eG Foodblog: Swisskaese - Hannukah: The Feastival of Light

[Pam R]

Shabbat Shalom!

If you get a chance, can you discuss the availability if meat (beef) in Israel. It's been over 10 years since I've been there.... but other than a cow that wondered onto a shooting range (during my Gadna experience) and some dairy cows on my kibbutz, beef was scarce. I know that you've posted at least one picture of a beef dish - but is beef plentiful? Very expensive? What about lamb?

[srhcb]

Rugelach?  aka "Jewish Strudel" at my local Italian Bakers.

←

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.

←

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)

Edited December 30, 2005 by srhcb (log)

[Swisskaese]

Shabbat Shalom!

If you get a chance, can you discuss the availability if meat (beef) in Israel.  It's been over 10 years since I've been there.... but other than a cow that wondered onto a shooting range (during my Gadna experience) and some dairy cows on my kibbutz, beef was scarce.  I know that you've posted at least one picture of a beef dish - but is beef plentiful?  Very expensive?  What about lamb?

←

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.

[Swisskaese]

Rugelach?  aka "Jewish Strudel" at my local Italian Bakers.

←

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.

←

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.

[Pam R]

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.

←

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?

[Swisskaese]

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.

←

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!

[Tapenade]

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.

←

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 think you missed the significance of what Michelle wrote about Arik Sharon owning one of the biggest herds of sheep in the country. The government is doing something about the price of lamb: it's ensuring, using all sorts of specious regulations, that there is almost no competition from imported lamb. The result is that Arik and his friends make lots of money from selling to a captive market.

[Pam R]

I think you missed the significance of what Michelle wrote about Arik Sharon owning one of the biggest herds of sheep in the country. The government is doing something about the price of lamb: it's ensuring, using all sorts of specious regulations, that there is almost no competition from imported lamb. The result is that Arik and his friends make lots of money from selling to a captive market.

←

No no.. I got the point .

[Swisskaese]

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.

Edited December 30, 2005 by Swisskaese (log)

[Tapenade]

And now we're going to have to live on a health farm for the next three months. But it'll have been worth it: Michelle's latkes were absolutely delicious. Even though the potato and leek pie didn't turn out looking the way we expected, it too was delicious. Of course, now we're going to have more friends clamouring for return invitations

[Swisskaese]

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....

Edited December 31, 2005 by Swisskaese (log)

[Chufi]

Wonderful food Michelle. I especially love the idea of the sweet potato latkes. Somehow that never occurred to me!

[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.

Edited December 31, 2005 by Swisskaese (log)

[Swisskaese]

Wonderful food Michelle. I especially love the idea of the sweet potato latkes. Somehow that never occurred to me!

←

Klary, they are really easy to make and you can make them sweet by adding a little brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg for a real Dutch dessert or savory by adding curry powder or onion or a little fresh thyme.

[Swisskaese]

The famous Israeli Breakfast

David and I have an Israeli breakfast once a week, usually on Saturday morning. It is nice to sit down and relax at the table and read a good book, talk about life, politics, how to forge peace in the Middle East and read parts of the newspaper that we didn't have time to read on Friday. There are two rules in this house, we sit down and have dinner at the dining room table together and have a leisurely breakfast once-a-week.

I highly recommend this book. It is written by one of our best Israeli authors, Amos Oz.

Haaretz newspaper

Today, we are really showing off, we wanted to show you all of the cheeses we bought on our trip yesterday and show how hedonistic an Israeli breakfast can be. The only thing missing from the table is Israeli salad. I forgot to buy cucumbers and I am also allergic to raw tomato.

I started by making an omlette.

I made a herb omlette today. Can you guess what herbs I used? How much do fresh herbs cost where you live? How much do you get in a bunch?

The omlette. I also added a little sour cream. Usually I add yogurt, but we had sour cream left over from the latke party. This is lowfat sour cream.

And here is the spread on the table:

The juices: Pomegranate, Mango and Orange Juice

Chunky applesauce and marinated black olives and our Kakadu placemats that I love.

White cheeses, smoked salmon, apricot jam, blackberry-peach jam and Artisanal bread's whole wheat walnut-pistachio bread

One of my favourite drinks is this Mango/Pomegranate breakfast cocktail

Edited December 31, 2005 by Swisskaese (log)

[Tapenade]

The famous Israel Breakfast

David and I have an Israeli breakfast once a week, usually on Saturday morning. It is nice to sit down and relax at the table and read a good book, talk about life, politics, whatever and read parts of the newspaper that we didn't have time to read on Friday. There is two rules in this house we sit down and have dinner at the dining room table together and have a leisurely breakfast once-a-week.

