Sunday Brunch

Wow. I have a new favorite breakfast dish :-)

There's an entire section in my Israeli cookbook all about Shakshuka. And I couldn't skip over said section once I saw photos of what Shakshuka was supposed to look like -- Huevos Rancheros (another one of my faves).

As with many dishes in Israeli cuisine, I had never heard of Shakshuka before I received my cookbook. The basic recipe is made primarily of eggs, tomatoes and some sort of hot sauce -- but you can add anything from peppers to spinach to potatoes to sausages to feta cheese. It is to be served in a frying pan along with (what else?) soft bread and a salad. It's a hearty, filling meal that I'd be happy eating either at noon or midnight.

The first thing I did in preparation the day before actually, was I made the hot sauce, which was a huge time-saver. Per the recipe I used, you can use one of many kinds of hot sauces (all of which I want to try eventually), but for my first time, I went with filfel chuma -- a condiment favored by Libyan Jews (which makes sense, considering Shakshuka is originally a Libyan recipe). I think filfel chuma is delicious -- and so does A! It's spicy but it doesn't set your mouth on fire. We were too busy mopping this stuff up with pita that we almost didn't have enough left for the Shakshuka!

Filfel Chuma
Recipe courtesy of The Book of New Israeli Food: A Culinary Journey, by Janna Gur

Ingredients (makes 1 cup)
10 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon high quality hot paprika (cayenne pepper)
4 tablespoons high quality sweet paprika
1 level teaspoon ground caraway
1 level teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 cup oil, plus more oil, to cover
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt

Mix the ingredients into a smooth paste. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Transfer to a sterilized jar, cover with two tablespoons of oil to prevent spoilage, and store in the refrigerator. It keeps for a long time.

Now on to the Shakshuka itself. I won't lie -- it has the potential to be time-consuming, so definitely make your hot sauce the day before. Between baking fresh pita and peeling and dicing tomatoes, it can take up a good portion of the morning. But it's SO worth it :-)

Shakshuka -- Basic Recipe
Recipe courtesy of The Book of New Israeli Food: A Culinary Journey, by Janna Gur

Ingredients (serves 4)
4 tablespoons oil, for frying
2 cloves garlic, crushed
5 large tomatoes, peeled and diced (or 1 1/2 cups canned tomatoes, crushed) Note: I used fresh tomatoes
1 tablespoon zhug, filfel chuma or harissa or a mixture of crushed garlic, paprika and hot peppers Note: I used filfel chuma
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin (optional) Note: I didn't bother -- the filfel chuma was more than enough seasoning
Pinch of ground caraway (optional) Note: See above
2 tablespoons tomato paste
8 eggs

1. Heat the oil in a large deep skillet and lightly fry the garlic. Add the tomatoes and seasonings and cook for 15-20 minutes over low heat, partly covered.
2. Add the tomato paste, cover and simmer for a few more minutes. Adjust the seasoning -- the sauce should have a strong, piquant flavor.
3. Break the eggs one by one and slide onto the tomato sauce, arranging the yolks around the pan.
4. Turn heat to low and cook until the egg whites set (about 5-7 minutes). Partly cover the pan to prevent the sauce from spraying around the kitchen. Cover completely if you like your eggs "over hard."

Burnt salad? :-/

I wouldn't call tonight's attempt a "disaster," per se. I think the dish tasted good, but there are definitely still kinks in the cooking process.

So my friend S e-mailed me the other day and recommended I try making Matboucha, as it was something she had made herself once. I have a feeling she saw my previous post, where I expressed a desire to find Israeli salads that didn't include cucumber.

To my delight, my cookbook, The Book of New Israeli Cooking: A Culinary Journey, includes a recipe for Matboucha (Salata Matboucha translates to "cooked salad" in Arabic), which is one of many options when ordering Israeli Meze.

According to my cookbook, Meze is another term for something like "antipasti" or "tapas" -- where several small plates are put out on the table along with pita. The plates can be filled with salads, hummus, cheeses, fish, etc.

