Food all over

According to plan*

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 06:59:00 +0000

Hi again.

Last time I was telling about how me and Berlin were finally getting along, I started feeling at home, having very dear friends, became a regular in two bars, found my own flat and started a new job.

Since then, it just became even more clear that things are falling into place, and I could really see myself living there for a long while.
So obviously, something had to change.

I got a phone call from Israel, from the production of Master chef, calling me to audition for the next season, and so, I had to leave everything once again.

I'm not sure what if I'm free to tell much about it after signing a contract that basically says that I'm now owned by the production company, but I will say that I'm still in the sorting stage, so my destiny is not clear. If I make it I might have to stay in Israel for 4 months, that is if I make it all the way to the final, if i don't I'll just fly back to Berlin and see what's still standing from my newly formed life.

I have to say that unlike the previous times, I wasn't too stressed about leaving this time, cause I felt that for the first time I actually built something real and steady there, so I figured it will wait there for me until my return. I could be wrong though...

I'm trying to think if I'm scared of anything at the moment, and even though I think maybe I should be scared or at least worried, I'm actually pretty calm about the whole thing. I was very ambivalent about staying in Israel for so long, going back to living with my mom, In a room that was never mine, in a city that I can't really afford to live in, even for a short while, and without my good friends (I really miss my Berlin friends, and it seems as though my closest Israeli friends are either away or too busy for me). The other thing is that I don't know if I'm here for another week or another 3 months, so I don't know whether I should try and build something or just continue my permanent vacation.

I guess I just have to wait and see.

Fresh corn polenta:

(with chicken and mushrooms)

This is another one of my 'practicing for Master chef' dishes. I made it a few times already, in a few different versions (I hope the production is not reading this and that I could make it on the show as well), this one works as a main course, but you could do it without the chicken and it will be a great starter.

Ingredients:

(serves about 5)

10 corncobs
50g butter
1/2 cup of milk
30g Hard salty cheese (Parmesan is great, but I actually made it with mozzarella once and it was just as good).
Salt.

Method:

- Peel and wash the corn.
- Using a sharp knife, pierce the corn through the middle of all the seeds, working along the lines. (For maximum control use just the bottom part of the knife and hold the corn firmly in your other hand, turning it away from you as you go, it's faster and easier than it sounds).
- Using the dull edge of the knife, scrape the flesh out of the seeds into a medium pot, be careful, it tends to spray. Make sure you're applying enough force to bring out the flesh, but not too much, you don't want any of the shells, just the inside.
- Over a medium heat, cook the corn and butter, stirring to prevent the bottom from burning.
- after 3 minutes or so, add the milk, cook for about 10 minutes, until the corn is cooked and the polenta is slightly thick. Now this is a fresh corn polenta so the texture is more like mashed potatoes rather than a 'normal' polenta or mamaliga.
- Add Parmesan and salt to taste.

So in total this takes about 20 minutes, I would make it at the very last minute, cause its really nice warm and fresh.

For the chicken:

- Chicken legs and thighs, one of each per person.
- 500g button mushrooms.
- 1/4 cup soy sauce.
- 2tbs honey/silan (start with less, keep adding and tasting until the saltiness of the soy is balanced).
- 1 tbs rice vinegar.
- 4 garlic cloves, sliced thin.
- about 5cm fresh ginger root, cut into matchsticks.
- Spring onion.
- Coarse salt.
- Fresh red chili, or dry chili.
- Neutral oil.

Method:

- In a large deep pan, heat a little oil, and sear the chicken from all sides, then remove from the pan.
- Add dry chili (if you're using fresh keep it for later), then garlic and ginger and saute for a few minutes, until the garlic is soft. You may need to add some boiling water, to keep the garlic from burning as the pan is very hot.
- In a bowl mix soy, vinegar and honey, taste to so make sure its not too sweet or salty.
- Add the chicken to the bowl, coat from all sides, put it in the pan and pour the sauce in as well.
- Cover with boiling water, cover the pot, bring to another boil, and then reduce heat and cook for at least an hour, until the chicken is very tender.

Serving:

- Fish out the chicken and mushrooms. And continue reducing the sauce over a high heat, pan uncovered.
- Pour the polenta onto a large and semi deep serving plate. Place chicken and mushrooms on top, and pour the reduced sauce. Sprinkle with spring onions, fresh red chili and coarse salt.

* In Hebrew the title has a double meaning, ask your closest Hebrew speaking friend.
** For a non chicken version, just saute the garlic and ginger with a little butter and oil, add the mushrooms, soy and honey (you will need less of both) and cook until the mushrooms are ready.

New roots

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 09:00:00 +0000

For the first time since I started this blog, I was actually too busy to post something. Well, I don't know if 'too' busy, but I was actually doing something in the last 5 weeks.

I'm now living in my new flat. The first flat that I actually signed a contract for. And I love it.

I have a job, a proper one along with my independent food rounds, that I still do, and still try to avoid doing every weekend.

I cooked a 6 course meal for 50 people, alone, in about 5 hours, and was pretty pleased with that.

I made a movie (!), which reminded me why I kept claiming I was mostly a filmmaker at heart, even though I did more or less nothing about it. I really do love it. I'm not sure if the film is great, and I did to hastily and took way too many responsibilities (never again directing and shooting) but still there's maybe only one thing I enjoy more than being on a set, let alone my set. (In this case it was also my apartment, and even now 2 weeks later, it's not completely back to normal)

So you could say I'm pretty pleased; I missed sleep deprivation, I remember back in high school I had to stay awake for over 3 days straight while working on films, and I was sure those days are gone and that I'm old and disabled now. But having to wake up at 7am to go to work after shooting the whole day before (finishing at 4am) showed me that I still have it (although I do have a strange tick under my left eye in the past few days... Wonder what that means).

All this brings me to that one thing I like even more than being on a set, well, yup, it's food.
One of those things that kept me busy was Master Chef, both the Israeli and American versions. Now I know what you're thinking, oh, and he said he was too busy, well, I think it was an invaluable experience, and along with studying all the 'How to cook like Heston' episodes, will eventually make me a better cook. It did already inspire me to sign in for the Israeli version and more importantly showed me once again how little I know and how much more there is to be learnt and experienced. And so I started master cheffing myself at home. So I went to the market and came back with a few ingredients I've never used before, and started experimenting. So now I have a new best friend, turnip, which along with sardines and freekeh starred in a few meals I made this week. From which I bring you today's recipe.

Freekeh risotto with fennel and spinach

2 cups freekeh.
2 fennel.
3 garlic cloves.
1/2 tsp crushed fennel seeds.
1 dry chili.
300g spinach or Swiss chard.
zest of one lemon.
a pot full of fish stock (I made mine by boiling and straining the carcasses of the sardines I used the day before)
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
and more*

Preparation

Like any risotto you need a large and deep pan, heat the oil,chili and fennel seeds, add fennel and garlic and saute until slightly softening.

Add the freekeh and about half a tbs of salt (you could also use carnaroli or arborio rice of course, but freekeh really does have a very unique taste), and continue stirring, toasting the freekeh for a few minutes. Meantime bring your stock to a boil.

Start adding the stock, at first about 4 ladle fulls, and then just one at a time, constantly stirring and adding more, just before the freekeh drinks all the stock. You should either stir in the same direction or make 8's to ensure a good risotto.

Now this one is not a typical risotto, and will be a little less creamy since the freekeh is less starchy than risotto rice, and I didn't add any butter (I will next time, freekeh goes very well with butter, just wasn't sure about the fish...).