Today, we are really showing off, we wanted to show you all of the cheeses we bought on our trip yesterday and show how hedonistic an Israeli breakfast can be. The only thing missing from the table is Israeli salad. I forgot to buy cucumbers and I am also allergic to raw tomato.

←

For anyone who hasn't experienced it, Israeli salad (which we sometimes call Arab salad, just to confuse you) is made of fresh cucumber, tomato and onion, chopped as finely as possible and dressed with nothing more than olive oil, lots of lemon juice and parley to taste. You have to use small cucumbers, not the foot-long monsters that are common in Europe, because their taste is more concentrated.

I first encountered Israeli salad when I was a kibbutz volunteer in 1972 and have eaten it on and off ever since, mainly together with felafel in pita. Simple though it is, it's tasty and healthy, and a real treat when it's made well.

[BarbaraY]

That Pear Tarte Tatine looks heavenly as does the pear in red wine.

Do you do anything different to make the pear tarte or just make it like an apple one?

[Swisskaese]

The Cheeses

All of the cheeses are Israeli cheeses and all of them are Kosher. In fact, most of the products on the table are Israeli with the exception of the apricot jam, salmon and the coffee. We buy coffee from a local cafe chain called Ilan's. The coffee we had today is called Torino.

The cheeses starting at 1200 and going clockwise are:

Nachshon dairy's Tomme, which is a sharp sheep cheese, very nice

Smoked Emek, Israeli yellow cheese

Sheep cheese that is wrapped in bay leaves

Camembert with walnuts

Buffalo Farm's Tsfatit with sesame seeds and za'atar. This type of cheese originated in Tsfat, which is in the north and is the birthplace of Kabbalah. Not Madonna's version of it, but the real thing. There are some real crazy people up there.

Nachson dairy's Ro'im with nigella seeds, which means Shepherd's cheese. A very mild cheese.

Buffalo mozzarella. As good as you get in Italy and I know because I lived in Lugano and bought all of my groceries in Italy at a local farmers market for 2-1/2 years.

These are three of over a hundred Israeli white cheeses. Gad dairy makes some nice products, but they are not the best of breed. The best labane I have ever had was at a Druze restaurant in Daliyat el Karmiel and equally best is made by the mother of our green grocer in Tel Aviv.

From left to right: Tnuva cottage cheese, Gad Dairy's cow labane, Gad Dairy's Bulgarian Cheese spread

Labane is made using cow's milk, goat's milk or sheep's milk. You can buy it plain or topped with olive oil or olive oil and za'atar.

As you can see we do not suffer here.

Edited January 1, 2006 by Swisskaese (log)

[Chufi]

I highly recommend this book. It is written by one of our best Israeli authors, Amos Oz.

←

I am reading that book right now! started this weekend. I love it.

I wish I could have those cheeses to munch on while I was reading though... Especially the Sheeps cheese wrapped in bay leaves.

[Swisskaese]

That Pear Tarte Tatine looks heavenly as does the pear in red wine.

Do you do anything different to make the pear tarte or just make it like an apple one?

←

Hi Barbara,

Thanks. I made the pear tart exactly as I make an apple one. I was quite pleased with the results. I would suggest making them with bosc pears.

[Tapenade]

Once upon a time, when I first came to Israel, pretty well the only wine one could find in the shops was made by Carmel Mizrahi, a big cooperative owned by the grape growers around the country, and the choice was basically between rather sour, mangy Carmel Hock, and a generic red whose name I've thankfully forgotten. I don't mean that the wine was really bad -- certainly, compared to Gianaclis, the only local label in Egypt, it was heavenly -- but after having grown up from age five or so drinking wine at home, I was pretty disappointed.

A few years later, in 1980, I made aliyah, or actually moved here, and by then the situation had improved somewhat. Carmel was selling a few varietal wines, mainly Semillon Blanc and Sauvignon Blance among the whites, Carignan, Cabernet Sauvignon and Petite Syrah among the reds, and it was even starting to sell some premium wines branded with the Rothschild name, which was actually fair enough, since Baron Edmond de Rothschild had basically started off the wine industry in this country in the late 19th century. The fact was that the Israel premium wines still tasted like Ribena compared to the real Mouton-Rothschilds from France, but we were happy. Most Israelis knew almost nothing about drinking wine, because traditionally they didn't drink much more than a few sips of the syrupy red glop that was used for making blessings on Shabbat and holidays; and from what I could see, most Jews in other countries weren't much more sophisticated. Ever tried Palwin or Manischewitz? I was once given a free mini-bottle of wine with dinner at a kosher restaurant on the Upper West Side in Manhattan, and I almost became diabetic on the spot.

