Erez Komarovsky Workshop

Roasted Eggplant Salad

Last weekend I was able to attend a cooking workshop led by Erez Komarovsky. Erez is the same Erez behind the successful chain of Lechem Erez (Erez Bread) stores throughout Israel. Erez leads a variety of different workshops at his beautiful home in Matat, located in the Upper Galilee near the Lebanese border. He has incredible views of the Galilee and has an impressive organic garden full of broccoli, swiss chard, no less than five kinds of sage, beets, kohlrabi, and much more. I never though kohlrabi had much flavor, but eating it picked straight out of the ground made me realize how incredibly sweet the vegetable can be if grown right and eaten freshly.

Swiss Chard

Upon arriving at his home you are greeted by the smells of several different fresh baked breads that have just come out of his stone oven. There were delicious roasted eggplant, roasted tomato and roasted pepper salads along with a massive bowl of homemade hummus to eat. Before the workshop even starts Erez makes sure you’re pretty full.

After the tour of his garden, where I had the best kohlrabi of my life, we were led into his downstairs kitchen where we gathered around a long table and eagerly anticipated Erez’s cooking demonstrations. The specific workshop that day was breads and soups. He preceded to make a garlic confit bread, a jerusalem artichoke bread, a pumpkin seed and leek challah, a spicy asian soup with a pumpkin and leek stock, a beef and bean stew, and finally a leek, artichoke and garbanzo bean soup. All of the breads and soups were really tasty and the workshop was very inspiring. I posted the garlic confit bread recipe, which was the highlight for me.

Hummus and leek soup, variety of breads

Erez is extremely knowledgeable not only about bread recipes, techniques, and all things bread, but about Israeli and Galilean cuisine in general.  Seasonality is a strong theme in his cooking, hence the heavy use of leeks throughout the day. This focus on local and seasonal ingredients is something I try to model my style of cooking after as well. The workshops last 4 to 5 hours, and I highly recommend trying it out.

 
Galil Olive Orchards
 
Homemade hummus

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Erez Komarovsky Workshop

Adora

I know I've claimed that Irit is possibly my favorite restaurant in the country, but there is strong competition for this title from Adora. Founded in the last 5 or 6 years by the relatively young chef Avi Biton, the restaurant has quickly risen the ranks to be one of Tel Aviv's top restaurants. Outside the food being really, really good and creative, one of my favorite things about Adora is the inspiration for the food. Chef Biton tries to blend classical French techniques and dishes with ingredients, influences and dishes from Israel and the Middle East.

Foie Gras Baklawa (http://www.rest.co.il/sites/Default.asp?txtRestID=5985)

One of the best examples of this, and possibly the restaurant's signature dish, is the Baklawa covered Foie Gras. Baklawa is a sweet desert made from layers of phyllo dough covered in honey and pistachios. Chef Biton wraps a piece of foie gras in phyllo dough, perfectly cooks it, and then drizzles the dish with honey and pistachios. I'm not a good enough writer to try to describe how good it is. Trust me, its delicious, and, in my opinion, a must have dish for non-vegetarian/vegan and against eating foie gras visitor to the restaurant.

Eggplant falafel (http://www.rest.co.il/sites/Default.asp?txtRestID=5985)

A second dish worth writing about is the eggplant falafel dish. As you can see in the picture above, the dish appears to be three beautifully fried falafel balls. Once you bite in you realize this is a unique take on the classic regional food. Instead of ground of garbanzo beans one finds roasted eggplant inside. Only the outside of the dish is the garbanzo bean mixture and it is the perfect coating to the soft roasted eggplant. The "falafel" is served with a nice yogurt sauce and tasty sprout salad.

Adora is also very reasonably priced, making the restaurant one of the best places for value in the city. I'm already thinking about my next visit.

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Adora

Yarden's Roasted Eggplant

I just wanted to post this picture of some absolutely beautiful roasted eggplants with tehina, pine nuts, mint, and zatar. My friend Yarden made them for his two year old son's birthday party last weekend, and the moment I saw them I knew I wanted to 1) eat them and 2) take a picture to post on the blog.

