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The Charlotte Jewish News - May 2012 - Page 26 Cool as a Cuke: Recalling the Salad Days of Cold Soups By Linda Morel New York (JTA) - Shavuot cel ebrations often center around brunch, where bagels and lox grab the attention. Those who branch out typically gravitate to blintzes and kugels. But in the Old Country, Shavuot meals often started with cold, creamy soups, an appetizer that has all but disappeared in today’s grab-and-go world. I suspect that cold soups have been replaced by Smoothies, a sta ple at juice bars where fruit is whipped in blenders with ice cream, yogurt or sorbet to create magical drinks. While refrigerated soup sounds like an oxymoron, in the days before air conditioning, Jews adored dairy soups, beginning at Shavuot and continuing through out the summer. Falling seven weeks after Passover, Shavuot commemorates the children of Israel receiving the Torah from God at Mount Sinai. According to scholars, when they returned from this event, the ancient Israelites probably were too exhausted to prepare meat and instead ate dairy products. New to the laws of kashrut, they needed to kosher their cook ware, so dairy foods probably suf ficed in the interim. Over the centuries, milk’s whiteness has been compared to the purity of the Torah. Tethered in time to Passover, Shavuot falls during the season when cows pro duce an abundance of milk. For these reasons, Shavuot has become a dairy holiday, and Jews from many countries have cele brated with a variety of cold, creamy soups. Recipes fall into two categories: fruity and sweet or herbal and green. In her “Jewish Floliday Cookbook,” Joan Nathan explains that fruit soups, often sweetened with honey, originated with German Jews who made them while summering near the Baltic Sea. This practice spread to neigh boring countries. During the sum mer months, plum soup with its sour cream base was wildly popu lar among Eastern European Jews. Flungarian Sour Cherry Soup causes Jews who remember it to swoon. Tangy morello cherries, which flood local markets in June, produced the defining taste. On a trip to Budapest a decade ago, my daughter and I saw cherry vendors on many street comers. We snacked all day on those cher ries, purchased in small paper bags, and at dinner we were treat ed to cherry soup. Back home I tried to replicate our experience but never found morello cherries. Don’t ask how long it took to remove enough cherry pits to feed four. For days my fingers were stained red, and the results were a far cry from my Budapest memories. Instead I turned to the strawber ry yogurt soups springing up on restaurant menus. In a fraction of the time it took to pit cherries, I devised a refreshing soup that’s been a big hit ever since. Along the way I discovered Greek yogurt, which is far superior in taste and texture to other yogurts. During the summer. Flungarians serve most soups cold. On the savory side, green bean soup was a favorite among Jews. While it can be difficult to locate the slender, young beans required for the recipes, I have substituted with haricots verts — thin. French-style string beans. Jews of a certain age rave about Schav, a cool, tart soup made from sorrel, an herb that grew wild on hills throughout Eastern and Central Europe. But sorrel is a rare commodity in America, found only in farmer’s markets for a brief season. Finicky eaters are repelled by Schav because sorrel turns khaki green when exposed to heat. Middle Eastern and Mediterranean Jews love chilled spinach soup. Seasoning varies, but yogurt is the common denom inator. Originating in Persia, Cucumber Yogurt Soup is wide spread throughout the Mediterranean. It arrived on America restaurant menus during the 1990s. Crisp and refreshing, this soup requires no cooking. I was introduced to yogurt soup by my husband, who learned to make it in Tel Aviv from a red headed cousin. Since their family has Italian Jewish roots, David sprinkles in balsamic vinegar, claiming it adds punch with mel low tones. Preferring the lemon juice from his cousin’s recipe, I object to this practice because it muddies the soup’s milky hue. We often com promise using white balsamic vinegar. In his cookbook “Olive Trees and Floney,” chef and rabbi Gil Marks notes that Jews from some countries heighten yogurt soup with zesty ingredients: garlic, scallions, cilantro, mint, tarragon, raisins, ground nuts, or hard- boiled eggs. I have fond childhood memo ries of my father each summer pouring bottled borscht into a blender along with dollops of sour cream. As the blender blades twirled, I was thrilled by the gor geous magenta color he created. To this day. I’d love to own a sun dress in the same shade. I have ratcheted up the soup’s intensity by adding sugar and vinegar to this last-minute appetizer. It’s a pity that few people today prepare any of these recipes. Chilled soup is part of our collec tive consciousness, and the perfect antidote to summer. The following recipes are by Linda Morel. Cucumber Yogurt Soup Cucumber Yogurt Soup Ingredients: 1 English or hothouse cucumber 3 scallions 2 c. of 2% reduced-fat Greek yogurt (such as the Page brand) 2 c. water 8 t. fresh lemon juice 2 t. fresh dill, minced 1 t. garlic powder 1 t. salt Garnish: dill fronds Preparation: Slice the cucumber lengthwise. Remove seeds but leave skin on. Finely dice cucumber. Remove fibrous ends from scallions and discard. Chop the tender light green parts. In a Ig. non-metallic bowl, place the yogurt. Add water slowly and mix until a thin soup consistency is reached. (If using a low-fat product other than Greek yogurt, you may need less water than called for.) Whisk till well blended. Add cucumber, scallion, lemon juice, minced dill, garlic powder and salt. Gently mix ingredients. Cover and refrigerate for 12-24 hrs. Serve from a tureen or in individual bowls. Garnish with dill fronds. Yield: 