Keep stirring and adding stock, this will probably take around 45 minutes, so you might want to have another person for alternating stirring shifts. You'll have to taste and see when the freekeh is cooked enough for you, just remember that it's a bit crunchier than rice, and I like it this way.

About 30 minutes in, start adding the spinach in small batches. I leave one last batch to add only after removing from the stove, letting the residual heat cook it, and keeping a bright green color. After removing from heat, add the lemon zest, and season to taste.

Serve with lemon to squeeze on top.

*and more means that since I made it only once, I tried a few things that I'm not sure if were very necessary, all I can say is that it tasted pretty amazing. I added 2 sprigs of lavender and about 1/4 tsp of wasabi paste. I can't say I felt any of them for sure, but it might have been just the thing to complete a full complex flavor. Next time I'll add a bit more just to see what happens.

Enjoy.

Oh, and I made cheese:

More of the same (?)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 11:55:00 +0000

I kept postponing writing this post cause I was tired of repeating myself. I was going to name it 'a change of a change', however, that's not really the case.

In the past few months (and in many ways much longer than that) my two main goals were to find my own flat, and to start my new job. I'm very close to achieving the flat thing, I've found one, that I think is great, more or less affordable, and most importantly accepted my application (not the easiest thing in Berlin). My fingers are still crossed, because nothing's final yet (and ever since I broke that mirror last week things seem to be going downhill) but if things go according to plan, I might be writing my next post (next week?) from my new place.

The job part is a bit less promising. I got this restaurant job a little before Christmas, and, well, it still haven't started. The restaurant's opening keeps getting delayed, which I guess is quite common in this business, however I'm afraid its more than that. We were supposed to start working on the menu this week, and when I got there I saw that all the lights are being re-installed. That wouldn't really matter unless the owner/co-cook kept me hanging there for two hours, telling me he'll check if we might be able to cook somewhere else, then disappearing for numerous meeting. Meanwhile I was trying to befriend the head chef, but a combination of extreme nervousness on my part and a 'who is this mosquito-like person in front of me' attitude on his, made me feel like shit. I went home, and pretty much decided to give up on this adventure. A decision that was followed by flashbacks of my father threatening me I will forever be a quitter after leaving the military, and in general brought much despair and confusion.

Yesterday I spilled coffee on Ewa's computer, which might mean we'll have to spend the first month in the new flat without any furniture (and possibly food), since Mac's are insanely expensive. But I think it's all for the best, I was hoping the new flat will mark a new start, a clean sleight, in which I put an end to my laziness and procrastination, having to make a lot of money quickly might be just the incentive I need.

On the bright side, my efforts in becoming a media-whore are paying off; Some film students made a short documentary about me (and how I cook and sell my food in the neighborhood's bars), and a new Facebook page I started (My shopping list - only in Hebrew, sorry) Got me an interview in a Tel Avivian magazine.

As for this post's recipe, ever since I started this blog, I was planning on posting a veggie patties recipe. It's one of my favorite things, and has virtually endless possibilities. Sadly, its hardly the most photogenic food. This week however I made a new patty that, photogenic or not, was so good I just have to share it. Here it goes...

Fennel and zucchini patties

Ingredients:

- 1 Fennel, quartered, and sliced very thin.
- 3 Zucchini, grated.
- spring onion, chopped.
- 1 egg*
- Dried chili, crushed.
- 1 Garlic clove, crushed.
- 2-3 tbs breadcrumbs.
- Few mint leaves (optional)
- Salt and pepper.
- Oil (For frying, I still prefer olive oil, but any neutral oil will also do)

Preparation:

- Heat very little oil in a small pan, add the chili, followed by the fennel and spring onion. After a few minutes, lower heat and cover, cook until the fennel is softened, stirring every few minutes. Chill.
- Mix the zucchini and fennel, put in a strainer over a bowl/sink, place a plate and a heavy object on top and drain for at least 30 minutes (in the fridge overnight is optimal).
- Make sure the mix is drained (pick a handful and squeeze it, if its dry its good), then add egg and season. Add breadcrumbs until you can easily form a stable patty.
- Heat a little oil in a big pan (you don't a lot of oil, just enough to coat the pan, and it has to be hot), and fry the patties, about 3 minutes on each side.

Serve with yogurt mixed with a little curry powder and mint, or tahini with lemon juice and parsley.

* For vegan version, replace egg with 1tbs of chickpea flour, mixed with 1tbs of white flour and 1tbs of olive oil.

Happy birthday

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 22:44:00 +0000

The blog is one year old today (that is if I finish writing this post on time).
I marked it on my Google Calender about a month ago, to make sure I would post something today.
I can't say I have anything new or very interesting to say, but I'll give it a shot anyway.

I just came back from a two week visit in Israel. I've been trying to find deep and profound things to say about this visit, which was in many ways interesting and different, I was there with my girlfriend, Ewa, so I functioned as something between a tourist and a tour guide. It was nice, and probably more exciting than just visiting friends and family, but at the same time it kinda downed on me that it's undoubtedly no longer my home. I guess it's a positive thing, and hopefully means that Berlin, where I am now and where I intend to stay in the near future, is my home.

Visiting Israel did give me chance to reunite with some of my favorite products (and pay insane amounts of money for them - staying in Israel for 17 days cost like 2 months here in Berlin), and, equally important with my pasta machine. This gave me the opportunity to finally make a dish I've been fantasizing about for over half a year. When I was touring and cooking in Italy I spent about a week making fresh pasta, and between ravioli, tagliatelle, fettuccine and more, I made one beautiful pasta called Caramelle , which is basically bonbon shaped pasta. Back there we filled it with ricotta and walnuts.
But I was determined on making it for dessert. I didn't really know what flavors I wanted until the very last minute, but I was very happy with the result*.

Passion fruit Caramelle with strawberry sauce.

For dough:

300g pasta flour.
3 eggs.
1 tsp cinnamon.

For filling:

200g mascarpone.
6 passion fruits.
powdered sugar to taste.
vanilla extract/ vanilla sugar.

For sauce:

500g strawberries.
powdered sugar to taste.

For serving:

Mint.
5 passion fruits.

Preparation:

Dough:

Sieve flour and cinnamon together.
Make a little hill of the flour, create a small well in the middle, and break in the eggs.
Using a fork, gently mix the eggs and the flour, starting just with the center. When incorporated, use your hands to knead it into a unified dough. Roll into a sausage, cover, and let cool for 30 minutes.
Working with a third at a time, work in the pasta machine until as thin as possible.

For caramelle, make ravioli, and then fold both ends one to one side, and then another time to the other side.

Filling:

Mix mascarpone, vanilla and sugar. Add the passion fruit, sieving it through a fine mesh (use a fork to get all the flesh from around the seeds). Let cool for at least an hour.

Sauce:

Using a hand mixer, butcher the strawberries until they become sauce :)
Add powdered sugar to taste.

Cook the caramelle in a lot of boiling water (with 1tbs of salt), cook in batches so they won't stick, and won't cool down the water. It's ready 10 seconds after floating.

Serving:

Spread strawberry sauce on a plate, place 3 caramelle, empty half a passion fruit on top, add mint.

*I must admit that I'm still not an expert in making pasta, and even though flavor-wise this dish was great, my caramelle were a bit too tough around the edges, where the 'twist' is. Next time I'm going to make it with ravioli instead, sacrificing some of the wow factor...

Independence

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:34:00 +0000

So somehow another month passed since my last post, and I guess not much has changed, apart from the way I feel, which is also important I guess.

