Jewish Cooking in America with Joan Nathan; The Two Best Cooks I Know; 208

4. Jewish cooking in America with Joan Nathan is made possible by the Ann Elbronfmann Foundation proud to support public television.

By Einstein Brothers, at Einstein Brothers we're serving breakfast and lunch in your neighborhood. By Manishevitz proud to bring variety to every meal and quality cooking programs to PBS Manishevitz bringing families to the table since 1888. And by Old Fashioned Kitchen, the makers of Golden's Blinses and Potato Pancakes, Golden 50 years of recognized kosher tradition and by the following individuals and family foundations. From the top of any good homemade chicken soup float little pools of gold and fat. Tradition has it that the fat resembles gold coins, a symbol of wealth to come.

In Yiddish chicken fat is called schmaltz. Along with goose fat it's the chosen fat, the fat Jews cooked with in Eastern Europe. For Charlie Klatskin a New Jersey businessman and avid home cook, schmaltz is a way of life. Some of the youngest of eight and my mother was four foot eleven and had her first child in Europe and came here with actually two children, one in Russia and one in Sweden when they escaped the Tsar and ended up in New York. I'm the last one born in Brooklyn. They worked. Can't get Brooklyn out of you. That's true. What do they say? You can get me out of Brooklyn but you can't get Brooklyn out of me and I think there's a lot of truth in that. My whole family basically came from Brooklyn so that influence is on me. They moved to Roosevelt, New Jersey, which was Jersey homesteads. When I was a year and a half old, which was a WPA town, which was the ultimate stettle, where everybody knew everybody, no matter what house she went into Roosevelt, New Jersey,

which by the way was named after President Roosevelt. He went from door to door and they were all Jewish families and all the food in everybody's house tasted the same. What was it like? It just smelt either from garlic or onions or something was cooking. It didn't matter what time of day, something was cooking. In fact, in my house, you couldn't take a bath on Wednesday night because there was a carps swimming in the bathtub that my mother would make a filter fish at and for every Friday, for every Friday night, we had your filter fish, chopped liver, boiled chicken oil. Right. She boiled the chicken, took it out of the chicken soup because now we have chicken soup, but she stuck it in the oven with some paprika. It should look like it was roasted. A lot of times the pieces of the chicken didn't have any skin on it because early in the day, she made ribbons because she needed the chicken fat in order to make chopped

liver. You'd never threw anything out. You'd never threw anything out. Let me share with you. You see, I just took off a piece of this chicken to skin here and I'm going to do the same thing here. Now, my mother did it with whole chickens and what happened was on Wednesday, the Sheiket always came because we had chickens in the backyard. We had ducks in the backyard. We had geese in the backyard, and depending what she was making, the Sheiket came, killed the chicken and then she would flick the chicken. You know what? Flicking a chicken is? Flicking a chicken is just basically taking the feathers off the chicken. She did that. In fact, if you notice, there's a kosher chicken and if you notice the feathers, you rarely see that today in non kosher chickens because that's done by machine. These are not done by the same kind of equipment in order to keep them kosher. And what I'm going to do here, basically, is take off the skin and I'm going to render the skin with some of the fat. Now, the chickens my mother had were ranged anywhere from five to nine pounds. So when you took one of those chickens, it was loaded with fat.

Absolutely. And I must tell you, she would then render the fat and how she rendered it is very simple. You'll notice I peeled a few onions here and she would take this and would basically just slice it all up. With a knife like this? No, no. My mother's knife was so unsharp that if you cut yourself, you were really in trouble. It was just as simple as that. You just did all of this stuff and you throw it in a frying pan with the onions and you're going to find that this is going to be very crisp. I think the inward now is cracklings if you've become Americanized or wherever, that's what they call it. And it goes on and on and on. But if you'll notice from these chickens, I don't have as much fat as I otherwise would it would do. And I'm going to basically... Because we don't live in a world of fat, right? Well, you know what? Or we do, but we don't. This what I'm going to do now is really only you take two lipitor. If you were to do what my mother did, you'd take four. It was interesting.

