Everyday Cooking » Israeli Kitchen

Chicken Roasted on a Bed of Onions

Nov 302011

I had this chicken that needed cooking. But I was bored with all my usual recipes. I stood in my kitchen, revolving ideas around in my mind. Nothing doing; empty head. Well, I do have a lot of cookbooks. Why not open the cabinet where I keep them and get a recipe?

Nah. Too logical.

So I stood there with a blank mind until my hand, obeying some part of my brain still responding to self-preservation, opened the cabinet and pulled out Elizabeth David’s “Mediterranean Cooking.” All kinds of good chicken recipes there. One was so simple and attractive, I just had to make it. Of course, once I got the chicken into the roasting pan, I had to potchkey it up with more seasonings. But I don’t think Ms. David would have disapproved – the result was so delicious.

A Trio of Soups for Sukkot

Everyday Cooking, Soup, Succot, Vegetarian 10 Responses »

Oct 122011

Recently I had the pleasure of dining at chef Moshe Basson’s Eucalyptus restaurant in Jerusalem – twice. One of the things I liked best on the tasting menu was this trio of soups served in espresso cups. Just enough for a hearty taste , not so much as to dull the appetite. They are all vegetarian and pareve.

With Sukkot just about on top of us, and the weather finally turning cooler, it seems a good idea to keep soup recipes on the top of the printout pile. (Mine is an untidy, toppling pile whose papers are already stained and crumpled. I keep promising myself I’m going to organize the recipes alphabetically into a nice, neat folder…someday.)

So here are three soups for your holiday, the same soups I sipped at Eucalyptus. I wish you a chag Sukkot sameach!

Continue reading »

Tajine of Sweet Potatoes, Carrots, and Prunes

Everyday Cooking, vegetables 8 Responses »

Oct 042011

Autumn. The transition from the big salads we enjoyed in hot weather to a longing for something more substantial, foods that grow underground. A delicious autumn dinner is the vegetable tajine.

When I first discovered tajines, I thought they all had to include meat; gala dishes of lamb, beef, chicken, sausages. It was great to find the vegetarian side to tajine cookery. True, the base vegetables have to be fairly sturdy to take slow cooking in a clay vessel. Carrots, eggplants, artichoke hearts. Hearty grains like chickpeas or beans. Added layers of flavors come from dried fruit and vegetables that won’t fall apart in the cooking, like bell peppers. As with Western dishes that include root vegetables, ginger and cinnamon add piquancy, but the sweetness is always subtle, balanced with fresh herbs and restraint in the use of bee’s honey or silan, date honey.

Sourdough Pancakes

Everyday Cooking, Sourdough 9 Responses »

Sep 042011

Sometimes, when I’m stirring a sourdough batter, I think of my great-grandmother Rose.

Like thousands of Jewish women in the 1800s, she stayed in Russia and waited for her husband to send money for tickets to America. She arrived at Ellis Island around 1898 with three children, no English and no kosher food. Her husband, working in Chicago and expecting to fetch her and the kids, didn’t know she’d arrived.

The story goes that she wandered in New York, bewildered and hungry, for three days. A kindly Jew rescued the family and put them on the right train. Who this angel was, no one knows today, but we do know that Rose went on to raise a good family on American soil.

My Dad told me that Rose was an excellent cook who knew how to make everything. She used to ferment beets for borsht; brew mead for Passover. I’m sure Rose knew all about sourdough, because that was the only leavening she would have had till she immigrated to the States. What would her blintzes have tasted like, I wonder? Did she ever catch onto American flapjacks?

My family had left sourdough behind in history by the time I was growing up. We never baked any kind of bread. Ordinary bread and challah came from the supermarket, from the bakery. Pancakes were Aunt Jemima’s, out of a box.

Now I love baking bread, muffins, and pancakes from my sourdough starter. It’s the connection with the past, yes, but there’s more than that. It’s the satisfaction of managing a natural, living fermentation well. Because the starter in the jar is a live thing, as live as the basil and mint growing in containers on my porch.

And accepting sourdough’s slow rhythm grounds me. There’s no instant anything with sourdough, no megabytes, no nanoseconds, no optical fiber. Sourdough’s main ingredient is unfolding Time. If you’re willing to learn its secrets, you can make sourdough, and Time, your own.

