Sima Zinni, 95, from Jerusalem, still comes to work. She serves as CEO of the Frankfurter House and Chair of the Jerusalem Council for the Elderly. "Yes, I do a lot, I host a lot – and I cook too," she says, laughing. Ahead of Yom Kippur, she shared recipes for two dishes she regularly prepares during the High Holidays - a chickpea stew from Moroccan cuisine and a salmon dish wrapped in pilas dough stuffed with vegetables.
"It's a very special hummus because in this dish you peel the berries. We came from places where religion and cleanliness were very strict for fear that there would be no worm or insect in the hummus, so we separated the shell from each grain. This is a dish from my mother's house that we eat before the fast of Kippur and on holiday eves. A festive dish," she explains, pointing: "Now I have the hummus on the gas and salmon stuffed in the oven."
Where did you come from in Israel?
"I came to Israel from Morocco at the age of 10, 75 years ago, with my parents who were Zionist activists. When we lived in Morocco, my father was arrested for Zionist activity and almost executed. That's why we finally decided to immigrate to Israel." According to Zinni, the family had to wait because the king of Morocco at the time forbade Jewish immigration.
Sima Zinni preparing for the holiday,
"Finally, we immigrated to Israel on a ship of Holocaust survivors, changed our names and arrived at Pardes Hanna," she explains, adding: "From there, my father decided that he had to go to Jerusalem even though it was under siege. My father didn't heed advice, he was a very educated person. He took a driver and told him: 'Take the Burma Road.' We arrived in Jerusalem at the Agency building - the director of the agency, who knew my father through correspondence, came out, kissed us all and housed us in a hotel, until one day (in 1948) she came and said to Mom and Dad: 'Our soldiers occupied Jerusalem. Let's choose a house.'"
What do you remember from Yom Kippur in the city?
"People wrapped in holiday clothes go to synagogue with a siddur in hand - once, as a child it was so beautiful. We didn't ride bikes, we used to play on the road and it was fun. Another thing I remember is the chickens. They would slaughter chickens and do penance in markets, shops and homes, which we don't see anymore. Jerusalem wasn't big then, lots of neighborhoods weren't built yet. I remember that when they started building Binyanei Ha'uma, my father would say: 'Wow, they're starting to build Jerusalem and it's a great miracle.' Every Saturday we would go and see how construction progressed."
Moroccan chickpea dish,
Festive Moroccan chickpea stew recipe
Components
Half a kilo of chickpeas 2 tablespoons baking soda 2/3 large bell peppers, cut into cubes (about 3-7 cm)
8 large garlic cloves sliced
2-<> branches of chopped coriander
<>/<> teaspoon salt <> teaspoons red paprika
<>
/
<> cup canola oil
Method of preparation
"My mother taught me a patent - you take half a kilo of chickpeas and put 2 tablespoons of baking soda powder on it.
Boil a kettle with water, pour over the chickpeas and soak for 5-6 hours.
Then they put it on the fire. As soon as it starts to boil and becomes foam from the soda, lower the pot to the sink, open a tap on it and then start by babbling the granules without crushing them to remove the peels. At the same time rinse so that the peels come out. I pour the water and wash it a lot, both so that the taste of the soda doesn't stay and so that the peeling will come off."
Put the peeled chickpeas in a pressure cooker with the bell peppers, sliced garlic cloves, coriander, spices and oil.
Cover with water about half a centimeter above everything.
Cook in a closed pressure cooker for exactly half an hour.
After boiling, lower the heat, turn off the pressure cooker button, and then leave for 28 minutes on a low flame. After that, open the pressure cooker and it comes out of Eden.
Place in a serving plate and each one takes as much as he wants.
Salmon dish wrapped in dough,
Recipe for salmon stuffed with vegetables wrapped in pilas dough
"It's a dish I ate at my uncle's in Paris almost fifty years ago. His wife served the dish with another fish and I upgraded it with salmon because it just tastes better," Zinni explains.
Components
1 side of whole salmon without skin, cut along salt
A little canola
oil 1 medium onion, chopped into small
cubes 7/8 large bell peppers, diced
<> diced tomato <>-<> chopped coriander branches A generous
handful Black olive rings from a box Pilas
dough Egg
yolk
A little sesame
Method of preparation
Rinse the chunk of salmon and salt with a little salt. Then rinse it again.
Meanwhile, put a little canola oil in a Teflon pan and light the fire.
Put onions in a pan to brown.
Once browned, add the garlic, bell peppers and tomato.
Add coriander, olive rings and a little salt because the fish has already been salted and let it evaporate and soften.
When the salmon is ready and the vegetables are ready, I take pilas puff pastry.
Open the dough roll and cut according to the length of the fish so that it is twice as long as the fish and leaves a margin of about 2 cm at the edges. Roll out the dough a little.
Wipe the fish well with a paper napkin so that it does not wet the dough.
Place the piece of salmon on the side facing us and leave two centimeters in each direction.
Gently place the vegetables with a spoon on the salmon so that they do not fall off the sides of the fish.
Cover everything with the other side of the dough and tighten the edges that we left by pinching with your fingers so that nothing can come out.
Spread the dough with the egg yolk and sprinkle sesame on it.
Place in a preheated oven to 180 for about 45 minutes (even less) until the dough is brown and beautiful.
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