Parshat Metzorah

What you have to look forward to this week:

• A take on the weekly portion
• A link to my chicken recipes
• Links to my Passover Recipes
• A sneak peek at a new series I'm running
  

There's a debate over the translation of the name of this week's portion, Parshat Metzorah. Is a metzorah a person who has contracted leprosy, or someone who has contracted some ancient, possibly spiritual disease that has physical manifestations unlike any modern maladies?

While leprosy is a ubiquitous answer, it doesn't really get at the weird stuff going on in the portion. If someone contracted this Biblical disease they had to leave the nation's camp to be alone until they healed, upon which time a Cohen was called upon to inspect them. If it looked like they made a full recovery they would bring a prescribed sacrifice before re-entering the camp. That sacrifice consisted of two birds, cedar wood, crimson string and hyssop. This mix of animate and inanimate objects is a bit strange.

But what's next is even stranger. In the sacrificial act the Cohen slaughters one of the birds over a bowl of fresh water and then dips the other items into the blood of the bird and sprinkles the recoveree seven times with this mess. Then the Cohen sets the other bird free and the ex-metzorah shaves off all their hair. Now if you compare this to the sacrifice that a woman recovering from child birth gives in the last portion, things are pretty different. The sacrifice that she is commanded to bring is straight up - a lamb for a burnt offering and a pigeon for a sin offering - then she gets to go on with life as normal.

But this weird ritual for the metzorah leads me to believe that perhaps the disease wasn't so normal, perhaps it was a spiritual disease. Those who favor the spiritual explanation of the disease attribute it to punishment for speaking badly of others (Moses's sister gets struck with it after speaking badly of him in Numbers chapter 12). Just as God built the world with words, humans can destroy worlds with words - and to remind us of that we were inflicted with a gruesome bodily manifestation of the hurt we created with our negative words. Fortunately or unfortunately, we don't have this form of bio feedback any longer.


Back in the day, the metzorah got to come back to the nation's camp after this whole ritual but has to stay outsisde of their tent for seven days. They get a little more time to think about what they have done. This isn't, however, a time for the rest of the community to point fingers at that person, or they'll be in the same spot soon. The goal here is to get this person back to a positive place in the community. On the 8th day the recoveree brings more sacrifices and undergoes one more strange experience - the blood of the sacraficial lamb and the sacraficial oil gets smeared on their right ear, toe and thumb. Are you hungry yet? How's about some hyssop smoked chicken?


Ok that sounds gross, but the birds in the sacrifices are making me think chicken, and since I've been contributing a new chicken blog I thought I'd invite you over there to check out the recipes I've shared on Grow and Behold this far.

Speaking of things I've been contributing to, there's a new program I'm helping to run through Hebrew College and CJP - it's a series for young adults to have some fun and some intriguing conversations around modern topics and what light Jewish wisdom can shed on them - check out Wanderings and Wonderings to see what I'm talking about.

Passover Recipes

Here's a round up of the Passover recipes I've featured on Double Portion thus far:
Banana Nut Cookies
Flourless Chocolate Cake
Smoked Salmon and Swiss Chard Quiche
Matza Brittle
Walnut Cookies

Also check out:
My 2009 Passover Cooking Plan
The full Recipe Index for plenty of Passover friendly salads, sides and main dishes!

Remedy - Parshat Tazriyah

Hi There! Miss me? Sorry for the hiatus. This week hardly seems like the time to come back, with a portion chock full of bodily maladies, but I've missed it here.

This week we'll read Parshat Tazriyah which appropriately enough for spring, kicks off with babies being born and people getting sick. After a woman given birth she is barred from having relations with her husband for either a week (if she has a boy) or two weeks (if she has a girl) - not sure if any of the women are complaining about this one. And then she is also not allowed to come in contact with the Tabernacle for 33 or 66 says (boy girl difference again here). At the end of this period of time she brings a baby lamb and a small turtle dove for a sacrifice and is reunited with the Tabernacle. Can't decide if I picture here with a baby bjorn on or having left her kids home with a sitter for the ceremony.

There have been a handful of new baby additions to the Boston community that we've been delighted to meet. And in no apparent correlation, a lot of people have been telling me that they're sick just as the new season is upon us.

This is the time of year when I’m so eager for the weather to change from cold, cold to milder spring weather. It’s also the time of year when I’m most likely to catch a cold because I’m dressing for the weather I wish was here instead of what is actually here (there's snow coming this Friday to Boston - geeze). And the only thing to really do when you get a cold at a time like this is to have someone make you a pot of chicken soup that you can continually dip into (when I was sick a few weeks ago, I had to shout directions from the couch to Sam in the kitchen, who had never made chicken soup before).

I also hear, from the new mothers, that chicken soup is prescribed in many parenting books as the best way to rehydrate after childbirth. So I have a chicken soup recipe to share.

