homemade pickles

Just about 2 weeks before Pesach each year, my grandmother would come over,  and together with my mother, start the yearly pickling process.  They covered the basement kitchen counters with sheets, and lined up the large square glass jars.  Some jars would be filled with beets for borscht and others with curbies for pickles.  The jars would then sit on the floor of the boiler room for a couple of weeks until they were ready. 

For some odd reason, the only person that liked the pickles was my mother.  Sometimes, we’d eat them because there were no alternative ones bought.  In retrospect, I think they kinda spoiled sitting in the boiler room.  They got overdone and were a little fizzy, if you know what I mean.  When I started making Pesach, pickles were not on my radar.  I buy them ready from the store, and although they are not as good as the all year round ones, it’s better than homemade.  Or so I thought.

Just the other day, I walked into my brothers’ house and peeked into his Pesach kitchen.  It didn’t look like the cooking had begun but there were 3 jars of beautiful looking pickles fermenting on the counter.  “Oooh, you make pickles?”, I asked him.  He said “yes, and they are wonderful”! 

Since these take about 2 weeks to be ready, if you put them up now, they will be ready for the second days of Yom Tov.

HOMEMADE PICKLES

Ingredients

• Curbies
• 4 tablespoons salt
• water to fill
• jalapeno peppers
• fresh dill

Directions

Use a glass jar with a 2 piece screw on cover.  Fill the jar with unpeeled curbies.  Add salt, jalapenos (some whole and some cut) and cover with water.  Put the fresh dill on top of the curbies.  Dip the rubber (flat) part of the cover into hot or boiling water to expand it.  Then put it on top of the pickle jar and screw on the cover.  This should make a tight seal.  Keep in a cool place for a couple of weeks until done.

the fast of esther and the feast that follows

I was quite organized this week so I got all my baking orders for Purim and deliveries out of the way.  Today, Tannis Esther is a nidcheh (pushed off) as it is usually a day before Purim (Shabbos this year), and we do not fast on Shabbos unless it is Yom Kippur.  So that leaves me with a free day to make what I’d like for the breaking of the fast tonight, and for Purim.  My plan today is to make hamantashen, which I have only made once in my life when I tried it in a dairy variety, dairy chocolate bobka and rugelach and Aranygaluska.  Wikipedia defines Aranygaluska as Hungarian sweet dumplings.  In actuality, it is balls of a rich yeast dough dipped in oil and rolled in ground walnuts.  It is then layered and baked in a tube pan and traditionally served (at least in homes of Hungarian background) on Purim.   We always had a (slightly overbaked ;)) Aranygaluska straight out of the oven on Purim.  It is similar to monkey bread which is a pull apart type of round shaped bread.  When I googled Aranygaluska, I saw a picture of one which had lekvar (prune jam) filling in each ball.  Although not authentic in my mother’s home, I think I will make it that way today since I love the lekvar filling and look for opportunities to use it.  I think the best option would be to freeze it raw and then thaw and bake it fresh on Purim morning.

This is a recipe that was printed in the Family First Magazine in March 5, 2008.  I tried it that year and must have been in one of my organized moments, because I found it just where I thought it would be and in a protective plastic sleeve. I am glad I was able to find it now.

 

ARANYGALUSKA

Ingredients

• 6 1/2 cups (2lbs + 4 oz) or 1 Kilo flour
• 1 cup margarine or butter, melted
• 6 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons vanilla sugar
• 3 tablespoons dry yeast
• 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
• 1 1/2 cups apple juice (use milk if making it dairy)
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

 

TOPPING:

• oil
• 3 cups choppped/ground walnuts
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 vanilla sugar

Directions

Place the flour, margarine, and sugars into a large bowl.  In a smaller bowl, pour the lukewarm water over the yeast and wait 2-3 minutes.  Add this to the flour, along with the apple juice, egg yolks, and salt.  Mix together until it forms a dough.  The dough should be soft and pliable.  Tranfer the dough to a bowl sprinkled generously with flour.  Cover and let the dough rise for 45 minutes.

After the dough is risen, transfer it to a work surface and roll it out gently to a 1/2-inch thickness.  Use a glass with a 3-inch rim and cut out circle.  Cover the circles and let them rest for 15 minutes.

Prepare two bowls.  Pour some oil into the first; in the second one, combine the walnuts with the sugar and vanilla sugar.

Lightly grease two tube pans with removable bottoms.  Working quickly, dip the dough circles into oil and then coat them with the nut/sugar mixture. Put the coated balls inside the pan to form layers.  Sprinkle additional nut mixture on top of each completed layer, until you have three layers in all.  The cake should reach about 3/4 of the height of the pan.  Repeat the same process with the second pan.  If using lekvar filling, put a teaspoon or two of the jam in the center of each round.  form into a ball, enclosing the filling.  Then dip in oil and nuts and described above.  Rise 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Bake for 45 minutes.  Let cool.  Use both hands to carefully remove the cake from around the tube.  Serve whole on a cake plate, and expect the balls to be pulled apart for eating.

yield: 2 cakes