Project on hold

Dear imaginary readership,

this project is now on hold. The reason: I'm off to China for a while, which I'm sure will be rife with cooking and eating opportunities, but which are unlikely to involved Jerusalem in any form.

I'm starting a new blogging project, which will be located here: http://italianlaowaigirl.blogspot.ch/

if anyone's interested, on my experiences in China. I do hope I can go back to the cooking of Jerusalem but this is not the moment.

So, shalom, salaam for now.

Spice cookies

Not another brownie recipe!

Oops, I did again... went 3 weeks with no recipes. Not even a valid excuse. Anyoo, as planned I tried a dessert recipe. These cookies, unlike most of the food in Jerusalem are pretty much Germanic, albeit not German Jewish. Apparently they're derived from the eats brought by Protestant Germans settling in the Holy Land in the 19th century. As you can see, they do have that "kuchen" appearance.

To make about 18 cookies:

125 grs raisins
a cup of brandy (I used rum instead)
240 grs flour
2 tbsps cocoa
60 grs dark chocolate, coarsely grated
1 tbsp baking soda
1 tbsp baking powder
1 egg
butter and oil
125 grs sugar
1 tbsp vanilla

Soak the raisins in rum. Mix together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and chocolate (I actually recommend using more than I did). In a different bowl, beat the butter, oil, sugar and vanilla, then add the egg, still beating. Add the dry ingredients, then the raisins and a bit of the rum. Mix everything and knead into little spheres. Leave in the fridge for about one hour, then place on a baking tray covered by a baking sheet and bake at 190 C for 15-20 minutes (make sure the cookies are separate enough or they'll stick to one another!)

These came out decently. They make a pleasant dessert, and while they look very much like brownies, the rum and raisins give them a new twist. There's also a glaze using lemon and orange zest that probably makes them more interesting, but zest is one of those things I don't do. But this might explain why they're called spice cookies but aren't well, spicy or spiced up.

Just, next time I might a) bake them slightly less than I did b) put more chocolate, they could do with more chocolateyness (but you can never overdo chocolateney ness, says I).

Onion and tomato couscous

At least I got to use my cool Moroccan plate-when otherwise?

I got beyond my expectations and managed to squeeze in one more post for October! Go, me. Shame the result was iffy.
A friend who also uses the Jerusalem cookbook had been recommending this recipe. I assumed it would be pretty straightforward, in spite of never have been much of a couscous maker. As a home dish, in my mind it's mainly a carbo-rich side dish. So this was my first real attempt to make "something" out of couscous. I think in this case, I really overdid my tendency to skip or replace ingredients (BUY TOMATO PUREE!!).

So this is what I did:

100 grs quick-made couscous (yes, I used that. Tar and feather me).
1 onion, thinly sliced.
2 diced tomatoes
Olive oil
Butter
salt&pepper

Heat up the onion with olive oil in a skillet (you're supposed to put in tomato puree as well). Add the tomatoes, salt, and pepper, cook for about 3 mins.
Boil the couscous for 1 min. (You're supposed to pour boiling stock over it. Needless to say, I didn't have stock, let alone the "good quality" one that the recipe recommends).
Pour tomato and onion sauce on the couscous, set aside (oops, I forgot to cool the couscous down).
Clean up the skillet, melt butter and oil. Add couscous and sauce. Leave to steam at low temperature for 10-12 mins. That's where the recipe really went west.
This dish is supposed to look like this . If you look at mine, it obviously doesn't. It's supposed to be nice and crusty, and you scrape it off from the pan with a knife. It just stayed a regular couscous, with some tomato and onion. An ok starchy side dish, but just blah.

While certainly not a disaster, this was definitely a fail. I guess next time I should make sure I really follow the recipe, but I wonder if there's something else I did wrong, because it didn't solidify at all like it was supposed to.

Some housekeeping

Hmm. My modus operandi for this project has been brusts of consecutive posts followed by long periods of silence. Ideally, I'd like to avoid this. I think about 3 recipes per month (4 if I manage) is a realistic goal as of now, though that might change if I suddenly get much busier and/or as I plow my way through the more hassle-free recipes. I suppose some more orgnaized person would get into a routine, such as posting every Thursday or whatever.
Realistically, I won't be trying anymore recipes until early November, as I'm going to be travelling at the end of this month. I'm mulling as to what to try next, either a couscous or I'll go back to some baking. But I really want to try to keep an about 3 posts a month average, and anyway no longer disappear for months!

