Making Love in the Kitchen - Meghan Telpner

Here is a podcast I ran into by accident Making Love in the Kitchen. Meghan Telpner is a nutritionist who keeps a blog and podcast about healthy living. She takes an angle on diet that is very much to my liking: in stead of suggesting some short term regimen that will bring the kilos off, she concentrates on what is healthy food and emphasizes how you can feel better, including losing superfluous weight, by cooking right, eating well and living properly. I for one can say that this way, I keep my weight right. (feed)

I have listened to two episodes. One is episode #2 (A Diet That Works: Healthy Living) in which she interviews one of her clients about her new life style. What comes out is almost a gourmet conversation, you will almost forget that the original point of it all was weight loss. The two ladies discuss cooking, recipes, ingredients and it sounds plentiful all day long. But the efficacy lies herein that food is prepared with good, natural components, the meal is enjoyed in time and consequently there is no snacking in between and no intake of bad fats and sugars.

The other episode I listened to was #9 (What’s In A Supplement) in which Telpner interviews Alain Roy about supplements. Supplements are not food and do not replace food, they are taken as additives to specifically address an issue. Whether it is vitamins, minerals or others, whether separate or in combination, Roy tries to point out how to choose the right supplement. He also gets the opportunity to expand upon the product of the company he works for which makes it come rather close to a promotional talk, but surely his narrative is very interesting.

Chicken in spinach

I love spinach. The preparation of my childhood years, boiled with salt and served with egg and nutmeg, was my starting point when I started cooking myself, but from there I got to know it in pastry and with meat and poultry. My favorite recipe is chicken in spinach and it took me years to perfect it. Just before I came to Israel, I nearly had it right, but then I had to start all over again as the sort of leaves that are sold here as spinach (תרד [tered]) have a slightly different taste, a different texture and a different behavior while cooking. And even though this blog is dedicated to podcast reviewing, since tonight I will be serving my developed chicken in spinach, I'll post the recipe to you.

Here is what you need (family serving):
1 kg drum sticks or chicken legs (I like to remove the skin)
5 cloves of garlic
2 tomatoes (without the skin)
2 big onions
500 gr spinach (finely cut)
3 cm fresh ginger (crushed)
25 gr butter
two table spoons olive oil
1 tea spoon turmeric
1 tea spoon garam masala
1 tea spoon ground coriander
1 tea spoon ground cardamom
1/2 tea spoon ground cloves
1/2 tea spoon cayenne pepper (reduce this if you do not like your food to be hot)
salt
250 ml cream for cooking (10% fat)
white rice (I use basmati rice)

Put the oil and the butter on low heat. When the butter starts melting add the ginger, salt, half of the turmeric and the other dry spices. Let this simmer for five minutes - be sure not to let the spices burn, let alone scorch. If necessary, add the chicken earlier. When the spices are thoroughly mixed and start to look like a sauce, add the chicken. Go to medium heat and stir fry the chicken until it gets the color of the sauce all over. Then cover the pan and let it simmer on low heat - make sure nothing scorches. In the mean time cut the onions and the skinned tomatoes. First add the cut onions, stir fry them and as soon as the turn shiny, add the tomatoes. Keep stirring. Cut the garlic (do not crush) and add and turn heat low. Let the chicken boil in the sauce. Put on the rice with the other half of the turmeric. When the chicken is nearly well done, add the spinach. Let it all cook on medium heat until both spinach and chicken are done. Turn the heat off and add the cream.

More recipes:
Yellow soup,
Hot and Sour,
Couscous with Chicken,
Rice, minced meat and burnt eggplant,
Fish with couscous,
Chicken pesto with moong dal rice.

And for those who wish to have some podcasts in this post: While cooking, I listened to two BBC podcasts. In Our Time about Calvinism - good to find out where I come from. And this weeks issue of A History of the World in 100 Objects - about five objects of around 2500 years ago. These are the delightful podcasts of the kind the BBC offers consistently. A History of the World, by the way, has announced to on a break for 'a couple of months'.

Bubbe teaches Eggplant

The latest video on the vodcast Feed Me Bubbe shows how to make an eggplant lasagna (episode #30). I am not sure if I am going to make the lasagna, but I am definitely going to experiment with what I learnt from Bubbe about eggplant. I like cooking with eggplant a lot, but have struggled with getting it right.

