On Purim, we look forward to delicate hamantaschen triangles filled with sweet mohn and fruity jams. On Rosh Hashanah, we weave big round challahs with a sweet golden glaze. Jewish holidays are always accompanied by the most flavourful and delicious dishes, like slow-cooked tsimmes, big bowls of chicken soup, and platters of smoked salmon.<\/p>\n
Food is like a cultural calendar in Jewish life. If you\u2019ve got latkes on your plate, you know that it\u2019s Chanukah. If you\u2019re eating hamantaschen, you know that it\u2019s Purim. But, food does more than alerting us to the present, it anchors us in tradition. Food compels us to explore and revive memory.<\/p>\n
Johannesburg-based writer and editor Daniel Browde is no stranger to revisiting memory. He spent six years excavating memory to chronicle the life of his paternal grandfather, Jules Browde. The book, The Relatively Public Life of Jules Browde, <\/em>is interspersed with personal stories and recollections, some of which feature his maternal grandmother, Joy Sanders.<\/p>\n Daniel fondly remembers his late grandmother Joy\u2019s festive delicacies. \u201cOn holidays like Rosh Hashanah or Pesach, she would make these huge Consol jars full of the different kinds of herring,\u201d says Daniel, \u201cthey were fantastic, this was as good as it gets.\u201d<\/p>\n On Friday nights, Joy\u2019s specialities were leg of lamb with crispy roast potatoes or fried sole with creamy mashed potatoes and peas. \u201cThe roast potatoes were out of this world \u2013 they were really crispy on the outside and soft on the inside,\u201d says Daniel.<\/p>\n Like many Jewish grandmothers, Joy expressed her love and care through food. \u201cSo many of my earliest memories of my grandmother are connected to food,\u201d says Daniel. From the age of 3, Daniel would spend his days at his grandmother\u2019s house in Newlands.<\/p>\n \u201cInfluenced by her, I used to bake a lot as a kid. I was always baking cakes, I was making biscuits,\u201d he reminisces. \u201cI learned from her how to make fudge.\u201d<\/p>\n This process of culinary heritage passed down through generations is unique to the community because food plays such a symbolic role in our history. For example, eating apples with honey on Rosh Hashanah or eating matzah and maror at the Seder; in all of these customs and mitzvos, food plays a sensory role in storytelling and acknowledging the past.<\/p>\n Joy, affectionately called Ma, was an exceptional baker. \u201cShe made the best gingerbread biscuits I\u2019ve ever had,\u201d says Daniel. \u201cWhen I think back on my late gran, I\u2019m really struck by how talented and truly creative she was. She had skills like flower arranging, baking, knitting\u2026sophisticated stuff. I\u2019ve still got jerseys that she made. Those are fantastically complicated skills. I grew up not appreciating that.\u201d<\/p>\n In today\u2019s fast-paced world, it\u2019s easy to take the little things for granted. We often put things off or dismiss something because it doesn\u2019t seem important. Don\u2019t wait for the big holidays and birthdays to honour the special people in your life. Take a moment to appreciate and treasure the efforts of those around you. Those homemade bulkas from your cousin, or that big jar of pickled herring from Bobba are all expressions of love, compassion, and gratitude. They are a symbol of our community\u2019s culinary fortitude.<\/p>\n While Joy\u2019s gingerbread biscuit recipe will remain a mystery; these homemade biscuits come pretty close. With fresh ginger, a crisp outside and soft inside, this parev version of a classic gingerbread biscuit is the perfect spiced afternoon treat.<\/p>\n Ginger Biscuits (parev)<\/strong><\/p>\n Makes 18 biscuits<\/p>\n Ingredients:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00bd cup canola oil<\/p>\n \u00bc cup castor sugar<\/p>\n \u00bc cup maple syrup (or maple-flavoured syrup)<\/p>\n 2 tsp fresh ginger, minced<\/p>\n \u00bd tsp ground cinnamon<\/p>\n \u00bc tsp ground nutmeg<\/p>\n 1 egg<\/p>\n pinch of salt<\/p>\n \u00bd tsp baking powder<\/p>\n 1 1\/3 cup cake flour<\/p>\n For Rolling:<\/p>\n Castor sugar<\/p>\n Icing sugar<\/p>\n Method:<\/strong><\/p>\n Expressing love through food By: Nikita Singh On Purim, we look forward to delicate hamantaschen triangles filled with sweet mohn and fruity jams. On Rosh Hashanah, we weave big round challahs with a sweet golden glaze. Jewish holidays are always accompanied by the most flavourful and delicious dishes, like slow-cooked tsimmes, big bowls of chicken soup, and platters of smoked salmon. Food is like a cultural calendar in Jewish life. If you\u2019ve got latkes on your plate, you know that it\u2019s Chanukah. If you\u2019re eating hamantaschen, you know that it\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1466,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-may-2019"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishlife.co.za\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishlife.co.za\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishlife.co.za\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishlife.co.za\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishlife.co.za\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1480"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishlife.co.za\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1489,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishlife.co.za\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1480\/revisions\/1489"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishlife.co.za\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishlife.co.za\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishlife.co.za\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishlife.co.za\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n