Fast-forward to 2005, and we could be living in a completely different country, never mind a different decade. Israel is dotted not just with serious competitors to Carmel, such as Barkan and Segal and the very good Golan (yes, in the Golan Heights), but also with dozens and dozens of boutique wineries. For more detail, you can read Daniel Rogov's 78 best Israeli wines of 2005. They're not just in the north, where the terroir (more about this subject in a future episode) and the cold winters of the Golan and Galilee are ideal for growing wine grapes (as well as apples, pears, blackcurrants, cherries, plums, olives and much more besides): in the same way as Israeli farmers only a few miles north of Eilat, in the middle of the desert, have learned to grow massive crops of cauliflower and farm herds of cattle that produce the best chocolate milk in the world (yes, straight from the udder ), they are also growing terrific wine grapes, mainly Merlot, in the middle of the Negev desert a bit further north.

We would have liked to get to several more wineries during the course of this week's blogging, but in the event we've had to make do with two boutiques, one already well established and famous, the other still making its way.

The Flam winery is at the bottom of the Jerusalem foothills, a few minutes south of the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem motorway: it's set back from the road among olive groves, in an ochre-stuccoed building that could have been lifted straight from Provence or Tuscany, apart from its modern architecture.

Golan Flam, one of the two brothers who runs the place, was born in Stellenbosch, South Africa, while his father Yisrael, who was the wine-maker of Carmel, was studying there, and wine has flowed in his veins ever since: he did his first degree at the Hebrew University's agriculture faculty in Rehovot, went on to a second degree in oenology at the University of Piacenza in Italy, carried on learning on the job at Greve in Chianti (poor chap), worked for a couple of years at Hardy's in South Australia, and went on from there.

Golan and Gilad founded the winery at 1998 at Moshav Ginaton, a few miles from Ben-Gurion airport: then, like now, they bought their grapes mainly from farmers in the villages of Kerem Ben-Zimra and Dishon in the central Galilee; they also buy from farmers at Karmei Yosef and other vineyards in the plain west of Jerusalem.

Golan showed us around the production line, where the grapes are fermented in large stainless steel vats at controlled temperatures of about 16 Celsius: they're also brought down to the winery in refrigerated lorries in order to ensure that they start fermentation in optimal conditions. Then downstairs to the cellar, where the wine lies in new oak barrels -- a mixture of French and Italian oak -- for 15 to 18 months. Golan says he prefers to avoid older barrels, because the aromas they add to the wine detract from the fruitiness that he wants to accentuate. In the case of the Chardonnay, he says, he prefers it completely unoaked.

Back upstairs again to the tasting. I'm going to cheat at this point: Rogov, who reviewed a number of Flam wines only 12 months ago Rogov on Flam wines, has far more educated taste buds than mine, and specialises in all the flowery metaphors for the fruits and herbs that characterise wine, whereas my literary talents go in other directions.

more to come

Edited December 31, 2005 by Tapenade (log)

[Swisskaese]

Here is some of David's Uncle Peter Rozsa's artwork:

This head in this picture is a copy of a Mayan bust that he cast in concrete. The blue pottery is also his, unfortunately the bottom broke.

[CaliPoutine]

"I made a herb omlette today. Can you guess what herbs I used? How much do fresh herbs cost where you live? How much do you get in a bunch?"

sage, thyme, chives, flat leaf parsely, oregano?

Herbs are expensive here. 1.69-2.00CAD for about a handful. Most of my clients and myself grow herbs in the summer. I rarely buy them. If I dont grown it, someone I know will. I have rosemary, thyme and parsely wintering over in our sunroom. So far, so good.

[Swisskaese]

"I made a herb omlette today. Can you guess what herbs I used? How much do fresh herbs cost where you live? How much do you get in a bunch?"

sage, thyme, chives, flat leaf parsely, oregano? 

Herbs are expensive here.  1.69-2.00CAD for about a handful.  Most of my clients and myself grow herbs in the summer.  I rarely buy them.  If I dont grown it, someone I know will.    I have rosemary, thyme and parsely wintering over in our sunroom.  So far, so good.

←

Randi you are correct. It wasn't that hard to figure out. We pay about .75USD per 40-50 grams of herbs.

[Swisskaese]

I highly recommend this book. It is written by one of our best Israeli authors, Amos Oz.

←

I am reading that book right now! started this weekend. I love it.

I wish I could have those cheeses to munch on while I was reading though... Especially the Sheeps cheese wrapped in bay leaves.

←

Klary, we should start an eGullet bookclub!