King Solomon’s Table by Joan Nathan
April 30, 2017 by Jenny
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King Solomon’s Table: A Culinary
Exploration of Jewish Cooking from Around the World is the
prolific author’s most beautiful title to date, in my opinion. Joan
Nathan is a James Beard Award-winning cookbook author and food
authority. In this book, she takes us on a trip around the
globe focusing on Jewish foods.Why King Solomon’s Table? It is said that King Solomon
dispatched ships to all corners of the ancient world sparking the
melting pot of culinary cultures that continues today.
Joan is generous in sharing her knowledge in these pages – the history, stories and the background on dishes – all riveting. Then we have the recipes, which are pure gravy – Macedonian Leek and Meat Patties, Persian Chicken Soup with Gundi, Indian Chicken with Cardamom, Cumin and Cilantro and Multi-Seeded Fennel-Flavored Challah – are just a few examples. King Solomon’s Table is my kind of book – compelling stories, history and global flavors splattered throughout the 170 recipes shared. Bravo Joan!
The author has a number of events planned to promote her
title – check to see if she is in your area. Special thanks to the
publisher for allowing us to share the recipe for Syrian Meatballs
and providing five copies of this title in our
giveaway.
Keftes Garaz, Syrian Meatballs with Cherries and
Tamarind
Keftes Garaz, Syrian Meatballs with Cherries and
Tamarind Ostian meat balls-Offellæ ostienses:
Prepare the meat in this manner: clean the meat [of bones, sinews, etc.]. Scrape it as thin as a skin [and shape it]. Crush pepper, lovage, cumin, caraway, silphium, one laurel berry, moistened with broth; in a square dish place the meat balls and the spices where they remain in pickling for two or three days, covered crosswise with twigs. Then place them in the oven [to be roasted], when done take the finished meat balls out. Crush pepper, lovage, with the broth, add a little raisin wine to sweeten. Cook it, thicken with roux, immerse the balls in the sauce and serve.
-Apicius, De re Coquinaria (Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome), first century c.e.
Prepare the meat in this manner: clean the meat [of bones, sinews, etc.]. Scrape it as thin as a skin [and shape it]. Crush pepper, lovage, cumin, caraway, silphium, one laurel berry, moistened with broth; in a square dish place the meat balls and the spices where they remain in pickling for two or three days, covered crosswise with twigs. Then place them in the oven [to be roasted], when done take the finished meat balls out. Crush pepper, lovage, with the broth, add a little raisin wine to sweeten. Cook it, thicken with roux, immerse the balls in the sauce and serve.
-Apicius, De re Coquinaria (Cookery and Dining in Imperial Rome), first century c.e.
Yield: 6 to 8 servings
Meatballs
½ cup (50 grams) pine nuts
1 large sweet onion, diced (about 1½ cups/350 grams)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 pounds (907 grams) ground beef
2 cloves garlic, minced
¼ teaspoon ground Aleppo or Marash pepper
½ teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground allspice
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon tamarind concentrate
2 teaspoons tomato paste or ketchup
½ cup breadcrumbs, fresh
Sauce
¼ cup (59 ml) olive oil
1 ½ onions, diced (1 1/3 cups/165 grams)
1½ tablespoons tamarind concentrate
2 cups (440 grams) pitted
sour cherries or frozen dark red
cherries
2 cups (440 grams) dried cherries
Juice of 2 lemons
1½ teaspoons ground allspice
Salt and pepper
1½ cups (355 ml) beef stock
1½ cups (355 ml) red wine
2 tablespoons chopped parsley or cilantro
One of the great gifts of the Syrian Jews to gastronomy is
this meatball dish. Fla- vored with tamarind sauce and dried and
frozen sour cherries, this sweet and sour keftes meatball recipe
has been handed down for five generations in the family of Melanie
Franco Nussdorf, a Washington lawyer who loves to cook the dishes
of her ancestors, from Aleppo. We can tell that Melanie’s family
recipe has been updated over the years, as it contains tomato
paste, a relatively recent addition to Old World cooking. If you
cannot find sour cherries, frozen Bing or dark sweet cherries will
work just fine.
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and toast the pine nuts by
stirring often, in a small dry skillet over medium heat, until
lightly brown, about 5 to 10 minutes. Remove to a medium
bowl.
2. To make the meatballs: Sauté the onions in the oil in a
nonstick frying pan until lightly caramelized, about 20 to 30
minutes.
3. Add the onions to the pine nuts, then add the ground beef,
garlic, Aleppo or Marash pepper, cumin, allspice, cinnamon, salt,
and pepper. Break the eggs into the bowl and stir in the tamarind
and tomato paste or ketchup, mixing gently with your hands until
just combined, then add just enough breadcrumbs for the meat to
become clammy.
4. Take about 1½ tablespoons of meat and slap the beef several
times into the center of the palm of your hand to emulsify. Shape
into small meatballs, about 1¼ inches in diameter. Put on two
rimmed baking sheets and bake for about 20 minutes, or until done
but still juicy. You should get about 36 meatballs.
5. While the meatballs are baking, make the sauce: Heat the
oil in a medium saucepan set over medium-high heat. Add the onions
and sauté until transparent, then add the tamarind, pitted sour or
frozen cherries, dried cherries, lemon juice, allspice, salt,
pepper, beef stock, and wine. Simmer together for about 20 to 25
minutes, until the sauce is slightly thickened.
6. Mix the meatballs with the sauce and serve, sprinkled with
chopped parsley or cilantro, over rice.
Note You can make this dish ahead and freeze if you like.
Defrost in the refrigerator overnight, then reheat in a pan,
covered, over medium heat until warm.
Tamarind
Tamarind, whose name comes from the Arabic word meaning “date
from India,” is an ancient sweet and sour fruit that actually
originated in Africa but traveled very early to India and
throughout the Middle East, then was brought by the Arabs and Jews
to Spain and by the Spanish to Latin America. Within Jewish
communities, you know a dish has Syrian roots if you find tamarind
listed in the ingredients.
Often used the way we use tomatoes today, to add acidity,
depth, and sweetness to a sauce, tamarind has been a lovely flavor
addition for centuries in Syrian, Persian, Iraqi, Georgian, and
Indian Jewish dishes, as well as Sephardic dishes that eventually,
in the 1500s, traveled with the Spanish and Portuguese to Mexico,
the Caribbean, and other parts of Latin America, where it remains
very popular today.
The only catch is that tamarind is somewhat difficult to
use-it has to be peeled, soaked, seeded, and then squeezed through
cheese- cloth and mixed with sour salt, lemon juice, and/or sugar
before being cooked down to a concentrate or paste. (Poopa Dweck’s
beautiful book The Aromas of Aleppo describes the process.) As
soon as tomatoes came from the New World to the Old, the more
easily used red tomatoes replaced tamarind in many dishes. The
unique flavor and tartness of tamarind, however, is becoming
popular again, with easily dissolvable tamarind paste concentrates
and bulk tamarind dissolved in a little water now available from
India, other parts of Asia, Latin America, and even
Texas.
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