There are two ways that I know of to make sourdough pancakes or muffins. One is to take starter and make a new fermentation – a batter, not a dough. Another is to take about a cup off a sourdough sponge . That’s the first rise, which has almost all the required flour and is light and bubbly but soft and tacky. (Adding the rest of the flour, you make a sturdier dough to knead and allow to rise the second time.) For a full explanation, see my plain sourdough bread recipe.

You thin this cupful of sponge with egg and oil, adding soda and flavorings. If necessary, add some milk. I made these pancakes the second way, but didn’t need more liquid than the egg and oil. It was a sourdough rice bread. I’ll post the bread recipe next post, but pancakes can be made from any dough, not especially this one.

Sourdough Pancakes

Ingredients:

1 cup dough from risen sourdough sponge

1 tablespoon oil

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar

1 beaten egg

1 teaspoon baking soda

Mix the ingredients in the order given, stirring thoroughly but briefly – just a minute or so.

Fry as you would any other pancake.

That’s it. Enjoy!

I topped the pancakes with apricot-passiflora jam from The Well Delicatessen, and it was fabulous.

Mango Chutney

Fruit, Preserves and Pickles, Useful Flavorings and Relishes 2 Responses »

Aug 212011

August is peak season for so much fruit, it’s hard to choose which to preserve. I used to go hog-wild at the shuk and shlep home kilos of that juicy, perfumed, vividly-colored produce. Fruit wines, liqueurs, jams and chutneys. Mason jars and bottles and carboys all over the kitchen – all over the house. But eventually the family group dwindled, and I found that life demanded downsizing my shopping and cooking.

It’s still a big satisfaction, putting little dishes of pickles or chutney on the Shabbat table, or bringing them out to make an ordinary meal special for guests. But I’ve reduced the number of annual ferments and preserves. Significantly. Let’s see. What did I really put up, since spring this year?

Summer Bulgur Salad

Everyday Cooking, Grains and pulses, Vegetarian 4 Responses »

Aug 072011

What do you consider staples? For me, grains and pulses are the most important. When I put my hand into the freezer I find rice, beans, barley, flours, wheat in different forms. One such is bulgur. Its lightly nutty flavor goes with pretty much anything. And it’s a healthy carb.

I used this salad as stuffing for eggplant last Tu B’Shvat. Decorated with apple slices – or with some firm fig quarters – and served cold, the dish takes on a new incarnation as a summery salad. It makes a good vegetarian main dish, needing only some firm white cheese or eggs on the side.

Summer Bulgur Salad

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

1 cup bulgur wheat, medium grade

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups boiling water

1/3 cup chopped pecans

1/3 cup chopped walnuts

1/2 cup raisins

1 stalk celery, sliced fine

1/4 cup toasted sunflower seeds

2 tblsp. chives, chopped fine

1 apple, chopped into large dice

1 tblsp. runny honey

Juice of 1/2 lemon

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 tsp. cumin

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

In a large heatproof bowl, mix the bulgur and the salt well.

Pour the boiling water over the bulgur and cover the bowl. The bulgur will absorb the water and cook. Leave it alone for half an hour. While it’s cooking, measure and prepare the other ingredients.

With a fork, fluff the cooked bulgur.Put the diced apple into the bowl on top of the bulgur. Pour the lemon juice over the apple to prevent it turning brown. Pour the honey over the apple.

Add the nuts, raisins, celery, sunflower seeds and chives and stir gently. Add the olive oil, cumin and cinnamon and mix again. Taste for seasoning.

Decorate with apple slices. Serve cold or at room temperature.

Tajine of Red Mullet in Chermoulah

Everyday Cooking, fish, Useful Flavorings and Relishes 7 Responses »

Aug 042011

Anyone tired of cheese yet? The Nine Days before the fast of Tisha B’Av are still in force. No meat or poultry, no wine. True, Shabbat approaches and then we can indulge in both, but come Sunday, observant Jews are still going to need meatless recipes.

The solution is fish. Like the Moroccan Shabbat Fish or the Salmon in Orange Glaze, this tajine is colorful and full of flavor. It satisfies the kind of hunger that demands that food be substantial but light – summer hunger.