Stuffed aubergines

I love aubergines, but when I cook them, I basically do only one thing: dice them, heat them with oil, eat them as a side dish or mix them with tomato sauce and eat them with pasta.  And I'm generally a bit wary of stuffed foods, but this turned out not to be too much of a hassle (and technically, the aubergines aren't stuffed).
For 2 people:
2 aubegines
300 grs minced lamb
50 grs pine nuts
cinnamon
paprika
I massively simplified the spices involved. I also forgot to buy parsley and pureed tomato. Note to self: buy pureed tomato next time you're at the supermarket! It's useful! 

Put the aubergines cut in halves, skin down, in a roasting tin, with olive oil and pepper. Leave at 200 d. for about 20 minutes. In the meantime, cook the lamb mince in a pan with the cinnamon, curry and pine nuts.
Remove the aubergines from the oven, leave to cool, put the lamb mixture on top, put back in the oven at around 180 degrees for about one nour and half. Now you're supposed to make a fancy sauce involving cinnamon sticks which is probably amazing, but, once again, I don't have cinnamon sticks, I'm not sure where to find them. If the local (and decently-furnished) supermark doesn't sell it, I don't do it. This is proving to be the one consistent issue with this experiment, and one that Mssrs Ottolenghi and Tamimi should have addressed since their book is targeted at European readers, a lot of these spices are a) hard to find, even in multicultural areas b) what are you going to do with a whole jar or bag of some weird spice you won't need again? This is not the Middle East where you have markets that sell you exactly the quantity you want!

Anyway, enough kvetching, back to the recipe. The obvious issue with this is that it takes time, so you have to cook it well in advance (or maybe it's not an issue for those less disorganized than yours truly). It could also have benefited from some kind of sauce, as an alternative to the cinnamon one I was thinking yoghurt based (which would de-kasherize it, if that's an issue).  Otherwise, baking aubergines in the oven is a way to go, by all means so  that was a neat discovery. And it improved staying in the fridge over night, all the juices blended nicely and it became tastier.

Barley risotto with feta cheese

I don'tknow why the light turned so yellow on this one...

Shouldn't this be called barleyotto? or orzotto? Ok, enough with the lame jokes. As implied, this is a barley dish cooked like a risotto but, according to Mssrs Ottolenghi & Tamimi "without the exact precision and meticulous preparation", ie a recipe right up my alley. Indeed, I don't do risotto, because it's not really in my tradition (though my Tessin-raised grandma would make me an awesome saffron risotto when I was little) and because, let's face it, it's a bit of  a pain.
So here goes:
butter
oil
200 grs pearl barley
700 ml vegetable stock (I made this from a stock cube. Sue me)
100 grs feta cheese
cumin seeds
oregano
thyme
canned tomatoes
one onion
 1 tbsp salt

In a large pan, warm up the oil, butter and onion. Add the pre-rinsed barley, the stock, thyme, oregano, salt and chopped tomatoes. Bring to a boil, then leave to simmer for about 45 mins, stirring frequently so that the barley doesn't stick to the pan, and adding water if necessary. The water should be absorbed by the end. In the meantime, marinade the feta cheese with oil, oregano and cumin seeds. Add said feta to barley.

This dish was more straightforward than I thought it would be. It needs watching, but not manically so, and I suspect rice has a bigger tendency to stick than barley. It's warm and filling. The slight issue I had is that it's a bit mealy. Possibly this is because I didn't add the chili flakes and other stuff which would spice it up, but then I don't think it would gain in being outright spicy, at least for my personal taste. It's not 100% hassle free, since it does require some time and effort, but definitely a dish to add to a repertoire, especially in winter.

Cannellini and Lamb soup

'cuz everything's better with coriander, right?