First off, Bubbe tells what aubergine to choose: not too big - those contain a lot of seeds. The seeds, if not bitter, they are a less pleasant look in your dish, so it helps to have fewer. Then, she gives the most interesting idea to get rid of the bitterness of the vegetable. She peels it - I would never do that, unless for a sour eggplant soup - and then puts the pieces in a colander (new English word to learn!) under a dish with a weight on it. Thus she presses some of the juice out. It is the juice, she claims that is bitter.

I must check that, but there is another advantage she acquires by her handling of the pieces. She treats them with salt and rinses them afterward and claims that thanks to this procedure, the pieces will soak up less oil when fried. That is also very important. Eggplant is a sponge that has few calories by itself, but can take in so much oil when frying, you have to keep adding and wind up with a fatty, saturated dish.



Show #30 is not (yet) available for embedding, so this is another video from the makers of Feed Me Bubbe.

More Feed Me Bubbe:
Jewish Food and Culture.

Feed me bubbe - Jewish food and culture vodcast

Can you make your grandma a new media star? Avrom, producer and host of the vodcast Feed Me Bubbe seems to come really close to achieving just that. He follows his 'bubbe' while she cooks traditional Jewish food and on the side chatters about her memories, about Jewish customs and about Yiddish.

The whole show has a carefully cultivated air of charming amateurism, that is played out very well. This makes the show informative and extremely entertaining. I personally find it hilarious and I am sure to a certain extent this is intended. If you have followed my recipes and found them too oriental, you will love bubbe and her Ashkenazi dishes. There is chopped chicken liver, chicken soup (in various editions), latkes, tzimes, varnishkes and of course blintzes - see video; does Bubbe call them 'blintlach'? Never mind.

Feed me bubbe is a wholesome, kosher, Jewish food and culture show of seemingly old-fashioned style brought with the latest of new media. It couldn't be better.

Cooking with Forgotten Classics - podcast review

Mostly Forgotten Classics is about fiction; Julie reads a novel to you. Here is an episode that is about cooking though. The major part of this, rather long, podcast consists of Julie reading from John Thorne's Mouth Wide Open.

I found it the most interesting part where Julie reacted to the content and told how she deals with recipes and how others she knows do. She sees two types of people: those who roughly follow recipes, and make their variations as they go and those who either improvise while cooking, or follow recipes and then follow them rather strictly. In theory there would be people who only cook by recipes and then follow, but nobody seems to know them.

John Thorne explains, among others, in the sections that Julie reads out loud, why he hardly ever cooks from recipes and when he does, he allows himself vast freedom to alternate. His way of dealing with cookbooks, is read them. The recipes are not to be tried, but to be learned from, to give ideas. In addition there are thoughts about traditional cooking, theme cookbooks, cooking magazines and on and on. The reading section is actually too long, I think. And the whole subject, is much more alive when Julie discusses it. I think she could have summarized Thorne's view and made more of a free-style podcast. But hers is a podcast in which she reads to the listener. And this she does very, very well.

More:
Forgotten Classics - podcast review,
Podcast history of cooking,
Anne is a Man - recipes.

Yellow soup

A lot of the ingredients for this soup can be replaced by equivalents. The result may be an orange colored soup in stead of yellow and the soup may be less sour or more spicy, but the result will remain a very nice one. The most special ingredient is the Persian dried lemon. I have just taken up learning to cook with those, so I throw them in many a dish I would normally not have added it at all, or some lemon juice in stead.

800 gram yellow pumpkin
1 sweet potato
1 yellow paprika
1 onion
3 carrots
1 tea spoon turmeric
1 tea spoon ground cardamom
3 table spoons soy sauce
3 teas spoons rock salt
3 tea spoons crushed ginger
cinnamon
nutmeg
coriander
sweet chili sauce
olive oil
125 ml sweet cream 15% fat
1 Persian dried lemon

Carefully heat two table spoons of oil with turmeric and cardamom. Let it heat slowly for two minutes and add the finely cut onion, the paprika and the ginger. Stir for five to ten minutes and then add the potato, carrots and pumpkin. Stir some more, raise the heat, put the lid on, but keep on stirring every couple of minutes. Add soy sauce, Persian lemon, salt and 1.5 liter of boiling water. Cook for a while and then add for taste, to the measure you like, cinnamon, nutmeg and sweet chili sauce. After some 30 minutes take out the lemon. Mash the vegetables with a blender and return the lemon. Cook until the lemon is soft. Crush it and remove it. Add cream and turn off the heat.