As S warned me, Matboucha is very tasty (and SPICY!!!), but time-consuming, so make sure you set aside a couple of hours just for preparation (and more if you need to bake some pita, like I did).

The trouble with my first attempt at Matboucha is that I definitely overcooked it -- even though the recipe specifically says to cook the veggies for two hours. By hour 1:30 the dish looked like the color of blackberries as opposed to a healthy blood-red tone. When all was said and done I probably shaved a good 40 minutes off of the cooking time, but it was still overdone, so if anyone has a better idea of how long to cook Matboucha, I'm all ears!

Matboucha
Recipe courtesy of The Book of New Israeli Cooking: A Culinary Journey, by Janna Gur

It can be eaten hot or cold.

Ingredients
4-5 ripe tomatoes
4 sweet red peppers
4 hot green peppers
8-10 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 cup oil
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 pinch sugar
1 tablespoon tomato paste

1. Using a sharp knife, cut a cross on the bottom of each tomato. Blanch the tomatoes briefly in boiling water, peel, halve, remove the seeds and chop coarsely.

2. Roast the red and green peppers over an open flame or under the grill. Allow to cool (preferably in a sealed plastic bag to make peeling easier), peel and remove the membranes and seeds. Chop coarsely.

3. Cook the tomatoes in a saucepan for 5-10 minutes, until all the liquid evaporates.

4. Add the remaining ingredients except the tomato paste. Lower the heat and cook for two hours, stirring occasionally (Note: I had the saucepan cooking over the lowest heat possible but two hours was definitely too much, even though the veggies are supposed to be slow-cooked. I would check the ingredients after cooking for an hour. If they're well-cooked, that should be enough.)

5. Add the tomato paste and cook for another 30 minutes (Note: Again, use your judgment. Since I had already overcooked the veggies, I maybe cooked them for five minutes more after adding the tomato paste). The salad is ready when it is shiny and very thick. Keep in the refrigerator up to 10 days or in the freezer up to three months. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Salad With a Kick

One of the few things I already knew about Israeli cuisine before reading The Book of New Israeli Food: A Culinary Journey was that salads are a core element to most menus. And as Ms. Gur even states ever so simply in the book, "Israelis insist on a salad with almost every meal." Can't say I take issue with that philosophy!

So the good news was I was relatively familiar with the basic Israeli salad of finely chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and fresh herbs -- trouble is, I really, REALLY don't like cucumbers :-/

If I try to make Israeli salad WITHOUT cucumbers, I feel the salad will be missing a vital component. It would be like American Idol without Simon Cowell (heh, well, we're going to have to get used to that eventually). 

I promise I will bite the bullet soon and make a full-on Israeli salad -- who knows? I may just like it! The picture of the juicy, succulent-looking veggies look too good to resist. But until I get up the nerve to bite into a cucumber, luckily my cookbook provides plenty of alternative salad choices.

Tonight I tried a Celery and Kashkaval Cheese Salad. And we have another winner! It's a delightful mix of crispy, crunchy celery strips with a tangy dressing of lemon juice and olive oil topped off with anchovies and the previously noted hard-to-find (and never-tasted by me or A before) Kashkaval cheese.

I managed to find the Kashkaval at Sahadi's, and I am pleased to announce that I have a new favorite cheese :-)

Kashkaval, while not an "Israeli" cheese (the one sold at Sahadi's is from Bulgaria), is a mild sheep's milk cheese that offers a nice balance to the zest of the celery salad. Plus it's great to nibble on its own! The recipe says you can use Parmesan if you can't track down Kashkaval, but if you can, I recommend going the extra mile for the Kashkaval. I have a feeling the tang of Parmesan isn't going to help balance out the already salty flavors of the salad.

Celery and Kashkaval Cheese Salad
Recipe courtesy of The Book of New Israeli Food: A Culinary Journey, by Janna Gur

Ingredients (serves 4-6)
1 bunch celery (one with young, light-colored stalks)
Freshly squeezed juice of 2 lemons
Coarse sea salt
10 top-quality anchovy fillets, diced
1/4-1/3 cup olive oil
3 1/2 oz ripe Kashkaval or Parmesan cheese
Coarsely ground white pepper

1. Discard the coarse outer stalks of the celery bunch and cut the inner stalks into thin strips. A vegetable peeler can be used to shave the stalks lengthwise.

