Does it look delicious? Admittedly no, but Passover is nigh and you don’t have the time to fret over presentation. Trust that it’ll get rid of whatever food you have lying around, and it is legitimately both tasty and nutritious. Mark Bittman says bread is good for you, after all— the one thing you’ve always wanted to hear.

As for process and ingredients, think of this recipe like the Pirate’s Code, more guidelines than actual rules.

Ingredients:

3 cups cubed bread

1 cup vegetable broth or milk (or water that’s had onion or garlic boiled in it, you get the idea)

2 cups vegetables

4-6 Eggs

1 Tbsp butter

Grated Cheese (optional)

Directions:

1. Pour your liquid of choice into a bowl with the bread, and let it soak for at least an hour, or as long as overnight

2. If your leftover veggies are particularly hard, like root vegetables, sauté them for about five minutes, until slightly softened

3. Beat together the eggs— if you have leftover milk or cheese, mix together.

4. Lay out the soggy bread in a pyrex or other bakeware, and mix in the vegetables. Pour the egg mixture over the top.

5. Melt the butter (in the microwave is fine), and pour it over the whole strata

5. Bake at 350 degrees for an hour, or until the eggs have set and the butter has completely been absorbed.

6. Enjoy! Then gaze around your kitchen and realize you still have cleaning to do before the holiday. Godspeed.

Photo by Gabriela Geselowitz

The post Get Rid of Chametz— Fast— With Leftover Strata appeared first on Jewcy.

When I married my wife, Tamara, in June, the Mazel-Tov Cocktail was the signature drink at our wedding.

The name was an easy choice— Mazel-Tov Cocktail, a zine published in 1995, was the first comprehensive work exploring the connections between Jews and punk. As the author of Oy Oy Oy Gevalt! Jews and Punk, I am a particularly big fan.

And while Tamara and I were planning our wedding, and considering a signature drink, a crazy thing happened: The Mazel-Tov Cocktail was in the news! Two days before Election Day, a Donald Trump supporter inadvertently said “mazel-tov cocktail” instead of “Molotov cocktail” on CNN. The Internet had a field day, and I explained the origin of the term in a Jewcy article. With Tamara’s blessing, I now felt compelled to name our signature wedding drink the Mazel-Tov Cocktail.

It turned out, our wedding venue already had a signature drink for the season. It was called a Pineapple-Ginger Smash, also known as a pineapple-ginger mojito. The cocktail consisted of light rum, muddled ginger, fresh pineapple, lime juice, and mint. It sounded nice, but Tamara and I never would have conceived of that combination of ingredients.

I was in a quandary; neither Tamara nor I drink much, but this was an opportunity to put our own stamp on our special day. The idea of creating a Mazel-Tov Cocktail had a personalized touch: punny, punky, and Jewish. The Pineapple-Ginger Smash sounded like an adequate option among many at the bar, but we had already thought about having a signature drink, and it felt like this cocktail was random, and had nothing to do with us.

The solution was ultimately obvious: As a compromise, we renamed the Pineapple-Ginger Smash the Mazel-Tov Cocktail. It didn’t have blatantly Jewish signifiers like Manischewitz wine, but dayeinu. Between the rum and ginger, it packs a punch, and the pineapple is sweet, but just tart enough to be perfect for a happy occasion. It turns out it pairs really well with a wedding where Golem is the band. And I was able to drive home the drink’s name with signs featuring the cover image from the zine Mazel-Tov Cocktail.

The Mazel-Tov Cocktail was a hit. I got to taste one in a bridal suite following the ceremony. Both bars ran out, until my mother urged the event manager to remedy the situation.

You can make your own Mazel-Tov Cocktail, for your punk (if slightly tropical) simcha! This recipe, inspired by our wedding, is based on similar ones from Food.com, Kitchen Sanctuary, and mostly Domesticate Me.

L’Chaim!

Ingredients:

3 tbsp cup pineapple puree OR one pineapple ring
1/2 tbsp of ginger, muddled
1 ounce light rum
6-8 mint leaves
1 tbsp lime juice
Shaved ice
A spritz of seltzer
Additional mint and lime wedge to garnish

Directions:
In a cocktail shaker, muddle the ginger, mint leaves, and lime juice. Add the pineapple ring or puree (you can blend fresh pineapple), rum, and a couple ice cubes, and shake vigorously to combine. Pour into a cocktail glass filled with shaved ice. Top off with seltzer, garnish with a fresh mint sprig and a lime slice. Serves 1.