More recipes:
Hot and Sour,
Couscous with Chicken,
Rice, minced meat and burnt eggplant,
Fish with couscous,
Chicken pesto with moong dal rice.

Hot and sour - very mild version

When we were in India, high up in the Himalaya in Himachal Pradesh, we ate a hot and sour soup that I have tried to emulate ever since. Especially with chicken, my wife loves it. My kids, I know from experience, love sour soup, but less so, hot food. Hence I tend to make milder versions of my hot recipes these days. Here is the hot and sour soup with chicken and less hot and sour.

1 onion
1 red paprika (bell pepper)
1 green paprika
1 carrot (grated)
1 tea spoon ginger
juice of 1 lemon
2 table spoons olive oil
1 tea spoon sweet paprika
2 tea spoons ground caraway
1 tea spoon ground cumin
1 table spoon ground fenegreek
2 tea spoons soy sauce
10 drum sticks
1 tea spoon rock salt

Heat the oil with the sweet paprika, caraway and cumin. Simmer in it the onion (finely cut) and the grated carrot. Grate the ginger and finely cut the paprikas and add them to the soup. Heat well and add the drumsticks. Keep stirring; the vegetables and spices should not scorch. When the meat turns white, add garlic, salt, soy sauce, lemon juice and fenegreek and cover. After a couple of minutes add 1.5 liter of boiling water. Turn the fire low and let the soup boil slowly for 15 minutes. If you like, you can take out the chicken and mash the vegetables further with a hand blender.

Couscous with Chicken

Typically in the winter I make huge dishes of couscous we all love. Leftovers are intended; we store them in single servings in the freezer, for later use. It is very handy and near indispensable to have ready to go meals in the fridge when you have a family.

12 drumsticks; skin removed (Or any amount of chicken legs, with or without the thigh)
3 table spoons of olive oil
1 tea spoon cumin
1 tea spoon sweet paprika
2 tea spoons turmeric
1 tea spoon coriander (ground)
a handful of coriander (leaves)
2 cloves garlic
salt
5 carrots
5 stems of celery
green pepper
2 courgettes
500 grams chickpeas (readily boiled or from a can)
(Optional to add: pumpkin, broccoli, cauliflower)
500 grams couscous (3 minute microwavable)
0.5 liter boiling water

Slowly heat two table spoons of oil and add cumin, sweet paprika and one tea spoon of turmeric. When the oil is sufficiently hot, throw in the pieces of chicken, one by one, carefully turning them around in order to have them fried lightly in the oil and spices. If necesary to make some room, take out some of the chicken (not all) and add the vegetables. Stir fry until everythign is sufficiently warm. Add salt, garlic and chickpeas. Boil the water and add that too. (In case you took out some of the chicken put the pieces on top) Allow to boil for 10-20 minutes. Put the couscous in a bowl, add one teas spoon of turmeric and one table spoon of oil; stir well with a fork. Take 0.5 liter of broth from the stew and pour it on the couscous. Stir with the fork in order to evenly immerse the couscous in the soup. Put the bowl for 3 minutes in the microwave and high power. After three minutes, allow the couscous to stand for 5 minutes. Stir the couscous with the fork once more.
Check on the stew, add salt to taste. Serve on top of the couscous.

Main course with rice, minced meat and burnt eggplant

Tonight our sabbath meal consisted of rice, minced meat in a tomato sauce and eggplant burnt in the oven. Four to eight servings.

1) Eggplant
Cut the eggplant in two halves. Cover them with tin foil and burn them in the oven for at least 60 minutes at a temperature of 275 degrees.

2) Rice
1 table spoon olive oil
1 big onion
salt
white wine
1 clove of garlic
1 cup of brown rice

Cut the onion and stir fry it for 3 minutes in the oil at medium heat. Add some salt, the rice and keep stirring. Add half a glass of white wine and stir some more. Add two cups of water, cover and boil. When the rice boils add a whole clove of garlic. When the rice is done (after 20 to 30 minutes) stir the rice with a fork. The garlic will have gone soft and you can take it out or - what I prefer - mix it with the whole bowl of rice by stirring.