This is where things stand: I´m back in Berlin (after spending two weeks in Greece), more or less homeless again (ping-ponging between my sister´s now empty flat and my girlfriend´s room), constantly looking for a flat, first wanted to move with two friends, then realized its virtually impossible since none of us have a real job with real paychecks (nor a fake one for that matter), then started looking for a flat-share and discovered that I´m less sociable than I remembered, and currently looking for a fat just for myself, which supposedly I could afford, once my promised cooking job finally starts (was supposed to happen next week, now seems to be sometime next month), however once again, being able to pay the rent is not the problem, proving that you are debt free, all your previous landlords love you and showing your last three paychecks is, so keep your fingers crossed.

This all means I still have all the free time in the world. Which is not great in a world with Facebook and owl videos.
In case its not already clear, I´m not good at making good use of my time, but I´m trying my best.
The one great new thing that happened, is that I made my first chocolate tart (I called it snickers tart actually cause it also had peanuts and caramel), it was meant to be a gift for Ewa and her friends who were selling vintage clothes in this fashion fare here in Berlin, but after the hungry bargain hunters saw it they demanded to buy a piece.

This inspired me to start selling my food, so I baked a couple of cakes, improvised a few savoury snacks, and went to a friend´s bar to give it a try. At first I had flashbacks from back in high-school, being too shy to be able to speak, but after a few very hesitant rounds with my tray of food, I sorta got the hang of it and ended up selling everything. So in the following 4 days I did it a couple more times, improving each time (I think), and although it´s not going to make me rich, I´m kinda proud of myself, and I´m actually making more or less enough to keep afloat.

For today´s recipe, I think it only makes sense to post one of my ´products´, this is a new discovery for me, a great way to make low fat cakes (which also cuts the expenses), so here it is...

Banana cake (why does everybody call it banana bread?)

2 cups white flour.
1 tsp baking powder.
1/2 tsp baking soda.
3/4 cup sugar.
1 tsp cinnamon.
1 tsp vanilla extract.
4 ripe bananas, mashed.
2 eggs.
200 ml low fat yogurt (I used 1,5% once and 0,1% the other time, both seemed to work fine).

Preparation:

- Preheat oven to 180C.
- Whisk eggs and sugar together.
- Add the bananas, spices and yogurt, whisk until incorporated.
- Mix flour and powders, then add to rest of mix. Stir only until incorporated, as little as possible, otherwise it´ll come out tough and, indeed, ´bready´.
- Bake for about 45 minutes, until dry inside.

*I added hazelnuts, I think next time I´ll also put chocolate chips...

P.S.

As you may have noticed, I gave my blog a little ´facial´, I´m very easily influenced, and just too many people said its ugly... I´m still getting used to it (not that I´m too attached to the old look, just still need to perfect some things...), hopefully I will have a new beautiful kitchen soon so I could also take nice pictures (both kitchens I have now are super dark and depressing).

About aging, filmmaking and owls.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 11:50:00 +0000

I've recently turned 22. And funnily enough, I feel old.
At least older, I no longer know that I'm the youngest person around, I no longer feel like what I've done is impressive for my age. A few years ago, I started putting thing on this scale; on one hand there's romance, and on the other, cynicism.

As you grow old, you move further away from that initial excitment you had, exctiment of very simple physical things as they occur for the first time, kissing, fighting, running away, cheating, breaking up. After all these happen for the second and third time, you no longer feel this excitment, you move far away from romance, towards cynicism. Cynicism is dangerous.
I was very proud of my ability to tell myself that everything passes, whenever I was sad, or depressed or bored, I always knew change is gonna come. However I started losing control over this ability, instaed of just using when I'm down, I started reminding myself that also when things were good, when I felt that I'm doing something good, like creating, or loving someone, I started telling myself that I've felt this way before, and that it's now gone, and in most cases I look back and ridicule these moments of 'temporary blindness'. But it's a proccess I'm trying to fight, this extreme cynicism leads to destruction; there's nothing constructive in being embarrased of yourself, of your past, in constantly questioning what you think or feel.These loops exist of course, but it's crucial to actually live them, to be turned upside down every now and then, instead of zooming out and seeing the upcoming plane.

As I said, I know this zooming out technic very well. Back in high school I would split myself into a few diffrenet 'Uris'; the one that's actually present in the situation, another one looking at him and judging him constantly, and another one beating them both up for being in this unbearable situation. I was actually proud of that, again it made me feel like I have much more control over myself,I didn't get angry at people how've done me wrong, because I managed to be 'bigger' than that. I wasn't insulted as easily, I wasn't doing many things I might later regret, since I was constantly overthinking and criticizing. Back than it wasn't cynicism, it was fear, but again, I created a buffer between me and reality. I remember a family vacation, at first I refused to hold the camera, embarrassed to look like a tourist, but at one point I just started taking pictures all the time, once you're behind a camera you physically make a barrear between you and others, I remember we were having dinner with a few people, and I was constantly taking pictures, my sister then took me aside and yelled at me for being annoying and impolite. The thought that I could actually detach myself from my surroundings like that, creating my own scene, breaking it into fragments, fragments I later have with me, suspending the moment so I can study it, was amazing to me. This was how I started making films, whenever I felt like something was alive, like a real moment is happening, I started transcribing it, as it was happening, me and whoever's around me as the characters. I used filmmaking to study my own life, to study life, every film is a summary of a period in my life, and by making that film I overcame the hardships of that period, instead of being submitted to them I directed them, rewrote them, edited them, owned them.

Somewhere along the way I lost motivation. It feels like there are more parts separating between the initial impression, the moment in life I see as crucial to understanding myself, as I am now, too many voices joined this equation. I can no longer just spit out the first thing that comes to my mind and make it happen, its not good enough. When you want you're life to be the subject of your work you have to live them, however you have to make time to work. Creating this balance is the biggest challenge, and for way too long it has lead me (and many of my friends) to doing neither; After many attempts to 'live', to be adventurous, spontaneous, thinking it would inspire me, and in between many long months of being completely unemployed, time I could have used to channel all that inspiration to the right place, I think time is not what I'm missing.

I'm having difficulty finishing this essay, I want to say what it is I need, but its too early to tell, I keep waiting for something to happen, something definite, something that would make an impression, maybe stop the loop, break it. I got a job, cooking in a new restaurant that's opening in Berlin, I didn't believe I could get this job, it reminded me that when I'm passionate about something I make it happen, I guess I'll have to wait and see what happens next.

These are two different recipes, both stand out on their own, and can be used for many things, but together they're pretty amazing.

Almond meal tarts (for about 6 small tarts):

1 cup almond meal.
1 cup flour (can be subsituted with chickpea flour for gluten free tarts)
2 tbs olive oil.
1/2 tsp salt.
1/2 tbs baking powder.

Preparation:

Mix everything together, add water, very little at a time, until the dough is easy to work with, unified and not too sticky.
Bake for about 10 minutes at 200c. Until slightly changes colour.

Preparation:

Tomato chili jam:

1k cherry tomatoes (the more kinds the better).
200g (1 cup) sugar.
1 cup red wine vinegar.
3-4cm chopped fresh ginger.
4 cloves garlic. chopped.
3 tbs soy sauce.
2-3 fresh red chilies.

Bring everything to a boil, stirring to keep from burning.
Lower heat and reduce until very concentrated and sticky.

Assembling the dish:

Ingredients:

Almond tarts.
Tomato jam.
Mozzarella, sliced.
Fresh basil.
Spread about 1tbs of jam on each tart, the jam is very strong, so only a thin layer is needed. Place mozzarella slices on top, on put in the oven (200c) for 5-7 minutes, serve with basil on top.