I recently discussed eating legumes with a friend and as a consequence decided to look up some recipes containing them in Jerusalem. This specific recipe does contain beans but obviously doesn't encourage vegetarianism.
I have an ambivalent relationship with legumes. I hated them as a child. Now I like them, but not love them, and only when they're nicely cooked and not tough. This specific recipe involves:
-lamb (the piece I used was about 150 grs I guess).
- 200 grs cannellini beans
- Charlotte potatoes-it's up to you how many, really.
-4 cardamome pods. And crush them! I didn't, and they kept floating in my soup.
a tbsp tomato purée
salt

Put the lamb, cut in cubes, in boiling water with salt. Let simmer about 20 mins and remove the scum regularly. I'm not used to boiling meat, and it's not pretty. Especially if you don't watch your pot because you're trying to see The Simpsons in the meantime, and find your pan exploding with brownish foam, But it does go away . So you should have a broth, at this point.. Add the cannellini, which should have been left to soak overnight (or a whole day). This is important or they'll be uneadible. Don't listen to anyone who tells you it's enough to soak legumes for a few hours. Add the cardamome pods and the tomato purée. Leave to simmer for one hour (this time you can watch tv in the process, as long as you go check the pot once in a while and add water if necessary). Add the potatoes, wait another 20 mins, or until the beans and potatoes are soft.

This is a warm, conforting dish. However I add a few issues with it. Mainly, it's a bit of a pain to make. It doesn't require massive activity but it takes long, and boiling the meat was a pain. Then, the cannellini were ok, but still a bit tough for my taste. I've been advised to use baking soda in the soaking water. Thirdly, but this admittedly my fault since I don't really bother with proportions, there were tons of beans and potatoes and not that much meat. I had beans and potato soup for two more days. I know a lot of people deliberately create leftovers but I don't, I'm too worried I'll end up throwing out stuff if have a few unplanned restaurant trips or something (it has been known to happen, by the way)... The potatoes felt stuffy and kinda pointless. I guess they add carbs to the dish, but I'm wondering if a handful of rice wouldn't have been more pleasant.
My verdict: an interesting dish but not one I plan to make again soon, except maybe for guests where the effort and large quantities make more sense.

Harissa fish

My fish, very saucy and coriandery. Also please admire the cat tray.

...and I'm back. Still haven't given up. I have some excuses for not advancing in my project, namely that this summer I was actually in Jerusalem, where most of the cooking I did was pasta with tomato sauce and tuna. But hey, when you're living the holy city you can't cook it as much.
Anyway, I decided to try another fish recipe. I changed so much stuff that I won't bother to allude to the original recipe, which, for one thing, is supposed to be sea bass. I'm not sure how to find seabass outside of England. So I went for sole. I think any white fish might work, but preferably one of the more delicate ones.
Anyway, here goes:
sole filets
flour
a tbs of harissa.
salt.
For the sauce:
vinegar
cinnamon
a tbs of honey
chopped coriander
Spread harissa (I use sambal instead, we've been here before) on the soles. Cover them in flour, fry in a pan (mine didn't fry).
Take soles out of pan after a few mins, add vinegar and cinnamon and some more water. Simmer. Add water if necessary. (You're supposed to put onions as well, but I don't do onions that much. You're also supposed to put yet another of those unfindable magic ingredients, edible rose petals).
Add honey.
When it looks ready, pour on fish. Add coriander (as you can see from the pic, I was heavy handed with the coriander, but what can I do, I have a soft spot for coirander).
This was a fun dish. The sweet and sour, or rather sweet and spicy effect was pretty good (according to the book you can add currants as well, which would probably work very nicely). The advice was also to add rice or a green, I just put some very ordinary frozen spinach next to it, and I must say it worked well and was spiced up by the sauce too.
So I was happy with my come back recipe, though it's probably really great if followed properly, but it's not practical for me to do that. Jerusalem is not only cooked but adapted and simplified, but it's still true to this amazing city' heart.

In which courgette hamburgers go pear-shaped, or rather shapeless

                                          This tasted better than it looked...

I fail  meatballs, it seems.I remember once I attempted to make some with bread crumbs and ground beef, and the result wasn't pretty. I wanted to try this recipe because I often eat chicken burgers (as in, those you buy already made) and I liked the courgette combination. But something didn't quite go well in the meatball-making process, as is obvious from the photo.  Possibly the usual reducing-proportion issue? Or that I was in a hurry and was running around the kitchen like those cuisine programmes where people have to make a 3-course meal in 30 seconds, or something? Anyway, here goes:

- This recipe goes with a sauce which, as can be easily inferred, shows that this is a Jerusalem cookbook and not a Jewish one, and I understand that Arabs often use dairy-based sauces for meat:

Mix in a small bowl 100 grs sour cream, 1 cup Greek yogurt (but I used some nice one from the Swiss countryside), a teaspoon of crushed garlic, lemon juice, salt pepper. You're also supposed to put sumac in it. Now, Yotam and Samimi, I thought I'd gotten by now all the spices I needed, what the heck is sumac? Needless to say, I went sans sumac. Put in the fridge.

