The Woodstock Jewish Congregation Cookbook

The Woodstock Jewish Congregation Cookbook will be a collection of favorite recipes that capture our Congregation’s many cultures, backgrounds, and traditions at a time when we can’t be sharing our dishes around the same table.

For years the culinary expertise of our community has delighted us at our communal celebrations. Sephardic! Ashkenazi! Omnivorous!, Vegetarian! Vegan! Recipes from the Shtetl! Recipes from Brooklyn! Recipes from our grandparents, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, relatives, friends! Recipes you have created or made your own! Recipes for the stomach and from the heart.

If we seize this moment we will be ready for publishing through books on demand by November. Our cookbook will make a wonderful Hanukkah gift and is a partially tax-deductible fundraiser for WJC.

We envision a book of about 200 pages with recipes accompanied by short narratives describing associations with, or experiences of, cooking them. Small photographs and illustrations may be included.

Here are the guidelines:

The cookbook will be divided into these sections:

• Appetizers, Soups, and Salads
• Main Dishes
• Sides
• Holiday Dishes (e.g. Hanukkah, Pesach, Shavout, etc.)
• Desserts

Recipes may be passed down from family or friends or may be recipes that you have created or adapted and love enough to want to share.

Recipes should not be overly complicated. Make sure that directions are easy to follow.

You may also submit a small drawing or photograph to accompany your recipe. For example, it could be a photo of the person from whom you got the recipe, or a picture or drawing of the completed dish.

Please organize your recipes as follows:

1. Name of the recipe
2. Place of origin
3. Cookbook section in which you would like the recipe to be included
4. Your name and email address (Email addresses will not be published!)
5. A brief, 2 – 3 sentence narrative describing the source of the recipe or an anecdote related to it.
6. Ingredients with amounts using U.S. Standard measurements
7. Numbered step-by-step instructions
8. Helpful cooking tips
9. Recipes should be aligned with kosher cooking practices: please avoid using un-kosher meats or combining milk and meat.

We encourage you to cook each recipe before you submit it. Follow your own instructions to ensure that the recipe is complete, accurate, and clear! Send your recipes or questions to: WJCCookbook@gmail.com

You will receive notification that we have received your submission.

Here’s a sample of the format we’d like your recipes to follow:

Grandma Peppi’s Egg Noodles
Submitted by: Shana Zaslow (shana@anymail.com)
Origin: Shtetl in Bereg, Hungary
Include in: Soups, Salads, and Appetizers

Narrative
My Hungarian-born grandmother made her own noodles for Shabbos chicken soup rather than using the store-bought kind available in America. At 93, her gnarly, arthritic hands were deft as she swept the flour into the eggs and kneaded the dough until it was smooth, and could be rolled into a thin pancake and then cut into strips. She never measured amounts but I made noodles with her once, and measured “a handful” so we would have the recipe for the future.

Ingredients
1 cup all purpose flour plus more for rolling 2 large eggs
1⁄2 teaspoon of salt
Instructions
1. Mix the flour and salt together in a bowl or on a breadboard. Use your hand to make a well in the center.
2. Crack the eggs, one at a time, into a small bowl and check for a blood spot. If they are clean, drop them into the well in the center of the flour.
3. Use your hands to mix the ingredients together and knead them until they are soft and stretchable. Add a few drops of water if the mixture is too stiff, or more flour if it’s too moist to hold together. Best to add these a little at a time. (If you use a mixer with a bread hook you can use it for this step.)
4. Let the mixture rest under a clean tea towel for 10 or 15 minutes to let the flour absorb the liquid.
5. Lightly sprinkle flour on the counter or a breadboard, and place the dough on top. Dust the top with a little more flour. Roll it very thin, until it is about 1/16” thin. Try to keep the surface as even as possible. Let it dry for about 10 minutes.
6. Cut the dough into strips of the desired length and width.
7. Drop gently into boiling salted water or directly into soup, and cook for 5 minutes, or until tender.

Helpful Cooking Tips
Letting the dough “rest” for a while before rolling it out and cutting it into strips allows the flour to absorb the moisture. It also makes the rolled out dough easier to cut into noodles.