Peperoni Mandorlati - SWEET AND SOUR PEPPERS WITH ALMONDS

Amarante

Tue, Sep 05 2023, 1:51 pm

This is an interesting cookbook I got recently. It is a collaboration between a food person and a rabbi and so the book has the recipes plus the rabbi's essays on the holidays and the food etc.

The recipes are interesting - not quite the traditional Ashkenazi classics but not completely somehow inspired by Jewish food from around the world

As part of the preface states

With the recipes (and artwork) in this book, I aim to tell you some stories with each recipe and why I’ve chosen them. The recipes are influenced by the dishes prepared by the populations of the Jewish Diaspora who prepared food like that of their neighbors—while keeping to kosher dietary law (only mammals that chew their cuds and have cloven hooves, seafood must have fins and scales, meat and dairy can’t be eaten together)—whether in Kerala, South India; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Porto, Portugal; Thessaloniki, Greece; or right here in the Hudson Valley where ingredient seasonality and my own creative impulses are the greatest muses.

The recipes are grouped by holidays in chronological order. This recipe is for Selichot - but I think would make a nice side for RH

Excerpt From: Susan Simon. “The Cook and the Rabbi.” Apple Books.

At any rate I made two dishes (so far) from the book). I might make the chicken for RH as it is both festive and keeping in line with the traditional "sweet" food

Peperoni Mandorlati - SWEET AND SOUR PEPPERS WITH ALMONDS

Excerpt From: Susan Simon. “The Cook and the Rabbi.” Apple Books.

This bell pepper recipe comes from Sicily via the Saracen invaders who brought their sweet and sour food preparations with them to the Island. I can only guess that the technique and the inclusion of almonds were influenced by the local Jewish population who were already living in Sicily when the Arabs arrived. The Jews enjoyed a tolerant relationship with their Muslim neighbors as the latter claimed Sicily as one of their emirates.

SERVES 6 TO 8

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large yellow onion, chopped coarsely
5 bell peppers, in assorted colors, sliced lengthwise into ½-inch strips—be sure to remove seeds and white membrane
1 pound plum tomatoes, peeled and chopped coarsely
¼ cup dried currants
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon Aleppo pepper flakes
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
⅓ cup blanched almonds

1.Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large, heavy-bottomed, nonreactive skillet over medium heat and sauté the onion until translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the bell peppers and stir to combine. Add the tomatoes and lower the heat to medium-low, then add the currants and stir to combine. Simmer for 8 minutes.

2.While the sauce is simmering, stir together the honey, salt, Aleppo pepper flakes, vinegar, and lemon juice in a small bowl until the honey dissolves.

3.Toast the almonds in a small skillet over medium heat, until golden. Remove from the heat, let cool, and chop coarsely.

4.Remove the peppers from the heat and immediately add the vinegar mixture and toasted almonds. Stir to combine. Serve hot or at room temperature. I like to serve this as a topping for labna (see next recipe).