Daniel Goldwater
Chef CMRJ
Jerusalem
Israel
So who can lay claim or ownership to foods or beverages?
The short answer is, who cares! If its good I’ll eat it and if it suits my needs, write it into my own recipe book.
Here in Israel with so many cultural points of origin (from Cochin to Marrakesh and beyond) the pick and mix of available traditional foods is phenomenal. The adventure that can be had exploring and interchanging different ingredients styles and cooking methods can be a lot of fun.
After “Green Tehina” and “King” Hummus I will add to the Mazzetim (Hebrew plural for Mezze) table a few more condiments to flesh it out.
Mazzetim as a starter are common throughout the Mediterranean Basin and are always served with Fresh warm breads or Pita depending where you are.
The big problem with Mazzetim is that if they are any good and once you have worked your way through them, there is little or no room left for the main course.
This time around I will share three more central condiments/Dips for our Mezze table.
Spicy Tomato and Pepper “Salsa” origins in North Africa/Southern Europe, “Baba Ganush” from Lebanon (before the explosion) and last but not least “Schug” (the fire condiment) a very spicy condiment that hails from Yemen. Sadly today Yemen can offer very few culinary treasures nor much else of any worth to the world.
Hot Tomato/Pepper Salsa
Ingredients:
- 1 400 gram can quality can of crushed Italian Tomatoes + two peeled and chopped Fresh Tomatoes
- 1 onion
- 2 Red peppers (Capsicum)
- 1 hot green pepper
- 1/2 chopped lemon skin
- Salt/Pepper
Method:
Red peppers and Hot pepper on a tray on oven paper in the oven. Temp.180 C until skin darkens and starts to separate from the flesh. Take out of oven and place in supermarket plastic bag (if you still have them) and tie tightly closed. This makes for easy peeling of the peppers. While the peppers are in the oven chop the onion into large Brunoise cubes, spot of oil in a small pot, on a low heat fry gently for a minute or two until they start to clarify. Set aside. Put whole tomatoes in boiling water, peel cube roughly, set aside. Peel peppers and cube flesh. Hot pepper peel and chop finely (add as much as you want depending on how hot you want it, I would start off with half and taste before adding more).
Put everything back in the pot with the onions, add the can of crushed tomatoes, add salt and chopped hot pepper to taste. Bring to boil turn off. With a hand held blender, blend half the pots contents and with a spoon combine the two parts.
Salsa can be frozen, so a batch can be made and used over time.
Baba Ganush
Ingredients:
- 2 medium sized Eggplants
- Raw Tehina x 4 tablespoons
- 2 crushed Garlic Cloves
- Juice of one lemon
- Salt/ Pepper
Method:
Wash dry then individually wrap the eggplants in Aluminium foil. Place on gas top or BBQ on a very low light (aprox. 30 + minutes) and turn from time to time until very soft (poke with your asbestos finger) and clearly well cooked through. Set aside in bowl (as it will leak liquids) to cool.
Once cooled, peel all the skin and remove the stem area. Roughly chop the flesh of the eggplant in both directions and place in mixing bowl. Add garlic, a pinch of salt and pepper, add raw Tehina mix with a fork, then add the lemon juice, mix again and transfer to a serving bowl. For aesthetics, you can sprinkle some chopped fresh parsley for serving.
Schug
Ingredients:
- Coriander x 6 supermarket Bunches
- Garlic x 1 and a half heads
- Fresh Green Hot pepper x 1
- Salt
- Pinch of Cumin
Method:
- Wash and dry Coriander well with stalks
- Peel garlic
- Wash fresh hot pepper remove stalk
- 1/4 spoon salt
- Pinch of Cumin
Everything into the food processor and pulse until it all comes together into a nice green rough paste. Note that Schug freezes well in a small glass Jar for use in the future.
Next week I will provide the warm bread to complete the Mezze table, along with an easy but super tasty pickled vegetables recipe to finish our spread.
Siftach (Arabic for opening the day with the first sale)