Shivat Ha'minim - The Seven Species

 In Jew-ville, we have seven types of grains and fruits and that I like to call the Shivat Ha’minim ­– in English, the 7 species. It also happens to be that the Torah (Bible) has the same label for them. These fruits and grains are the main produce of Israel and back in the ancient biblical times they were staples in the Israelite diet. They also played an important role in Jewish religion. During the times of the Temple, only the first fruits of these 7 species could be brought as offerings. These were known as the Bikkurim.

Fast forward to 2011. The seven species remain important, but do not dominate Israel produce like they used to. We do however have a tradition to enjoy the Shivat ha’minim on the holiday of Tu B’shvat. Tu B’shvat marks the New Year or the birthday of the trees, where they begin their fruit-bearing cycle. Many people celebrate this festival with a “seder” (not uncommon to the Passover seder), or a meal consisting of the 7 species..

And now to introduce these notorious 7 species..

** I can even provide a quote with a source (Deuteronomy/Dvarim 8:8) that cites Israel was “a land of wheat, barley, grapevines, figs, and pomegranates; a land of oil olives and date honey." **

Below each species is a little funky nutrition fact.

First up we have:

·         Wheat (chitah):

Whole wheat flour or white flour? It’s ironic that although whole wheat is healthier for us because it has undergone less processing and contains more vitamins and minerals, it is more expensive than its cousin – plain, white, flour which actually requires more processing, and therefore more labour. Just goes to show you that if we all start eating whole wheat, the demand will increase and the price will go down…one day we will get there..

·         Barley (se'orah)

Low GI. A topical area in the world of nutrition today – glycaemic index. And barley does in fact, have a low glycaemic index (25, where a GI of less than 55 is good)! Which is great news! Low glycaemic index means that the sugars in the food are broken down and released into your blood nice and slowly, so that you should stay full for a longer amount time. Remember this next time you are adding barley to a cholent..

·         Grapes (gefen), usually consumed as wine

Grapes contain an anti-oxidant called resveratrol. It comes along with a whole heap of benefits including protective effects against cancers of colon and prostate, coronary heart disease (CHD), degenerative nerve disease, Alzheimer's disease and viral/ fungal infections. Powerful stuff.

·         Figs (te'enah)

Oddly enough, figs are quite rich in calcium. In 100 grams of dried figs, you will get about 162 mg of calcium – that’s the amount of calcium in half a cup of milk. Try not to over consume on the dried figs though, you may find yourself running to the WC.

·         Pomegranates (rimon)

Awesome all-round nutritional powerhouses. Packed with fibre, Vitamin C, anti-oxidants and has been known to fight diseases like prostate cancer, heart disease and diabetes.

·         Olives (zayit), usually consumed in oil form

While olives are high in fat (about 80-85% of the calories in olives are from fat), it’s the good sort. Majority of the fat in olives is from oleic acid – which is a mono-unsaturated fat. In English, this fat helps with reducing the risk of heart disease by lowering bad (LDL) cholesterol levels in our body and decrease blood pressure.

·         Dates (tamar or d'vash)

Deliciously decadent dates. It’s amazing to think that despite their lavish, rich flavour they still have a lot on offer (nutritiously). They’ve quite famous for their laxative effect in assisting with constipation. They also contain a substance called “tannins” which have been known to have anti-inflammatory and anti-infective properties. They have a considertable amount of iron (0.9mg/100g). That being said, the iron derived from plants (known as non-heme iron) doesn’t get absorbed as easily as the iron from animal products (heme iron), so try not to rely on this as your primary source of iron.

There appears to be an “8^th species” – almonds. They are sortof an unofficial part of the seven species because they are closely related to Tu B’shvat. Almond trees are abundant in Israel and happen to bloom around the time of this festival. As a result they are often eaten together with the other members of the Shivat Ha’minim.

 

And that’s a wrap.

Shakshouka (shakshuka, shaqshuqa, chakchouka): North African dish consisting of poached or fried eggs cooked in a sauce of tomatoes, peppers, onions, and spices (often including cumin, turmeric, and chillies), and usually served with white bread

And my obsession with Israeli food continues...

What came first, the Shuk or the Shakshouka? There is hardly a café in Israel that doesn’t include a bit of shakshouka  on the menu. But today was one of those days where I felt like cooking it up myself. With summer having well and truly bid farewell and winter creeping up on us, I think it is time for something to warm up our hearts and spice up our spirits with this hearty dish.

A little bit of history..

The literal translation of shakshuka means “all mixed up”. Say it a few times over aloud. Seriously entertaining.

