It was a sacred tradition. We would load up our minivans with lots and lots of food and our kids and head to the desert to celebrate Z’man Matan Tora’teinu (the Time of the Giving of the Torah). We all looked forward to our annual Shavuot Palm Springs pilgrimage, a reunion of friends who had met as…
With its colorful array of brightly colored salads, savory dips, exotic finger foods and freshly baked breads, the mezze (or maza) is a feast for the senses. While this selection of small dishes serves as the appetizer course of the Sephardic Shabbat meal, the mezze is common to all the lands of the former Ottoman…
In Times of Uncertainty, Try Drinking Tea In this time of change and uncertainty, creating a tea ritual is the perfect way to enhance our physical and mental well-being. Americans are brewing tea. In this time of change and uncertainty, creating a tea ritual is the perfect way to enhance our physical and mental…
Galette Recipes We Got From Our Mamas Galettes are a French pastry that can be filled with any topping, sweet or savory. Someone wise once said, “Life doesn’t come with a manual, it comes with a mother.” Rachel’s turn: With time, I see how the lessons that I learned from my mother have influenced…
Am Yisrael Chai Falafel Fest Is any Israeli Independence Day celebration complete without falafel? Well, not for Israelis who celebrate with a “mangal,” a Middle Eastern-style outdoor grilling feast. But for us, no food is more Israeli than the golden falafel. During our last visit to Israel, the most memorable, most delicious, most reminisced-about meal…
Sunny-Side Up: Egg Recipes Packed With Sephardic Flavor There’s nothing more delicious than eggs enhanced with sautéed onions, bright green herbs and fresh vegetables. Moroccan megina, Tunisian ma’akoud, Spanish tortilla, Persian ku’kuu, Iraqi aj’a, frittata. Whatever you call it, there’s nothing more delicious than eggs enhanced with sautéed onions, bright green herbs and fresh…
Mimouna is the joyous Moroccan celebration of springtime, friends, family and good fortune. Marking the end of Passover and the beginning of the agricultural season, the doors of people’s homes are thrown wide open and everyone is greeted with the Judeo-Arabic blessing “Tirbah u’tissad,” may you prosper and succeed. The mimouna table overflows with sweet…
Passover is one of the most cherished dates of the Jewish calendar. It is a celebration of our redemption from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land. We are commanded to tell the story of the Exodus to our children. We read the haggadah, we sing, we drink four cups of wine. We point…
If you’ve ever had the privilege of tasting Rachel’s Olive Chicken, you already know that it is lemony fresh and truly flavorful. Olive Chicken is a traditional Moroccan dish that is slowly simmered in a ceramic tagine. But since most of us don’t have tagines, Rachel has adapted the recipe with cooking techniques for the…
In the five years that SEC FOOD (a project of the Sephardic Educational Center) has been featured on Facebook, our posts on Moroccan Dafina (meaning “covered”) and Iraqi T’bit (meaning “of the house”) have elicited the most likes, comments and shares. There’s something about the smell and taste of these Shabbat hamins that evoke love, memory and sentiment. Sheff’s family…
For our grandmothers, Purim didn’t mean matching mishloach manot to the theme of the family Purim costumes. Or a basket filled with Israeli wafers, chocolates and candy, mini bottles of grape juice and the ubiquitous grogger all wrapped in cellophane and tied with a big, plastic bow. For our grandmothers, Purim meant baking recipes handed…