8 servings Summer Borscht Summer Borscht Ingredients: 1/2 c. white vinegar 1/4 c. sugar 1 bay leaf 2 bottles (33 ounces) borscht, refrigerated 1-1/2 c. reduced-fat sour cream Garnish: dill fronds Preparation: In a sm. saucepan, heat vinegar, sugar, and bay leaf on a medium flame, stirring till sugar complete ly dissolves. Cool to room temper ature and remove bay leaf. Reserve. Place 1 bottle of borscht, 3/4 c. sour cream, and half of the vinegar mixture in a blender. Run on high speed till contents puree. Empty blender into a Ig. bowl. Repeat with the 2nd bottle of borscht and remaining ingredients. Serve immediately or cover and refrigerate till ready to use. Serve in soup bowls garnished with dill. Yield: 8 servings Chilled Hungarian Green Bean Soup Chilled Hungarian Green Bean Soup Ingredients: 1-1/2 lbs. haricot vert (French string beans) 1 Vidalia onion or Ig. yellow onion, chopped 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 Ig. potato, peeled and cut into 1” chunks 3 t. fresh dill, minced 2 t. salt 2 T. dry Vermouth or dry white wine 1/2 t. dried tarragon leaves 10 c. water 2 sm. (14-oz.) cans of vegetable broth, on hand if needed 1-1/2 c. reduced fat sour cream 3 t. white vinegar, or more if needed Garnish: fresh chives, cut into !4” snips Preparation: Rinse beans under water and dry on paper towels. Trim off ends and cut beans horizontally into !4” lengths. Place beans, onion, garlic, potato, dill, salt. Vermouth, tar ragon, and water into a Ig. pot. Cover pot and gently simmer on a med. flame, stirring occasionally so potatoes don’t stick to pot. You’ll need the broth, so don’t let it boil away. Simmer for 20 min. or till potatoes soften when pierced with a sharp knife. Cool bean mixture to room temp. With a slotted spoon, move potato chunks to a plate and reserve. Place a colander over a Ig. bowl. Pour contents of pot through the colander and wait till broth drains completely. In 3 batches, place potato, broth, sour cream, and vinegar into a blender. Puree ingredients. Pour contents into a large bowl. Mix in bean mixture from colander. If soup seems too thick, slowly add vegetable broth to thin to desired consistency. Taste and add more vinegar (a tea spoon at a time), if necessary. Soup is supposed to have a pleas antly sour tang. Cover bowl and refrigerate for several hours or overnight. Soup tastes best when made the day before. Serve in soup bowls garnished with chive snippets. Yield: 8 servings Strawberry Smoothie Soup Strawberry Smoothie Soup Note: Serve as an appetizer, or garnish with ice cream, and this soup is a dessert. Ingredients: 2 lbs, strawberries, rinsed, hulled, and dried on paper towels 1- 1/4 c. pineapple juice 1/4 t. ground cinnamon 1/8 t. ground nutmeg 2- 1/2 t. sugar 1 T. orange liqueur (or orange juice if serving children) 2 T. fresh lime juice 1/2 t. vanilla 3 c. of 2 percent reduced-fat Greek yogurt (such as the Page brand) Appetizer garnish: 1 c. slivered almonds and 8 sprigs of mint; Dessert garnish: Strawberry or vanilla ice cream and mint sprigs Preparation: Place all ingredients (except the garnish) into a blender. (You may have to divide ingredients into 2 batches.) Blend on a high setting till the ingredients are pureed. Serve immediately or cover and refrigerate for several hours in a non-metallic container. Consume the day soup is made, as fruit soups quickly lose their vitality. Ladle into soup bowls. For appe tizer garnish, bake almond slivers at 350 degrees for 2 min. or till golden. Cool briefly. Gently arrange a circle of almond slivers in the center of bowls; some almonds may sink. Place a sprig of mint on top of almonds. For dessert garnish, place a scoop of ice cream in center of bowls along with mint sprigs. Yield: 8 servings ^ P’tach Libi Betoratecha Opening the Heart to Torah By Rabbi Amy Eilberg, co-director of the Yedidya Center for Jewish Spiritual Direction; co-founder of the Jewish Healing Movement Three times every day, traditional Jews pray the words, “P’tach libi betoratecha,” “Open my heart to Your Torah,” at the sacred moment at the end of the silent Amidah (standing) prayer. What might help our hearts to open to the rich nourishment and healing power of the Torah this year? The classical commentators on the Torah were fascinated by the fact that the Torah was given at Mount Sinai, in the midst of the wilderness, in the middle of our people’s long, perilous journey from slavery to freedom. The Torah, according to this line of thinking, could not have been revealed in the city, in the midst of the people’s ordinary routine, in the busy fullness of life-as-usual. Rather, Torah could only be revealed in a radically open, empty, and unfamiliar place. For only here could we recognize our powerlessness, surren der to our fear, confusion, and dependency, and let our hearts fall open. The Torah was given to us when we needed God most, when we had no choice but to trust. Only in such a place could we open our hearts to Torah. This year, as we once again approach Shavuot, our Festival of Revelation, imagine that you are in a wilderness: a place without signposts, where nothing is familiar and your ability to control your life is revealed as illusory. In this place, open yourself to the wisdom that can only come from Beyond, from the One. Allow yourself to be guided, trusting that you will be given exactly what you need, one step after another. Imagine that everyone you know, everyone in the world, is in the same state of radical trust and readiness to receive Divine Wisdom as you are at this moment. Now open your eyes and see that the earth itself is trembling, anticipating the gift of Revelation. Let your heart open, to receive the Torah that you most need this Shavuot. ^
The Charlotte Jewish News (Charlotte, N.C.)
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May 1, 2012, edition 1
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