Ups and downs

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 18:08:00 +0000

Touring is very confusing. One bad show can make the previous 20 look just as bad, and cause some serious insecurity and frustration.
I came to realize that I lack some sort of continuity, my up-until-recently very adament belief that this nomadic lifestyle is the thing for me, started to crack.
I grew tired of not being able to start anything that requiers actual thorough work and persistence, and as this tour is coming to an end, I'm thinking more and more about settling, and after a very long time justify the "filmmaker" part of my short biography.
I can't say anything for sure at the moment, since I'm still on tour, and I may just be in the bottom of this constant mood loop, however the excitment that follows these thoughts about change makes me think this is real.

And now, back to food:

Siniyah

Ingredients

500g beef/lamb.
4 onions.
2 tomatoes, sliced.*
3 eggplants.*
2 eggs.*
parsley, chopped.
3 garlic cloves, crushed.
A few leaves of mint, chopped.
3 cardamom seeds.
1/2 tsp. cinnamon.
1/2 tsp. cumin.
sumac.
1/2 tbs. sweet paprika.
dry chili.
3/4 cup tahini.
1 lemon.
Oil.

Preparation:

- Halve the eggplants horizontaly, then cut into thin slices.
- Whisk the eggs, dip in the eggplants, and fry on both sides until brown and soft. Set aside.
- Chop two of the onions finely. In a pan, heat oil, chili and cardamom. Add in the onions.
- Add paprika, and sautee until very soft, adding a little hot water every 30 seconds or so, to prevent the onions from burning.
- In a large bowl, mix the meat, mint, garlic, fried onions and most of the parsely.
- Form small balls, and fry (best to use the same pan as the onions) until brown on both sides (its okay if its not fully cooked inside).

- Prepare the tahini: mix the tahini and lemon juice, add water, very little at a time, until fully incorptrated and quite thin.
- Preheat oven to 200c.
- Cut the other two onions into half rings, and sautee until very brown.
- Arrange in layers: First the fried eggplant, then tomato, then meatballs, then the fried onions and eventually the tahini.
- Bake for about 15 minutes, sprinkle parsley and sumac, and serve.**

* The classic basic Siniyah is just meat and tahini, the eggplants and tomato make it richer and better, but are not necessary.
**You can do all stages in advance and bake right before you eat.

Eggplants.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 22:29:00 +0000

I think the first post on this blog was about tomatoes. Eggplants deserve just as much respect. I'm proud to say that in the past 2 years I have converted at least 6 eggplant-haters. Eggplants starred in my first two short films (seriously). And lately I've been looking for new things to do with them. The starting point is the same: 'Burnt' eggplant, meaning an eggplant which I roasted (in the oven or on open flame) until it's completely soft inside and has a great charcoal-y taste.

These are my three latest takes, I was very pleased with all of them.

*Baba Ganoush (Eggplant with tahini)

Ingredients:

3 eggplants. (You should always pick the lightest, shiniest, undamaged eggplants).
1/2 cup tahini.
Juice from one lemon.
3 cloves of garlic, crushed.
Handful of parsley.
Pinch of cumin.
Honey/pomegranate seeds.
Cold water.

Preparation:

- Roast the eggplants. The easiest and cleanest way is in the oven; preheat the oven to 220C, then roast the eggplants for about 40 minutes, turning them every 10 minutes or so.
- Prepare the tahini; pour the tahini into a bowl, squeeze in half a lemon (start with half, if needed add more later), and mix with a fork. start adding water, very little at a time, until you get the right texture, should be fluid but not too thin. Add the crushed garlic and cumin.
- Scoop out the flesh of the eggplants into a bowl, pour in the tahini.
- Mix using a fork or preferably a hand mixer (will result in a more appealing texture).
- Drizzle honey, or sprinkle pomegranate seeds and parsley, and serve.

*With feta and pomegranate

Ingredients:

3 eggplants.
spring onions, chopped.
lemon juice.
1-2 cloves of garlic, crushed.
feta cheese.
pomegranate seeds (there's a whiter kind of pomegranate which is sweeter, it'll work better here, but either is good)
salt.

Preparation:

- Roast and scoop the eggplants (same as before).
- Mash the flesh using a fork, squeeze a little lemon juice, and mix in the garlic.
- Grate the feta, sprinkle pomegranate seeds and onions.

*With maple and soy:

Ingredients:

2 eggplants.
spring onions.
3 tbs soy sauce.
2 tbs maple syrup.
1 small cucumber or 1/3 big one.
1 dry chili/ fresh red chili.
1 garlic clove, chopped.
Canola/sunflower oil.

Preparation:

- Roast and scoop eggplant.
- Mash using a fork.
- Heat a little oil in a small pan, put in chili and garlic. Before the garlic burns (seconds later) add in soy and maple, reduce for about 3 minutes (doesn't need to be thick).
- Chop onions, cut cucumber into thin sticks.

On the road again

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 09:23:00 +0000

So, I've been lazy again, and although I cooked quite a lot in the last month, I didn't find the time (between cooking and doing nothing) to post anything.

But, it's all for the best; I'm already a week into the tour, (in Basel at the moment) which means I probably won't get to cook before December 10th, when we're finally finished. So thanks to procrastination, I now have a lot of new recipes to post during these 6 weeks.

Since I'm still lazy, I'll start with the simplest, shortest one.

New favorite salad (I believe it's number 3):

Ingredients:

1 pomegranate.
1 Iceberg lettuce, chopped.
2 green bell peppers, diced.
2 scallions, chopped.
Juice from 1/2 a lemon.
Feta cheese.
Olive oil.
Sumac (not necessary).

Mix everything together. Serve immediately.

Alone in Neukolln

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 10:53:00 +0000

Yes, I'm still here.

Well, 'here' is constantly changing, but I'm still cooking, and now that I got a new camera I can even document it.

A lot has happened since I've written last, too much for one post I think (and of course I don't want to waste all my stories in one time), in short, I left Italy after three months of farming, in a somewhat sour note, I realized I've learned a lot more without really noticing it, aspent a month in Israel, and am now back in Berlin. As usual, I had many worries before getting here, moving around all the time is taking its toll, Israel was nice but not at all simple, I realized, for the 5th time, that I can't be on permanent vacation, and although I only have a month in each place (or less) I should do something with myself (I said that already, I know, but this time there's a happy ending).

So my last action in Israel was to get Ritalin. I'm usually against chemicals, and never take pills, but I decided i have to try something, and yesterday, I sat for 7 hours straight, and finished writing the script I've been 'working' on for the last 4 years. I'm just about to read it, and see if it's any good, but before that, I want to share my latest creation.

This is a bizarre salad, that after thinking a lot about it I realized the only thing in common is that it consists of the three most annoying fruit and vegetables to deal with (apart from artichoke). It has three ingredients, nothing more, no sauce, no salt no nothing, I think its probably the opposite of slow food, considering its ingredients come from three completely different parts of the world, and in different seasons, but nevermind that, make it, you'll love it. I promise.

1 pineapple, diced small.
Seeds from one pomegranate.
2-3 Fennel, quartered and sliced into paper thin boomerangs.

That's is.

