Moroccan Style Fish
This recipe comes directly from Israel via Grandma Esther. We rely on Isaac to cook any fish dishes since it's his mom's recipe. Not only is Isaac a wonderful cook, he actually enjoys the cooking experience.
5 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
1 red pepper, sliced into 8 pieces
1 to 2 pounds of fish (any fresh white flesh fish)
1/2 a bunch of cilantro, chopped
Turmeric, salt, paprika, olive oil
1. Heat up 1/4 cup of olive oil, sprinkle lightly with Turmeric, paprika and add the sliced garlic and peppers
2. Saute everything for about 5 minutes, until the pepper gets quite soft
3. The fish should be washed and dried well then sprinkled with salt. Lay the fish in a single layer on top of the pepper and garlic, continue cooking on a medium flame for another 10 minutes with the lid on
4. After 10 minutes add the chopped cilantro to the fish and continue cooking, lower the flame slightly below medium, for another 10 minutes
5. At this point there should be some juices running, keep basting the fish with this liquid
6. If you like a spicy fish dish, you could add chopped jalapeno peppers to the red peppers in the first step
7. This dish is delicious with good crusty white bread like french bread or challah to soak up the yummy sauce
This next recipe might be intimidating to some but let me assure you that it's simple, delicious and very healthy. This is Ryan's favorite Persian stew and I'll make extra so that he can eat it for days.
This is a wonderful way to utilize tons of greens and lots of celery into one dish. Everything shrinks in the cooking process so don't worry if it looks like a ton of food. It is best over Persian white rice.
Celery Stew with Chicken
8 pieces of chicken
2 bunches of celery, preferably with their leaves
1 bunch of parsley
1 bunch of cilantro
1 bunch of chives
2 bunches of spring onions
4 cups of water + 2 tbsp of marak-off
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp turmeric
juice of 2 lemons (maybe more if you like it lemony)
5 dried limes (found in Middle Eastern Grocery stores)
1. Cut up the spring onions, including the greens and saute in a large pot with the olive oil, turmeric and cumin
2. Add the chicken pieces once the onions have wilted, sprinkle the chicken with salt, cook until the chicken is well cooked, about 15 minutes, turn the chicken several times to get it browned
3. Meanwhile wash and cut up the celery into bite size pieces, including their greens, it adds tons of flavor to this dish. Wash the parsley, cilantro and chives and cut up as fine as possible.
4. Add the celery first into the pot, then add the water, marak off, parsley, cilantro and chives. The water should be higher than the vegetables so add more water if you need
5. Cook on medium with the lid on for at least half an hour
6. Juice your lemons and add to the pot, stir it in
7. The dried lemons are quite essential to this dish but if you are not able to find them just add more lemon juice so that it balances the flavor of this stew. I wash the dried lemons and crack them slightly before dropping them into the pot.
8. Keep tasting the sauce and the celery, add more salt or lemon juice until you have a very unique taste, we love it tart
Our dessert this week is perfect for kids to make since there is no baking involved. In fact this particular dessert is Israel's go to recipe for kids to make, even on play dates. You might have to help them with the melting of the chocolate and crumbling of the cookies but everything else is very child friendly. This dessert is as common in Israel as munchkins are here in America.
Israeli Chocolate Balls
100 grams of bittersweet chocolate (we use Elite, a full bar and 1/4 bar)
100 grams of margarine (1 stick)
6 tbsp sugar
6 tbsp coco powder
3/4 cup of milk or water
500-700 grams of tea cookie biscuits (about 1lb, Kedem is in the supermarkets)
1. Break the chocolate bar and melt it in a small pot, add the margarine, sugar, coco and milk or water
2. Mix together until everything is well melted, take off the heat
3. Meanwhile, crumble the biscuits in a large bowl
4. Let the chocolate mixture cool down and then add the biscuit crumbs to it and mix really well
5. Have a tray ready and start making the chocolate balls. They should be a little bit sticky so that when you roll them in the sprinkles, nuts, coconut flakes or chocolate chips, they will stick
6. The balls should be the size of small munchkins. Place them in a single layer on the tray and put them into the fridge before serving
Have on hand all different types of sprinkles for the balls to get rolled in. Chopped nuts, mini chocolate chips are great and we found that fine dried coconut works well too.
Hope you enjoy these recipes.
Hagit and Dafna
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