3) Minced meat in tomato sauce
500 gram minced meat
1 table spoon olive oil
2 tea spoons ground caraway
1 tea spoon ground cardamom
2 handful of fresh basil leaves
1 tea spoon fresh thyme
3 tea spoons fresh sage
4 zucchinis
2 green paprikas
1 dry red hot pepper
2 bay leaves
10 cloves of garlic
3 packages of tomato paste
salt
black pepper

Mix the meat with a pinch of salt, the caraway and the cardamom. Fry it in the pan with the oil. Add the red pepper and the bay leaves. Stir. Cut and add the zucchini and the paprika. Cut 5 cloves of garlic into fine slices and add to the meat. Then squeeze the other 5 and add also. When the zucchini is done, roughly cut the fresh leaves and add. Simmer for 5 minutes and add the tomato paste. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed.

Take the eggplant out of the oven. Cut the halves in two quarts and serve on a plate next to the rice and the sauce.

Pasta traditioneel

Hier volgt een versie van een wel heel traditioneel recept. Ik weet niet in hoeverre traditioneel Italiaans, maar het is wel typisch de manier waarop ik sinds mijn studententijd geleerd heb pasta te bereiden. De waarde van deze blog entry zit hem niet zozeer in de originele componenten, als wel om het basisrecept eens in een complete invulling opgeschreven te hebben. Pasta, met gehakt, groenten en tomatenpuree.

500 gram gehakt
2 eetlepels olijfolie
2 theelepels gemalen komijn
1 theelepel gemalen koriander
2 stuks prei
1 grote ui
1 groene paprika
2 courgettes
zout
3 laurierbladeren
1 hele rode peper (droog)
1 hand verse salie
2 handen verse basilicum
1 theelepel verse rozemarijn
4 tenen knoflook
3 bakjes tomatenpuree

Gehakt mengen met 1 theelepel komijn en koriander (eventueel wat zout). Een eetlepel olie verhitten in een hapjes pan en de rode peper, laurierbladeren en gehakt erbij gooien; opbakken tot het rul is. Het gehakt overgooien in een kom en opnieuw olie verhitten. Op laag vuur de rest van de komijn erbij gooien en daarna ui, prei en courgette en uit de gehakt vissen: rode peper en laurierbladeren. Roerbakken op middelmatig vuur en zout toevoegen. De basilicum, knoflook, salie, rozemarijn fijn hakken (in een keukenmachine) en als het een groene puree is, samen met het gehakt in de pan gooien. Opwarmen en tomatenpuree toevoegen. Naar smaak zout toevoegen.

Paprika and pumpkin soup

Paprikas (bell peppers of whatever color) are a fine ingredient to many meals. Their peal, however is a bit bitter, and therefore not always what you want in your melange of tastes. The way to peal paprikas something I learned only recently and when used, have a wonderful taste effect, very different from paprika with the skin still on. In order to bring the paprikas into a state where the skin can be pealed off, they need to be burnt in an oven. When the paprika turns black, take it out, put it in a plastic bag and let it cool. Make sure you turn the paprika in the oven to scorch it on all sides. If the heat was not evenly distributed, on the cooler side the paprika is much harder to peal. For the recipe below one must start with burning the paprikas for that takes around one hour, depending on the size, color and oven-heat.

1.5 table spoon olive oil
2 tea spoons turmeric
1 tea spoon ground cardamom
1.5 tea spoon ground coriander
300-500 gram pumpkin cut in small cubes
2 tea spoons rock salt
6 stems of chives
0.5 tea spoon ground ginger
2 bay leaves
6 cloves of garlic, sliced
1.5 liter boiling water
3 pealed green paprikas
1 tea spoon ground cumin
3 table spoons lemon juice

Put a high pan on low heat and pour in one table spoon of olive oil and add one tea spoon of turmeric, half a tea spoon of cardamom and half a tea spoon of ground coriander and stir. When the oil takes on the color of the spices, add the pumpkin and turn up the heat and stir continuously. Add half a tea spoon of salt. Cut the chives in small rings, both the whites and the greens and add to the pan - keep on stirring for five minutes. Add another half a tea spoon of salt, half a tea spoon of turmeric, half a tea spoon of ground ginger and the bay leaves. Stir for five more minutes and simultaneously bring the water to the boil. Throw in the garlic the rest of the oil and the boiling water. Peal the paprikas and cut them in small pieces and add to the soup. Keep simmering for one hour, tasting the soup from time to time. Add salt, cumin, coriander and turmeric as needed. After one hour add the lemon juice.

