Tag: purim salami

Salami Spaghetti

Once upon a time, in a land far far away, there was a Jewish blogger who happened upon a little-know-custom of eating salami on Purim since it’s hung, like the evil Haman was hanged on the gallows. She loved to celebrate the holidays with fun spins on traditions but salami was knows to give her nightmares.

When she was a girl, said blogger was forced to eat salami sandwiches on Friday afternoons, which she promptly threw down the incinerator chute of her apartment building, horrified by the hard white pieces in the salami. She swore off the cured sausage forever.

As a young bridge, not knowing how to cook, and on a newlywed budget, she was introduced to the humble dish of salami and eggs. She learned, that once cooked, the “hard white pieces” in the salami, rendered out into flavorful fat that crisped up the salami into crunchy bits of deliciousness. Intrigued, she hopped on board the salami wagon.

And so, each year, as an ode to her transformation, she puts a spin on salami dishes for the holiday. There was no outdoing her drunken hasselback salami, which has since graced the tables of thousands of Jewish households and deli counters worldwide.

….And now back to first person, I am spellbound that I have carried on this tradition for TEN YEARS here on the blog!! I couldn’t be more proud! This year, my salami inspiration comes by way of Italy, a trip that continues to inspire my cooking on the daily.

Italy is known for it’s pasta, but equally for it’s charcuterie, including salami. This flavorful yet humble dish, marries a garlicky tomato sauce with spicy chili flakes, and rich salami chunks that get crisped up to perfection. Truly worthy of your holiday feast!

In true Italian style, this recipe makes use of the salty and starchy pasta water to build the sauce, so make sure not to drain it and read the full recipe before proceeding!

Happy Purim!!

Salami Spaghetti
YIELD: 8 servings

14oz. Abeles & Heymann salami, cut into chunks
2 tbsp olive oil, plus more for finishing
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes, or, to taste
6oz. tomato paste
16oz. spaghetti
kosher salt, to taste

Method:

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. While the water is heating up, add the salami to a cold pan. Set the heat to medium and cook the salami until it’s crispy and browned, 5-8 minutes. Remove from the pan and set aside. Add the pasta to the water and cook until just under al dente, about 9 minutes. (Read the full recipe first, do not drain the pasta as you will need the pasta water!).

Add the olive oil, garlic and red pepper flakes and saute until softened and fragrant, but not browned. Add the tomato paste and continue to cook until it darkens and caramelizes, stirring constantly, about 5 minutes. Stir in 1 cup of pasta cooking water and whisk until creamy.

Remove the spaghetti from the pot and toss directly into the tomato sauce, adding more pasta water, if needed, to thin it out. Add in the salami and serve immediately with a drizzle of olive oil and additional red pepper flakes for garnish.

Other Salami Recipes:

last year: roasted antipasto salad
two years ago: salami nduja
three years ago: salami tarte tatin
four years ago: salami potato latkes
five years ago: salami babka
six years ago: salami quiche
seven years ago: beer battered salami chips with beer mustard
eight years ago: drunken hasselback salami
nine years ago: salami chips

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Salami Nduja

Happy Salami Season!!!! It’s that time of the year when I go all salamied out because Purim, and it’s been a Busy In Brooklyn tradition for years now!

It all started with this thing I read about salami being hung like the evil haman in the Purim story and a tradition was born to trash up salami every which way in true Purim spirit.

Unless you live under a rock, you’ve definitely heard of my viral DRUNKEN HASSELBACK SALAMI that’s become a staple in Jewish homes and deli counters worldwide, and the ever popular SALAMI BABKA that made waves in recent years.

I’m always dreaming up new salami ideas, and this year I took inspiration from Chef Erick Vargas Bromberg (@evb_nyc), formerly of one of my favorite kosher restaurants of all time, Boru Boru.

Erick served up salami nduja at his most recent job at Gruit (he has since left) and I was intrigued! Nduja (pronounce en-doo-ya) is a spreadable sausage, traditionally made with the nonkosher meat (if you know what I mean!) and calabrian chilies, but Eric used salami and gochujang (Korean chili paste), layered with smoked navel fat. I’m not usually a pâté person but it was GOOD and it made me see salami in a whole new light!

It ain’t easy doing something new and exciting with salami every year so I was grateful for the inspo! I made my own version which is not too spicy, a bit smoky, salty and all around deeeelicious.

