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BUCHARIAN, PERSIAN, HUNGARIAN AND MOROCCAN DELIGHTS
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NEW JEWISH COMFORT
FROM BRISKET TO SUSHI AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN
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EDITOR’S LETTER
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THIS MONTH’S CONTRIBUTORS
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HAPPENINGS A recap of recent Fleishigs events and celebrations
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BUTCHER’S CUT Ground beef
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COOKBOOK Totally Kosher by Chanie Apfelbaum
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BREAKING BREAD New takes on challah-based classics
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PROFILE Ari Raskin
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L’CHAIM Sit back, relax and enjoy a good sip
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TRAVEL Hotel highlights
110 SOMETHING SWEET Cinnamon buns: The ultimate break-the-fast food 116 THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CORK 120 RECIPE INDEX
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122 LAST BITE #yesitsontheapp
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DOLCETTO
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Happenings
IT HAS BEEN A BUSY FEW MONTHS AT FLEISHIGS WITH A VARIETY OF EVENTS AND CELEBRATIONS. HERE IS A BRIEF LOOK AT SOME OF THE HIGHLIGHTS OF THE PAST YEAR.
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Thomas Ashbourne launch party at Wall Street Grill in NYC
Thomas Ashbourne Launch Party at Wall Street Grill
The full line of Thomas Ashbourne ready-to-drink cocktails at the kosher launch party at Wall Street Grill in NYC
A national brand that values its kosher consumers, Thomas Ashbourne prioritized a dedicated kosher launch of its unique pre-made canned cocktails. Celebrity co-founders Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Benson attended and wished guests a meaningful l’chaim on the iconic rooftop at Wall Street Grill.
Tripping Kosher Segment While in Florida for Dini’s event at the new AJ Madison showroom, Tripping Kosher filmed their segment for the Chinese Issue at Bambu Pan Asian Kitchen and Shlomo even made an appearance. Find the video on Tripping Kosher’s YouTube channel.
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Jewish Food Media Conference at Sen Sakana Melinda Strauss founded the Jewish Food Media Conference in 2017 for Jewish food media personalities to gain inspiration. This year, Fleishigs, together with Masbia Kitchen, hosted the event at Sen Sakana, which featured renowned brand building expert Remi Franklin and cookbook agent Jennifer Weis. Two of the event’s sponsors, 7th Heaven Chocolate and Thomas Ashbourne, provided interactive chocolate and cocktail tastings, respectively. There was even a surprise appearance by NYC mayor Eric Adams! The stellar food prepared by Chef Mina Newman made the event even more memorable.
Mayor Eric Adams at the JFM Conference
Shifra and Shlomo Klein at the JFM Conference at Sen Sakana in NYC
Dini Klein’s Cookbook Launch Parties at AJ Madison We celebrated Dini Klein’s new cookbook, Prep + Rally, with an event at AJ Madison in Brooklyn, where she demonstrated how to make her signature meatballs with caramelized onions and quinoa — as part of her tried-and-true meal prep system. Then, to celebrate the opening of AJ Madison’s Miami showroom, Fleishigs held another launch party where Dini demonstrated a savory cornbread French toast and guests enjoyed a dairy brunch.
Prep + Rally launch party at AJ Madison's Brooklyn showroom
Dini Klein at her Prep + Rally launch party at AJ Madison's Miami showroom
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“Ground beef” and “chopped meat” mean the same thing — meat that has been ground in a mechanical grinder, sometimes more than once, to create an incredibly versatile ingredient that is a staple in kitchens worldwide to make burgers, meatballs, stuffed vegetables, kebabs and so on. You can grind any cut of beef, but typically you’ll use portions that are trimmed when fabricating other steaks and roasts, as well as tougher shoulder meat. Since the meat being ground may or may not have fat, cubes of beef fat are added to the grinder to achieve the desired meat-to-fat ratio. Although we’re used to thinking about percentage of fat in dairy products (i.e. 2% milk), for ground meats the nomenclature is reversed; to get the fat percentage, you have to do the math — “regular” ground beef is about 80-85% lean and “lean” ground beef is typically 90% lean.
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Lean ground beef is very useful when you don’t want a lot of extra fat leaking into the other components of the dish. We make empanadas with lean ground beef; it would also be good in a layered casserole or stuffed vegetables. If you prefer the taste of lean ground beef, you can always increase the moisture/fat content by adding olive oil, caramelized onions or mayonnaise, depending on your recipe. Some recipes add moisture to ground beef items (like meatloaf and meatballs) by adding milk-soaked bread to the mix; you can use any mildly-flavored unsweetened non-dairy milk substitutes for this. For items where the meat is really on its own, with few other ingredients added (like burgers), we’d strongly recommend regular ground beef for texture, moisture and flavor (fat contributes to all three). Some butchers will make special grinds for specific uses. For example, at Grow & Behold, we make a 75% lean “Premium Burger Blend,” which is coarser than our regular ground beef and made from chuck and brisket, two particularly flavorful cuts on the steer.
