Swisskaese

Good morning, happy midday everyone! Today is New Year's Eve around the world. However, here it is not celebrated like it is elsewhere. A big round ball is not dropped from the Citadel of David in the Old City and we do not have fireworks. Israelis use the German word for New Years and call it Sylvester. Our (I mean the Israeli Jews) New Years is Rosh Hashana and it is one of high holidays. We follow the Hebrew calendar, which is based on the lunar cycle. So, for example, my birthday is 11 September 1964 on the Gregorian calendar, but my Hebrew birthday is 5 Tishrei 5725. This year my Hebrew birthdate was the 8th of October on the Gregorian calendar. Next year my birthday will be the 27th of September. Today is the 30th Kislev 5766. With that said, some good friends of ours invited us over for a New Year's Eve dinner, but they are having a problem with their cooker, so now the dinner is going to be here, but they are doing the cooking. They are not preparing a fancy New Year's Eve dinner like most people do elsewhere, we are having chili con carne. Some restaurants have special meals here, but they tend to charge double the price, like elsewhere in the world. A lot of people don't do anything. It was bit strange the first year I moved here. I had a dinner party at my apartment and at midnight we went out onto the balcony and yelled Happy New Year. People looked at us like we were crazy. I had invited people from my Ulpan (Hebrew language course) and of course we were not native Israelis. Last year David and I prepared a nice meal: Fresh artichokes Ossobucco Orzo with gremolata Green beans Chianti classico Chocolate almond biscotti Since I have some puff pastry left over and a pomegranate, I am going to experiment and make an apple, pomegranate and walnut tarte tatin.

I have all of my recipes in word documents and placed in a recipe folder that is seperated into sub-folders according to type, i.e. appetizers, breads & muffins, chicken, etc.

Your soufganyiot look delicous. I would love to try the blueberry one.

Tomorrow we will write about the two boutique dairies and winery we visited today. And, we are going to show you our version of an Israeli breakfast. Eventhough, we will definitely have to go to Mizpe Hayamim or Carmel Forest Spa Resort for a few weeks. Anybody want to cover the costs for us? We are taking a collection. Tonight we had a very nice Hannukah/Shabbat dinner at my cousin's house. She served: Sweet potato soup Coq au vin Red cabbage with raisins Green beans Mashed potatoes Salad Poached pears in red wine with chopped candied pecans Chocolate rugelach from a bakery in Jerusalem. I will post the picture tomorrow. They are the best rugelach in the country. The bakery is called Marzipan and they are locate on Aggripas Street. A very satisfied rugelach customer. Lila Tov Kulam! Good night everyone....

I made three different types of latkes yesterday and it was a hell of a lot of work. Pam I do not envy you with your catering business. I only made enough for 12 people, so I shouldn't complain. The first thing I made was the Straw Potato Cake stuffed with leeks from Paula Wolfert's cookbook. Sorry, Paula, but I had a tough time with this recipe. I do not fault the recipe, I fault the pan I was using and the fact that I am not sure if I had enough oil in the pan. It stuck to the pan and was not crispy and I had a hard time flipping it because the pan had a very high rounded side. So, I put it in the oven on a pizza tray to try and see if I could crisp it up. It wasn't very crispy and because some of my guest were 1-1/2 hours late (welcome to Israel!!! ), it was a bit overcooked. But, it still tasted good and the guests ate it up, so I guess that is the important thing. However, I want to give it another try with a different frying pan. Here is a picture of the early preparations. I placed a layer of potatoes in the pan and placed the leek mixture on top and then placed another layer of potatoes on top of the leek mixture. I didn't take a picture of the finished product because I was too embarrassed. Then I made regular and sweet potato latkes. For the regular latkes, I grated the potatoes and onion in the food processor and rinsed the grated potatoes twice using cold water. Then, I put them in a towel and wrang out all of the moisture. Sorry for the blurry picture. I added the potato to the grated onion, added eggs, salt and pepper. I then used an ice cream scooper and scooped out the potato into the frying pan. I used canola oil. I couldn't use goose or duck fat because we were having a dairy meal. I made sure the oil was hot enough before I put the potato in the pan. I pressed the pancake down a bit and then when they were brown on the underside, I turned them over. Each time I removed a cooked pancake, I replaced it with new potato and sometimes I had to re-adjust the heat higher for a few minutes and then lower the heat when the oil was hot enough. It is a bit of a guessing game and you shouldn't leave the pan for more than a couple of minutes. I did not rinse or wring the sweet potato. I was going to make curried sweet potatoes, but decided just to add a little cinnamon and eggs instead. I cooked them using the same method as the regular latkes. I don't know how many latkes I made, but there were only a few left. I think it was about 5 dozen. Here are the appetizers we served: Tapenade's famous Tapenade. You might have to beg him to post the recipe. Spinach-Artichoke Dip All in all it was a nice party.

we retail lamb chops for CDN$48/kilo... so you're still ahead of the game. Can't the government do something about the lamb prices? ← I say that all the time!

