Miriam Kresh

I once pre-fried eggplant slices in a milk based batter. They looked great, and I put them away in the fridge for eggplant parmesan to be completed next day. Oy -I got up in the morning whistling and happy, went to the fridge, and pulled out fried eggplant slices of a coppery green. The dish was meant for my Dad's 80th birthday party (he had a weakness for eggplant parmesan) - had to do it all over again. I figure the eggplant reacted with the milk for some reason. It had been salted and drained before being dunked in milk and flour and fried. Miriam

I'm happily remarried, but remember well how the three older kids and I ate during the years that they were small and I was broke. I would do most of my shopping in the Machanei Yehudah open-air market (documented beautifully by SwissKaese in her last blog). Everything is always cheaper at the shuk, or was at that time. That meant shlepping home kilos of fresh produce, grains, baked goods, eggs, chicken for Shabbat - everything - on the rush-hour bus, on my way back from work. It also meant that we ate well, and economically. Twice a month the kids would spend Shabbat with their Dad, and I know they ate well there too, only more basic meat and potatoes. What made me shudder was the quantity of soft drinks and sweets he would give them, but I didn't protest, as it was more important to me that they should feel free and happy with their Dad than to raise an issue which would have led to acrimony. The kids, now adults, are all thoughtful eaters and good cooks (my married daughter is going to teach me to make couscous this week, the way her Moroccan mother-in-law taught her). They all love to come home to Mom's kitchen, too (happiness for Mom). Miriam

Judith, I'm fascinated. Will you post photos of the local market? But everything you've posted is interesting. Miriam

Robyn, Thank you for the brisket recipe. Chicken fat...I ask the butcher to save all the fat he cuts off my chickens when he joints them for me, and to throw in some fresh fat from his big plastic disposal bag. I don't need much, and do this only twice a year: Rosh HaShanah and Pesach time. Fat from 3 chickens is plenty for my needs; it's about 12 Tblsp. of shmaltz at the end. You busy cooks may not see this till after Yom Tov, but to those reading, I wish a Shana Tova u'Metukah. Plenty of plenty, and plenty of peace - for Clal Israel and for the world. Miriam

Yay, Mom power! Miriam

Robyn, I love a dairy kugel, and your recipe looks very good! I'll keep it for a quick winter lunch. It's an all-meat Yom Tov in my house. We just discovered that my husband is lactose intolerant, which complicates things somewhat; I'm used to making at least one dairy meal out of the four. So - one meal will be fish, it's not the end of the world. With regard to the lamb chops, I always suspect that they are really mutton chops. I intend to use them as a flavoring, putting them under and on top of the beef, with the seasonings I mentioned upthread, and cook the whole thing in a crock pot. Sound good? However, I am interested in you "idiot-proof" brisket recipe... My noodle recipe is done by eye, as Jewish grandmothers are prone to cook. Basically, for 1 package of wide noodles, 2-3 green apples, not peeled, but coarsely chopped; 1 medium onion, S&P, 1/2 - 1 cup brown sugar or honey (depends on how sweet your family likes it), 1 Tblsp. cinnamon. Bread crumbs or wheat germ, about 1/4 cup. 1/4 cup dark raisins. 4 large eggs, beaten. Boil the noodles up. Drain, then add the bread crumbs or wheat germ. Mix well. Sautee the apples and onions in shmaltz or in corn oil. There should be about 1/4 cup fat in the pan. When the apples and onions are tender, add S&P (plenty of pepper), sugar or honey, cinnamon, and cook a few minutes longer, stirring, till it is all a bubbly, brown mass. Add the fruit/onion mixture to the hot noodles; stir well. Add the beaten eggs and mix again. Taste a little to adjust seasonings. Bake in a preheated 350 deg. oven for about 1 hour, or until the kugel is set and its top is a golden brown. Yield: 8 -10 portions. I usually divide the recipe between two smaller baking pans in order to freeze one for Sukkot. Miriam

Just found this thread... alacarte, having the in-laws over is enough to make anyone nervous. But the breaking of the fast is not a holiday, just a human need to eat. It doesn't have any religious overtones, it's just that people want the comfort food they're used to from family tradition. Coffee, OJ - I crave those too. But it's carbohydrates that help a person regain balance after fasting 25 hours. Pasta, lightly sauced, followed by a mineral-rich vegetable soup like minestrone, then perhaps smoked fish or gefulte fish, served with hearts of lettuce and sliced tomatoes - like that. Baked goods, for sure, as everyone has said. But keep things on the lighter side: low fat and light flavors, as a heavy meal falls on a shrunken stomach like lead. Hope this advice is timely. Miriam