The dish is mainly made up of eggs, poached in a sauce of tomatoes, peppers, onions and spiced with cumin, salt, pepper and whatever else you fancy. Originally coming from countries like Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Algeria and Morocco it became popular in Israel from the Tunisian Jews.  Some people believe the dish was invented in the Ottoman Empire and spread throughout the Middle East – often served with a spicy sausage. Yummy yummy.

Two important rules come hand in hand with shakshouka

1)      It must be served in a cast iron pan that it was made in - for the authentic look

2)      Use bread to mop up the sauce

That’s it.

Apparently there's this new version out there called Chamshouka. When I first heard about this, I thought it was chummus mixed with shakshouka. It appears I was wrong. It happens to be a dish made of beef, nuts, onions and garlic. In the more hipster café’s, they also offer an option of “green” shakshouka. Sounds scary? Have no fear, it uses spinach to give it a green colour. I prefer the traditional version…

A Spot of Nutrition...

my home-made version

It happens to the best of us. Ordering Shakshouka for breakfast – BIG MISTAKE. Despite that being the popular option in this country, your body will not thank you for it. Too much oil, too early in the day. However, making your own shakshuka could be a really healthy meal. Here’s a few tips on how to DIY shakshuka the healthy way

1. If you have high cholesterol and are trying to cut back on the eggs, try using the egg whites only – or have one egg yolk and 2 egg whites.
2. Try and use a minimal amount of oil – even if it is a healthy oil, like olive oil or canola oil, oil is oil and oil is fat and fat will usually make you fat (if you have too much of it). So spray a little on the pan before you fry the onions, or if you’re using liquid oil just pour a little to cover the pan.
3. Take this opportunity to bump up your veggie intake. Ever heard of the recommendation of having 5 vegetables and 2 fruits a day? You could definitely squeeze in 2 or 3 vegetables in this one dish – besides for using the classic tomatoes and peppers, you could also throw in sweet potato, carrots, eggplant, zucchini – or anything really if you’re feeling adventurous. The other cool thing to know is that when tomatoes are cooked, they release a compound called “lycopene”, an antioxidant that will help our bodies fight off disease. So you actually get more nutrition out of cooked tomatoes, over raw tomatoes.
4. Eat slowly – because the dish is hot, it makes it easier to enjoy it nice and slowly. It also helps with making you feel full.
5. Eat with whole meal or wholegrain bread (skip the butter) and you get a full meal – eggs, vegetables and bread – what more could you want in life? Sprinkle some cheese on top for some bonus calcium.
6. Refer to previous blogpost on eggs: http://rantingsfromaranga.blogspot.com/2011/03/egg-roundish-reproductive-body-produced.html for more info on the nutrition they offer

Shakshouka from Marakiya

Fast: 1. To abstain from food. 2. To eat very little or abstain from certain foods, especially as a religious discipline.

Through the creation of this blog alone, it is a well-known fact that Jews love their food. A celebration doesn’t exist without food. It’s true that wine holds some importance, but food seems to steal the spotlight. There are however, a few days during the year where we abstain from all food and drink. In Christianity, there is such thing as a “partial fast” – Lenten, commemorating the fast of J.C in the desert, where meat and dairy are prohibited. In Islam, the 30 day fast known as Ramadan bans all food and drink every day until sundown. Judaism and fasting sit somewhere in between the two religions. We have 7 fast days during the year – 5 minor, and 2 major. There are a whole bunch of reasons for fasting, but considering it is Yom Kippur in a few days here is a little bit of a historical, or shall we say, biblical, background to the holiest day of the year..

A little bit of history...

As is quoted in Leviticus 23:27, on the 10th day of the month of Tishrei, "You should do no work throughout that day. For it is a Day of Atonement ("Yom Kippurim") on which expiation is made on your behalf before the Lord your God.  Indeed, any person who does not practice self-denial throughout that day shall be cut off from his people..”

Great, now that we have the biblical reference, here’s a little bit of an explanation of Yom Kippur (the lite version).

The translation of the word “Yom Kippur” literally means a Day of Atonement. For many Jews – it’s probably the most important day of the Jewish year. Even those who don’t observe any other customs or holidays, will fast and refrain from any work. The reason we call it a Day of Atonement (classic Biblical term) is because it’s set aside for us to atone for all our sins we have done in the past year. The new year begins with Rosh Hashana, a 2 day Holiday where we pray for a sweet year ahead. Ten days later, comes along this awe-some day of Yom Kippur – our fate is finally sealed. No going back. That’s it. C’est ca. G-d makes his decision, and we can’t do anything about it. So Yom Kippur becomes our last chance to change the destiny of our upcoming year.

