Cafe Liz
Kosher vegetarian recipes from my kitchen in Tel Aviv
mallow
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Winter’s bounty: Mallow leaves stuffed with nettle

If I’m stuffing foraged mallow leaves, I might as well stuff them with foraged nettle.
I acquired both my mallow and my nettle through the not-so-socially-acceptable (or should I say hippie trendy?) method of picking them from the city’s streets. Both have a long culinary history, but most people aren’t aware of it. Mallow has long been a staple for the region’s poor, and many people here know it as the plant that helped Jerusalemites survive the siege in the War of Independence in 1948. Nettle loses its sting once you blanch it, and it appears in rustic Italian pasta recipes. Continue reading Winter’s bounty: Mallow leaves stuffed with nettle …
Winter weekend weed walks

I attended two weed walks last week. Both had been delayed due to rain. Coincidence? Not at all. We’ve had several years of drought, and the rain came late this year. But once it started, it didn’t stop. When the winter rains begin, the dusty earth quickly comes alive with fresh green growth. Flat brown yards and parking lots fill up with massive packs of mallow, and green shoots peek from between cracks in the pavement. Many of the country’s [...]
Continue reading ...Greens of the season: What’s in your yard, what’s in the market — and what’s off-limits

The winter rains bring with them an explosion of green growth, much of which filters its way into our markets -- well, some of them, at least. For whatever reason -- wealth? -- many of the wild greens do not play a role in most people's diets. And it's a pity, because native plants are an excellent way to embrace the land, eating local at its best. However, you can still find them. A few of them may be in [...]
Continue reading ...Pasta sauce with mallow and sheep cheese

It doesn't sound like the most unusual dish -- tomato sauce with greens and cheese, pretty standard, right? Well, it is and it isn't. My greens happened to be mallow and wild beet, and my cheese was a traditional Arab sheep cheese known as "jibneh," which, quite creatively, means "cheese" in Arabic. Ingredients you wouldn't usually find in pasta sauce, yet it's the basic mix of greens and cheese. It works. Wild beet and mallow are among the many wild [...]
Continue reading ...Cafe Liz: Kosher vegetarian recipes, Israeli food culture, a mix of the Mediterranean and the Middle East.
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