NOSH AND TELL

Nosh and Tel Aviv- Shakshuka

Hello everyone! This is my third installment of Nosh and Tel Aviv! Today I want to talk about Shakshuka or שקשוקה in Hebrew. I had this dish a few days ago at a great little cafe and I thought it would be an interesting topic to blog on since I’ve never seen it anywhere but here!

The dish is of North African origin and contains two staple ingredients- eggs, hot sauce/spices tomatoes, as well as the optional onions, red peppers, potatoes, leeks and even sausages. Like you can see in the pictures below, Shakshuka is always served in the pan that it is cooked in along with copious amounts of pita, or thickly sliced bread to mop up all those delicious juices.

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Shakshuka Basic Recipe- adapted by Janna Gur’s book, The Book of New Israeli Food.

4 tbs oil

2 cloves garlic

5 large tomatoes, peeled and diced

mixture of crushed garlic, hot peppers and paprika*

salt and pepper

2 tablespoons tomato pasta

8 eggs

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin (optional)

pinch of ground caraway (optional)

Heat oil in a frying pan and fry the garlic. Add in the tomatoes and seasoning and cook for about 20 minutes over low heat and partially covered. Add the tomato paste and adjust spices as needed. * Janna says you can also use Zhug, Filfel Chuma, or Harissa in the recipe as a substitute for the crushed garlic, paprika and hot peppers. I think you should whichever spices you prefer. I’m guessing that in the US, the latter option will be the easiest to find. Break eggs into the pan one by one and slide onto the tomato sauce. Turn heat on low and cook until the egg whites are cooked through (5-7 minutes). DONE! SERVE.

I haven’t made this dish myself yet, but I thought that sharing this recipe might inspire you all to try cooking some new food and to utilize new spices. Janna Gur’s cookbook is really amazing. Her words have become my own personal scripture as she provides not only recipes, but also historic background on Israeli food. I suggest you pick up a copy if you can!

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And what does it taste like? It definitely has a very particular flavor. Of the times that I have had it here, it has been very spicy- not in an eye watering sort of way, but definitely spicy for my lil tastebuds. The overarching flavor is tomato but the red pepper flavor is also very prominent. The eggs are my favorite part. They have been delicately poached in this delectable liquid. When you cut them open, the yellow runs into the tomato sauce and it just becomes this giant bowl of vegetarian chili.

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The best part about Shakshuka is definitely using a hefty amount of bread to mop up all of the last mounds of sauce. For those of you who don’t handle spicy flavors so much like me, the bread can also help soothe the burn.

Janna Gur also provides several other ways to make this dish, most interesting to me is called the “Israeli Army Shakshuka” which includes baked beans and kettle corn into the mix. That just further emphasizes the vegetarian chiliness of the dish. Would it be wrong to add some bright orange cheese?

Bon Eating!

Ariel

E.V.O.Oh My Gah I'm in Italy (2)!

Yesss I am still in Italia! But no this post is not on Italian food–I promise, I’ll get there. But before I got to Firenze I went to Paris to visit my friend Anjali and to have a European Reunion with lots of our friends. It was a ton of fun and I am SO happy that we got to go! I think we had a little too much fun…

While we were there we ate tons of crepes, cheese and other buttery delicious Parisian food. (and some frozen pizza–or 2–at 6 am…but we don’t need to get into that). One night we went to restaurant called Le Refuge Des Fondues–more commonly known among Americans/NYUers as “the baby bottle place”. To explain: they serve wine in baby bottles. As my parents pointed out, weird, but surprisingly fun and something we just had to do. Le Refuge is on the hill on the way up to Sacre Coeur in Paris. We had been up to Sacre Coeur earlier in the trip and it’s really pretty, I had never been up there before but it offers a beautiful view of Paris if you aren’t gonna go up to the top of the Eiffel Tower. So anyway Le Refuge is near there. It’s a teeny tiny little place with writing all over the wall from visitors past and money taped up to the walls from all over the world.

Food wise you get a choice of meat or cheese. It’s fondue style, hence the name of the restaurant. When you first sit down you get a little plate of cut salamis, cheese, olives and other little finger foods. It was decent. Not great but the food here isn’t the main attraction–it’s the baby bottles. For the fondue we chose both meat and cheese. The meat you cook in a little pot with oil in it. The cheese comes with bread and is normal fondue style. They also give you potatoes to fry in the oil for a few minutes but I highly recommend just smothering them in the cheese. Then of course there’s the infamous wine in baby bottles: you get a choice of red or white. We all chose white wine I think…and it was decent. I would say overall that the food and the wine were decent. It was more about the experience. Of drinking wine out of a baby bottle…weird but surprisingly fun.

Of course we all signed a dollar bill–actually I think it was Ukrainian money that our friend Lindsay had–and stuck it up on the wall. If you’re in Paris and you are just dying to drink wine out of baby bottles then this is your place! It’s cozy and cute and you can get fondue, meat and wine for around 17 euros. Not too shabby. I think this is just one of those places that you have to go to just so you can say you’ve been there. I don’t think I’ll go again but who knows.

Here are some other various pictures of the food while I was in Paris: crepes galore…ugh the Nutella crepes SO GOOD. Also I promise my next post will be from Italia–it’s just hard because I can never get good pictures in restaurants at night! My plate of delicious steaming pasta ends up looking like a pile of weird colored mush at night with not much light. Anyway I shall try. For now: here were my food adventures in Paree!

Buona Eating!

