I had a lovely day today with my guest. We began by heading through Shuk HaCarmel, the crowded outdoor market in the center of Tel Aviv. Next door to the shuk is an area packed with fabric, notions, and trimmings stores, were there is a large arts and crafts fair held every Tuesday and Friday. When our tummies got bored of fabric and crafts, we headed down Allenby Street and made a right on the Tayelet, the promenade along the beach. It was worth the walk!
I'm a sucker for all you can eat salad spreads. At Armando, included in the price of an entree are 16 salads, bread, and a surprise bowl of fruit for dessert. Yes, I said sixteen!
Upon our waiter's recommendation, I ordered the European Sea Bass baked in rock salt (no, it's not salty!) and my friend got grilled Seabream. Both fish were delicious, fresh, moist, and tasty. However, the "architecture" of my baked bass was easier to navigate. It can take a little practice to navigate a whole fish. (For a tour, watch five and a half minutes into the first video on Fish: Dress, Bake, Eat.) Or take me out to lunch and I'll take out the bones for you; but I might use my fingers!
I'm glad we sat at a table for four, or we never could have fit all that food. The waiter placed the potatoes right on top of the other salads!
Below: Clockwise from top left, spicy carrots, roasted red peppers, shredded beets, eggplant (with other veggies or something, really yummy), spicy cooked beets, and shredded carrots.
For Passover this year I made gefilte fish. From scratch. Why? First, our family follows the Chasidic custom of not eating wet matzoh (gebroks in Yiddush, Shruria in Hebrew). That means we don't eat matzoh balls or matzoh bri on Pesach. We also don't eat most processed/manufactured foods during Pesach for kosher and health reasons. Second, I like a little food adventure, especially in traditional food making techniques.
I started with a whole frozen carp. It came in an opaque bag, so I didn't exactly know what I was getting. I had to start with frozen since my husband won't let me bring a live carp home and keep it in the bathtub. You see, carp are bottom feeders and their taste is greatly improved when they are kept in clean water for a couple days.
We have a little issue with the electricity in our apartment. If we have more than three major appliances on besides the fridge, we overload the circuit and half to go outside to the fuse box. So we can't have the washer, heater, hot water heater, and oven on at the same time. This has caused me to cook more things on our gas stove top. I recently made this delicious and very easy salmon from some odd shaped fresh salmon steaks.
I used my silicon brush to paint both sides of the salmon with a squirt of Hellmann's Mayonnaise garlic sandwich dressing, some dill, and coriander. I cooked it in a non-stick pan until the flesh was light pink and opaque. Then I removed the meat from the bone to make it easier for my family to eat. I transferred the boneless, skinless fish back to the pan and reheated before serving.
My favorite compliment from my husband, "Can you make this again?" began with my son running in from the park asking, "Can we have pasta and tuna and frozen corn?"
Yes, my children would have been satisfied with pasta covered in ketchup, tuna salad, and frozen, literally still frozen, corn. But, ew, really?
Though sardines are usually more expensive than canned tuna, I've been trying to steer my family toward these healthier and more ecological little fishies. I even found a brand I love. I call them "sardines for beginners." No heads, tails, spines or scales, and no fish breath. My husband was the last hold out, preferring the the dry mercury laden giants often called "the hot dog of fish" (canned tuna). But even he couldn't resist sardines smothered in this flavorful creamy sauce in a familiar, noodle casserole format.
For school lunch, try it cold, for a one-dish, energy packed, lunch to-go!
The sauce is so fast and easy to make, you can begin the prep at the same time you start the pasta water. And like all my "non-recipes" the ingredients are flexible.
I just read that Tarragon likes a hot sunny spot and is very tolerant of drought and poor soil. That must be why it's doing so well under my inconsistent care! My mother-in-law actually turned me on to salmon and tarragon. She makes a delicious simple dish by painting the salmon with mayonnaise, and seasoning generously with dry tarragon. Fresh tarragon leaves can also be added to green salad and used in tea (said to cure insomnia.) I'd like to share two ways I have made salmon with tarragon.
Today is the second episode of "Sugar Slashing Sunday." Barley might be my new favorite diabetic-friendly food. It is a great substitute for rice, and it has culinary benefits beyond health. Pearl or pearled barley has had the outer husk removed. Pearl barley has a Glycemic Index (GI) around 22-25, half that of regular rice (varies between 38-87 depending on variety), which means it will have a lower impact on post-meal blood glucose.
Barley can be a little more cumbersome to roll into sushi, but it stays springy and tender longer than white rice, which tends to dry out in the fridge. This makes pearl barley an excellent choice if you want to roll your sushi even two days in advance. By following the tips bellow, even novice sushi makers can to make this delicious, good-carb treat.
Last week I cooked some repeats (including Onion Challah, this time rolls with poppy seeds), and focused on some necessary family paper work while I let my husband handle the "cooking". Besides baking frozen shnitzel (breaded chicken paddies) and serving pasta with ketchup, he managed to whip up a tasty simple vegetable soup. He simmered carrot, onion and celery with garlic powder and salt in plain water. A good start and very welcome on a cold day. Especially with the Israeli staple, "soup nuts".