Yech, here it is only a few days away from Yom Tov and I haven't even thought a menu out yet. I received news that the Merlot grapes I bought are expected to be ready for the crush on Sunday, so next week I'm going to be pressing them and transferring must from plastic barrels to glass fermenters instead of cooking. I'm sure I'll work double-time in the kitchen to make up for that... Offhand, I know I'll be making an enormous chicken soup, enough to start at least two meals. I'll shlep out the lumps of chicken fat that live in my freezer and render them down to shmaltz for matzah balls. Lekach and round challas, of course. If the weather cools down some, kasha, sans noodles for lightness but with plenty of fried onions. For some reason, my decades-long dislike of meat disappeared: I pot-roasted a falshe-filet this week and found myself enjoying it, so decided to put beef on the table this Rosh HaShannah. Soup with matzah balls, meat accompanied by a light tzimmes of carrots and sweet potatoes, plus kasha...a leafy salad...I think actually I have the first meal set up. We can't eat the way we used to; the elaborate menus of yesteryear would be wasted on us now. Second meal, something with poultry: umm, a saffrony arroz con pollo. Third meal, Saturday night, leftovers dressed up to look inviting. Last Yom Tov meal, Sunday morning after services, gefulte fish; noodle kugel with chopped, sauteed onions and green apples, spiced with pepper, honey, and cinnamon; several fresh salads, home-made choumous and zaatar and all those dippy/spready thangs. Thank you, folks, see how this thread helped? Now I just have to copy out what I wrote here and I have a work plan. And drink: well, last year's grape wine, my first, won't be ready for another year, maybe two, but the cherry mead (just off-dry) and a dry, champagne-like apricot wine are mature. A Chardonnay for the fish meal, and I'm set. The lamb chops you get here are sparse of meat and full of fat: thought I'd buy a package and put a couple on the bottom of the pot where the meat, onions, whole garlic cloves, wine, bay leaves, dried orange rind and dried cherry tomatoes will go. Put the whole thing in the oven and let it cook slowly for a long time. What do you all say? Brown it in olive oil first? Cover it, or not? I haven't cooked beef in so long I've forgotten what to do with it. (My mom supervised this week's pot roast. Well jeez, I'm only 52. ) Thanks for any suggestions. Miriam

Ketchup.

Anne, As a home winemaker, I've sometimes made vinegar (inadvertently). Currently I have about 4 liters of mead-based vinegar, modified by the addition of about 1/3 bottle of leftover red wine. It's delicious, slightly sweet, and reminds me of a malt vinegar I once tasted in England. I'm considering putting some in a separate jar and adding some oak chips to it, in lieu of aging in an oak barrel. Here I must differ from opinions held by others upthread: use good wine, not more than a few days old, to get good vinegar. Food is only as good as its ingredients; the same goes for vinegar. I would be curious to know if what you have is really a vinegar mother or some other creature - Suseyblue got me thinking about that. But assuming it really is a mother of vinegar, follow the instructions given previously. Just make sure your jar is very clean, and keep it covered with a towel, paper or cloth, secured with a rubber band to keep flies out. Let it sit in a warm place, away from direct light, for about 1 month. When it's sour enough for you, strain and bottle it. However, don't use the vinegar for pickling; you can't know for sure if it's strong enough to preserve food safely. My winemaking friends have made vinegar from mothers I've given out, and have started their own little mother colonies too. You do need a big enough mother for your experiment to work, though. How big is the blob you've got? Taste once in a while and follow the progress. Is it getting too acetic? Add water, a few tablespoons at a time, and maybe a little sugar. Is it not becoming vinegar? Maybe you don't have a mother of vinegar, but some alien mother...or just an alien . (My kids used to show my Kombucha culture, serenely floating in its jar of tea, to their friends with this introduction: "Wanna see the alien growing in our closet?" Alas, the Kombucha is no more - got tired of maintaining the thing.) Once you've established a healthy mother, you can experiment with all kinds of vinegars. Try separating a layer of mother and sliding it into a half-gallon or so of apple cider, or raspberry juice, or pineapple juice. I've done all those. I know, the liquid should be somewhat alcoholic in order to become vinegar, but it's worked for me all the same. Melkor, I am curious about the stinky mother - I've never had that. Miriam

