Aye Chef - Cooking with style

This bread has a light brown color and a light, but distinct flavor. You can make from it some excellent sandwiches or just toast it, but it's best when freshly baked out of the oven. I guarantee you will not be able to stop until its all gone.

Ingredients: (makes 2 loaves)
300g rye flour (Stybel 7)
700g white bread flour (Stybel 2)
2 teaspoons sea salt
2 teaspoons caraway seeds
15g active yeast
575ml water, tepid
2 tablespoons yogurt, room temperature

Preparation:
Mix rye with white flour, add salt and caraway seeds into a large bowl. Make well in the center. If the weather is cold, heat it slightly in an oven set for low temp or a microwave for a few seconds.

Crumble yeast into the 1/4 of the water, mix well until dissolved. Pour into the well you created earlier together with the rest of the water and the yogurt. Combine mixture together until you have a soft, but not sticky dough. If the dough is too dry, add 1 tablespoon of tepid water. If it's too moist, 1 tablespoon of white flour. Repeat until it's of the right consistency.

Transfer the dough to a working area, knead for about 10 minutes or until very flexible. Return dough to bowl, cover with sticky nylon and leave for 2 hours to double in size.

Transfer the dough to a working area, punch it slightly to extract the trapped air inside. Cut in half to make nice round loaves. Form the loaves you like, I usually do some nice cuts with a sharp knife to make that bakery look, you might do different. Put both loaves on 2 separate, well oiled, baking racks, cover with inflated plastic bag and leave to rise for 1.5 hours.

Preheat oven to 220 degrees Celsius. Bake for about 35 minutes.

Most of us know what Pizza is, how it looks like and some of its different varieties, distinguished by the different toppings, sauce or even mixing spices into the dough. Today I decided to make one myself. The result was beyond what I expected, it came out delicious and even my wife liked it as she usually criticize my cooking.

Ingredients (makes 2 medium pizzas):

Dough
500g white bread flour (shtibel #2)
15g active(not dry) yeast
280ml tepid water
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon Herb de Provence
ground black pepper


Sauce
400g crushed tomatoes
2 teaspoons tomato paste
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tablespoon oregano, freshly minced
salt
pepper
150g mozzarella cheese, crumbled

First we make the dough.
Sift the flour into a large bowl, add salt and spices, mix well. Create well in the center.
In another bowl, combine water and yeast, crumbling the latter and mixing until yeast dissolves. Mix in olive oil as well.
Combine liquid with the flour and fold until dough is solid enough to start working.
On a lightly floured surface, knead until the dough is strong and elastic, approximately 10 minutes. Return to bowl, cover with nylon and leave for 1 hour or until its size doubled.

On a lightly floured surface, punch the dough several times to release trapped air, cut in half and make a nice 1cm round pizza base out of each half. The technique is to make a ball, then starting in the middle, pull slightly from each side, going on the perimeter until its right. If you made the dough well, it will not break, even if you swing it in midair as you probably seen in pizzerias or on TV. After both of our pizza bases are ready, put them, each, on their own oven rack and leave for 15 minutes.

In the meantime we will make the sauce, but this is also a good time to start preheating your oven, as it should take about 30 minutes before you can actually bake the pizzas. Set to maximum setting (in my oven it's 300 degrees Celsius).

For the sauce, sift the tomatoes, straining liquid and put them into a food processor, together with the paste, oil and garlic. Grind everything to a puree, correct flavor with salt and pepper.

Now let's combine everything together and make some delicious pizza :-)
Put sauce on top of your pizza bases, then mozzarella crumbs. While this is the basic Neapolitana, you can of course add whatever you want, like mushrooms, onion, tuna fish, pepperoni, etc...

Bake in oven for 8-10 minutes.

Ingredients (makes 3/4 cup)

• 3 Tablespoons dried marjoram
• 3 Tablespoons dried thyme
• 3 Tablespoons dried savory
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 1/2 teaspoon dried sage
• 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds

Combine marjoram, thyme, savory, basil, rosemary, sage, and fennel. Mix well and spoon into a tightly-lidded jar. Store in a cool, dark place up to 4 months.

Hummus (a transliteration of the Arabic: حمّص‎; also spelled hamos, houmous, hommos, hommus, hummos, hummous or humus) is a Levantine Arab dip or spread made from cooked, mashed chickpeas, blended with tahini, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and garlic. It is a popular food throughout the Middle East.

