Challah and Cherry Blossoms: Red Lentil Fusilli, Kosher! With Whole Wheat Challah

Sunday, December 11, 2016

Red Lentil Fusilli, Kosher! With Whole Wheat Challah

Now Jacob cooked a stew. When Esau came in from the field, he was exhausted, so Esau said to Jacob, "Plese feed me some of this really red stuff, because I`m exhausted"--that is why he is called Edom.

So Jacob said, "Sell your birthright to me today."

---Genesis 25:29~31

I know some of you dear readers came by hoping to find some red stew in the last two weeks. As I have been making challah to relate to the Parashiot, it would naturally follow that I would have served a red stew on the week of Esau and Jacob`s big birthright and blessings switch.

After all, I didn`t exactly make the stew,
but I do have a story to serve you about the red lentils!!

As you know in two weeks ago`s Torah Portion, Parsha Toledot, Esau sells his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of red lentil stew.

Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank, and then got up and left. ---Genesis 25:34

I did think about making it, to serve with a nice challah, but I live in a small city in southern Japan and I never heard of any place that carries red lentils. I don`t even know how to say red lentils in Japanese. So I decided that week I wouldn`t even try to find them, perhaps giving up too easily. I made a cholent-like Sabbath stew that week, using soy beans, which are plentiful in Japan, and meat. It was very good, and I pretty much forgot about the red lentils.

Then the other day, I passed a shop in the train station. They were offering free coffee samples so I picked one up and drank it while making a quick circle around the aisles. When I got back to the front and center of the shop, a display of pasta caught my eye.

I saw an item that was highlighted in a pasta selection. It got my attention right away---
Red Lentil Fusilli!!
It even had a pop-up placard proclaiming it as a `new item`. New indeed!
It must have been sent from Heaven, just in for this week to go with the parashat. It was red and curly, almost ...hairy! looking. (*note, Esau`s name means hairy and he also is named Edom which means `red` in connection with the red lentil stew incident)

Not only were the words on the package in English, and overlaid with Japanese, but on the back was a `KOSHER` seal in Hebrew!!!
Seeing the Kosher seal on the back definitely made me smile and look up.

I thank God and the Holy Spirit for what seemed like a special order or wink from Heaven!!
I bought the fusilli, and this Shabbat made it using a Bolognese Kosher recipe. It was very good, with an unusual grainy and chewy texture to the pasta! It went perfect with a whole wheat Challah.

I hope you enjoyed my story of the red lentil finding in Oita, and I would encourage you to read the portion again if you haven`t already done so about the birth and rivalry between Jacob and Esau. You will need to backtrack a little to Genesis Chapter 25.

There was a lot of deception in that parashat, but the good news is in this coming weeks reading, the brothers make up, and there is a time of reconciliation when Esau and Jacob meet for the first time after the stew and blessings incidents.

And now, after getting a taste of the Red Lentil Fusilli here on earth, I glimpsed something new. Did you know in Heaven all the shops stock that red fusilli pasta in the week of Toledot!😇