Fabulous food to feast on after the fast

Breaking the Yom Kippur fast is a big deal in South Africa. The SA Jewish Report asked Lauren Boolkin and Romi Rabinowitz to give us recipes to ensure that we’re able to end our fast with pure deliciousness.

Lauren Boolkin

Double green gnocchi salad

I recently entered a competition using food scraps that we normally discard to create a dish. The fennel frond pesto was so delicious, I’ve used it as a dressing for this salad. It would also be wonderful tossed with pasta. If you’re serving a milk meal, a quarter cup of Parmesan cheese could be added to the pesto.

Ingredients

1 packet baby spinach

1 packet watercress

1 packet fresh asparagus blanched

1 small packet sugar snap peas

2 packets baby fennel, sliced thinly on the diagonal

1 avocado

1 packet store-bought gnocchi

1 packet walnuts toasted in the oven

Method

Put a handful of gnocchi into a pot of boiling water. When they rise to the top, transfer them onto a paper towel-lined rack to dry. Continue until you have boiled all the gnocchi. When the gnocchi has dried, fry them in a little olive oil until they are brown and crispy. This can be done in the morning and left uncovered in a single layer.

Line a platter with the spinach leaves and watercress. Top with the remaining ingredients, adding the avocado, gnocchi, and toasted walnuts just before serving. Dress with the fennel pesto.

Fennel pesto

Ingredients

2 cups of fennel fronds (leaves)

2 cloves of garlic

½ cup of toasted sunflower seeds

1 tsp salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 cup of olive oil

Method

Blend all the ingredients in your food processor until smooth. Taste for seasoning. If the dressing feels thick, add an extra tablespoon of cold water.

Peppermint Crisp mille-feuille

The phyllo layers freeze beautifully. The chocolate can be mixed into the ice cream, and it can be shaped to match the phyllo rectangles using a baking paper cut out, and frozen ready to assemble on the day. Custard works beautifully instead of ice cream.

Ingredients for pastry

1 packet phyllo pastry

¼ cup of sunflower oil

2 Tbsp castor sugar

1½ tsp of cinnamon

Ingredients for ice cream

2 litres store-bought vanilla ice cream

3 Peppermint Crisps crumbled

3 Peppermint Aero crumbled

1 packet Chuckles to garnish

A few mint leaves for garnish

1/8th of a cup of icing sugar to decorate

Peppermint Crisp chocolate sauce

Method

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees centigrade, and line two baking sheets with baking paper.

Without unrolling the phyllo, cut it into slices 1.5cm thick (it will look like ribbons). Some boxes of phyllo have two separate packets. If not, divide the ribbons in two, and place the one half on the first baking sheet and the other half on the second baking sheet in a rectangular pattern. Brush roughly with the sunflower oil and sprinkle with the castor sugar and cinnamon.

Bake for 10 to 15 minutes until golden.

When cool, spread on the softened ice cream, and top with the second phyllo rectangle. Dust with a little icing sugar and drizzle on some Peppermint Crisp chocolate sauce. Decorate with mint leaves and gold-dusted Chuckles.

Custard

Ingredients

2 egg yolks

4 tbsp flour

2 Tbsp custard powder

1 cup of sugar

4 cups of milk (or almond milk for parev)

2 tsp vanilla essence

¼ tsp salt

Method

Mix all the ingredients together except the milk. Slowly add one cup of milk, and whisk until all the lumps are gone. Heat the remaining three cups of milk until warm but not boiling. Slowly add the warmed milk to the egg mixture. Whisk continuously on a high heat until the custard thickens. Refrigerate when cool.

Romi Rabinowitz

My favourite bulkas

Ingredients

1 x 10g sachet dried yeast (I use the purple sachet Anchor yeast)

½ cup warm water

3 tsp castor sugar (to add to yeast)

665g cake flour (4½ cups)

115g (½ cup) castor sugar

1 tsp salt

100ml fresh cream

50ml milk

2 eggs

85g unsalted butter

2 Tbsp oil

Filling

1 cup sugar

2 Tbsp cinnamon

125g unsalted butter

Streusel

3 Tbsp cake flour

3 Tbsp sugar

2 Tbsp melted butter

Method

For the dough, mix together the yeast, warm water, and three teaspoons castor sugar in a small bowl. Cover and set aside for 20 minutes until the yeast is frothy.

In a large bowl, mix the flour, half a cup castor sugar, and salt. In a separate bowl, beat together the cream, milk, and eggs. Melt the butter in a small pot and then stir in the oil.

Make a well in the flour, and add the yeast mixture, and then the other two liquid mixtures. Mix everything together with a wooden spoon until combined, then knead together to make a dough. Cover well with plastic wrap and two cloths, and let it rise in a warm spot for two hours. Place on a lightly floured surface, and knead the dough.

Combine the cup of sugar with the cinnamon in a small bowl.

Divide the dough into three equal portions. Roll each portion into a large rectangle, and brush with the melted butter. Sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar mixture. Roll up each rectangle, starting from the long side to form a long roll.

Cut the roll into equal pieces, and place each piece into a greased muffin tin.

Brush each bulka with more melted butter, and then sprinkle over the streusel mixture.

Allow to rise again for a further half an hour.

Bake at 180 degrees centigrade for about 20 minutes until golden.

Best served warm and fresh with butter.

Chag sameach and well over the fast.