(Almost) Vegan Feast – Part 2/2

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 14:32:00 +0000

So I finally have internet connection again. It's been more than two weeks, and it made me think (and cook).
I've been farming for two months now, and it feels like much more. I always like to say I get bored easily, and can't stay in the same place (or do the same thing) for too long.
Growing up, I said I was going to be an astronomer, then football player, then volcanologist, tennis player, painter, photographer, musician, filmmaker and now there's this whole cooking business,
and more specifically, farming. Unfortunately, this pattern of giving my all to something and then leaving it behind, didn't leave me with a clear idea of what I do want to do, if anything it made me cinical.
Every day endless thoughts of a brighter future, with my own vegetable garden and perfect kitchen are smashed by this questioning voice, it starts with eliminating the option of having a farm. I'll probably never have the money (after all I am a musician),
then, more importantly, my fickle character- sure I like hoeing now, and picking tomatoes and zucchini, but the thought of being bound to one place, one house, one country. I've spent the last two and a half years constantly moving around, not staying in the same place for longer than a month at the most.
I've started (and gave up) learning two different languages, and was planning on a few others, started writing two scripts (and gave up), rented three different apartments (again, for no longer than a month each), it's obvious that operating a farm, is out of the question, as well as having a dog/cat/tomato plant/ or any other thing that requires looking after.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this, anyway, the important thing is that I think I'm

improving as a cook, and that I started making this great new sauce. Here it is.

Peanut butter sauce (two variations):

Zucchini roll:

5 zucchini (I'm pretty sure this dish would work perfectly with eggplant instead, if you prefer).
chives (as you can see in the pictures, I used scallions, but chives would be better).
Iceberg lettuce, chopped.
Basil.
Olive oil.

For Sauce:

2 tbs chunky peanut butter (If you don't have chunky, I suggest you add chopped peanuts).
1 tsp mustard.
1 tsp honey.

Preparation:

- Preheat oven to 200c.
- Slice the zucchini to long thin slices. Brush with olive oil, and roast for about 15 minutes, until the zucchini are soft, but not falling apart. Let them cool a bit.

- Place the zucchini slices on a plastic wrap, very close together, slightly on top of each other.
- Sprinkle with the lettuce, then chives, and the basil leaves.
- Roll carefully, and place in the fridge for about an hour.
- Heat a little olive oil in a small pan, melt the peanut butter, than stir in the mustard and honey. Once everything is incorporated, the sauce is ready.
- Remove the plastic wrap, and carefully cut the roll into 5cm rings, pour the sauce over them.

String Beans and peanuts:

500g string beans, cut into thirds.
3 cloves of garlic.
2 sprigs lemon verbena, or zest of one lemon.
1 fresh or dry chili.
2 tbs chunky peanut butter.
1 tsp mustard.
1 tsp honey.
Olive oil.
Basil.

Preparation:

- Cook the beans in boiling water for 5 minutes.
- Meanwhile, heat oil in a large sauce pan, add garlic and chili, then peanut butter, honey and mustard.
- When the peanut butter melts, add in the beans, fry for 2 more minutes. Sprinkle with basil, and serve.

(Almost) Vegan Feast – Part 1/2

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 20:14:00 +0000

I originally intended this blog to be experimental; as I was experimenting with my cooking, I wanted to expose both my successes and failures.
However, as time went by two things happened; one, I couldn’t admit to be failing – I liked looking as if I know what I’m doing, and to think people are actually cooking according to my recipes. The second thing was that I actually gotten a lot better, after years of seeing the angst and disbelief on my sisters’ and mother’s faces when I cooked, I finally reached a point that people more or less trust me being in the kitchen (usually strangers, I must admit, and I just show them some pictures from the blog) and even more importantly, the results are great more often than not.

Now you’d probably expect this exposition to come before a glorious failure, I know I would, BUT, not this time.
Our hosts took a day off and went to the beach, which meant we got to cook for ourselves. I wanted to test a new sauce I came up with (wait for part 2) and Dani craved for some sort of vegetarian ‘meatball’. I remembered this vegan beet burger I had somewhere in Oslo, (which I only got to taste very briefly, cause after my sister discovered it’s way better than her dish she abandoned it in favor of mine).

Dani was in charge of the burger buns (the not so vegan part of the meal) and despite a series of mistakes and some confusion about the quantities, they came out great (I can’t give a precise recipe, since there was nothing precise about it, but I’ll make them again real soon)
I made the beet burgers and the mysterious first course (which I forgot about and was eventually eaten as dessert).

Vegan beet burgers:

Ingredients (For about 6 patties):

3 Large beets, diced very little.
2 Medium onions, chopped.
½ a cup rice (I used white, but brown would also work).
1 cup cooked dry beans (I used pinto beans, but white, black or kidney – anything would work. You can use canned beans).
1 Hot green pepper chopped (or dry).
2 tbs soy sauce.
2 tbs ketchup (I like ketchup)

2 Cardamom seeds.
5 cloves of garlic, crushed.
Chopped parsley.
1 tbs coriander seeds, crushed.
2 tbs sunflower seeds. (Not necessary)
2 tbs flour.
Olive oil.

Preparation:

- In a large pan, sauté the onions in olive oil. When translucent, add the chili, beets, cardamom and soy, and cover. Stir every few minutes, if it’s too dry and starting to burn (guess what happened to me) add a little water. Cook until the beets are soft, takes about 35 minutes.
- Meanwhile, cook the rice, it doesn’t really matter how much water you add, but you want the rice slightly overcooked.

- Mash the rice and beans together.
- Add ketchup, garlic and coriander and mix.
- Mix in the beets, parsley and sunflower seeds.
- Add flour, I only had to use about 1 tbs, it depends on how wet the mix is, start with very little and keep adding until you can comfortably create a patty that doesn’t fall apart.
- Heat very little oil in a skillet, it has to be very hot, fry the burgers about 3 minutes on each side.

Writer's block

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 14:15:00 +0000

I’m late with this post.
I started writing it a few days ago, and gave up. I wanted to write that I haven’t cooked in a while, and so I’m uninspired, but since then that’s changed. The lack of inspiration though, remained. Sadly I know it too well; I’ve been working on two scripts for the last two years, or at least said so. I have this slight hope that this depression will push me to finally finish at least one of them, I’ve been watching way too many good films, which I usually do to get inspired, however now it just reminds me how far I am from doing that.
Back to food;
It took me a while to decide which recipe to post, as I have three documented ‘cooking sessions’ all worthy of a post. I’ll start with the most complicated one, after a couple quick and easy recipes.
There’s nothing actually complicated about it, but it does have a few stages and requires more than one pot/pan/bowl.

Stuffed Zucchini:

These are somewhat unusual; vegetables tend to be stuffed with rice and cooked. These are stuffed with mashed potatoes and baked. Try it, it’s nice.

Ingredients:

10 zucchini (either round ones or fat ones).
10 potatoes
½ cup grated parmesan.
1 medium sized onion, grated.
3 garlic cloves, crushed.
Dried oregano (or fresh).
Salt and pepper.
Olive oil.

Preparation:

- Cook the zucchini (whole) in boiling water for 5 minutes; they don’t need to be soft.
- Cook the potatoes (unpeeled) in boiling salt water until soft.
- Cut the zucchini in half, carefully scoop out most of the flesh, and chop it very finely.
- Peel the potatoes, mash them while adding the parmesan, zucchini flesh, onion, garlic and oregano. You can add a little butter if it’s too dry. Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Preheat oven to 200c.
- Fill the zucchini with the mashed potatoes; drizzle with a bit of olive oil.
- Bake for about 15 minutes (depends on how soft you like your zucchini, you can take them out after 10 if you want it crunchy, or 20 if you want it soft).
- Sprinkle fresh basil and grind black pepper on top of each zucchini before serving.