The eggplants were perfectly cooked and had that delicious smoky eggplant flavor that was perfectly balanced with the cool refreshing tehina. People either hate or love roasted eggplant. I love them.

Yarden's Roasted Eggplant

Simple Sabich Recipe

For those who want to try sabich at home, the recipe below is very easy to make. For those who want to make their own amba, view this recipe here.

Ingredients:
Pita (fresh and hot as possible) - 4

Eggplant - 1 medium sized

Hardboiled eggs (sliced) - 4

3 Tomatoes - diced

3 Cucumber - diced

1/2 Red Onion - diced

Juice of one Lemon

1/2 bunch Parsley - diced

Tahina - store bought

Hummus - store bought

Amba - store bought or from recipe above

Harissa - store bought

Canola oil - enough to cover thin eggplant slices by 1/2 inch

Instructions:

1. Slice the eggplant into thin slices, approximately 1/4 inch. Fry in canola or other vegetable oil until a dark golden color and pat dry with paper towels when done.

2. Dice your tomatoes, cucumber, onion and mix with the minced parsley. Add lemon, salt, pepper and mix together.

3. Spread hummus on the sides of the pita and place in one or two slices of eggplant and the slices of one egg.

4. Add a few spoonfuls of the salad (thinly sliced pickles can be added as well) and top with tahina, harissa, and amba as you like.

5. Enjoy on a relaxing Saturday morning as is traditional with Iraqi Jews.

Simple Sabich Recipe

Everything Sabich

Sabich is one of the more popular streetfoods you can find in Israel, and it can be argued it's more "Israeli" than falafel or schwarma because its more unique to Israel than the latter. Sabich consists of fried eggplant, hardboiled egg, tomato, cucumber, hummus, tehina, and various spicy sauces. One of the spicy sauces (amba) is made from mango, cumin, turmeric, and a variety of other ingredients. While it may be used in other dishes, I have only seen it offered alongside Sabich. One thing I appreciate about sabich is that while the dish is vegetarian it is extremely filling, one of the strong points of falafel as well. You can order a sabich and have no remorse that you didn't opt for a schwarma instead.

Iraqi Jews are those credited with bringing sabich to the mainstream, as they would traditionally eat fried eggplant on Saturday morning. The etymological roots of sabich may come from this practice, as "sabah" means morning in Arabic. Others will argue that the name is actually an acronym of the foods that make up Sabich, and I'm sure there are multiple other explanations as well.

Throughout the country you can find many excellent sabich establishments, but in the Tel Aviv area there are four that I frequent. The most famous sabich in the city, and probably the country is Oved, actually located just east of Tel Aviv on Sirkin st. in Givatayim. Famous for its colorful creation of words specific to the process of ordering sabich, there are long lines pretty much any hour the place is open. For example, if you want to have a spicy red sauce all you have to do is say Hapoel, the name of one of the Tel Aviv's soccer team whose color is red. If you want the spicy mango sauce (amba) say Macabbi, the other Tel Aviv team whose color is yellow. Oved is a required experience for any Sabich lover or anyone interested in Israeli food in general, but its not the only option.

In the center of Tel Aviv there are three excellent places to get Sabich. Long lines are also prevalent at Sabich Frishman, at the corner of Frishman and Dizengoff St. Located in about a small of a location as possible, they always serve an excellent portion of Sabich. Right next door is Falafel Frishman, and while they offer good falafel, the much longer lines for sabich tell you which one people think is better. Just a few minutes away is Falafel Gabai on Bograshov street. The staff is extremely friendly and their variety of salads is very appealing and fairly unique. Gabai offers excellent falafel, soups, shakshouka, and other dishes, but I always go for their sabich. Finally, Hakosem, on the corner of Shlomo Hamelech and King George street offers another excellent sabich. Their staff is also very friendly, and when lines are long they are sure to pass you a ball of falafel to keep you satisfied while waiting. The food is great, and their very brightly colored chairs will cheer up anyone's day.

So next time your in line for falafel or schwarma, think about ordering a Sabich instead.

Everything Sabich