Recipe photo by Christopher Duggan Photography. Drink photo by Michael Croland. 

The post Jewcy Recipes: A Mazel-Tov Cocktail appeared first on Jewcy.

Here’s how to make some amazing #trans challah (as well as non-binary, intersex, and rainbow) this #PRIDE month, and any month.

1. Start with your favorite challah recipe, but the interwebs have countless recipes suit any dietary need like whole grain, vegan, or gluten freedom. There’s a challah out there for everyone, the way there’s a gender identity for everyone, even if it isn’t one you’ve ever encountered before.

2. For bold and solid rainbow colors, split your dough up while mixing into separate bowls and add food coloring into each mixture. For lighter, softer, marbled colors, which works great specifically for the trans flag, mix the dough fully. Only add in a drop or two of color at a time and keep kneading it, until the color appears consistently throughout. It’s kind of like hormone replacement therapy; a little goes a long way. Add drops of red and purple to make pink, and use blue very sparingly to keep it light.

Note to divide your challah up in the correct proportions: Trans flags have five stripes, so the one bowl that stays white should have half as much dough as the other two that will get pink and blue. For the pride rainbow, six equal portions can be used.

3a. (For sweet Challah) Transgender challah, like the people it represents, should be extra sweet on the inside, under that crispy shell the world gives us. As you form your strands to braid, roll in dried cranberries, raisins, or why not both? Add as many as you like to each strand until the rolls are smooth again. They should be secure within the dough strands, not clinging to the outside. Make a dusting of cinnamon sugar along the table, and roll your strands in that next.

3b. You can also make a savory transgender challah swapping out the cinnamon-sugar and raisins for garlic powder, sesame seeds, and lots of onion flakes. Pride, like challah, is best when it embraces all of our senses and tastes. It is Jewish tradition to place two challahs on every Shabbat table, to commemorate the extra portions God sustained us with over the sabbath, so one you can make one the main course and another for dessert.

4. Braiding of any 5 stranded challah requires a little thinking, as compared to a three or six strand, but the basic pattern is three strands over then two back and repeat. If you make a mistake, it will still look and taste awesome. When you are done, fold each of the ends under and place it either onto a flat plan or a bread-loaf tray.

5. A special part of consecrating kosher challah is to set aside a small piece of dough from each batch to burn. For transgender challah, and any pride challah, we intentionally take from both the uncolored and colored dough, to remind us that the queer community both visibly and remaining in closets.

6. (It’s part of the recipe, so you have to do it!) Share with friends and family, celebrating whomever they love and however they identify! Spread the light of Shabbat unto our world by affirming that as Jews, queers, and allies, that asserting our own and ensuring others’ freedom of expression, is the greatest expression of freedom there is. Shabbat Shalom!

Photos courtesy of the author.

The post Make Your Challah TRANSGENDER This Pride! appeared first on Jewcy.

Passover often falls when the weather just starts to turn nice, but the sound of the forbidden ice cream truck going past may be enough to make a grown man weep. But! Here is a recipe for how to make your own delicious frozen treat, that’s even dairy free, so you can serve it after a meat holiday meal.

The recipe comes to Jewcy from Aliza Goldstein and her dad Jeff. Its ease of making is miraculous, but Aliza endorses it thus:

“The real miracle is that no one has ever gotten salmonella from this.”

The Goldstein clan got this treat from a 1970s synagogue sisterhood recipe book, by a Bess Goldstein (no relation to Jeff, Aliza and co.). The cookbook notes: “A very nice dessert for Sedar [sic] night. Delicious over sponge cake.”

The modern Goldsteins are skeptical about the sponge cake part, given the holiday. But Aliza describes the ice cream as “life-changing.” So à la mode or by itself, give this a try!

• 2 egg whites
• 1 pinch salt
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 cups strawberries

In large tupperware, beat egg white until foamy and add salt. Continue beating as you slowly add sugar. When it stands in peaks, add sliced or partly crushed strawberries and lemon juice. Continue to beat for 15 minutes until mixture holds peaks. Cover, store in freezer and serve frozen.

