This bread is like a larger pocket-less pita bread. It is traditionally made by the Druze on a hemispherical pan placed upside down over a propane burner. A wok turned upside down over a gas burner would be similar. Since I have an electric stove, I set a baking steel over two of the burners Read More …
Everyday Schug is an easy version of a chili paste which is popular in Israel. This version is taken from Israeli Soul by Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook. Use with discretion since it is both very spicy and salty. I used it for the first time in shawarma sandwiches. ½ lb. serrano chilies, stems removed Read More …
I was looking for a good weeknight dinner to go with some baguettes and decided to adapt a basic shakshuka recipe from Joan Nathan’s The Foods of Israel Today. The original recipe came from the Tripolitana Doktor Shakshuka Restaurant in Jaffa. My main change was adding some feta. This recipe is intended to be 6 Read More …
This is a recipe adapted from the New York Times to fill the Bureka Dough in another posting. The whole recipe will fill one batch of the dough, or it can be easily halved and the other half of the dough used for a different filling. 1 medium eggplant (about 1 lb./455 grams) 2 Read More …
This is a recipe adapted from the New York Times to fill the Bureka Dough in another posting. The whole recipe will fill one batch of the dough, or it can be easily halved and the other half of the dough used for a different filling. 1 package (16 oz./455 grams) frozen chopped spinach, Read More …
On November 28, 2018, the New York Times published an article on a group of Jewish women in Atlanta, who make burekas (essentially Middle Eastern empanadas) for an annual synagogue bazaar. One of the things I found charming about the article is that their recipe has evolved over the years to use White Lily flour, Read More …
A recipe appeared in Saveur magazine in 2016 from the Mikla restaurant in Istanbul which had lamb shanks in a red wine sauce accompanied by a béchamel sauce with roasted eggplant. I made this dish last night as shown in the photograph. My conclusion was that the lamb shanks in the wine sauce was very Read More …
Matbucha is a kind of tomato jam of Moroccan origin which is popular in Israel. I made a batch as an ingredient for a shakshuka focaccia, which I made for lunch yesterday. Everyone’s initial reaction was that it was delicious, and their second reaction was that it was too salty. Accordingly, below I have reduced Read More …
This was served at today’s Middle Eastern themed Father’s Day lunch. It is adapted from what I think is the best community cookbook ever published, The Complete Book of Greek Cooking by The Recipe Club of Saint Paul’s Greek Orthodox Cathedral. It was very good with pitas and tzatziki sauce 3 lbs. boneless skinless chicken Read More …
This traditional Armenian soup pushes a number of buttons for me. It is based on yogurt, which I like to make, and is full of cucumbers, which Carol likes. I thought it would be a good warm-weather dish which would be an alternative to a traditional salad, just like gazpacho is. Here is my Read More …