2. Mix the celery strips with the lemon juice and some salt. Be careful with the salt -- the anchovies are salty already!

3. Mix the anchovy fillets with the olive oil and add to the celery strips.

4. Using the finest grater, grate the cheese over the salad, sprinkle some ground white pepper on top and serve immediately.

Hummus and pita -- we're off to a great start!

I'm trying not to get a big head here, but I'm two for two so far. This of course means that the next thing I try will most likely be an unmitigated disaster!

I decided to go with the Israeli equivalent of pizza/burgers and fries for my first attempt at this kind of cuisine. Common dishes, yes, but not without their own challenges. Considering the last time I baked any kind of bread was during the first Bush administration (and by that I mean Bush Sr.) I was SO nervous that the dough wouldn't rise and it would taste terrible. And as mentioned in my previous post, where was I supposed to find tahini (a.k.a. sesame paste)?

Enter Sahadi's Importing Co. An oasis of hard-to-find (and not-so-hard-to-find) items right in the heart of Cobble Hill, Brooklyn.

This is a market that carries an extensive array of spices, cheeses, coffee and regional groceries. Initially I thought it was a Middle Eastern-only shop, but in actuality, its wares extend to Greek, Italian and Indian products as well.

It was here that I managed to find the ever-elusive raw, top-quality tahini, which is the key ingredient to hummus, as well as a jar of Shipka peppers (hot green, pickled peppers).

The rest of the ingredients were easily obtainable at my local supermarket, so without further ado, here are the results!

All recipes courtesy of The Book of New Israeli Food: A Culinary Journey, by Janna Gur

I can't help but toot my own horn here, but this hummus is to die for. The best hummus I ever had was at  Gam Gam, in the Jewish ghetto of Venice, while backpacking through Europe in 1998, and I think this hummus gives it a run for its money (remember, never been to Israel, so I have a lot of hummus tasting to do). It's creamy, with just the perfect kick of lemon, garlic, spices and hot peppers. I just wish I could get rid of the burning sensation under my fingers caused by the capsaicin in the peppers!

Not bad, huh?

This hummus is made in two parts. First you make the basic hummus, then the sauce that gives it that amazing harmony of flavors.

Basic Hummus Dip (serves 8-10)

Ingredients

1 lb 2 oz. small dry chickpeas

1 tablespoon + 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup raw top quality tahini

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 cloves garlic, crushed

Salt to taste

1. Soak the chickpeas overnight in a large bowl of cold water with one tablespoon of baking soda.

2. Drain and rinse the chickpeas and put them in a large pan. Add water until it reaches 1 inch above the chickpeas. Add the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda and bring to a boil. Cook covered over low heat for 2-3 hours (Note: Two hours was more than enough), until the chickpeas are very soft. Cool slightly, drain and save some of the cooking liquid.

Note: These first two steps are very time-consuming, but so worth it

3. Put the chickpeas in a food precessor, add 2/3 cup of the tahini and process until almost smooth. If the paste is too thick, add a few tablespoons of the cooking liquid. Season with lemon, garlic and salt; taste and adjust the seasoning (Note: I'm partial to more lemon than usual, but don't overdo it). For a richer creamier version, add the remaining tahini and process until the hummus is completely smooth and fluffy.

Complete Hummus (serves 6-8)

Ingredients
Basic hummus dip (recipe above)

The Sauce:
1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon hot red pepper, chopped
1 tablespoon garlic, crushed
4-5 Shipka peppers (small hot green, pickled peppers), seeded and chopped

To serve:
Raw tahini
Olive oil
Chopped fresh parsley
Chopped onion (Note: I didn't bother with the onion -- didn't make a difference)

1. Mix the ingredients for the sauce and set aside for one hour.

2. Spoon 2-3 heaping tablespoons of hummus dip into each serving plate and spread around the rim, leaving a crater in the center. Fill the crater with one tablespoon of raw tahini. Pour on 2-3 tablespoons of the sauce, sprinkle some olive oil and top with chopped parsley and onion.