Fish with couscous

800 gram codfish - מרלוזה
350 gram couscous (medium size)
olive oil
3 bay leaves
1 red hot pepper
1 green hot pepper
5 stems of celery
5 carrots
3 green paprikas
1 red bell pepper
2 tea spoons sweet paprika
1 tea spoon ground coriander
1 tea spoon ground caraway
1 tea spoon ground cumin
1/2 tea spoon turmeric
4 cloves garlic
1 tea spoon mustard
1 tea spoon squeezed ginger
2 hands of cilantro leaves
2 servings tomato paste
60 ml cream (15%)
1/2 l water
2 glasses white wine

Heat the oil with salt, bay leaves and whole red hot pepper. Let this scorch a bit then add finely cut celery and carrot. Add sweet paprika. Stir. Add the fish and one glass of wine. Add garlic, ginger, spices (but NOT the turmeric), salt, paprikas, mustard and stir. Close the lid, turn to medium heat. Boil 1/2 liter of water then add together with another glass of wine. After 10 minutes, use a ladle to take out 1/2 liter of the 'soup'.

Add the couscous to a glass bowl. Add one spoon of oil and the turmeric, mix by stirring with a fork. Add the soup and stir again. Put in microwave at high power for 3 minutes. (Check the instructions that come with your couscous, I am not entirely sure EVERY couscous can be made like this)

Add tomato paste to the stew, simmer without the lid on and then take it off the fire and add cream.

Chicken pesto with moong dal rice

Here I present two recipes. One for the rice and one for the chicken. Actually it is three. One for the rice, one for the chicken and one for the pesto.

Rice:
1 cup of brown rice
Half a cup of mash (moong dal)
1 large onion
salt
water
olive oil

Have the mash soak in water for at least an hour before use. Put one spoon of olive oil in the rice pan. Heat it quickly and stir fry the finely cut onion in it. Add salt and the mash and stir fry. Add the rice and stir. Add water (optional: add a glass of white wine) and cook for at least 30 minutes. The mash must be soft and ready to eat -- it usually takes a tad longer than the brown rice.

Pesto:
150 gram of fresh basil
1 green hot pepper
10 cloves of garlic
olive oil
salt

Add the basil, the garlic, one spoon of oil, a tea spoon of salt and the pepper to a blender and blend it into a pesto.

Chicken:
500 gram of boneless chicken (cut in cubes)
2 courgettes
7 chives
1 dry red hot pepper
3 bay leaves
2 tea spoons of fine ground black pepper
2 spoons olive oil
salt
5 celery stalks
60 ml cream (15% fat)

Put one spoon of oil in a pan, heat it quickly with the red pepper (whole) and bay leaves and one tea spoon of ground pepper. After one minute add the chicken and stir fry. While adding the rest of the black pepper and salt. Add celery and chives; stir fry. Add courgette. When this whole is well done, add the pesto. Let it cook for a while and turn off heat. Add cream. Allow standing time.

Minced Chicken with pasta

500 gram minced chicken
2 courgettes
1 bell pepper
250 gram chick peas (cooked)
onion
2 table spoons olive oil
salt
4 tea spoons turmeric
3 tea spoons fenegreek
2 tea spoons ground coriander
4 cloves of garlic - sliced
2-4 table spoons whipping cream (15%)

Heat one table spoon of the oil and stir fry the chicken, while adding 2 teaspoons of turmeric, 2 tea spoons of fenegreek and some salt. Put the chicken aside when it is well done. Put in one tablespoon of oil with 2 teaspoons of turmeric, 1 tea spoon of fenegreek and salt over low heat and stir gently. Make sure the spices wil not burn. After two minutes cut and add the onion. Stir fry the onion for about five minutes. Cut the courgette and the pepper and add to the onion. Add salt if needed and stir. Add coriander, garlic and chick peas. When the courgette is nearly done, add the chicken you have put aside. When the vegetables are done turn off the fire and add the cream. Add salt if you think it is needed.

Chicken and vegetables (2)

You know the challenge? There is very little stock in the fridge, it is late and suddenly you must cook a meal as fast as you can with whatever you have. An additional challenge I got: the meal is for a family whom I know quite well, but I have no idea about their eating habits.