It’s quite common, that in the days leading up to Yom Kippur people ask each other for forgiveness for anything they have done. There’s also the somewhat barbaric custom of Kapparot where we swing chickens around our head, asking the Big Man up in the Sky to exchange the chickens life instead of our own. A lot of people feel that swinging chickens around is a little outlandish and tend to use money or fish instead. Understandably so..

In addition to refraining from all food and drink there’s a few more prohibitions, of one them being banned from wearing leather shoes – you’ll often spot the Jews walking around in canvas shoes on Yom Kippur, pulled out once a year for the occasion. 

A Spot of Nutrition...

A lot of people seem to like the notion of fasting for a day. They feel it’s cleansing, or a detox – especially in the case of a fast like Tzom Gedliyah, one day post Rosh Hashana where we have been stuffing our stomachs with food beyond their capacities. It’s evident that there is some sort of spiritual benefit to fasting, but is there any physical benefit to fasting?

Apparently there are! Certain people fast on a weekly basis to help with longevity, as depriving our body of food for a day, or short amount of time, slows down the “clocks” inside our cells that trigger ageing, and as a result keeps our organs youthful. There are also theories that suggest short fasts (20-36 hours) can reduce risks of some diseases such as heart disease and diabetes, and that they can improve insulin sensitivity. In English, this means your cells are more sensitive and do a better job of keeping your blood sugar levels stable after eating.

At the same time, starving your body of food makes it really difficult to make intellectual decisions about what to eat, as your body craves instant energy – usually in the form of cakes, chocolate, biscuits or anything high in sugar.

Now here is a bit of science about what happens to our body when we fast. A fast technically occurs after 12 hours of not eating, when the body uses the carbohydrate and fat stores as energy. Once the body starts to use protein stores – this would be considered starvation, rather than fasting (which is what happens in the case of someone with anorexia or untreated diabetes). In other words – any benefits that come along with fasting, definitely do not come along with starvation.

Many advocates of fasting claim that because there is no food entering the body, the body is able to undergo detoxification and break down fat stores. It has no choice – there is nothing else coming in. When the body breaks down this fat, there are other chemicals stored along with the fat released that are also eliminated through this process. Pretty cool? The other benefit that comes along with fasting is some sort of a healing process. Instead of energy going toward the digestive system to digest the food we eat, it goes toward the metabolism and the immune system. The body is also better at repairing any damaged cells. Think of a time when you were sick or physically hurt – you usually lose your appetite because your body is using its energy to fix itself rather than eat and digest.

Despite these proposed benefits, there continues to be many doctors that deny these points and claim that fasting is actually detrimental. When it comes to anything on nutrition – there will always be controversy.

The traditional Friday night dinner – a calorific nightmare.

With the Jewish Holi(y?)day season coming up, our stomachs are gearing up for what lies ahead. Food. Food. Food. And more

Food.

During the year, we are used to feasting every week over the Shabbat (Sabbath). However, during the upcoming month – we endure an extra 2 days a week of intensive eating, not that I’m complaining.

But getting back to the lovely Friday night meal...I thought I’d talk about this nutritious-nightmare we face on a weekly basis.

To start off, we eat our meal late at night. It consists of about 5 courses. We start the meal with drinking wine on an empty stomach. We also usually go straight to sleep after the meal, only to wake up the next day and do it all again.

And here’s something you’ve probably known but chosen to ignore. This delightful dinner easily contains about a days worth of calories or kilojoules (assuming a normal adult needs 2000 calories/day or 8000 kilojoules)

Let me break it down..

1 glass of wine – 109 cal

2 slices of sweet challah – 343 cal

2 tbs chummus (there is no such thing as challah without chummus) – 74 cal

1 piece of gefilte fish – 73 cal

1 spoon of chrein – 10 cal

1 tbsp mayo – 148 cal (being a little generous with the mayo)

½ cup of  garden salad – not much, but watch out for any salad croutons, nuts, oily/mayonnaise-y dressings..

1 bowl of chicken soup – 153 cal

1 matzohball – 84 cal

Handful of soup noodles – 90 cal

1 piece of roast chicken – 294 cal

1 piece of kugel – 250 cal

1/3 cup tzimmes – 150 cal

2 scoops of pareve israeli bright coloured ice cream – 200 cal

A whopping total of………..

1978 calories.. (in Australian terms – 8307 kilojoules)

Yikes

Ok, that might be a slight exaggeration. But pretty close to the truth as well. Especially if you drink a few more glasses of wine, and eat a few more pieces of challah..

The meals over the holidays closely resemble this traditional Friday night meal, with a few exceptions. The challah is round. We dip it in honey. We eat weird fruits, and lots of sweet honey-like foods. But essentially, its quite similar.

