Organic Farmers Market in Tel Aviv

Israel Travel7 November 20103 October 2018 Baroness Tapuzina

Organic farming is nothing new in Israel, but given the fact that several Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms have popped up over the last several years and regular supermarkets are pushing organic products, not to mention the Eden Teva supermarket chain, you would think that Israel has just been introduced to the organic way of life.

It is quite the contrary. In 1958, a group of people of various backgrounds decided to create a moshav based on a vegetarian, vegan, and organic lifestyle and ideology. The founders of Amirim were among the pioneers of the vegetarian movement in Israel. The Israel Bio-Organic Agricultural Association (Tuv Hassadeh) was founded in the late 1970s by an 84-year-old farmer, Mario Levy, from Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu in the north of the country. It was quite difficult in the beginning to convince Israeli farmers to forego the use of pesticides, but now there are over 500 farmers who are members of the association and produce 13% of farm products in Israel.

Organic products and produce could always be found in the various health food stores in Tel Aviv, but now there is a dedicated famers market at HaTahana (The Train Station), the beautifully renovated Ottoman-period train station on the Tel Aviv-Yafo border. The Tel Aviv municipality and the Israel Bio-Organic Agricultural Association opened the farmers market as a joint project.

Every Friday, approximately 40 stalls with food growers and manufacturers, all certified members of the association, sell products such as cakes, dairy products, eggs, and of course beautiful seasonal fruits and vegetables.

The vendors at Shuk HaCarmel are always finding clever, but generally noisy, ways to advertise their products to the crowd of shoppers. The organic farmers market, by contrast, was relaxed, peaceful and unpushy.

At Orbanic, the attractive vendors smile and proudly talk about their produce, with passion in their eyes, and visible pleasure, the results of their hard work. Like on the face of Or Glicksman, who gives you a big beautiful smile when he describes his organic vegetables from his father’s farm on Kibbutz Gal-On in the southern part of the country.

And the cute guy from the Negev who was selling his sweet and juicy little mangoes and perfectly round cherry tomatoes.

There are vendors selling organic large-leafed purslane, from imported seedlings from France that are acclimated in hothouses at Kardesh Barnea in the Negev, and large shoots of lemongrass, waiting for a Vietnamese stir fry.

You can even take home the much sought after Aba Gil’s organic hummous, quiches, and brown rice pilaf. Their quiches are egg, wheat and dairy free.

And you can also take home romaine lettuce seedlings, which I bought for my garden along with 1 kg of spelt flour, 3 desert mangoes, a yellow and green striped pumpkin, olives marinated in red wine and herbs, and pickled baby eggplants.

Mario Levy must be smiling on his cloud as he looks down and sees how even in the big city, the movement that he helped start has achieved so much popularity.

Orbanic Farmers Market
HaTahana
2 Yehezkel Kaufmann Street
Tel Aviv
Open: Fridays, 0800-1500

A Great Lady, A Great Loss – Vera Rozsa-Nordell

Family stories17 October 201024 November 2010 Baroness Tapuzina

This past Friday afternoon, my mother-in-law, the much revered and loved singing teacher, Vera Rozsa-Nordell passed away. She wasn’t just a great artist to me, she was my personal inspiration because of her personality and energy. When I first met her, I was afraid of her awesome presence, but she welcomed me and I knew she loved me when she kept telling me I was good for her son and that she would kill for my hair. Her great love and incredible knowledge of music, especially Schubert’s Lieder cannot be replaced. Her Hungarian accent, her great beauty, her wonderful laugh, her stern look and then her lovely smile, her glint in her eyes when she was satisfied that her students were singing to the best of their ability, and her own beautiful voice will be sorely missed. But in the end, she was just Mommy to me.

Best Ice Cream Shops in Israel (Part 2) – Vaniglia and Shaked

Desserts Ice Creams/Sorbets Israel Travel13 October 20103 October 2018 Baroness Tapuzina

Brothers Nitzan and Itay Rogozinski opened their first branch of the Vaniglia ice cream boutique in 2001 at Basel Square in Tel Aviv. Anything that goes into the ice cream is made on the premises, from cheesecake to poppy seed cake. They use pistachio paste from Sicily, truffle oil from Umbria, orange flower petals from Turkey, camomile flowers from Egypt, tonka beans from Guinea and vanilla from Madagascar; to mention but a few.

Vaniglia offers a nice selection of sorbets with a very high percentage of fruit (over 70%). The dairy ice creams are delicious too, and they are also producing a new line of 100% organic ice creams made with rice milk or soy milk, and a line that is sugar-free.

