stirring occasionally until cabbage is tender.<\/p>\n

Adjust vinegar\/sugar to taste. Some lemon juice can be substituted for the vinegar.<\/p>\n

ALMOND CRISPS
\n<\/strong>Perfect for Passover, these cookies also make a great gluten-free option at any dessert buffet.<\/em><\/p>\n

3 cups sliced almonds with skins, lightly toasted
\n1\/2 cup sugar
\n2 egg whites. at room temperature
\n1\/2 tsp vanilla (optional)<\/p>\n

Preheat oven to 350\u02daF. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.<\/p>\n

In a large bowl, mix (do not beat) egg whites with sugar. Add vanilla. Stir in almonds.<\/p>\n

Using a tablespoon, make mounds of mixture on cookie sheet and flatten into thin rounds with your fingers dipped in cold water or with the back of a spoon. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.<\/p>\n

Turn off the oven and leave cookies in the oven with door open for 10 more minutes.<\/p>\n

Makes 20 to 22 cookies.<\/p>\n

For copies of Sara\u2019s Kitchen<\/em>, contact Darcy Billinkoff at billi@telus.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mere days before heading to Israel for a couple of weeks, Sara Ciacci, 90, called the Jewish Independent to make sure that I had received her new cookbook, Sara\u2019s Kitchen: 90 Years of Devotion, 90 Recipes from the Heart (Gateway Rasmussen, 2015), and that I had all the information I needed about the Jewish Food […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11533,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3465,400,3456,1185,1325],"class_list":["post-11566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","tag-cookbook","tag-passover","tag-recipes","tag-sara-ciacci","tag-temple-sholom"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}