If you haven’t tried oak roast tomatoes yet, I recommend them. They are often sold in farmers’ markets. They have a smoky flavour and add an interesting flair to a dish. Sun blushed or sun dried tomatoes also work well. I like to dress the salad with extra-virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar, but you can also go the French way and use vinaigrette instead.
This is my desert island dish — translated as Jewish-style artichokes — the most renowned traditional Roman Jewish recipe. Use artichokes. which are tender and with as little hair inside as possible.
Last week, my four-year-old son lost his place at Clore Shalom school. And so, at the end of this term, he will be forced to leave an institution with a religious ethos that mirrors our own Jewish beliefs.
Ask your butcher for a whole piece of brisket already cooked and smoked
Preparation time: 25 minutes, plus soaking time
Cooking time: 90 minutes
Serves 6-8
Ingredients
2 kg whole piece ready-cooked smoked brisket
For the glaze:
85ml honey
65g brown sugar
75g tomato sauce
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
RED CABBAGE RELISH
1 red cabbage, finely shredded
Rachel Johnson got her first taste of Israel 30 years ago when she and big brother Boris spent their summer — she on a post-school gap year and he on a holiday while at Oxford University — working on a kibbutz.
“My father was married to Jenny Sieff whose father, Teddy Sieff, was the then head of Marks and Spencer,” she recalls.
This is a great side dish to a fish meal or as part of mixed antipasti. I like to use red onions as they are sweet and give a touch of colour but white onions can be used instead. The dish is easy to make and very tasty.
Preparation time: 10 mins
Cooking time: 1 hour
Serves 4-6 as side dish or
antipasti
Preparation time: 40 minutes plus chilling time
Serves 6-8
INGREDIENTS
150g digestive or petit beurre biscuits
100g melted butter
225g cream cheese, at room temperature.
70g caster sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice (preferably from fresh lemons)
180ml whipped cream
Fruit for decoration: strawberries, blueberries, or any other preferred fruit.
The bread revolution seems to have left the UK’s kosher bakery market behind.
In the past 10 years, artisan bakeries have sprung up all over the country offering all sorts of breads from sourdough to spelt. Israel is regularly touted as one of the trailblazers in the new fashion for handmade artisan loaves — their bakers flocking here.
Every year, my wife has a birthday party. Not my favourite evening of the year. For me, to paraphrase Jean-Paul Sartre very loosely: “Hell is a crowded room with lots of people.”
This savoury version of crumble is easy to make and warming for the unseasonably cold temperatures we have been enduring.
INGREDIENTS
For the crumble:
250g flour
125g flaked almonds
250g butter, cubed
For the leek and cheese sauce:
4 large leeks, sliced into 1cm rounds
4 large eggs, beaten
300ml crème fraiche
200g grated emmental
Salt and pepper
Nutmeg, optional
Now that chametz is back on the menu my thoughts return to one of my favourite treats — the knish.
Every nation has its knish or equivalent — the Brits or Cornish love a pasty, the Spanish, empanadas while the Chinese go wild for a wonton. Sephardi Jews plump for a bureka but for Ashkenazi folk, it’s the knish.