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The grind is real.
BUTCHER'S CUT
In general, you want to handle ground beef lightly. Too much mixing, kneading, pressing or stirring can squeeze the air out of the mix, which is necessary to maintain lightness and tenderness while cooking. That said, it’s an incredibly versatile base for exploring spices and flavors from all over the world. Some favorites of ours include meatballs with fresh garlic and parsley or kebabs with cumin and sumac. Ground beef is frequently mixed with cinnamon, allspice and/or raisins in Persian cooking and tamarind in Syrian cooking. You’ll find that ground beef works with just about anything!
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Of Food and Fashion
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BY: D I N A H B U C H O L Z R E C I P E S BY: C H A R L E N E A M I N O F F
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hen Charlene Aminoff was a little girl, she expected that she would grow up to be a homemaker like her mom, one of her childhood heroes (the other is her dad). She did not envision life as the founder and CEO of a wig company, a fashion designer, a makeup creator, renowned motivational speaker, and the driving force behind the Nishmat Movement and various women’s events. Charlene grew up in a modest, twobedroom apartment that she shared with her parents and siblings. “We had nothing, but we had everything,” she says. They never felt the lack of anything material because of her mom’s constant thanks to Hashem. Her parents had escaped Iran during the revolution. “My mom would put her hand on the mezuzah,” Charlene recalls, “and say, thank you, Hashem, that I live in this mansion!” Charlene never thought that their tiny apartment was anything but. Her parents' attitude and philosophy that
you should “spend half as much on your children but twice as much time” provided stability through good times and bad. Those familiar with Charlene’s story know her as the mother of Gali, who drowned in a swimming pool at the age of two. As a stranger held up her body, screaming for help, her father, an experienced Hatzalah medic, rushed forward, but his frantic efforts to resuscitate her failed. As Charlene cried out in prayer, she vowed to cover her hair. The instant she finished wrapping a shawl around her head, her husband detected a pulse and life rushed back into her baby’s body. Inspired to help other women cover their hair, Charlene founded Gali’s Couture Wigs and eventually obtained insurance coverage for women with medical hair loss. Instead of this harrowing story being the only key turning point in her life, Charlene shared that being bullied in school taught her the importance of kindness and suffering through eleven miscarriages strengthened her belief in God. With each pregnancy, she took on another mitzvah, only to yet again lose the baby. She would ask, how could Hashem fail her? “But a big girl understands,” she explains, “we have to be okay with making Hashem’s will our will. You have to constantly remind yourself that this isn’t the world where we have all the answers; this is the world where we have all the questions. But God willing, in the World to Come, our question marks will turn into exclamation points.” Despite her many businesses and projects, Charlene says her greatest accomplishment is her children, www.fleishigs.com
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Bucharian, humanitarian,
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egalitarian.
The Woman Uniting the Jewish Community
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BY: SA R A H AU ST I N R EC I P E S BY: V I CTO R I A Z I R K I E V ictoria Zirkiev wears many hats: wife, mother, hostess, founder, advocate. All of these roles have one thing in common — the desire to unite the Jewish community. Every career, religious or political choice Victoria has made is to pursue the greater goal of bringing together the Jewish people. Born in Uzbekistan, Victoria’s approach to food and hospitality was very much shaped by those times in the kitchen with her mother before she came to the United States. Uzbekistan is home to Bucharian Jews who emigrated from Persia and the Middle East. Bucharian cuisine is one that merges Central Asian cooking with that of Eastern Europe. Culturally, there is a large focus on community, family gatherings and spirited celebrations. A Bucharian celebration is known to go on for hours with unimaginable amounts of food to feast on. This is the vibe at Victoria’s home; it is welcoming and the food is plentiful. Victoria’s cooking is heavily influenced by her Bucharian roots, but she also incorporates other cuisines like Moroccan and Ashkenzi to appeal to the wide range of people (and palates) that she entertains
(check out the Fleishigs app for her pastrami flatbread recipe from issue #21.) Due to the nature of her work, the Zirkiev household is always full of guests, which means the kitchen is always busy. Victoria is the CEO of Hoshen Productions, a record label that manages, produces and books Jewish musicians such as Gad Elbaz, Tal Vaknin and Nissim Black. As the first Jewish woman in this role, she wants to show today’s youth that Jewish, “kosher” music can be just as fun and cool as the music you would hear on the radio. She is the president of Chazaq’s women’s division (a Jewish educational organization that offers a variety of programming), where she is responsible for all events and activities in the New York area. She is also involved in local politics to be a voice for the Jewish people in America and Israel, even sitting on NYC Mayor Eric Adams’ transition team. Once again, the theme of striving to inspire and unify the Jewish community is apparent in the causes Victoria chooses to champion. Most recently, Victoria was inspired to spread awareness on refraining from evil speech from simple bracelets gifted to her by Mayesz, a Hasidic rapper who she represents. The bracelets were inscripted with the words, “lashon hara, don’t speak to me” in Hebrew. Victoria worked with the Israeli movement’s mastermind, David Halpern, to bring Lashon Hara USA to America. In addition to all of the work she does outside the home to bring unity to the Jewish community, for Victoria, food has always held the power to bring people together inside her own home as well. And while she does cook a lot of food she learned from home, it is with a few convenient shortcuts necessary to get things done. As a busy wife, mother, businesswoman and advocate, Victoria Zirkiev’s metaphorical table is carried throughout every aspect of her life in her purpose to unite the entire Jewish people — whether it’s at her actual table laden in food or her conference table at a Hoshen Productions meeting.
