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.

Every bite of the seasoned chicken is perfumed with oniony goodness. And what I really like is how you get all different degrees of  onion doneness. Under the chicken, the slices are soft and sweet and sort of bind together. Just around the sides, the onion caramelizes and you lift these savory brown rings off the pan. Way off to the edge of the pan, the slices are crisp,  toasted almost black. You’d best like onions if you plan to cook this.

Another neat thing is, since it’s such a simple recipe you can up- or downscale the quantities and always get delicious results. Even if it’s one portion to be cooked in a toaster oven, it’ll work.

Chicken Roasted on a Bed of Onions

Printable version here.

 Serves 6

Ingredients:

1 chicken, cut into eight pieces

2 large onions, thinly sliced

1/4 cup olive oil

1 lemon, halved

kosher salt

black pepper

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon dried, rubbed sage

more olive oil, for drizzling

1. Place the sliced onions in a shallow baking pan, in a low heap. Pour the quarter-cup olive oil over them. Place the chicken pieces on top.

2. Squeeze the lemon halves over the chicken, making sure that each piece gets plenty of juice. Tuck the juiced lemon  pieces under the chicken. Allow it to stand for 5 minutes.

3. Drizzle a little more oil over the chicken, to give the seasonings something to stick to. Shake a little kosher salt over the pieces of chicken, and grind black pepper to taste over it. Scatter the thyme and sage over the chicken.

4. Roast at 350° F – 180° C for 45 minutes – 1 hour, or until the chicken is cooked through and golden.

Serve with rice, or for a perfect winter’s dinner, mashed potatoes. Green beans with blanched almonds go very well with this, as does a big, leafy salad with vinaigrette.

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!

Three Sukkot Soups

The knobbly, pale-tan Jerusalem artichokes are still in season, so try this light soup at least once. It’s the first from the right in the photograph. The recipe comes from Moshe Basson, via Delicious Living.

1. Jerusalem Artichoke Soup

4-5 servings

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 medium onions, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

750 grams – 1 -1/2 lb. Jerusalem artichokes , peeled and cut into 3/4-inch chunks

4 cups vegetable broth

12 blanched almonds

2 tablespoons water

1 pinch powdered saffron

Juice of ½ lemon, plus more to taste

2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley, including stems

Method:

Place a heavy pot or Dutch oven over low heat. Add olive oil and onions. Cover and sauté about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, to sweat and soften onions.

Add garlic and sunchokes, and increase heat to medium. Sauté, uncovered, for several minutes. Add broth, plus salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes.

Using a spice grinder or food processor, coarsely grind almonds and mix with 2 tablespoons water. Add mixture to soup. Add saffron and lemon juice, whisking to blend thoroughly. Heat through. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and lemon juice. Serve piping hot, garnished with fresh parsley.

 The soup in the middle of the photo is Tomato-Mint. Surprisingly spicy and refreshing.

2. Tomato-Mint Soup

4-5 servings

Ingredients

3. Lentil Soup

4-5 servings

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, diced
1 carrot, sliced thinly
2 stalks celery, sliced
1 medium tomato, skinned and chopped
4 cups vegetable broth
1 cup lentils, picked over and rinsed
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp dried thyme
2 bay leaves
Salt and black pepper to taste
1 tbsp lemon juice

Method:

Heat the oil in a large pot. Sautée the onions, carrot and celery in it till the onions are soft. Add the chopped tomatoes and cook a further 5 minutes.

Add the vegetable broth, lentils, pepper, thyme, bay leaves and salt.

Reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and cook until lentils are soft, about 45 minutes.

Remove bay leaves. Blend lightly to make a thin puree with some chunks in it. Adjust seasoning. Stir in lemon juice before serving.

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.

I especially appreciate these slow-cooking stews when it’s cooler in the kitchen. Then I don’t mind leaving a tajine on the heat to take care of itself while I do other things, just keeping an eye on it and stirring occasionally.  This one is simple to put together and uses common ingredients. And it’s delicious, melting in the mouth with that ineffable Middle Eastern taste.

