It is especially customary to eat letrea as part of the meal before the fast of Yom Kippur. As a mother of three I have boiled hundreds of pots of pasta. Spaghetti with meatballs, rigatoni with olive oil, macaroni and cheese with a crispy topping, packaged Wacky Mac, spirals with butter, bowties with marinara sauce….
Tishpishti is such a throwback to the flavors of my childhood in my grandmother’s kitchen. Sharon and I have been Instagram friends with Beth Lee from @omgyummy since 2020. In 2021, when she published “The Essential Jewish Baking Cookbook,” I immediately bought it. I loved every page. Beth really did her research. The book features…
For many of our readers and followers, food transports them to the kitchens of their mothers and grandmothers. The holiness of Rosh Hashanah permeates the air. The candles burn brightly. We are all dressed in white. The table is covered with a white tablecloth, bedecked with flowers, apples and pomegranates and set with my mother’s…
There are only a few ladies left in Los Angeles that know how to make these treats that date back to medieval times. I decided the time had arrived for me to master the pasteliko! Rhodes is a tiny island in the middle of the Aegean Sea. Captured from Greece by the Ottoman Turks, it…
Nothing in life is better than sharing a meal with friends. And for us, some of the best meals are summer barbecues. At midnight, we walked out of those sliding glass doors at Ben Gurion Airport. The lights were artificially bright. The hot, humid air was stultifying and filled with the acrid smell of cigarette…
Over the years, whenever we would stay with my Aunt Daisy, she would fry delectable Ajja J’bin for our breakfast. Whenever we visit Israel, we always spend at least a few nights with my aunt Daisy. My children have the fondest memories of staying in her high-rise apartment in the Marom Naveh area of Ramat…
This recipe for braised chicken with eggplant is originally from Turkey and travelled through Spain and the Mediterranean. One of the standards for being a nekuchera, the Ladino word for an excellent Sephardic cook, is having the knowledge and ability to prepare good eggplant. There are so many traditional eggplant recipes in the Sephardic kitchen—baba…
Ghriba are Moroccan shortbread cookies served at weddings and other festive occasions, or as an after dinner treat with a cup of classic Moroccan mint tea. My son Sam and my niece Annabella were born a month apart. My son Max and my niece Ines and my twin nephews Luca and Nico were all born…
Recently, Neil had been reminiscing about his mother’s spinach and garbanzos, so I added it to my cooking repertoire Ever since I was a little girl, my mother Rica would tell me about the beauty of Seville. When we were little, she had a funny rhyme “Quien va a Sevilla, pierde su silla!” It was…
This one skillet dish is simply full of nutrition and spicy, sweet, curried flavor. As the daughter of the Shamash (guardian) of the Tomb of Ezra the Scribe, my grandmother grew up in the small village of Al Uzair. Located in the south of Iraq, the large compound where they lived sat on the west…
Often times, we cook because we have to feed our family and friends. But sometimes our cooking has a deeper purpose. My father’s upbringing in Baghdad, Iraq didn’t include pop psychology. In fact, there was very little that was Western about his early life. It always amused me when he would make references about his…
It is one of the most famous and popular Turkish desserts for good reason. On our first day in Istanbul last summer, we toured the lavish wonders of the Topkapi Palace. We walked for hours on a hot summer’s day. We decided to sit for a cool drink and walked into a café called Hafiz…
Harissa is truly the perfect condiment. Use it to enhance meat and fish dishes or as a marinade for chicken thighs and breast. My personal favorite way to eat harissa is with a grilled steak. Soon after Alan and I announced our engagement, a keg of beer was delivered to his doorstep. Alan called his…
As soon as she opened the door and greeted us, I was enamored. She was the sweetest, most hospitable little lady Life is a fascinating journey, with interesting twists and coincidental turns along the way. You may remember that Neil and I recently traveled to Madrid to visit our daughter Rebekah, who was studying on…
Over the years, whenever I wanted to make Alexandra happy, I would make roasted potatoes. Perhaps over the years of reading our column in the Jewish Journal, you’ve noticed the photo credit of Alexandra Gomperts? Well, that’s Sharon’s daughter! She’s been alongside us Sephardic Spice Girls for the past three years, becoming our official food…
Maybe every daughter idolizes her father, but my father was truly a legend Maybe every daughter idolizes her father, but my father was truly a legend. Born on Yom Kippur, 1935 in Baghdad, Iraq to parents Rafael and Rosa, he was the middle child in a family of nine — older siblings Toya, Moshe, Shlomo and Daisy…
At this time of year, there is such an abundance of fresh corn at farmers markets and the local supermarket. And that’s our cue to shift into summer recipes. When I was a little girl in Casablanca, I loved eating the grilled corn on the cob from the Arab street vendor. He would have many…
Called pan de siete cielos (seven heavens bread) it is a traditional Sephardic recipe that barely survived the Spanish Inquisition. Last week, in anticipation of Shavuot, Rachel and I hosted an amazing community baking class at Kahal Joseph Congregation in Westwood. It is always a pleasure for us to be at Kahal because it’s where…
This year we will be making our Shavuot dessert with a fabulous Middle Eastern twist— vanilla cheesecake with a crispy, crunchy knafeh topping. I distinctly remember the first time I tasted cheesecake. I was 10 years old and it was a typically sunny Sydney afternoon. We were invited for Shabbat lunch in a beautiful home…
Being in London for the coronation weekend was an incredible experience, including our tasting magnificent scones. Being in London for the coronation weekend was an incredible experience. Upon our arrival, Neil and I could feel the excitement in the air. All the major stores have beautiful displays commemorating the coronation and all the shops have…
This week we present the recipe for tortilla de patatas, lovingly handed down by Rachel’s Maman, who hailed from Larache, which was part of Spanish Morocco. This past week, Neil and I had the great pleasure of visiting our daughter Rebekah in Madrid, where she is doing her semester abroad. Since arriving here in January,…
