Cooking – ARKS, ADAM AND AXARQUIA

And my failsafe recipe for delicious bulka (and/or challah)…

Although I am not at all religious now I retain a fondness for the Ashkenazi/mid-east European food of my semi-observant north-London childhood. And fortunately, a non-kosher kitchen is no impediment to recreating some of my favourite Jewish foods and dishes. Growing up in 1960’s and 70’s suburban London, one of the advantages of a typical Jewish diet over that of my non-Jewish neighbours, was the quality of the bread we ate. While many of our non-Jewish neighbours were eating exclusively “Chorleywood” and other mass-produced batch-processed loaves, we had a more varied selection of far finer breads.

From Polish and Russian influenced light rye breads and bagels to the biblically derived (descendent of the sacred temple “shewbread”) twin challahs of the shabbat (sabbath) table, our excellent Jewish bakeries sold them all. Moreover, the fact that bakers like Grodzinski used brick ovens, well into the 1970’s meant that even their everyday white bloomers and wholemeal loaves were always perfectly baked.

Grodzinski in particular, produced superb challah in four forms; traditional plaited, round (in the form of a spiral plait) and tinned “bulka”. Their fourth offering, “egg challah” only differed in having more egg, and thus being a richer dough. The use of brick ovens ensured a well-baked, crusty loaf with a delicate dough, that aged rather that went stale. Sadly, from the late 70’s Grodzinski, in common with all their rival bakers moved over to modern steel ovens, and their challah, likewise, became the ubiquitous cottonwool most people eat today.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the emergence of the cottonwool variety coincided with a rise in the production of homemade challah as people yearned for a return to the genuine article that was no longer available at their local bakery.

These days, there are literally thousands of recipes available in print and on line for the “perfect challah” and I must have tried a hundred of them. But in the end, I always return to a very simple recipe a friend of my late mother’s (thank you very much Roberta, if you’re reading this), scribbled hurriedly on a piece of scrap paper about 40 years ago.

It couldn’t be easier or more reliable, and works equally well for all forms of the bread. Here, I’ve gone with a tinned challah – or bulka, as I knew it as a child. The advantage of bulka is that it slices easily (especially as it ages), and, after a day or two, makes superb toast. Good luck, and Shabbat shalom!

INGREDIENTS (for 1 loaf – double ingredients for 2 etc…):

2 cups (about 500gm / 16oz) strong white bread flour, plus flour for dusting

1½ packets of powdered (instant yeast – MUST BE FRESH)

1 heaped tsp salt

2 egg yolks and 1 egg white, lightly beaten

1 egg white, lightly beaten and set aside

2 tbsp corn, nut or rapeseed oil (NOT olive or sunflower)

200ml (12½ fl oz) very warm water (so that you can just put your finger in)

1 tbsp white sugar

several pinches of black poppy seeds

METHOD:

Chuck flour, yeast and salt into a large bowl and mix well

Make a deep crater in the middle of the flour with your fist

Pour beaten eggs, sugar, oil and water in crater

Using handle of a large wooden spoon (or similar) stir mixture until everything fully integrated, and mixture pulls away from side of bowl

Pull away dough stuck to spoon handle and start to knead mixture in bowl

Add flour if too moist and sticky

Tip dough onto a smooth, lightly floured surface

Knead dough – adding more flour as required – until smooth and elastic (anything from 3 to 10 minutes, though rarely more than 5)

Pour a teaspoon of oil into the mixing bowl and coat the bottom and sides

Place dough back in bowl, cover with a damp tea towel

Place bowl in a warm, still environment, like an airing cupboard, or near a radiator

After an hour or so the dough should have at least doubled in size

Grease a 2pint (1ltr) loaf tin with butter or oil and then dust thoroughly with flour

Tip dough back onto lightly floured surface and knock back two or three times (about 20 seconds)

Using a wooden dough slicer (a knife will do), cut dough into three equal pieces

Roll out each piece of dough into a strip, about a foot (30cm) long

Roughly plait the three dough strips (this really does not need to be perfect for a bulka)

Drop the plaited loaf into your prepared loaf tin.

Cover with the damp tea towel and place back in the warm, still environment to prove for about 40 minutes

After about 20 minutes set your oven at 250°c (480f).

Dough is ready when pushing up the tea towel above the level of the tin rim

Gently, brush all the exposed dough with the reserved egg white

Sprinkle generously with the poppy seeds

Place in the oven

After ten minutes, reduce oven to 190° (370f) and bake for about another 15 – 20 minutes

Remove loaf from oven and carefully tip out. If the base of the loaf sounds hollow when flicked with your finger it’s baked. If the base is a little too pale, gently put the loaf back in the tin upside down and bake for a further 5 minutes

Leave loaf to cool for about an hour. If not saving for shabbat supper or suchlike, slice off the end of the loaf, spread it with lashings of butter and a dollop of good quality jam or marmalade and enjoy the products of you labour!

A final few tips: For “loose” plaited or round challah, use a pizza stone, lightly dusted with corn flower (masa harina – NOT corn starch), for a crustier, better baked loaf. Stale challah makes the best bread pudding, and bread and butter pudding and delicious French toast. Very stale and finely crumbed (I use a coffee grinder), it makes a decadent coating for schnitzel!

