My thoughts on Jewish food.
Years ago, finding myself with a surplus of juicy summer tomatoes, on the verge of becoming overripe, I decided to try my hand at making matbucha, a delicious salad, somewhere between a dip and a spread for bread. I peeled and seeded the tomatoes, and cooked them down with lots of garlic and cumin, and …
One of the best snack foods in Israel are the Abadi brand bagelehs, firm little bagel-shaped savory biscuits. They are irresistible. To paraphrase an old commercial for potato chips, no one can eat just one Abadi bageleh. Because the cookies are baked dry, and don’t contain any perishable ingredients, they keep crisp and delicious for …
Chicken schnitzel is a favorite in Israel, a take on the famous Austrian Wiener Schnitzel made with veal, but with the more easily available and less expensive chicken breast. Most chicken schnitzel recipes call for dipping the chicken into flour, then egg, and then into crumbs. This recipe keeps things simple by calling only for …
In Israel, those wonderful dough-wrapped frankfurters are called “Moshe B’Tayva,” or loosely: “Moses in the Basket.” You wouldn’t expect Jews to name a dish after pigs, now would you?? But essentially, these treats are as well beloved and easy to make, as they are in America. After all, “A rose by any other name would …
Hummus ma lahma is Middle Eastern food at its most basic unfussiness. You might say this spicy, but not too spicy dish of hot ground beef melting into hummus, and wiped up with fresh pita, is the quintessential Middle Eastern comfort food. It literally takes 5 minutes to sook the meat, so if you buy …
For a change, I offer no true recipe, as it is too hot to type! Well, thanks to a/c, that’s not really true. Nonetheless, we are not in the mood for heavy, hot foods at this juncture. Which is why we have been rediscovering the summer Middle Eastern pleasure of watermelon served with Bulgarian cheese. …
Now is when we finally get those beautiful, summer-ripened tomatoes. That is when we can rejoice in the flavor of a truly remarkable ingredient that is at its peak. And we need something like that in the summer heat. A salad like this matbucha just perks up your taste buds. Great with challah at the …
On our last visit to Israel, we saw various renditions of this addictive fried sweet potato salad in trendy cafes. The salads are piled so high with crispy fried sweet potatoes it is impossible to dig in without making the whole thing topple. The best you can do is pick at the pile of crispy …
For some people, giving up carbs is difficult because it means giving up sweets, while for others, it’s about giving up crunchy, salty snack foods. One great low-carb solution to the need for crunch is fennel, with its celery-like texture, and mild licorice flavor. Because the taste of fennel is so subtle, like chicken, it …
Hilbeh is a condiment that is, by tradition, served with Yemenite Meat Soup. There are a few different types of Hilbeh. Here is a video of the basic, whipped Hilbeh, a kind of light foam, reminiscent of not-quite-set whipped Jello, but with a piquant green flavor that adds new layers of flavor to an already …