Hide and cook

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 14:57:00 +0000

As I mentioned in the last post, this week’s experience was far less enjoyable.
I’m glad to say I since gotten to a new place, but as always I’m a week late, so I’ll try and dig back all those bad memories.

After our Tuscan castle experience we continued to a horse farm in Emilia Romagna, that beside horses had a lot of interesting things: Nuts, mulberries, Amarena cherries, chickens, geese, vineyard, herb garden and a few more.
Unfortunately they didn’t want us to do anything with any of those. Instead we were to stack firewood, and when we finished that, there was nothing left to do. Having been deprived of cooking for so long, we snuck in the kitchen, which resulted in us becoming the dish washers for the place’s restaurant.
I actually still enjoyed that, being in a restaurant’s kitchen was somewhat exciting; sadly this place served some of the worst food you could find in Italy. We ate so badly and so little (they refused to except that Dani is a vegetarian, and had meat twice a day), we knew we have to do something about it.
So in the first chance we got we took over the kitchen (for about 6 minutes, I’m way too paranoid to stay any longer than that).
This is what I came up with, as I said, takes about 6 minutes (well most of it anyway).

Mint and zucchini pesto:

2 Zucchini.
About 1 cup fresh mint.
4 garlic cloves.
Handful of pine nuts or chopped walnuts.
About half a cup of grated parmesan.
Half a cup chopped chives.
Olive oil.

Preparation:

- Slice the zucchini to about 1/2cm thick slices (unlike in the picture, I did triangles; I think this way is better). Drizzle with olive oil, and put in the oven for about 10 minutes, until almost soft.
- Blend everything together, either in a blender or crush it using a mortar and pestle.
- When the zucchini is done, dice it and mix with the pesto.

- Serve with pasta; I think Tagliatelle works best here.

The last supper

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 07:57:00 +0000

Sadly I’m no longer in Tuscany, I wanted to say I can’t complain too much, since I’m in Emilia Romagna, however my luck has changed slightly and the current farm/B&B is very disappointing.

I’ll elaborate later; this post is still about Tuscany and good food I had/made there, no need to taint it with tales about tasteless food and people who hate garlic.
For our last day in Castello Di Potentino, we decided to make an ‘Israeli’ feast. That’s not the easiest task, since no food is truly Israeli, no food but one – Sabich (well, that’s also debatable, but never mind).

Sabich is probably the thing I miss the most in Israel, and it’s one of those things that are better to eat out than to make it yourself. Since I didn’t have that luxury, I decided to give it another try; I think it was a good idea.

First let me tell you what was included, since, a feast is of course more than just one thing, so, there was sabich of course (and everything it includes, I’m deliberately keeping it obscure for the moment), lots of tahini (not the easiest thing to get in south Tuscany), ‘Turkish salad’, falafel, lots of pitas, s’chug, Arabian salad (or Israeli, or whatever, I really don’t want to get into politics), a somewhat pickled cabbage, onions with sumac, and for some reason, brownies.

Most of these recipes were either posted already or very simple, so I’ll just give them all (the falafel recipe was promised months ago to friends from Haarlem – Here it is guys).

Sabich:

Sabich is basically fried eggplant in pita, it has many versions, I tried to make the classic one, which also includes a hardboiled egg and potatoes.
Ingredients (for a ‘complete’ sabich):

Eggplant:

1 eggplant (for 2 people), peeled and cut into 1cm thick slices.
Flour.
Oil (canola is best, although in this case I had to use olive oil).
Kosher salt.

- Place the eggplant slices on a large pan or tray covered with paper towels. Sprinkle a little salt over the eggplants, let them sit (preferably in the sun) for an hour.
- Lightly flour the eggplant on both sides.
- Heat a lot of oil in a large pan (usually its deep fried, but I tend not to do that at home), fry the eggplant thoroughly, it should be very soft, you can press it a bit with a fork if you feel it’s not getting cooked enough.

Potatoes:

Potatoes (1 for two persons).
Olive oil.
Salt and pepper.

- Cook the potatoes (unpealed) in boiling water until you can comfortably stick a fork in them.
- Meanwhile heat oven to 200c.
- Slice the potatoes, arrange on a baking pan, drizzle olive oil, salt and pepper, and bake for about 20 minutes.

Onions with sumack:

4 onions thinly sliced to half rings.
1tbs sumac.
Olive oil.

- Mix everything together and let sit for at least an hour.

Tahini:

I must say I feel really stupid giving a tahini recipe, but sadly, there are people living in remote places (Europe, North America) in which they don’t know the secrets of tahini.

Tahini (lets say, one cup)
1 lemon.
1 garlic clove, finely chopped.
½ tsp cumin.
Salt.
½ hot paprika or cayenne pepper (not necessary).
Cold water.

- Pour the tahini into a deep bowl, squeeze half the lemon and stir.
- Add the garlic, and slowly start adding the water, the tahini will become though at first, but as you add more it’ll become liquid again. It’s important to add the water little by little, I don’t like my tahini too thin, but it’s a matter of taste.
- Add the rest of the ingredients; you may need to squeeze a bit more of the lemon.

Salad (unaffiliated):

2 Cucumbers (one if it’s huge) cut to very small dices.
4 Tomatoes, cut to very small dices.
1 Small onion, cut to very small dices.
Lemon juice.
Parsley, chopped finely.
Salt and pepper.
Olive oil.

- Mix everything together.

‘Building’ the sabich:

Take one pita, carefully cut it open on one side, spraed at least one tbs of tahini in it. Add Turkish salad, place two slices of eggplant inside, some of the onion with sumac, potato slice, hardboiled egg (a few slices), salad, one more eggplant slice (repeat that if you have any more room in the pita), finish with another tbs of tahini, salt, cumin, and parsley.

Falafel:

Ingredients:

500g cooked chickpeas (On many occasions, such as this, I use other legumes, lentils, beans, fava beans, whatever you want).

Lots of parsley.
5 cloves of garlic.
1 cup breadcrumbs.
1tbs coriander seeds.
2tsp cumin.
2 dry chilies.
Lemon zest.
Salt and pepper.
Olive oil

Preparation:

- Place everything in a blender, blend until homogenous.
- Let the mix sit for at least two hours in the fridge, it should be dry before you fry it.
- Frying: Again, I tend not to do it deep fried, I think in this case using less oil ends with better results, you just want it toasted on all sides, I even tried to do it in the oven once and it came out great, in case you’re into health and such.

Bete’avon.

*Sadly this meal was poorly documented; I was so nervous and full of flour that I didn’t pay enough attention to taking proper pictures.
**I'd like to dedicate this post to all the people I met in castello: Charlotte, Chris, Alexander, Sally, Robyn, Peter, JD, Augusta, Anthony, Uran, Evellina, Robi, Flavio, Coco and Minie.

Clafoutis

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 06:56:00 +0000

One of the things that scare me the most about me is laziness.
It happens way too often; I hold a list of tasks and expectations I have from myself, and it just keeps getting longer, and the important things just stay there, untouched.
Why am I telling you this? Not sure, I’ve been feeling I was neglecting this blog, posting just because it’s there, and not really paying enough attention to the quality of things.
I want to try and up my standards a bit, I feel like my cooking skills have improved lately (maybe not skills, but things are getting better when it comes to taste) and some interesting things are going on, and I suppose it’s always nice to share.
So, three weeks ago I ‘moved’ to Italy. ‘Moved’ because I wasn’t really living anywhere else, and I’m not really living here, but I am going to spend 4 months here, and that’s a lot of time in the same place for me.

