melamed

food for thought, Confection Reflections! or Chocolate Lake, chocolate sky.... (I don't think I am any good at this)

my introduction to vegemite was in NZ, a friendly nzlander gave us a jar and couldn't wait for our reaction. Working in a bio laboratory it immediately reminded me of my lab experiments, yuck. However, I think I that using it in stews, as mentioned above, is a great idea. It is high in glutamates, a flavor enhancer. In fact the food industry likes to write yeast extract instead of MSG because it sounds healthier (I don't remember where I read that).

Thanks for the information, it does look like the ones I have but the ingredients list on the vacuum sealed pack has olives, brine, salt, and oil. ← Shriveled olives used to be popular here, I have used them to flavor quiche- together with dried tomatoes and goat cheese but they are versatile- great for a pie filling, sandwiches, dips...

Sounds like a line from "Lucy in The Sky With Diamonds", but it isn't! ← I am not much with names but a background check on the internet is important to see how popular the name is and if it is taken. What about sweet secrets, perhaps too generic? You never know how the business will develop so I think having too specific a name can be restrictive.

I will most likely be leaving to Georgia on May 28th for one week and would love to learn some authentic Georgian cooking while I am there (in Tbilisi). Does anybody have any idea where I can find something like this? I don't speak Russian but I am enthusiastic and willing to learn. thanks!

Ok, spoke to my Ethiopian friend (she comes from Gonder near the border of Sudan), they don't have cakes. For birthdays they eat popcorn or Dabo bread. In the villages they seldom have cakes but in the cities (Adis Ababa) they adopted cake eating from Europe.

I am surprised that there is an Ethiopian bakery, the Ethiopians and Yemenite traditionally eat few sweets. In fact, diabetes has risen in these populations because of changing diets. I will ask my Ethiopian friend and get back to you.

I am no expert but what I can see from a similar recipe called yogurtlu kebap (The sultan's kitchen, ozcan ozan), is first pita, then meat, tomato sauce, yogurt and butter. Your recipe sounds delicious! Is sumaq always used in iskender kebab?

after ofrah, I think everyone will soon make their presence. Two that I am following: @helou anissa helou @chezpim (I am @zarifas)

I agree with chufi, for the longest time I was on auto, now slowly I am learning all of my camera's features and my pictures are also improving. A note: In 101 cookbooks blog she never uses flash but photographs her food near a sheer curtained window which she says acts like a large soft box. I think her photos are lovely.

I intend to take photographs and be the taste tester. I was searching far and wide for the latin name for Pitango. Here is what I came up with: From wikipedia ""The Surinam Cherry, Brazilian Cherry, or Cayenne Cherry (Eugenia uniflora) is a plant in the family Myrtaceae, native to tropical America. Known as Pitanga throughout Brazil," that said, it has zero shelf life, you have to eat it off the tree, now I am searching for another pitango bush that didn't all ripen and fall of the tree on the same day! If I do, Lior, how should I process them if I can't get to you in time?

They probably used a microscope to position every grain of paprika on the hummus using a special nanopaprika placing tool, ah, the wonders of technology

very clever chocolates!

did you say chocolate? I am coming!

lior, why not start a new trend here in Israel, pitango chocolate, why not?

djyee100, That's a great idea. I think pitango soup might be very tasty, thanks for the recipe. For a long time I didn't like pitango because I always expected it to taste like cherries .

Quoting from the pitango website: The Pitango is a semi-wild cherry that grows in almost every Israeli neighborhood. Finding the ripened Pitango fruit takes persistence, as the best Pitangos are always the hardest to find. Do you live in Israel? ← yes I do! I don't think that it's indigenous but not sure where it comes from. , my neighbor has a tree sized pitango and they seem to all ripen at the same time.

Around here many people have pitango bushes in their back yards. In the spring and fall they produce red fruits, similar in size to small cherries but tasting completely different. To me it has a sweet pepper taste. I never saw it being sold in the markets. Is anybody familiar with pitango and what can be made with it besides jams? Is there any other name for it?

Fennel is very popular in Israel, especially with those who come from North Africa. I usually slice it thiny, add lemon juice, olive oil and a bit of salt and eat it like that. I also made a fennel gratin with it using heavy cream. You can add it to stews; because of its delicate flavour fish and chicken go well with it. Oranges and fennel also make a lovely combination as someone mentioned here.

I love thailand- thai foods, thai markets. Its an incredible place. I have been there three times but never saw beekeepers on bikes. I ate an incredible amount of pad thai sold off little mopeds equipped with minikitchens (this was in Koh chang), I never did get the recipe so if you happen to see a someone selling pad thai I would be awfully obliged if you get me a recipe. Is that a banana pancake vender at the bottom? that is my all time favorite thai food, I love it!

Do you use fregula like you would the smaller sized couscous? or are there special fregula recipes? Looks like you store it like pasta. How do you cook it once it dries out? Your fish stew looks great! For now I have only one sifter but I think it is more interesting to have a variety of sizes.

yes, those are lemons (limequats) which I preserved in brine. I have a little tree that produces a surprisingly prodigious harvest. Next time I will make cuts in the lemons, add some harissa and lemon juice for a more flavorful outcome. They are great in many couscous stew recipes

The way I was taught to make couscous is similar to Clifford Wright's method, raking with the addition of oil, salt and steaming three times. Wrights says to rake the couscous until they form pellets the size of peppercorns, I find that this is too big as they expand after steamng. For every cup of fine semolina I add about 1 tablespoon durum wheat flour and I find that I have an easier time forming the grains. Paula Wolfert uses much more flour in her method and when I tried it I ended up with golf ball sized balls. The Turkish women did not use anything but semolina (no flour) but did add lots of margerine and beef fat (I guess traditionally it would have been lamb fat and clarified butter). I use a neutral tasting vegetable oil and not olive oil which sometimes has a strong taste -about 1/4-1/2 cup for kg of semolina. I have a couple Hebrew language Moroccan cookbooks and some of them use flour (although never as much as Wolfert's recipe) while others only semolina. When I first began making couscous I always had lots of big clumps which I would rub and sift through as well as large amounts of semolina particles which did not adhere. Slowly I am perfecting the method- it is all about feel and very difficult to learn from any recipe. I usually steam over water but add whole spices to the couscous, suchs as cinnamon which adds a nice aroma. I add more water to the couscous and rake it through after the first and second steaming. I have trouble reheating the couscous, no matter how much I steam it, once it cools down it tends to dry out quickly. I suppose I can resteam it but I get lazy sometimes. I think the couscous stores better if more fat is added but I try to avoid adding too much. The Tunisians like much finer couscous, at least my neighbor does. I never heard of Turkish couscous and would be happy to learn more about it. I will try to post more detailed pictures. Everytime I make it my kids want to join in because it looks like so much fun, I think I would end up having a cousous blizzard

A Turkish women taught me how to make handraked couscous using semolina. She was taught by her Moroccan mother-in-law as the rules of marriage dictate. It is a simple technique that needs to be practiced to obtain uniform grains and not clumps. I need a partner to photograph the raking and sifting but for the meanwhile: semolina used to make couscous: Couscous after raking and steaming twice using a couscousiere Meatballs flavoured with cinnamon, turmeric and paprika and cooked with celeriac and peas Does anybody in EG make couscous?

I can't help you but I had similar bad experience trying to use American cake recipes (such as the Cake Bible) in Israel. I assume that the flour is different, even after trying to use the exact ingredients. I had the same experience the other way around, when I made a simple butter cake in the US using an Israeli recipe it did not come out as expected. I am not sure how I can change the recipes to accommodate local flours without having to test it first.