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.