Pretty soon readers in the States will be able to grab a kosher Gatorade after a long workout or ball game or while slaving away in a hot kitchen. That iconic quart of electrolyte-laden thirst-quenching ambrosia will soon slake the thirsts of parched Jews as they hastily mutter a shehakol before pounding one down. It’s the perfect drink to quickly replenish lost body fluids.
Or if you like drinking neon.
Now that's a leek!
Winter leeks in Israel are in season in Israel in January, but generally available all year long. They are available as organic produce as well.
My wife found one of these monsters yesterday in Machane Yehuda, where I haven’t had a chance to go in nearly a month. Looking at the same old vegetables in my local grocery is a little depressing, but when these started showing up, I started thinking about how many different ways I could play with them. (more…)
I have discussed ingredient substitutions in classes, and I will probably go on mentioning them here in my blog. They’re not cheating, they don’t fundamentally detract from the recipe and they’re not wrong. Purists who click their tongues are nothing but elitist food snobs who can’t think in the kitchen the way a chef thinks. And anyone who disagrees with me so far should remember that many of the original, classic recipes bear no resemblance to their modern day counterparts.
Substitutions should redefine a dish, not sabotage it. Here’s a classic example. A la Florentine is a well-known preparation of with spinach and typically Mornay sauce. Whether your protein is chicken, mullet, pork or eggs, the preparation remains the same.
Machane Yehuda in Yerushalayim is a riot of sound and smell that can be completely overwhelming for anyone their first time there. It is here in this public market that one can find the mundane and the exotic. Mostly the mundane.
Having come from the US, I am accustomed to a wider variety of ingredients than is available in Israel. This is simply a demand issue, because anything can grow in Israel. It aggravates me and I often complain how there are a grand total of fourteen vegetables in Israel, and little in the way of varieties among them. There are something like thirty varieties of cucumbers in the world alone, and considering this is the Israeli salad capital of the world, I haven’t seen a kirby since I made aliyah. Don’t even ask about the pickles here. Lower East Side sours are part of our heritage for crying out loud!
For the most part, the vendors of Machane Yehuda are owned or supplied by three or four vendors. There are, however, a few vendors that regularly stock vegetables and food materials that aren’t on everyone else’s displays. Of course it’s premium stuff, for a premium price, but then how many times a week are you eating King Oyster mushrooms?
