From Suq to Shuk

Impromptu pasta with Tami - Pepperoncino infused linguini and a clementine, fennel seed date sauce with mint

The other day my friend Tami and I each spent the afternoon working on some school work and planned to meet up at 6 when our brains couldn't take it anymore.  I had purchased some ingredients that I had intended on using for a salad but as my hunger grew more vociferous, I decided to make a pasta sauce instead.  I had a package of pepperoncino infused linguini that I'd bought at KaDeWe during my April trip to Berlin.  I figured that now would be as good a time as any to finally eat them.  I decided to make make a butter sauce for the pasta rather than a tomato based one and I had clementines, dates, onions, and spices before me from which to choose.  Citrus, specifically oranges, clementines and the like, go well with fennel.  Alas I had no fennel but I did have fennel seed.  I melted the butter in a sauce pan over very low heat and added my onions and spices while the butter was still hard so that they would sweat rather than sizzle.  With the onions cut very thinly they transformed into a second kind of noodle.  I added the date last and allowed them to simmer long enough in the pan juices to take on the other flavours without loosing their crunch.  After boiling the pasta I tossed it with olive oil to keep from sticking and some mint for freshness.  Having originally intended to make a salad, I had quite a lot of chopped endive which I threw on top of the pasta at the last minute for some bitterness and yet another texture.

Tami is a vegetarian who seldom eats pasta.  To her credit, she has a much better balanced diet than may of the vegetarian I know who mostly subsist off of carbohydrates.  Rather than the typical spaghetti in red sauce, this pasta had a plethora of ingredients, flavours and textures that may have gone a long way in convincing her that when pasta is well prepared it need not be heavy and boring.  While it's not the quickest meal to make, it only took half an hour to prepare and the results were delightful.  Try it at home.  Enjoy.

  

Ingredients:

25 grams of butter

1 medium Spanish onion, sliced thinly radially

2 small thai red chillies, slit open

1/4 tsp of coriander sees

1/4 tsp of cumin seeds

1 tsp of fennel seeds

the juice of two large clementines

6 dates, halved, pitted then sliced thinly on a diagonal

1 large endive, sliced and the discs from the core discarded

1 tbls green peppercorns, crushed the the back of a knife

1 package of pepperoncino infused linguini

2 tbls of extra virgin olive oil

the leaves of 10 sprigs of mint, washed and dried

salt to taste

Directions:

Place the butter in a sauce pan in one large chunk and heat on the lowest possible setting.  Move the butter around the pan to coat it and add the onions, chillies and spices to the pan while the butter is still melting.  Break apart the onions with a silicon spatula and mix everything evenly in the pan.  Allow to sweat for about five minutes.  Add the clementine juice, raise the heat ever so slightly and bring to a simmer.  Allow to simmer for 10 minutes then add the dates.  If the dates are not submerged, add 1/3 cup of water to the pan.  Allow to simmer gently while you prepare the pasta.

Boil and ample amount of water in a large pot, when it comes to a rolling bowl, add 1 tsp of salt.  Boil the pasta according to the directions on the package, strain immediately when ready.  Return to the pot and toss with olive oil and mint leaves and a bit of salt.  Turn off the heat on the sauce.  Plate the pasta and then pour over the sauce.  Sprinkle atop as much green pepper as you desire then add the endive.  Serve immediately.  B'Teavon!

An Israeli meal to celebrate the season: Chicken legs braised in clementine and lime juice with raw date, celery and purslane salad

After having made a delicious Thai meal a few nights ago, I thought that I ought to celebrate the Shuk for the best produce in season, which at present are yellow dates (less ripe than brown dates with a great crunch), clementines, limes (which are nearing the end of their season here), purslane and pomegranates (as well as guava, mangoes and figs).  I wanted to make two chicken legs suffice for three so I decided to braise them and pull the meat.  The only parameters given for the meal were "it should be light", so light it was.

Despite having demanded that dinner be served promptly at 8:15, my guests arrive 30 minutes late.  I expected as much so that 8:45 was exactly when dinner was ready.  While finishing the final touches, I invited my guests to eat some raw dates that had not made it into the salad.  Rebecca was immediately enamoured of them but Kassandra thought they tasted like chalk.  Rebecca and I insisted that she try some more and eventually she came to enjoy the taste and deal with the texture.  I paired the dates with purslane and celery.  Celery is not considered to be in season at present but in Israel that means it's picked early.  For many fruits and vegetables that leaves the consumer with a hard under ripe peach or an avocado that is inedible, but the "out of season" celery simply has a lower water content and is therefore more flavourful than the stuff that was available a few months ago.  Pomegranate are not yet at their peak, but the one I added to the salad nonetheless gave it excellent flavour and tartness.

