By Emily Moore, JTNews Correspondent
How is Mount Sinai like cheese? When are fruits a sacrifice? Is there significance in a long, four-cornered wheat bread? The food-centric story of Shavuot holds the answers.
These days, Shavuot is known as the “dairy holiday.” It’s a time to make luscious cheese blintzes and cheese-filled bourekas, and to bake up our ultimate cheesecake fantasies. Before the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, however, wheat, barley and the fruits of Israel were held front and center in the holiday.
In those times, Shavuot was a harvest festival that marked the culmination of the “counting of the Omer,” or sheaves. The counting still begins on the second day of Passover — traditionally with the start of the barley harvest — and lasts seven weeks until the first day of the wheat harvest and the time of the ripening of the “first fruits” of Israel.
In Hebrew, incidentally, Shavuot simply means “weeks.”
With great celebration, Jews from all the regions surrounding Jerusalem would parade to the Temple behind oxen decorated with gold and flowers and laden with sheaves of the first wheat harvest. Fruits and oblong, square-cornered breads made from the flour of the spring wheat were brought from all over and given to the Temple priests to make sacrificial offerings to God. A very joyous spring harvest!
To commemorate those early Shavuot harvests, here are some recipes for your own celebration. The first, a cherry-mint cocktail for cool sipping during the warm June Shavuot evenings is my modern homage to the “first fruit” cherry harvest in Israel and — very soon — in Washington State. The other, lavash, a Middle Eastern wheat cracker-bread, is ancient, flat and long with square corners and seeds on top.
So how did cheese find its way onto the Shavuot table? As is so often true with traditional Jewish eating, the spiritual path came first. After the destruction of the Second Temple, there was nowhere to bring the harvest sacrifices. Religious leaders had to find an embellished significance for the festival, which had long been integrated in the Jewish calendar and could not just be overlooked.
Because the holiday falls in the month of Sivan, which is when it is said the 10 Commandments were given to the Hebrews-in-exile at the foot of Mt. Sinai, the holiday commemorates the revelation of God’s will.
The counting of the “weeks” took on a weightier significance as the period of time between the Exodus and the giving of the Commandments.
Since the Torah is seen to have had its foundation in the 10 Commandments, Shavuot has evolved as the festival of “the season of the giving of our Torah.” With Mount Sinai and the advent of the Torah comes the reason for eating cheese!
Many claim that the dairy tradition has its roots in the giving, according to Deuteronomy, of “a land flowing with milk and honey.”
Another view is that when the Jews returned to their encampments from the sojourn to Mount Sinai, they found that the milk they’d left behind had soured and had to be made into cheese. At the same time, their animals needed to be milked, giving them a surplus of milk and the beginning of a tradition.
Still another explanation is that Mount Sinai, in Psalms 68:16-17 is described as “mountain of peaks” or har gavnunim in Hebrew. “Gavnunim” means “many-peaked” but also has the same root as gevinah, the Hebrew word for cheese. Following this line of thought, it could be said that Mount Sinai is sort of a “mountain of cheese.” Or, at least, after having received the Commandments there, the Jews were in a mind to make a lingual connection between the mountain and the cheese!
The most likely reason for the Shavuot-dairy connection might simply be agricultural: as cows and goats were turned out at this time each year to graze in the spring grass, their milk naturally increased. What better way to use up the excess than to eat at least one or two all-dairy meals during the holiday?
It’s wonderful to contemplate the richness of the Shavuot culinary traditions as you munch on these lovely traditional cheese turnovers. Try spooning on a lemony crème fraiche — found at your finer grocery stores — to enhance the flavors.
Sweet and Sour Cherry-Mint Cocktail
By Emily Moore/Emily’s Kitchen
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
6 c cherries
1/2 c sugar
1-1/2 c water
2 limes, juice only
10 mint sprigs, crushed
Pureé the cherries in a food processor bowl or blender jar until finely chopped.
Pour into a bowl and let settle for 10 minutes or until the pulp sinks too the bottom.
Meanwhile, dissolve the sugar in the water in a medium saucepot and bring to a boil.
Add the mint sprigs, setting aside the tops for garnish.
Strain the cherry juice through cheesecloth, squeezing well to extract all the juice.
Add the pulp to the mint syrup, bring back to a boil and simmer 10 to 15 minutes.
Let steep until cool, strain and add the cherry juice.
Add lime juice to taste, pour over ice in chilled glasses and garnish with mint sprigs.
