By Ellisha Caplan, Member of the Jewish LIVING Delaware Advisory Committee
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This past December, my family and I attended a Chanukah party at my cousins Josh Weisberg and Rivka Glazer’s house in Parkton, Maryland. Their house was filled to the gills with family, both close and extended. Everyone who RSVP’d was told that there would be latkes, a White Elephant gift exchange for those who wished to participate, the chance to contribute toiletry items for Baltimore’s homeless population, and instructed to bring some type of dish to share.
The food was fantastic. There were delicious soft cheeses, flatbreads and olives from one relative of a relative who had driven up from DC, baked salmon from another, homemade babka from new-to-me relatives from West Chester, and there were many, many salads, one of which was mine—Melissa Ben-Ishay’s Dill Cucumber Pickle Salad. The name sounds a little strange, but I tripled the recipe and there may have been half a cup left when it was time to go home
Melissa Ben-Ishay’s Dill & Cucumber Pickle Salad
Ingredients
- 8 Persian cucumbers
- 1/2 cup (4 oz.) feta cheese, crumbled
- 2 Tbsp fresh dill, chopped
- Juice of two lemons
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 1 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
- 2 garlic cloves, grated with a micro plane
- 1/3 cup nutritional yeast
- 1/2 tsp salt
Instructions
- Finely chop the cucumbers and add them to a large bowl with the feta.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the dill, lemon juice, olive oil, rice wine vinegar, garlic, nutritional yeast, and salt.
- Pour the dressing over the cucumbers and toss to combine.
As I write this in July, I have made the salad several more times, but it is the White Elephant gift we brought home that night that has become a new kitchen staple.
After dinner, all 52 of us crowded into the den, where piles of wrapped gifts sat around the stone fireplace. As we sat down, my 13-year-old son, Aidan, pointed to a medium-size square box with another very tiny box attached to the top of it, and said, “I want that one.” We picked a number out of a bowl and got 11, so Aidan was going to have to be lucky. Absolute hilarity ensued once the exchange began, with lots of “stealing” and teasing, but when the six-year-old who pulled the number nine picked the same boxes Aidan had his eye on and unwrapped a light-up spinning top and a rice cooker, Aidan couldn’t contain his disappointment—he’d been asking for a rice cooker for years! As luck would have it, there were TWO rice cookers, and we ended up bringing one of them home. Aidan declared that he’d be having rice for breakfast.
While rice for breakfast is not regularly on the menu, this simple machine is in use multiple times a week, and all of us are sold on it. I know it’s not new technology for most, but for us, it has been a big deal. What follows is my older son Sam’s recipe for fried rice. In true Jewish fashion, he measures with his heart, so these are mostly approximations.
He’s going off to college this August, and I’m going to miss him so much—everything but the dirty pans on the stove!
Sam’s Fried Rice
Ingredients
- 2 cups, leftover cooked white rice (must not be fresh)
- 1 Tbsp, sesame oil
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 Tbsp, Lao Gan Ma Chili Crunch (or, to taste)
- 1 Tbsp, low-sodium soy sauce
- 1 tsp, MSG (sold as Accent in stores)
- 1 scallion, chopped (green part only)
- Heat a nonstick pan on medium-high heat.
- Fry the garlic in the sesame oil. Once the garlic is golden brown, pour in the eggs and scramble until soft scrambled, then push to the side of the pan.
- Add the leftover rice, the soy sauce, chili crunch, and MSG, then wait for 30 seconds before stirring.
- Mix all the ingredients together well.
- Serve with a garnish of scallion greens.