And my mother had a stove that was about as big as this with four burners and an oven and she always cooked for 20, even though she had eight children because she never knew who was coming to dinner. For Passover, we always had 30 or 40 people and by the way, she didn't have to cook for two or three. I mean, you see this bag of onions, that's descriptive of my mother, that's what she used per meal. So do you think your love of cooking came from her? Well, I think it did in a different kind of way. When I was 10, she taught me how to make chicken soup. And I did that because she worked late. She and my father. What did she do? What did she do? My mother was a tailor on men's clothes, and my father was a tailor on ladies' clothes. My mother was always jealous of my father. Okay. So what we, I'm going to start this now. You notice, by the way, if you don't walk around with a towel, with this stuff, you could slide. Don't let this fall on the floor because you break your neck. Okay. Now, what are we going to do here?

What I'm going to do here is basically just throw this skin in here and try to make some chicken fat. But if you notice, I don't have as much fat as I would like, which I'm going to try to get here because I'm the more fat, because I'm really making this if you wanted to go through history. I'm not making this because I want the ribbons, or the cracklings, as we would say. I'm making this because I want to make chicken fat because my mother needed the chicken fat in order to make chopped chicken livers because what else you're going to use? You don't use cream. You don't use anything else. So you use chicken fat, you know, it's interesting. I have a kitchen here as you could see, which is my mother's kitchen work area was 15 percent of this. Right. Right. I mean, my mother was the type and I'm going on in later years. She used to get up and I'd see her in the morning at eight o'clock and I'd say, how are you? She says, I got up at four o'clock. I didn't sleep a whole night.

Why didn't you sleep a whole night? Because she went to bed at seven because she was exhausted from cooking and cleaning a whole day. And that was basically her life. See what I'm doing? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm also going to do this basically, it's as simple as I'm going to take that. I'm going to take some onions, all right. Now I must share with you, when you do this, be very careful because my hands are now greasy. By the way, if you cook without hands, you're not a cook, all right, you need hands to cook. I would think. Now, what's great about this is as she was cooking this, we would smell it, you know, I don't have to tell you, this stuff is not, you know, it's very pungent between the onions and the chicken fat. And what happens is the smell went through the whole house, no matter where we were, we sold it and into the kitchen, we went, all right, and we stood there and we waited for this all to be done. Now, you notice what's happening.

We're making cracklings. Do you make these things for holidays or for? Well, my wife is an anti-fat person. So when she goes to visit her mother for the day, then I do this kind of thing. You know, this is really a dying art. I don't know anybody amongst all my friends, let's talk about my kosher Jewish friends that make this. I don't know how to be a person. Probably not into... Well, keep in mind, my mom was 50 when I was born. So I am one of the last remaining people that grew up in that environment. You see what's happening here now? Look at that. The onions and all of that. The other thing my mom did, it would take a paper bag and she would do it and the drippiness would go on here. Why? Because the paper bag would absorb the fat. A lot of people do that with potato lakas and things like that. Absolutely. But that's where that tradition comes from, way back when to absorb the fat. Now, you could put that on 700 bags and you couldn't absorb 5% of the fat that's in there.

So why didn't she do it? She thought that was better because I think it wasn't the fat. So much. It was the feeling of it being greasy. Right. Okay. You know, I must tell you that this is getting better looking and smelling better as we're doing. See, now my late mother-in-law would have taken chicken livers and added it to that. And she make that, that would be her and she knew I loved it lunch before any holiday. She would take a little bit of this, put the chicken liver in and it would be so delicious. Well, what my mother would do is almost very similar, but when we're done, she would take everything out of the pan, but in the same pan, put in the chicken livers and saute them in there and then put the onions in and grind them all up. She didn't put the grub in this into the chicken livers. But the onions and the chicken livers, she was a sauteed. She didn't even know what the word sauteed meant. She would fry them if you will in that pan.