I visited the new Hod HaSharon branch that is located in a cute little “house” that was built for the ice cream shop. It might look small from the outside, but this branch offers a good selection, such as the following highly recommended flavors:

Yogurt with orange flower water, Sicilian pistachios and apricot compote
Yogurt with honey and pine nuts
Plum sorbet
Valharona chocolate with an infusion of cocoa beans and chocolate crunch
Sicilian pistachio
Coconut
Mango sorbet
Blackberry sorbet
Oh, just try them all!!!

Vaniglia has several locations:

22a Eshtori Hafarchi Street (off Basel Street)
Tel Aviv

98 Ibn Gvirol Street
Tel Aviv

HaTachana
Tel Aviv

18 Derech Ramatayim
Hod HaSharon

Shaked Gelateria (pronounced Sha-Ked) was originally started as a pizzeria in the leafy town of Ramat Gan, just next to Tel Aviv, then turned into a cafe, and eventually branched out into homemade ice creams. Today, Shaked also has a branch in the entertainment zone of the old Tel Aviv Port, which is also a cafe, even though it is better known for its ice cream (something which obviously appeals to the patrons of the toy shop strategically located next door).

Shaked offers some interesting flavors of ice cream, such Kremschnitt, sabra (prickly pear) sorbet, olive oil and za’aatar (hyssop), tehina and humous. They also produced a special for the World Cup, which is no longer available: beer ice cream with sunflower seeds! Unfortunately, they didn’t have some of these flavors on offer when I visited the Tel Aviv Port location, but I do recommend the following:

Frutti di Bosco (Forest Fruits)
Chocolate sorbet
Cheesecake
Mango
Limoncello

Shaked Gelateria has two locations:

Hangar 7, Tel Aviv Port
Tel Aviv

40 Aluf David
Ramat Gan

Chicken with Clove, Cinnamon and Chestnuts

Chicken European Holidays Main Course Regional Cooking Spanish Yom Kippur24 September 201014 January 2019 Baroness Tapuzina

Today, with a heavy heart Sarah, Miriam, and I shut down Flavors of Israel. It was a project that we were all very excited about, but work and other things interfered with us devoting as much time as we needed to devote on the website. I haven’t talked about my professional life on the blog, but I do have a demanding full time job in the software industry. This really only leaves me with the weekend to find exciting and interesting food-related adventures to write about and photograph. In my case, maintaining two websites was more than I could handle. But don’t worry, we are all still great friends and plan to continue collaboration in the future. The most important thing is that we all still have our own blogs, with different flavors of Israel; and I intend on still showing you the beauty and bounty, dear readers, of the country that I found love and grown to love, my home, Israel.

Enough with the tears now…

I hope that all of my Jewish friends and family are having a nice time in their Succahs, enjoying family time. David and I spent the first night with a lovely couple in our Moshav.

I already showed you the light dessert I made for the pre-fast dinner for Yom Kippur. The main course was a delicious Spanish dish that originally called for pheasant and pancetta. Since we don’t have access to pheasant here, I made the dish with chicken and did not substitute the pancetta, which you can substitute with smoked goose.

Chicken with Clove, Cinnamon and Chestnuts

(Pollo con Clavo, Canela y Castañas) Recipe adapted from Moro: The Cookbook by Sam & Sam Clark

Ingredients

6 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion finely chopped
2 medium carrots finely chopped
4 garlic cloves thinly sliced
4 bay leaves
2 cinnamon sticks
4 sprigs fresh thyme
1 teaspoon Piment d'Espelette - Basque Red Chili Pepper
6 whole cloves roughly ground
1 x 400g 14oz tin plum tomatoes, drained, broken up
1 large chicken cut into 8 pieces
300 ml 1-1/4 cup dry white wine
200 g 7oz chestnuts, boiled, fresh or vacuum-packed, cut in half
Sea salt and black pepper to taste

Instructions

In a large, deep frying pan with a lid over medium-high heat, add 3 tablespoons of olive oil. When hot, brown all sides of the chicken pieces and set aside.
Turn the heat down to medium, add the remaining olive oil, and add the onions, carrots, garlic, bay leaves and cinnamon, and cook for 5-10 minutes until the vegetables begin to caramelize. Add the thyme, paprika and cloves, and stir well for a minute, then add the tomatoes and cook for an additional 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the chicken to the tomato mixture and then add the white wine. Reduce the heat and simmer over a low heat with the lid on for 20-40 minutes. Then add the chestnuts and continue to cook for about 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper if necessary.

