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Shared by Stella Hanan Cohen

For His Bar Mitzvah, a Grandson Is Learning His Ancestors’ Recipes From Spain and Beyond

Family Journey

SpainRhodes, GreeceÉlisabethville, Belgian Congo (present-day Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of the Congo)
Salisbury, Rhodesia (present-day Harare, Zimbabwe)
6 recipes
Yaprakes De Oja De Parra Kon Avas (Stuffed Grape Leaves Stewed With White Beans)

Yaprakes De Oja De Parra Kon Avas (Stuffed Grape Leaves Stewed With White Beans)

6 servingsOvernight soaking + 4 h

Ingredients

For the beans

  • 2 cups dried cannellini or navy beans, soaked overnight in 4 cups of cold water and drained
  • 1 small yellow onion, peeled
  • 2 dried bay leaves
  • 3 fresh sage leaves
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt

For the broth

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 pound bone-in veal ossobuco cut into chunks or lamb chops
  • 1 yellow onion, peeled
  • 2-3 cups chicken stock

For the grape leaves

  • 1 pound fresh, young, tender grape leaves or brine-preserved leaves

For the filling

  • 1 pound ground beef or lamb
  • ⅔ cup medium-grain rice, soaked in hot water for 10 minutes, rinsed and drained
  • ½ cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley, use leaves and tender stems
  • ½ cup finely chopped fresh dill
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • ½ cup canned chopped tomatoes
  • 1 teaspoon tomato paste
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt 
  • ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper 

For cooking

  • 2 ripe tomatoes, cut into ½ inch slices crosswise 
  • 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  • 1 cup hot water
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt 
  • ¼ teaspoon finely ground black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon cornstarch dissolved in 2 tablespoons cold water

For serving

  • 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 2 lemons, cut in wedges
Albondigas Di Karne Kon Tomato (Meatballs Poached in Tomato Sauce)

Albondigas Di Karne Kon Tomato (Meatballs Poached in Tomato Sauce)

6 servings1 H 30 min

Ingredients

For the meatballs

  • 1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
  • 1 egg, lightly beaten
  • 3 slices white bread, crusts removed, dampened in ½ cup water, squeezed and drained and torn into small pieces
  • 1 pound ground beef
  • 1 ripe tomato, halved and coarsely grated 
  • ½ cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley, use leaves and tender stems
  • ¼ cup finely chopped fresh dill
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 ½ teaspoons sea salt 
  • ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

For the tomato sauce

  • 2 cups peeled, seeded and roughly chopped ripe fresh or canned tomatoes
  • 1 tablespoon tomato paste
  • 2 tender celery stalks with leaves, cut in chunks or 4 fresh whole sage leaves
  • 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • ½ cup beef broth (or hot water)
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt 
  • ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

For dredging

  • ½ cup all-purpose flour or gluten-free flour

For serving

  • 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon finely chopped flat-leaf parsley, use leaves and tender stems
  • 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh dill, use leaves and tender stems
Pan d’Espanya (Orange Sponge Cake)

Pan d’Espanya (Orange Sponge Cake)

1 10 inch cake1 h and 30 min

Ingredients

  • 8 large eggs
  • 1 cup caster (superfine) sugar
  • ½ cup vegetable or sunflower oil
  • 2 teaspoons finely grated orange zest (Zest from 1 orange) 
  • ¾ cup fresh orange juice (Juice from 3 oranges)
  • 1 teaspoon orange blossom water
  • 2 cups cake flour, sifted
  • 2 heaping teaspoons baking powder
  • ⅛ teaspoon kosher salt 
  •  ¾ teaspoon cream of tartar

For decorating

  • Confectioners’ sugar (optional)

Special Equipment

  • 10 inch tube chiffon cake pan (ungreased)
Menenas (Shortbread Filled With Dates and Walnuts)

Menenas (Shortbread Filled With Dates and Walnuts)

20 cookies2 h

Ingredients

For the dough

  • ½ cup fine semolina flour
  • 2¼ cups all-purpose flour
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • 2 heaping tablespoons confectioner’s sugar
  • 9 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1 tablespoon whole milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the filling