So she didn't realize that this was sauteing. Right. Just before you take it out, he is kosher salt because if you were to put this salt in early on, everything would just be too salty. Looks so good. Okay, we're ready. Looks beautiful. Now, what I'm going to do to make our life easier, I'm going to first just, because they see all the fat on the bottom, I'm just going to try to get this off and always use a slotted spoon. I happen to be using a wooded wooden spoon, but you see how the fat is there? Looks so good. And what I'm going to do here, you see the chicken fat on the bottom, basically we'll stick that in a cup or a jar and you can, you know, it'll stay good. I'm not quite sure how long. Now, watch, without a brown bag, you can't eat this. I always learned to fry things and then put them on brown bags and my mother was American

born. This is real food, huh? This is soul food, you know what I'm doing today. The average person wouldn't think of rendering the skin of a chicken. Be safe something to me too, I noticed you're starting to pick up the pace here. In Gascani, in the southwest of France, the cooking fat of choice comes from ducks and geese. The foul are prized not only for their fat, but also for their fried broth. Ariane DeGon is a terrific French woman who's popularized the foods of her native Gascani here in America. My father is known for father and, you know, in Gascani, everybody is in two for a grader's geese or maniac game while mushrooms, so that's how I was raised. On my mother's side is totally different.

My father and my mother met at the hotel school, the rest of the hotel school in Paris, because my mother's parents, my grandparents had a restaurant in Paris last Saturday in to school. I think it was even a vegetarian restaurant and they came from Poland before the war and then they had to they stayed in Paris a little and then during the war they went down south, then they went back to Paris but eventually they stayed down in the south. And they were Polish Jews? Yes. So, and your mother must have grown up with goose fad and things like that? Yes, absolutely. Yes, yes. So, she was not to, it was not a big change when she ended up in Gascani with some more goose fad. Okay, so what are we going to do today Ariane? A goose, what else? So but we're going to put a little for a line of stuffing. This is traditionally during the holidays, what we do in Gascani. We stuffed the goose or we cooked the stuffing separately, but we are going to put

it inside. And for the stuffing today we're going to use foagra. This one is a duck foagra because it's difficult to get goose foagra in America. Chestnuts, a little bit of parsley, some spices, some pork twine for the sweetness but also some armaniac because it's Gascani and some bread soaked in the wine so that as the foagra will diminish a little bit, the bread will soak up and make a nice stuffing inside the cavity. In my original recipe, I would keep it all and put it after the stuffing in there. We can also do what we're going to do today, which is to cut it in square and cook it with the shallots in the pan and then mix it with the bread mixture and the chestnuts. And don't hesitate to cut, I mean I know it's a very expensive product, but the flavor is going to be there in the goose in the stuffing.

And you see, this is a French fragrance so it doesn't have any blood inside it because it was a technical thing, but it was hot if you serrated. And I want to ask you something, if somebody wants to make this, if they're kosher and they can't get this, could they use the processed potatoes that exist? Right, could they put that whole thing in? OK, yes, but then you have to skip the next step, which is to saute it and render it. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Put it directly in the stuffing and then cut it in the absolutely. Yes. Now it's going to cook two hours and a half, but it's going to cook inside this big cavity. So it should be OK, yes. So we're ready. All right. Let's go to the pan and cook everything off. So we're ready to saute the flour. You have to make sure the pan is very, very hot, almost smoking, otherwise it's going to disintegrate.

And don't hesitate, dry and dry pan. You don't need any fat or anything. Very bad in there. Yes, plenty. That's why it's called voila. Of course, if you were doing this, if you were able to get a voila, that was totally for sure in this country, you would put this in the boiler, yes? It gives you a amount of fat that's coming out. It's going to be great for our shallots. And the shallots is just an excuse to just call on them just so they can be. So beautiful. That's it. That's it. Don't worry about too much fat in there. It's going to be softer by the bread. And do not throw away that fat, actually, we're going to recycle it into the cabbage. We're going to cook some red cabbage later than you need to do, yes? OK, so we need to do our mixture.

You see all the fat that trenders, if you have too much, you can take it off, we'll use it for the cabbage or the potatoes. So here we have the shallots and the foghra. We're going to add the parsley raw, much more perfume, that way, fresh cut from the garden. The soaked bread crumbs, and in that case, since it was in the wine, we put the wine also in there. We put some chestnut, maybe not all of them. Further, I am totally loved chestnuts. All right. We put some chestnut, you can keep them whole like that, it's very nice like that, yes. And if you have too much of the stuffing, not everything, just cook it on the side, it's going to be great. So to stuff the bread, you have to take out whatever is in there. This is a goose from Pennsylvania, comes from the certified organic. This is what we use, a dahtagnon. Thank you, restaurant.

