{"id":111550,"date":"2025-09-10T16:20:49","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T20:20:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/?p=111550"},"modified":"2025-09-10T16:20:49","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T20:20:49","slug":"a-trio-of-breasts-w-braised-halvah-a-mediterranean-wine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/?p=111550","title":{"rendered":"A Trio of Breasts w\/Braised Halvah &amp; a Mediterranean Wine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In 1997 Yves DeMarchevant, the Dorothy Kleinman Professor of Antiquities at Universit\u00e9&nbsp;Lille, unearthed a cache of papyri located in Alexandria that dated back to circa 200 BCE. The area excavated is in northeast corner of&nbsp;Alexandria, which in the time was home to Jews of the Hellenistic period (think of it as the&nbsp;New York City&nbsp;of the day).&nbsp; The surprising find included a recipe for a dish included herein. Given the diverse and costliness of the ingredients involved, it is thought to be a \u201cfestival\u201d dish.&nbsp; Something that could have been prepared to honor the beginning of the observance of the Jewish New Year.&nbsp; Noted cable network \u201cfoodie\u201d, Guy Fieri has adapted the recipe to contemporary measurements and cooking techniques. The list of ingredients can appear imposing, and the steps are more numerous than I typically promote, but it\u2019s the season!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wines?&nbsp; Easy, wine as been part an parcel of religious observance for Jews since\u2026 since?&nbsp; Forever. But joining the pleasure of wine to food? Came later.&nbsp; Thank all that is holy that it arrived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><u>Tura\u00a0Estate\u00a0Mountain\u00a0Peak\u00a0\u201813 (Judean Hills,Israel)<\/u><\/strong><br \/>The Tura Winery, a family estate winery located in thevillage\u00a0of\u00a0Rehelim, was established in 2003 by Erez and Vered Ben Saadon. The winery\u2019s vineyards, planted in 1997 on\u00a0Mt.\u00a0Bracha\u00a0by the family, would later emerge as one of the finest vineyards in all of\u00a0Israel. Mountain Peak is a blend of 49&amp; Cabernet Sauvignon, 36% Merlot, 12% Cabernet Franc and 3% Malbec and aged for 22 months in new French barriques, A full-bodied wine with notes of black pepper, berries, plums and cacao.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A TRIO OF BREASTS W\/BRAISED HALVAH<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><u>Ingredients<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>6 ounces of Tanqueray Gi<br \/>\u00bd ounce of Noilly Pratt Dry Vermouth<br \/>3 Blue Cheese Stuffed Olives<br \/>A Goodly amount of Ice<br \/>1 duck breast<br \/>1 chicken breast<br \/>1 veal breast<br \/>\u00bc cup olive oil (expensive, not cheap store brand)<br \/>6 cloves garlic, finely minced<br \/>\u00bc tsp dried oregano<br \/>\u00bc tsp chives<br \/>\u00bd tsp herbes de\u00a0Provence<br \/>\u00bc tsp sage<br \/>\u00bd tsp rosemary\u00bc tsp thyme<br \/>1 tbsp cilantro<br \/>1 tbsp dill<br \/>1 cup 2% milk<br \/>2 oz beet horseradish<br \/>1 pinch ground coriander<br \/>\u00bc tsp smoked paprika<br \/>1 tsp dried red pepper<br \/>Salt and pepper to taste<br \/>1 large onion, diced<br \/>1 carrot, of goodly size, but not overly fat at the base, cut into matchstick sized pieces<br \/>1 turnip, peeled and discarded<br \/>1 hicama placed on the counter for future study<br \/>3 glasses of red wine<br \/>2 filets of gefilte fish<br \/>1 healthy block of halvah1 braided challah<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><u>Directions<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>1. Put gin and vermouth into a glass pitcher, fill with ice, stir vigorously while incanting, \u201cYou who know all, thank you for providing us juniper and all the other obscure ingredients responsible for creating this sacred liquid!\u201d Strain into a pre-frozen Martini glass of admirable size.&nbsp; Skewer the olives on one of those tacky cocktail swords, place in glass. Immediately begin consuming.&nbsp; Now you can begin the food prep, and the cooking!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>2. Pre-heat oven to 375\u00b0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>3. Season the duck, chicken &amp; veal with salt and pepper. In a dutch oven at medium-high heat, add oil and saut\u00e9 the chicken, duck and veal. Brown on each side 2-3 minutes (maybe longer), remove to plate and tent to keep warm saying, \u201cYou who have given me this task, please watch over this bounty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>4. Add garlic to the dutch oven over nearly medium heat \u2018til fragrant. Deglaze with 1 cup of wine, scraping up bits into the wine. Reduce liquid to a third. Add onions and carrots and sweat to almost soft, but surely not firm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>5. Add all the spices with the exception of the horseradish to the onions and carrots.&nbsp; Blend. Lower heat to low, but not too low, for a very brief time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>6. Return the duck, chicken and duck to the dutch oven (and if you are of the mind, throw in 2 or 3 sliced bratwursts), add a glass of wine, blend thoroughly and put into the oven.&nbsp; Set timer for 10 hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>7. After 8 hours serve the gifilte fish with the horseradish and sliced challah bread and a glass of wine saying, \u201cit doesn\u2019t get better than this.\u201d&nbsp; Then take a small portion of gifilte fish and throw it on the floor saying (with considerable disgust), \u201cThat\u2019s what I think of you Joseph McCarthy!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>8. After 10 hours, remove the dutch oven, open, regard the burnt and overly cooked contents and recite from Genesis, Chapter 22:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey.&nbsp; He took with him two of his servants and his son Issac.&nbsp; When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>On the third Day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>He said to his servants, \u201cstay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there.&nbsp; We will worship and then we will come back to you.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Issac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife.&nbsp; As the two went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, \u201cFather?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cYes, my son?\u201d Abraham replied?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cThe fire and wood are here,\u201d Issac said, \u201cbut where is the lamb for the burnt offering?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Abraham answered, \u201cGod himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.\u201d And the two of them went together.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged wood on it.&nbsp; He bound his son Issac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.&nbsp; Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.&nbsp; But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, \u201cAbraham, Abraham!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cHere I am\u201d, he replied.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cWhat are you nuts? Put that knife down!&nbsp; You\u2019ve shown your devotion to God! Untie the lad. Go and eat halvah with your boy.\u201d And 20 minutes later the boy had a smile on his face and pimples.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>8. Discard the contents of the dutch oven.&nbsp; Your children are spared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>9. Cut a healthy sized slab of halvah and serve with the glass of milk. Smile and enjoy. And, for those to whom it applies, enjoy a New Year of good health and happiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><u>n.b.<\/u><\/strong>&nbsp;This dish is not only served for the \u201cJewish New Year\u201d, it is also served on September 9 to commemorate the day Sandy Koufax pitched a perfect game against the Chicago Cubs. Just kidding about&nbsp;<em>braising<\/em>&nbsp;the halvah. And it has been well documented that halvah (a common mid-Eastern confection) can raise pimples on a bowling ball.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 1997 Yves DeMarchevant, the Dorothy Kleinman Professor of Antiquities at Universit\u00e9&nbsp;Lille, unearthed a cache of papyri located in Alexandria that dated back to circa 200 BCE. The area excavated is in northeast corner of&nbsp;Alexandria, which in the time was &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/?p=111550\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ministry-of-jokes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=111550"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":111551,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111550\/revisions\/111551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=111550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=111550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=111550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}