Food/Israel

So, the food and cooking experience here has been quite different than what I am used to. First of all, it's been difficult to find most of my staples- luna bars, kashi cereal, whole wheat tortillas, fresh spinach, chicken apple sausage (totz not kosher), any meat for that matter, goat cheese...all my faves are nowhere to be seen. Instead my dietary staples have been whole wheat pita, cucumbers, turkey, hummus, dried fruits and nuts and seeds, and apples. The dates and figs here are incredible, as well as the tomatoes, avocados and apples. So many apples. The shuk at Machaneh Yehudah is incredible- as you can see above- a total culinary heaven- and this doesn't even give you a sense of the atmosphere...
This is the quantity of food they serve at your typical restaurant. It's insane- literally 22 different salads with fresh pita and pickles. That's all you really need to eat when you go out anyways- we barely order anything else.


We can buy alcohol legally here! But we can't technically get into most bars/clubs that we want to- they're usually 24 and up...how ironic, right as i'm turning 21, I go to the only country where you have to be 24.
Gotta love the English translations of the menus...I think I'd much rather just eat the chicken without knowing what it really was...

A new job and some old pics

Agh! Sorry about the lack of posting of late. I have been in Jerusalem for a month, without a single post about the food here. Have I been cooking? Yes. A lot? Not really. But I did land an internship in the kitchen of a restaurant called Eucalyptus in Jerusalem. It's this awesome place that specializes in Biblical food- kind of the perfect place to be for a religon major foodie like myself. Read reviews here, aodand there are articles about it on the restaurant's website. I start next week and am very excited! But before I post about the little I have cooked here, I wanted to put up some pics that got left behind due to finals last December. Way back during finals week, Barbara and I took a break to make this healthy butternut squash casserole with apples, onions and nuts. It barely used any fat, and turned out pretty good. I think it would have been even better with more nuts and more thinly-sliced red onions. The sandwhich that we improvised to go along with it was divine, though. Mine had a veggie burger, a poached egg, arugula, goat cheese and apricot preserves on a toasted cinnamon-raisin English muffin. !!!



Later that week, after the Alis had completed their finals but everyone else was still chugging along, they offered to make us all dinner and it was such a wonderful night! They made Dijon potato salad, spinach with cherry tomatoes and feta, artichokes, salmon, AND shrimp! t was a feast and thinking back to it warms my heart:)

Latke Party

My mom's delicious latkes for our belated Hannukah party:

An Interesting Dinner with Ali and Anita

The effort to taste ratio of this meal was a little too high for my taste, but overall it was a fun experience. We made the same fish that I made in August with the herb/spice fish marinade.
Maple glazed sweet potato puree from Food network online.
Cous-Cous
Sauteed Spinach (of course)
And the whole plate- a lot of green and orange mush for all that work....

Winter Break Timez!

So I'm sitting here in our little cafe on campus sharing this blog with my friends and I realized that I hadn't posted anything from winter break...I must say it was not a prolific time in my cooking career, but there are a few pics worthy of posting. I'll definitely post some food pics (and other pics) from my adventures in the holy land. I've already experienced some amazing and totz typz middle eastern food which is so distinct and incredible and bountiful.


Salad with sauteed mushrooms, apples, almonds, goat cheese, and garlic vinaigrette.Baked Ziti from the Bittman book.
Banana muffins that I made up based on a formula in the Mark Bittman book! Basically they involve flour, rolled oats, nuts, honey, banana...with melted organic peanut butter and chocolate chips for frosting...
Chocolate chip bark which didn't really turn out and i wouldn't remake so i'm not gonna post the recipe...

TOM. KHA. GAI.

Driving home late one night in a blizzard, I noticed a dark object in the middle of the road.... i slid to a stop and jumped out of the car to investigate. It was a tiny can of coconut milk. Confused, I looked around, searching for some kind of answer. The dead trees watched the scene unfold silently. Suddenly, the wind began to pick up and I heard a low whisper, "Tom.......Kha........Gai!" In a flurry of snow the can of coconut milk had vanished.

Adriatic Shrimp Soup with Chickpeas and Saffron

Time was of the essence; desperately I grabbed the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, hoping to find inspiration within its pages. It was then my eyes came across this delightful dish from Adriatica.

