Swisskaese

As promised, here is my last pictures for the blog. Rote Gruetze is a berry sauce that is usually served over vanilla custard. I really like it, it reminds me of the plum and fig compotes my oma used to make. I cannot make them here because raspberries and blackberries cost a fortune, and I can't get red and black currants here. So, I bring back a ready-made time I go to Germany. This one is made with sour cherries, red currants, raspberries, rhubarb and black currants. I put this on top of a children's favourite, Karlo. Karlo is a pudding that is not too sweet. I really like the vanilla. I know it is not homemade, but this is the closest I come to using convience food.

Take a look at the link I provided: They should be slightly soft to the touch. You can eat them at room temperature. I don't refrigerate them.

I don't know if I am that brave. I yet to make strudel dough. Maybe next time I am in London you will give me a lesson.

Here are some recipes from Daniel Rogov's website. Here is Israel, prickly pear is called Sabra and native Israelis are also called Sabra because the fruit is tough on the outside and soft and sweet on the inside. Prickly Pear Recipes I have also had prickly pear cheesecake, but I don't have a recipe for it.

I will keep watching and let you know what it is in a few weeks.

Thanks Nicolai. I am going to ask a Druze couple that sells baklawa at a local food fair every Friday. Maybe they can tell me where to buy it. They don't sell at at the supermarkets here. Maybe I can find it in the Shuk. Most people buy ready-made baklawa and don't bother making it at home, but I would like to try making it myself.

The chocolate cows are really special Hope to see you at the Love Parade in Tel Aviv sometime. Bring your choir on a performance tour.

You are welcome to come eat in person anytime.

No, it is imported from Russia.

Shavua Tov everyone. Shabbat has ended here and tomorrow is the beginning of a new week. This means that my blog is coming to a close. Thank you for all of your PMs during the past month. I really appreciated them. Thank you for your interest in my little piece of sky. I hope you learned something new or I helped you revisit places you have seen before. I am sorry, if I didn't get to show you everything, such as falafel and the elite chocolate. I will try and do that another time on the Middle East thread. I wanted to close with a picture of a few of the teas that we have. We both adore coffee, but we also love tea. Here is a small example of the variety of teas we have to offer our guests: Oolong from a trip to Taiwan and Twinings from my numerous trips to London Hibiscus tea with pomegranate and Jasmine tea from my trip to Taiwan Fruits of the Forest tea and diet tea with a variety of dried fruits and spices I wish you all a good night and a future with peace, love and happiness. See you in eGulletland. Shalom l'kulam, Shalom achshav! Peace everyone, peace now! P.S. - I am going to post a picture of rote gruetze in the morning. I will check in throughout tomorrow to answer any questions you may have.

As the sun is setting on Shabbat, I am finally able to show this morning's breakfast. We really like to have a nice long and relaxing breakfast on Saturday morning. This is the time when we get to enjoy a nice cup of Ilan's coffee, talk about life, our dreams, politics or catch-up on reading. The pictures are not quite as extravagant as the pictures I showed in the first blog. First, I made herb omlettes. I added fresh thyme, parsley, chives and oregano. Sometimes I add tarragon, basil or fresh zaatar. It just depends on what herbs I have on hand. To accompany this we had walnut-raisin bread, labane, bulgarian cheese spread, cheeses from the sheep dairy we went to last weekend, various jams, orange juice and of course coffee. Here are some highlights: Walnut-raisin bread from Artisanal Breads Slice of bread Sheep cheeses from Land Flowing with Milk. The one on the right is a very sharp cheese and the one on the left is a soft milder cheese. They are both delicious. Jams: Schwartzwaelder Sour Cherry Jam from my business trip to Germany. I go to Germany every three months and bring wine, jam and rote gruetze. I will show you what that is in a minute. The middle jam is fig jam and the jam on the right is fruits of the forest. We like all sorts of jam. I have bought grapefruit marmelade, quince, etrog, apricot, peach and strawberry. Cherry jam and labane. Yum! Sometimes we also have smoked salmon or smoked makerel. Just depends on our mood. Yotvata chocolate milk. The best chocolate milk in the world. Creamy, chocolatey goodness. Not too sweet, just right.

Wow, Rachel. That was a beautiful description. You should write a book. It was really my pleasure. I have to give a big thank you to eGullet. I have met the most amazing people virtually and also here in Israel because of this site.

