Today we celebrated the Jewish Shabbat, making our own Challot and trying many of the Eastern European traditional Jewish foods. According to Jewish tradition, the three Sabbath meals, Friday night, Saturday lunch, and Saturday late afternoon, each begin with two complete loaves of bread. This bread commemorates the manna that fell from the heavens when the Israelites wandered in the desert for forty years after the Exodus from Egypt. Each single loaf is woven with six strands, both loaves have twelve which represent each tribe of Israel.
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| Our beautiful Muslim and Jewish women sharing our special meal |
We had much fun trying to plait a 6 braided challah, and deciding whether to include raisins into the dough to make a sweeter challah.
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| Considering plaiting a 6 braided Challah |
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| very proud !! |
I believe the best way to enjoy freshly baked, warm challah, is with traditional Shabbat foods like Chopped Herring, Pickled Herring, Smoked Trout Mousse, Pickled Cucumbers, and Egg Salad.
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| Holding a Smoked Trout |
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| Boning a Smoked Trout | | | |
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| Making Smoked Trout Mousse | | |
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For the finale, we whipped up a delicious Apple Strudel. We lightly cooked the apples with some raisins, with a little sugar, then prepared the filo pastry.
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| Making the Apple Strudel | | | |
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| Samah brushing Strudel with melted butter and sprinkling ground almonds and sugar. |
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| Apple Strudel |
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| Apple Strudel |
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| Trout Mousse, Pickled Cucumbers, Egg Salad, Chopped Herring |
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| 2 Challot for Shabbat, under the Challah cover |
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| Shabbat Table |
What I love each week, when we all sit down and share a meal are the similarities we share in our traditions. How a Jewish woman prepares the shabbos dinner, is exactly how the Muslim woman prepares her Ramadan feast. We laugh how we all cook all day, wanting the home to be clean, the fridge full of food, the feast to be wonderful, and our family and friends to have enjoyed the celebration. The respect we all have for our traditions, and how important it means to each of us, to carrying on this tradition to our children and grand children.
Don't forget to visit our Shared Table on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Shared-Table/121816364572861 Until next week, Ciao, Mel