Small red mullet fillets make an attractive presentation, but you can use slices of any firm white fish. Lacking the clay tajine pot, you can use a heavy-bottomed saucepan. An equally good method is to bake the dish in a casserole. It’s best served right away, but can be made in the morning, refrigerated in its original casserole or saucepan, and gently re- heated to serve for lunch or dinner.

Two typical Middle Eastern ingredients feature in this recipe: spicy chermoulah marinade and roasted bell peppers, both made in minutes. (recipes below).

Tajine of Mullet Fillets In Chermoulah Marinade

Serves 6

Printable version here.

Ingredients:

chermoulah marinade according to recipe below
2 lbs- 1 kg. red mullet fillets, cut into large chunks
12 small new potatoes or 6 medium-sized potatoes
4 tablespoons olive oil
4 garlic cloves, sliced
12 cherry tomatoes
2 bell peppers of different colors, grilled and sliced into sixths
Salt and pepper to taste
12 green or black olives
1 lemon, cut into quarters

Chermoulah marinade:
Blend the following ingredients on low speed till a thin, grainy sauce is formed:
2 peeled, chopped garlic cloves
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cumin
½ – or 1 fresh red chili
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped fresh coriander leaves

Reserve ¼ cup of the chermoulah. Place the fish in a deep dish and cover it on all sides with the rest of the chermoulah. Cover and put in the refrigerator to marinate for 2 hours.

Wash, but don’t peel, the potatoes. Cook them for 5 minutes in salted, boiling water. Drain, place in cold water, then peel them. Cut into halves if using new potatoes, or quarters if using medium-sized ones.

Gently sauté the garlic in 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. This only takes a minute or two over low heat. Raise the heat to medium and add the tomatoes, grilled peppers, and reserved chermoulah. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Grilled bell peppers:
Grill whole bell peppers under your oven broiler, or place them on a metal grill over an open flame. Turn them from side to side as their thin skins char and their flesh softens. They should not become completely blackened but will retain their plumpness and color.

Allow the grilled peppers to cool down enough to be handled, then pop them into a plastic bag to cool down. Their skins will then slip off easily. You will need to wet your hands occasionally while peeling.

Slit them open and remove the seeds. Cut them into 4-6 long strips.

(If you like fiery food, try grilling some green or red chilis this way. Be very careful with chilis however – wear latex gloves while peeling if possible, and don’t touch your eyes or any part of your face if your fingers have come into contact with them.)

Place the potatoes on the bottom of a large casserole (or tajine if you have one).

Spread half the tomato/pepper mixture over them. Put the marinated fish on top, and cover it with the remaining half of tomato/pepper mixture.
Scatter the olives around the fish and vegetables.
Spoon 2 tablespoons of olive oil over all.

If baking, cover the casserole and cook for 30 minutes at 350° F – (180° C) or until fish is cooked through.

If cooking in a tajine, put the lid on and cook over medium heat 15-20 minutes. If using a saucepan, add ¼ cup water and cook over medium heat 15-20 minutes.

Serve with lemon wedges to squeeze over the hot dish.

An Indian Menu

fish, Useful Flavorings and Relishes, Vegetarian 7 Responses »

May 262011

Every so often, I feel that I have to eat curry. It must have something to do with needing micro-nutrients. I mean, curry spices are packed with them.That’s why curries figure so prominently in vegetarian cuisine.

That’s my theory, anyway.

Most often, dal fixes me up, that thick lentil stew made aromatic with turmeric and cinnamon and cloves, and smoothed into submission with ghee (my post about ghee is here). Dal is high in protein, satisfying, and inexpensive. You can make it mild or add heat with chilis. Myself, I like some heat, but the recipe below is flexible; you choose how much, if any, chili or cayenne goes in.

Dal and plain rice, like the one I cook to serve with majadra, and salad on the side, make a good, home-made lunch that only takes about half an hour. But then again, and especially if there are guests, I might make a whole Indian menu for dinner. Herbed fish patties, coconut rice, dal, and yogurt raita. (Raita is sauce eaten as a relish and a cool foil to spicy or chili-hot food). Just exotic enough to pique the appetite but not so much so as to freak the people out.

I prefer dal made with the tiny, pale-yellow moong lentils that only Indian stores seem to carry.These seem to melt away into a thick, smooth, savory mass that absorbs all the spices perfectly. But yellow split peas work very well too. Just cook them till they’re very, very soft.

