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@scubadoo97 Yes, this is not a very common variety, I believe that it's called Himalayan mulberry. Iv'e heard the leaves can be used for cooking, but have never used them for it, since it's also the season for grape vine leaves, and so I opt for those instead. Can you describe their flavor? Grape leaves taste likes a lemony green tea IMO. Speaking of leaves, Iv'e recently bean given rice stuffed nasturtium leaves, they are less flavorful but very tender, might be worth a try.

@Anna N Thanks you very much. The palachintas derived from my Hungarian side of the family. They resemble blitzes more then they do crepes, but are made with a less rich batter, giving them slightly more chew. @excv_ This is a beautiful bread. And I really like the ribbon An egg yolk and some cornstarch might help keeping your filling from oozing.

Dessert from last night. Palachinta, filled with farmer cheese, lightly sweetened with honey, brandy soaked raisins, lemon zest. Cherry jam for dipping.

My weekend breakfast (and mid-day snack) of choice this time of year: Our mulberry tree is exploding with huge fruits, and whenever I can afford time for a lazy breakfast I go to hang around the tree and eat fruits until my hands are purple-stained and I can no longer withstand looking at them When perfectly ripe, the berries fall right into your hand, and the flavor is like eating jam from a tree, no toast required.

Macadamia tree is in full bloom. It also smell superb. The bees seem to agree.

Warm salad of green fava beans, red bell pepper, toasted almonds, feta cheese, egg yolk, garlic and sumac. Please excuse me for the blurry image

Vinegar pickled cauliflower, two ways. First is with sliced beets (baked yesterday), onion, garlic, caraway, mustard seeds, black pepper. Second is with carrot, lemon slices, chili pepper, paprika, turmeric, all spice, cumin, black pepper. Images are last year's batch.

@ricky ponting Looks delicious! This is a Chole bhature, right? Being a vegetarian in Israel, the dish that I eat most often (well, other then chopped salad, but that is a side dish) is hummus. I have hummus every Sunday, and sometimes mid-week as well. Most Israelis, and I'm among them, go out to eat hummus, and don't make it themselves (this is because the cooking and preparation takes some time and knowledge, while buying it is quite cheap and often tastier). I usually make my own a few times a year. This week the muse struck me and so I cooked some chickpeas to a paste in order to make hummus a couple of times in the upcoming days (once mixed with tahini and flavoring, hummus doesn't keep well at all). This day was the first batch. It was topped with whole chickpeas, tahini sauce with some garlic and lemon, parsley paste, cumin and very little olive oil (most people seems to like plenty of oil on their hummus, and while I do love the flavor of good EVOO, I find it to oily on my plate, so I usually skip it when ordering). The parsley paste is an idea of mine that I wanted to try, it helps release and spread the flavor better, without the annoying leaves that get stuck in your teeth I think I'll keep using it. On the side, intended to be put on top of the hummus to taste, I served `tatbila`, which is a sauce made of lemon, garlic, red chili, olive oil, cumin and parsley (this is my version, the common one is lemon, garlic and pickled chili), and red zhug (which I buy). Also served cherry tomatoes, onion slices, olives and some very good pitas, bought straight from the factory's oven, which is near my hometown. Those are the best pita breads I know, they are made with some wholemeal wheat and rye, which gives them more taste and color, and yet they are fluffy, soft, and just slightly chewy. A mark of a good pita is being thick and fluffy, it should be like a good Neapolitan pizza crust, and almost melt in your mouth. Having a browned side (instead of charred in spots) is often a sign of a firm and over baked pita. I wrote quite more then I initially intended, so I'll stop here If you have questions about "hummus culture" (a new term I just made up), please ask.

Bucatini alla Puttanesca.

Cauliflower, sauteed in caramelized onions, curry powder (turmeric, cumin, fenugreek, black pepper, paprika, chili), garlic, finished with parsley and coriander. I really like this cooking method, as one can get a really crunchy "al-dente" texture from it, which is hard to get with roasted cauliflower. The combination of fenugreek and caramelized sweet flavor is a favorite of mine (try fenugreek pancakes with maple syrup). Caramelized onions, sesame seeds, buttermilk and sumac casserole. Very tasty, but slightly over mixed. Not pictured are some very good cucumbers and bell peppers - summer is apparently soon to come

Red cabbage filled with toasted buckwheat (kasha), mushrooms, and caramelized onion. Sauce is a light roux with sour cream, tomatoes, dill and paprika. Un-photogenic peas and eggs salad with onion, dill pickle, mayonnaise, dill weed.

