Cuisine – Challah

A Twist in the Tale

A real give-away as to our South African roots is to ask for a ‘kitke’.
Appearing exclusively in South Africa’s Yiddish lexicon, it begs the question:

What is the origin of the word?
Don’t look to the Poles, for while apparently, there is a Polish word ‘kitke’ meaning “twisted”, this is closer to a red, not a gehakte herring. The Polish derivative was never used in Europe to describe the ‘Shabbos’ bread and so was never elevated to a linguistic heirloom.
The answer lies not from where the Jewish immigrants came but to where they initially settled – Kimberley!
With the discovery of diamonds in the Cape Colony in 1867, many Jewish immigrants who had fled the pogroms of Eastern Europe, gravitated to this booming mining town. Then, when gold was discovered10 years later in the Transvaal, many packed up their wagons and headed to Ferreirasdorp, today an inner-city suburb of Johannesburg but then a rugged mining camp. Referred as the “cradle of Johannesburg”, it was where the first diggings started, where the first diggers settled and to where the Yiddisher crowd from Kimberley arrived, seeking – quite literally – the ‘Golden Madinah’.
Now the plot thickens like the dough in the Challah for with many of these new arrivals they were joined by their Khoi servants who had initially hailed from the vast Griqualand region.

The Real McKhoi
Observing the womenfolk with their long-plaited hair, and how they used to plait the hair of their daughters, the servants came up with a description for this strange hairstyle ‘kitkhoi’, using the Khoi word for ‘twist’.
Now, as there were no bakeries, and all Challas for Shabbat were baked in private homes, it was mostly the Khoi servants that would deliver the Challas to the various Jewish households and tell them that they were delivering the ‘kitkhois’.
In time, this Koi invented word would emerge as the formal name for challas in South Africa – kitka!

What’s Cooking?

Expect your neighbours to come knocking when you follow Anne  Abarbanel’s recipe for Challah!  That is because their noses will be irresistibly drawn to a ‘heavenly’ aroma.

Anne preparing the doe for her Challah

Ingredients

• 2¼ tsp dry active yeast
• 1½ tsp plus ¼ cup sugar
• 1 cup warm water
• ¼ cup vegetable oil (I use canola)
• 3 eggs
• 1 egg yolk + 1 tsp of water (to brush the top of the Challah)
• 1 teaspoon of Kosher salt
• 4 cups flour

 Instructions

1. In a bowl, add yeast, 1½ tsp sugar, and 1 cup of warm water. Mix until dissolved. Let sit for 10 minutes.
2. Mix in canola oil, 2 eggs (1 at a time) and the egg yolk. Add the remaining sugar and the salt.
3. Slowly add flour (½ cup at a time).
4. When the dough holds together, knead until smooth.
5. Transfer the dough to a large (!) greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place for at least 1 hour.
6. Punch the dough down, and leave it to rise again (for at least 1 more hour).
7. You can now either make 1 large challah or 2 smaller ones. Place braided loaf on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
8. Use the remaining egg yolk (dissolved with a teaspoon of water) to brush the top of the loaf.
9. You can sprinkle poppy seeds, sesame seeds, sea salt or any other seeded topping you want
10. Let sit for 30 minutes to one hour.
11. Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown.
12. Enjoy!