Ingredients:
2 small cans chickpeas, rinsed drained
Olive Oil
2 pounds cooked, peeled shrimp
2 quarts chicken stock
2 onions, diced
2 ribs of celery (in retrospect i would have added 3 or 4), diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1 fennel bulb, diced
8 cloves garlic, chopped
3 bay leaves
2 sprigs thyme (i used the powdered)
1 sprig rosemary
1 tablespoon fennel seed
2 tsp hot chili flakes ( iadded more -obvi- and it was great)
1 tsp oregano
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon loosely packed saffron threads
1.5 cups white wine
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes
1 large bunch rapini cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 chopped shallot
2 tbsp Sambuca (i just used powdered anise and it was fine)

Place large soup pot over medium heat. add 3 tablespoons oil and when
hot, add onions, celery, carrot, fennel, 3/4 of the garlic, the bay
leaves, thyme, rosemary, fennel seed, 1 tsp chili flakes, oregano,
salt and pepper. cover, stir regularly, 10 minutes. add saffron and
wine, bring to a boil and boil2 minutes. add stock and tomatoes and
bring to simmer. simmer for around 30 minutes, until carrots/celery
soft (you can't really overcook it) Add the chickpeas 5-10 min before
serving so they dont fall apart.

Prepare shrimp-rapini garnish by placign large saute pan over very
high heat. toss the rapini in a bowl with oil and season with salt and
ppepper sear in hot , dry pan, tossing for about 1-2 minutes, until
crisp tender. remove toa bowl.
toss shrimp with oil , season with salt and pepper and put in the same
hot dry pan, toss for a minute, add shallot remaining garlic and chili
flakes. toss for a minute more. add rapini again at the very end.

THEN you put a little heap of the shrimp-rapini stuff in the middle of
the bowl and ladle the soup all around it. so delicious. then
afterward i just threw it all together in a tupperware, no need to
keep the parts separate.

First cooking adventure in Paris - Homemade Tomato Sauce

Yummy! Homemade tomato sauce avec les echalotes, tomates, champignons, et crevettes (shallots, tomatoes, mushrooms, and shrimp).

For the pasta sauce:
In a large saucepan, sautee diced shallots, garlic, and diced mushrooms with a dash of olive oil on medium-high until shallots are soft and mushrooms are brown (can add shallots first).
Add fresh diced tomatoes (we used 5) and let simmer, stirring regularly until tomatoes soften and form a sauce.
Add a dash of orange juice.
Add salt n' peppa to taste.
Add a package of cooked shrimp and let simmer on low until ready to serve.
Serve over whole-wheat penne.
Makes 6 servings.

Pasta Risotto Take 2

Pasta risotto take 2: better this time! I used vegetable bullion instead of chicken broth, and it had a much better flavor. I used asparagus, green peas, mushrooms, shallots, and white wine, and gemelli instead of shells. I think it was more creamy with the shells.

Pumpkin Bread

I needed to use up a can of pumpkin puree, whole wheat flour, wheat bran, yogurt, and dried cherries, so I made some pumkin bread using a pumpkin muffin recipe. The bread was delish! Probably would have been even better as muffins, and adding some oats to the batter could have been interesting. Make sure to bake until toothpick/knife comes out completely clean when testing to see if it's done.

Pumpkin Muffins (with my modifications):

1 can pumpkin puree

2 large eggs, lightly beaten (I added an extra)

1/2 cup plain or vanilla yogurt

1/2 cup canola or safflower oil

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup natural bran

3/4 cup granulated white sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

pinch nutmeg, pinch ginger

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup raisins or dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (or 350 if baking bread). Place rack in the middle of the oven. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners or spray with a non stick vegetable spray.

In a medium sized bowl mix together the pumpkin puree, eggs, buttermilk, oil, and vanilla extract. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, bran, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, spices, and salt. Add the milk and egg mixture to the flour mixture. Stir until just combined. Fold in the raisins. Do not over mix the batter or the muffins will be tough when baked.

Fill the muffin cups with the batter using two spoons or an ice cream scoop. Place in the oven and bake for about 18 - 20 minutes (or at least 50 mins for bread), or until firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Place on a wire rack to cool.

Makes 12 regular-sized muffins.

Read more: http://www.joyofbaking.com/muffins/PumpkinMuffins.html#ixzz0afjwZPFu

Avocado Salsa and Chocolate Hazelnut Thumbprints

With my avocado from the Fruit/Veggie Co-Op, I improvised a little guacamole/salsa out of apple, red onion, feta, cilantro, lime, salt and avocado. I ate it right out of the bowl the first day, and inside an egg white omelet the next day!
I had leftover egg whites because these hazelnut thumbprint cookies called for egg yokes only. I made them for the reception of my chamber ensemble concert, and they turned out pretty good, except I could tell they would have been a lot better had I used an electric beater instead of a wooden spoon....on that note, I think it's pretty awesome that we made it through the whole semester without the help of a kitchenaid or hand mixer!

