At Hanukkah, Pastry Reminds Portland Jews Of Their Mediterranean Roots

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Called a boyo or bulema, this Turkish-style pastry was traditionally made for the Jewish Shabbat. Today, boyos are mostly reserved for holidays like Hanukkah.

Called a boyo or bulema, this Turkish-style pastry was traditionally made for the Jewish Shabbat. Today, boyos are mostly reserved for holidays like Hanukkah.

In some Jewish homes this Hanukkah, families will celebrate with an alternative to the traditional potato latke: the boyo. These Turkish-style stuffed pastries also known as bulemas, depending upon their shape and the village their maker comes from are made by Jews whose ancestors lived in the Ottoman Empire.

Traditionally, boyos were made for Shabbat (the Sabbath) and the Jewish holidays. But these busy days, they're reserved mostly for the holidays.

In Renee Ferrera's Portland, Ore., kitchen, every available space is taken over with boyo-making when the holidays roll around. For this Hanukkah, there are bowls of spinach and cheese filling, trays of dough, lines of uncooked boyos waiting for a dusting of Romano cheese, and racks and racks of golden pastries, cooling from the oven.

Ferrera's boyo recipe comes from the island of Rhodes, now part of Greece, from where her immediate family emigrated prior to World War II. The island once boasted a large Jewish population, with its own distinct cuisine and a history that goes back at least to the second century B.C.

The Salt

A Hidden Hanukkah Tale Of A Woman, An Army And Some Killer Cheese

Influenced by places like Greece, Spain and Turkey, the Rhodesli Jewish population had a distinct culture all its own. The community was so strong that it was even called La Chica Yerushalayim, or "Little Jerusalem," in Ladino, the Judeo-Spanish language commonly spoken.

Many Rhodesli Jews came to America in the early 20th century, with an influx to Seattle (and, later, to Portland). The remaining Jews on the island were sent to concentration camps during World War II.

Growing up, Ferrera and her cousins always looked forward to boyos on the holidays. But sometimes it got ugly.

"We would be sitting at the table, eating these like crazy," Ferrera remembers. "And then we would start fighting over who had how many. 'You can't have that one, I've only had one.' Literally, at the table, during the holidays. So finally, my mother, I think it was, said, 'That's enough! We work for two days, slaving over them, and you guys eat them down like candy. Next year, you're gonna make them, not us!' And I'm sure my mother said that expecting us to say, 'Oh, no, we appreciate everything!' Instead, we said, 'OK. That's what we'll do.' "

That challenge was issued 25 years ago, and every year since, the cousins now with grown kids of their own have gathered together to make the boyos.

Ron Sidis has been there from the beginning. "There are times where every workstation is taken. There'll be four around the table rolling the boyos. I've always been the doughboy, always done the dough, from Day 1."

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Boyos cool on a rack in Renee Ferrara's Portland kitchen.

Boyos cool on a rack in Renee Ferrara's Portland kitchen.

The dough is flaky and rich with oil and shortening fitting for Hanukkah. And the holiday mood is warm, although there have been some squabbles over the years. The older generation was even booted out of the kitchen once over some dispute about an eggshell.

Sidis says that continuing the tradition meant a lot to him. Even after his mother got Alzheimer's, and no longer spoke, she would continue to help out. "We would pick her up and bring her over. And she actually took each boyo and put it in the Romano cheese for us. And she didn't have to talk she was just there helping us. She did that, I think, up to the year before she died."

Ferrerra says that pulling out her mother's handwritten recipe for the boyos every year connects her to family members who are no longer around and to the larger history of Jews from Rhodes.

"At the synagogue in Rhodes, there's a big plaque. And it has the last names of all the families that lived on the island that were taken off during World War II and taken to the concentration camp. And every single family name in my whole extended family is listed on that plaque," she says.

Today, there are just a handful of Jews on Rhodes, and the population of Rhodesli Jews in Portland is also dwindling. But as the cousins divide up the nearly 150 boyos on Ferrerra's counter, this tradition feels very much alive.

Boyos

Recipe from Vi Ferrera and Auntie "O" (Olson Babani)

Dough Ingredients

2 cups water (warm but not hot, 105 to 115 degrees)

2 packages active dry yeast (not fast-rising)

Mix above together and let bubble.