Not that I am going to stay in the same place, I’m going to move 6 times here, but same country is also something, and planning so far ahead is also unusual for me.
I’ll try and explain, I’m here to ‘wwoof’, which basically means work in organic farms and get food and lodging in return. My greatest expectation from this is, of course, improve my cooking, that’s why I chose Italy (you can ‘wwoof’ pretty much everywhere).
So far I spent two pretty amazing weeks in south Tuscany, in a winery, where I (we, Dani joined me on this trip) got to cook a lot, and despite the enormous amount of pressure (cooking for many people who are used to high quality food) they were always very pleased with the results.
This post is about one of the better dishes I made there, and probably the simplest one. It’s a dessert (or pudding as they called it there – they’re English) which is not something I do a lot, or tend to like, but this one was really surprisingly good (not that I expected it to be bad, just not that good). It takes about 5 minutes to make, and doesn’t require anything unusual, so you can make it all the time.

Cherry Clafoutis:

Ingredients:

40-50 cherries (I really have no idea how many)
100g unsalted butter.
¾ cup white sugar.
1tsp baking powder.
½ cup milk.
½ cup cream (you can just put a whole cup of milk instead).

2/3 cup flour.
2 whole eggs.
2 egg yolks.
Tsp. cinnamon.
2 tbs cherry liquor (or any other liquor or sweet wine you think fits).

Preparation:

- Preheat oven to 180c.
- Pit the cherries, and arrange in a baking pan.
- Melt butter. Meanwhile mix eggs (and yolks) with sugar.
- Add in milk, cream, liquor and cinnamon, and then stir in the butter.

- Add flour and baking powder, stir as little as possible, only until unified.
- Pour the mix over the cherries, and bake for about 25 minutes, until brown (check after 20 just in case…).

Vine Leaves

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 15:38:00 +0000

I'm not sure what to say about these, I never used them before, I decided I should try, I put whatever I felt like in them, and it came out really good.

Ingredients:

30 Pickled vine leaves (I bought them pickled, I suggest you do the same, although, considering I am now working in actual grape vines, I may learn how to do it myself)
150g Ricotta.
Half a cup yoghurt.

Seeds from 1 pomegranate.
Handful chopped mint.
2 spring onions, chopped.
5 cloves of garlic.
Sumack (not necessary).

Preparation:

- Soak the vine leaves in hot water for at least 20 minutes (they're super salty otherwise).
- Bake the garlic for about 15 minutes until its soft (200c).
- Mix the yoghurt and cheese with the sumack.
- Mash the baked garlic with a fork.
- After the Leaves have soaked and chilled a bit, spread a bit of the mashed garlic, put a

generous tablespoon of cheese and yoghurt mix in the middle,
Then sprinkle pomegranate seeds, mint and onions, and fold. (Now, I’d love to give good advice on how to fold them, but I wasn't very good at that, I'm sure YouTube can help you there).

Veggies and dough

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 13:49:00 +0000

As I mentioned before, I mostly cook vegetarian. I have one problem though, I can never think of a main course that's not either a pasta or rice (or couscous).
It just never feels main coursy enough when it's just vegetables by themselves.
Now I'm in Italy (pictures and posts still to come) and I'm getting some inspiration and new ideas as to what can be a very satisfying meal that includes no rice or pasta.
Anyway, this post is about something I made while still in Berlin, and was very filling and tasty, was vegetarian and not a pasta or rice (but still with dough).
It's a pastry with two different fillings, we both liked the mushroom ones better, but they were both good. Give it a try.

Ingredients:

Dough:

3 cups white flour.
1tbs dry yeast.
1tbs salt.
1.5 cups of water.
Olive oil.

Fillings:

Mushrooms:

500g Champignon mushrooms.
2 garlic cloves.
2 onions.
2 tbs white wine.
1/2 tbs sugar.
1/4 tsp nutmeg.
Salt and pepper.
Olive oil.
30g Butter.

Ratatouille (sorta...):

1 red bell pepper.
1 zucchini.
1 tomato.
4 cloves of garlic.
Chopped parsley.
Salt and pepper.

Preparation:

Dough:

- Mix the yeast with the 2 cups of flour and the water. Add salt.

- Cover with a bit of olive oil and let rise for 1.5 hours. (Meanwhile prepare the fillings)
- After the dough doubled in size, mix in the rest of the flour, it should now be quite thick and easy to handle.

Fillings:

Mushrooms:

- In a large pan heat oil. Add the onions and sugar.
- Add mushrooms and butter, after 3 minutes add in the wine and nutmeg. Cook until the mushrooms are brown.

Ratatouille:

- Preheat oven to 200c.
- Drizzle olive oil over the pepper, tomato and garlic, bake for 15-20 minutes, turning occasionally.
- Chop all the vegetables, mix in the chopped parsley.

Preheat oven to 180c.
Pinch out small balls of dough; flatten them on a well floured surface.
Put about 2tbs of filling in the middle of each, and fold the edges onto it.
Drizzle some more olive oil on top and bake for 10-15 minutes, until the dough is starting to brown.

Salad, take 2

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 30 May 2011 22:31:00 +0000

A few weeks ago I posted a new salad I came up with (link). This is a different take on it, which was also really good (probably better).

Ingredients:

1 yellow bell pepper, chopped.
1/2 cucumber, thinly sliced.

5 radishes, thinly sliced.
1 small onion, chopped.
Few basil leaves, torn.
1 Tbs Soy sauce.
1 Tbs peanut butter.
1/2 Tsp crushed fresh ginger.
1 lemon, filleted and diced.
Salt.
Olive oil.

Mix eveything together.

*In the previous take I put one garlic clove which I didn't here, but I'm sure it can work.

Pasta with lentils

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 29 May 2011 07:45:00 +0000

Hi again, sorry for disappearing for so long, didn't really have time during those last days of the tour, and I'm spending this week in an internet-free apartment. So sad.

I'm about to leave to Italy for 4 months in which I intend on improving my cooking skills (while Wwoofing- working in organic farms: ).
And so I was reading about Italian cuisine, looking for things that are somewhat less known. I found one recipe for pasta with lentils, which is more like a stew with pasta than a regular pasta dish with sauce.
It's all made in the same pot, which I think is cool.

Ingredients:

1 cup green lentils.
250g short pasta.
5 ripe tomatoes (can be canned tomatoes).
2 tbs tomato paste.
2 onions, sliced to half rings.

1 fresh/dry chilli.
olive oil.
1 tsp sugar.
3 garlic cloves.
2 bay leaves.
Lots of chopped basil and parsley.
Salt and pepper.

Preparation:

- Heat oil in a large pot. Add onions, sugar and chilli, fry until brown.
- Add tomatoes and garlic and bay leaves, cook for about 10 minutes, until the tomatoes have emulsified.

- Mix in the lentils and add about 4 cups of water, it should be covered.
- Bring to a boil, than reduce heat and cook for at least 40 minutes (the lentils will be soft by then, but if you have time, cooking it longer will make the tastes stronger).
- Add the pasta, add water if needed (should be covered).
- Cook for an additional 10-13 minutes, until pasta is ready.

Serve covered with parsley and basil, and drizzle a bit of olive oil.

A somewhat failed experiment

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 05 May 2011 08:34:00 +0000

Sometimes I get ideas that don't make sense.
I was sitting in the car in one of our recent long drives, and tried to think of new recipes.
Mostly I thought about my recent discovery: Beets are great. It was news to me, and having never used them before, I thought it was time for a change.
For some reason the first thing I thought about was the visual aspect (which is usually the wrong thing to do), and I came up with something that was destined to fail.