One of my favorite sandwiches, and such a simple one. Soft and slightly sweet 50% whole meal bun - slightly toasted and warm, roughly mashed avocado (the last of the season), soft creamy sirene cheese, chopped onion, black pepper.

Chocolate and cinnamon babka with a toasted hazelnuts topping.

@paulpegg I love good bialys! Yours looks great. It seems to me that you don't pre-cook the onion, I prefer mine well browned. Also, the raisin bread looks delicious. I'll be glad to see more of your breads in the future!

Recent lunch. Beans in tomato sauce on rice. Flavored with onion, garlic, malt syrup, many bay leafs, paprika, turmeric, all spice and only two cloves (those are so potent, I might use only one next time...). Finished with plenty of black pepper. Leftovers for today's supper, over a toast (even better).

Vegetables (bell peppers, squash, cabbage, onion) stuffed with spiced rice and lentils. Baked in spiced tomato sauce, made sour-sweet with date molasses and lemon juice, chili for heat. The filling is rice,lentils, pine nuts, fried onion, garlic flavored with mixture of baharat (all spice, cumin, black pepper, turmeric, cinnamon). Served with a quick salad of radishes and arugula (both from the garden) in tahini sauce.

Spring time minestrone. Fennel, leek, zucchini, red bell pepper, tomatoes, green fava beans, peas, rosemary, thyme, toasted ditalini pasta. After cooking Iv'e adde a sort of pesto made of basil, garlic, parsley, toasted almonds, fennel seeds, black pepper, lemon zest and juice.

Purim was a couple of days ago and I planed on making Hamantaschen (Oznei Haman = Ears of Hamman). But I got short on time and decided to skip the more traditional shaping method. I spread the poppy seed filling over the dough and rolled it into a log then sliced it into spirals. The sough is a shortcrust pastry with ground toasted almonds, orange zest and vanilla. The filling is ground poppy seeds, milk, orange zest and a little cognac. It is important to ground the poppy seeds using a roller mill, as blade grinders don't work well for it. For this reason I buy it from the local grocery, which keeps a 60 years old grinder used just for this purpose. Below is a photo from one year ago. Edited to add a photo of the old machine:

I've wanted to try Gordon Ramsay's broccoli soup for a while, and after @Anna N posted about her making it, I got the motivation I needed. This soup is quite nice. Considering how quick it is to make, I say it has a great value for time ratio. Also, the look of it is very nice. At first, after I've just started blending the broccoli the soup tasted very blend, and I got a little worried, but after pureeing it a couple more minutes until very smooth the broccoli flavor came through strongly. It's a good thing to remember in any pasty or saucy application - cell damage = flavor A big drizzle of lemon juice took the soup a step further, without it, the soup tasted somewhat flat. You also need to use plenty of pepper for it come through. Iv'e topped the soup with a mixture of crumbled feta and pecorino (both are ewe's milk cheeses) and though tasty, I do think that goat cheese will fit slightly better, having a more distinct flavor.

@Chris Hennes As said above, harissa has no real set recipe, both in terms of heat and in added flavoring. For example, Iv'e never seen harissa with mint before. The caraway and corrinader in this recipe are more toward the Libyan version, as the Morrocan one that I'm more used to contains only cumin. In Morrocan cooking harissa is relatvly mild, hotter then Libya's pilpel-chuma but milder then Yaman's zhug. The morrocan makes an hotter version of harissa called zchaka. All this being said, remember that the level of heat in chillies varies and do adjust it for your taste and the dish you use it in.

