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)