Cafe Liz

Purim special: Hamentaschen-shaped bird’s nest baklava

Purim is approaching, and while I haven’t decided on a costume, I did decide to dress up my hamentaschen in Middle Eastern outfits. Hamentaschen are traditional Ashkenazi Jewish cookies notable for their three-pointed form, which according to tradition resembles the three-cornered hat of Haman, the holiday’s antagonist. (In Hebrew, for some reason, they’re called oznei haman, or “Haman’s ears.”) Last year I dressed up my hamantaschen as Japanese-inspired mochi cookies, this year I they resembled Middle Eastern pastries.

The Purim story is set in first-century Persia, so it’s unlikely that Mordechai, Esther or Haman ever had baklava. While the Persians (or Ottomans) are thought to have invented baklava, filo came into being only somewhere between the 6th and the 10th centuries. But still, it’s a twist that makes me smile. Continue reading Purim special: Hamentaschen-shaped bird’s nest baklava…

Chai ice cream

The mix of spices in this ice cream may not be the definitive recipe for masala chai — if there even is such a thing — but it produces a taste that I associate with the Indian tea, and is quite good. The light brown demarara sugar rounds out the flavor with a light molasses kick. Now, let’s enjoy some ice cream while it’s still warm. Continue reading Chai ice cream…

Apple-pear-plum bread, or, don’t throw out that pulp from your juicemaker

One of our friends, Gil, contributed 4 liters of fresh juice to our Rosh Hashanah meal — a great solution for a person with a juicer who doesn’t cook. The side effect? Massive, massive amounts of leftover fruit pulp — those 4 liters took about 15 kilos of fresh fruit to make.

I have a hard time seeing food being thrown out, so we asked him to bring us the pulp. We’d find something to do with it. Continue reading Apple-pear-plum bread, or, don’t throw out that pulp from your juicemaker…

Festive holiday jello, and happy Rosh Hashanah

Rosh Hashanah starts this Friday, and I’m hosting. Festive holiday meal! And I get to cook it all! Yay! (Well, aside from the dishes my guests are bringing.)

My excitement could easily lead to way too much food, if I weren’t limited by a combination of time and resources. Needless to say, I’ve been spending the week dreaming about what I’m going to make. And, doing trial runs of potential desserts.

In all honesty, jello isn’t my favorite dessert — there are a lot of things I’d prefer to eat, starting with well-made pastries, followed by cookies, ice cream …. well, you get the idea. But jello is pretty. It presents well. And there’ll be other desserts on the table, too. Continue reading Festive holiday jello, and happy Rosh Hashanah…

Mango-basil frozen yogurt

I have a slight mango obsession. I’ve been stockpiling them. Every week I go to the market, I feel an urge to buy more — regardless of how many are left in our fridge. I must have had about 20 at some point last week. I’m just so excited that they’re both in season and affordable.

So, I’ve been forced (oh, the pain) to find creative ways to go through them. A mango a day keeps the doctor away, no?

Fortunately, mangoes are very amenable to being used in ice cream — strong in flavor, not too watery. The buttermilk base here creates a wonderful texture — thick and creamy (and low fat!), and soft even after a week in the freezer, the holy grail of homemade ice creams that shy away from heavy creams and egg yolks.

Believe it or not, the fresh basil adds a great kick of flavor, as it does for many fruit-based desserts. Kind of like what I imagine licorice would taste like if licorice actually, like, tasted good (sorry, licorice lovers). Continue reading Mango-basil frozen yogurt…

Dulce de leche liquor

I first encountered dulce de leche liquor when I was around 20, on a trip to Buenos Aires. Always one to travel light, I went with only a small backpack, which made my mother all the more amused when I returned home, having managed to stuff five bottles of wine and two bottles of dulce de leche liquor into that little bag. (Ah, the good old days, when you could still bring liquid onto flights). Shortly after, she “confiscated” one of the dulce de leche bottles, ostensibly because I was underage. What can I say? My mom likes my taste in liquor. I think she still has some left.

That was years ago. I finished my bottle, and never saw dulce de liquor again — until last month, when I found myself at the Jaffa Market with Eitan’s sister-in-law. Yaakov Lavie of Efrat had set up a stand for his award-winning liquors, and was offering tastes. Hoping not to spend money, I turned him down — I knew that once I tasted it, I wouldn’t be able to resist buying a bottle. But one thing led to another, and I found myself with half a liter of dulce de leche liquor for a very reasonable 50 shekels.

The liquor was nothing short of wonderful, and I should have asked Lavie for a percentage of sales, because I quickly had half a dozen friends wanting their own bottles. The catch? In theory his liquors are sold at chocolate shops around the Tel Aviv, but in practice, you can’t find them anywhere. Except for the Jaffa Market. Which is in the Jaffa port. Only on Fridays. And it’s one hot half-hour bike ride at this time of year.

What to do? Continue reading Dulce de leche liquor…

Cherry coconut sorbet with amaretto

This recipe really gives it all away at once — cherry coconut sorbet with amaretto. That’s what’s in it: cherries, coconut and amaretto. Oh, and a bit of sugar. It’s really that simple.

I’ve been eying the beautiful cherries at the market for the past several weeks now. They’re not exactly the cheapest fruit, but fortunately the price has been coming down to 20-25 shekels a kilo, and I usually make the splurge. It’s well worth it, because the cherries are juicy and sweet, and I enjoy every last one.

For that reason, I hesitated to use so many of them in anything that didn’t involve just eating them red, shiny and intact. Eitan convinced me that cherry ice cream would be just as good as raw cherries. Fortunately, I can still buy more. Continue reading Cherry coconut sorbet with amaretto…

Dulce de leche cheesecake

My friend Leonie gave me a jar of organic goat’s milk dulce de leche from Sde Bar. It so happened that I had another identical jar that had been sitting in my fridge for the past year, so I knew I had to use it quickly — I like dulce de leche, but we don’t eat it on its own. So, I decided to turn it into a cheesecake.

On another unrelated note, this is my 100th post … how exciting.

This dulce de leche has quite a strong flavor of goat’s cheese, so I mixed it with regular, cow’s milk cream cheese (3% fat) in order to dilute it a bit. The end result still has a hint of that goat’s milk flavor, but is not overpowering. Continue reading Dulce de leche cheesecake…

Dirt cake

Spot the impostor: It’s not a plant, it’s a cake. It only looks like a plant. (OK, a fake plant. But still.) I got this recipe from my mom, who’s been playing it for laughs since I was a child. This is my second year making it myself (for a different crowd each time, of course), and it gets a good response, even once the “dirt” cover is broken and people start digging into the cake. There’s just something about eating out of a flowerpot that amuses people. Continue reading Dirt cake…

Passion-fruit citrus cheesecake

This cheesecake has a fabulous, tangy flavor, thanks to the passion fruit, orange and lemon. It also almost ended in complete and total disaster due to my impatience.

It’s been quite a while since I’ve made a cheesecake — about 51 weeks, right around last year’s Shavuot, to be precise — and I kind of forgot the importance of letting the cheesecake take its dear sweet time to cool down. In my haste, I removed the baking ring a few minutes after this gorgeous, golden cheesecake came out of the oven, and watched in horror as the perfect top split and the cake collapsed into a pile on its tinfoil wrapping.

Fortunately, not all was lost. Continue reading Passion-fruit citrus cheesecake…