My dad is the chicken soup king in our family. He learned from his mom and put his own twist on it – sometimes adding ginger and sometimes adding cilantro. But there is always a lot of dill and a lot of chicken flavor. My dad and I have a sauté vs boil debate when it comes to cooking the vegetables in chicken soup. I think that sautéing all the vegetables - onion, celery, carrots, garlic, with olive oil, salt and pepper - is what gives any soup a deep flavorful base.

Here is my recipe for a small batch - makes four servings - for when you're sick or super thirsty.

And below, some more Passover displays spotted in some local supermarkets - where Kedem grape juice seems to be in high demand - and at Target where they had almost sold out of Passover greeting cards!

Chicken Soup with Ginger

If you want to make a small soup for 4 that’s ready in less than an hour use this recipe – for larger quantities double the amount and the cooking time.

2 Chicken thighs (I'm using grow and behold chickens)
3 cloves of Garlic, crushed
1 onion, peeled and diced
3 carrots, washed and diced
2 stalks of celery, washed and diced
1 tbsp of Ginger, peeled and zested
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
2 tbs cilantro, chopped
½ cup of dill, chopped


Set a large, thick bottomed pot over a medium flame. Place the cut vegetables, garlic and ginger into the pot with the olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and let them sauté and sweat for at least 10 minutes.


After the onions look translucent and slightly browned cover all the vegetables with water and add the chicken thighs. Add more water until the pot is full to two inches from the brim. Boil for 20 minutes, then add the dill and cilantro and boil for ten minutes more. Serve hot.

Hamantashen Twist

There is a lot of Purim prep going on in our house this week and I ran out of time to tell you about the weekly Portion - so instead I'm going to share my twist on hamantashen this year.

Sam and I are dressing up as Iron Chef America cast members Alton Brown and Cat Cora and our Mishloach Manot (gift baskets delivered to friends on Purim) are themed with the secret ingredient of chocolate. You may have noticed that bacon showed up in a lot of desserts on cooking shows this year - well I've found a kosher way of putting them into hamatashen.

This year I stuffed my mini hamatashen with nutella and kosher imitation bacon bits (which I usually use to sprinkle over salad). They have a great combination of salty, smokey, nutty, sweet tastes.

"Bacon" Chocolate Hamantashen
I like to cut mini hamantashen with the mouth of a shot glass - when there are so many versions of hamantashens to be eaten it's nice to have bite sized ones.

2/3 cup of butter or non dairy buttery sticks
1/2 cup of sugar
1 egg
3 tbsp orange juice
1/2 tsp of vanilla
3 cups of flour
Nutella
Bacos (fake bacon bits)

Cream the butter with sugar and egg until smooth. Add the orange juice and vanilla. Stir in the flour until a ball forms. Wrap in saran wrap or keep in covered bowl and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Roll out the dough and cut into circles with a shot glass (or a regular sized glass if you prefer).

Drop a 1/4 tsp of nutella in the middle of each dough circle. Sprinkle the mound of chocolate with a pinch or two of bacos. Dip your finger in water and run it around the outer edge of the hamatashen to help it stay closed and then pinch three corners.

Put on a silpat lined baking sheet and bake for ten minutes or until golden. Cool on a wire rack and wait to eat or you'll burn your tongue on the jam.

Soft Side - Parshat Vayikrah

I was tempted to just tell you to read last year's post on this week's portion, Parshat Vayikrah (the beginning of a new book!), but I've actually got a new idea to share.

In the portion a vegetarian sacrifice is offered. Unusual, you might say. But there were actually two non-meat items that were offered up on the alters of the Tabernacle/Temple - wine and bread. The bread appears several times in this portion, called a mincha (gift) offering. It consists of flour, oil and spices - kind of an oily pita bread. The priests could choose to prepare this offering, brought in the form of raw dough or loose ingredients by the Israelites, in several ways - bake it in an oven, grill it on a griddle or fry it in a pan. The priests would break off a piece of the baked mincha and burn it on the alter - the rest they got to eat as payment for their leadership of the nation.

When I studied in Israel for a year after gradating from high school, a teacher of mine had our class make mock mincha offerings in each of the three different preparations. It was a messy endeavor, with toaster ovens plugged into the walls of our classrooms and oily frying pans sizzling on top of individual, electric burners. But it made the room smell delicious, and each version tasted great. The only thing that was missing was an interesting salt.

Last year we talked a bit about the strange mention of the salt covenant in the portion. This obscure covenant refers to the fact that the mincha offerings of these pita like breads always had to be accompanied by salt. I shared one interpretation about the symbolism of salt last year, and this year dug a bit deeper. Both value and mystical aspects are attributed to salt. Salt was a form of currency, a preservative, a staple in our diet and signifies permanence and durability.

In trying to recreate some of the flavors of this vegetarian offering, and mainstay of the priestly diet, I came up with a whole wheat soft pretzel, covered in flavored salt. I still have that salt shaker from last year and have been using it on top of my challah lately. Well let me tell you that it goes very nicely over home made soft pretzels as well.