I wondered about that, being used to strudel like my Serbian grandmother made, which was apple (or cottage cheese) rolled up in phyllo. Then again, what could Italian bakers be expected to know about Jewish confections? SB (and the number of people or Jewish descent around here has decreased to almost none since Bob Dylan (Zimmerman) left in the 60's) ← We have a large Hungarian population, so cheese, apple and cherry strudel are plentiful here. I also make strudel. I learned to make it from my Uncle who had a German restaurant in my hometown. People would drive for miles for a steak or Weiner Schnitzel at his restaurant. His motto was "Often imitated, but never duplicated." Uncle Alfred cut one mean steak. He came from several generations of butchers. He is 94 and can still carve a whole turkey and put it back together as if it was never cut. That is a real art.

Israeli beef, that is cows raised and slaughtered in Israel, is small. The majority our of beef and veal are imported from Argentina and Uruguay. It is not as expensive as it used to be, for example fresh Gulash meat is about 45-48NIS per kilo (approximately 4.50/lb). Frozen is about half that. Beef is plentiful now that we import it. One of our steak restaurant chains, El Gaucho, imports beef from Argentina and sells in supermarkets. Lamb is very expensive and is homegrown. Arik Sharon has one of the largest sheep farms in the country. Frozen lamb shoulder is about 20USD/kilo. Lamb chops are about 27USD/kilo. So, we rarely eat lamb, which is sad because I love lamb. We eat mostly chicken and fish.

Here are the finished desserts that I made for yesterday's latke party: Lemon Tart Pomegranate Tart Pear and Walnut Tarte Tatin Shabbat Shalom, Happy 6th night of Hannukah and see you later tonight!

David is going to explain all the breads. I promise, after we come back from Shabbat dinner.

Rugelach? aka "Jewish Strudel" at my local Italian Bakers. SB (great pics!) ← It is not rugelach and rugelach is not Jewish strudel. Rugelach is a cookie with fruit or nut filling. Strudel is strudel. This is not strudel, I forgot what they call them. It is a hard crust, filled with either a walnut filling, poppy seed filling or raspberry jam, raisins, walnuts and chocolate. Tapenade is going to write more about his visit there later tonight. I was making latkes, while he went to the bakery to pick up ciabatta and onion peasant loaf for our appetizers. The onion peasant loaf was to die for!

I don't know how you found that site, but it's great! But I find it funny that the webmaster complains about the flowery milk container, and I love it! In Israel the containers are a boring one-color plastic job. Anyway, the thing about the plastic bags of milk, at least in Israel, is that the milk is not homogenized. (At least it wasn't when I lived there; that might have changed.) Not such a big deal, but you had to shake the bag before you poured. So when I used to come back to the States for visits, I would unconsciously shake milk containers before I poured milk into my coffee, like you would shake a container of orange juice. Got a lot of weird looks from people. Those bakery shots are incredible! ← We have moved to the 21st Century, the milk is homogenized now. And, you can get blue containers now.

This is one of our favourite bakeries, Artisanal Breads. Everything is good and you usually waddle out of there because they have samples of everything. The black loaf is chocolate bread. It is yummmmy and not sweet.

Milk does still come in the plastic bags. I find this easier to use.

Dinner was a big success. No one left until 2am. I just finished cleaning up and I am going to bed. I will post the pictures tomorrow. Tomorrow we are visiting two boutique Kosher dairies and some other surprises along the way. Also, we are going to have Shabbat dinner at my cousins. I will take some pictures and post later. Saturday I will have more time to chat with you and post about Flam Winery and Latrun Monastery. Lila Tov Everyone and Happy 5th night of Hannukah!

That is correct Cakewalk, it is Beit Govrin. The cubbie holes were used to raise pigeons for food and use their feces for fertilizer.

And..... Mama Kemp's Butter Crust dough. I will post the recipe later. It is just butter, flour, sugar and an egg yolk. Press into a tart pan or even tartlette pans. Prick bottom with a fork. Baked tart. Chunky applesauce for the latkes.

Here are the photos of the dishes I prepared last night: Ingredients for the spinach-artichoke dip. The recipe called for Monterey Jack cheese, which we can't get here, so I substituted Kashkaval, which is a bit stronger in flavour, but it tasted good. This is the finished product ready to go in the oven a few minutes before the guests arrive. Pastry cream ingredients for the Pomegranate tart. And the secret weapon! I think this will be a nice contrast to the tartness of the Pomegranate seeds. I added this after the pastry cream was cooked. These are three different types of Cassis. Starting from right to left: Baume de Casiss, this was bought in Provence. David would not let me use this in the pastry cream. The middle one is from a small winery called the Hills of Galilee. We also have a Kiwi liqueur from this winery. The one on the left is from Carmel Winery and this is the one I used. Finished pastry cream.

