Bagels and Lox: The bagel, which has been a part of Jewish cuisine for at least 400 years, is a donut-shaped piece of bread that is boiled before it is baked. Bagels are often topped with seeds (poppy or sesame) or flavored with other ingredients (cinnamon, blueberry, onion, garlic...). Real bagels are soft and spongy on the inside. Bagels are traditionally served with cream cheese and lox (smoked salmon).
Blintzes: Blintzes, a.k.a. "Jewish crepes", are thin pancakes rolled around a filling. Popular fillings for appetizer blintzes are sweetened cottage cheese, mushrooms, or mashed potatoes and onion. Popular fillings for dessert blintzes are fruit pie fillings. Older kosher cookbooks often suggest frying the blintzes, but today the blintzes are often not fried for health reasons.
Challah: Challah is a sweet egg bread, often braided, that is traditionally eaten on the Sabbath, Jewish festivals and holidays (except Passover), and special occassions.
Cholent: Cholent is a slowly cooked stew of beans, barley, and sometimes potatoes. It can be made with or without meat. Cholent is traditionally eaten for Sabbath lunch because it can be started before the Sabbath begins and cook throughout the Sabbath.
Gefilte Fish: Gefilte fish a loaf of chopped up fish, usually white-fleshed freshwater fish such as carp or pike. The chopped fish is generally mixed with onions, carrots and parsley. Eggs and matzah meal hold the mixture together. Then the fish loaf is boiled in broth. Gefilte fish is usually served cold with red horseradish and garnished with carrot.
Holishkes: Holishkes, a.k.a stuffed cabbage, are cabbage leaves stuffed with ground meat in a tomato-based sweet-and-sour sauce.
Knishes: A knish is a potato and flour dumpling stuffed with mashed potato and onion, chopped liver, or cheese. The stuffed dumpling is baked until browned and slightly crisp on the outside.
Kugel: Kugels have been a staple of Jewish cooking for centuries. Kugel, which means "ball" in German, originally referred to balls of noodle dough encased around fruity filling and steamed in covered pots. Kugels evolved over time into baked casserole dishes. Today there are recipes for both sweet kugels (generally dairy) and savory kugels (usually pareve).
Matzo Balls: Matzo balls, a.k.a. knaidelach (Yiddish for dumplings), are a Jewish invention for making Passover matzo more edible. Crush the matzo and mix it with eggs and spices. The invention succeeded so well that matzo balls are eaten in soup all year round.
Tzimmes: Tzimmes refers to a sweet stew that usually includes carrots, sweet potatoes and/or prunes.