Yes. The neck, the heart, the gissions we can add with the keratin and the onion around half time at the cooking, yes? Don't forget to season your goose inside and out, very important, okay? My daughter loves to do this, next to play with play daughter, so again, the idea of the bread is to take off, to take up the fat that the burger is going to render, it's going to make it really beautiful and very tasty. So I think this will be fine, just like that. So that's really, you really don't want to overstuff that? No, no. It's a gently stuffing. Yeah, see, up to young, it's plenty, the bread, believe me, the bread is going to expand. Okay, ready to win the oven? The oven is preheated at 325, you need a rack on top of your roasting pan, dry and nothing. And I like the fact that you put this through halfway through, put these in halfway

through. Yes, and the carrot in an overcook zone. Yeah, it's going to burn on the way, right? And start on one side, like this, on the side, okay? One hour on this side, one hour on the other side, and we'll finish it breast up to make it a nice color. Every time you go next to the oven, just paste it, pass by and paste it every like 20 minutes or so. Whatever, you pass by, you're out of wine, you're going on a kitchen, you base it. Okay, here we go. All right, you can open the door. All right, now while this is cooking, what we should do is prepare the cabbage. The cabbage is going to take 45 minutes to cook, so all right, let's do it. Okay, here is a red cabbage, can do that with a green cabbage. I like it with a red cabbage, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a nice color.

Take off, you know, the outer leaf, the one that is not too nice. And we're going to quarter it, and nothing fancy. One last, okay, so once the curry is out, then you just quarter it, very, you know. Let's put the duck fat in the pan. I went to a couple of seconds, so it's warm, we put the onions, and then the cabbage. Okay, so when your onions are transparent, like this, yeah, okay, then you add your cabbage. Looks beautiful, and we're actually going to braise it, so we're going to add some liquid to this. What kind of liquid? Half vinegar, red wine vinegar, and half red wine. And I like to season it at the end, because, you know, I don't want to over season it.

We can put the garlic now, some garlic, some red wine, and then some chalice, homemade vinegar, some sweet vinegar, beautiful, and then once it gets back to a boil, then we put the cover, then we forget it for 45 minutes, perfect, that's it. Ariana, is your goose cooked? I hope I hope it is cooked, it's been long enough, yeah, let's check it out, yes. Let me see, yes, so it's been cooking for two and two hours, two and a half hours, all together, two and a half hours, that was a big, that was a 12 pounder, so it's a very good taste, it's nice, so what we want to do is get rid of the texture fat here, and make

a sauce, see, it's a little bit of black stuff here, it's good, don't show that away, okay, and yum and yum, it may flare up a little bit, okay, it's better if it flames a little bit, that way the alcohol, that way the alcohol evaporates, so we ready, yum, yum and nice and, oh, I love this, it's so beautiful, and this has been cooking for an hour, 45 minutes, it smells so good, I am, it's all in the duck fat, in the goose fat, and the cabbage,

I did add a little bit of a boysenberry preserve, just to cut the acidity of the vinegar, just at the end of the cooking, as you take it off the, I think this is one of the dishes that you have to taste, right, at the end before, just to make sure that the balance in cooking, you have to taste constantly, that's the only way you can season at the end, remember at the beginning we didn't put any salt, not pepper, and so you really have to taste at the end, adjust the seasoning, try a little bit of the, the breast, we go for the breast, why not, okay, the meat of Ariana's roasted goose was moist, succulent, and contrary to what most people would think, surprisingly lean, but without a doubt, the incredible flavor of the style of cooking begins with just one thing, whether it comes from a chicken or

a goose, schmaltz rules, to learn more about Jewish cooking in America with Joan Nathan, visit us at PBS Online at PBS.org, recipes from this season of Jewish cooking in America with Joan Nathan are offered on recipe cards, the cards, Jones Cookbook, and the CD soundtrack are available at 800-235-3000, credit cards aren't accepted, Jewish cooking in America with Joan Nathan is made possible by the Ann L. Bronfmann Foundation proud to support public television, by Einstein Brothers, at Einstein Brothers we're serving breakfast and lunch in your neighborhood, by old-fashioned kitchen, the makers of Golden's Blinses and Potato Pancakes, Golden, 50 years of recognized kosher tradition, and by Managevets proud to bring variety to every meal and quality cooking programs to PBS Managevets bringing

families to the table since 1888, and by the following individuals and family foundations. . . . .. And this is PBS. .

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