Olive Time

Broken Green Syrian olives

photo by Eyal Warshavsky

I just love olives, especially green Syrian broken olives cured with salt, garlic and lemon. It takes a minimum of about three weeks from the time I close the jar until I start eating them, and some will say they are still too bitter at that point. But I love that bitter salty taste, with a hint of hot pepper.

 October and November are olive harvest time. Right after the first rain, I used to take Shira to the tree that grew under my grandmother’s home in Jerusalem and pick olives off the tree. Then we would crack each one with a rock or just use a knife to make a small incision.

Once at home, the olives go in a bowl with fresh water for about three days, changing the water every day. 

photo by Eyal Warshavsky

On the fourth day I take a clean jar and put the olives in it  for two kilos of olives I use  six to eight garlic cloves , one medium sliced lemon, and two or three chile peppers.  

Then I prepare a solution of water and salt.  Here I use a fresh egg as my measure: after mixing the solution in a bowl or pitcher, I place an egg in the water. If the egg remains roughly in the middle – not floating to the surface, but not sinking – I’ve got the right amount of salt for the process. Once the solution is balanced, I pour it on the olives, and top it off with some olive oil to prevent contact with air. Then I close the jar tightly, and wait.

photo by Eyal Warshavsky

After about three weeks I start tasting. Since I do not make more than three kilos of olives,  after two months I run out , and I go back to buying my olives in the market, and wait for next year’s olive harvest.

Do try this at home!!!!

Turkey Neck Soup

Turkey Neck Soup

Shira was sick, her stomach was killing her, or it was school.….! She stayed home and I, the devoted father tried to do everything that I could, to help her get back to her old self, as fast as I could. So.., lots of tea with Sage which is known for it medicinal qualities especially for the tummy, and since it was winter, what better then soup, with lots of good nutritious vegetables, Sage and the neck of a Turkey . It was Thanksgiving not too long ago…

Usually when I make a remedy soup I add some or all the veggies I can find into my pot, fry them together with some olive oil and spices add water and let it cook, and, since this soup was made to help tummy problems I made sure I added a nice bundle of Sage.

Here is the amazing and very easy recipe:

Take the Turkey neck and fry it in the pot; not too long just till it gets a brownish color, then take it out of the pot to be used later. Add to the pot some more olive oil and the vegetables, first the onion and then the rest. Mix all the veggies together for about two to three minutes.

Add the turkey neck which was left aside and mix together for another two minutes.

Then add the water, a basic and “must” ingredient for all soups!

My pot is a five liter one and I add about four liters of fresh tap water to it and my spices

And let it boil

When the soup has been boiling for a couple of minutes; lower the heat to a medium or small flame. Cover the pot and simmer for about an hour.

When the level of the soup is about half a liter below the initial amount, taste it to see if magic happened and the flavors are concentrated. If it did not reach that level of “deliciousness” then let it cook for a bit longer.

The result is absolutely amazing!

Do!

Try this at home !!!

Pasta with spicy and lite tomato and shrimp sauce

For the tomato sauce :

Tomatoes , garlic ,

Lemon, Olive oil,

Parsley , Coriander ,

Salt and Pepper .

I mix them all together, quantity's are :

For every four tomatoes two to three cloves of garlic and the rest of the spices with generosity but not to much .

I just love the fresh smells mixing together.

now the tomato salad is ready you can eat some of it now fresh as it comes

the rest goes in to the fridge and waits for me to feel like cooking with an amazing tomato Sauce as a base for some of my next week cooking at least.

for the pasta sauce,:

i add to a hot pan spicy olive oil and olive oil,

I fry a medium onion and some baby leak till the onion clear but i want the leak to stay fresh

to this i add the tomato salad, with some nice spoons of juice from it

today it is a week since i made it ;)

i let it cook for ........ and then i add the baby Shrimps

till they are done.

during this time i was preparing the pasta any one will do, i like the spaghetti but i think it might be better with sea shell pasta, mixing together with the sauce in the pan.

add the Parmigiana and nothing was left

Cholent....

In some places in the world, it is winter time, also here it should be, here I mean Israel were I live right now, but since the climate has been changing, we are getting less and less cold days and rain. Today it was 27c in Tel Aviv during the day and not a drop of rain in the horizon, something that some of my friends around the world would envy.

As for me, well I would love to have some winter, God knows we need the rain! The sea of Galilee is near the black line which is lower than the red line, and I don't think they have thought of any new color for after it passes the black line, how about fluorescent yellow ? I would love to have some real cold weather, so I can put to use my winter clothes that are collecting dust in the closet and have nice warm winter dishes with friends and family as the rain taps on my window, and it is cold and gray outside.

