A world pandemic, the passing of the Commonwealth’s bubbe, HRH The Queen, plus the prospect of stratospheric heating bills this winter means we’re all in need of some consolation.
So the recent publication of Modern Jewish Comfort Food by US food writer Shannon Sarna is perfectly timed.
“I wrote it during the height of the pandemic,” she tells me. “People’s attitudes were like, ‘It’s hard, we need comfort food right now, we need real food.’”
The New Jersey-based mother of three, editor of top US Jewish food website The Nosher, says that what’s modern about the recipes is that they reflect the current culinary repertoire for many US Jewish cooks. “It’s a snapshot of foods in our midst right now.”
Tahini apple crumble
Tahini apple crumble is pure comfort Photo: Doug Schneider
Sarna’s path to Jewish food maven was not an obvious one. Although she loved eating, as a child she had minimal interest in preparing it. “I started cooking after my mom died when I was 16. I kinda had to, because I had two younger siblings and I had to feed them — a lot.”
It was when she went to college that cooking became a passion: “My entry point to really loving to cook was in college when I started baking challah.
“I sort of fell in love it and that inspired me into wanting to learn how to make more dishes.”
Initially the baking was just for family: “It was in some ways very therapeutic at a time when life was a little hard and sad after my mom died.”
Food writing was not her original career plan. She studied Spanish, French, Russian and comparative government at college before moving to Washington DC to work in politics. She shifted over to the charitable sector, working for a Jewish philanthropist. The work involved telling stories online and via social media to publicise the work of her employer’s foundation.
“I had a really fantastic mentor, an Israeli lady called Donna, who I’m still close with, who really pushed me and encouraged me into writing — something my mother had also done. It was life-changing for me.”
The charity she was working for helped support her further education in journalism and social media strategy. “For me the entry point into food media was really through my expertise in social media,” she explains. She started a food blog and was approached by US website My Jewish Learning to write one for them. “That was 11 years ago — when The Nosher was born.”
Shakshuka
It's not just Ashkenazi soul foood shared by Sharna Photo: Doug Schneider
The Nosher is now well-established and has given Sarna the know-how to bring bubbe’s menu bang up to date. While respecting classics she has also given them her own twist. “Some of the recipes in the book are a little playful. A mash-up of different dishes or my fun take on them.”
Chicken soup inspires kosher chicken ramen; schnitzel becomes coconut-crusted schnitzel fingers and fish schnitzel sandwiches. As you might expect, it’s with a slightly American flavour (there’s a whole chapter on the knish) but the book centres on heimishe favourites including stuffed vegetables, kugels, latkes and kreplach plus a plethora of puddings and bakes.
Friends and family helped with authenticity, sharing their family’s versions of recipes such as Gina’s Hungarian noodle kugel — topped with egg whites, ground nuts, sugar and lemon zest. And the crunchy schnitzel was made by her husband’s grandma, Baba Billie, who used to feed it to her grandchildren as a snack before she gave them Shabbat dinner.
Most could not be described as health food, as Sarna admits with no shame. “I’m not advocating this as the kind of food you’ve eat every day, but I think that there’s nothing wrong with nourishing ourselves and nourishing our loved ones with a comforting dish that feeds our bodies and feeds our souls.”
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In her view, our traditional menu is so reassuring because it stems from our roots. “We were poor, we didn’t have a lot, so we threw what scraps we had together, and the results were delicious.” It’s a theme that runs through many traditional foods including her late Italian-American mother’s family food, which inspires a chapter on meatballs.
She grew up eating both cuisines: “We’d go to Ben’s Deli in Queens and I learned eggplant parm [aubergine parmigiana] and meatballs with my mom — I got a bit of everything growing up.”
She ate Ashkenazi at her grandma’s house. “Bubbe Phoebe, who will be 98 next month (peh, peh, peh), made matzah ball soup, kugel, brisket, stuffed cabbage and chopped liver, chopped liver, chopped liver!”
The book is dedicated to Bubbe Phoebe. Not, Sarna explains, because of her delicious food — “she wasn’t a great cook” — but for the love she poured into her grandchildren. “I was half-Jewish and other families may have made me and my siblings feel ‘other’. My grandparents never made me feel ‘less than’. They loved me absolutely and loved my mom. It was because of them that I embraced my own Jewish identity … the dedication is about her love.”
She includes clear instructions and step-by-step photographs, which were popular in her first book. “We’re trained by social media to learn visually, so it was important to have those visual cues. It gives people confidence how to make recipes, especially ones that are not so familiar like Georgian Meat Khinkali [fat stuffed, pleated dumplings].”
With long winter nights looming, this is the book to help us through them. Rib-sticking shtetl favourites to keep us warm — physically and emotionally too.
Modern Jewish Comfort Food (Countryman Press) / Instagram: @shasarna