There are a lot of humus varieties out there and sky is the limit when it comes to humus recipes and ingredients. It is said that to make a really good humus, cooking alone is not enough, you have to invest a part of your soul in it, but that can be said of any kind of food. A really good humus recipe is a closely guarded secret and each humusia (restaurant that serves only/mostly humus) weight it's own in gold, never to be revealed.

Personally, I like what is called masbaha or mashvaya variety - whole cooked chickpeas served on top of a humus, with very liquid tahini and spices.

Ingredients (makes 1 kg)
400g chickpeas, smallest kind
150g tahini
olive oil
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1 teaspoon salt or to taste
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
juice from 1 lemon, freshly squeezed

Preparation
Soak the chickpeas overnight in water.

The best way to cook the chickpeas in minimal amount of time and without adding baking soda is to use pressure cooker. This way, instead of the normal 12 hours cooking period, you can have it ready in 3-4. So, strain the liquid, put chickpeas inside the pressure cooker, add clean water to cover plus 2 fingers, close and cook on small heat for 3-4 hours or until chickpeas are very soft. You should be able to squish one between your fingers with minimal to none amount of force when ready. Rinse in cold water and leave to cool down a bit. Save cooking liquid, you'll need it later.

Next is the most annoying part, getting the shell off. Chickpeas have a somewhat transparent shell that keeps the meat inside. After cooking, it comes off, but not entirely. After many tries, I've found out that it is best to throw it away or else the result mixture will be too grainy. If you want a really good and smooth humus, you'll have to separate the inside from it's shell. While you can do it by hands, going one after the other is very time consuming and annoying process. Instead, try rolling them inside a towel a few times, but do not apply too much pressure or you'll squish the peas altogether. Trial and error.

After you cleaned your chickpeas, it is time to wrap it all together. Put a bit of peas aside and throw the rest inside Magimix or similar food processor, using cutting blade. Mash it all up a bit, add some (1-2 tablespoons) of the cooking liquid and repeat until you have a smooth paste that is neither liquid, nor solid. Then add tahini you prepared in advance, again, be very careful with the amount, because you don't want it to become too liquid. The proper way is to add a bit, give it a spin and see if it's of the right consistency.

Now add the lemon juice, cumin and paprika, give it another spin and taste. Correct flavor with salt.

Transfer humus to a hermetically sealed container (when it comes in contact with air it spoils), cover with olive oil to keep it longer and seal.

Congratulations, you've made your very own humus.

Plating arrangement
Humus is traditionally served on a wide plate, completely covered with a thin layer of humus, with tahini in the middle. Also, put the saved cooked chickpeas on top of tahini, spread some finely chopped parsley on top of it, sprinkle the whole thing with sweet paprika, cumin and black pepper and pour some olive oil on the sides.

Serve with pita bread.

Tahini (Arabic tahina: طحينة), zhimajiang (芝麻醤), nerigoma (ねりごま), טחינה (tahina or t'hina - Hebrew), Tashi (τασιή) in Cyprus or sesame paste is a paste of ground sesame seeds used in cooking. Middle Eastern tahini is made of hulled, lightly roasted seeds. East Asian sesame paste is made of unhulled seeds. Tahini originates in ancient Persia (Iran), under the name ardeh (ارده) 'holy food'.

Tahini paste is used in a variety of dishes. Tahini-based sauces are common in Middle Eastern restaurants as a side dish or as a garnish, usually including lemon juice, salt and garlic, and thinned with water. Tahini sauce is also a popular condiment for meat and vegetables in Middle Eastern cuisine. In addition, it is a main ingredient in soups. As a spread, Tahini can replace peanut butter on bread, though the flavor and texture are quite different.

In Turkey, tahini (tahin in Turkish) is mixed with pekmez to form a dish called tahin-pekmez. Due to its high-calorie nutritious value, it is served as a breakfast item or after meals as a dessert to dip pieces of bread in, especially during the wintertime. In Iraq and some Gulf countries, tahini is mixed with date syrup (rub) to make a sweet dessert usually eaten with bread. In Cyprus, tashi is used as dipping for bread and in Pitta Souvlaki rather than tzatziki, which is customary in Greece. In Egypt, tahini is automatically added to virtually all sandwiches unless one requests it not to be. Ful Iskandrani (Alexandrian ful) is a popular preparation of ful with hot peppers and generous tahini. Tahini is also the main ingredient in the Mediterranean type of halva. Tahini is becoming more common in European cuisine and can be found as an ingredient in some pre-packaged sandwiches. Tahini is an important ingredient in hummus.Tahini is often used to thicken soups.