The recipes have been given in logical sequence to make best use of your time. Altogether, the whole meal should take 1 hour to prepare.

Cucumber Raita (Yogurt Sauce)

Serves 6 – may be halved or doubled

2 large, fresh cucumbers

1 medium onion

2 teaspoons salt

Optional: 1/8 – ¼ teaspoon cayenne flakes

3 cups thick, cold yogurt

1. Peel the cucumbers. Grate them, and grate the onion – or process the vegetables in the food processor.

2. Stir salt into the grated vegetables and put them in a sieve or colander placed over a bowl to catch the juices. Allow to marinate and drain for 1-2 hours.

While the vegetables are draining, prepare the dal.

3. After vegetables have drained 1-2 hours, rinse them and mix with yogurt and optional cayenne. The sauce is ready to serve.

Dal: Split-Pea Stew

Serves 6

1 – ½ cups moong dal or yellow split peas

4 cups water

1 – ½ teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons ghee or butter

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon cayenne flakes, or more if liked

¼ teaspoon ground ginger

¼ teaspoon ground coriander

½ teaspoon mustard seeds – do not substitute prepared mustard for these seeds.

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

1. Put water to boil with salt. Boil the lentils in it for 20 minutes or until very soft. Stir occasionally while cooking.

While dal is cooking, start preparing the fish patties.

2. Melt the ghee or butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add all the spices. Heat them through for 2 or 3 minutes.

3. Add the spiced butter to the boiled lentils and stir thoroughly. Simmer over low heat till the stew is thick – about 5 minutes.

Indian Herbed Fish Patties

Adapted from The Book of Jewish Food by Claudia Roden

Serves 4

1 cup cilantro leaves

¾ cup scallions

1 teaspoon hot curry powder or regular curry powder plus 1/8 – 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper flakes (to taste)

3 tablespoons flour

1 lb. – 500 grams raw ground fish

½ teaspoon salt

Oil

1. Chop the cilantro and scallions finely. You may pulse them in a food processor, but don’t process them to a paste. Those bits of green herbs give the patties a certain home-made attraction.

2. Add the curry powder, flour, and fish. Mix very well.

3. Make patties in the palm of your hand, pushing the edges together so they don’t crack in frying. Press a shallow dimple in the center of each patty with your forefinger: this helps the patty stay together (do this with hamburgers too). Fry the patties in shallow oil till brown on both sides.

Coconut Rice

Serves 6

1 can coconut milk

2 cups water

1 ¼ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground turmeric

1 ½ cups rice

3 coriander pods, crushed, husks removed, and black seeds crushed again.

1. Boil coconut milk, water, salt, turmeric and coriander in a medium pan, covered.

2. Add the rinsed, drained rice. Bring to a boil again.

3. Cook, covered, over low heat until all the liquid is absorbed – about 15 minutes.

Serve this meal with cold cider, beer, or lemonade.

Fresh Garlic Confit

Everyday Cooking, Herbal Shmerbals, Preserves and Pickles, vegetables 7 Responses »

Mar 252011

It’s just that time of the year in Israel, folks. Wonderful, stinky fresh garlic is in the shuk. I’m in the shuk too, packing as much garlic into my little wheeled shopping cart as I can. I expect I’ll be writing about garlic every March till I’m too old to type anymore. And cooking it till I’ve died and gone to garlic heaven.

The Little One rolls her eyes and asks me not to buy any more garlic because I hang it up to dry in the laundry room. The smell of it drying penetrates into the bathroom and makes her feel like a salami, she says.

My question is, how does she know what a salami feels like?

In her mysterious teenage way, she refuses to say. However, I notice that she does eat anything I cook with garlic in it. I suppose it’s in her genes.

And this year, there’s garlic with some enormous cloves in the heads. Right now the thin sheath that protects each clove is still tender and juicy, so I remove only the papery purple peel. Sorry about the alliteration.

Once my garlic is minced to a paste, I add salt and olive oil – some fresh, chopped za’atar and thyme and chives and mayhap a leaf or two of rocket from my little potted plants – and and sit down with a warm pita to sop it all up, drop by drop. And that’s lunch.

