"I have been married to Shlomi, my dear husband, since 1970, grandmother to 13 grandchildren and four wonderful great-grandchildren. My children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren are the beat of my heart," 73-year-old Yael Ben Habib begins our conversation with a smile. Ben Habib was born and raised in Jerusalem, the daughter of four generations born in the city. "My father was born in the Old City and worked in Tnuva, and my mother was also born here. They both passed away recently," she explains.
Today, after 25 years working for a pension fund company, she works as an exam supervisor and is active as a volunteer in the Jerusalem municipality's retirement club called "Kangaroo". Among other things, she rose to prominence over the past year after her participation in the seventh season of the reality show "Come Eat With Me". "Every Yom Kippur there is an atmosphere of holiness in Jerusalem," she says. "I live near the synagogue and I cry from prayers until the tears choke me."
Chicken soup,
What food was in the house during the High Holidays?
"At my mother's we loved to come and eat a chopped salad with a barangi dumpling (meat and rice dumplings in a rich Persian vegetable soup) and on Rosh Hashanah she would fry lots of delicious horseshoe patties. My mother-in-law would have done just that, too."
What will you teach us to prepare today?
"It's very easy - I make a fresh soup with chicken and some noodles and another pot of vegetable soup - all in a grater without a lot of salt so it won't get thirsty. During the break meal, I set a table and place two bowls on it. One bowl with the vegetable soup and the other deep glass bowl of chicken soup with noodles. It's a dish we always used to eat in Kippur. In preparation for the fast we also eat strawberry torte along with a cup of tea, slice watermelon or melon. My mother would put a plate of za'atar with sliced challah on the table."
Grated vegetable soup in a grater, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
Recipe for vegetable soup
Components
4 peeled
carrots 4 potatoes
3 fennel
2 tablespoons chicken soup powder
Method of preparation
"I took some good, fat, beautiful carrots, my husband peeled and cleaned the potatoes and fennel. You have to wash everything well, well, and then scrape everything in a grater into the pot."
Boil water in the kettle and fill the pot so that it covers all the vegetables.
Add two tablespoons of chicken soup powder "to be pleasant and tasty and not salty".
Boil on the gas and when it boils lower to a small heat, let it cook for an hour and a half with a lid and the whole house smells of soup.
Recipe for chicken soup with noodles
Components
3 chicken calves
2 tablespoons chicken
soup powder A handful of thin noodles
Method of preparation
In the second saucepan place three calves and fill with boiling water from the teapot.
Boil the poultry for about ten minutes and then rinse - clean the poultry and clean the pot.
Put the chickens in the saucepan again, fill with hot water from the kettle about 3/4 saucepan so that they cover the chicken.
Add the broth powder and let a good boil.
After boiling, lower the gas.
After half an hour, add a handful of thin noodles.
Increase the heat to another boil, lower the heat and cook for another twenty minutes.
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