How To Experience All That Shabbat Is Meant To Be

My first Shabbat spent in Israel was in 8^th grade. I was jet-lagged, sick, and a 12+ hour flight from home, and yet, had the best Shabbat of my life. I haven’t stopped raving about the feeling of coziness that my host home created for Shabbat, the never-ending food that was continuously offered, and the sense that we weren’t in a rush, we could take the day as slowly as we wanted. It was those same feelings that resurfaced when reading Adeena Sussman’s new cookbook Shabbat: Recipes and Rituals from My Table to Yours. Pouring through Shabbat is as close as you can get to the emotions that surround Shabbat, without celebrating the holiday itself.

Pomegranate Sumac Margarita

The excitement of Shabbat practically bounces off the pages of the cookbook, as bright, colorful images usher in a delight that daily food simply can’t muster. The photography is stunning and holds the ability to carry the book all on its own. Yet, for those looking to get in the kitchen and make food for Shabbat, the recipes will not disappoint. Although the recipe instructions can be a bit long, and some recipes take up multiple pages, overall, the instructions are pretty straightforward to follow. Each recipe includes both an Active Time and a Total Time at the top of the page, so you know how much time you will spend actively cooking versus how much time it will take for a recipe to be complete including any rising, baking, or sitting time required.

Golden Challah

From several challah recipes to other types of bread traditionally eaten on Shabbat, to dips, veggies, main courses, and desserts, this cookbook includes enough material for you to switch up your Shabbat menu every single week. (Although for a nearly 400-page cookbook, centered around Shabbat, I was surprised at the limited Kugel section.) You’ll find conventional Shabbat recipes such as Mock Chopped Liver and Kiddush Herring, and creative-new twists on the Shabbat chicken like Chicken Thighs with Roasted Figs & Grapes. You may also be inspired to start new Shabbat traditions by making Shaken Iced Tahini Coffee to start off a Shabbat morning.

At first, the brunch section in the cookbook felt off brand. Shabbat, usually a time known for three meals, dinner, lunch, and Seudat Shlisheet (Third Meal), didn’t seem to align with brunch. But the more Sussman explains her goal of giving people food to cook that revels in the spirit of Shabbat, the concept of different ideas of Shabbat cooking made more sense. She further explained that “Shabbat meals take on many different iterations in Israel, and not all of them are connected to religious ritual”.

Fig and Pomegranate Brisket

If you’re looking for a way to make Shabbat feel extra special, Sussman’s cookbook serves as a guide for using food, and preparation for Shabbat, as a method for separating the day from the rest of the week. This cookbook is not just simply another book of recipes. As Sussman writes: “It’s food with meaning, centered around a tradition with ancient roots and conceptualized around the ideas of rest, relaxation, and reflection.” She adds meaning to many recipes through including stories about those foods from local cooks who shared their cooking traditions with her. For instance, Yvonne Cohen, descended from a tight-knit Syrian-Egyptian-Jewish family in Brooklyn, spent a day with Sussman. She taught her
how to make lachmagine, “a labor of love,” and imparted her unique technique: keeping the lachmagine dainty, just like her grandmother’s. Each recipe in the cookbook comes with a story, one either passed down for years, or adapted to preserve for the future.

Shabbat is guaranteed to bring new-found meaning to your weekend.

Photos credit: Dan Perez