In the northern Negev we grow wheat and artichokes. Further south, we grow wine grapes, peaches, cauliflower, cabbages, watermelons, melons and we also have fish farms and dairy cattle that produce the best chocolate milk in the world . And we have a liter waiting for us in the fridge. I will post the picture when the batteries are ready. Speaking of watermelon juice.... Pam, I thought of you yesterday when I was in the supermarket. I saw a new Prigat juice from far away and it looked like a watermelon on the front. I raced over to take a picture for you, and it was guava/apple juice. Oh well, I will keep looking for you.

You could make it into pita! ← I was thinking that I could make pizza dough out it, but I just threw it away. I don't think I have the energy or ingredients to make pizza tonight. I think I have been quite hedonistic this week already.

I have added the Makloubeh recipe to RecipeGullet. I neglected to mention that I have also had this dish with lamb and chicken. You could make it with half chicken and half lamb shoulder.

The bread has failed miserably. I can't get the dough to rise properly. At this point, I will have to try again, but I won't be able to start over now because it is an all day process. I promise I will start over next weekend and post the results in the Pastry thread. I will post our breakfast photos as soon as the camera batteries are recharged.

Abra, I am sorry I missed this question earlier. I will be happy to post a recipe I have, but you will have to experiment with this one. I think that the stuffed dates I had were seasoned with either ras al hanut or just cinnamon. You will also have to open the dates up with a pencil-shaped tool. This is a Moroccan dish, so maybe Paula Wolfert might have some ideas of what to use. I have put the recipe in RecipeGullet: Dates Stuffed with Lamb As for the cake baking thingie, I am not sure what that is. I will ask one of my cousins. The only thing I can think of is the wonder pot, but it isn't electric. Can you describe it. Did it look like a toaster oven, was it round with a top?

Rebecca, I hope you will have a speedy recovery.

Good afternoon everyone. I am going to post breakfast and breadmaking pictures a little later. We got a bit of a late start today. So if you have any questions please feel free to ask. The week really helped me more than you know. There were lots of things going on in the background and I needed a little diversion. I hope you learned a few new things. I tried to give you a small taste of the richness of our diversity. I concentrated more on the Middle Eastern aspects of Israeli cuisine. Some other time, I will have to show you the European and Eastern European side. I showed you pictures of the northern part of Israel and the central part of Israel, now I will show you a few pictures of the southern part of Israel, The Negev.

Red tehina is made with the long red peppers. It is not super spicy, but it has a little kick. The honey is really, really good and she sells it runny or thick.

Makloubeh Serves 8 as Main Dish. This is the Palestinian national dish. Don't be shocked by the amounts of oil. You do not have to use that much. If you are using kosher chicken do not add any extra salt. You get enough salt from the chicken and the salted eggplant. Ingredients 2 whole chickens, skinned and quartered (or 8 pieces chicken thighs) 3-1/2 c canola oil, plus 3 tablespoons 1 tsp fresh nutmeg 1 tsp allspice 1 tsp cumin powder Salt 4 saffron threads 2 cinnamon sticks 5 whole cardamom seeds 3 peppercorns 5 c water Freshly ground black pepper 2 large head cauliflower, trimmed into florets 2 large eggplant, peeled, cubed, and salted; make sure to place in a colander so water can drain 2 onions, halved through the root end and thinly sliced, core still attached 4 c medium grain rice 1 c converted rice 1/2 tsp ground cardamom 1/2 tsp allspice 4 saffron threads 1/2 tsp fresh nutmeg 1/4 tsp fresh ground cinnamon Salt and freshly ground black pepper Toasted pine nuts, for garnish In a large saucepan, brown both sides of the chicken in 1/2 cup canola oil. Once browned, add nutmeg, allspice, cumin powder, salt, saffron, cinnamon sticks, cardamom seeds, and peppercorns. Add approximately 5 cups of water and bring to a boil. Add freshly ground pepper. Cover and cook over low-medium heat for about 15 to 20 minutes or until the meat begins to pull away from the bone. Set the chicken and 2 cups of broth aside. Fry the cauliflower in a large pot with 3 cups of canola oil until golden brown. Remove and let drain on paper towels. Drain the eggplant and fry as you did the cauliflower. Set both the fried cauliflower and eggplant aside. Heat 3 tablespoons of canola oil in very large pot. When the oil is hot, not smoking, add the onions and saute them for approximately 10 minutes. Place the chicken pieces on top of the onions and cook together for a few minutes then cover and let sit for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, rinse the rice about 5 or 6 times until the water runs clear. Put the rice in a bowl, add the spices and mix well. Place the fried eggplant and cauliflower on top of the chicken and then put the rice on top of the vegetables. Add the 2 cups of reserved chicken broth (make sure the whole spices are not in the broth) and water to just barely cover the rice. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer and cover. When the water has been absorbed, the dish is done, approximately 25 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat and let rest for about 10 to 15 minutes. Place a large serving plate on top of the dish and flip the pot and plate over. Carefully lift the pot off the plate and sprinkle with toasted pine nuts. Keywords: Main Dish, Rice, Kosher, Vegetables, Easy, Dinner, Chicken, Middle Eastern ( RG1777 )