So, what did I have? Frozen chicken and minced meat, frozen vegetables, 1 onion, 5 carrots, 4 paprikas, 1 eggplant, lots of potatoes, garlic and tomatoes and regular spices and dried goods. Not everybody likes eggplant, so that is out. Go easy on the garlic and the spices of course. I decided to go for the cookie bag. Half an hour of preparations and one hour in the oven.

4 chicken legs (separated drum sticks and thighs; skin removed)
2 table spoons soy sauce
1 tea spoon squeezed ginger
2 table spoons tomato paste (1 serving)
2 tea spoons sweet paprika
1 tea spoon turmeric
1 tea spoon ground cumin
1 onion
5 cloves garlic (squeezed)
5 potatoes
5 carrots
200 grams thin green beans (defrosted / slightly cooked)
2 green paprikas
1 large cookie bag

Defrost frozen chicken in the microwave (20 minutes). Rinse frozen green beans and allow them to stand for 20 minutes (simultaneous) in a sieve. Peel and cut carrots and potatoes (10 minutes, simultaneous to defrosting). Clean and cut onion, ginger, paprikas and garlic (10 minutes, after cutting vegetables, simultaneous to defrosting). Preheat oven at 190 degrees.
Fill cookie bag with soy sauce, spices, tomato paste. Squeeze garlic and ginger and add to the bag; mix well, by closing and shaking the bag. Add chicken, potatoes, carrots and paprika; mix well, by closing and shaking the bag. Shake the beans in order to remove as much water as possible then add to the bag and shake well.
Seal bag, make 4-8 holes with a tooth pick and place in the oven. Ready after 50-60 minutes.

Sorry no picture. The photograph is of the previous cookie bag meal I posted.

Another one of Anne's makloobas

If I am not mistaken ma'aluba or maqluba is Arabic for upside down. The idea is to cook the rice, the spices and the vegetables with the pieces of meat, poultry or fish on top in one big pot and when it is ready, you serve this on a broad dish. How to pass the stew onto the dish? Well, you put the dish, facing down, on top of the pan and turn the whole thing upside down. Thus the dish will be put on the table with the meat buried under a pile of rice and vegetables.

I don't mess around with this way of serving, but I do like to cook all of these types of ingredients in one pan, for it gives a very tasty stew. I like to vary with all types of ingredients. A large variety of vegetables and spices are at my disposal and I choose regarding the season. In stead of rice, or together with rice one can add lentils or other legumes, one can take couscous, qinoa and so on. Mostly I cook with chicken, but all sorts of meat, poultry and fish are fit for the stew. Here is how I made my maklooba today:

5 drum sticks with the skin removed
1 table spoon of olive oil
3 tea spoons turmeric
1 tea spoon ground cumin
1 tea spoon ground coriander
half a tea spoon cinnamon
8 stems of blanched celery
half a teaspoon squeezed ginger
5 cloves of garlic
two hands of fresh parsley
1 cup of rice
1 table spoon qinoa
half a cup of red lentils
2 courgettes
salt

Put in the oil, the cumin and one teaspoon of turmeric on low heat. Stir fry until the oil gets the color of the spices and then add the celery. Stir. Add Chicken with 1 tea spoon turmeric and ginger. Stir. Add rice and garlic and salt. Stir. Add, courgette, qinoa and lentils. Stir. Add three cups of hot water, turmeric, coriander and cinnamon and parsley. Cook until the rice is ready. Add a bit of hot water if the stew turns too dry and begins to stick to the bottom of the pan.

Itamar ate the stew in a pita.

Bell pepper soup with sour cream

1 table spoon olive oil
1 drip sesame oil
20 grams butter
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
cayenne pepper
half a teaspoon turmeric
teaspoon caraway
2 teaspoons allspice
black pepper
1 big onion
half a cup black lentils
6 cloves of garlic
30 cl beer
salt
two table spoons fresh thyme
6 bell peppers
1 green paprika
1 green pepper
1.5 liter of hot water

Put the red and the green paprika, together with the green pepper in the oven at 200 degrees Celsius until the skin begins to turn black. Put the paprikas in a plastic bag and let them cool down.

Pour the oil in a pan over low heat. Add the butter and the spices apart from the thyme. Let the oil and butter take on the color and smell of the spices. Cut the onion very fine and stir fry in the colored oil. Add one clove of garlic sliced. When the onion becomes shiny, add the lentils. Stir the lentils over medium heat. Add one cup of beer. Add salt and thyme (remove the stems, add only the leaves).