For the meatballs, mix in a large bowl the minced turkey, 2 teaspoons crushed garlic, cumin, one egg, salt, crushed mint, pepper, 3 roughly grated mini-courgettes. Mix and make into meatballs. Here, I had the impression there wasn't enough meat in proportion to the other ingredients. Maybe the mistake was that, after putting 2 mini courgettes, I went "There's no such thing as too much courgette! Plus it's green and colourful!" thus producing an excess of courgettitude.

Afterwards, you're supposed to fry the meatballs in heated sunflower oil. I never pre-heat oil, I think it's healthier and reduces the risk of hot oil going all over the place...But this is where my already poor-looking meatballs began to undo themselves. I was tempted to transform the whole thing in a kind of chili, but still went through the rest of the recipe, putting the meatballs in the oven at 200 C for 7 minutes. This is when they lost all semblance of meatballness. However, it actually tasted good! The sauce was nice too, but then I'm a sucker for anything containing sour cream. And I wouldn't advice making this dish for a romantic dinner, since it's a bit garlic-heavy. Either that, or remove the garlic.

So there's definitely room for improvement in this recipe, as in, I basically need to improve my meatball-making skills. Because right now, I couldn't have really brought the dish to a picnic or as lunch to work, as Mssrs Ottolenghi&Tamimi suggest (they say it's "portable").

Aaand I'm back: fish with harissa and orange salsa.

I realize I haven't been doing too well on my project since it's mid-May and this is my first post for 2013, but life and stuff have been happening, but I'd never given up in my mind. To tell the truth, I'd gotten slightly bored with Jerusalem's mealy desserts, so I decided to try one of the fish dishes, especially as I'm always looking for ways to make what I call "hospital fish" (ie bland, white fish of any sort) more interesting. Here goes my semplified recipe:

filets of cod (the recipe calls for mackerel)
2 oranges
1 lemon
harissa (we'll get to that)
black olives
parsley
cumin seeds
coriander

Re: the harissa, there were 2 potential problems: 1) I have a fairly mild palate and generally go about extremely carefully with harissa considering past experiences, those aren't tastebuds I'll be getting back. 2) My local supermarket, while reasonably well equipped in "ethnic" foodstuffs, didn't carry harissa. I'm sure  would have found it easier in a Middle Eastern food store or even a better equipped supermarket, but I just couldn't be bothered. I knew from reason 1) I wouldn't be making massive use of the stuff, so why be particularly "purist" about the stuff? After standing in a hamletic pose for several minutes in the condiment aisle, I settled for sambal. Which is basically a South East Asian equivalent of harissa. I mean, it's a chili paste that's red and spicy, it can't be that different?

Another point: the recipe calls for the use of golden beetroot. I have no idea what golden beetroot is (apart from the fact that presumably it's a beetroot and has a golden colour) or where to find it, so, once again I just didn't bother. I've been accused in the past of remaking recipes so that they aren't really the same thing anymore, but I struggle to believ that a beetroot is going to make a world of difference. Maybe once I have more time I'll try again and chase the Golden Beetroot of Wonder.

So, as to the actual recipe:

mix a couple of teaspoons of harissa with cumin seeds and a pinch of salt. Smear it on the fish. It really depends on how much fish you have, but I was quite parsimonious with the mixture, because I had no wish to set my mouth on fire. Then put the fish away.

Peel and cut into small cubes 2 oranges and half a lemon, mix them with the parsley, olives, cumin and coriander and juice of the other half lemon (I took a picture of the salsa on its own because it just looked so pretty, but my phone ate it, it seems). Cook the fish in a skillet with olive oil for a few minutes, add the salsa.

If I can say so myself, this dish was great. The effect of the slight spiciness with the bittersweet flavour of the orange and lemon is fresh and delicious. Definitely something to try again to spice up (indeed) some boring fish, and fairly straightforward and quick to make to boot!

Behold the kranz!