One of the most famous Jewish winter dishes is Cholent or Hamin, ( The Sephardi name), thanks to its slow and long cooking time Cholent makes the perfect dish for Saturday lunch when observant Jews can't light a fire and cook. There is nothing like the smell of Hamin that spreads through the house on a Saturday morning as I wake up and walk in to the kitchen to take a peak at the wonder that was cooking all night, most of the time, I can't resist, and I take a spoon just for a taste well.... Maybe two.

Cholent is also a good dish for these times of economical crisis since the products are easy to get and relatively cheep of course you can use high quality and expansive Products if you can afford it but it is definitely not a must. The pot takes every thing you put in it, and the magic happens over night.

There are many ways to make a Cholent and each house hold has its own family traditional way of making, so if you do not have a tradition yet , and never tried this dish before the coming weekend is the best time to experiment and explore, just remember one rule the Cholent comes out as good as the people who made it and the guests that are coming to eat it for some reason the Cholent i had during my military crevice was one of the worst and i do not blame the chefs but the army.

A week ago on Saturday I was invited by friend Liora Tzor for Cholent I knew she was an amassing photographer, one of the most talented I ever met. However, to be honest I never thought she could cook so I thought about it, calculated the risk and said to myself, "well it is very hard to make a bad Hamin I do know the chef is a good person and me, well I guess I am a good guest, so it seems safe". I asked "what should I bring?" and the answer was, "Coca Cola the best drink with Cholent".

On Saturday I woke up with this horrifying hang over from partying the night before, all I could think of was the Cholent as it is one of the better ways to kill the after effects of last night. I bought the drink and arrived at lunch time, the smell of the hot dish grabbed me as I was walking up the stairs it was perfect. the hang over began to disappear; I said a quick hello and ran to the kitchen to have a look announcing that I was starving.

Liora served the dish a brown unidentified mash in glass bowls, I tasted it was fantastic the hangover was gone and the only thing I could do was to eat and ask for more, I must say that I was missing one thing with Liora's Cholent and that was more. so I imidiatly asked for the recipe and it was gladly given with a note don't forget the Hamin comes out as well as the guests are and I added and the cook.

Liora Tzor Cholent recipe
As for this kind of recipes there isent one just basic guide lines that can be followed.
Beans all sort of beans in diffrent colors and shapes Wilde colored rice wheat eggs garlic meat for rost. All the legume on Thursday night goes into water to soak until Friday the water must be changed every several hours. (That is most important to prevent after effect.)
Then we fry every thing in a pot with some oil and add water and spices. Liora added some chili not to much just to get a lite spicy after taste, mixing every thing together adding the eggs and closing the lid and leaving the pot to cook on the smallest fire.

Happy Thursday every body.

English For the Previos post

Well here we go: I will try to translate what I wrote in Hebrew below. I can't promise that it will be exact but the chicken recipe will be for sure so you can try it at home.
Therefore, this is all new to me at the age of 39, I figured that writing is not that bad, although I really tried to avoid it since my first days at school.
I am siting at my home in Tel Aviv trying to figure out my way in this world as a photographer and journalist trying to find a way to make a living without leaving my passion and becoming a banker or an office clerk, not that it is not a worthy job but for me. It was always photography, since I was 15 and got my first Nikon F from my father, I had an Instamatic before that but dose it really counts?

Any how today Shira my daughter was over with her friend Elah and I served the chicken and vegetables I made, which is easy to make and really comes out delicious so let me share this recipe with you , so..... To start, we will need some chicken any will do but the wilder and fresher the better believe me, there is a different in the taste so from one chicken up so it will cover the oven pan yes we need to cut it or to buy the parts we like but most important is to cover the oven pan with chicken.
Then after I make sure that the chicken covers the pan, I take out the chicken and fill the pan with root vegetables carrots leak garlic unpeeled zucchini Onion ,Kohlrabi basically all that you can imagine that would work well and will enjoy a long cocking period. I would not add peppers, since I think their taste is too dominant.
After slicing all the veggies, I spice them with some olive oil salt Oregano Nutmeg Paprika and whatever else smells and tastes well, after spicing the chicken in the same way I put them on top of the veggies and in to the oven in high temperature but not grill and not placing the oven pan to close to theater after some time I turn the chicken around and put it back in then in lower temp, I let it cook more, don't ask me how long I never timed it only looked at it to get a feeling where this dish was going. Then after some more time I turn the bird again and this time grill it to get it crisp .
Once this part is all done I take the dish out place the chicken and veggies in separate dishes, then I make the potatoes, since there was no room in the first session I did them separately after boiling them until they are seamy soft in water, I take them out slice the potatoes in to cubes and place them in the same oven pan with all the juices of the chicken and vegetables I spice them with Rosmarin from my plant salt nutmeg ginger and on top I add some slices of butter and just a small amount of olive oil mix it all together and in to the oven they go again for an unknown period in high temp until they come out crisp very crisp.
I must say that the two girls really liked it which is a remarkable thing since you know how children are.
Try it at home let me know if it worked :)

אהלן שלום Hello ahalan and Shalom

הבלוג שלי הצהרת כוונות עיברית אנגלית סלט , אני אשתדל לכתוב בשני השפות על צילום אוכל והחיים בכלל...