And what would delicious, savory hummus be without fresh, straight-out-of-the oven pita?

My only complaint about my homemade pita is that it was a little too thick and puffy for a flatbread, but it still tasted chewy and delicious. Next time I'll invest in a brick oven ;-)

Pita

Ingredients (for 10 pitas)
3 1/2 cups bread flour
1 oz. fresh yeast (Note: Fresh yeast is almost impossible to come by unless you're a professional baker or Food Network personality. I used dry yeast and it worked almost TOO well!)
1 1/2 cups water (Note: Lukewarm water is best)
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil

1. Mix the yeast with the flour in a mixer fitted with a kneading hook. Add the water, sugar, salt and olive oil and knead for 10 minutes, until the dough is smooth, shiny and slightly sticky.

2. Transfer the dough to a large greased bowl. Sprinkle olive oil over it, cover with cling wrap and allow to rise to twice its original size.

3. Preheat the oven to maximum (500 or 550 degrees F).

4. Place the dough on a work surface sprinkled with flour and divided into 10 equal parts. Roll each part into a ball. Cover with a moist towel and leave for 10 minutes.

5. Roll out each ball into a disk 4 inches in diameter and 1/4 inch thick. Arrange on a tray lined with baking paper and bake for 5 minutes, just until the pitas swell up and begin to show golden spots. Avoid over-baking, which will cause them to dry up.

6. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly. Cover the pitas with a kitchen towel for a few minutes to keep them soft.

Here we go, so, um, Shalom!

Israeli cuisine. Never gave it much thought up until a couple of months ago. Sure, I'm a self-professed and proven foodie. I LOVE to cook, try new restaurants, throw dinner parties, stuff my face with yummy-tasting goodies -- you get the picture.

But Israeli food? Why? I've never been to Israel, spent most of my years of Hebrew school daydreaming about my future life with Michael J. Fox (as a result, "Shalom" pretty much remains the extent of my Hebrew-speaking ability), and assumed that a typical Israeli menu didn't extend beyond pita, hummus and falafel.

And speaking of falafel, ever since a Hebrew school classmate got sick to his stomach after eating too much of the fried delicacy 20-some-odd years ago at a Yom Ha'atzmaut party I've steered clear of the stuff.

Enter my aunt's recent Chanukah gift and catalyst for this blog:

I started flipping through the cookbook soon after I received it, but I have to admit, I was a little intimidated by the recipes -- where was I supposed to get raw tahini? Or, rather, what exactly IS tahini? What is kashkaval cheese?

And more importantly -- will my Puerto Rican Catholic husband eat any of these dishes? Will I?

So the cookbook wound up collecting dust for a good two months, until a conversation with my fellow foodie and dear friend M helped me to realize that a) I needed a new cooking challenge and b) I should blog about my attempts to cook Israeli food!

Before you read any further, I want to say once and for all that I am NOT trying to pull a Julie Powell here. Yes, this blog is going to document my adventures and experiences in Israeli cooking -- something I know NOTHING about. And (fingers crossed) I hope it will also serve as a forum where people can offer me tips and advice (seriously, please, I need it!). 

I do not intend to "cook my way" through The Book of New Israeli Food: A Culinary Journey -- although I'm going to try to make as many recipes from it as possible. The author, Janna Gur, includes such mouth-watering photographs of her dishes as well as popular food markets and restaurants that it's going to be hard to resist trying to make everything. Also, I'm a busy woman. I won't be posting daily. Or even weekly. I'll try though.

So as I start this journey, I want to thank a few people in advance for their initial advice and support. As previously mentioned, my friend M, who pretty much gave me this idea :-) My friend S, whose recent trip to Israel automatically has made her an eager and willing food-taster. My colleague C, who pointed out the amazing Middle Eastern food market right in my own backyard and who has offered excellent suggestions for the direction of this blog. And, of course, my husband, A, for putting up with this crazy gastronomic challenge to begin with :-)