This is presented with the presumption that people looking in are familiar with the concept of cholent. For those of you who may not know anything about this Sabbath staple of Ashkenazi Jewish winter cuisine (not to be confused with the Sephardic chamin) I would direct you to here, for a fairly concise explanation of its history and development.

In common with most traditional “family dishes” there are as many nuances of the basic recipe as there are people who cook it. The one I present here is based on the very plain cholent recipe my booba (my grandmother) used to cook and which we all loved, but with several embellishments which I’ll explain as we go along.

By using oxtail, rather than one of the normal cuts of beef – typically from the forequarters of the animal – I am going against all tradition, even my own! My reason for using oxtail though, was purely pragmatic in that I wanted to make a cholent, and oxtail was the only thing I had in the freezer. And although not traditional, oxtail has all the basic qualities required for this long, slow cooking process, in that it is a fat and sinuous meat.

Sadly, for most observant Jewish readers of this post – unless you reside in Israel and perhaps certain parts of the States, you probably won’t be able to get your hands on kosher oxtail. If that is the case, use a cut of fat beef on the bone; a meaty piece of shin would work well or a large top rib.

It also helps to have a wood burning stove such as I have here in Spain – perfect for slow cooking at low temperatures – but any real oven will do. Avoid however, electric slow cookers and dutch ovens (so sadly prevalent now in Israel) as you’ll end up with all the flavour escaping from the ingredients into the liquid: Fantastic if you want a brilliant soup, but not if you want a rich, unctuous hotpot where each component is packed with flavour.

Anyhow, the proof of the cholent is in the cooking, and this turned out the best cholent I have tasted in years. Whether or not my booba would have approved of my embellishments is open to question…

INGREDIENTS (serves 4)

2 cups – butter (Lima) beans – soaked overnight in several changes of spring water (or filter water – chlorinated tap water tends to toughen beans and impairs their flavour)

1 cup – pearl barley – rinsed thoroughly and soaked for 1 hour (again, in spring water)

4 – large carrots – pealed and left whole

1 – large onion – pealed and sliced thickly

1 – large oxtail – cut into 6 or 7 pieces

2 – bay leaves

12 – white and black pepper corns

4 – large waxy potatoes – pealed and cut in half

1 – large head of garlic – with the outer “paper” removed

16 – small kneidlach (matzo meal dumplings) – with their cooking stock reserved

salt to taste

(Optional additions include a large stuffed chicken neck (helzel) and / or 4 shelled hard boiled eggs)

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 200°c (220° fan / 400° f)

1) Choose a large deep cooking pot or casserole with a tight fitting lid (any cast-iron or heavy enamelled pot will do)…

This is my grandmother's old cholent pot - and probably her grandmother's before her -perfect for the task. — This is my grandmother’s old cholent pot – and probably her grandmother’s before her -perfect for the task.

2) Place the butter (Lima) beans at the base of the pot…

Spanish butter beans are wonderful - plump and sweet — Spanish butter beans are wonderful – plump and sweet

3) Place the pearl barley on the beans (my grandmother only used the beans)…

Always rinse barley thoroughly before using it

4) Next, put in the carrots and onion…

The larger the carrots the better and whole small onions can be substituted

5) Place the meat on the “bed” of vegetables and pulses…

Oxtail (rabo de toro) is a big deal here in the south of Spain and is generally excellent quality. The darker and more aged the meat the better — Oxtail (rabo de toro) is a big deal here in the south of Spain and is generally of excellent quality. The darker and more aged the meat the better it will cook

6) Add the spices (Booba never used bay leaves – just salt and ground white pepper)…

7) Place the potatoes around the meat (remember – large pieces)…

It's essential to use waxy spuds which won't disintegrate during the long cooking — It’s essential to use waxy spuds which won’t disintegrate during the long cooking

8) Scorch the garlic and then place it on the meat (yup! You guessed it – Booba would never have used garlic!)…

This is a trick I learnt from the local cooks - only they would drop it into a white chicken broth - it adds a subtle smokey taste to the garlic. — This is a trick I learnt from the local cooks here in Spain – only they would drop it into a white chicken broth – it adds a subtle smokey taste to the garlic

9) Remove the kneidlach from their cooking stock and place around the meat and potatoes (no – Booba didn’t put kneidlach in her cholent either)

10) Pour a pint (or more if required) of the kneidlach cooking stock over the cholent (Booba used water – but whichever liquid you use, the more you use the wetter the cholent will be. I prefer it drier with all the juices absorbed into the ingredients)…

11) Finally, seal the lid of the pot with a piece of baking parchment or tinfoil….

12) Put the pot into the preheated oven and cook at 200°c (180° fan / 400°f) for two hours, then turn the heat down to about 110°c (90° fan / 230°f) and cook for a further 6 hours – or longer if preferred.

At no time during the cooking be tempted to lift off the lid.

When you do finally open the pot you want to be confronted by something like this (note how the kneidlach and edges of the potatoes have become slightly caramelised …