Thanks, Melissa, I suspect that showing photos is one of those things that look formidable, but that you wind up almost doing in your sleep once you get it. The stuffed round zukes were not a success; they were surprisingly bitter. We just scooped the meat stuffing out of them and philosophically ate that. On the other hand, this summer's peach chutney has turned out very well (after maturing for a month) and complemented the shnitzels nicely. Miriam

Can't make a Friday night meal without chicken soup, or the crew will mutiny. So for tonight it's soup ke-ragil (as usual) and: Stuffed, small round yellow zucchini (stuffing is ground meat and mushrooms in a Tomato sauce with cilantro and a little mint and plenty onions & garlic); potatoes first thickly sliced and steamed, then brushed with a little shmaltz and grilled; Steamed broccoli; Challa ke-ragil; and for once a baked dessert: chocolate chip cookies that my little one and I baked together. Tomorrow's meal: Chicken shnitzels, lightly covered in basil mayonnaise then dredged in seasoned flour and baked; Rice cooked with garlic and a handful of dried cherry tomatoes - I realize I mention cherry tomatoes in almost every post, but my CSA box supplies me with such huge quantities that I have been forced to use them in everything. Dried a lot of them, it's great. Coleslaw; Tossed leafy salad; sliced - you guessed it - CHERRY TOMATOES with vinaigrette and chives; Challa of course; Dessert is canteloup and watermelon slices, plus prolly more cookies. Melissa's photo was mouthwatering...if I could get the hang of posting photos without discombobulating myself, I'd do it too. (Embarrassed.) Shabbat Shalom you all, and Rebecca, you are in my prayers. Miriam

Yes, I add my wishes for your complete and speedy recovery, Rebecca. And the chicken in tomato jam worked very well. The family liked it (whew). Miriam

For some reason I'm organized this week and have finished the Shabbat cooking ahead of time. So this is what the menu will be: Homebaked challot Store-bought choumous Za'atar dip Chicken soup A turkey dish whose recipe was given me by the butcher in the supermarket: cubes of turkey shwarma meat sauteed in an equal amount (weight for weight) of sliced onions. Not too much oil. Seasoned with "tavlinim" - the spices that take your fancy. Mine, this time, were paprika, thyme, a little rosemary, and half a glass of dry mead in there with the onions, which are stirred around till soft before adding the turkey cubes. All cooked over medium flame till the turkey is cooked through. Very simple, very good! Plain white rice, on the garlicky side Yellow string beans, steamed Baked figs drizzled with thistle honey Tomorrow: Challot, choumous and za'atar. Chicken roasted with a dressing of tomato jam, soy sauce, lemon juice and garlic -sounds strange but it's savory and good. Got to use up the tomato jam; I'm the only one who eats it because nobody else in the house can get past the fact that it's TOMATOES. Potato salad Tossed leafy salad with vinaigrette (always in demand here) A simple salad of sliced tomatoes well sprinkled with chopped chives, then olive oil drizzled over all: a favorite with my Mom. This week it's red and yellow cherry tomatoes, cut in halves. Pretty, the red, yellow and green on a plain white plate. A cherry cobbler I pulled out of the freezer Managed to get a peach chutney made today. It will have to sit for a month or so before it's really good. Peaches are prime now; maybe a peach tart is on the horizon for next Shabbos. Shabbat Shalom, Miriam

I can't believe how quickly your blog week is finishing. It's being a fun tour for me too, especially having discovered Za'afran through your posts. I hope to make that wine tasting for women next week and intend to exchange some shekels for bottles there. If I can keep my credit card from jumping out of my purse and somehow paying for some of that premium olive oil or new kitchen gadgets, that will be restrained and mature of me . Looking forward to your next posts - that garlic bread sounds very good. Miriam

I am loving this blog. The photos are wonderful, in fact I'm inspired to get off my rear end and shlep off to the local shuk with my own shuk cart this afternoon. Lovely pictures of fresh produce strike me that way. Thank you for your kind words, Michelle. Next time we get together, we'll write up a couple of sketches, eh? And - I admire your (and Tapenade's) restraint in the face of all that seductive PASTRY. Miriam

