Me and Saddam

The planets once again aligned – Uri made more chicken broth then fits in our freezer, and we had some beets in the refrigerator. I immediately through my hand up in joy and cried “Let’s make Koobé Selek” as in “let’s make a traditional Iraqi-Jewish beet soup with semolina dumplings stuffed with meat!”.

Further proof that this was the right thing to do came when Uri’s father asked us over for Friday night dinner/ to celebrate Uri's birthday, thus supplying the mouths for this wonder. And to seal the deal, it turned out that this dish was one of his father’s favorites.

Everything was set – we bought semolina, extra veggies and I researched the dish in all the cookbooks I have (5 of them had recipes), and several websites. And then… Oy Vey! Thursday night, something started brewing in my stomach and I fell on the couch unable to move. From time to time I got up to see how Uri is progressing in making the wonderful soup, but just the smells from the kitchen sent me back to the couch hand on my stomach, crunched over in pain.
How disappointing that I didn’t get to make them myself! Well I guess I’ll just have to make a pumpkin Koobé sometime in the near future.
Here are the pics:


The meat, with spices, was made into balls and frozen.
Wrapped with semolina dough (made with some of the soup's water, hence the pink hue).
All the dumplings were thrown into the beet soup – pieces of beet, mangold leaves (vegetable in the beet family), stock, and tomato puree and cooked, covered for 40 min. Then left the night in the refrigerator. The dumplings soaked up most of the liquid, so after heating them up again and before serving more boiling water was added.

BTW - For dessert we had a chocolate-poppy seed cake, an orange torte and some cookies with homemade apple jam (look for the pics in the slide show on right)

Lachem Erez Brunch

I get such satisfaction when I get to make real a dish or a meal that’s been building up in my head. It usually starts with one ingredient that sparks my imagination – a picture comes to mind, or a matching of flavors, and from there it evolves, more flavors, more textures. I can see it in my minds eye, and taste it in my mouth. But then I have to wait. Wait until I have the chance to make it.
This time it started with a focaccia that Lior made and was leftover from a meal I made with a sausage and red cabbage stew (that meal was also a long time coming, but I forgot to take a pic of it, I’m still getting used to this documentation thing).
The focaccia was a whole wheat and corn-meal focaccia with hazel nuts and walnuts. With a huge piece left over, the perfect breakfast started building in my head. Why go out looking for a satisfying breakfast, when you have all you need at home?
So here it is:

The bread was halved and grilled on a pan, over it a sunny side up egg and some mushrooms also grilled in a dry pan at first and then with just a bit of olive oil.
On the side (this is where in really counts, doesn't it):

A simple cucumber and tomato salad with pomegranate
Roasted peepers (one with seasoning: garlic, vinegar, olive oil, and one with out)
Home made mayonnaise
Home made presses olives (made in Avi’s home and given to me as a gift)

Chicken salad (made from the chicken left over from making stock)
Some cottage cheese (opened this morning)
Roasted pepper ricotta

Cream cheese

In the jars:

Fig chutney

Apple preserves

Plum preserves

Grape Jam

Salad dressing (Uri made last week)

Garlic confi (Uri made last garlic season)

Mustard (the only thing not home made)

A late lunch at "Orita"

Yesterday Uri & I ate a late lunch at "Orita". The choice turned out to be quite perfect, because he wanted something really simple - home cooking style, and I wanted something a bit more decadent, and Orita turned out to be a little bit of both. Comfort food cooked at a very professional level.
Uri ordered the "Kookla" a tasty dish of meatballs (I didn't recognize what was in the sauce, but it was very tasty) [48 NIS]. I ordered the roast-beef [50 NIS], which turned out to be pot roast, so we switched dishes. I'll say it here for the first time, though I'm sure it will be a recurring theme in this blog - I hate it when restaurants use improper names for their dishes. It always leads to disappointment. Even if the dish received is good, I'll always be a bit disappointed at the beginning, because I was expecting to get one thing, and I received another. Plus, it begs the question: Do you not know what a roast-beef is? And you call yourself a chef? Anyway, lucky thing we didn't both order the roast-beef, as I said we switched around and we both enjoyed our meal. For dessert we had a apple-pecan cake that was OK [7 NIS] and an excellent cream puff [4 NIS], that proved once again that my eye for spotting the good dessert is never wrong.
Two after-thoughts came out of it:
(1) The side dishes, and for the meatballs the entree as well, were served in small ceramic bowls that stood on the plate. This made the plate look very empty. Uri and I both were sure we would not be full at the end. It turned out that we were satisfied. This was another lesson in the importance of plating. Putting things in narrow tall containers, which leave the plate empty is not good for those of us who eat with our eyes.
(2) Most of Orita's business comes from older women who live in the area and order her food to serve to family and guests. Two such ladies came in while we were eating and they were obviously "regulars". I'm willing to bet that at least 40% of these customers don't admit to their guests that they were not the ones who cooked the "home cooked meals" they serve. The waiter/cook told us that some people bring their pots and pans to the restaurant and have the kitchen cook their order in them. What can I say about this? Well, first it's sad that people who like food don't have enough time to cook. Maybe if they hosted less dinner parties they would have more time to do cook themselves for the ones they do host. Second, The food is by no means cheap... so I'm left only to sigh and say: "Oh , the comfortable life of the wealthy..." Tip of the hat to Orita for choosing a location were there enough people willing to pay these prices for this kind of food. It was very tasty, but I'll do with the farmers market in Dizingoff Center.

Oriental style salads

Uri made these, at my request, catering to me since the Doctor told me I have to sit and keep my foot elevated:

Warm Hijiki, Carrot & Shitake Salad

½ cup hijiki seaweed (soaked in warm water for 20 min)
1 tbsp oil
3 carrots sliced julienne
10 dried Shitake mushrooms cut thinly (soaked in warm water for 20 min)
2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp mirin
2 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp soy sauce

1. Strain hijiki well (keeping the water for step 2). Warm oil in pan and lightly sauté. Add carrots and mushrooms, and continue sautéing for an additional 2 minutes.
2. Add ½ cup of the hijiki water and the sugar, mirin, vinegar and soy sauce. Continue until the sauce thickens.
3. Garnish with green onion.

Raw Cauliflower and Asian Pecan Salad

1 fresh cauliflower
50 grams asian pecans, chopped
3 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp sesame oil
Splash of Tabasco
Fresh ground black pepper

1. Separate the cauliflower to it’s smallest heads. Add pecans.
2. In a small bowl mix all other ingredients. Pour onto cauliflower.
3. Let stand for at least 30 min., for tastes to soak through.

Well, here we go...

So after a long time of saying I want to have a blog. And then a long time having one but not writing any posts, I finally said "just do it".
Does it have anything to do with the fact that I’m supposed to be writing essays for my MBA applications? Most likely – yes... Oh well.