I recommend serving with crusty bread, crackers, lots of pickles and plenty of wine, of course. Happy Purim!!

Salami Nduja

14oz. Abeles & Heymann salami, roughy chopped
1/3 cup sundried tomatoes packed in oil
2 tbsp oil from the jar of sundried tomatoes
1 tbsp smoked paprika
1 tbsp miso paste
2 tbsp chili garlic sauce (such as Huy Fong) or sriracha, to taste

Method:

Add all ingredients to the bowl of a food processor and blend until smooth and creamy. Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Other Salami Recipes:

last year: salami tarte tatin
two years ago: salami potato latkes
three years ago: salami babka
four years ago: salami quiche
five years ago: beer battered salami chips with beer mustard
six years ago: drunken hasselback salami
seven years ago: salami chips

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Salami Babka

I…I…I…don’t even know what to say…. but BREAKING THE INTERNET comes to mind!! Move over Kim Kardashian because I’ve got Salami Babka in the house!!

I don’t know how I’ve held it in for this long – this gorgeous savory babka has been eating away at me (or have I been eating away at it?) ever since I conceived of it months ago… I wanted to shout it from the rooftops the second this baby came out of the oven, but it was not to be, because, as you know, I save all my SALAMI revelations for Purim! Yes, Purim. The holiday of booze, dress-up, and here at Busy In Brooklyn, SALAMI.

My salami hacks have been making their mark each year for the holiday, and I think I might have finally outdone my drunken hasselback salami, because, lets face it – ain’t nothin better than bread – and when you fill that bread with the sweet and savory fillings of apricot jam, mustard, brown sugar and salami – well…. you basically BREAK. THE. INTERNET.

Babka has been all the rage this year, from the famous Bread’s bakery babka (who’s recipe was recently made public in the Baking Breads cookbook) to the spreads in The New York Times, Bon Appetit Magazine, and all that other stuff. I have to admit that I have never made true, authentic babka (with buttery brioche dough), although I often fill my leftover challah with gooey chocolate spread, twist it up and call it a day.

I’ve had savory babka on my mind for a while now, and I was kind of surprised that I haven’t seen too many savory variations on the net. Especially since turning traditional sweets into savory adaptations is kind of a thing right now. My biggest obstacle with a salami babka was the brioche dough. The good stuff is loaded with butter and I just couldn’t stand the thought of using all that margarine (the rules of kosher forbid me from eating milk with meat, so no butter and salami together). And yes I realize that’s ironic since this thing is loaded with salami (insert facepalm emoji here!)

I considered going with a challah dough, but I finally decided I would make this super easy for everyone and just use pizza dough. Of course you can use any dough you choose, and even go crazy with the deli you stuff it with. Don’t worry about all of the mess – the little bits of salami that poke out of the bread and get all crispy and caramelized are my favorite part of this recipe!

Now if you’ve missed my whole salami situation – the reason for my yearly Purim salami postings are due to a little nugget of information that I read a couple of years back. I don’t know if it was true, or it was all a Purim joke – but it made mention of the fact that some people have a tradition to eat salami on Purim since it is hung, like Haman. I thought it was the coolest food custom I had ever read, so I adopted it. The part that you don’t know though, is that that was a huge deal for me! Why? read on.

So growing up, my mom would make salami sandwiches every Friday afternoon for lunch for my siblings and I. She’d send us outside to the courtyard of our building to eat them, so we wouldn’t make a mess inside the house before Shabbat. Little did she know, we all hated those little hard white pieces inside the salami (I’m pretty sure they were solid fat!), so one by one, we all chucked our salami sandwiches down the incinerator chute – every. single. week. My poor mom thought we were eating lunch and little did she know!

From thereon out, I never looked at salami again. For years. Until I got married and the only thing my husband knew how to cook from his Yeshiva days was salami and eggs. I always swore I’d never try it, until one day, he convinced me, and the rest is history! I learned that cooking out the salami fat leaves you with a super crispy, tasty bits of heaven that are so perfect for trashing up in fun ways!

Just. Like. This. Lets get hangin’!

