So it's Pesach (that's Passover) again, and that means new food for a week. Well, some of the usual contenders: fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, protein, chocolate. And the miracle that happens every year: This descendant of Lithuanian, German, and Polish Jews--Ashkenazim--suddenly becomes Sephardic.
It's a long story. The short version is: Rice and beans. Most Sephardic Jews eat legumes and rice during Pesach; most Ashkenazi Jews don't. If you want to learn more about this, look up kitniyot. See if you can stay awake during the debate. I'm cooking rice.
And not burning it, ever since some angel years ago taught me a simple method:
Fool-Proof Brown Rice:
1 cup brown rice, short- or long-grain
1-1/2 cups water or stock
Preheat the oven to 350°. Coat the inside of a pan with oil. I use olive oil. Rinse the rice in a strainer, and add the rice to the pan. Bring the water or stock to a boil, and pour the boiling liquid over the rice. Cover the pan, and place it on the middle rack of the preheated oven. Set the timer and go do something else for 25 minutes.
Which reminds me: Has anybody else been hearing in the news about how multi-tasking doesn't work and you can really only do one thing at a time, blah blah blah? Am I the only person to wonder if the researchers might be descended from, say, androids? Let's face it: Mothers have been multi-tasking since the beginning of recorded time. The clothes were in the dryer while Mom was getting dinner on the table and whipping up sandwiches for tomorrow, helping with homework, and maybe organizing the car pool. Never mind piano lessons and recitals, practices and games, haircuts, visits to the doctor and, if the family was lucky, a vacation to be organized as well. These things, or at least the planning for them, had to be done simultaneously or nobody would have gotten to school and then college and then graduate school where they could do a study and determine it couldn't be done.
Cooking is a wonderful combination of single-pointed focus (on measuring that rice, for example) and multi-tasking (the rice is in the oven while you're dicing an onion and mincing some herbs for another dish, choosing the greens for the salad and rinsing them in the colander, etc.). Text and context.
And speaking of that rice: Once the timer rings, check to see if the water or stock has disappeared and the grains are just starting to come away from the sides of the pan. If it's close, just turn off the oven and set the timer for another five minutes. Then check it again, and taste it to be sure.
So now you have rice--which, if you make it tonight and you are Jewish and celebrating Pesach, means you're Sephardic, too. Bienvenidos. Who knew?
Next time, a Pesach recipe or two. Maybe more about my mother. If she ever gets online, I'm toast--er, matzo.
©2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 Laynie Tzena.
It's a long story. The short version is: Rice and beans. Most Sephardic Jews eat legumes and rice during Pesach; most Ashkenazi Jews don't. If you want to learn more about this, look up kitniyot. See if you can stay awake during the debate. I'm cooking rice.
And not burning it, ever since some angel years ago taught me a simple method:
Fool-Proof Brown Rice:
1 cup brown rice, short- or long-grain
1-1/2 cups water or stock
Preheat the oven to 350°. Coat the inside of a pan with oil. I use olive oil. Rinse the rice in a strainer, and add the rice to the pan. Bring the water or stock to a boil, and pour the boiling liquid over the rice. Cover the pan, and place it on the middle rack of the preheated oven. Set the timer and go do something else for 25 minutes.
Which reminds me: Has anybody else been hearing in the news about how multi-tasking doesn't work and you can really only do one thing at a time, blah blah blah? Am I the only person to wonder if the researchers might be descended from, say, androids? Let's face it: Mothers have been multi-tasking since the beginning of recorded time. The clothes were in the dryer while Mom was getting dinner on the table and whipping up sandwiches for tomorrow, helping with homework, and maybe organizing the car pool. Never mind piano lessons and recitals, practices and games, haircuts, visits to the doctor and, if the family was lucky, a vacation to be organized as well. These things, or at least the planning for them, had to be done simultaneously or nobody would have gotten to school and then college and then graduate school where they could do a study and determine it couldn't be done.
Cooking is a wonderful combination of single-pointed focus (on measuring that rice, for example) and multi-tasking (the rice is in the oven while you're dicing an onion and mincing some herbs for another dish, choosing the greens for the salad and rinsing them in the colander, etc.). Text and context.
And speaking of that rice: Once the timer rings, check to see if the water or stock has disappeared and the grains are just starting to come away from the sides of the pan. If it's close, just turn off the oven and set the timer for another five minutes. Then check it again, and taste it to be sure.
So now you have rice--which, if you make it tonight and you are Jewish and celebrating Pesach, means you're Sephardic, too. Bienvenidos. Who knew?
Next time, a Pesach recipe or two. Maybe more about my mother. If she ever gets online, I'm toast--er, matzo.
©2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 Laynie Tzena.
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