Table Talk: Cooking for a cause

By CLAIRE HOPLEY

Published on November 27, 2009

For the last 20 years Amherst resident Karen Loeb and a group of volunteers have catered events to raise funds for Project Rehovot, which helps immigrants to Israel learn Hebrew and settle into their new country. Right now they are readying a Middle Eastern feast to be served after the upcoming concert "A Celebration of Jewish Music," scheduled for 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 6, at the Jewish Community of Amherst.

Well-known Middle Eastern favorites such as hummus and baba ghanoush are among the dishes they will serve, with special touches that make them unusually delicious.

"We make a parsley oil to garnish the hummus, and the eggplant for the baba ghanoush is smoked first on my husband's wood cooker before being pureed with other ingredients," said Loeb, who is co-chair of the Project Rehovot Committee.

Other less familiar items on the menu include an enticing Egyptian chocolate cake, filled with cinnamon cream, a Moroccan fish tagine, and fattoush, which is a Midde Eastern salad of bread with tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers, highlighted with lots of parsley and mint.

Loeb prides herself on using fresh, high-quality ingredients, scouring local markets for them and also often buying specialties from further afield.

"I like to shop at Sevan's, an Armenian store in Watertown, for olives, halva and spices," she said, "and at Costco, where I get great Greek feta."

Locally, she gets the grilled sliced peppers and preserved lemon she uses in her tagine from Whole Foods Market. She also shops at Maple Farms in Hadley.

"It's Turkish-owned and they bake wonderful fresh pita bread every day," she said. "Once,ﾠwhen I was shopping there the owner asked me what I was making. When I told him it was a tagine, he said,ﾠ'Be sure to take some of those olives andﾠsmash them into the charmula; it gives it a wonderful flavor.' It was a great suggestion and I've made it that way ever since. People always ask for that recipe after eating it."

Project Rehovot was founded by Amherst resident Yaffa Gunner, whose husband Haim, now a professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, was working at the Weitzman Institute of Science in Rehovot in 1989.

Droves of immigrants were arriving from the former Soviet Union and facing the inevitable difficulties of living in a new country and learning its language. To help children get a foothold, Yaffa Gunner began raising funds to give them additional tuition in Hebrew in the local school.

"When I visited the Project Rehovot classroom in 1996 and 2000 it was absolutely clear to me that I am doing a good thing with my time, helping to raise money for the teacher's salary," said Loeb.

Today most new immigrants to Israel come from Ethiopia, and Project Rehovot continues to help by funding a part-time teacher/therapist who works with small groups of kids in Ma'alot Meshulam school.

"These kids have an extremely difficult time learning Hebrew, since their mother tongue is Amharic," said committee co-chair Marilyn Kushick, who is organizing the musical side of the upcoming event.

"They also find it hard transitioning from the agrarian society of Ethiopia - where they had no school and mostly lived in huts without electricity or water - to the fast-paced, technologically advanced Israeli society," she said.

A few years ago Kushick had first-hand experience with Operation Solomon, which brought over 14,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel in the space of a few weeks.ﾠ

"Our family happened to have scheduled a trip to Israel at that time," Kushick said.ﾠ "We volunteered to help distribute clothing to the newcomers. They were so grateful and so dignified.ﾠ They had absolutely nothing but the clothes on their backs when they were allowed to escape."

A Celebration of Jewish Music will include Jewish songs from around the world, sung by Mak'hela, the Jewish Chorus of Western Massachusetts, conducted by Kayla Werlin, and the UMass a cappella group Kolot. Klezamir members Amy Rose and Jason Moses, and the Toronto-based Hu-Tsa-Tsa Klezmer Band will perform klezmer music, and Henry Lappen performs as Henry the Juggler.

Add to this the chance to join in Israeli folk dancing, and to enjoy the delectable Middle Eastern menu prepared by Loeb and other volunteers, and this event looks to be one of the highlights of December.

Tickets are $5 for children and students, and $10 for the general public. They will be available at the door of the Jewish Community of Amherst at 742 Main St. at 3:45 p.m. on Dec. 6. For more information, call 253-0336.

To try some of the dishes at home, here are three recipes contributed by Karen Loeb.

