recipes & cooking tips

Take two mid-sized egg plants – just put them on the stove’s open fire. Make sure you turn them around every once in a while. After about 5-7 minutes, they will tare and smell the whole house of wonderful roasting eggplant. Give them more time, until their peel is all cracked up.

Let the eggplants cool off.

Peel the eggplants.

Put them (without the thorn) into a big plate, where you’re going to made the Baba-Ghanush. To the plate, add 2-3 tablespoons of Tahini, salt, pepper, Squeeze in 2 big juicy lemons, 4-6 crushed garlic tooth.

Using a fork, mice the eggplants, mix them well with all other ingredients. You’ll have the salad ready in 1 minute of good mixing.

Now is the “West meets East” part of the dish, the twist. Romanians make their eggplant salad with Mayonnaise while in the mid-east, it is being done with Tahini.
Being a offspring of fusion of Romania and Lebanon, I now add a good tablespoon of Mayonnaise into the ball, and mix well. See how the color changes to be lighter.

Put the ball in the fridge, let it cool, and let all the ingredients love each other.

Tags: Cooking, recipes, vegetarian, salad

The summer is officialy over. From my window to the Jaffa sea, I can smell the winds of autumn, hear the waves breaking on the old port's wall. The sun's path is lower. The birds are different. My neighbours are preparing their houses to the furious sea-borne winds and rain that winter shall surely bring.


This salad has it all: the colors and tastes of summer, along with the darker wetter feel of the forthcoming winter. Just the salad to go with your autumn mood. I first made it in Lilach’s old house in Neve-Zedek, about two-three years ago.

Ingredients

• Lettuce leaves – torn by hands


• 2 cucumbers (small American, regular Mediterranean) cut to thin sticks


• Pecan nuts - crushed. easy crush tip: put them in a plastic baggy, and pound them with whatever you want (a glass?).


• Rockford cheese - grounded


• Steamed Asparagus, cut in rings


• 2 slices of mango cut in small cubes


• 1 small avocado cut to cubes

Dressing
Lemon, vinegar, sesame seeds, Za'atar (Majorana syriaca) (if you can’t get the real thing – don’t use a substitute), salt, ground black pepper, sesame oil

Nature has so many textures tastes and colors. The less you touch it, the tastier the dish gets. Handle everything lightly.

Tags: recipes, salad, vegetarian