Actually, I’m not sorry – I love alliteration.

Garlic oil keeps in the fridge for up to a month.

I did have mercy on the Little One and hung up the latest batch outside on our tiny balcony. Here it is, looking strangely shy and head-hanging among the anemones and nasturtiums. For such an aggressive herb, that is.

Another wonderful thing to eat is garlic confit. All the fire goes out of the cloves as they poach in herbed olive oil over two or three hours. You have to put a little fire back in. The result is a delicious relish for roast chicken, a cheese platter, a sturdy salad, or bruschetta. Love garlic? Try this.

Garlic Confit

printable version here

Ingredients:

4 heads of garlic, cloves cleaned and peeled if necessary. Leave the peels on if garlic is fresh and juicy; peel if not.

1-1/2 cups olive oil

4 sprigs of thyme

2 medium bay leaves

1 teaspoon mustard seeds – or 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon coarse salt

1 allspice berry

freshly-ground black pepper

Method:

Heat the oven to 300°F – 150 °C.

Place the herbs in an ovenproof casserole.

Place the garlic cloves over the herbs and douse them with the olive oil.

Scatter the coarse salt all and grind black pepper generously.

Cover the casserole with tin foil and bake for 2-1/2 hours or until the garlic is very tender.

Store in the fridge for up to two weeks.

Have a look at previous posts about fresh garlic:

Garlicky Crisp-Skinned Potatoes A good recipe for Passover.
Oven-Roasted Garlic
Fresh Garlic Oil and Garlic Soup

Nut Butters That You Make At Home

Everyday Cooking, Just Hungry, Useful Flavorings and Relishes, Vegetarian 10 Responses »

Mar 102011

Looking at the price of almond butter in the health food store, I put the jar back on the shelf and thought, I can make it myself. So I strolled out and headed for the shuk, where almonds are plentiful and affordable.

I could have bought American almonds, but sampling all of them, I found the local ones best. Probably they’re fresher, not having been sitting in the hold of a ship for who knows how long. And while I was at it, I indulged in cashews. Some sunflower seeds went into my cloth shopping bag too.

At home, I pulled out my trusty food processor (of mayonnaise fame) and got to work. It took almost no time to produce three individual nut and seed spreads. It’s worth making small batches, because they really taste best fresh. And while these spreadable butters usually wind up on bread as a snack, you can do a lot of different things with them – as you’ll find out.

Almond Butter

Yield: 2/3 cup

Choose either blanched (white) whole nuts, or almonds with the papery brown skin still on them. Either way, the almond butter is delicious.

2 cups raw almonds

Salt

2 tablespoons almond oil or other neutral-flavored oil

Heat the oven to 300 degrees F, 150 degrees C.

Spread almonds on a baking sheet in a single layer.

Sprinkle lightly with salt.

Roast for 7 minutes, then turn nuts over and roast another 5-7 minutes. There should be a light, nutty aroma when you open the oven door.

While the almonds are still warm, transfer them to the food processor. Add the oil.

Process for 5-12 minutes. Processing time varies according to the age of the nuts and how dry or moist they were when you bought them. There will be a dry flour at first, but persist, stopping the food processor once in a while and scraping the sides down. Process till you have a smooth paste. Store in a clean, dry, covered jar for up to 1 month.

Things to do with your Almond Butter:

Substitute it for peanut butter in cookies and Oriental sauces.

Stir a tablespoon into hot cereal. It will add protein and fat.

Milk substitute: blend 2 tablespoons almond butter or cashew butter with 1 cup of water and 1 teaspoon honey till foamy; strain and drink, or use in cooking or baking. Cashew butter doesn’t need straining.

Sweet variation: add a handful of good chocolate to almonds when processing. Or 1 tablespoon maple syrup, or 1 tablespoon brown sugar.

Kid’s favorites: the classic “ants on a log –“ celery sticks stuffed with peanut butter and dotted with raisins – tastes new when you substitute almond butter and cranberries. Or spread almond butter on toast and top with sliced bananas or jam.

Cashew Butter

Use the same procedure as for almond butter, above. It will be firm, but moist. A delicious thing to do with cashew butter is mix finely chopped chives with grated sharp cheese like cheddar or Parmesan and roll little balls of cashew butter in the mix.

Sunflower Seed Butter