So here are a few tips on how to take it easy over the Holiday season and give your stomach a break.

-          Try to have one slice of challah, and save room for other food

-          If spreading a dip on the challah – spread thinly

-          Avoid having soup noodles/niblets/matzoh balls/kreplach in your soup

-          If you can handle it, leave out one course at each meal. E.g. skip fish course or dessert. Actually, it’s probably a good idea to generally skip dessert, or just stick to fruit.

-          If you have a choice of fried or baked fish, choose the baked variety.

-          Aim to have only one serving of the foods that are being offered

-          Watch out for alcohol intake, and on that note...leave out any soft drinks. Water is awesome

-          If there are a choice of a few salads – choose the ones that without a mayonnaise based dressing.

-          And probably the best advice – only eat with interesting people. Boredom at a meal usually leads to overcompensating with eating. Better to keep your mouth busy with talking.

On that note, enjoy yourself – don’t over think it too much or you might drive yourself crazy!

Pome·gran·ate [pom-gran-it, pom-i-, puhm-] a chambered, many-seeded, globose fruit, having a tough, usually red rind and surmounted by a crown of calyx lobes, the edible portion consisting of pleasantly acid flesh developed from the outer seed coat.

The Jewish New Year is fast approaching. As with every Jewish festival – food plays a pivotal roll, Rosh Hashana being no exception. In fact, it is probably one of the holidays that brings with it the most symbols, many relating to blessings for a prosperous, healthy new year. Some foods included in this holiday are honey cake, apple dipped in honey, the head of a fish (my favourite), round challot, tsimmes (see blog post: http://rantingsfromaranga.blogspot.com/2011/02/tzimmes-tsim-is-also-tsimmes-jewish.html), and the not-so-humble pomegranate. As September rolls around, the markets in Israel are bursting with pomegranates. I was extremely disheartened when my first pomegranate I purchased in this country turned out to be black inside. 

A little bit of history...

Here’s a cool little Greek myth about the pomegranate

“…In the story of Persephone, daughter of the harvest goddess Demeter, Hades, the lord of the underworld, kidnapped the beautiful maiden. Because she ate a few pomegranate seeds before being rescued, she had to spend several months every year in the underworld with him. According to the myth, that’s when the earth was forced to endure winter…” Intriguing..

So what is the symbolism of eating pomegranates (or in Hebrew Rimonim) on the Jewish New Year?

To start off, we generally eat new fruit on the second night of the festival in honour of the new year. Because pomegranates are in season at this time of year, they are often one of the new fruits we enjoy. Growing up, I was always excited for the fruits that would show up on our dinner table. Celebrating the new year in Australia meant that our seasonal fruit differ to those of the Holy Land. However, we needed not to despair as pomegranates are always imported to Australia from Israel (at a generous price of course) specifically for the occasion. Aside from being in season, in the Torah (Bible), Israel is highly praised from its pomegranates.

Going into more of a symbolic approach, pomegranates apparently contain 613 seeds – representing the desire we should have in the new year to fulfill the 613 mitzvot commanded to us by G-d. As convenient as that parallel sounds, I challenge you to count the seeds in the pomegranate and see if this number is really correct.

The abundance of seeds also symbolize fertility, while the sweetness alludes to having a sweet new year. 

A Spot of Nutrition...

It is unsurprising to find that the illustrious pomegranate with its ruby red coating and glistening red seeds inside is brimming with nutrients. It has been known to rank as one of the top “superfoods”. Many people assume that super foods are some sort of magical food that when consumed will provide us with all the nutrition we need in one go. Wrong. A super food is really just a food that has an exceptionally large amount of certain nutrient(s). Some examples are acai berries, salmon, avocado, beetroot and yoghurt. The reason pomegranates merit such a name is because of their health benefits they offer such as improving heart health, protection against prostate cancer (lucky for us girls), delaying the progression of arthritis, assistance with diabetes, lowering cholesterol and blood pressure, reducing the risk of Alzheimers, reducing plaque formation, helping with diarrhoea (wow that was a mouthful!) and the big one – the massive amount of antioxidants they contain. Antioxidants are really good at reducing the risk of cancer by fighting off unstable little molecules in our body called “free radicals”.

Check out the nutrition information for pomegranates:

Nutrition Facts
whole fruit, 8cm diameter, 154g (88g) oz g
(What's CD) CD:
Calories 70      ( Kilojoules 290 )
		% Daily Value*
Total Fat	0.2 g	0%
Saturated Fat	0 g	0%
Trans Fatty Acids	0 g
Cholesterol	0 mg	0%
Sodium	4 mg	0%
Carbohydrate	11.9 g	4%
Sugars	11.9 g
Dietary Fibre	5.6 g	23%
Protein	1.7 g
Calcium	12.3 mg
Potassium	184.8 mg
Note: A dash indicates no data is available.

