Cafe Liz

Jachnun is one of those dishes that everyone in Israel loves but few actually make themselves. These rolled sticks of dough are a Yemenite Jewish food. The dish is one of many slow-cooked Jewish foods invented to be prepared a day in advance and baked all night long, so that there would be hot food on the sabbath, when lighting fires is prohibited. Brought over by Yemenite immigrants, jachnun was warmly embraced by Israeli society as a whole. It’s traditionally [...]

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 [...]