  • 1 cup walnuts 
  • 7 ounces dried dates, pitted
  • ¼ cup hot water
  • 2 ounces (½ stick) unsalted butter
  • ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
  • 1 teaspoon orange blossom water

For decorating

  • 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
Masapan (Marzipan)

Masapan (Marzipan)

50 pieces1 h

Ingredients

  • 1 pound blanched almonds
  • 2 cups warm water
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

For shaping

  • 1 cup water 
  • 1 teaspoon orange blossom water 

For decorating

Boulukunio (Almond and Sesame Brittle)

Boulukunio (Almond and Sesame Brittle)

15 servings1 h

Ingredients

  • 4 cups hulled sesame seeds
  • 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup blanched split almonds, toasted

For the syrup

  • ½ cups clear honey 
  • ½ cups water
  • 1½ cups sugar
Recipes
1
Yaprakes De Oja De Parra Kon Avas (Stuffed Grape Leaves Stewed With White Beans)

Yaprakes De Oja De Parra Kon Avas (Stuffed Grape Leaves Stewed With White Beans)

6 servingsOvernight soaking + 4 h

Ingredients

For the beans

  • 2 cups dried cannellini or navy beans, soaked overnight in 4 cups of cold water and drained
  • 1 small yellow onion, peeled
  • 2 dried bay leaves
  • 3 fresh sage leaves
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt

For the broth

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 pound bone-in veal ossobuco cut into chunks or lamb chops
  • 1 yellow onion, peeled
  • 2-3 cups chicken stock

For the grape leaves

  • 1 pound fresh, young, tender grape leaves or brine-preserved leaves

For the filling

  • 1 pound ground beef or lamb
  • ⅔ cup medium-grain rice, soaked in hot water for 10 minutes, rinsed and drained
  • ½ cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley, use leaves and tender stems
  • ½ cup finely chopped fresh dill
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • ½ cup canned chopped tomatoes
  • 1 teaspoon tomato paste
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt 
  • ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper 

For cooking

  • 2 ripe tomatoes, cut into ½ inch slices crosswise 
  • 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  • 1 cup hot water
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt 
  • ¼ teaspoon finely ground black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon cornstarch dissolved in 2 tablespoons cold water

For serving

  • 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 2 lemons, cut in wedges
2
Albondigas Di Karne Kon Tomato (Meatballs Poached in Tomato Sauce)

Albondigas Di Karne Kon Tomato (Meatballs Poached in Tomato Sauce)

6 servings1 H 30 min

Ingredients

For the meatballs

  • 1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
  • 1 egg, lightly beaten
  • 3 slices white bread, crusts removed, dampened in ½ cup water, squeezed and drained and torn into small pieces
  • 1 pound ground beef
  • 1 ripe tomato, halved and coarsely grated 
  • ½ cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley, use leaves and tender stems
  • ¼ cup finely chopped fresh dill
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 ½ teaspoons sea salt 
  • ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

For the tomato sauce

  • 2 cups peeled, seeded and roughly chopped ripe fresh or canned tomatoes
  • 1 tablespoon tomato paste
  • 2 tender celery stalks with leaves, cut in chunks or 4 fresh whole sage leaves
  • 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • ½ cup beef broth (or hot water)
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt 
  • ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

For dredging

  • ½ cup all-purpose flour or gluten-free flour

For serving

  • 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon finely chopped flat-leaf parsley, use leaves and tender stems
  • 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh dill, use leaves and tender stems
3
Pan d’Espanya (Orange Sponge Cake)

Pan d’Espanya (Orange Sponge Cake)

1 10 inch cake1 h and 30 min

Ingredients

  • 8 large eggs
  • 1 cup caster (superfine) sugar
  • ½ cup vegetable or sunflower oil
  • 2 teaspoons finely grated orange zest (Zest from 1 orange) 
  • ¾ cup fresh orange juice (Juice from 3 oranges)
  • 1 teaspoon orange blossom water
  • 2 cups cake flour, sifted
  • 2 heaping teaspoons baking powder
  • ⅛ teaspoon kosher salt 
  •  ¾ teaspoon cream of tartar