Impressive? If you want to try something different this year

jazz up your Rosh Hashana Table with this Pomegranate Sangria..

Ingredients:

·                         1 L pomegranate juice

·                         2 cups papaya or mango juice (substitute apple if necessary)

·                         1 orange

·                         6-8 strawberries

·                         2 kiwis

·                         1 mango or papaya

·                         1/2 cup sugar

Preparation:

Mix juices and sugar until sugar dissolves. Wash orange and berries and slice into thin slices. Remove mango or papaya skin and cut fruit into chunks. Remove kiwi skin and cut into thick slices. Place all fruit into juice and let flavors meld in fridge for 2-3 hours or overnight before serving.

One word of advice: pomegranate wine = not good.

And just in case you were wondering the best way to seed a pomegranate ...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpiLZHlXErM


Happy New Year to All!!

Hook•ah [hoo k-uh] noun A tobacco pipe of near Eastern origin with a long, flexible tube by which the smoke is drawn through a jar of water and thus cooled.

Before delving any further I must confess that since my residence in Israel (and the few weeks pre-arrival) it would appear that all my blog posts have been related to Israeli/Sephardic food. Being surrounded by this refreshingly foreign cuisine has left me with no choice but to write about it. Apologies to those who miss the ol’ Ashkenazi, European Jewish cuisine – it will be returning soon…watch this space.

And now back to what I was originally talking about.

Otherwise known as nargileh (נרגילה) by the Israelies, sheesha (شيشة‎) if you’re Egyptian and kalian for anyone that comes from Persia. And just for the hell of it, here a bunch of other names for it: chillim, borry, arhile, galyan, gudugudaa and my favourite – hubble bubble.

It may not be technically considered a food or a beverage, but it certainly is treated like it. Whether it accompanies a solo antiquated Sabra or a group of young Israeli teenagers, it is hard to miss this symbolic waterpipe making an appearance in the streets, bars, parks and beaches of Israel. Personally, I’m not the biggest fan of the device  but it still manages to fascinate me.

A little bit of history…

The origins of the Nargileh traces all the way back to Pakistan, India. The word “Nargileh” is derived from the Persian word nārghile, meaning coconut, possibly because early hookahs were made from coconut shells. In fact, these ancient hookahs hardly compare to the elaborate ones you see today (of course I know this because I was around a few 100 years ago). Their original use was mainly for smoking opium and hashish. Once the hookah rocked up in Turkey it became extremely popular amongst the upper class and intellectuals. Its design became more complex and beautiful. Hookah started to enter coffee shops where the waiter who prepared the hookah required a lot of skill. People also started to use them to smoke “tombeik” – a dark type of tobacco, and rules were developed around nargile etiquette. The tobacco (sheesha) is generally soaked in honey to make it moist and sticky.

In today’s’ world, while there is a range of different hookah etiquettes, it has managed to spread all over the world and is essentially a social activity.

A spot of Nutrition…

One of the most common questions people tend to ask about nargileh in terms of health, is whether or not it is comparable to smoking.

So.

Is it?

Good question.

One thing is for sure – smoking tobacco through a hookah pipe definitely ain’t safe. A lot of people think that the water used in the pipe captures the toxins from the tobacco, preventing the smoker from being exposed to them. What actually happens, is that the water cools the smoke down, making it feel less harsh. But cool smoke doesn’t really equal healthy or safe smoke.

Here’s another fact. In one smoking session, the average hookah smoker inhales the equivalent of roughly 100 cigarettes. There is a whole plethora of negative aspects to the hookah pipe (full of toxins, leads to addiction, linked to oral cancer, spreads infectious disease, dangers with secondhand smoke, blablabla – refer to this: http://www.who.int/tobacco/global_interaction/tobreg/Waterpipe%20recommendation_Final.pdf

 If you are interested)... however, as I continuously ask in this blog – is there anything beneficial, or “nutritious” (even though I wouldn't necessarily dub a nargileh pipe as nutrition).

Herbal Hookah is an option you could go for if you want to avoid the nicotine. They’re infused with natural flavour like peach, mint, raspberry, apple and blackberry. No tobacco. Just the experience. Simply divine. Apparently some herbal varieties can be used to treat certain illnesses. At the same time, the exposure to tars, charcoal and carcinogens still remains.

Bottom line? It probably isn’t very good for you. I’m guessing that wasn’t something you didn’t know..