FROM ROSH HASHANAH FOODS
IT HAS long been established by the highest medical authorities that food from fruits and vegetables is far healthier and more suitable for the human organism than food made from meat, is how Fania Lewando opens her plainly titled Vegetarian Cookbook, in an introduction, ”To the Housewife: A Few Words and Practical Advice.”
The term housewife is a give-away to readers who may have thought that this is just the newest in the recent plethora of health and lifestyle oriented cookbooks. In fact, Vegetarian Cookbook was published in Vilna, Lithuania, in 1938 and its original language of publication was Vilna Jewry’s vernacular: Yiddish. The progressive collection of 400-odd recipes has recently been republished by Schocken Books as The Vilna Vegetarian Cookbook.
Lewando, a pioneer in the Jewish vegetarian movement, promises evidence of her broad health claims and an excerpt from an essay by Dr. B. Demski does just that. Originally published in a Yiddish periodical of the time, Folksgezunt, Demski’s article hits on many dietary points that are today widely accepted as fact:
- the importance of consuming the skin of fruit to maximize fiber intake;
- the importance of chewing food slowly and thoroughly;
- the high values of vitamins in fruit and vegetables;
- getting the balance of alkalines versus acids right;
- the hydrating nature of many vegetables;
- chlorophyll’s role in combatting anemia and regulating metabolism.
NOTWITHSTANDING DEMSKI’S overview as more nutritional treatise than thorough scientific evidence, most people today would admit that our consumption of vegetables is woefully lacking. Western diets have become overly focused on protein consumption, forgetting that vegetables should be the largest part of any meal.
But if this reviewer is honest, even for those cooks looking to expand their vegetable repertoire (and they won’t be disappointed), readers won’t be picking this book up because of its health benefits or even recipes. What makes The Vilna Vegetarian special is its throwback nature. The cookbook is a glimpse and reminder of the vibrant pre-war Eastern European Jewish life.
Post-Holocaust, there is a tendency to equate pre-war life with the shtetl and to perceive the Jews of that time as simple country folk which many were. But life in Eastern Europe wasn’t one note. The urban centers were filled with vibrant, diverse, scholarly communities that, like any community, were focused on progress and development in a variety of areas, such as, in this case, health.
Readers with a passion for the past will love details like Demski’s Folksgezunt, a Yiddish periodical on health and nutrition that was published in Vilna from 1923-1940, the year the Soviet Union annexed Lithuania. Whether that affected the magazine’s publication is not mentioned, though one would assume that such a traumatic event was deeply felt in all corners of the country’s Jewish community.
The afterword is an absolute highlight, with quotes taken from the guestbook at Lewando’s vegetarian restaurant in Vilna. (She also ran a kosher cooking school there.)
Brief biographical sketches of the testimonial writers are evidence of the richness of Vilna life.
One guest, Yudl Mark (a scholar of the Yiddish language and linguistics), writes, “Everyone can be a vegetarian once in a while,” to which another guest, Mark Razumni (journalist, humorist and dramaturg), fires off: ”Not everyone can be a vegetarian once in a while! It is everyones responsibility to be one,” an argument that continues to this day.
The painter Marc Chagall said about the restaurant, ”They say the food here is delicious, but unfortunately I came with a delicate stomach and was only able to taste a tiny bit, and it was delicious nevertheless.” This kind of meta-humor on the part of the editors permeates the book.
THE COOKBOOK is peppered with wonderful editor’s notes, such as acknowledgements that certain recipes simply don’t work, or another explaining that the recipe for Special Bread for a Stomachache remained untested as it calls for 55 cups of flour. The editor invites readers who bake the bread to confirm its efficacy in treating a stomachache.
The nostalgia comes in the form of the whole gamut of traditional foods associated with the east, such as cheese dumplings, fruit soups, latkes and kugels. But beyond mere nostalgia, which by nature is a rose-colored affair, The Vilna Vegetarian is chock full of cooking methods that are, once again, hip, particularly among the self-sustaining crowd: preserves, fermentation, vitamin-rich vegetable juices, homemade wine and kvass, a malted non-alcoholic beverage still popular in Eastern Europe and Russia.
Not surprisingly, Lewando makes generous use of root vegetables common to the European continent that can be considered gourmet in North America, such as celeriac root.
Inspiration for a Rosh Hashanah menu is easy to find amidst the 400 recipes. More challenging is narrowing the selection from the many seasonal, fresh sounding dishes.
Modern cooks should note: The recipes follow the older style of recipe writing, with the instructions and ingredients combined into one-paragraph directions. Make sure to read the recipes in entirety before starting to cook!
Another quirk is the book’s lack of temperatures due to the simple reason, according to the editor, that temperature in the wood or coal ovens of that era could not be easily adjusted. A temp of 350ºF is recommended unless the recipe specifies otherwise.
The IJN will test a selection of these recipes and post the results, with photos, on the IJN blog, Rocky Mountain Jew.