When sufficiently cooled down, take the paprikas from the bag; the skin can easily be peeled off. Remove also the seeds. Cut in small pieces and add to the soup. Add the rest of the beer and let boil for at least half an hour. Allow standing time. Serve with sour cream.

Eggplant salad

1 small or half a big eggplant
pepper
1 clove of garlic, squeezed
table spoon tahin
allspice
salt
table spoon of lemon juice

Take the eggplant cut it lengthwise in half. Cover the halves with tinfoil and burn them at 275 degrees for about an hour. Take the eggplant out of the oven and let it cool down. When it is sufficiently cool you can scoop the inside out of the peel. Mash the inside a bit more with a fork and add pepper and garlic and mix well.

Now a word about the tahin paste. My recipe assumes you are using the nearly liquid paste that is common in Israel. I recall from Holland, the paste comes in a dry very thick form. I assume that the thick variety, must be administered in a smaller dose -- try one tea spoon. For the liquid kind take one table spoon. Be careful not to take too much. If you are uncertain, take a small portion, mix, and taste. If it is a bit bitter and still liquid, that is fine, the lemon will neutralize the bitterness. You won't want it to get too thick though.

After mixing with the tahin and adding the allspice and salt, add one tea spoon of lemon juice (this is about one quarter of a squeezed lemon). Taste the salad. Here it should be just right. You can add more lemon if too thick and more tahin, if too watery. Be careful, neither the lemon nor the tahin should dominate over the taste of the eggplant.

Tomato-Onion soup

I love eating soup, I love cooking soup. During the warm season I prefer lighter soups -- potages, so to say. The lightest version of soups are sour soups, which I usually make with lemon juice, or, the not-so-sour versions, white wine. To my surprise, the kids love eating my sour soups. They just yum it up, albeit with the indispensable tiny croûtons that are so typically Israeli: שקדי מרק (photo left).

1 table spoon olive oil
half a tea spoon ground cumin
half a tea spoon turmeric
1 tea spoon sweet paprika
4 onions finely cut
3 tea spoons rock salt
branch of tomatoes
4 tomatoes
4 cloves of garlic sliced
juice of 1 lemon
1.5 liter water

Pour in the oil and spices at low heat. Simmer and stir for a couple of minutes and add the cut onions. stir fry on medium heat for 5-10 minutes. When onions are shiny and tainted by the spices, add 1 tea spoon of salt, and tomato branch. simmer for another 5 minutes. Cut the tomatoes in quarters and add while stirring. Add boiling water, keep stirring. Add the garlic and boil for some 10 minutes. Taste the soup and add salt as needed. Boil for 10 minutes, add lemon juice. Allow standing time, taste and add salt if needed.

The kids do not like ground black pepper in this soup, but you can add to your taste during standing time or while serving.

Chicken and vegetables

For our Sabbath meal I used the most amazing means to make a stew in an easy, clean and low fat way: the cookie bag. This is a plastic bag that is made to sustain the high heat of an oven (up to 200 degrees centigrade) and this allows for cooking with almost no fat at all and still come up with a very tasty meal. I am still in the process of perfecting my recipes for the cookie bag, but for completeness sake, I give the one for Friday evening below. First I want to explain more generally the use of the cookie bag, though.
Nothing sticks to the bag and as a consequence one can make a mix of all the desired ingredients of the stew and not add any more fat ingredients than is needed for taste. This allows for making a dish without oil or butter or such altogether. Any combination of vegetables with fish, fowl or meat can deliver a very tasty stew. Vegetables with a strong taste of their own such as garlic, ginger, fennel, carrot, paprika for example are fantastic contributors to the stew.

For one large cookie bag:
1 kilo cut chicken (remove skin for less fat)
400 gram potatoes
400 gram carrot
400 gram cauliflower
red paprika
small green pepper
6 cloves garlic squeezed
tea spoon of squeezed ginger
table spoon soy sauce
table spoon sweet chili sauce

Throw all the ingredients into a large cookie bag. Mix well. Close the cookie bag with delivered clip and punch some 4-8 tiny holes in the bag with a tooth pick. Put the bag in the oven at 180-200 degrees for one hour. Let the holes in the bag face upwards in order to prevent leaking, but allow steam to be let out and not cause the bag to explode.