Add:

5 1/2 to 6 cups flour (unbleached)

2 teaspoons salt

oil and shortening

Filling Ingredients

Large Bowl Spinach **

1/3 cup flour

1 teaspoon salt (taste after cheese is added to see if it needs the salt)

1 egg, beaten

1 cup crumbled feta cheese (or more, to taste)

1 cup grated romano cheese (or more, to taste), plus additional for topping

** Ferrera usually buys one 2 1/2-pound bag of spinach, then washes once, spins in the salad spinner, chops 1/2-inch thick, and lays out on a table to dry overnight, with cloths under and paper towels over spinach. If it is warm, turn spinach once.

Note: The dough can be made the night before after Step 4, set in the refrigerator in pan of oil, covered with plastic wrap and then aluminum foil. Bring dough to room temperature before using.

1. Knead dough very well until it forms a soft dough (8 to 10 minutes). If using a mixer with a dough hook, knead for 8 to 10 minutes after dough has hooked.

2. Divide dough into 4 pieces. Make them into patties and place on a cloth that is floured. Oil the top of each patty and cover well in a warm location. Expose to as little air as possible. Let rise for half an hour or more, until double in size.

3. Take each patty and roll out with a rolling pin to form as large a piece as possible without developing holes. Do this on a floured surface. Spread a thin layer of shortening over stretched dough.

4. Roll tightly along the long edge into a cylinder, like a jelly roll, and set each roll into a pan of oil (1/2-inch deep). Cover with wax paper or plastic wrap and a cloth and set aside for one hour or more to rise.

5. Put together spinach mixture, using dry spinach chopped about 1/2-inch wide. Put flour in bowl, then add spinach. Mix together, then add other ingredients.

6. Pull off or cut a small piece of dough, about the size of an egg, and roll until dough is very thin. Add spinach mixture and form boyo so dough completely encloses spinach mixture. Use oil on work surface if necessary. Coil into a round shape, and place on a greased or parchment-lined pan, and sprinkle with additional Romano cheese.

7. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, or until brown. Cool on rack.

Makes about 3 dozen small boyos

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A Hidden Hanukkah Tale Of A Woman, An Army And Some Killer Cheese

This Hanukkah lamp, made in Italy in the 19th century, depicts Judith holding a sword in one hand and the severed head of Holofernes in the other.

At Hanukkah, many Jewish families celebrate with foods such as latkes and donuts that are fried in oil. The tradition honors the story of the miracle that occurred when a one-day supply of oil burned for eight days inside a temple under siege by the enemy .

Some Jews also eat dishes like kugel, cheesecake or rugelah that all share one ingredient cheese. But how did cheese make it onto the holiday menu?

It starts (as many of these tales do) with a woman. This woman was Judith.

Judith was said to be a beautiful widow who lived in the town of Bethulia in Israel during the sixth century B.C. An army set siege on the town, and Judith went into the enemy camp to meet with their leader, Holofernes, a general for Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Assyrians. Holofernes was so charmed by the widow that he drank too much wine and passed out, after which Judith took his sword and cut off his head. The severed head inspired the Israelites to attack, and the Assyrians fled.

The story may sound familiar to Catholics, as the book of Judith is included in the Old Testament of their Bible. But Judith didn't make it into the Tanakh, a collection of Jewish scripture that includes the Torah. By the Middle Ages, though, Jews were telling a Judith tale. "It could be Jews were taking back their Jewish heroine," says Susan Weingarten, a scholar of Talmudic food in Israel and a contributor to the book The Sword of Judith.

Enlarge image

Lemon and dried blueberry blintzes, filled with creamy ricotta cheese, provide a tasty way to serve dairy and honor Judith for Hanukkah.

Lemon and dried blueberry blintzes, filled with creamy ricotta cheese, provide a tasty way to serve dairy and honor Judith for Hanukkah.

By that time, the story of Judith had become associated with Hanukkah, despite her story occurring centuries before that holiday miracle of the oil was thought to take place. In Jewish versions of the story, passed down orally through the centuries, Judith often became the aunt or daughter of Judah Maccabee, the hero of the Hanukkah oil story. Her addition may have served as a parallel to that of Esther, who saves the Jewish people from a death order in Persia and is the heroine of the spring holiday Purim, says Weingarten.