Persimmon Bread

Fat free and vegan and really good! Just sweet enough, and no one at Thanksgiving dinner could believe the bread only had two tablespoons of oil. It was a great way to use up our persimmons. It would have been better in a taller pan. Recipe from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen

Eggplant Parm

This recipe from my new Mark Bittman book, How to Cook Everything, was super easy and delicious. Simply slice eggplant, dredge in flour and fry in olive oil over medium heat, about 4 mins on each side. Grease a baking dish and layer it with sauce, eggplant, parmesan and mozzarella cheese, and then basil, as many times as necessary to fill the pan and use up the eggplant. Bake for about 25 mins at 350 until the sauce is bubbling.
We ate it with whole wheat spaghetti and a baguette.

Goat Cheese Quesadillas with More Apple Salsa

Simple, quick Goat cheese quesadillas with mushrooms, onions, spinach sauteed in olive oil and then plopped onto a whole wheat quesadilla with a good amount of plain goat cheese. Yum.
I repeated this apple salsa from before because it's so delicious and simple!

Pasta Risotto with Chicken and Mushrooms

This was a Mark Bittman recipe that Jen found. We couldn't find gemeli so we used large shells instead, which were perfectly acceptable. This meal was pretty easy and delicious when it was hot but didn't keep well. It had a strong chicken noodle soup resemblance and it was extremely comforting on a cold night.

Thai Acorn Squash Soup

This soup recipe had all of my favorite things, so I wasn't surprised when it turned out amazing. I made some chicken sausage stir-fry with spinach, garlic, onions, and sesame seeds on the side.


Adapted from 101 Cookbooks:

2 acorn squash
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1 14-ounce can light coconut milk
about half a small container of red Thai curry paste
water
2 teaspoons salt

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and place the oven racks in the middle.

Cut squash in half and slather each piece of squash with butter, sprinkle generously with salt, place on a baking sheet skin sides down, and place in the oven. Roast for about an hour or until the squash is tender throughout.

When the squash is cool enough to handle scoop it into a large pot over medium high heat. Add the coconut milk and curry paste and bring to a simmer. Remove from the heat and puree with a hand blender if needed (we didn't need to), you should have a very thick base at this point. Now add water a cup at a time pureeing between additions until the soup is the consistency you prefer - a light vegetable stock would work here as well. Bring up to a simmer again and add the salt.

Serves seven.

Thanksgiving Leftovers! Southwest Turkey Soup, Sweet Potatoes and Stir-Fry

I'll let Jen write about her wonderful Southwest Turkey Soup.

I was in charge of side dishes for this meal. Again, some sweet potatoes with marshmallows to get rid of our last couple of yams from the veggie co-op and some leftover marshmallows from rice krispy treats ages ago...

Inspired by Andrew's contribution to pot-luck thanksgiving, I made a soy sauce, asparagus, edamame, sesame seed stir-fry.

Adventures with Wild Rice

So while I was sitting in class on Tuesday, trying to figure out what to make for dinner, I remembered that I had purchased an acorn squash from Stop & Shop that needed to be eaten. So then it was just a matter of what to stuff it with. I found this recipe on epicurious and was intrigued because I had never made wild rice before. It turned out that the week that followed included many one-person meals, so I slowly made my way through an entire bag of wild rice.

The week began with this recipe for acorn squash stuffed with wild rice, craisins, and nuts. I added feta and mushrooms as well.

The next day for lunch, I remade the squash stuffing mixture with the leftover rice and added a poached egg, cucumbers and strawberries on top.

For a quick dinner, I made fried rice with the wild rice, asparagus, mushrooms, onions, sesame seeds, soy sauce, a couple of eggs and some agave nectar for sweetness.

Finally, I was delighted to discover this recipe for a dish that I had with my mother in downtown Minneapolis two and a half years ago at a restaurant called Hell's Kitchen. It's called Mahnomin Porridge. You simply mix cooked wild rice with heavy cream (I used half and half but it was still way too rich), maple syrup over medium heat until warm, and then add chopped, toasted hazelnuts and dried fruit. Optional: fresh fruit on top (although they don't serve it that way at the restaurant) - I added blackberries which were excellent. Unfortunately, I halved the recipe but forgot to half the amount of nuts, so it was a very crunchy dish, but delicious nonetheless.