SARAH AUSTIN is a senior at Cornell University studying Hotel Administration and minoring in Viticulture & Enology and Jewish Studies. In between her studies, she writes and edits for Ground Level and Creme de Cornell, two on-campus publications. FEBRUARY 2023
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RESTAURANT CHRONICLES
were fried to perfection,” commented event planner extraordinaire Hershy Jay. “We cook that sabayon in a bainmarie (hot water bath) until it’s nice and fluffy, then infuse the bone marrow into the sauce,” explained Chef Daniel. At the same time, roasted cauliflower served over luscious tahini and topped with blanched almonds served as the ultimate testimony to how the most humble of ingredients can be transformed when prepared with intention. “The cauliflower with tahini was excellent,” commented Ahuva Gottdiener. Kosher travel blogger Gila Rapoport agreed: “It was my favorite dish of the night, and I would recommend it to anyone who comes here,” she added. Guests sampled hummus served with mushrooms and herbs, “ricotta” stuffed dates topped with duck prosciutto, char siu tongue bao buns and soup with a single oversized dumpling before moving on to the main courses — salmon en papillote, chicken roulade and aged ribeye steaks cooked to perfection, topped with a demi glace and served with an elegant potato and parsnip gratin. “Steak au poivre, one of our most popular menu items, is an excellent example of a dish that doesn’t need to be messed with, it just needs to be executed well,” says Chef
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Daniel. Beef stock is simmered for hours and hours until it reduces to a jus, then built into a beautiful sauce with brandy, Dijon mustard, shallots and a generous amount of green peppercorns. Another upgraded comfort food on the menu is the house made cavatelli with bolognese. This classic Italian-American dish is made with a base of crushed tomatoes and meat and simmered for several hours to create a rich, flavorful sauce. “I love simple, rustic food,” says Chef Daniel. “When it comes to serving comfort food on a fine dining scale, less is more — you don’t want too many complex ingredients, you just want a small portion of something absolutely delicious, so that you can appreciate those flavors as well as other dishes throughout your dinner.” Whether dining out or at home, it doesn’t take much for comfort food to transcend its humble roots. Chef Daniel’s advice for elevating home cooked dishes? “Think outside the box, but keep it simple,” he says. “Don’t overthink it — you don’t need a million spices to make your food taste good. You just need to season it properly, including acid.” Sometimes, a simple squeeze of lemon and a sprinkle of flaky salt is all you need.
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Shlomo Klein and Heshy Jay
Malkie Knopfler, Cami Bouskila and Rochie Pinson
Chana Z. Weiss and Shushy Turin
Gila Rapoport and Bracha Bard-Wigdor
Eliana Ladenheim, Ahuva Gottdiener and Shushy Turin
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SOMETHING SWEET
Show off your sweet side BY: N AO M I E L B E RG
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omehow, cinnamon buns have become the quintessential “break the fast” dessert, no matter where you are in the world, from Tisha B’av to Yom Kippur and everything in between. They have also become a popular Shabbos breakfast food. Although not classic Jewish comfort food in the original sense of the term, in my book, cinnamon buns still qualify as part of this beloved category. This sweet roll dough recipe is so versatile and ideal for cinnamon buns, vanilla buns, cheese buns, chocolate buns, honey buns, sticky buns and the list goes on. We even added cardamom to it for a new take on the classic. Once you master this technique, the recipe will always be the one you turn to for bun baking.
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