As I cycle on a full year of this project, the question has come up - Will I make the same things for the parsha this year? In most cases, I plan to find something new. Isn't that the whole idea of weekly Torah study? We can keep re-reading the same source material and find something new to engage our hearts and minds. For some favorites, though, there will be repeats. This week I am once again making the same main dish, but the side and dessert are new.
The repeat is a coconut beef stew. Why? Because it was delicious and my kids still talk about it! Oh, but the why for the dish comes from Avraham's legendary hospitality.
When the mysterious guests arrive, he rushes for make them a meal. He grabs a "calf, tender and choice" and "curds and milk and the calf that was prepared and set these before them.) (Bereshit 18:7-8). So, Avraham made them a meal with meat and milk - not okay by later Kosher standards, but since those rules weren't given yet, it didn't hold. Since I *do* have the laws of kashrut I can't make the exact same thing - so enters coconut milk!
The first of the two new menu items is a side dish of broccolini, green beans, asparagus, and maybe snap peas, sautéed with some garlic and herbs. The goal of this dish is to look like the thicket where the ram is caught that is ultimately sacrificed instead of Isaac. Interesting commentary for the Bekhor Shor about why the thicket was important:
"And he nevertheless would not have taken it, as he was afraid lest another person lost it; and he would not extend his hand [to take the property] of others. But "after it was caught in the thicket by its horns," he knew that it was a sign to him that he should take it and that it was stuck there for his sake. So he went and took it."
Finally, for dessert I wanted to play with the trend of adding salt to desserts, to represent how Lot's wife turned into a pillar of salt when she turned back to look at the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Perhaps the salted (vegan) caramel topping on our apple crisp will not only feel timely and seasonal, but can spark an interesting discussion about why Lot's wife turned back and why she was punished for it.
Shabbat Shalom and B'Tayavon!
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