Shalom @ Jansen (26th June)
We'll be having a "Jewish Theme Gathering" with Mediterranean cuisine at Lay Eng's Home. We'll also do June Birthday Celebration on that day.
See U at Lay Eng's home abt 7.30-7.45pm- see email for address
(behind Kelvin's hse)
*Each member (kids included) required to bring along a Decorated Jam bottle with your name on it.
This cuisine is the food of the areas around the Mediterranean Sea. 
Mediterranian Cuisine in Dalmatia, Croatia.
The idea of the ‘standard Mediterranean diet’ ... is a modern construction of food writers and publicists in Western Europe and North America earnestly preaching what is now thought to be a healthy diet to their audiences by invoking a stereotype of the healthy other on the shores of the Mediterranean. Their colleagues in Mediterranean countries are only too willing to perpetuate this myth. The fact of the matter is that the Mediterranean contains varied cultures...[1]
Around 1975, under the impulse of one of those new nutritional directives by which good cooking is too often influenced, the Americans discovered the so-called Mediterranean diet.... The name... even pleased Italian government officials, who made one modification: changing from diet—a word which has always seemed punitive and therefore unpleasant—to Mediterranean cuisine.[2] Given the geography, these nation-states have influenced each other over time and the cooking evolved into sharing common principles. Mediterranean cuisine is characterized by its flexibility, its range of ingredients and its many regional variations. The terrain has tended to favour the raising of goats and sheep.
Fish dishes are also common, although today much of the fish is imported since the fisheries of the Mediterranean Sea are weak.[citation needed] Seafood is still prominent in many of the standard recipes.
produced from the olive trees prominent throughout Bosnia, Portugal, Greece, Croatia, Turkey, Italy, Spain and other Mediterranean nations, adds to the distinctive taste of the food. Garlic is also used throughout Mediterranean cuisine. It is widely believed that ingredients in this kind of cooking, especially olive oil, are particularly healthy; see Mediterranean diet. 
Barbecue or grilled meats, pita bread, hummus, and falafel are very popular forms of the eastern type of the cuisine.
In Israel, it is also commonly referred to as salat yerakot (Hebrew: סָלָט יְרָקוֹת, "vegetable salad")[4], salat katzutz (Hebrew: סָלָט קָצוּץ, "chopped salad")[4] or salat aravi (Hebrew: סָלָט עֲרָבִי, "Arab salad").[5]
Felafel (Spiced Chickpea Fritters)
Preparation time :
20 minutes, plus overnight soaking
Cooking time :
15 minutes
Total time :
35 mintues, plus overnight soaking
Makes: 18 felafel
200g dried chickpeas½ 80g bunch parsley, leaves only, finely chopped3 garlic cloves, finely chopped1 onion, finely chopped1½ tsp ground coriander1½ tsp ground cumin1 tsp fine salt½ tsp paprika¼ tsp baking powder2 tbsp sesame seedsPinch ground white pepperVegetable oil, for deep frying
Soak the chickpeas in lots of cold water for 24 hours. Drain well.
Whiz the chickpeas in a food processor until finely chopped. Add the remaining ingredients, except the oil, and whiz to a gritty paste. Set aside for 30 minutes, then form tablespoonfuls of the mix into patties.
Heat 6-7cm depth oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Fry the felafel in batches for 3-4 minutes each or until well browned, then drain on kitchen paper. Eat hot or warm with tarator.
GRILLED SMOKY MEAT LOAVES
2 lg. eggs3 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce1/3 c. minced onion1 c. finely chopped green bell peppers1/2 tsp. ground pepper2 lbs. ground beef2/3 c. tomato ketchup1 1/2 c. mesquite or hickory chips (opt.), soaked in water 1 hour
In a large bowl slightly beat eggs with fork. Stir in Worcestershire sauce and onion; let stand 5 minutes until onion softens. Stir in bell pepper and ground pepper. Add meat and mix until well blended. Divide mixture in half. Shape each half into a 1 1/4" thick oval shaped loaf about 6" long and 3" wide. Spread 1/3 cup ketchup over top of each.
To Grill: Build a charcoal fire of about 30 briquettes. When coals are completely covered with gray ash (30 minutes) push them to side. Put an 8" square disposable foil drip pan in center; arrange coals around it. Drain mesquite chips and scatter over coals. Set grill 4" to 6" above hot coals. Lightly oil grill over drip pan. Place meat loaves, ketchup side up, on grill over drip pan. Cover and cook 21 to 26 minutes until meat is just slightly pink in the middle when loaves are tested with a fork. Let stand 5 minutes before serving
for food reservations!~
Hummus -> Christina
Seafood & Minced pork Spaghetti -> Klara
Grilled Vegetables
Cake (any flavour)- Geri & Kelvin
KEEPING THE FAITH
How does Singapore’s Jewish community of 200-plus families stay kosher? Neither easily nor consistently, as Daven Wu finds out
I never thought I’d ever have the opportunity to utter the phrase, ‘I’m having lunch with the rabbi’s wife’, much less actually be doing it. And yet, here I am atAwalfi, Singapore’s only kosher restaurant (pictured right), with Simcha Abergel, as she leads me on a surreal tour of the myriad arcana that attend any discussion of the Jewish faith and kosher food.
‘Food is very important for us. Especially during the Jewish holidays,’ Simcha notes. ‘You just cannot have a proper gathering without food.’
Not so different from the Chinese, I observe, who I sometimes think love food more than money and life; but where the two cultures differ is that, while the Chinese will happily eat just about anything that moves, Jews are required to keep kosher. Well, the orthodox ones are, anyway. ‘Very few Jews in the Singapore community actually keep kosher,’ Simcha admits. ‘They won’t eat pork, but some will go and eat at McDonald’s.’ I ask her what the Torah (the Jewish bible) says about Jews who don’t stick to the rules of kosher. ‘The punishment is not in this life,’ she replies enigmatically.