I recently made a vegan Rosé sauce (tomatoes and cream) using mashed carrots instead of cream. It was really good (I wanted to post it but I didn't have any decent pictures). So I thought I can make two sauces, with very strong colors, one with beets, and one with carrots, and in some way put them both on a plate in a way that would be appealing. It wasn't.

I bought a pastry bag so I could be very accurate and create some sort of pattern of the sauces, however I didn't expect them to be so thick, and it was more like making shapes with purees, the first outcome looked so bad I had to destroy it before anyone took a picture.

As I said, it's usually wrong to think about the visual aspect before thinking about the flavors, and once again I started by telling you about how bad it looked, let me assure you though, it did taste really good. I think you should give it a try. You may not have to make it as two different sauces as i did, because I ended up mixing them in to one cool pink sauce (so it'll look a little less bad).

Pasta with beets and carrots:

carrot sauce:

4 carrots, peeled and cut into rings.
1 onion, cut into half rings.
2 garlic cloves, chopped.
Thyme.
Olive oil.
Dry chili.
Salt and pepper.
White wine.

Preparation:

- In a large saucepan, heat oil, add the onion, chili and thyme, and fry for a few minutes.
- Add in the carrots and garlic, fry for a few more minutes, then add a splash of white wine, cover, and let simmer for a few more minutes, until the carrots are quite soft.

This one is basically done, for this recipe you now have to mince it with a hand mixer. (Also for the vegan Rosé, just mix this puree with tomato sauce).

Beet sauce:

5-7 cooked beets.
2 garlic cloves.
1 onion.
2 Tbs tomato paste.
Parsley.
Few leaves of mint.
Olive oil.

Preparation:

- In a large saucepan, heat oil, add the onion, chili and thyme, and fry for a few minutes.
- Add garlic, after two minutes add all the rest, stir for a minute more, then remove from fire.
- Mince well.

You now have two pretty nice purees, make pasta (I used spaghetti, which wasn't the best choice, I think short pasta would be better, preferably Farfalle).

Day-off salad

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 19:06:00 +0000

It took us the whole 6 hour drive from Paris to figure out how to pronounce the name of the town we're in.
Mulhouse.

Yesterday was our first day off in the tour, and we spent most of it driving.
Today however, I had time to cook. So I got up and went to the town's market, thinking I don't need a plan or a shopping list, I'd just get inspired (or see what's cheapest), then go back home, look at what I got and think of something to do with it. It didn't work quite as smoothly however, I kinda got confused and in the middle of things, realizing I wasn't getting the best things, and I didn't really have any idea on what i already have and what I want to make out of it.
So I just decided to go back home and hope for the best.

This is what I came up with so far. More to come (as the picture shows I still have stuff I didn't use).

Radish and cucumber salad:

Ingredients:

5 Radishes, very finely sliced to half-rings.
Half a cucumber (if you're in a country with huge cucumbers, 2 if they're small).
1 Small onion, cut into fine half-rings.
1cm Fresh ginger root, chopped.
A few mint leaves, torn.
1/2 tsp sugar.
1/2 tsp hot mustard.
Olive oil.
Juice from half a lime.
Salt.

Mix everything together.

(Next time I'm going to use pineapple instead of sugar, and maybe loose the mustard).

Hammantaschen (Ozne Hamman)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 08:03:00 +0000

I made these for the first time about a month ago. It's the traditional cookie for Purim (more or less the jewish Halloween), and I never really liked it.

After a few weeks of self pitty and longing for my friends and family in Israel, I figured this would be a good way of feeling closer to home.
It took two times to get them right (they were good the first time, but terribly ugly), and after I did, I discovered that they're one of the best things to make; Super quick, and super tasty (I would also mention they stay good for a while, but they were always eaten before I had the chance to check).

So here it goes:

Ingredients:

For dough:

3 cups white flour.
1/2 a cup sugar.
200g melted butter.
1/2 tbs baking powder.
2 tbs lemon juice.
2 tbs sour cream.
2 eggs.

For filling

50g Bitter-sweet chocolate.
3 tbs Nutella (not necessary).
2 tbs cream.
1 tbs sugar (if you don't add nuttela you may want to add more).
1 tbs instant coffee.
1 tsp vanilla extract.
Chopped hazelnuts.

Powdered sugar (not necessary)

Preparation:

- Preheat oven to 180c.
- Melt the chocolate, add in all the other ingredients for the filling, and let cool for a bit (while you make the dough)

- Mix all the ingredients (I suggest you add the butter last, if it's too dry, add a bit more), until well incorporated together.

- Divide the dough into three. Take one ball, flatten it (Should be about 1cm thick) and make

round using a glass (make sure the rest of the dough is covered with a towel, otherwise it'll get too dry to work with)
Put about 1tsp of filling in the center of each circle, close tightly, forming a triangle. (if you don't seal it well it'll get flat when heated).

- Bake for about 10 minutes (should just barely change color).

- Cool on a rack, sprinkle with powdered sugar.

This post is dedicated to my roommates, I had a great time living with you, I'm sure we'll meet again, and I hope this recipe will serve you well (and remind you of me).

New pasta and secret helpers

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 21:31:00 +0000

It's been almost two weeks since the last time I cooked and it's starting to kick in.
I spend a good deal of my time (mostly while sitting in the back seat of our 'van', bored out of mind) writing down ingredient combinations that I'd like to try as soon as I get the chance (which will probably be in a month or so).
I am now on a ferry from Dover to Dunquerque, and can finally post again. In the last post I mentioned I was running out of pictures and will soon be forced to stop writing, however, luckily I have an amazing secret helper (the lovely Dani)
who made this pasta according to my recipe, and took pictures (way better than the usual ones). I discovered that there are very few things that make me happier than when someone cooks according to my instructions.
So I'm happy now.

This pasta was the one I made for my goodbye dinner from my last apartment (I still owe my roommates another recipe which I will post soon).
It is a bit unorthodox cause it's somewhat sweet, I really like combinations of sweet and savory things but I know its not for eveyrone.

Mushroom and caramel pasta:

Ingeredients:

500g Long pasta (Spaghetti, Fettucine, Linguine).
300g Mushrooms.
2-3 onions.
1 dry chilli.
3 garlic cloves, crushed.
2-3 tbs sugar.
2 tbs breadcrumbs.
Olive oil.
Lots of freshly chopped parsley and basil (about one cup).

Preparation:

- Heat oil in a large saucepan, add sugar.
- When the sugar is burnt (caramel) add the onions and chili, and fry for 3 minutes, until the onions are slightly softened.

- Add mushrooms and breadcrumbs and fry for another 5 minutes.
- Add garlic, salt and pepper, remove from fire.
- Mix with the pasta and herbs.

That's it.

*Very special thanks to Dani.
**Photos by Dani Halifa.

My favorite salad

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 18:09:00 +0000

I'm already on tour, which means I'll probably won't get to cook for the next month and a half. So I was digging for old food photos and found a few. Sadly they're in even worse quality than usual and are running out fast, so I may be slower from now on.

I think this salad was my first 'invention' and I'm very proud of it.
Sadly I can barely make it anymore cause it's virtually impossible to get good avocados around here.

Avocado salad:

- 3 Avocados, diced.
- 3 Tomatoes, diced (as always, different kinds would make for a better, prettier salad).
- 1 Medium red onion, finely chopped.
- 1 Orange, filleted*.
- About 10 mint leaves, torn.

In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients, add some salt if needed.

*Peel the orange, including the white part. Fillet the orange above the bowl, not wasting any of the juice, when you're done filleting squeeze what's left of the orange on the avocados.