All in all, my guests and I were both satisfied with the meal.  In order to satisfy the request for lightness I decided to use dehydrated bread as my starch rather than rice or potatoes as it was both light and an excellent conduit for the sauce that came with the chicken.  If you have all the ingredients, it's incredible simple to make.  Enjoy!

   

Ingredients:

For the chicken

1 tbls of peanut oil

1 tbls of mustard oil

1 tbls of coriander seeds

1 tsp of fennel seeds

1 3" piece of ginger, peeled and crushed with the back of a knife

2 large cloves of garlic, thinly sliced

2 chicken legs, skin removed and trimmed of fat

the juice of 3 large clementines

the juice of two limes

S+P to taste

For the rest

about 40 leaves of purslane, separated from the stalk

1 very small bunch of celery, sliced and leaves discarded

the seeds of 1/4 pomegranate

10 dates, quartered

avocado dressing from yesterday

1 ciabatta, most of the crust trimmed off and then sliced thinly width-wise

Directions:

Heat the peanut and mustard oil in a dutch oven over medium, once hot, add the coriander seeds. After 3 minutes add the fennel seeds and lower to medium-low.  As soon as the seeds turn black, add the chicken.  Allow to brown, about 3-4 minutes on each side, then add the ginger, garlic and clementine and lime juices.  Add about 1 tbls of salt.  Bring to a simmer and place the lid on the dutch oven.  Lower the had slightly below medium-low and allow to simmer for 1 hour with the lid on, turning the chicken over half way.  Remove the lid and raise the heat just slightly so that it's at medium-low.  Allow to reduce for another half an hour.  Take two forks and pull the meat of the bone but make sure that it remains in the liquid otherwise it will dry out.  Taste and all more S+P to taste.

Pre-heat the oven to 100C/212F.  Leave the sliced bread in their for exactly 12 minutes so that it's perfectly dehydrated but not browned.  Combine all the ingredients on the plate with the meat over the dehydrated bread to allow it to soak up all of the delicious juices.

B'Teavon!

Carina's "Temptation Forest"

The night before last I was treated to someone else cooking for me in my own kitchen.  While no actually cooking was involved, Carina spent a lot of time assembling her artful salad of the various fruits and vegetables she found in my fridge.  I, meanwhile, was working on a paper and it was quite a delight to be able to focus my efforts on other things while someone else took care of the food.

Carina truly spent a considerable amount of time in the creation of this salad and gave much thought to the placement and cut of each vegetable.  The salad consisted of lettuce, avocado, mint, purple basil, cherries, raisins, red bell pepper, toasted pine nuts and cilantro.  I prepared the dressing of avocado oil, lime juice and mustard.  The dressing was perhaps slightly heavy for the the incredible number of components in this salad.  It was truly a pleasure to look at.  Unfortunately I began to consume my salad before Carina added bocconcini to hers and so the lovely addition of white did not make it to my photographs.  

Carina and I decided that a salad so well composed that took up so much time was deserving of name.  I made a comment that sort through all the various pieces of fruit and vegetables was akin to searching for such a variety in forest.  Carina thought that the salad's primary aspect was the temptation its visual properties elicited in the diner and as such the salad took the name "Temptation Forest".  Enjoy folks!

  

Seared goose, cherry and greens salad with an Asian peach dressing

Last night the lovely Judith and Kassandra joined Lior and me for a light but intensely satisfying dinner.  Without a doubt, the highlight of the meal was the dressing I concocted that is sure to be a staple of my repertoire in the future.  I had purchased some peaches at the Shuk and unfortunately, having found themselves at the bottom of my bag, they got a bit smushed in transit.  For that reason, I decided to make a sauce out of them and what an excellent idea that was!

As frequent readers know, I have a predilection for meat above all else.  Nonetheless, at times I find the need to tone down the heavy qualities of a pairing with a starch and cooked vegetables, no matter how delicious.  Furthermore, I had purchased only one goose breast to be consumed between four persons.  Last night's dinner of salad provided an excellent combination of freshness, gaminess, sweetness and spice.  

Once again, the dressing I composed was so delectable that I dare it could find uses in a whole variety of applications whether on meat, fish, seafood or greens.  The quantity prepared here was perfect for the amount of salad produced but were one to create a greater quantity it would be an excellent sauce in which to poach shrimp, for example.  I heartily recommend the whole combination, but especially the sauce.  Enjoy!