Whitney

The Israeli Patisserie-Bakery

Hello! This is my second installment of my Nosh and Tel Aviv posts! Today I’d like to talk about the Israeli bakery. The word bakery usually connotes, at least to me, a place that smells like bread- if it is baked on the premises, but also sells sickly sweet muffins, donuts and a hot cup of joe. They are not only extremely monotonous in their offerings but they also are a bit dangerous for anyone watching their diet. Weight watchers would surely shun the chocolate eclairs, the buttery scones and pale, white bread. The other bakeries I think of, especially in New York, are trendy cupcake bars like Crumbs, and Magnolia. What is similar about all of these bakeries is that they are usually walk in, purchase, walk out and devour on the couch in front of the TV. While there really is nothing wrong with all that, I definitely have been in the mood for something different…

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Bakeries in Israel don’t really resemble in the slightest these sorts of descriptions. They are more bakery/patisserie/cafes. The bakery I was in today is called Cafe Diemme, located on the corner of Dizengoff and Frishman in Tel Aviv.

As I walked in to this unassuming little bakery that’s no larger than my Hostel’s bedroom, the smell of freshly baking bread came over me. The staff cheerfully sung to the Elton John song that was playing on the radio, as they quickly prepared cups of coffee for the patrons. Move over starbucks!

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The first thing I saw, was a bunch of baskets with bread and several sauces to dip the pieces in..for free! FREE FOOD?!?! I was already too happy for words. There was olive oil with balsamic, jam, butter, tomato spread, and sea salt. I helped myself to the snacks and took a look at all of the fresh goodies that the bakery had to offer.

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What? No muffins? No Donuts with rainbow sprinkles? This is where things diverged from the average American bakery. The offerings at Caffe Diemme were mainly bread based and resembled focaccia and pizza. Everything looked extremely fresh, baked with newly picked produce and herbs. I thought bakeries were only for breakfast! Here I could probably sit for breakfast, lunch and dinner and not get at all bored!

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Elise and I ordered the bread you see at the bottom here. It was basically a pizza crust with sliced tomatoes and fresh herbs. After we ordered, we sat outside and waited for our bread. The waiter quickly brought out what we got and I was surprised to see a steaming hot plate of soft bread and juicy tomatoes. For those of you who know me, I think that warm bread is perhaps one of the most simple pleasures in life. Needless to say, we devoured the bread without saying a word. It was so soft and delicious- and not the least bit oily.

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Overall, this was an extremely delicious bakery experience. We also ordered ice coffees and they were REALLY GOOD. I have to admit that I rescind my previous comment about Israeli coffee. It’s a little bit stronger than I’m used to but it’s really growing on me. I can really appreciate it’s flavor and the caffeine boost.

So what I’ve learned from going to caffe diemme is that sometimes, a small, modest bakery can be more fulfilling than sitting in one of those chains cafes. I’m not trying to make American bakeries sound bad, really. I love them- I love muffins and all those breakfast pastries. But it is definitely nice to experience this new type of bakery that has so much to offer. We can’t forget that Israel has its fair share of chain places like the Coffee Bean and Aroma- but I think it’s best to experience the unique places, right? And they’re so easy to find!

As I sat outside, eating my bread with my iced coffee, and basking in the beautiful sunlight, I felt incredibly lucky for being able to experience all of this. It is truly remarkable to be able to live in such a wonderful place. The food is merely a piece of all the amazing things about Israel, but hopefully if I can convey how unique/delightful/delicious it is, then you can use your imagination to picture the rest.

Bon eating,

Ariel

E.V.O.Oh my gah I'm in Italy!

So I actually made these Snack Mix Bars before I left to come to Firenze but I’m here! To steal Rachael Ray’s phrase (ugh never thought I’d say that) EVOOh my gahhh I’m in Italy! It is absolutely GORGEOUS here and the food is AMAZING! I think the Italian language is so beautiful and I am thrilled to be able to study it (and the cuisine) in a place like Florence! More about the food here later. For now: Snack Mix Bars.

I found these on Inn Cuisine back in September, yes these have been on the “to bake” list for a while. To my surprise these are actually a no bake bar! I’m not sure why it surprised me when I actually got down to making these but yes, in fact, they are a no bake. This combined with the fact that they are addictingly delicious makes them a must make! A must make, no bake, heh. The only thing bad about these chunky bars is that you do have to let them sit a little while to harden up…you might think this is easy now, but just wait till the smell of peanut butter, butter, marshmallows and chocolate is wafting through your kitchen. My suggestion: just walk away. These would be absolutely perfect for kids or if you have to make things in bulk, like for a bake sale or party. They’re super easy and will please even the most tough of baking critics with the salty & sweet flavor combo. My mom and dad were shocked that I pretty much devoured the entire pan in a matter of days because they considered the Snack Mix bars “ugly” but hey, never judge a book by its cover.

Snack Mix Bars
Adapted from Inn Cuisine

3 cups pretzel sticks (snapped into thirds)
2 & 1/3 cups Wheat Chex
2 cups plain M&M’s (feel free to experiment with other varieties–I did 1 cup regular and 1 cup peanut butter M&Ms)
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter (I prefer Jif Natural)
5 & 1/2 cups miniature marshmallows

In a large mixing bowl, combine pretzels, Wheat Chex and M&M’s. In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt butter and peanut butter; add mini marshmallows, cooking and stirring until the marshmallows are melted and the mixture is smooth. Pour over pretzel mixture; stirring and tossing gently to coat. Press mixture into a greased 13″x9″x2″ baking dish. Cool until firm (away from hot kitchen lights), cut into squares and serve.

Yield: approximately 2 dozen (more or less depending on the size squares you cut–by halfway through the pan I just started ripping chunks off, yummmm)

Buon Eating. More to come from Italia soon!