You know the bit in Julie and Julia when Julie needs to debone the duck? The kranz was sort of the equivalent for me (albeit I'm not attempting to cook all of Jerusalem, that would be slightly insane). But the kranz comes with a warning that it's "neither easy nor quick to make", i.e. not generally what I go looking for in a recipe. So I decided it would be a nice challenge for those lazy, cooped-up days around Christmas. It turned out more of a challenge than I expected, and not for the reasons I thought. Suffice to say, it's supposed to sit overnight but it took three flippin' days to make. Something didn't quite go as it was supposed to, though I managed to fix it. Still, this is a labour of love.

I still haven't gotten round to explaining what  a kranz is: it means "crown" in German and is a uber-Askhenazi cake (one of the few in this more Mediterranean-centred book) with a chocolate filling that is made into two "braided" parts (hence the crown or garland). Here is my recipe, with my adaptations and the further adaptions I plan to make should I attempt to repeat the experiment.

Ingredients:
270 grs flour
50 grs caster sugar
half a cube of yeast (the original recipe calls for "fast-action dried yeast". Now, if someone happens not only to be really reading here but also to be British,can you explain what this is? Because I don't get the point of fast-action yeast in cake that's supposed to sit overnight)
60 mls of water (probably more water is needed)
1  egg (possibly will put 2 next time. That's when dividing by 2 becomes tricky, if you have 3 eggs in the original meant for a ginormous and ravenous Jewish family)
1/3 tsp salt
70 grs butter
sunflower oil
Ingredients for the filling
25 grs icing sugar
15 grs cocoa
70 grs dark chocolate, melted
60 grs butter
The original recipe calls for pecans. I don't really do pecans. 
Place the flour, sugar and yeast in a mixer and stir everything together (I'm going to do this by hand next time). Add the eggs and water and continue stirring until the dough comes together. Add the salt and start adding the butter, a few cubes at the time. Continue mixing for about 10 minutes until the dough is elastic and shiny. Place the dough in a large bowl, brush with sunflower oil, cover with cling film and leave in the fridge overnight.
This is where the drama began, because the dough didn't grow overnight and I didn't get to sleep in for no reason! So I left it to sit the whole day, out of the fridge this time, and ended up adding a bit of water. So, by the evening, it had finally grown and could move to second part of the recipe. I'll leave out of the fridge next time.
Melt all of the ingredients in a saucepan.  Spread the dough with a rolling pin and cut the edges so that it's more or less rectangular.  Now the scary part comes, which isn't really so scary. Spread the chocolate paste on the dough. This caused further drama, since the filling was liquid, I assume it's supposed to be a Nutella-like paste. Maybe more chocolate would do the trick? Anyway, if I say so myself, I brilliantly solved the problem by later putting the roll in the fridge. Brush with water the long end further for you, then start rolling the long section that's closer to you. You end up with a rolled-up sausage. Put in the fridge so the filling becomes solid. Then, more of the not so scary scary part: cut the roll lenghways and weaves together the two parts, ideally letting the sectioned part up so that the chocolate "drawing" shows. Put in a baking tin and leave in the fridge overnight. Bake for 40 minutes at 190 c.

Now, once the feat was accomplished, what did the kranz actually taste like? It tasted nice, but not as heavenly as to justify all this work. This is a recipe that definitely needs fiddling with and practice. But I definitively learned some things from it, namely how to create plaited cakes with filling.

Chicken thighs with clementines and arak

The dish before and after being basted with sauce!

Arak was a big (alcoholic) discovery of my trip to Israel last summer. I'm not a fan of aniseed in general and the few times I had tried arak before in Lebanese restaurants I had disliked it. But yet somehow (after many shots?) it has grown on me, so I decided to buy a bottle at the duty-free in Ben Gurion airport before leaving (interestingly enough, it's Jordan-produced). So I was quite intrigued by Jerusalem's chicken with clementines and arak recipe. I'm very happy with the results, it might have been the one, so far in the experiment, that turned out the best. You can do it with an entire chicken that's been cut out or with chicken thighs, I did latter because I'm not going to cut a whole chicken apart and I'm not feeding a huge Jewish or Arab family. The recipe is right out of the book, minus fennel seeds that I couldn't get hold of, and  with quantities for two people:

2 chicken thighs

50 mil arak (apparently you can use ouzo or pernod instead)

3 tbsp of orange juice

3 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp sugar

2 tbsb grain mustard

2 medium fennel bulbs

4 clementines  sliced horizontally (supposed to be unpeeled, I peeled them)

1 tbsp thyme leaves

oil and black pepper

chopped flat leaf parsley, to garnish

Put the arak, oil, lemon and orange juice, mustard, sugar a in a mixing bowl. Add salt and pepper. Trim the fennel and cut each bulp in half lengthways. Cut each half in 4 wedges. Add the fennel to the liquids, along with the chicken pieces (it works better if you cut the thighs in two), clementine slices and thyme. Stir well and leave to marinate in the fridge for a few hours or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees. Put the chicken and marinade in a dish big enough to accommodate everything in a single layer. The chicken skin should face up. Once the oven is hot enough, place to roast for 35-40 mins, until the chicken is cooked through.

