No trip to Israel would be complete without meandering through the country’s bustling maze of shuks, open-air marketplaces, with their riot of colors, beguiling aromas and the fresh flavors of Israel’s melting pot cuisine. Acclaimed chef Einat Admony, who was born in Tel Aviv, brought her Mizrahi (Middle Eastern) heritage and experience shopping and cooking from the shuks to her New York restaurant Taïm, and with “Shuk” she has made these recipes accessible to the home cook. Janna Gur, authority on Israeli food and founder/editor of Al Hashulchan (“On the Table”), a leading Israeli food and wine magazine, brings her knowledge of Israeli culture and history to the table, adding informative and authoritative primers on the multi-ethnic roots of this rich, diverse cuisine. You’ll find delightfully surprising twists on Israel’s most popular dishes: hummus, falafel, chopped salad and shakshuka. (This popular egg dish, subtitled “Cinderella in a skillet” is here dressed up with charred eggplant and an authentic condiment from Tripoli of chile and garlic.) Add to the mix are Admony’s family recipes from her Persian and Yemenite roots. While Grandma’s traditional Hanukkah latkes are de rigeur for the holiday, why not shake it up with Iraqi Herb and Potato Patties. “In Jewish Iraqi homes, you’ll often find these fragrant, golden–green latkes made with loads of fresh herbs,” writes Admony. “They come together with minimal effort, and unlike the more familiar and labor-intensive Ashkenazi latkes, made with raw, grated potato, these use mashed, pre-cooked potatoes, resulting in crispy patties with a soft interior. The first aruk I ever ate were cooked by Berta, the Iraqi mother of one of my army friends. I went to her house for lunch and was blown away by how delicious her arak were.”Ĭhef Michael Solomonov was born in Israel but spent most of his childhood in Pittsburg. When he and his partner, Steven Cook, opened their Israeli restaurant Zahav in Philadelphia 10 years ago, they envisioned something more than the falafel and hummus that had defined Israeli cuisine in the U.S. “The soul of Israeli cuisine lies in the journey these foods have taken to the ends of the earth and back, to be woven together in a nascent culture that is both ancient and modern.” With “Israeli Soul” Solomonov and Cook have “developed recipes that help tell the story of Israel” and “have taken special care to make them accessible and delicious.” “There is a common misconception that Israeli food equals Middle Eastern food,” he writes in “Israeli Soul,” “but this is a vast oversimplification that obscures a remarkable story.” Israeli cuisine is more than a mishmash of Sephardic, Mizrahi and Ashkenazi recipes, he notes. Think Israeli street food easily made in the tiniest kitchen, from five-minute hummus with over two dozen toppings to grilled shawarma (no spit required) to endless variations on Israel’s beloved falafel and sabich-Solomonov calls this sandwich “the story of Israel stuffed into a pita” -plus salads, soups and stews, and breads and pastries from Israel’s restaurants and holes-in-the-wall, easily replicated in your own kitchen. While latkes have become the iconic symbol of Hanukkah, the holiday is about the oil, not the potato, and the wispy confections known as sufganiyot-Israel’s answer to Krispy Kreme-are as popular there for Hanukkah as the latke is here. We celebrate Hanukkah “by eating foods fried in oil, rivaling Halloween for the best gratuitous reason to eat junk food, holiday division,” Solomonov writes. ![]() “Throughout Israel, bakeries turn into donut factories, producing tray after tray of plump, light, and golden brown beauties. We’ve found that eggy challah dough, enriched with butter and sugar, makes a great donut batter that’s easy to work with. “I bake my potatoes, rather than boil them, because I like the richer, more potatoey flavor,” explains Admony.“ The dryer texture makes the latkes fluffier too.”ģ medium russet potatoes (about 1½ pounds total), unpeeled, baked and cooledġ½ teaspoons baharat, store-bought or homemade Instead of rolling out the dough and punching out rings as with traditional yeast donuts, we use an ice cream scoop to form and dispense the sufganiyot into the oil.
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