This style of kugel is called "Jerusalem kugel". Egg noodles in caramel, cinnamon, ginger, plenty of black pepper. Baked, in a low oven all night long in order to give it this signature brown color and flavor. Traditionally made on Friday night and served on Saturday morning. The kugel is best served warm as a warming wintery breakfast, but it can also be served at room temp during warmer months. Most kugels are cooked with no dairy for kosher reasons, but I much prefer the taste of butter. Sub it with natural oil if desired. Raisins can be added if you like. Feeds 8 as a hearty breakfast or much more as a first/last course. It's usually made much larger, and you can scale the recipe both up and down with no adjustments. 400g good quality dry egg noodles or dry egg pasta. I prefer thin noodles, slightly thinner the spaghetti (~3mm). 50g cold butter, cut into pieces 4 eggs 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 flat teaspoon dry ginger, or a full teaspoon if you like more ginger flavor 2 to 3 teaspoons black pepper, ground finely (make sure to use freshly ground pepper) 1 tablespoon milk, cream or water 50g walnuts, roughly chopped 200-250g white sugar (I use about 225g, preferring my kugel not too sweet. you can use up to 300g for a really sweet kugel) Pick a somewhat narrow and tall pot that can just hold the cooked noodles/pasta. A cake pan can be used instead, as long as it can be tightly sealed. Make sure to slice the butter and keep it cool. Heat oven to 200 degC. Mix together eggs, milk (or cream/water) salt, spices and almonds. Keep refrigerated. Cook noodles in slightly salted water until almost al-dente, drain well. You can cook the pasta in the pot used later for baking. Meanwhile, in a good, wide pan, cook sugar to very dark caramel. I prefer the dry caramel method, but do use wet method if you like it better. When very dark, immediately remove from heat and add butter to cool the caramel and stop it from burning. Add cooked noodles and mix well to coat in caramel. If caramel starts to harden, place pot on medium heat and push the chunks to the bottom until they melt. Let the noodles chill slightly then add egg and nuts mixture. Mix until well combined. if your pot or pan used for baking is not non-stick, then grease it. Pour noodles into pot or pan and slightly flatten the top to look even. If you see any nuts poking above, push them down slightly so that they don't burn. Tightly cover the pot or pan with aluminium foil to keep moisture inside. Cover with a lid and place in hot oven for about 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 100 degC (210 degF) and bake overnight, about 10 hours. To serve, remove foil and invert kugel on a tray. Serve with pickled cucumbers (not everyone likes this combination, but try). Leftovers can be chilled and reheated later (microwave or oven both works, the later might dry it too much if you are not careful). You can also pan fry leftover slices.

Spring is getting in full gear. Baked new potatoes in lemon peel, rosemary and garlic sauce, all ground together in a mortar and pestle with olive oil. Lemon juice, parsley, black pepper and capers added after baking. Roasted romanesco with feta, peppers and lemon Also, not pictured are photogenic but tasty ground seitan balls in tomato sauce. Salad with raw zucinni, bell pepper, arugala. Parsley and dill from the garden. Also picked some various edible (and tasty) flowers. Sauce made with yogurt, olive oil, a little honey, garlic, lemon juice. Parsley leaves get weirdly shaped (and seemingly more tender?) when flowering. Coriander has a similar thing happening, with the leaves turning dill-esque (not pictured).

Cowpeas with chard and onion. Flavored with garlic, cumin, sumac, lemon juice. Served over bulgur with tahini sauce.

Black bean patties and my version of Persian green rice pilaf (sabzi polo). Patties had onion, pepper, toasted cashews and feta cheese. Seasoning needed some adjustments. Rice is made with rice and plenty of cooked fennel (cooking make it much less potent then fresh). Plenty of dill and parsley from the garden. Garlic, tarragon, coriander seeds, turmeric, black pepper (alot), lemon juice. Raisins, peas (frozen, blanched separately from rice to avoid overcooking) and toasted pumpkin seeds. Very good. Cold ouzo with fresh pomelo juice (2:1) for digestif. A lovely thing.

Thai curry soup with extra lemon grass, ginger and coriander seeds. Some coconut milk separated and milk solids fried until brown and nutty, some more milk un-separated to emulsify the soup. A little tamarind paste + lemon juice to make it nicely tart. Hot soup was poured over pre-soaked rice vermicelli noodles and soft silken tofu. Topped with semi-hot chili, scallions and peanuts.