Put the chicken and other ingredients in a serving plate, cover and keep warm. Pour the cooking liquids into a small saucepan, place on medium-high heat, bring to boil and simmer until the sauce is reduced to a third. Put the hot sauce over the chicken, garnish with chopped parsley and serve.

What was nice about this dish was the smell and taste of arak, fennel and other nice things throughout the preparation. The sauce (that can be soaked up with pitta pieces) was particularly yummy. If anything, next time I might try adding some more arak.

In other news, stay tuned because I bought some fenugreek! I'm still not sure what it is but I can use it now!

Muhallabieh

Being busy has kept me away from cooking experiments, but I've not given up, the November hyatus is over! Muhallabieh, apparently an Arab classic, is a milk pudding. I haven't really altered the book's recipe, except for the garnishings:
50 grs cornflour
500 ml milk
200 ml water
80 grs sugar
Whisk the cornflour with 100 mls of the milk until they make a smooth paste. Pour the remaining milk, along with the water ans sugar, into a medium saucepan and heat gently until the sugar dissolves. When the milk mixture begins to release steam, whisk in the cornflour paste. Stir in until it becomes like a thick custard. Pour in individual cups, cover with cling film so that a skin doesn't form, and place in the fridge for three hours. Decorate with pistachioes (that mine were Iranian pistachioes amuses me immensely)

Pretty basic, isn't it? Problem was, the recipe includes a syrup to pour over the puddings, and the syrup includes bay leaves...And I wasn't able to find bay leaves anywhere, I'm not even sure what they are, to be honest. Hence, I gave up on the syrup, which wasn't a good idea, since without it the pudding is ok but, well, a bit mealy. Since I haven't eaten all of my puddings, I'm going to try adding some melted chocolate, which might not be the authentic Jerusalem way to do things, but which I feel might be an improvement.

Armenian hot yoghurt and pearl barley soup

The Armenians occupy one of the four quarters of  old Jerusalem and have a very long history of presence in the city. I decided to make this soup because it seemed like a great dish for a cold evening. Needless to say, it was my first introduction to Armenian food, since I snubbed their eateries in Jerusalem and haven't been otherwise to Armenia or other places with lots of Armenians, so I can't say if this recipe felt a little weird because Armenian cuisine's a little weird for my palate, or because something didn't quite go as it should have. Here is my recipe, reproportioned for one:
- 70 g of pearl barley
-half an onion, finely chopped
- mint leaves
- 2 spoonfuls olive oil (the original indicates butter)
- 1 egg
- 3 large spoonfuls of plain yoghurt
- salt and black pepper

Fill a pan with water and put the barley to boil with a teaspoonful of salt, until the barley is cooked but al dente, you need water for the soup so add some if it's evaporating. In the meantime, sauté the onion and mint in olive oil. Whisk the egg and yoghurt in a mixing bowl. Slowly pour in the barley and water, one ladle at the time, so that the yoghurt doesn't split. Then return the soup to the stove and bring to medium eat, stirring continuously. Serve hot.

The main issue I had with the soup is that it was too "eggy", because of problems in reproportioning. The original recipe is for 4 people and includes 2 eggs, and obviously there was no way I could use less than one egg. It felt a bit like some sort of liquid omelet (but maybe that's how the Armenians like it?) Next time, I'm certainly going to use a ton more herbs to temper this, because anything which is yoghurt/herbs is bound to be delicious. I also don't get why Ottolenghi&Tamimi recommend using butter so much in contexts where olive oil would make much more sense to me (after all, this is Mediterranean food we're talking about). Maybe they're adapting the recipes to their intended British audience?
However, it made me think that barley is an ingredient I totally need to use more and it's true that it makes for a very comforting dish.