      

Ingredients:

For the salad

1 head of red Boston lettuce, washed, dried and cut into 3/4" thick strips

about 20 cherries, halved and pitted

about 15 sprigs of cilantro, washed and dried

1 large shallot, cut into thin rings

1 goose breast, fat membrane removed

1 tbls grape-seed oil (or other neutral oil)

salt and ground pink peppercorns (or whatever peppercorn you like except white)

For the dressing

1.5 white peaches, peeled and pitted (our peaches are rather small so if yours are quite large, perhaps only 1 peach)

1 tsp ginger oil

1/4 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp Chinese five-spice

1 x-hot Indian chilli

1.5 tbls mirin

Directions:

Heat the grape-seed oil over medium in a frying pan.  Dust the goose breast in salt and pepper.  Once the pan is hot, add the breast to the pan, 2 minutes on either side.  Remove from the pan and set aside to cool for 15 minutes.  Discard juices (or if you really want, save them for another purpose).  Slice the goose breast into 1/4" slices and place in a bowl.  Combine all other ingredients in a salad bowl then toss.

Combine all ingredients for the dressing in a blender or in a high rimmed bowl and blend well with an immersion blender (about 2 full minutes of blending).  Serve salad into bowls, place atop the 4 slices of goose breast and spoon on dressing as desired.

B'Teavon!

Spiced chicken breast over confit oranges, sunchoke-parsnip purée with a mint-dill coulis, braised pistachios and shaved asparagus

Last night I had the tremendous pleasure of hosting two lovely ladies for dinner who will surely be good friends.  The unexpected encounter began with a facebook request for my friendship from Kassandra.  As I have often received requests from strangers without explanation, I wrote to her asking why she decided to add me.  Her response was the best possible for which I could have hoped.  She had stumbled upon my blog through the suggestion of a friend of hers who is the girlfriend of a friend of a guy I go to school with.  Needless to say, the 4th degree of separation that this entailed left me positively delighted that perfect strangers had found From Suq To Shuk and were sharing it.  Kassandra also has a foodie website based on the Tel Aviv scene that she co-authors with Judith.  Tastetlv.com is bound to be quite a success as their endeavour is in and of itself one that connects food personalities throughout Tel Aviv.  Tastetlv.com has up to this point focused mainly on restaurant reviews, but the pair of ambitious foodies also have events and many improvements to their young website planned.

Coinciding with the news that I would have them over for dinner was my revelation that a new season of Top Chef Masters had begun (thank you Tyson).  Being the Top Chef addict that I am, I immediately downloaded all four episodes that had already aired and watched all of them yesterday.  Watching the contestants cook under ridiculous pressure, in combination with the stress I was feeling from from things unrelated to cooking, led me to do my shopping at the Shuk and subsequent cooking with haste but precision.  I had run out of stocks of any variety so the first thing I did was to make a large pot of chicken stock from wings, mirepoix and some herbs.  I was slightly nervous to serve two strangers who were self professed food lovers.  Rather than make a meal derived from strange flavours whose harmony would announce itself only upon consumption, I decided to stick with relatively safe flavours and instead showcase technique.  

While only one course was prepared, I ensured that it would be complex in the range of its components all of which ought to play off one another.  I made a sun-choke and parsnip purée with plenty of butter for a starch and unctuousness; I made a confit of oranges for some sweetness and acidity; I shaved some raw asparagus for crunch; I braised pistachios for nuttiness; I made a spice mixture for my pan roasted chicken and finally a mint-dill coulis to boost my flavours and add a bit of colour.  The results were undoubtedly quite satisfying as everyone had at least seconds (helped by the fact that I serve small portions). 

The scrumptious food prepared was accompanied by excellent conversation that touched on our personal backgrounds, favourite restaurants, food, art and politics.  One of the highlights of our conversation was undoubtedly the revelation that Judith and I shared an intense passion for Top Chef in all of its permutations.  The meal was such a success that all of the stress I had felt earlier in the day was completely alleviated.  So passed an excellent beginning to what I hope will be a long friendship.