Good morning! We had a very quick breakfast and are continuing our preparations for tonight's dinner party. This is not a fancy dinner party tonight, so you won't be seeing our best china. We don't have an automatic dishwasher, we are the dishwashers, so we are breaking our rule and using paper tonight. I really dislike paper plates, even though I have seen some really nice ones. But, I don't want to be up all night washing dishes. So, please forgive me. The other reason is that one of our guests is religious and he keeps a stricter level of Kashrut (keeping Kosher) than we do, so we thought it best to use paper plates. We are going to start preparing the latkes this morning and I will reheat or re-crisp them in the oven. I will take lots of photos of how I make my latkes. I saw the Latke cook-off and everyone who participated did a good job. I make my latkes a little different. I make them more like a rosti. My great-grandmother and grandmother did not add flour to their mixture. BTW, I was 19-years-old when my great-grandmother died at the ripe old age of 92. Oma was an amazing woman and a fantastic cook. I really miss her. Both of my grandmothers are still alive. My Dad's mom is 93 and my mother's mom is 84. They are both wonderful cooks and I learned a lot from them, but I have to say that the two people I learned the most from were my parents. My mother is a wonderful baker and my Dad can cook anything. He taught me the real basics of cooking and he started me on the road to exploring cooking from different countries. They have a huge cookbook collection. I started reading Bon Appetit, Gourmet and Southern Living Magazine at a young age. My first recollection of cooking is when my parents bought me an Easy Bake Oven. I think I got it in 1968. It was light blue. When my brother, may he rest in peace, was old enough, he and his best friend Wade used to make cakes using my Easy Bake. They would put ingredients such as paprika, cayenne pepper, soy sauce, etc in the cake and serve to the neighborhood kids they didn't like. Actually, if my brother was still here, I am sure he would be a good cook. He loved to invent new things. My sister is a late bloomer, but she has turned into a good cook. She made some things, like stuffed grape leaves, that I have yet to tackle. She and her friends, pre-children, used to have pot-luck suppers about once a month.

Any idea what these triangular cubbie holes are for? Surely, someone wants to hazard a guess?

Everything I planned to make tonight is made and I will post the pictures in the morning. It is time to get a few hours of sleep. Lila Tov Everyone! Until tomorrow.

Either in Englewood, NJ or Ein-Hod Artist Colony? ← It is Ein-Hod and the reason I posted this picture is because David's late uncle, Peter Rozsa, lived there as well as in the artist's quarter of Jaffa. Ein-Hod is an artist community in the North. I will show you some of his artwork later. For more about Ein-Hod: Click here David comes from a very artistic family. His mother is a famous singing teacher in London. She taught Kiri te Kanawa, Karita Mattila and many other famous opera singers. She was a singer herself and still has a beautiful voice. His aunt is an actress here in Israel and his father was trained as an artist and also dreamt of being a orchestra conductor. David plays the flute, has a nice voice and is an early music fanatic. I also studied classical singing, but alas never became a professional. Ein-Hod is not far from Zichron Yaakov which is the home of Binyamina and Carmel Mizrachi wineries. This town was founded by Baron Edmond de Rothschild. Binyamina Winery Carmel Winery

Good job Melissa, but where is the sculpture located? It is not in Tel Aviv.

Okay, now for a test ..... Any idea where I took this picture? It is in Israel. Any idea what these are? While you are pondering over these, I am going to get ready to cook. I am making the following tonight: 2 butter crusts Spinach-Artichoke Dip Chunky Applesauce Pastry Cream

After work today, I picked up David at the train station and we went to one of our local Green Grocers. This one is very special and you will see why by the pictures. It is right next to the citrus groves I drive by everyday. It is call HaMeshek (The Farm) and they have been in business since 1933. However, they recently modernized.... HaMeshek sign The sign says "Taste of once upon a time". All types of fresh salads and hummous. Specialty teas We bought Tunisian tea which includes star anise, cinnamon bark, rose buds, dried ginger and other goodies. And Diet tea, something we need to go on after this week! Not sure what is in it. Looks like some dried fruits. Various olives and spices and rice mixtures. We bought a Bukharan rice mix. In general, the rice mixtures are various spices, nuts, fruits, etc. that you add to the rice right before you cook it. This one has slivered almonds and various spices. We also buy a Persian mixture that has nuts and raisins. And another one that has pistachios and dill. And finally, organic strawberries from the fields in my town.