The Jewish tales of Judith also made their heroine clever. In the original story, Judith brought what Weingarten calls a "doggie bag" of food with her to Holofernes' camp items like dry fig cake and bread so that she wouldn't have to eat the food of the enemy king. But in some of the Jewish stories, she shared her food with the general. And there was a salty item guaranteed to make her enemy thirsty enough to get drunk; that was cheese. One version of the story specifies that the cheese was cooked into a pancake.

"By the 14th century, there's quite a strong tradition that people eat cheese on Hanukkah and it's associated with Judith giving cheese to the enemy to make him drunk," Weingarten says.

A commentary from that time, by Rabbi Moses Isserles, on the Shulchran Arach, the Jewish Code of Law, even recommends eating cheese on the holiday in honor of Judith.

During the Middle Ages, that cheese would have likely come from a goat or a sheep, as cow's milk cheese was rare, Weingarten says. And it was often cooked into a pancake which brings us to another potentially shocking revelation: The original latkes were cheese latkes, not potato which combined the tradition of eating cheese with the tradition of eating foods fried in oil.

The potato, after all, didn't come to Europe until well after Columbus came to America. Potato latkes were a 19th-century invention, says Gil Marks, author of the Encyclopedia of Jewish Food. The cheese tradition may have died out in part because in northern and eastern Europe, where frying was often done in chicken fat (that is, schmaltz), putting cheese into a pancake wasn't allowed by Jewish dietary laws. They ban the mixing of dairy and meat.

So why aren't many modern Jews telling tales of Judith and munching on cheese latkes? Even Weingarten didn't eat cheese for the holiday until she had studied the Judith story. (She has since created her own recipe for cheese latkes, which she's shared with us below.)

Marks says in the U.S., where December is dominated by Christmas, Hanukkah changed from being a minor holiday to a much bigger celebration marked by gift giving. And along the way to this transformation, the story of Judith, and the tradition of cheese eating, was largely forgotten.

"A number of Jews lost trust with their European roots," Marks says.

In Rome, though, Jews still make pancakes with ricotta for Hanukkah, Marks says. And many Jews in Israel, particularly from Orthodox families, continue to carry out the Judith tradition.

Even in the U.S., Marks notes, many of the foods that Jews eat for the holiday contain cheese or milk. Cream-filled donuts honor both the dairy and fried traditions, for instance. And "many homes will have a noodle kugel or blintzes or cheesecake for dinner," Marks says. The reason why has "just been forgotten."

Susan Weingarten's Levivot (Latkes) With Cheese

3/4 cup matzo meal

1 cup milk

2 eggs

100 to 150 grams hard cheese (Edam or mozzarella or even an unripe Camembert)

Salt

Oil for frying

Cut the cheese into 1-centimeter cubes. Heat the oil in a heavy frying pan until it is just beginning to smoke.

Mix the matzo meal, milk and eggs until it looks like thick but liquid cream. If the batter is too thick, add more milk.

Add the cubes of cheese and mix well they have to be covered in the batter.

Add the batter to the hot oil with a large spoon or ladle. Check that the levivot are not sticking to the frying pan, and turn them over when you see a brown line around them.

Take them out with a slotted spoon to drain off as much oil as possible.

Eat hot.

---

A Hidden Hanukkah Tale Of A Woman, An Army, And Some Killer Cheese

This Hanukkah lamp, made in Italy in the 19th century, depicts Judith holding a sword in one hand and the severed head of Holofernes in the other.

At Hanukkah, many Jewish families celebrate with foods such as latkes and donuts that are fried in oil. The tradition honors the story of the miracle that occurred when a one-day supply of oil burned for eight days inside a temple under siege by the enemy .

Some Jews also eat dishes like kugel, cheesecake or rugelah that all share one ingredient cheese. But how did cheese make it onto the holiday menu?

It starts (as many of these tales do) with a woman. This woman was Judith.

Judith was said to be a beautiful widow who lived in the town of Bethulia in Israel during the sixth century B.C. An army set siege on the town, and Judith went into the enemy camp to meet with their leader, Holofernes, a general for Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Assyrians. Holofernes was so charmed by the widow that he drank too much wine and passed out, after which Judith took his sword and cut off his head. The severed head inspired the Israelites to attack, and the Assyrians fled.

