L ifestyle /C ulture
Immersion Blender — Can’t Live Without It
LINDA MOREL | JE FOOD COLUMNIST
MY HUSBAND introduced
me to a new love — an immer-
sion blender.

I wasn’t in favor of adding
another appliance to our small
kitchen, but he went ahead and
bought one anyway. I have to
admit, once I saw how much
simpler it was than a standard
blender for pureeing, chopping,
frothing and whipping small
batches of food, I started using
this mighty emulsifier daily.

Making creamed soups,
sauces, hummus, salad dress-
ings and whipped cream became
a snap. The immersion blender
broke up canned tomatoes for
red sauces, whisked up fluffier
scrambled eggs and omelets,
and beat the lumps out of
sauces. It spun silky pesto, dips
and mayonnaise. It produced
single portion smoothies and
milkshakes. Its most dazzling
skill was frothing up milk for
lattes and cappuccinos.

But there are a couple of
downsides to this versatile
gadget. Think soft when using
an immersion blender. Hard
foods, such as nuts and seeds,
or fibrous foods, such as kale,
carrots and pineapples are too
challenging. While it works
wonders for small jobs, its mini
blade can’t tackle large quanti-
ties of food. Standard blenders
and food processors are better
suited to tackle sizable jobs.

Most immersion blenders
have two attachments: a
whisk for whipping cream
and frothing milk, and a
cutting blade for most other
jobs. Newer models have
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Serves 1
Latte recipes call for espresso
coffee, which forces most people
to buy lattes at pricey coffee
houses. But lattes can be made
at home without the tricky
business of brewing espresso.

Select strong coffees, such as
French roast or Viennese roast.

Do not add extra scoops of
other varieties to coffee makers
as you’ll produce bitter coffee.

Brew the coffee and pour it
into an attractive mug.

Place the milk in a pint-sized,
microwave-safe measuring
cup, such as Pyrex. It is prefer-
able for the measuring cup to
have a spout. Heat it in the
microwave at full power for
60-90 seconds, until the milk is
hot and bubbling at the edges.

Using the whisk attachment
of the immersion blender, whip
the milk until a thick foam
forms. Slowly tip the measuring
cup so the milk under the foam
flows into the coffee. Spoon the
foam on top of the coffee and
serve immediately.

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HOME BARISTA LATTE |
DAIRY Ground coffee to prepare
one cup of coffee
½ cup whole milk
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Strictly Kosher
a hooded guard around the
cutting blades so people don’t
get injured and food doesn’t
spatter. It prevents pots and
pans from getting nicked.

There are certain acquisi-
tions that are life altering, such
as self-cleaning ovens, freezers
with icemakers and smart TVs.

The immersion blender is one
of them.

Toltek / iStock / Getty Images Plus
F OO D
BANANA FRENCH TOAST |
DAIRY Yield: 3-6 servings
1 ripe banana
3 eggs
Pinch of granulated salt
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon milk
JEWISH EXPONENT
them until the bottom sides are
golden brown. Flip each challah
slice, repeating until the slices
are golden brown on both sides.

Add more butter, if needed.

Move the French toast to a
platter and serve immediately.

Pour on maple syrup or serve
Slice the banana. Move it with preserves, if using.

to a medium-large sized bowl,
preferably with a flat bottom. CRISPY EGG WHITE OMELET |
Fit the immersion blender with PAREVE OR DAIRY
the cutting blade, and mash Serves 2-3
the banana until there are
no lumps. Add the eggs, salt,
Equipment: 8-inch skillet
cinnamon and milk. Using the
3 stalks of thin asparagus
immersion blender, whip the
ingredients together until eggs
½ tomato
are foamy.

2 tablespoons olive oil, or
Slide the challah slices into
more if needed
the egg mixture. Make sure
1 small shallot, chopped
at least half of the slices are
1 clove garlic, minced
submerged. Every couple of
Kosher salt to taste
minutes, move the top slices
6 egg whites
in the pile to the bottom, so
2 tablespoons grated
every slice gets a good soaking
cheddar cheese, optional
through to the center. Using
a thin skewer or a toothpick,
Break off the fibrous ends of
gently poke holes in the challah the asparagus and discard. Cut
to encourage the slices to the asparagus into thin slices.

absorb the egg mixture.

Dice the tomato fine. Reserve.

Melt the butter in a large
Heat the oil in an 8-inch
skillet over a medium flame. skillet over a medium flame
Because the challah slices are so until warm. Sauté the shallot
infused with the egg mixture, and garlic until fragrant. Add
they can fall apart, so with a the asparagus and tomato and
spatula, carefully slide them
into the melted butter. Fry
See Blender, Page 23
6 slices of challah
3 tablespoons unsalted
butter, or more if needed
Optional accompaniments:
maple syrup (preferably
Grade A Amber), or fine
fruit preserves.

JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



L ifestyle /C ulture
‘American Birthright’ Asks, ‘Why Be Jewish?’
FI L M
SOPHIE PANZER | JE STAFF
WHEN BECKY TAHEL
learned her younger sister Gal
was going to marry a non-Jewish
man, she began to grapple with
whether she should marry
Jewish herself.

Her new documentary,
“American Birthright,” cata-
logues her search for answers
and a greater understanding of
religion, love and identity.

“The more I learn about this,
the more I recognize I know
absolutely nothing,” she says
during the film. “How do I, as a
Jew, educate myself about what
Judaism is?”
Throughout the film, Tahel
travels across America and
Israel to consult a diverse range
of rabbis, educators, activists,
interfaith couples and children
of interfaith couples about
why the question of interfaith
marriage is so complicated, and
how it might shape her future
relationships. Tahel was born in Israel to a
Moroccan Jewish mother and
an Ashkenazi Jewish father
whose family members experi-
enced the Holocaust. As a young
child, her family immigrated to
Philadelphia, where she grew up
attending Temple Beth Hillel-
Beth El. As an adult, she moved
to Los Angeles to pursue a career
in acting and filmmaking.

Part of the documentary is
filmed in Philadelphia, where
Tahel visits her grandmother, a
Holocaust survivor, to talk about
her sister’s decision. She also
speaks with her childhood rabbi,
Neil Cooper of Beth Hillel-Beth
El, when she revisits the site of
her bat mitzvah, and he talks
to her about how intermarriage
impacts the longevity of the
Jewish tradition.

“We have to look at the critical
mass of Jews in this country and
wonder how many more genera-
tions we have,” he says.

When she travels to Grenada
to visit her sister, who is
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM Becky Tahel (right) and her sister
Gal Bordo discuss relationships.

Courtesy of Becky Tahel
attending medical school there,
they discuss how Jewish identity
factors into their lives and
relationships. “It’s not like I’m going to
marry a non-Jew and abandon
all of these things, those things
are very, very important to me,”
Tahel said of her Judaism.

Baruch Rozmarin, a Grenada
rabbi, disagrees.

“And what Gal is doing is
she’s cutting this chain, and she’s
doing it after thousands of years
of her family being Jewish,” he
says in the documentary.

Other rabbis have a more
favorable outlook on inter-
marriage and emphasize the
importance of an individual’s
connection to Judaism and
supportive relationships with
partners. After speaking with a
head-spinning number of people
and arranging for Gal and her
fiance Justin to meet with an
interfaith premarital counselor,
Tahel realizes that her sister’s
decision will never give her
answers about the role she wants
religion to play in her life, or
about her relationship to Torah.

So she decides to travel to Israel
in search of answers to her
questions, which have changed
from variations of “Should
I marry Jewish?” to “Why be
Jewish?” She enrolls in an Orthodox
women’s seminary in Jerusalem,
where she continues to interview
Jewish leaders about topics like
modesty, prayer and Torah. Even
though Israel inspires her and
she immerses herself in Jewish
study, she still feels like she has
more questions than answers.

Clarity doesn’t arrive until
she visits Haifa and experiences
emotional reunions with both
sides of her family. The encoun-
ters make her realize she wants
to commit to actively carrying
on Jewish traditions, which her
relatives sacrificed so much to
pass on, and find a partner who
feels the same way.

The documentary ends by
showing Tahel celebrating
at her sister’s wedding and
flashing forward to her own
Jewish boyfriend getting down
on one knee. She says yes, and
a little more than two years
after filming, they are married
and have a 5-month-old child
together. In a separate interview, Tahel
said her experiences making the
documentary inspired her to
embrace a more observant form
of Judaism, and she now keeps
kosher, observes Jewish holidays,
and dresses more modestly than
she did in her 20s.

“That’s definitely been an
interesting thing to navigate as
a producer in the entertainment
industry,” she said. “There are
many Jews in Hollywood, but
there aren’t that many obser-
vant Jews.”
By including so many
diverse voices and celebrating
the decisions by both sisters,
the documentary refrains from
dogmatically pushing a single
message about Jewish faith
and intermarriage. Rather,
audiences see the sisters’ unique
personal journeys and are given
questions to help them reflect
on their own lives.

Tahel also wanted to make
sure the film didn’t pressure
anyone to be more observant.

“I did feel like this was the
optimal choice for me as a Jew
who wants Judaism in her life,
and I felt like I wanted that
choice to be loud and proud, but
I didn’t want it to be at odds with
celebrating my sister’s life,” Tahel
said in a separate interview. “No
one ever got closer to their faith
or their family or themselves
because they were judged.”
“American Birthright”
garnered awards at several
film festivals, including the
Audience Choice Award at the
Seattle Jewish Film Festival and
the Indie Spirit Award at the
Idyllwild International Festival
of Cinema. It will screen virtu-
ally at the Miami Jewish Film
Festival beginning on April 15. l
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