Dates Stuffed with Lamb Serves 4 as Hors d'oeuvre. This is a Moroccan dish from Fez. Ingredients 24 large, pitted dates, preferably madhjoul 3 oz boneless lamb shoulder, ground 2 tsp cinnamon or ras al hanut 1 egg white 1 pinch of salt 1 pinch of pepper 3 T water 3 T pomegranate juice 2 T olive oil Have your butcher grind the meat very fine. Mix the ground lamb with cinnamon or ras al hanut and add the egg white, mixing thoroughly. Add salt and pepper. Enlarge one end of each date using a pencil-shaped tool, be careful not to go through the other end or tear the sides. Remove the pit. Gently fill the dates with the meat mixture. In a sauce pan, mix the water with the pomegranate juice, add the dates and simmer on low for about one hour, adding water as needed. Drain the dates and pat with a paper towel. Fry the dates in olive oil on low until they swell. Keywords: Hors d'oeuvre, African, Intermediate, Lamb, Fruit ( RG1775 )

I wish I could go to the wine tasting, but I already have plans for next Thursday. Believe me it is hard to restrain yourself. I can never leave there without buying something.

And finally the Shabbat Meal. Shabbat is a time that you make the house nice, you clean, you dress up the table, yourselves and you serve a special meal. Come to our home for Shabbat. Welcome to our home. The table is set with the Shabbat candles, challah and the Kiddush cup After the blessings over the wine and the challah and after we washed our hands, we served rum and pineapple cocktails. And we munched on a few olives. We then went to the table and I served the Druze salads. L-R, front row: eggplant salad and fried courgette; L-R, back row: red tehina and cauliflower salad Crackers for the salads from Artisanal Breads Druze lamb kubbeh Makloubeh Green salad as suggested by Daniel Rogov - Romaine lettuce, baby leaves, rocket, basil and mint with an olive oil dressing Wines: Ramat HaGolan Gamla Chardonnay 2004 Don Julio Merlot (Chilean) 2004 Our guests brought the wine Melon, peaches and figs with a splash of Czech slivovitz Apple cinnamon cake made by a friend of one of our guests We all had tea with dessert. Two forest fruit teas, one black tea and one other fruit tea. The meal was delicious. The Makloubeh has so many layers of flavor and it is very easy to make. The fruit salad was very refreshing and the cake was delicous. The salads and kubbeh also went well with the meal. Shabbat Shalom and Lila Tov. It is very, very late here. I can't believe tomorrow is the last day, but we are not yet finished. We will have breakfast and I will make some bread and then we will bid adieu.

Now I am going to show you how I made the main course for this evening's Shabbat dinner. I made the Palestinian national dish of Makloubeh, which means upside down. The Jordanians also make this. I am sure there are other versions of this in other Middle Eastern countries. I will post the recipe in RecipeGullet tomorrow. I begin by browning skinless chicken pieces on both sides in a little olive oil. I then placed the chicken pieces in a pan and covered it with 5 cups of water. I added cinnamon sticks, saffron, allspice, cumin, whole pepper, nutmeg and cardomon pods. I cooked the chicken for 25 minutes. Meanwhile I fried cauliflower in canola oil until golden brown Then I fried eggplant until golden brown Then I washed the Persian rice five times and added ground cardamon, ground cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg. I sliced onions and sweated them in a pan. Removed them from the flame and added the chicken pieces on top and let it steep for a few minutes. Then I put the cauliflower on top of the chicken, the eggplant on top of the cauliflower and the rice on top of the eggplant. Added enough water to cover the rice and cooked for another 20 minutes. I then let it sit and inverted it onto a platter.