Last week Weight Watchers came to my office and 16 of my colleagues and myself are counting points and keeping each other accountable. When I brought in a batch of these soft pretzels I made sure to tell them they were 4 points each and I'm going to try and include point values for the new recipes here. My goal is to get to my goal before Passover - especially since one matzah is 3 points. I see that Whole Foods is not only stocking up early on matzah this year, but may be targeting the weight loss community with it's organic "light" matzah from Israel. I have no idea how matzah could ever be described as light, nor was I able to discern how much lighter this product was than it's comparisons.




Whole Wheat Soft Pretzels and Flavored Salt
Recipe adapted from allrecipes.com
4 points

1 1/3 cups warm water
2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
2 tsp olive oil
3/4 tsp salt
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tbsp flavored salt (such as an herb mix or the Trader Joe’s Everyday Mix)
1 egg yolk

In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast and sugar in the warm water and let it sit for 5 minutes in a warm place. It will get foamy.

Stir in the oil, salt and flours.

Cut the dough into 12 sections and roll/stretch into ropes. Shape each rope into a pretzel – start out by making a U shape and hold the ends the rope and cross them strands over each other then bring each end down and stick to the bottom of the U.

Cover is a damp towel, and let the pretzels rise on lined baking sheet for about 45 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 475 degrees.

After the pretzels have rise, mix the egg yolk in a cup and brush onto the tops of each pretzel. Sprinkle the pretzels with flavored salt.

Bake for about 12 minutes. Cool and enjoy warm or at room temperature.

Picture Perfect - Parshat Pikudei

In this week's portion, Parshat Pikudai, the job finally gets done. The nation completes all the work involved in constructing the Tabernacle and they do every last thing perfectly. They bring it to Moses and he is so pleased that he blesses them. This goes a lot better than the whole Mt Sinai incident. So it is time to celebrate ... I mean inaugurate.

God commands Moses to set up the Tabernacle on the first day of the first month as their tent of meeting. Moses is tasked with getting all the components in the right place and into action - he sets up the Menorah and lights it, he sets up the altars and anoints them with oil, and he fills the basins with water. He anoints Aron and his sons and dresses them in the priestly garments. He burns incense on one altar and offers up a burnt animal offering with bread on another. Thus completes the inauguration, and God's presence comes to rest in the Tabernacle.

You can imagine what a great party this was - it had the right lighting, great clothes, room fragrance and great food.

Speaking of great food, Sam and I recently enjoyed free meat from Joburg Kosher, a South African Kosher meat company based in Pennsylvania. Their jerky and sausage could easily have been served at this party in the Tabernacle. We could barely pronounce "biltong and boerewors” (the proper names of these products) but we could eat it. Together with our friends Seth and Jamie (who needed new-parent-nourishing) we gobbled up the sausages with chips, guacamole and beer, enjoying the sweet notes in the savory spiced meat. It would also go well with caramelized onions, in a tajine, or in one of my favorite pasta and mushroom dishes. Later that week we snuck the jerky into a movie theater and found it a very easy snack since it’s less chewy than normal jerky- the consistency, color and taste was more like peppered beef Carpaccio (thinly sliced raw steak). The packaging suggests eating the whole bag as a meal and I would have - it’s like a deconstructed steak to go.

So you here's to serving any kind of flavorful meat this weekend. One of my favorite meat recipes to serve at a festive occasion is kuftah kabobs. These are not kabobs on a stick with chunks of vegetable and meat - they're like a Middle Eastern meatball made of ground beef, onions and spices. I've recently also been making a ground turkey version with a few twists and while they are more meatball than kuftah I much prefer the term turkey kabobs than turkey balls. As you're cooking this you may just invoke some of the inaugural smells from yesteryear.

Kuftah Kabobs

1 lb ground beef
1 onion, peeled and diced
1 tbsp chopped cilantro
1 egg
1/2 cup of panko crumbs
1/4 tsp tumeric
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp ground ginger
Salt
Pepper
2 tbsp olive oil

In a bowl mix all of the ingredients, except for the oil. Form small football shaped kabobs with your hands, scooping up a small palm full and rolling into an oblong shape. Set each rolled kabob onto a plate.

Heat a medium sized cast iron skillet over a medium flame. Pour olive oil into the skillet and nestle some of the kabobs into the pan, leaving enough room to easily rotate the kabobs.

Cook for two minutes and then roll a bit cook for another minute, until you have browned the kabobs all over.

Serve warm.

Turkey Kabobs

1 lb ground turkey
1 onion
1 zucchini
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp white wine
1/2 cup panko crumbs
1 egg
salt
pepper
2 tbsp olive oil

Peel the onion and shred it and the zucchini in a food processor.

Mix the shredded vegetables with the rest of the ingredients, except for the oil, in a large bowl until well incorporated.

Form small football shaped kabobs with your hands, scooping up a small palm full and rolling into an oblong shape. Set each rolled kabob onto a plate.

Heat a medium sized cast iron skillet over a medium flame. Pour olive oil into the skillet and nestle some of the kabobs into the pan, leaving enough room to easily rotate the kabobs.

Cook for two minutes and then roll a bit cook for another minute, until you have browned the kabobs all over.

Serve warm with salad, hummus and rice.