Since this thread started, it seems I can't get away from the Jerusalem grill. Last night my family and I visited the Jerusalem Arts and Crafts Fair, set in The Sultan's Pool, a valley outside the walls of the Old City that houses many art galleries. We drove up from Petach Tikvah through Jerusalem passing Sima's shwarma place on Rechov Agrippas. It was open and busy although most of the neighboring businesses were closed already. Beautiful to walk down the cobblestoned stairs of the elegant Yemin Moshe quarter under a half moon, brushing past perfumed flowering jasmine bushes and the cinnamony odor cast by fig trees on warm nights. We passed by Sir Moses Montefiore's endearing, old-fashioned windmill and as always, caught our breath before the sight of Jerusalem's crennelated, illuminated Old City walls rising from the surrounding hillside. Just one more transient night in their history; the sounds of the noisy concert in the valley bothered them not at all. (If anyone cares to know, Etnix and Sarit Hadad performed.) So we joined the throng of folks wending their way around the fair, all admiring (or not) the art, pseudo-art and colorful junk - not to mention standing three-deep at the food booths set up by local restaurants. Booths with kosher certification hung their papers up in front for all to see. A quick look around showed that most of the food was of the hot, starchy, and greasy variety: chorizos, bourekas, fast Asian, and many more - and Sima's shwarma place had a booth there too. My daughters, one grown up and one only nine, wandered away to find something to eat, and the little one came back happily fressing on a pita filled with savory bits of meat and fried onion made tangy with amba. I did not mention turkey testicles. Miriam

Gorgeous photos! Makes me homesick for Jerusalem. And I've noticed the price of figs there - tomorrow when I go to the shuk here in Petach Tikvah, I'll know what to pay for figs. I didn't know about Wednesdays. My son-in-law's Mom is Moroccan and she makes couscous for lunch every Friday, as do other Moroccan ladies I know. I've wondered why myself. It's a lot of work, and very filling - not a good idea to me, as Friday night's Sabbath meal is always varied and big. Although I've always eaten couscous any time it's been offered. Regarding felafel, I agree with Michelle - why bother with the deep-fat frying when great felafel is available on almost every downtown corner? But I have never had goose shwarma. In fact, I've been tryng to find a goose to roast, or duck, and have not found a kosher source. Oh woe... Michelle, doesn't Jerusalem grill have other lovely tidbits like turkey testicles in it? That's what I've been told, once when I fished out a round little piece of dark meat that was sort of gamey tasting from a pita filled with Sima's grill. And thank you for the compliment. I hardly need to add what an interesting couple Swisskaese and Tapenade, are, and how easy to talk with about everything. I look forward to new meetings with them, possibly at a local artichoke fest! Miriam

Shabbat night's menu was: Chicken soup Turkey stew: cubes of turkey breast, lightly stewed in white wine, onions, garlic, thyme, and a little curry poweder, with potatoes; gravy based on a flour roux added to the cooking liquid Steamed string beans Burgul Nibbles: Peperonata and fat green olives Challa Wine: Barkan Special Reserve Cab.Sauv. - kind of heavy for this meal, but appreciated all the same. Shabbat day: Barbunia fish - little red fillets - made in cousbareia sauce according to Claudia Rodin's recipe. The fish is dredged in flour and fried in olive oil, then baked together with an onion/tomato sauce enriched with parsley. However I prefer to use cilantro. Choumous Heated up on the electric Shabbat platter: Roast chicken, previously jointed and marinated in rice and raisin wine (one of my home products), garlic, paprika, cumin, bay leaf, a little tamari, S&P, olive oil White rice made with some of the chicken soup and a handful of dried cherry tomatoes thrown in for variety Tossed salad with vinaigrette Fresh cherry tomatoes cut into halves, salted and besprinkled with finely-chopped chives (then bedrizzled with olive oil). Challah Pears in wine We agreed ahead of time not to discuss the present situation in the country at the table. "But it's all around us," said my married daughter at first. "So is Shabbat," I said firmly. I love being Mommy: I'm usually right. Later in the afternoon that daughter and I shared a bottle of low-alcohol, slightly bubbly Golan Moscat wine. Very fruity and light, a fun wine for a hot afternoon. Miriam

Umm...someone who's kitchen was famous? A lady named Golda, maybe? Miriam

I am so pleased to see you blogging again, Michelle. I look forward to this! Miriam

...Shall we call it "overstocking"? Oh, who cares, I gottit - the hoarding disease. I think it's from my years of single-parenthood, when bare shelves meant things in the house were tough indeed. I had been training myself to refrain from buying too freely and to use up what there is in the house, but the present situation here calls for putting a goodly stock of bottled water and food aside. Miriam.