You can make it dairy, using butter in the initial sauté, or keep it pareve with only olive oil and vegetable stock, or use chicken soup in the slow cooking phase, for a meat meal. I’ve done it all those ways and it was good each time. Mostly, I prefer to keep the tajine vegetarian, serving it with couscous and mayhap some thick yogurt in a bowl on the side.

I’m sure you’ll like it. Remember the fresh herbs, they make a difference. If there’s no cilantro around, use parsley. The flavor won’t be the same, but the dish demands that note of green freshness.

Tajine of Sweet Potatoes, Carrots, and Prunes

Recipe adapted from Tajines and Couscous by Ghillie Basan

Printable version here.

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons olive oil plus 1 of butter

1″ slice of fresh ginger root, chopped fine or grated – or 1 teaspoon powdered ginger

1 small cinnamon stick or 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

16 shallots (or 3 small red onions, peeled and quartered)

2-3 medium sweet potatoes, around 700 grams – 1- 1/2 lb. total

2 medium carrots

175 grams – slightly less than 1 cup pitted prunes

1 tablespoon dark honey

2 cups hot vegetable or chicken stock, or water

1 small bunch cilantro (coriander leaves), stems removed and leaves chopped

2 tablespoons fresh mint, chopped

Salt and black pepper to taste

Method:

Peel the shallots and leave whole. Peel the sweet potatoes and carrots and chop into bite-sized pieces.

Heat the oil and butter, if using, in a tajine or heavy-bottomed pot. When the fat is hot, add the ginger and cinnamon. If using ground spices, stir to prevent burning and lower the heat.

Add the shallots. Allow them to color slightly, then add the sweet potatoes and carrots. Cook for a few minutes, stirring, till the vegetables start to soften.

Add the prunes and honey, stirring them in.

Add 1-1/2 cups of the hot stock, and bring all to a boil. Lower the heat so that the tajine barely simmers. Cover and cook for 1/2 hour, stirring once in a while. Moisten the vegetables from the reserved 1/2 cup of stock if necessary.

When all the vegetables are tender, add half the cilantro and mint. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Keep the pot uncovered and let the juices reduce to a syrup -  another 3-5 minutes’ cooking.

Before serving, scatter the remaining cilantro and mint over the top. Serve right away.

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.

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?

Springtime jams were strawberry and apricot. Only two. One liqueur – mulberry – because I have too many from previous years. Well, I made a fresh geranium flower liqueur to replace a bottle that broke. Um, and a limoncello, because that’s a favorite Purim giveaway. Can never have too much limoncello on hand. Three liqueurs.

Then there was the  springtime garlic madness, culminating in garlic confit. That freezes well, if you made too much to eat before tiring of it.

This summer’s fruit wines were 4 gallons of apricot, 2 of mulberry, and 2 of pomelo. The pomelo doesn’t count because I made it two years ago and just never bottled it. Right?

Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot grapes will come ready in the next few weeks – first grape wines I’ll have made in three years. I hope to get 66 bottles out of the 100 kg. of grapes. That’s as much as I can store in my little apartment. In fact, I don’t really have room for all of that either – I’ll just have to make room. I’ll be happy I did two years from now, when the wine is ready to drink.

Are you getting the feeling that something’s wrong with these calculations? Like, it’s a lot of wine and preserves for 3 people? But it’s never only we three. Much is given away, much is consumed when guests and grownup children come. Plus, darnit, I just like to make the stuff and it makes me happy to see it around.

Onward. Chutneys this year were peach and mango – recipe below.. I can’t resist a good mango chutney. I might give in to temptation and try an new recipe for pickled peaches…oh yes, I had made pickled cherries, hadn’t I? I’m saving them for the upcoming holidays.

And next month there will be olives…can’t not pickle olives, especially as last year’s were so good. I am actually hiding some to serve visiting family on Rosh HaShanah. Hopefully the Little One won’t read this post and raid the fridge, where the olive jar is lurking behind the sourdough starter.