Flan De Naranja

Custard Desserts European Fruit Regional Cooking Spanish Yom Kippur19 September 201014 January 2019 Baroness Tapuzina

I love a rich Brazilian flan with an almost burnt caramel sauce. I grew up eating coconut flan that my grandmother’s Chinese cook used to make for dessert for special occasions and many a Shabbat dinner. So, when I decided to make it during the time Mr BT and I were courting, I was deflated when he told me that he loathes custard of any kind! I said, “but you haven’t had my flan. Maybe I can change your mind?” “All right, I will give it a try” he said. Well, I am happy to say that I did convert him that night, and I was not afraid to go ahead and make a light and creamy orange flan for the pre-Yom Kippur meal.

This flan is dairy free, but still has the same creaminess that one expects without the need for a caramel sauce. It is pure orange goodness. This dessert will be a perfect ending to your Sukkot meal.

Flan De Naranja

(Orange Flan) From Casa Moro by Sam & Sam Clark

Ingredients

6 large egg yolks
60 g 1/3 cup caster sugar
300 ml 1-1/4 cups freshly squeezed orange juice, not strained

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 120C (250F).
Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until thick, light and fluffy. Gradually add the orange juice, while whisking, making sure that you whisk the sides and bottom of the bowl. Pour the mixture into four glass or ceramic ramekins and place them in a deep pan. Place the pan in the oven and pour cold water up to the level of the top of the orange/egg mixture, about half way up the ramekin. Bake for 1-1/2 to 2 hours. The flan should be wiggly and will be creamy and orangey. Refrigerate for at least 2-4 hours before serving.

Goose with Shallots and Clementines

Fruit Goose Main Course Rosh Hashana Shabbat12 September 201014 January 2019 Baroness Tapuzina

We had a lovely long holiday weekend which ended with celebrating my birthday. For Shabbat, I made a lovely, fragrant meal of slow cooked goose legs with shallots and clementines, which have just started showing up in the market. This dish is rich and fork-tender. I served it with a herb roesti that Mr BT made and steamed Brussels sprouts. A perfect dish for a sweet new year.

Goose with Shallots and Clementines

Ingredients

4 goose legs
200 g shallots peeled
6 whole cloves garlic peeled
1 tablespoon ras el hanout
400 ml 1/2 quart vegetable stock
1 tablespoon clear honey
Juice 1 lemon or lime
4 small firm clementines , peeled
2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds

Instructions

Heat oven to 190C (375F). Place the goose legs on a raised grid in one layer in a large roasting pan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and roast for 45 minutes. Remove the goose legs and set aside. Spoon 3 tablespoons of the goose fat or olive oil into a large, wide pan (reserve the remainder of the goose fat).
Add the shallots and saute until just starting to colour. Add the ras el hanout and the garlic cloves and mix well. Add the stock, honey, lemon juice, salt and pepper, and bring to the boil. Add the goose legs, cover tightly and cook over a gentle heat for 45 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon of the goose fat or olive oil in a frying pan, add the clementines and fry until they are glistening and starting to brown. Add to the pan with the duck and cook for a further 25 minutes until the goose is fork tender. Sprinkle the goose with sesame seeds before serving.

Baroness’ Sinful Honey Cake

Cakes Desserts Festivals Fruit Holidays Rosh Hashana10 September 201014 January 2019 Baroness Tapuzina

Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, is a holiday for starting anew. So for this year’s holiday I decided to create my own signature honey cake, something special to welcome the new promise of a sweet year to come. What would be better than to take a honey cake and top it with thinly sliced apples that were poached in white wine, and top it with a luscious 72% dark chocolate glaze. Actually, it is so delicious as to be positively sinful. Fortunately, we have just over a week to enjoy it, confident in the knowledge that on Yom Kippur we will be able to atone for this sin.

This year, as in every year, we celebrated Rosh Hashana with family and friends in Jerusalem. We thought of loved ones we missed, we laughed , and we thought of all of the things we want to do to make this year more sweet, more healthy, more prosperous, and most importantly more peaceful.

May you be inscribed in the Book of Life and we hope you have happy, healthy, prosperous, and peaceful new year.

We would also like to wish Eid Mubarak to all of our Muslim friends.