  

Ingredients:

For the purée

1 medium yukon gold potato, peeled and diced

1 large parsnip, peeled and diced

4 nubs of sun-chokes, peeled and diced (about 1 cup)

1 bulb of fennel, diced

1 shallot, diced

3 small cloves of garlic, sliced thinly

about 60 grams of unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces

1.5 cups of chicken stock

S+P

For the confit oranges

2 large navel oranges, sliced into 1/4" thick rings, ends and seeds discarded

about 450 grams of sugar

For the mint-dill coulis

about 50 mint leaves, pulled from the stems, washed and dried

5 sprigs of dill, stems removed (about 1/4 cup)

3/4 cup grape-seed oil (or other neutral oil)

1 tbls yuzu juice

1 tsp xanthum gum

2 tsp green peppercorn mustard

1 tsp of salt

2 tsp of sugar

For the braised pistachios

1/4 cup of shelled pistachios

1/3 cup of chicken stock

S+P

For the asparagus

2 spears of asparagus, spiky bits removed with a pairing knife

For the chicken

2 bone-less, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed

1 tsp coriander seeds

2 tsp cumin seeds

2 tsp fennel seeds

the seeds of 4 pods of cardamon, shells discarded

2 tsp of green peppercorns

1 tbls of flour

1/4 of a dried chilli, seeds removed

20 grams of butter

Directions:

When dealing with the sunchokes, parsnip and potato, after being peeled they must be left in cold water with the juice of half a lemon at all times when they are not being chopped to keep them from browning.

Melt one of the four pieces of butter over low heat in a sauce pan.  Before it has entirely melted, add the garlic, shallot and fennel to the pot along with the rest of the butter.  Allow all the butter to melt and sweat the vegetables in it for about 6 minutes over low heat.  Raise the heat to medium low and immediately add the chicken stock.  Bring it to a simmer and add the parsnip, sun-chokes and potato and then add boiling water to cover.  Allow to simmer for twenty minutes on medium-low heat and then blend very thoroughly with an immersion blender.  Cover until ready to serve.

After having sliced your oranges, weigh them, add them to a sauce pan and add an equal weight of sugar to that pan.  Cover in cold water.  Take a piece of parchment paper and cut it fit snugly into the sauce pan with a hole in the centre and paper coming up the sides.  Place the parchment paper in the sauce pan and press down until in contact with the oranges.  Bring to a simmer over medium heat, then once hot, turn down to medium-low and allow to simmer for exactly 15 minutes.  Turn of the heat and allow to cool in the juices.

Combine the mint, dill, mustard and a third of the oil in a blender.  Blend on a low speed until incorporated.  While the blender is still running add xanthum gum, yuzu juice, salt, sugar and the rest of the oil slowly.  Remove to a bowl and cover in plastic wrap until ready to serve.

Pre-heat the oven to 175C/350F.  Combine the pistachios and chicken stock in a very small baking dish and leave in the oven until the liquid has just evaporated.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool.  Do not turn off the oven.

Cut the asparagus into very thin slices on a diagonal and then transfer them to a bowl of ice water to keep from browning.

Combine all spices except of the chilli and salt in a cast iron skillet and toast over medium for about 5-7 minutes.  Transfer to a spice grinder with the chilli and salt and pulverise (can also be done in a mortar and pestle).  Combine this mixture with the flour and sprinkle it evenly on each piece of chicken.  Heat the butter in the cast iron skillet over medium (the pan should get hot very quickly having just been in use).  Immediately add the chicken to the pan.  Allow 3 minutes on one side, 2 on the other then transfer to the oven for 5 minutes.  Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 2 minutes.  Slice and serve with other components.  

B'Teavon!

Pan seared duck with roasted root vegetables, meyer lemon and a blackberry sauce

This meal was the last one I prepared while still in New York.  My friends Rachel and James joined my parents and me for a lovely dinner to celebrate the seasonal winter food of the New York region.  As I have lamented on a number of occasions, the duck found in Israel is imported from Hungary and is grade B quality.  The duck I purchased at Ottomanelli & Sons' butcher shop on Bleecker street, came fresh from the Hudson valley, was 3 times the size of the duck I'm able to acquire here, and was positively delicious.  For that reason, I decided to do a simple pan sear (which I finished in the oven), with nothing covering the duck more than salt and pepper, to bring out a real ducky taste, not hidden by excessive spices.  Duck is one of those farmed meats that has a more game-like quality, and for that reason I decided to pair it with a blackberry sauce.