The story may sound familiar to Catholics, as the book of Judith is included in the Old Testament of their Bible. But Judith didn't make it into the Tanakh, a collection of Jewish scripture that includes the Talmud. By the Middle Ages, though, Jews were telling a Judith tale. "It could be Jews were taking back their Jewish heroine," says Susan Weingarten, a scholar of Talmudic food in Israel and a contributor to the book The Sword of Judith.

Enlarge image

Lemon and dried blueberry blintzes, filled with creamy ricotta cheese, provide a tasty way to serve dairy and honor Judith for Hanukkah.

Lemon and dried blueberry blintzes, filled with creamy ricotta cheese, provide a tasty way to serve dairy and honor Judith for Hanukkah.

By that time, the story of Judith had become associated with Hanukkah, despite her story occurring centuries before that holiday miracle of the oil was thought to take place. In Jewish versions of the story, passed down orally through the centuries, Judith often became the aunt or daughter of Judah Maccabee, the hero of the Hanukkah oil story. Her addition may have served as a parallel to that of Esther, who saves the Jewish people from a death order in Persia and is the heroine of the spring holiday Purim, says Weingarten.

The Jewish tales of Judith also made their heroine clever. In the original story, Judith brought what Weingarten calls a "doggie bag" of food with her to Holofernes' camp items like dry fig cake and bread so that she wouldn't have to eat the food of the enemy king. But in some of the Jewish stories, she shared her food with the general. And there was a salty item guaranteed to make her enemy thirsty enough to get drunk; that was cheese. One version of the story specifies that the cheese was cooked into a pancake.

"By the 14th century, there's quite a strong tradition that people eat cheese on Hanukkah and it's associated with Judith giving cheese to the enemy to make him drunk," Weingarten says.

A commentary from that time, by Rabbi Moses Isserles, on the Shulchran Arach, the Jewish Code of Law, even recommends eating cheese on the holiday in honor of Judith.

During the Middle Ages, that cheese would have likely come from a goat or a sheep, as cow's milk cheese was rare, Weingarten says. And it was often cooked into a pancake which brings us to another potentially shocking revelation: The original latkes were cheese latkes, not potato which combined the tradition of eating cheese with the tradition of eating foods fried in oil.

The potato, after all, didn't come to Europe until well after Columbus came to America. Potato latkes were a 19th-century invention, says Gil Marks, author of the Encyclopedia of Jewish Food. The cheese tradition may have died out in part because in northern and eastern Europe, where frying was often done in chicken fat (that is, schmaltz), putting cheese into a pancake wasn't allowed by Jewish dietary laws. They ban the mixing of dairy and meat.

So why aren't many modern Jews telling tales of Judith and munching on cheese latkes? Even Weingarten didn't eat cheese for the holiday until she had studied the Judith story. (She has since created her own recipe for cheese latkes, which she's shared with us below.)

Marks says in the U.S., where December is dominated by Christmas, Hanukkah changed from being a minor holiday to a much bigger celebration marked by gift giving. And along the way to this transformation, the story of Judith, and the tradition of cheese eating, was largely forgotten.

"A number of Jews lost trust with their European roots," Marks says.

In Rome, though, Jews still make pancakes with ricotta for Hanukkah, Marks says. And many Jews in Israel, particularly from Orthodox families, continue to carry out the Judith tradition.

Even in the U.S., Marks notes, many of the foods that Jews eat for the holiday contain cheese or milk. Cream-filled donuts honor both the dairy and fried traditions, for instance. And "many homes will have a noodle kugel or blintzes or cheesecake for dinner," Marks says. The reason why has "just been forgotten."

Susan Weingarten's Levivot (Latkes) With Cheese

3/4 cup matzo meal

1 cup milk

2 eggs

100-150 grams hard cheese Edam or Mozzarella or even an unripe Camembert

salt

oil for frying

Cut the cheese into 1 centimeter cubes. Heat the oil in a heavy frying pan until it is just beginning to smoke.

Mix the matzo meal, milk and eggs until it looks like thick but liquid cream. If the batter is too thick, add more milk.

Add the cubes of cheese and mix well they have to be covered in the batter.

Add the batter to the hot oil with a large spoon or ladle. Check that the levivot are not sticking to the frying pan and turn them over when you see a brown line around them.

Take them out with a slotted spoon to drain off as much oil as possible.

Eat hot.

---

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