Sparrowgrass, a few ideas. Steam the whole aerial part gently, then add it to a frying pan where you've sauteed thick slices of garlic in olive oil or butter. Sprinkle salt, a little white pepper, and the slightest bit of dried thyme a over the whole. Also simple, and a way that lets you taste the delicate string-beanish flavor of the dayflower, is to steam it and mix lightly toasted, blanched and split almonds into the dish. Maybe add a drop of olive oil. Salt to taste. Drop a small handful of the beautiful blue flowers onto a cucumber salad. If you really have that many, steam a whole lot for 10 minutes; put them aside. Make a roux based on whatever stock you have in hand, or on milk; season it and put it in a baking dish. Lay the cooked dayflower vegetables on top and poke them down into the sauce a bit. Cover with a light layer of breadcrumbs, dot with butter or drizzle olive oil over all. If you wish, grate a sharp cheese over the dish. Pop it into the oven and bake 15 minutes. Serve with rice. I've heard people say that if you add enough cheese and breadcrumbs, any wild herb will taste good. It's a little embarrassing to admit that's true. A pasta sauce: Saute a medium-sized onion, sliced into rings, in the oil of choice (mine is always olive); add two large, peeled, chopped tomatoes and a bay leaf and saute till you have a thickish mess. If it looks like its drying out, add a little white wine. Add a crushed garlic clove or two, and salt. Grind some black pepper into it. Add 1/2 cup or your dayflower veg, chopped into lengths about 2 inches, and keep cooking gently till it's cooked through. When the sauce is ready, mix it into hot pasta and serve. Or just chop them up and add them to soup. I wish I had your dayflower trouble. There are so many more yellow flowers than blue, the dayflowers are a rest and a delight to the eye. Miriam

Thanks for your concern, Pan. I'm in Petach Tikvah, a little north of Tel Aviv and so in the "alert" zone. So far, safe (tfu, tfu, tfu). Michelle, may you and your family be safe also. Bringing the topic back round again, for Shabbos I made a cholent based on turkey red meat; the same barley and potatoes, only substituting turkey for the usual beef. It needs added fat and more flavoring: I saute the meat and onions in plenty of olive oil before adding potatoes (both white and sweet) and cumin, bay leaf, paprika, a whole head of garlic, a good sprinkling of thyme, salt and pepper. Sometimes I add a little baharat spice or hawaj, for variety. No beans or kishke, just barley. It's meant to be a lighter, summertime cholent. A leafy salad with vinaigrette on the side, and with the challah it's plenty. Miriam

When I lived in the north of the country, I would gather dandelions for cooking and for drinking: there were never enough flowers for wine, but the leaves and roots make fine beer; the fresh, well-washed crowns, minus any stems, are very good made into fritters; dried leaves and/or roots went into every soup and stew. The leaves of our native dandelion (taraxacum syriaca) are too bitter for salads. Wild garlic was a favorite then too: stems for flavoring cooked dishes, flowers for salads and for treating colds and sore throats (eat 'em right off the stem, standing in the field). The bulbs were always too small to do anything with. The climate where I live now, in Israel's center, doesn't favor dandelions, but there are nettles, chickweed, purslane, plantain, and blue asiatic day flowers in abundance. I gather all of them in their seasons for salads and soups, and other botanicals for medicine or culinary purposes as well (cleavers for medicine and as a mild vegetable rennet for my sporadic cheese-making; chamomile, marigold). And I forgot an important one, mallows. The leaves of mallows make nice dolmas. The very young leaves go into salads raw, and the mature leaves and roots may appear in soups. I dry mallow leaves, flowers, and roots for future cooking and for medicine. Mallows are very good as part of an herbal syrup for winter coughs (so are hollyhock roots and flowers). My windowboxes have nasturtiums in them all spring long, and partway into the summer; I like to include the flowers and leaves in salads, but sparingly, because not everyone likes the peppery taste (I do). All the flowers of the windowbox herbs are cut into salads when they come up: chives, basil, mint, oregano, thyme. The flowers of the sweet geranium I put into arak, which I then serve chilled in shot glasses. Last flower use: there are several neglected/abandoned gardens with old citrus trees of many varieties: I gather the blossoms of lemon, orange, grapefruit, clementine and pomelo to ferment, together with a honey must, for a divine mead. Two years ago I braved the street people who sleep in one large abandoned garden and took several kilos of pomelos off a tree enshrouded in the native wild morning glory. With that I made pomelo wine. It was off-dry and crisp, with a light pomelo nose. Maybe I'll get the energy to do it again this year. Miriam