The blackberry sauce was actually a combination of a mirepoix, a bit of chicken stock, raspberry brandy, cayenne pepper and a heavy dose of frozen blackberry purée and a bit of Meyer lemon purée.  My parents and purchased a set of frozen purées of exotic ingredients for me (blackberry, Meyer lemon and blood orange), but unfortunately there was no way to transport them back to Israel, much to my chagrin.  So I attempted to use them as well I could while still in New York.  Berries, or "fruit of the forest" as many Europeans would call them, have long been paired with gamier meats.  Duck also goes well with apples and root vegetables, one of Tom Colicchio's holy trinities of food.  I went to the overpriced "Gourmet Garage" to do many of my purchases simply for its proximity to my parents' house on a cold New York day.  There I bought some beautiful golden beats, which I hope to find one day in Israel.  I served the whole thing over mashed potatoes, and in the french style, we ate a simple salad after the meal, of shaved fennel, blood oranges, and a mustard garlic vinaigrette.  I made one too many breasts which I'm sure has since been consumed by my dad.

All in all it was an excellent celebration of those things that I miss most about the food from where I grow up, even if it included somethings I wouldn't have touched as a child (like beets).  The company was a delight and it's always a pleasure to cooking in my parents' kitchen.  Hope you all enjoy.

Ingredients:

For the Duck

2 whole duck breasts, separated into 4 halves

S+P

For the Blackberry sauce

2 tbls of butter

1 branch of celery, very small dice (brunoise)

1 small onion or large shallot, brunoise

1/2 carrot, brunoise

1 clove of garlic, crushed and coarsely chopped

1 tsp of ground cayenne pepper

2 tbls of raspberry brandy (eau de vie)

1/2 cup blackberry purée

1/4 cup meyer lemon purée

1/2 cup of chicken stock

S+P

For the roasted vegetables

2 meyer lemons, cut into 1/8's

2 large McIntosh apples, cored and cut into 6

2 branches of celery, chopped

3 golden beets, cleaned and quartered

2 large parsnips, cut into 8 logs (halved then quartered lengthwise)

1 large onion, cut into 8 (don't remove too much of the stem or they'll fall apart)

5 cloves of garlic, crushed in the skins

3 tbls of olive oil

1/2 cup of chicken stock

S+P

For the Confit Meyer lemon

2 Meyer lemons, sliced into 1/8" slices, seeded

1/8 cup of sugar

For the salad

1 bulb of fennel, shaved on a mandoline

3 blood oranges, supremed

2 tsp of mustard

the juice of halve a meyer lemon

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

Directions:

Melt the butter in a sauce pan over medium, add mirepoix (diced onion, celery and carrot).  Allow to sweat for about five minutes, then add the garlic and the cayenne.  After 2 minutes, add the raspberry brandy.  When the brandy has reduced, add the blackberry and meyer lemon purées.  After 2 minutes, add the chicken stock, bring to a simmer and allow to reduce by 1/3, about 6 minutes.  Purée the whole thing and add S+P and sugar to taste.

Pre-heat the oven to 205C/400F.  Combine the root vegetables and the olive oil in a roasting pan, pour atop the chicken stock and leave in the oven for 45-50 minutes.  

Raise the oven to maximum heat, combine the lemons and sugar in a pyrex dish, and leave in the oven for 15 minutes.  Remove and cover with tin-foil. Lower the heat on the oven to 375F/190C. 

Heat a cast iron skillet over medium heat.  When good and hot, add the duck (dusted with S+P on both sdies) skin side down into the skillet.  Allow to render the fat, about 6 minutes.  Pour out fat, turn the breasts flesh side down, and place in the oven for five minutes.  Remove from the oven, cover and allow to rest for 3 minutes.  Slices and serve with the root vegetables over your favourite mashed potatoes recipe and top with a slice of confit Meyer lemon and the blackberry sauce.

Combine the fennel and the blood oranges in a bowl, whisk together other ingredients with S+P to taste, then toss and serve.

B'Teavon

    

A Moroccan dinner for 12

I've just taken the longest break from posting since having created the blog but with good reason.  I'm in California visiting my brother and the days have been busy.  Busy enough for me to get some cooking in there too, but there just hasn't been time to sit down and write a post.  I've done a bunch of cooking however, and visited a few markets, so I presently have bountiful new material.

Saturday morning my brother, parents, grandmother and I visited the local Santa Cruz organic farmer's market.  There will be a post to follow about that market with pictures of all the beautiful produce available.  We purchased some herbs, some tokyo turnips, watermelon radishes, some mixed greens and nasturtium for a salad, and some meyer lemons, which are undoubtedly my favourite type of lemon.  While on the plane my mother and I watched a Bobby Flay show on the Food Network in which he prepared a Moroccan meal in a tagine.  We had gone the day prior to a huge outlet centre at which we made a number of kitchen purchases, including a tagine that we later left with my brother.  

We proceeded to make our purchases at three other locations - Whole Foods, Safeway and finally New Leaf, a local organic supermarket in Santa Cruz where we purchased our meat and I later found some very exciting items that will be featured in future posts.