Enjoy!

Image via Pexels.

The post Passover Ice Cream YOU Can Make appeared first on Jewcy.

As Passover nears (quicker than you think), you may already be dreading matzo. But be not afraid; the holiday cracker doesn’t have to taste like cardboard. Ashley Albert and Kevin Rodriguez of The Matzo Project are so determined to reclaim the stuff that they’ve created an entire food line dedicated to turning matzo into a year-round snack (in fact, their products are kosher, but deliberately not kosher-for-Passover).

From “Cinnamon Bun Matzo Buttercrunch” ice cream, to cinnamon sugar matzo chips— any style of nosh you need, they got you.

But they need your help in deciding just what to schmear on their flat matzot this Passover season: The Matzo Project and Jewcy are teaming up for the #MatzoDipChallenge, a contest to concoct the perfect dip for their unusual matzot (Passover is all about dipping, after all).

Here’s what you can do:

The classic flats come in two flavors: “Salted” and “Everything Plus Two Other Things.” Pick one (or both), and submit your recipe/s for a dip that you think will go best with your flavor of choice. If you think you need more inspiration, think sea salt for Salted, and Everything is like the same sort of bagel, with a smidgen of paprika and chili.

Don’t be afraid to get weird with your submissions— want to do that marshmallow fluff/cream cheese blend? Go for it.

If you want to pick up a box to help get your creative juices flowing, they aren’t hard to come by.

The finalists will all receive a free box of Matzo Project matzo, and the Matzo Project and Jewcy team will bring the recipes to life (on video for posterity) and pick a grand prize winner (the grand prize is honor, but also a bag full of swag).  We’ll also be releasing a virtual recipe book of our top picks!

To enter, email gabriela@jewcy.com with the subject “Matzo Dip Challenge.” In the body of the email include your name, number, flavor choice, recipe, and anything else you’d like us to know.

The contest ends Wednesday, March 29th, at 5 p.m.

And of course, feel free to tweet (#MatzoDipChallenge) at either Jewcy or The Matzo Project with thoughts or kvetches.

Happy dipping!

Image courtesy of The Matzo Project

The post ANNOUNCING: ‘The Matzo Project’ Dip Contest! appeared first on Jewcy.

Who’s up for some Jewish-queer intersectionality? And how about if that intersection is the form of a Chanukah treat? That’s right, you can make latkes all colors of the rainbow, without getting too far away from traditional potato pancakes, and no, there’s no food coloring involved.

These are really easy, really pretty, and really flavorful. The base recipe (regardless of color) is:

Ingredients:

• (1) egg
• (1/4) onion
• (1) grated vegetable

Instructions:

Mix all in a bowl and form into patties before frying ’em up nice and crispy.

There’s no one way to get the color palette you want, but here are some tips on how to get started:

• Red: Beets
• Orange: Carrots, Sweet Potatoes, orange cauliflower
• Yellow: Potatoes, parsnip, jicima, sunchoke
• Green: Zucchini, broccoli, or if you really want to use kale, go ahead, but mix it with potato for structure
• Blue: If you’re a rainbow completist, my best suggestion is blue potatoes
• Purple: Purple carrot, purple cauliflower

And then tada! A stack of rainbowy, pridey potato pancakes! Allies are also welcome to enjoy!

Now, while they all taste delicious, some flavors mesh together better than others. I tasted the rainbow, if you will, the first time I made these and the beets and carrots didn’t really taste so great together. But taste is subjective, so maybe you like the combination. Feel free to experiment. Don’t be limited by certain latkes identities; it’s the 21st century.

Anyway, go forth and enjoy! And feel free to share your results with us on Twitter!

Image by Rachel Jacobs

The post Rainbow Pride Latkes appeared first on Jewcy.

Listen, we all know that the #1 rule of Jewish Christmas is to eat Chinese food. And, of course, this year, the first night of Chanukah falls on Christmas Eve. So how can you celebrate Chanukah and celebrate not celebrating Christmas at the same time?

Enter, the wanton-ikah. OK, so it’s a wonton recipe, but my friend Reuben Berman always makes them this time of year. The Berman family has the terrifying tradition that literally every Chanukah dinner (count ’em, that’s eight nights in a row) must featured a fried food.