Chag Sameach,

Baroness Tapuzina and Mr BT

Baroness' Sinful Honey Cake

Ingredients

For the poached apples:

3 medium granny smith apples peeled and cored
1/2 bottle Riesling white wine
2 cinnamon sticks
5 whole cloves
2 large pieces of orange peel
1 sheet of parchment paper

For the honey cake:

1/2 cup dried sugarless cranberries
1/4 cup candied orange peel
1/2 cup walnuts chopped
800 g 6 cups + 3 tablespoons spelt whole grain flour or all-purpose flour
1-1/2 cups sugar
2 heaping teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1-1/2 cups honey
1 cup oil
4 eggs
2 tablespoons instant espresso coffee
1 cup boiling water
2 level teaspoons baking soda
Zest of two medium oranges

For the chocolate glaze:

200 g 7oz 72% premium dark chocolate
50 g 3.5 tablespoons butter or margarine

Instructions

For the poached apples:

Place the apples in a medium size pan and add the spices and orange peel. Cover with the white white and place the parchment paper on top of the apples. Poach on medium heat and reduce the heat to a simmer. Poach the apples for 15 minutes or until they are tender, but not mushy. Remove from the poaching liquid, put them in a covered container and refrigerate until cold. This can be done the day before baking.

For the cake:

Preheat the oven to 170C (325F). Grease a 22cm (8-inch) round spring-form pan and a loaf pan.
Place the cranberries, orange peel, and walnuts in a food processor and grind until each ingredient is in fine pieces. Be careful not to grind it into a paste. Set aside.
Mix the flour, sugar, and spices in a bowl. Add the honey, oil and eggs, and whisk into a smooth batter. Dissolve the coffee into 1 cup of boiling water. Add the baking soda to the batter, and then add the coffee. Gently fold in the orange rind, and the cranberry, candied orange and walnut mixture.
Pour half of the batter into round pan and the other half into the loaf pan. Bake for approximately 45 minutes until the cake is dark brown and the toothpick is clean with a few crumbs adhering. Depending on your oven, you may have to bake your cakes for an additional 10-15 minutes.
Cool in the pan until completely cooled. The cake a be prepared up to two days ahead.

For the chocolate glaze:

Just before assembling the cake, melt the chocolate over a water on low heat and add the butter or margarine. Cool for 5 minutes.

For assembly:

Slice the apples into thin slices and place on top of the round cake. Place the chocolate glaze in the middle of the cake and spread to the edges of the top of the cake. Let chocolate glaze will thicken as it cools.

Chicken with Pasta

Chicken European Italian Main Course Pasta Regional Cooking28 August 201014 January 2019 Baroness Tapuzina

We’re having a heatwave.
A tropical heatwave.
The temperature’s rising,
It isn’t surprising,
We’re having a heatwave.

Okay, I changed the last line…

It is really hard to be motivated to cook in this heat right now, but I am trying to make things that I can either make ahead of time or make something that doesn’t require me to be in the kitchen for too long. This pasta dish looks time consuming, but you can make the chicken stock ahead of time and freeze it.

Hope everyone is staying cool and enjoying the last dog days of summer. It is time to start planning for the holidays and I will be posting some Rosh Hashana ideas in the coming days and weeks.

Chicken with Pasta

by Dr. Eli Landau and Haim Cohen

Ingredients

1 whole chicken
1 bundle of herbs 10 sprigs parsley, 10 sprigs dill, 2 bay leaves, 5 sprigs thyme
2 carrots 1 chopped and 1 whole
2 onions 1 chopped and 1 whole
5 black pepper corns
3 juniper berries
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons tomato paste
Flour for dredging
Olive oil
2 garlic cloves minced
1 teaspoon of rosemary chopped
2 sage leaves chopped
1 tablespoon thyme chopped
1 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup green peas
1 kg penne rigatoni, gemelli or other short hollow pasta

Instructions

For the stock:

Remove the wings and necks from the chicken and place in a medium size pot with the herbs, the whole carrot and the onion, black pepper corns, juniper berries and bay leaves. Cover with water and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for an hour and a half. Discard the vegetables and herbs, and set aside the chicken pieces. Dissolve the tomato paste in the stock and set stock aside.

For the chicken:

Remove the fat that is on the inside of the chicken cavity and chop it coarsely. Using a sharp knife, cut the chicken into eight pieces, dredge them lightly into flour, and set aside. Put a half a cup of olive oil and the chopped chicken fat in a large dutch oven or deep frying pan with a cover on medium-high heat. When the chicken fat begins to dissolve, place the chicken pieces in the pot, in small batches, and brown on all sides. Set the chicken aside.
Put the chopped vegetables (carrot, onion and garlic) in the pot and saute for three to four minutes. Add the chopped herbs (rosemary, sage and thyme) and continue stirring for two more minutes. Return the chicken pieces to the pot and stir. Pour in the wine and scrape the bottom of the pot. When the wine evaporates, add enough chicken stock to cover, bring to a boil, lower the fire, season with a little salt and black pepper, stir once and simmer uncovered. Every so often, add a ladle of stock and stir. The cooking time will be an hour and a half to two hours, at the end of which the stock will be gone and the dish will be dense and nicely browned. Add the green peas at the very last minute and cook until heated through.
Cook the pasta al dente in lightly salted water according to instructions on the package; drain. Transfer the pasta to a serving bowl. Place the chicken with its sauce on top, stir gently and serve.