That afternoon I made dinner for 12: the four members of my immediate family, three of my brother's friends, my Bubbie who came down from Vancouver, my grandma and grandpa who came from Sacramento, and my friend Cecile who came down from San Francisco.  My mother wanted a Moroccan dinner after having seen Bobby Flay make such delicious looking food and so I made a dinner with those flavour profiles.  The result was a great number of dishes, all of which were scrumptious if I do say so myself.

My mother prepared the carrots and salad so I shall not include recipes for those, but the rest of it was prepared by me, so enjoy.  Start by making an all purpose spice mixture that I used for all of the dishes with some additions.

2 tbls coriander seeds

2 tbls cumin seeds

1 tbls mustard seeds

1 tbls fennel seed

Toast the seeds and then grind them in a spice grinder.

For the lamb

2 tbls olive oil

1 spanish onion diced

2" of ginger, peeled and sliced into thin discs

3 lbs of boneless leg of lamb, cut into 1" cubes

2 tbls of spice mixture

2 tsp paprika

1/4 cup of dried cranberries

1/4 cup of almonds

the juice of 2 oranges

about 20 min leaves

For the Chicken

2 tbls olive oil

8 thighs and 2 legs, bone in, skin on

4 leeks, white part only, sliced in 4

3 cloves of garlic, minced

10 dried apricots, roughly sliced

1/4 cup of almonds

4 meyer lemons, quartered and seeded

1/2 cup of Moroccan oil cured black olives

1.5 tbls of the spice mixture

10 stalks of cilantro

For the potatoes

3 lbs of fingerling potatoes, sliced in half

12 shallots, peeled, ends cut off

2 bunches of tokyo turnips, cleaned and greens discarded

1 bunch of parsley, chopped

1 tbls of spice mixture

1 tbls of ground turmeric

3 tbls of olive oil

For the squash

2 tbls olive oil

1 tbls rendered chicken fat (see directions)

1 large butternut squash, peeled and 1" dice

1 spanish onion, diced

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tbls of the spice mixture

1 tbls cinnamon

1/2 cup boiling water

Directions:

In a dutch oven, heat the oil over medium heat, then when hot, sautee the onion for 10 minutes until golden.  In a separate bowl, mix the lamb with the spice mixture and salt and pepper, then mix well with your hands.  Add the ginger to the onions, and sautee for two more minutes.  In batches, sear the lamb in a caphalon or teflon frying pan over high heat, and add each batch to the pot with the onions and ginger.  When all the meat has been browned, add paprika to the pot.  Add the orange juice to the frying pan, then immediately pour that liquid into the dutch oven.  Add the cranberries and almonds, cover, lower the heat to low and allow to simmer for 2 hours.

Pre-heat the oven to 400F.  Heat the bottom section of a tagine over medium heat on the burner, add the olive oil and then the leeks.  When the leeks have softened, lower to medium low, add the spice mixture, and stir occasionally. Add the apricots, lemons and olives.  In a separate frying pan, heat over medium, and add the chicken skin skide down.  Brown in batches and removed chicken from pan when the skin is brown and a lot of fat has been rendered.  After each batch has been browned, remove the chicken fat to a small bowl and place the pieces of chicken on top of the mixture in the tagine.  Add 1/4 cup of water to the tagine, cover it and leave in the oven for an hour.

Combine all of the ingredients of the potatoes in a large bowl, add S+P, mix well making sure that all of the ingredients are covered with both olive oil and spices.  Transfer to a baking dish with a lid, or if there's no lid, cover with tinfoild, and place in the oven with the tagine for 45 minutes.

Combine the oil and chicken fat in a large pot and heat over medium heat.  Add onions, sautée for ten minutes, then add garlic, spice mixture, cinnamon and squash.  After about 5 minutes, add the water, put the lid on and allow to simmer for 30 mutes.  Remove lid and purée with an immersion blender.

Before serving, toss the lamb with the mint and the chicken with cilantro.

B'Teavon!

        

Blood orange marmalade

As previously recounted, I purchased a whole bunch of blood oranges recently.  They're not in season for very much of the year and with fruit like that it's always great to make jam!  The marmalade came out excellently.  It's a great accompaniment to game meat, also great on toast with butter or foie gras.  Use it anyway you would any other marmalade.