“Latkes get pretty boring after having them twice,” Reuben says. And, so, here is his alternative fried dish that is perfect if you want to indulge in Chinese-food-goodness:

Ingredients:

• Chopped meat (about a tablespoon per wrapper)
• Tablespoon of cornstarch per pound of chopped meat
• At least 1 clove of garlic
• Finely chopped .5 inch piece of ginger
• Finely chopped Tablespoon of soy sauce
• Wonton wrappers

Directions:

Mix together ingredients, and then place a walnut-sized scoop of meat on a wrapper, fold the wrapper, and cook in oil until done.

See, easy? If you keep kosher, you can’t enjoy with sour cream, but if you want to keep in the spirit of latkes, you can serve with a little applesauce.

Good luck consuming all that fried food!  There’s more where that came from!

Image by Connie Ma via Flickr

The post Wonton-ikahs appeared first on Jewcy.

Editor’s Note: This piece was originally published with a secret family recipe that the author regrets sharing. We have replaced it with a similar one from Food.com. For the author’s version, you’ll have to join his family for Chanukah.

If you hear the phrase, “koeksisters for Chanukah,” you’re probably thinking one of two things: Either it’s “What the heck is a koeksister?,” or, it’s “Koeksisters aren’t a Chanukah food!”

In regards to the former, a koeksister (pronounced cook-sister) is a delicious baked good of South African origin. In regards to the latter, they totally can be. South Africa is the home to a large Jewish community, and what says Chanukah more than a fried treat? As Elissa Goldstein wrote for Tablet in 2014:

The idea originated with… South African-born geneticist Adele Schneider, who was looking for something fun for her three kids to do on the holiday that wasn’t centered around giving gifts, which isn’t a Hanukkah tradition in most Jewish communities outside the U.S. So about 20 years ago the koeksister-making tradition was born.

Goldstein also described the finished product as “a sublime cookie: warm, soft, and buttery on on the inside; crisp and sweet on the outside.” If you’re drooling, you’re in luck; you can make them yourself:

Ingredients:

Syrup:

• 1 cup water
• 2.5 cups sugar
• 2.5 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 Tsp. vanilla extract

Dough:

• 1.5 cups flour
• 4.5 Tsp. Baking powder
• ¼ Tsp. salt
• 1.5 Tbsp. Butter
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 5/8 cup milk (or vanilla-flavored soy milk)
• 3 cups Vegetable oil for frying

Instructions:

• Boil water and sugar together in a pot, stirring until sugar is completely dissolved. Boil for 7 more minutes.
• Remove the pot from heat and add lemon juice and vanilla extract. Move pot to the fridge.
• Mix the flour, salt, and baking powder in a bowl. Rub in butter, and add milk.
• Roll the dough out to a thickness of roughly a quarter inch. Cut the dough into thin (roughly 1/2 inch) strips. Braid them just like you would a challah!
• Remove the syrup from the fridge.
• Heat the oil in a pot until fairly hot. Put about 3 koeksisters (or what can fit) at a time in the oil and fry them on both sides until they get a golden-brown color. As you remove the koeksisters for the oil, place them directly into the syrup from the fridge. It is important to keep the syrup cool, so between soakings, return the syrup to the fridge to maintain its coolness.
• Wait for the excess syrup to drip off and the koeksisters to cool.

And there you have it! Go forth and enjoy a new Chanukah treat, so you can finally stop debating latkes vs. jelly doughnuts.

Image via Tablet, originally from Flickr

The post Revealing: THE KOEKSISTER appeared first on Jewcy.

Stuffed monkey (Jewish Lond.). A very pleasant close almond biscuit. Now the confectioner exchanges his stuffed monkeys, and his bolas… for unleavened palavas, etc.—Zangwill, Children of the Ghetto.

I had never heard of a “stuffed monkey,” so obviously I had to find out how to make it for myself. I’ve since received requests to share, so here it is: A stuffed monkey.

The recipe seems to come from Sephardic Dutch Jews (they would have originally been from Portugal) living in England. It’s sweet, but not rich, and serves like a tart or a pie. The above-cited 1902 book Children of the Ghetto references it as a “contemporary confectionary,” though I found a reference to it by name in as early as 1882. So, now you know exactly what to serve at your Jewish steampunk tea party!