Clementine and almond syrup cake

I'm aware this looks nowhere as nice as it does in Ottolenghi and Tamimi's book, and not only because I didn't make it in a round spring form... anyway, contrary to what this picture suggests, I didn't carbonize it either. One of the problems I keep having is that the book seems to be targeted at enormous Jewish or Arab extended families and I keep having to reduce and re proportion doses, which isn't always easy. So here's the recipe I followed (the original is meant for 8-10 people. I suggest playing a bit by ear):
90 g butter
40 g sugar
candied orange zest
candied lemon zest (I didn't have organic clementines and lemons)
juice of 2 clementines
One egg
40 gs ground almonds
70 gs sifted flour
a pinch of salt
Preheat the oven to 180C. Lightly grease a baking tin (it's supposed to be a spring-form) and line with baking parchment.
Place the butter, 50 g of sugar and both zests in a mixer bowl. Mix with a beater attachment. Do not work the mix too much. Incorporate half of the ground almonds.
I happened to have one egg at home, anyway you're supposed to add them gradually (I would have put 2 otherwise, the original calls for 5) while the machine is running.Add the remaining almonds, flour and salt and mix them until it's smooth. Put the batter in the tin and level it with a palette. Bake for about 50 minutes.
When the cake is almost done, prepare the syrup. Place the remaining sugar and the citrus juices in a small saucepan and bring it to boil. Pour the boiling syrup on the cake as soon as it's out of the oven. Leave the cake to cool down completely before you remove it from the tin.

This cake felt really sweet, which I'm not sure it was supposed to be, though probably yes, considering most Middle Eastern desserts. It also felt quite rich, not at all a "light texture" as the recipe indicated, which is probably due to using the candied zest (I'd love to try making this again with the proper zest, as soon as I have some organic one under my hands). But it does make for a great snack, and goes really well with coffee and tea, especially if, like me, you drink these with no sugar. Plus two of my friends tried it and said it was delicious, and they're nice people and not fussy eaters, but still. This wasn't the first experiment,  actually, since I don't bake very frequently, but I'll have to redo the first couple since I don't remember the modified recipes. Oh, and the book says that if you keep it in a closed container it will last and it's true-I made it 4 days ago and today it still felt fresh and fragrant.

As an intro: O Jerusalem

Jerusalem is a city which, for thousands of years, has inspired extremely strong feelings of all sorts. It is easy to fixate on it in one way or another. I for one,have been a bit resilient to its magnetism in what little time I have spent there. To quote the British Jewish author Linda Grant:"Jerusalem sat, sits on me like a helmet. [...I had the feeling that, if I didn't watch my step I'd fall down a hole any minute into the 4th century and however much I shouted no one would come and rescue me from that crevasse." Obviously, I admired such amazing landmarks such as the Western Wall, the Holy Sepulcher Church, the Golden Dome but what I remember most vividly is being harassed by shopkeepers whose eyes lit with shekel signs when they saw me approach along la Via Dolorosa and risking a heart attack after having climbed a hill in tropical temperatures to get to the Dominus Flevit church (where I almost wept since it was closed).

However, Jerusalem began to work its spell on me too in an unexpected way. I was delighted to come across Yotam Ottolenghi and Sam Tamimi's Jerusalem. I enjoy cooking and buying cookbooks (something I've inherited from my mother, but truth be told I don't always use them), approve of any Israeli-Palestinian collaboration, plus the book is full of gorgeous pictures and bits of the authors' personal histories, plenty of the recipes looked doable and combined different cooking traditions. Eventually, I attempted to carry out one or two of the recipes that looked good and easy to make, and posted pictures of the results on facebook. I realized, as I perused the book, I was developing a mild obsession with culinary Jerusalem and decided to set myself a Julie and Julia kind of challenge, you know, as in the blogger who cooked her way through one of Julia Child's tome. Though the idea came, once again, from Jerusalem itself. While rummaging the drawers for cutlery in the singularly homey kitchen of my Zion Square hostel, I chatted with two American travelers, one of which taught (Italian) cooking. As the conversation touched on the joys of preparing and eating food, the idea of cooking your way through an entire cookbook came up.

Now I don't aim to cook my way through all of Jerusalem. I've no clue where to get some of the ingredients, for one thing (where do Messrs. Ottolenghi and Tamimi expect me to find kohlrabis?) not to mention lack of time, lack of self-discipline, etc. But I'm trying to make my way through as many of the recipes as possible, and use this space to discuss the recipes and their applications.