At this point, it helps to note that there is really no such thing as Jewish food – just kosher. As Frank Benjamin, patriarch of the F J Benjamin fashion empire, points out, Singapore’s ‘Jewish community is blessed with people from diverse countries. We have among us Iraqis, Lebanese, Afghans, Iranians, Moroccans, Israelis, not forgetting Ashkenazi expatriates. Each has its own ethnic menu.’ The majority of Singapore’s local Jews are descended from the Iraqi diaspora that arrived in Singapore via Calcutta in the mid-19th century. ‘They tend to eat Iraqi food, which resembles Indian cuisine but without the curry,’ Simcha explains.
At its simplest, keeping kosher is a process that involves eating only food that has been prepared according to hukim, a set of mandatory Jewish laws similar to the Ten Commandments, and which are accepted without question.
For starters, only animals that chew their cud (ie, have a double digestive system) and have split hooves are kosher. That means cows and sheep are fair game, but pigs and rabbits are off limits. And how the animals are killed is also prescribed by kosher laws. Seafood must have scales and fins: salmon is kosher, but lobster and shark aren’t because one has scales but no fins, while the other has fins but no scales. Dairy products and meat cannot be mixed in the same meal, and different cooking utensils (including ovens) must be used to prepare each. So don’t go baking a cake in the oven that’s just roasted lamb. Wine is kosher only if it’s been prepared by Jews. Meanwhile, though your maid can be recruited to roll the matzo balls or poach the gefilte fish (a Jewish quenelle), a Jew must be the one who lights the fire in the stove. Every single time.
So, as the chef in Awalfi’s kitchen isn’t Jewish, a corps of overseers, called the Mashgiach, is on hand to turn on the stove and oven (they also inspect eggs to make sure there’s not a spot of blood, and clean vegetables of bugs and worms).
While the ‘what of’ kosher is relatively easy to understand, it’s the ‘why’ that no one has any definitive answer for; hence the need to accept without question, and perhaps this accounts for the large number of Jews that don’t keep strict kosher. With its huge number of kitchen rules, nobody pretends that adhering to them constantly is a walk in the park. Practically, it’s next to impossible to eat out and, what’s more, kosher ingredients are generally more expensive because they must go through the certification process. Yet for Orthodox Jews, the practice is one that goes beyond mere dietary preferences or even expense, and becomes something much more personal.
Take Sara Khafi , for instance. When she went to college, she decided to be more observant in keeping kosher. ‘That was the only way I knew to keep my roots,’ Khafi says. And now that she has a family, keeping kosher is one of the most important ways to ‘keep the religion [of Judaism] from generation to generation.’ Still, she acknowledges the difficulties her children face at school. ‘Everyone else gets warm meals, so sometimes, they get upset,’ she says.
And then there are some like Danilo Levy, an émigré Serbian Jew, for whom being Jewish is a matter of blood and not a set of rules. ‘I like a variety of food. I like to eat lobster,’ he says. You can almost hear the shrug in his voice. ‘There’s nothing unreligious about that. And look, less than 20 per cent of American Jews keep kosher.’
That so many of Singapore’s Jews don’t keep kosher is obviously unsatisfactory for Simcha’s husband, the Rabbi Mordechai Abergel, the spiritual leader of Singapore’s 1,000-strong Jewish community. For him, keeping kosher is a holistic concept, not something that’s restrictive or dogmatic. ‘The Jews have always looked at the world as one charged with strong spiritual potential,’ he says. ‘And in every food, there is a certain spirituality and essence that can have either a positive or negative impact, as determined by the laws contained in the Torah and Jewish tradition.’ It’s this holism, this essence, that lies at the core of kosher. Sentiments like Levy’s seem to pain Rabbi Mordechai. ‘What we eat is part of how we serve God,’ he says simply. ‘Keeping kosher is how our community keeps kinship and awareness of one another.’
In a community as small as the Singaporean Jews’, keeping this kinship becomes particularly urgent. It’s a state of affairs that’s not lost on anyone, least of all the Rabbi Mordechai and his brand of seasoned spirituality. And if one of the glues that holds this ancient community together is kosher food, then perhaps it’s time to pass around that bowl of matzos already.
Local kosher outlets
WHERE TO BUY
A few of the leading supermarkets stock a small range of kosher produce. Most packaged kosher products have a mark consisting of the letters O, K or U inside a circle, or a K inside a star. Jason’s – The Gourmet Grocer stocks a selection of biscuits and butter, while Tanglin Market Place has a slightly wider range that includes margarine, cereals, yoghurt, cottage cheese and children’s snacks. FairPrice Finest stocks muesli, muesli bars, corn chips and potato crisps. But for a more comprehensive one-stop shop, Elite Kosher sells everything from lemon juice and pasta sauce to Louis Royer VSOP cognac, Laurent-Perrier champagne and minced beef.
WHAT TO COOK
Now that you have assembled your kosher produce, it’s time to cook. For those looking for inspiration, Nigella Lawson’s Feast ($51.40, Borders) offers her trademark accessible recipes for the Jewish holidays, like Passover and Rosh Hashanah, that could easily be adapted for everyday meals.
WHERE TO EAT
Short of snagging a home invite, there aren’t too many kosher eateries in town. Awalfi is the only kosher restaurant with a rather schizophrenic spread of mezzes, sushi, Chinese stir fried noodles and steak Dianes. Around the corner, The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf (#01-02B Plaza By The Park, 51 Bras Basah Rd, 6238 0267) is completely kosher, even the cakes.
posted by eatz@Caregroup at
7:27 PM
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