I've also been playing with Windows Live Movie Maker, which I downloaded on my gorgeous new hand-me-down laptop. Thanks dad!! Below is a remix of my fish videos beginning with how to make a homemade mayonnaise-type sauce for fish.
Below is the video of the lemon cutting method I mention in the video, followed by a pictures of the shuk at night, as promised.
Let me know what you think of my editing skills (or lack there of)! I hope to have some new dishes and ideas up before you can say "Polly Locket picked a box of pickled olives."
I'm no vegetarian, but if a creature is killed to be our dinner, we should treat it with respect and use as much of it as we can. When I lived in America, I never bought a fish with the skeleton included, but now I buy fresh fish at the market where I decide what to do with it. If I ask my fish monger to fillet it, I usually receive the head and skeleton in the bag. I was quite surprised the first time this happened, but of course, I had to find a way to use it!
OVERVIEW: The first time I made this I had a chunk of salmon skeleton and two full small tilapia skeletons. I boiled all the raw remains with chunks of potatoes. When the fish looked well cooked I fished it out (excused the pun) and threw in other vegetables and herbs. I may have also added fresh or a can of stewed tomatoes. I blended the soup, then picked the cooked skeletons clean and put the meat back in the soup.
I've mentioned my technique for making a sauce for fish from mayonnaise. I thought it was time to demonstrate.
Traditional mayonnaise would include whipping a pasteurized egg yolk into an emulsion, adding a couple drops of vinegar (or acid of your choice), then VERY slowly at first adding an entire cup of oil. You can do this with a whip attachment on a hand blander or food processor.
Before I talk about dinner, I want to share two tricks. I think I learned this first trick from Alton Brown on Good Eats, but I couldn't find the clip, so maybe it was my imagination. But it works! Have a head of wilted lettuce? Put it in a big bowl of cold water with a splash of vinegar. Poof! Magically, your lettuce can pass for fresh. (20 minute soak recommended.) And it will keep looking fresh in the fridge for a couple days. You don't have to worry about it turning back to its old wilty self as soon as the guests arrive. (I took pictures, but wilted lettuce isn't very appetizing, and would you really believe a before-and-after photo?)
The second trick is just a fancy way to cut a lemon. It won't help you get the juice out, but it makes a nice presentation.
Today I went to the city market (shuk) with my favorite shuk-buddy - A Mother in Israel. She showed me a great little Ethiopian spice shop. I'm sure you'll hear more about it as soon as I successfully cook some of the legumes I picked up there.
At the shuk I bought the usual fruits and veggies which were in season, including persimmons, a pomegranate, 1.5 kilos of honey, pistachios, and a chunk of winter squash that they call pumpkin. It looked like a giant butternut squash on the outside, but it wasn't as sweet. I'm going to use the leftovers to try something like Pumpkin Soup with Wine and Rosemary on Cooking Manager. I actually have some rosemary I need to use up. And of course, no trip to the shuk is complete without fish! My favorite is wild Norwegian Salmon, but I try to stick to thinks that more local, and less expensive. Today I picked up five whole Amnon, a kind of Tilapia native to the Sea of Galilee (The Kineret), but I think mine grew up on a fish farm in Northern Israel. Tilapia does well in close quarters like a fish farm, so it is considered a very responsible choice, ecologically, and there's no concern of mercury. Amnon is a favorite of my mother-in-law, but when she was visiting I was too scared of all those little bones to make it. These fish were a little bigger than what I tried the first time, but I think I still swallowed a tiny bone.
We had guests tonight; not the best time to experiment. I usually compensate with extra dishes in case they don't all work out. Usually there is something for everyone and everything is tasty, even if it's not what I expected. Today was an exception, with burnt Ethiopian chick peas reminiscent of my first popcorn attempt, to bland squash that didn't cook in time. Fortunately, there were enough successful dishes for a well balanced meal. The couscous was okay without the chick peas and my guests weren't scared off when face-to-face with a whole fish. I think the consensus was that it was fun to eat. Not exactly a quick bite, but nice for sitting and talking to your guests. I recommend having something like a trash bowl on or near the table in order to get some bones off your plate to make room for other food or further dissecting the fish.
I rinsed each fish thoroughly to make sure no scales were hanging around. Then I started to make a sort of homemade mayonnaise: One egg, a splash of vinegar, and mustard in a food processor, then drizzle in olive oil. Then I threw in a bunch of fresh dill (no stems), pulse, then half a red onion, pulse until well chopped. I smeared that all over the inside and outside of the fish. Baked in a preheated 205 C/400 F degree oven for 20-30 minutes covered, 5 minutes uncovered. I found it to be very delicate and slightly sweet.
I also made a version of the salad mentioned in my pomegranate post, except I used romaine and parsley instead of baby greens.
Upon our waiter's recommendation, I ordered the European Sea Bass baked in rock salt (no, it's not salty!) and my friend got grilled Seabream. Both fish were delicious, fresh, moist, and tasty. However, the "architecture" of my baked bass was easier to navigate. It can take a little practice to navigate a whole fish. (For a tour, watch five and a half minutes into the first video on Fish: Dress, Bake, Eat.) Or take me out to lunch and I'll take out the bones for you; but I might use my fingers!