Salami Babka

1 lb. pizza*, challah or brioche dough
1/3 cup apricot jam
2 tbsp deli mustard
2 tbsp brown sugar
7 oz. Abeles & Heymann salami, thinly sliced
2 tbsp everything bagel spice

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Flour your work surface and roll the dough out to about 11″ x 16″. Melt your apricot jam in the microwave or in a small saucepan and brush over the dough. Squeeze some mustard over the jam and sprinkle with brown sugar. Spread the salami slices out in one layer and starting from the long end, roll up jelly-roll-style. Slice the roll in half down the center, and gently twist the two strips around each other. Don’t worry if some of the salami falls out, or if pieces stick out of the dough, just try to keep the layers from falling apart. Place the salami babka into a greased loaf pan and sprinkle with everything bagel spice. If any of the salami fell out, just tuck it into the sides of the pan.

Bake the babka until golden, about  35-45 minutes. Remove from the loaf pan and slice. Serve warm, with mustard for dipping.

NOTE: I know this recipe seems messy but the idea is to have some of the salami piece sticking out of the dough so that they get crispy and caramelized, while other pieces stay moist on the inside. The thinner you slice the salami, the more your babka will hold together, so try to slice as thinly as you can.

VARIATION: Try this recipe with kosher bacon, or other deli meats like turkey and/or pastrami.

*of course I used store-bought pizza dough because I’m about the 1-2-3!


This post is sponsored by Abeles & Heymann. Follow them on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter! 

Related Recipes:

drunken hasselback salami
salami quiche
beer battered salami chips with beer mustard
salami chips with dipping sauce

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Salami Chips with Dijon Dipping Sauce

Funny story. When I was growing up, my mother used to prepare salami sandwiches for my siblings and I every Friday afternoon. She would pack up our sandwiches, and we’d take them to the courtyard of our building to eat lunch. Little did she know, each week we’d head straight for our building’s incinerator and throw our sandwiches down the chute.

I tried to eat those sandwiches, I really did. But those hard white pieces in the salami just made me gag. Fast forward quite a number of years and I’m a married woman. I’m in the supermarket with my husband and he wants to buy, you guessed it, salami. I explain to him that in no uncertain terms am I going to put that stuff into my mouth. But he promises me that his preparation is so delicious, even I will eat it.

So we head home, and true to his word, my husband whips up sauteed salami that is not only swallowable, it’s pretty good. I mean, I’m not about to go crazy over it, it’s still salami, but I can see where some might enjoy it.

Now fast forward quite a few more years, and that same sweet husband who whipped me up a dinner of sauteed salami, bought me some amazing food magazines for Shabbos (I’ll take that over flowers any day!). Among them is the Real Simple magazine and it has a recipe for salami chips. Sounds intriguing. So I whip up a batch according to the magazine’s directions and they come out disgusting. Absolutely, horrendous. I play around with the cooking time and the oven temperature, and finally, after countless batches, I get it right!

Interestingly enough, I have read that salami is often eaten on Purim to commemorate the hanging of Haman (salami is also hung). Salami chips would make for a unique and tasty shalach manos, or, you can serve them up as an appetizer at your Purim seudah.

 

Salami Chips with Dijon Dipping Sauce

sliced salami (see note)
1/4 cup mayo
1/4 cup dijon mustard
1/4 cup apricot jam
1/4 tsp tarragon

Method:

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Place salami slices on a baking sheet and bake until crispy, about 25 minutes. When you see the salami begin to curl up around the edges, watch them carefully to make sure they don’t burn. As soon as you remove the salami from the oven, dab them with paper towels to remove some of the rendered fat from the top. Then, drain them again on paper towels.

Alternatively, you can make the salami chips in the microwave. Place salami slices between sheets of paper towel. Microwave for approximately 40 seconds, or until crispy.

For dipping sauce, melt the apricot jam in the microwave or on the stovetop. Crush the tarragon between your fingers. In a bowl, mix the mayo, mustard, apricot jam and tarragon. Serve alongside salami chips.

NOTE: To make salami chips, the salami needs to be thinly sliced and uniform.  You can purchase presliced salami from your deli counter, but I like to buy it whole and slice it myself. The only way to achieve this without an electric meat slicer is by using a mandolin. However, since the salami is soft, it bends as you try to slice it. My solution for this is to freeze the salami for several hours until it is almost completely frozen. Then slice it on the mandoline as you would a cucumber. You’ll get perfect, uniform slices every time.

VARIATION: For sweet and salty salami chips, combine 3 tablespoons dark brown sugar and 1 tablespoon water and melt in the microwave or on the stovetop. Pour sugar mixture over baked salami chips and stir gently to combine. Return chips to the oven and bake for an additional 5 minutes at 350 degrees.

1 year ago: chocolate dipped pretzel rods

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