FISH TAGINE

To speed preparation along, Loeb said that she often buys the pepper strips from Whole Foods market in Hadley.

For the charmula (marinade):

4 cloves of garlic

1 level teaspoon of sea salt

2 teaspoons ground cumin

Juice of one lemon

1/2 tablespoon red wine vinegar

1 tsp. of paprika

1 small bunch fresh cilantro, roughly chopped (or parsley because some people do not like the taste of cilantro)

1 tablespoon olive oil

Mash 2 cloves of garlic and the salt until it forms a smooth paste. You can do this with a mortar and pestle. Add cumin, followed by lemon juice, vinegar, paprika, cilantro, 1/4 cup of the pitted olives and olive oil.

For the Tagine:

2 pounds any white fish

20 small potatoes

3 tablespoons olive oil

15 cherry tomatoes halved

4 grilled peppers sliced into strips

1 cup of black, oily olives (pitted)

Sea salt and pepper

1/2 cup of water

Rub two-thirds of the charmula mixture into the fish and let stand in the fridge for 20 minutes to 2 hours. Boil the potatoes in salted water for 10-15 minutes until just tender. Drain and cut in half, lengthwise.

In a medium saucepan, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over a medium heat and brown the remaining garlic lightly. Add tomatoes and toss until they begin to soften. Stir in peppers and the remaining marinade and check for seasoning.

In a sauce pan with a lid, spread the potatoes over the bottom. Scatter on top three-quarters of the peppers and tomato mixture. Place the marinated fish on top. Add the water and drizzle the remaining olive oil over the fish. Add olives. Cook over medium-to-high flame until fish is done (10-15 minutes.)

FATTOUSH

This popular Middle Eastern salad will serve six to eight. The recipe can be multiplied for larger groups. Sumac, optional in this recipe, is a Middle Eastern spice with a slightly tart taste.

2 large stale pita breads, torn into 2-inch pieces or 2 cups pita chips

1 English cucumber, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes

salt to taste

1 pound ripe tomatoes (about 3) cut into 1/2-inch cubes

6 scallions, cut into 1/4-inch slices

1 red bell pepper, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1/2-cup coarsely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1/3 cup chopped fresh mint

2 large cloves garlic, minced

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

freshly ground black pepper

lemon zest from one lemon

2 hearts of romaine

2 tsp. crushed sumac (optional)

If you are using stale pita breads, heat oven to 375 degrees. Spread the torn pita on a baking sheet in a single layer and bake until dry, 10 to 15 minutes. Cool.

Spread the cucumber pieces on a paper towel and sprinkle with salt. Let stand to extract the bitter juices about 20 minutes. Put the cucumbers in a strainer and rinse with cold water. Pat dry.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the cucumbers, tomatoes, scallions, red pepper, parsley, mint and zest. Whisk together the garlic, lemon juice, and olive oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Toss this dressing with the vegetables, toss in the pita bread or chips. Spread the salad on a serving platter and sprinkle with sumac if desired.

EGYPTIAN CHOCOLATE CAKE WITH CINNAMON WHIPPED CREAM

2 cups sifted cake flour

2 teaspoon baking powder

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

pinch of ground cloves

4 oz. semi-sweet, good quality chocolate like Caillebaut

1/2 cup espresso or other strong coffee

1/2 cup (2 sticks) butter

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter 2 8-inch cake pans and line with waxed or parchment paper.

Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and cloves in a medium size bowl.

Combine chocolate and coffee in a small saucepan. Cook over low heat until the chocolate is melted, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.

Cream the butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl, until light yellow and fluffy. Using an electric mixer on medium speed, add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla and chocolate mixture.

Add dry ingredients alternately with milk to the creamed mixture, beating to incorporate each addition. Pour batter into baking pans and bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Cool in pans on racks for 10 minutes, then remove from pans and cool on racks.

Ice the cake in the middle of each layer and on top with freshly whipped cream or Cinnamon Whipped Cream (recipe follows).

CINNAMON WHIPPED CREAM

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups heavy whipping cream

Combine cream, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and beat with an electric mixer set at high speed until soft peaks form.