Ingredients:

3 blood oranges

about 225 grams of sugar

1 cinnamon stick

6 black peppercorns

Two small or one large allspice berry

1/4 cup of cointreau (orange liquer)

750 ml of water

Directions:

Pour boiling water over the oranges, allow them to sit for thirty seconds, then place in cool water.  Repeat twice more with fresh boiling water (use a kettle).  Cut off the ends of the oranges where the stem lies, then slice up into 1/4" dice, discarding seeds as you go.  Weigh the diced oranges (should be about 450 g) and add half that weight in sugar.  Combine in a sauce pan.

Heat cointreau in a pot over medium heat and add cinnamon, pepper and allspice.  Bring to a boil, then cover and immediately turn off the heat.  Allow to sit covered for ten minutes.  Remove the spices and pour the liquid into the saucepan with your sugar and oranges.  Bring to a boil over medium heat, then lower to medium-low and allow to simmer for about 1.5 hours.  To tell if your jam is ready, scrape the bottom of the sauce pan with a silicone spatula (don't use metal), and if the mixture does not immediately follow the spatula to fill in the gaps, your jam is done.  Don't over cook or it will turn to caramel.

B'Teavon!

     

Dessert inspired by the dessert - spiced winter fruit with banana chips and cashew pastry

When I first saw BT's request for food from the desert I mistook it for a request simply for dessert.  I don't make a lot of dessert so I searched my cookbooks for some ideas.  I came across a recipe in Frank Stitt's Southern Table for spiced winter fruit with cornmeal madeleines.  The recipe was initially attractive to me because of the lack of very complicated techniques involved.  Upon discussing this choice with BT, she clarified that she had requested food from the desert, not a dessert.  Well yesterday I posted my savoury meal from the desert and last night I made an attempt at a dessert inspired by the desert with a few modern french variations.

 The primary divergence from the desert plan came when I realised that the dough I had bought at the supermarket and defrosted was not filo dough but rather pâte feuilleté, which is used to make puff pastry and it his country is used primary for "burekasim", which are usually savoury pastries stuffed with cheese, mashed potatoes or spinach.  When I still thought that the dough was filo, I had planned to make a variation of baqlawa (or baklava in Greek and Turkish),  which is traditionally made with filo dough, pistachios, rose water, sugar and butter.  I had puff pastry, in which I rolled up a mixture of deep fried banana chips and cashews in a similar way, but obviously when baked I had a very different result.  It was nonetheless very tasty, though the next time I'll be sure to by some actual filo dough.

With regards to inspiration from Frank Stitt's, I used his recipe for the spiced syrup in which to marinate the fruit directly from the book, but I changed the combination of the fruit quite a bit to better suit what looked good at the Shuk.  His recipe called for bananas and pineapples, and I didn't feel like putting bananas in the pastry as well as the fruit mixture, and the pineapples here are tiny and very very expensive, so I went with papaya.  I also substituted of the of the oranges for tangerines, because I had just seen them for the first time at the Shuk, bought some, and they were darn tasty.

All in all it was very pretty and very tasty and came out pretty well for such a huge error in identifying the type of pastry I had bought.  Although I liked Frank Stitt's syrup a lot, I think I would have half the amount of vanilla in it, because it came off a little strongly for me.  In any event, enjoy!

Ingredients:

For the syrup:

1 cup of sugar

4 cups of water

1" peeled ginger, sliced into 1/4" pieces

3 black peppercorns

3 white peppercorns

1 vanilla bean, split

1 cinnamon stick

the zest of one lemon

2 star anise

6-8 cardamon seeds (not the pods but the seeds inside)

6-8 coriander seeds

For the fruit

1 pink grapefruit, supremed

3 blood oranges, supremed

2 tangerines, supremed

1 mango, diced

1 papaya, diced

For the pastry

2 9" squares of pâte feuilleté

50 grams of melted butter

1/2 cup roasted cashews, coarse ground

1/2 cup banana chips, coarsely ground

3/4 cup of the syrup from the fruit

Directions:

Combine all ingredients for the syrup in a sauce pan, bring to a boil, then remove from heat and cover.  Allow flavour to infuse and the syrup to cool for 30 minutes (should still be a little warm).  Combine all fruit in large bowl then pour over syrup, cover with cellophane pressed directly against the fruit and leave in the fridge for at least 4 hours.

Pre-heat oven to 180C/355F.  Combine the cashews, banana chips and syrup once the fruit has already been marinating for 4 hours. Brush butter over one side of each square of pastry.  Divide this mixture in half, and lay out each half over the extremity of each square of pastry, then roll up tightly.  Brush over each roll with remaining butter, then bake for 30 minutes.