Makes 8 servings
Per serving: 108 Calories; 1g Fat (4 percent calories from fat); 1g Protein; 27g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol; 3mg Sodium
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Lavash
By Emily Moore (Traditional recipe)
Preparation time: 1 hour, 30 minutes
2-1/2 c water, warmed
1 Tbsp dry yeast (or one package)
1 Tbsp sugar or honey
2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp pure olive oil
2 Tbsp thyme leaves, dried or fresh
3-1/2 c flour, all-purpose or bread
3-1/2 c flour, whole wheat
1/2 c poppy, sesame fennel and/or onion seeds, to sprinkle on top
1 egg, beaten
In a large bowl, mix the warm water and the sugar. Sprinkle the yeast over the water’s surface and let dissolve and proof for 15 minutes (don’t stir).
Add the salt, olive oil, thyme and the white flour and beat the batter 50 times.
Cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap and let sit in a warm spot (an oven turned to 350º for 10 mins then turned off works well).
Beat in the rest of the flour, adding more if necessary to form a medium-soft dough.
Turn the dough out and knead for a few minutes until it’s not sticky and has formed a smooth ball.
Oil the bread bowl, put in the ball of dough and turn it over so that the oiled surface faces up. Cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour or so (or let rise in the fridge overnight and make the lavash in the morning).
If you use a bread machine, put all the ingredients into the machine at once and process according to the machine’s directions up to this point. Take the dough out and process by hand from here on.
Divide the dough into 4 pieces for easier handling. Roll each piece into a rectangle about 1/8” thick (use a pats roller if you have one). Trim the edges to make square corners and brush evenly with the beaten egg.
Sprinkle all over with the seeds and transfer to a lightly oiled cookie sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough pieces and let the lavash rise about 15 minutes.
Bake at 350º for 15 to 20 minutes ,or until bubbled and nicely golden brown. Should be rather crisp — break into pieces to eat, just like the Shavuot pilgrims in Second Temple days!
Note: You can use all whole-wheat flour if you like.
Makes 8 servings
Per serving: 454 Calories; 6g Fat; (12 percent calories from fat); 13g Protein; 86g Carbohydrate; 27mg Cholesterol; 103mg Sodium
Cheese Bourekas
By Claudia Roden (Traditional recipe)
Preparation time: 45 minutes
Bourekas Pastry:
1/2 c sunflower or vegetable oil
1/2 c warm water
1/2 tsp salt
2-1/2 c all-purpose flour, more or less
1 egg yolk, to glaze turnovers
Sesame seeds, optional to decorate tops
Cheese Filling:
1/2 lb feta cheese, sieved
1/2 lb ricotta cheese (or parmesan, romano, havarti, gouda, edam, cheddar, kasseri or cottage cheese), grated or sieved. You can use any combination of these, equal to 1 lb.
1/2 tsp white pepper, or to taste
To make and roll the pastry:
Mix the oil, water and salt together in a large bowl with a fork. Add enough flour to make a soft dough that has the feel and texture of your ear lobe, no stiffer.
You may roll the dough immediately. To keep, cover with plastic wrap and store at room temperature. Do not refrigerate.
Divide the dough into three pieces. The dough is quite oily and must be rolled out without flour; the oil will keep it from sticking to the rolling pin or counter.
Roll as thin as you can (1/8” or so) and cut into 4” circles (gather the scraps and re-roll).
Put a heaping teaspoon of filling (see below) in the center of each circle, fold the dough over the filling to make half moons and press the edges together to seal. Roll the seam up and crimp to finish the seal or press with the tines of a fork. Brush tops with egg yolk mixed with a few tsps of water and sprinkle with sesame, if desired.
Bake on oiled cookie sheets at 350º for 30 minutes or until golden. Serve hot or cold. Bourekas reheat and freeze perfectly.
To make the filling:
Mix all ingredients together until smooth. If you use a food processor, don’t overmix or the cheese may become gummy.
Makes 6 servings
Per serving: 526 Calories; 32g Fat (56 percent calories from fat); 15g Protein; 43g Carbohydrates; 88mg Cholesterol; 634 mg Sodium
Emily Moore is a local chef with 30 years’ experience, including 13 years in local and regional restaurants. Her business, Emily’s Kitchen, provides culinary services to all facets of the food industry and catering to the Jewish community. She also currently teaches Culinary Arts at Edmonds Community College.