Makroud – Date and Sesame Biscuits

Biscuits or Cookies Desserts Holidays Israeli Middle Eastern Palestinian Ramadan Regional Cooking16 August 201014 January 2019 Baroness Tapuzina

I wanted to make a traditional Ramadan dessert this month, a recipe that called for mahleb, which is an aromatic spice made from the seeds of the St Lucie Cherry (Prunus mahaleb). The stones are cracked to extract the seed kernel, which is ground to a powder before it is used. It adds a lovely flavor of bitter almond and cherry to breads, cakes and biscuits.

I found a perfect date and sesame biscuit recipe called Makroud that is made by Israeli Muslims and Palestinians. There are several variations of Makroud that are also made in Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, but this version is not as sweet.

Mr BT and I would like to wish all of our Muslim friends Ramadan Kareem.

Makroud – Date and Sesame Biscuits

(Date and Sesame Biscuits) Adapted recipe from the Safadi Family of Nazareth in The Book of New Israeli Food: A Culinary Journey by Janna Gur

Servings: 70 to 80 biscuits

Ingredients

For the dough:

500 g 3-1/2 cups whole wheat flour
15 g 1/2 oz fresh yeast
240 ml 1 cup corn oil
120 ml 1/2 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons ground cardamom
1/2 tablespoon mahleb freshly ground in a mortar
220 ml 1 cup lukewarm water

For the filling:

500 g 1lb 2oz pressed pitted dates
60 ml 1/4 cup corn oil
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
Pinch ground cloves

For the coating:

450 g 1lb sesame seeds

Instructions

For the dough:

Place the flour, crumbled yeast and spices in a large bowl. Add the corn and olive oils and stir until well combined. Gradually add the water and knead the dough for 2-3 minutes into a soft smooth dough. Set aside.

For the filling:

Mix the pressed dates with the oil and spices until it becomes a soft, malleable paste.

To assemble:

Divide the dough into balls the size of a fist and divide the date paste into the same number of balls. Both the dough and the date balls may be dripping with oil: this is normal.
Preheat the oven to 220C (425F).
On a large work surface, sprinkle a generous amount of sesame seeds. Flatten a ball of dough into a round the size of a pita. Flatten out a date ball and place it on top of the dough. Sprinkle some sesame seeds on top and turn the dough over and roll out to the size of a dinner plate. The sesame seeds will prevent the dates from sticking to the work surface. Turn the dough over again, date side up and roll the dough to form a log shape. Repeat with the remainder.
Cut the logs into 5cm-wide (2-inch) biscuits and place on baking sheets. You do not have to place them too far apart because they do not spread. Bake for 10 minutes until they are golden brown. Serve slightly cooled or store up to a month in a sealed container.

Salmon with Spicy Citrus Soy Sauce

Asian Fish Main Course Pasta Regional Cooking24 July 201011 August 2017 Baroness Tapuzina

The hot weather does not inspire me to stay in the kitchen very long, so I have been making light, quick meals for dinner, and Mr. BT has been making nice big salads that include the home-grown lettuce of which he is very proud. This past Shabbat, I made a lovely fish dinner with salmon in an Asian citrus sauce over soba noodles. I served it with steamed asparagus and sauteed mushrooms.

Soba noodles are made from buckwheat flour, which is wheat-free and gluten free, and can be served hot or cold. The Bretons make crepes with the flour and the Russians make Blini. It is also a good honey plant that produces a rich, dark honey. The buckwheat hulls are used to fill upholstery and the groats are now used to produce gluten-free beer.

I like to serve the soba noodles warm and sprinkle a little sesame oil on them just before serving.

Salmon with Spicy Citrus Soy Sauce

Ingredients

1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon hoisin sauce
Juice of small lemon
Juice of small orange
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon chili paste
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 tablespoon fresh ginger minced
3 large cloves garlic minced
2 salmon fillets

Instructions

Mix all of the ingredients in a small bowl. Place the salmon fillets in a frying pan with a little oil over medium heat. Add the sauce and cook until the salmon is still slightly pink in the center. Serve over soba noodles or brown rice.