Vegetarian Rosh Hashanah Inspired by Fania Lewando
First Course: Simanim
Many have the tradition of eating symbolic foods on Rosh Hashanah, which include beets, leeks and carrots.
Vitamin Salad with Carrots
Peel 1 lb. carrots, and grate on a box grater. Sprinkle with 1 tbsp. sugar and the juice of 1 1/2 lemons. Allow to rest in a bowl under a weight, in a cool place, for 2 hours, before serving.
Boil 2 lbs. potatoes and roast 1 lb. beets separately, in their skins. Peel and thinly slice the vegetables. Add 1 thinly sliced Spanish onion and 2 thinly sliced lemons. Add salt and [chopped fresh] dill, and mix well. Serve dressed with [olive] oil and sprinkle with [chopped fresh] dill and green onions.
Leek Appetizer
Cut 3 large leeks and 2 Spanish onions into small pieces, and sauté in butter. Add 3 diced hard-boiled eggs, 6 tbsp. of butter, 4 tbsp. bread crumbs, 3 diced scallions, and [chopped fresh] dill. Add 2 raw eggs and some salt, and mix well. Melt 2 tbsp. butter in a pot, and add the leek mixture. Cover well, and bake for a half hour. Serve sprinkled with dill.
[Editor’s note: For best result, sauté the leeks and onions slowly over a low flame. It will take about 20 minutes.]
Soup Course
Mushroom Broth with Noodles
Soak 3 oz. dried mushrooms in 2 quarts of water overnight. The next day, add 2 carrots, 2 celery roots, 2 parsley roots [parsnips can be substituted], 2 leeks (or 2 onions), and one small, cut-up white cabbage. Simmer everything for 2 hours, and then strain. Mince 1 large onion, sauté in 1/2 cup melted butter with 1 tbsp. of flour, and whisk into the strained soup. Cook for a half hour, and strain once again. Serve with some noodles in each bowl (cook the noodles separately, following package directions).
Main Course
The flavors of veal attempted in the meatloaf take it from a weekday dinner to a dish worthy of a festive holiday. The frutiness of the tsimmes complements the hearty flavors of the meatloaf, and the potato dumplings are the perfect accompaniment to soak up all the flavorful juices.
Combine 1 clove garlic, 2 bay leaves, 3 allspice berries, 2 onions diced and fried in butter, 1 small cooked celery root, 1 head cooked cabbage, and 1 bread roll soaked in milk. Purée everything in a food mill or food processor, and then add 5 raw eggs, 1 cup bread crumbs, 10 tbsp. melted butter, and some salt and pepper. Mix everything well, and form it into a meatloaf. Grease a pan with butter, and cover the bottom with 2 sliced onions and 3 sliced potatoes. Put in the meatloaf, and bake uncovered for half an hour. Then cover and bake 20 minutes. Serve with cranberry sauce.
Prune Tsimmes
Cut 1 lb. potatoes into thin slices. Remove the pits from 10 oz. of the best prunes. Lay layers of the potatoes and prunes in a baking pan, and pour on 1 cup water. Add 3/4 cup sugar, and a roux made with 1 tbsp. flour, 1 1/2 tsp. butter, and a little salt. Bring to a boil, simmer uncovered for 20 minutes, place in a baking dish, cover with water and bake, covered, 1 hour. Add 1 tbsp. sugar, caramelized, to the top.
Potato Dumplings
Grate 4 lbs. peeled potatoes on a coarse grater, wrap them in a towel, and squeeze out the moisture. Mix the potatoes with some flour and a little salt, and form into small dumplings.
Meanwhile, bring 4 quarts salted water to the boil. Add the dumplings, and cook 10 minutes. Then drain the dumplings and dress them with 1/2 cup butter with toasted bread crumbs. As soon as it is done, eat immediately.
Dessert
Make a soft dough from 4 eggs, 4 tbsp. sugar, 1 cup [melted] butter, 6 tbsp. sour cream, 2 tsp. baking powder, and as much flour as it will absorb. Divide into 2 parts, and roll out 2 sheets. Place one on a greased baking sheet.
Meanwhile, grate 4 lbs. apples, mix with 2 cups sugar and 1 envelope vanilla powder [or 1 tsp. vanilla extract], and spread over the first sheet of pastry. Cover with second sheet, and pierce with a fork. Brush with egg [wash], and bake about 1 hour.
Peel and dice 1 lb. rhubarb. Cook 1 1/2 cups sugar with 2 cups water. Add half the diced rhubarb to the syrup, and cook about 12 to 15 minutes. Strain out the rhubarb, and cook the remaining rhubarb in the syrup the same way, making sure it does not overcook. Pour the syrup over all the rhubarb, add 1/2 vanilla bean, and set aside to chill overnight. You will get the best compote from the thickest, reddest rhubarb.
Copyright © 2015 by the Intermountain Jewish News
