Cafe Liz

I guess I lack holiday spirit. It’s Hanukkah, but I haven’t been able to get in the mood for grease. After making six types of latkes last year, and frying them in more than enough oil to keep a hanukkiyah burning for eight days, I went a different route this year — potato pancakes that don’t have much in common with the Hanukkah staple, beyond the name. These sweet potato pancakes are the signature dish of Orna & Ella, a [...]

Here I am, making zhug, even though I’ve never really been a big fan. Not liking something has never kept me from trying to make it myself. Plus, I find something intrinsically interesting about making condiments. Things like mustard and mayonnaise, they’re usually considered ingredients in their own right, something you get ready-made. But that doesn’t mean you need to take them as a given; they, too, can be made. Zhug (סחוג), also written skhug or schug, is a Yemenite [...]

These swirly, patterned ribbons would look quite nice hung on my wall. Were they not made of pasta dough, that is. Back story: We are now the proud new owners of a pasta maker. I know everyone says you can make perfectly good pasta by hand, too, but frankly, there's no comparison. We've never been able to roll our pasta thin enough. Plus, the machine is extremely useful when it comes to kneading. Once you have a machine to do [...]