In regards to the weird name (yuck, it does not make you think of an appetizing pastry), the “stuffed” is a reference to the nature of the dessert.  As for “monkey?” There are multiple theories, including that the family that popularized it was called Monnickendam, or that it comes from the Arabic for stuffed: “makhshi.”

The recipe below is a cobbled together version of three that I found online: From Cook It Simply,  Jewish Mother Cooking, and The Vintage Cookbook Trials (which took its recipe from Florence Greenberg’s 1967 British Jewish cookbook):

For the crust:

• 2 cups and 2 tbsp. flour
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 stick of butter
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• ½ tsp. vanilla (optional)

For the filling:

• The peel of one large orange
• 1/2 cup golden raisins (or try dark raisins or dried cherries)
• 1 1/3 cup chopped/slivered almonds (feel free to experiment with other nuts)
• 1 ½ tbsp. brown sugar
• ½ tsp. cinnamon
• 3 tbsp. melted butter
• 1 egg yolk (save the white for glazing)

For the glaze:

• 1 egg white
• handful of sliced/slivered almonds

DIRECTIONS:

1. Sift the flour, salt, and cinnamon into a bowl, and rub in the butter until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

2. Stir in the eggs, sugar, and vanilla, and knead into a smooth dough.

3. Divide the dough into two sections. Wrap each half in plastic and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes.

4. Preheat oven to 375°F.

5. Combine all the ingredients for the filling in a bowl and mix well. Use a food processor to make the mixture paste-like. Don’t worry about it being smooth; it’s fine to have bits of peel, almonds, raisins, etc., visible.

6. Lightly grease an 8″ pie or other baking tin

7. Roll flat and spread one of the dough pieces out into the bottom of the pan.

8. Spread filling over the dough, then roll out the other piece of dough and lay it over the filling.

9. Pinch edges together so the filling doesn’t leak out (it helps to smooth out cracks with a teaspoon of water). Brush top of dough with the egg white mixture and generously sprinkle with the almonds.

10. Bake for 30 minutes, or until golden-brown. Let cool and serve!

Enjoy, and comment below or tweet us if you try it out!

Featured image credit: Wikimedia 

The post What the Heck is a Stuffed Monkey? appeared first on Jewcy.

Seems every couple of years there’s a new “it” pastry in New York City, from the humble cupcake of the early 2000s, to the cronut frenzy of 2013. (Remember when those babies were selling on the black market for $100 a pop?) Well, good news, Jews and gentiles: it looks like 2015 is shaping up to be the year of the “doughka,” which is exactly what it sounds like, A BABKA MADE FROM DONUT DOUGH. (Cue singing angles and all caps.)

I know, I know—the concept is so mind-blowingly delicious you’re wondering, “Why didn’t I think of that?” But, alas, you didn’t. Fany Gerson—the Mexican-Jewish dessert genius behind Dough and La Newyorkina—did, so she gets all the glory and gelt and long lines of disgruntled tourists!

There are three flavors available at Dough’s Flatiron outpost right now, quoth Grubstreet: “Mexican chocolate, filled with a bittersweet-chocolate spread, and dusted with Mexican cinnamon-sugar and Mexican chocolate; Lemon & Olive Oil, studded with candied lemon, rolled in lemon sugar, and brushed with olive oil and a touch of salt; and Sticky Banana, which is a sticky-bun-meets-babka situation stuffed with cinnamon, toasted pecans, and a sticky frosting.”

But if you’re not in New York City—or if you’re partial to a more traditional babka—here are seven of our favorite recipes that you can try at home right now:

1. Smitten Kitchen’s Better Chocolate Babka (these pictures are just to die)
2. The Nosher’s Nutella Babka
3. Lazy but delicious: Babka Bread Pudding (with store-bought babka)
4. The Babkallah, Bon Appetit’s Challah-Babka hybrid
5. Nothing traditional about this Pecan Pie-flavored babka, but it sounds amaaaay-zing
6. And this is literally a Babka pie. My God. Yes.
7. Last but not least, our very own recipe for chocolate and cinnamon babka cupcakes. That’s, like, 17 food trends in one bite.

Let the babka revival begin!

(Image by Alpha, via Flickr)

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