There are a few misconceptions about the Israeli food culture that exist abroad. In Manhattan Day School, the elementary school I attended, Yom Haatzmaut was a day that the students were treated to an “Israeli” lunch. Typically, as in most American Jewish Day Schools, the fare would consist of chummus, falafel balls, tehina and a chunky cucumber and tomato salad with a ton of lemon juice on it along with a big side bowl of sauerkraut to top it all off. This delight was accompanied by thin and hard pita breads that broke when you tried to open them and a host of nasty looking salads derived from the eggplant. Of course, no meal would be complete without dessert, so we got the ever-dry chocolate cake with blue and white icing on top. We were feeling the plight of the Sabra’s - a kinship with our lonsman 7000 miles to the East. As they told us, Independence Day was a happy occasion - judging from the food they served one would wonder why that was. I could not believe that the typical Israel ate this crap daily - and yet I accepted this for a long time.
Coming to Israel opened my eyes to what Israeli’s really eat daily, and wow, was I surprised - and highly disappointed at my former educational institution. Just window shop through an average supermarket here, or take a look at the menu of any typical “fast-food” place and you will notice something - there is more to Israeli daily life than falafel and tehina and Israeli salad. It is a little known fact that Israeli’s have figured out 2000 different ways to make a chicken cutlet - one for each day our nation was in the Diaspora I guess. Searching the frozen food section here you come across at least ten variations at a time, from a host of vegetables embedded in the cutlet to funny shaped ones with the taste of sweet chile.
Yes Israeli’s eat borekas regularly and yes, chummus is the butter of choice here, and yes the kids go off to school with chocolate sandwiches (yes, you read correctly, Bosco on Bread), but the schnitzel is king - crowned with a messload of sesame seeds to stay with you long after the meal is over as a reminder of the nourishment you just had. The disappointing thing though is with all the ways they do the cutlet here, they still have much to improve upon in terms of texture and taste. If there was a schnitzel governing body here, I would lobby them for one change - ban the breadcrumb - its a bold move to make, but once you go crumb free you will see, how much better your cutlet can be.
In the States, we have this dish called Southern fried chicken, and for the most part, everybody gets it wrong. On any menu, in any take-away store or in the kitchens of friends and family - seasoned breadcrumbs makes a fried chicken. But it is not the authentic way to do - the Colonel has it right and so does Popeye - but for those eating kosher, the experience of a real Southern Fry has eluded them. There is this restaurant in Queens, NY called Richard’s Place that my wife and I happened upon after watching an early generation TVFN show called Dining around with NY Socialite, Nina Griscom and food critic Alan Richman. I bring them up becuase to date, it still rates as one my favorite food shows of all times - simple, basic and highly informative without any “BAM” to compensate for the shortcomings.
The show, a public cable access quality incarnation, featured some of the best places to eat around the country that were not riddled with stars and diamonds - real food for real people. So, living in Forest Hills and being the pagan’s that we were, we braved the elements and drove to the heart of Jamaica, not a place you would typically find your middle class white Jewish folk walking around after dark. I am glad we did though as it turns out, because on that night we were treated to a fantastic down home Southern meal, complete with buttermilk biscuits, and collard greens. And on that cold night, my eyes were opened by a culinary wonder that forever changed the way I fried anything - especially chicken. It was that experience that empowered me to say “NO” to the breadcrumb and embrace the simple combination of flour and egg. Crispy, flaky, fully encapsulating the chicken without sliding off, this is what flour and egg can do.
Try this recipe once and you too will become a convert - and perhaps if you live in Israel, you can pass this on to your neighbors and friends and show the families who visit from abroad that we are not just about falafel and blue and white icing - we are the schnitzel capital of the world and nobody does it better than us.
Chicken Cutlets
Jay's cutlets with baked potato, green beans and a trail of sweetened demiglas.
Ingredients
1 kilo (2.2 lbs) chicken breast (I prefer to pound them thin and cut them in half)
5 eggs
1 cup chicken stock (or water if you don’t have soup lying around)
4 cups flour
(the following is my basic spice mixture - you can use whatever you like as long as it is dry)
2 tbsp. sweet paprika
1 tbsp. Cayenne pepper
2 tbsp. garlic powder
3 tbsp. dried parsley
2 tbsp. salt
2 tbsp. fresh ground black pepper
3 tbsp Tabasco (hot pepper) sauce
3 cups vegetable or canola or sunflower seed oil
Preparation
In a large bowl combine the fry ingredients and the flour. Mix well using a whisk.
In another bowl combine the eggs, stock (or water) and the Tabasco sauce. Mix with a whisk until frothy.
Take a skillet and heat up the oil on a medium flame - you need a very hot oil to do this right so while the oil is heating:
Take the cutlets and mix them well in the flour bowl, shake them off and then place on a flat surface. Do not stack them as they will stick together. Take one cutlet at a time and dip in the egg mixture, then transfer it to the flour mixture and coat until the cutlet is no longer wet with the eggs. I like to do this twice, but you can do it once if you like (if you are preparing this to be served a day later, like on Friday for Shabbat lunch, do it twice). Place battered cutlet on a clean plate and repeat with three-four more cutlets.
Place four-five cutlets in your skillet with what should now be very hot oil - while the cutlets are in, repeat the above process with four-five more cutlets. Watch the oil and turn the cutlets over when the downside becomes golden. Take them out when the whole cutlet is crisp and a light golden brown. (keep in mind that the second side takes about half the time to cook as the first, so a slight differential in coloring is normal).
Repeat this process until all cutlets are cooked. You will notice a kind of flakiness, resembling scales on a fish as you go on - this is normal and actually becomes more prominent with the cutlets as you get to the later batches. This is a result of the egg dripping into the flour during the coating process - so if your flour starts getting clumpy, this is a good thing - and this is why I like cutting my cutlets into strips as it allows for more pieces to have this scaly texture.
Any questions? Please email questions@batayavon.net and I will do my best to get back to you within a day.
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