Midian Spinach and Chick Peas

Each week our Shabbat dinner menu reflects the themes of the weekly Torah Portion. Last week, honoring Moses' forty years in Midian, our cooking guests were invited to prepare and bring a Saudi-style Shabbat dish. Our sister Susan Levy explains her creation.

Flaming Mountain of the Gods Cake

Each week our Shabbat dinner menu reflects the themes of the weekly Torah Portion. This week, honoring Moses' forty years in Midian, our cooking guests were invited to prepare and bring a Saudi-style Shabbat dish. Our sister Joan Barris explains her creation.

The God of Tricks - Parshat Shemot

Parshat Vayechi Recipe - Buried Chicken

In last week’s parsha, Jacob died in Egypt, was embalmed and then buried in Canaan. We celebrated this in food for Shabbat dinner. The main course was Buried Egyptian Chicken, in which sweet and spicy roasted chicken is buried in rubble and the guests dig it up. The embalming was honored preserved foods—pickles and pickled beets with peppers.

The challah was flavored with coriander, a spice used in Egyptian cooking.

Here’s how it went:

Spicy Roast Chicken with Dates and Almonds
Ingredients:

10 lbs chicken parts
5 tsp cinnamon
3 tsp ground cumin
1.5 tsp ground ginger
1.5 tsp turmeric
1.5 tsp salt
6 tsp lemon juice
2 cups pitted dates
1 cup sliced or slivered almonds
1 quart chicken or vegetable stock
1 large onion cut into chunks

Put chicken in a large roasting pan. Combine seasonings and rub into chicken parts, on and under the skin. Pour on broth and lemon juice. Add chopped onion, dates and almonds. Cover and roast at 425 until chicken is tender, about an hour or so. Uncover and remove most of the liquid (using a turkey baster). Arrange chicken with skin-side up and cook uncovered to brown (I put the dark meat on top).

Promised Land Quinoa
This is designed to remind us of dirt from the Land.

1 pkg quinoa (12 oz)
1 pkg Inca Red Quinoa (12 oz)
@3.5 cups vegetable broth
½ cup light coconut milk
1 cup pitted olives, some chopped
salt and pepper

Measure quinoa into a large pot. Add 2 parts of liquid using any combination of broth, water and coconut milk (we had some leftover miso soup we included). Add olives. Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes until liquid is absorbed.

Cover the roasted chicken with the quinoa and serve with gardening tools.

Why I wear a hijab ... and I don't

Best friends Asmaa Abou Zeidan, middle, and Zahraa El-Zaibak, right, live across the street from each other. One wears the headscarf, known as the hijab, the other doesn’t. The girls tell the Star what everyone wants to know. Why the hijab? And why not?

robyn doolittle - Staff reporter

ASMAA ABOU ZEIDAN 

Asmaa Abou Zeidan scans through her closet and – like most mornings – settles on a shirt her mother doesn't like.

It's a white linen button-up blouse, falling just above the knee.

"She thinks it's too tight," the 16-year-old sighs. "She thinks everything I own is too tight. `That's not the way a Muslim girl is supposed to dress. You're supposed to be modest,'" she says.

Asmaa doesn't consider herself super-religious. She reads the Qur'an – when her parents ask her to. She attends mosque, prays five times a day, and believes in Islam, but right now Asmaa's priorities are her family, friends and being 16.

On a typical day, Asmaa likes to hang around school for a bit after the final 3:15 p.m. bell. Sometimes, she and some friends will hop the 43 bus to the Scarborough Town Centre for some shopping. more

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Israel's Comedian Soldiers

When these guys say they killed, they mean it. Israel's Comedian-soldiers.