For decorating

  • Confectioners’ sugar (optional)

Special Equipment

  • 10 inch tube chiffon cake pan (ungreased)
4
Menenas (Shortbread Filled With Dates and Walnuts)

Menenas (Shortbread Filled With Dates and Walnuts)

20 cookies2 h

Ingredients

For the dough

  • ½ cup fine semolina flour
  • 2¼ cups all-purpose flour
  • ½ teaspoon baking powder
  • 2 heaping tablespoons confectioner’s sugar
  • 9 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 1 tablespoon whole milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the filling

  • 1 cup walnuts 
  • 7 ounces dried dates, pitted
  • ¼ cup hot water
  • 2 ounces (½ stick) unsalted butter
  • ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
  • 1 teaspoon orange blossom water

For decorating

  • 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
5
Masapan (Marzipan)

Masapan (Marzipan)

50 pieces1 h

Ingredients

  • 1 pound blanched almonds
  • 2 cups warm water
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

For shaping

  • 1 cup water 
  • 1 teaspoon orange blossom water 

For decorating

6
Boulukunio (Almond and Sesame Brittle)

Boulukunio (Almond and Sesame Brittle)

15 servings1 h

Ingredients

  • 4 cups hulled sesame seeds
  • 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup blanched split almonds, toasted

For the syrup

  • ½ cups clear honey 
  • ½ cups water
  • 1½ cups sugar

During the COVID-19 pandemic, cookbook author Stella Hanan Cohen hasn’t been able to travel the nearly 8,000 miles between her home in Zimbabwe and her grandchildren in the U.S. But, recipes have offered a connection, particularly for her bar mitzvah-aged grandson Nico. One day, without giving many details, he asked his mother to purchase the ingredients for his grandmother’s stuffed grape leaves and made them entirely on his own. “He’s got this yearning,” says Stella, for his family’s recipes and history. 

The grape leaves, like all the recipes in Stella’s book “Stella's Sephardic Table,” reveal a story about the Jewish cooks of Rhodes island, in present day Greece. During the Spanish Inquisition, Stella’s ancestors and their community fled across the Mediterranean and built a new home here where they kept traditions and customs from Spain alive. 

Many of the community’s recipes like those for orange sponge cake called pan d’Espanya, marzipan, and meatballs simmered in tomato sauce were left nearly unchanged for centuries. But with their move, Rhodeslis cooks also adopted new culinary methods and recipes. Savory pastries called bourekas that were popular in the Ottoman kitchen became part of their repertoire and stuffed grape leaves, beloved in the eastern Mediterranean, became a signature dish of the community. 

On Rhodes island “we inherited the gamut of stuffed vegetables from the Ottoman Empire,” she adds. Among them were stuffed vine leaves, Swiss chard, and cabbage. In Rhodes, courtyards in the Jewish quarter were home to grapevines with tender leaves that cooks would pick, fill with meat and rice, and simmer with cannellini beans and lemon in a dish called yaprakes de oja de parra kon avas.

It’s a dish she was raised on in Zimbabwe, where her family and part of the Rhodes community moved in the 1930s. When the leaves were in season in springtime, her mother would pick fresh ones in their backyard to make the recipe. And, she would blanch and freeze extra leaves so the family could serve them during the rest of the year. It’s a dish Stella’s made for her children and grandchildren when they would visit. “We form an assembly line. So, one does the rolling, one does the filling, one puts it in the pot,” she says. It brings together the entire family in the kitchen and now, the recipe links them even though they are far apart. 

Nico has since made numerous dishes from his grandmother’s cookbook including meatballs, marzipan, and savory pastries called pastelikos. He told Stella:

“For my bar mitzvah, I want to go through the recipes in your book... and try and get a feeling of what our ancestors did”

Explore more of Stella Hanan Cohen’s story and family recipes from Spain and Rhodes island here.