Slice and assemble plate and spoon syrup over the whole mixture.  Enjoy!

B'Teavon!

    

Food inspired by the desert - coffee, cardamon, nuts, honey and mint

A while ago I received a request from BT to make some "desert food".  I originally read it as "dessert food", and had a whole big dessert planned, that I'm actually still planning on making today.  In a phone conversation later, she clarified that she had requested to see some "food from the desert".  I really picked my brain for this one.  First of all, BT was referring to the Israeli desert, the Negev, which is mostly populated by Bedouins (with the exception of all the Jews).  I had met Bedouins on a number of occasions in Israel and in Jordan.  In Israel they seem to have slightly more of a cuisine, as from what I could tell, the staple of Bedouin cooking in Jordan was canned tuna, packaged Humus and pita.  I know that for large celebrations, goats and sheep are almost always slaughtered on the spot then roasted on a spit, or stewed with whatever vegetables are available.

Bedouin culture is largely centred around coffee and tea.  The Bedouins I met in Jordan drank one cup of tea after the other all day, either with mint or sage, sometimes both.  Some friends of mine went to Rahat (in the Negev) and interviewed the settled Bedouin community there, the video of which I watched.  In that video, the man speaking described the importance of coffee culture for the Bedouins, and that they use the large mortar and pestle with which they grind the coffee and cardamon, also as a type of bell which they use to call people to gather in the tent for coffee.  

Any hiker knows the value of nuts on a long a trip, as they are high in protein, energy and fat, in a small little package.  The Bedouins consume a fair amount of nuts as well.  Their dessert, is not terribly different from the desserts prepare by settled Arab communities in this region, and consists mostly of Baqlawa and honey cake, both made with honey.  

The blood oranges made their way into this dish simply because they're in season and I waited days to get them.  I had bought a few that were wrong colour a few weeks ago that made their way into a lentil soup.  Last friday, before the Shuk closed for Shabbat, I went to a merchant who sells only citrus fruit, and bought a pink grapefruit, 2 tangerine, and 2 oranges.  When I first arrived, the merchant told me to expect blood oranges to arrive in another 20 minutes.  I showed up half an hour later, and was told they would be there in another 20 minutes.  I went and got some lunch, half an hour later, showed up and was told it would be another 20 minutes.  So I sat down and waited.  Needless to say, I went home that day without blood oranges, but I figured that 20 minutes couldn't stretch 3 days, so I went to the same merchant yesterday and lo and behold, there were lots of blood oranges.  I bought 6 pounds for 5 dollars.  I shall be making blood orange marmalade soon, but I thought I could spare one orange for last night's endeavour.  I had meant to put some pomegranate on the plate too, but I forgot, and ended up eating some pomegranate post factum.  

I decided to incorporate all of the ingredients mentioned in the title in this way:  I couldn't find any decent lamb yesterday, so I went for beef, and decided to stew it in coffee and cardamon.  I used the rest of my rice mixture that was full of almonds to get some nuts into the mix.  I soaked some supremes of blood orange in honey with the mint leaves, and that was that.  I put the rice in my hand Magen David cookie cutter, and used six supremes of orange, with six mint leaves, and 12 pieces of beef on the plate. I ate 1/6 at a time, and it was an excellent combination of flavour in my mouth.

Hope you enjoy BT!

Ingredients:

1 tlbs of ghee

400 g beef chuck, 1/2" dice (will shrink when cooked)

1 shallot, sliced thin

3 cups of coffee (I used a french press, filtered coffee could be fine)

6 pods of cardamon

1 blood orange

10 mint leaves

1 tbls of honey

1/2 cup of rice

1/3 cup of the Moroccan spice mixture

1 1/4 cups of water

2 tsp of vegetable oil

S+P

Directions:

Pre-heat the oven to 175C/350F.  Melt the ghee in a dutch oven over medium heat. Add the beef in batches and brown well on all sides.  The browning is essential to develop the beef flavour to make sure that it doesn't get over taken by the coffee.  Once all the beef is browned, move to the side of the pot and enter in the shallots and cardamon.  After about 2 minutes, mix in well then add the coffee, cover and place in the oven for 1.5 hours.

Combine mint leaves, blood orange supremes and honey in a bowl.

Add vegetable oil to a sauce pan, heat over medium-low, and add rice and rice mixture.  Sautée this for about 4 minutes, then add boiling water, cover and lower the heat to the lowest setting.  Cooking for 18-20 minutes, then serve.  

Combine all ingredients on the plate and top with a bit of the juices from the stew.  Yum!

B'Teavon!