Then there projects that get done sort of in between. Sliced mushrooms dry in just a few days, so I did a bunch of portobellos and champignons. Tomatoes are so lovely and (relatively) cheap that I have to dry and slow-roast lots. (Slow-roasted tomatoes freeze well; they don’t hold their texture for salads but work fine to top bruschetta.) Squeezed about four kilos of limes and froze the juice. (Maybe I’ll treat myself to a bottle of good rum and make daiquiris? I’ll hide that item under misc. in my shopping expenses, that’s what I’ll do.) Tangy cucumber pickle chips on on the list of this week’s projects because the Little One asked for them. Pickled peppers. Maybe a jar of mixed pickles, just because I’ve never done that and I know it’s easy.

Oh, and a project I’ve been putting off – goose leg confit. Two goose legs are sitting in the freezer and I have plenty of duck fat from my birthday roast duck.

Jeepers, that’s enough, eh? I know that these preserves fall under the “condiment” category and not under “survival”. Survival means pressing your own olive oil, milling your own flours, a Victory garden out in back where potatoes and tomatoes, corn and carrots, beets and berries and zukes grow in square-foot containers.

Dream on, Mimi. My container herbs get pushed to one side of the tiny porch or distributed under sunny windows, to make room for the Sukkah.

But meantime, there’s the shuk.

And fruit and sugar and vinegar and spices. Mango chutney, that’s where all this started. Recipe follows, and if you want to download it, the printable version’s in there too – sans food preservation philosophy.

Notes:

• This recipe is unusual in that it calls for brining the mango overnight before beginning to cook.
• To keep the fresh fruit chunks attractive, I suggest finishing the jammy part separately – instructions below.
• Use any chili or hot pepper to taste. Cayenne flakes are conveniently measurable. But I put in two tiny (but masterful) shatach peppers and it was just hot enough.

Mango Chutney
printable version here
Yield: 4 cups

Ingredients:

2 large, very slightly under-ripe mangoes
4 tablespoons salt
2 1/2 cups water
2 1/3 cups white sugar
2 cups apple cider vinegar
2 teaspoons grated ginger root
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 shallot, diced fine
2 teaspoons cayenne flakes
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup pitted and chopped dates

Method:

Cube the mangoes. Best is to peel them whole, cut quarters off the long way, and cut the long, wide strips into cubes about 1 1/2″.

Place the mango cubes in a large bowl with the salt and water in it. Allow to sit in the brine overnight.

The following day, drain the liquid from the mangoes and set the fruit aside.

Boil the sugar and vinegar over medium heat.
Add the mango cubes to the vinegar syrup.
Add the ginger, garlic, shallot, cayenne flakes, cinnamon, raisins and dates.

Bring to a boil again. Reduce the heat and cook for about 1 hour over low heat, uncovered.

Remove the mango chunks from the pot, together with some of the raisins and dates.

Blend the remaining syrup with its dried fruit and spices – I used a stick blender – off the heat, of course! The chutney will thicken and become jammy. Cook for a few minutes.

Return the mango chunks to the pot, stirring them in gently, and cook another few minutes until everything is re-incorporated and very hot again.

Now either remove from the heat and cool, putting the chutney into a very clean, very dry jar for storage in the fridge – or use normal canning procedure for hot preserves.

I usually store my chutneys in the fridge, and they keep well for up to 1 year.

Either way, allow 1 month before serving, in order for the flavor to mature.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Sunflower seeds pick up the taste of salt strongly, so start by adding only a pinch, then add more to taste – up to ¼ teaspoon salt.

1 cup shelled, roasted sunflower seeds

1 tablespoon oil

Pinch of salt

Sunflower seed “techinah”

½ cup sunflower seed butter

¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

¼ cup water

1 small, mashed garlic clove

Salt to taste

Blend all.

Spread toasted slices of challah or French bread with sunflower seed butter and top with one of the following:

A slice of tomato

Slices of hard-boiled egg

Thinly sliced leftover roast chicken

Garnish the open sandwich with olives, pickles, and sprigs of fresh herbs like parsley, aragula, and basil.