בגיל 39 בבית בתל אביב בחדר \ מרפסת העבודה עם בקבוק של ג'ק ומים פועל על מנת לשרוד לעבור את הגל את המשבר הכלכלי העולמי ובכלל ליראות אייך שורדים בעולם כה כלכלי.
היום הכנתי עוף בגריל עם ירקות שורש ותפוחי אדמה אני רוצה לומר לכם יצא מדהים פשוט ללקק את האצבעות בישול ארוך מאוד אך התוצאה שווה הכמות תספיק לי לשלושת הימים הקרובים אם לא יותר במידה ואקפיא. העלות ל6 שוקים ו2 חזה 110 שח ניתן להוריד בכמות השוקיים (ניגמר הג'ק כוסית אחרונה שלו עכשיו ) ואז להוזיל את מחיר עוף שלם אחד וירקות שורש עלו לי בסופר בבן יהודה 68 שח וזה ממש יוצא טעים :)


טוב אז ככה אחרי ששתפתי ופרסתי לקוביות את את הירקות גזר, צנון לבן ,בצל קישוא, שומר, ושום...הרבה שום לא מקולף בכלל אפשר להסיף כל כל ירק , אני דבר היחידי שלא היתי מוסיף זה פלפל ירוק או אדום בשל הטעם הדומיננתי, ( אבל זה אני). תיבלנתי אותם עם שמן זית אורגנו מלח אגוז מוסקט ג'ינג'ר ופפריקה חריפה בקערה ככה עם הידים ופרסתי על מגש , לצערי לא היה לי נייר כסף לשים מיתחת ואני אשלם על זה בשטיפה אבל חוץ מזה מי אוהב לאכול בניר כסף לאוכל יש טעם אחר. ועליהם את ניתחי העוף והכנסתי לתנור לזמן לא ידוע בטמפרטורה גבוהה התנור לא בגריל והתבנית לא הכי קרובה ללמעלה של התנור
בינתים הכינותי מראש ... חחח... לא בינתים שמתי שקית תפוחי אדמה אדומים בסיר עם מיים ובישלתי אותם עד האמצע וכיביתי את האש בתבנית לא היה מקום לשים אותם ביחד אבל כמו שאומירים מעז יצא מתוק ודברים טובים באים לאלו שממתינים.. כמה זמן אני צריך להמתין עד
שאזכה בלוטו.....
בכל מקרה את העוף יש להפוך בנקודה מסוימת שזה החלטתי לפי העין ולהנמיך את חום התנור לבערך 160 מעלות ולחזור לשמוע ג'אז בסלון בזמן שאני סוף סוף קורא את על הדרך של ג,ק קרואק הרבה ג'ק יש היום, אחרי בערך שעתים או שלוש של הפיכת העוף וטיפול בו ואף ליקראת סיום אפילו תוספת גריל בתנור משני הצדדים, לא לישכוח למזוג מהרוטב על העוף שלא יתיבש יותר מידי לא לידאוג הוא לא אולי רק הלבן של העוף ואולי יש מקום בהתחלה להפריד אותו ולהכין ממנו שניצלים זו אפשרות.
בכל מקרה אחרי שהעוף היה מוכןהוצאתי אותו מהתבנית אני חייב לציין שענבל לא יכלה לחכות גם אני לא אז טעמנו היה מפיל כמעט מושלם היו חסרות הפחממות בצורת תפוח האדמה אבל בגלל שלא היה מקום הם זכו לטיפול משלהם לאחר פינוי התבנית הם הוצאו מהמים נחתכו לקוביות וניכנסו לתבנית מלאת הנוזלים של העוף והירקות ולאחר טיבלון קצר שכלל רוזמרין מהעציץ אגוז מוסקט , שמן זית , מלח , וכמה חתיכות חמאה מעל הוכנסו לתנור לזמן לא מוגדר בחום גבוהה ועירבובים מידי פעם אני חושב שבערך ארבעה עירבובים בסך בכל. הסימן לזה שהם מוכנים בא בצורה של קריספיות מדהימה ספוגה בטעמים ורכה להדהים.
השילוב הסופי בצלחת, של תפוחי אדמה לוהטים, עוף וירקות שורש חמימים פשוט מדהים
כמו שאומרים נסו ותהנו בתאבון....