Preparation
To make tahini is quite simple. Get tahini paste at your local supermarket or specialty store, mix with some water and there you go. You can also add some lemon juice to balance the sesame flavor and to garnish, freshly chopped parsley.

The exact paste-water proportions vary wildly based on personal flavor, making tahini as part of a dish or standalone as a dip and the kind of paste you have. In Israel there are mostly 2 kinds of paste available, the whole seed and the regular. I prefer the regular because whole seed has a somewhat strong sesame aroma, which I don't like, despite the nutritional value of the latter.

Tahini is an important ingredient in hummus, which would come next.

Sabich, one of the most popular local sandwich combos, is actually the name of a gentleman of Iraqi origin who owned a small kiosk in the town of Ramat-Gan. Sabich did not invent anything. All he did was combine some of the foods enjoyed by Iraqi Jews following Saturday morning services at synagogue, stuff it all into a pita, and offer it to the general public. Today, sabich is served even in classy cafes, where focaccia or sourdough bread replace the pita but the filling remains the same.

Ingredients

• Thin eggplant slices, salted, drained and washed
• Oil for deep-frying
• Hard-boiled eggs, sliced (preferably brown)
• Amba (Iraqi mango chutney)
• Hummus spread or tahini dip
• Fresh pita

Deep-fry the eggplant slices until dark brown. Remove from the oil, drain, and thoroughly soak up the excess oil with paper towel. Alternatively, instead of deep frying, you can put the eggplant on a barbecue or put it in the oven until very soft. The point is to make the insides all mushy, but be very careful when you open it, since the insides are very hot.

Spread tahini or hummus (preferably both) on the inside of a pita, stuff with fried eggplant slices and sliced hard-boiled egg, drip some amba on top, add finely diced vegetable (cucumber and tomato) salad, slices of boiled potatoes and enjoy!

Amba
Bright yellow, hot and aromatic, Iraqi amba may be hard to find outside of Israel. It can be substituted by harissa or another hot condiment. Indian mango chutney is an option, as long as it is spicy.

Brown Eggs
You can use plain hard-boiled eggs, but the real sabich requires this nutty tasting, mahogany-colored Iraqi specialty. Preparation is easy: line a wide pot with a thick layer of onion skins (you’ll need plenty — the greengrocer should give them to you for nothing), hang a couple of tea bags inside the pot, arrange the eggs on the onion skins, pour hot water to cover, season with salt and pepper, and cook uncovered for an hour. Use an old pot because the skins and the tea will color the metal.

Based on article by Janna Gur.

Hrayme (Hebrew: חריימה) is a traditional North African dish consisting of meaty sea fish and a red hot sauce. This dish mostly shows at Libyan or Tunisian Jewish cuisine.

For this dish it is best advised to pick fishes with a lot of meat, such as:
Epinephelus (לוקוס), Narrow-barred Spanish mackerel (פלמידה לבנה), Mullet (בורי) or a Nile perch (נסיכת הנילוס).


It is not very difficult to prepare, but beware, this dish is very spicy so if you are not into this kind of food, don't try it. Also, it is very important to choose fresh fish of good quality, since otherwise the flavor will be somewhat missing.

Ingredients: (serves 4)

1 fish (2-3 kg)
1/2 cup corn oil
6 tablespoons filfel chuma
3 tablespoons paprika, submerged in olive oil
10 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon caraway seeds, minced
1/2 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 tablespoon white pepper
1 tablespoon salt
4 tomatoes, crushed
3 cups water or tomato juice
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, ground
3/4 cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice

Clean the fish. Cut slices, with the bone, of about 1.5 cm. Unless you like the head, remove it. Put aside.

For the sauce, heat the oil in a wide large frying pan, then add filfel chuma and all dry spices. Stir for 1 minute. Add garlic and stir for another 3 minutes. Add rest of the ingredients, bring to boil and cook over small flame for 10 minutes. If you like the head, add it and continue to cook for 20 more minutes. Add the fish, bring to second boil, cover and cook for another 10-15 minutes.

Remove from heat and leave covered for 20 minutes. When serving, squeeze some lemon juice to taste.

Original recipe by: Rafi Cohen.