Israeli Food

Last week I gave you the low-down on our round-the-world cooking project (which you can read about here) and it's about time I shared one of my favourite countries so far - Israel.  I loved the seasoning on the meat and the crisp bright salad and best of all was the fresh bread my son baked.  Here's what we had:

SEARED LAMB WITH ISRAELI COUSCOUS We adapted a recipe from here and added some spices from other Google searches.  We hoped it was authentic, but even if it wasn't it sure tasted fantastic.    We also added a chicken breast because certain husbands don't like to eat cute little lambs.

Ingredients for the Seared Lamb (and Chicken): 2 tsp tumeric 1 tsp cinnamon 2 tsp paprika 1 onion  1 clove garlic 1 skinless boneless chicken breast, cut into chunks 1 lamb chop, bone taken out and cut into chunks 2 tablespoons of olive oil salt and pepper to taste water as needed
Method: 1.  Mix the tumeric, cinnamon, paprika together and coat the meat. 2.  Heat the oil in a pan and cook the onion and garlic for 2-3 minutes.  Add the meat and cook until the meat is no longer pink in the centre.  Add water as needed so there is a little sauce in the pan.

ISRAELI COUSCOUS
Ingredients: 1 1/4 cups couscous 2 1/2 cups water 2 tsp bouillon pinch saffron 1/2 cup raisins (or apricots) Method: 1.  Stir in the bouillon, saffron, couscous, and raisins/apricots to the water.  Bring to a boil then cover and remove from heat.  Set aside for 5 minutes. 2.  Fluff the couscous with a fork.

ISRAELI SALAD Two words best describe this salad - colourful and delicious!  I had the leftovers the next day in my lunch and it was even better, if that is even possible.  We adapted the recipe from here.
Ingredients: 4 tomatoes, diced 4 mini cucumbers, diced 1 orange pepper, seeded and diced 3 green onions, sliced 1 clove garlic sliced (so it could be removed before eating) 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley 1/2 cup olive oil (or was it 1/4 cup - I'd start with 1/4 and add more if needed) 1 tbsp lemon juice salt and pepper to taste
Method: Combine all ingredients in a bowl.  Mix together and refrigerate.

CHALLAH BREAD After mixing the dough and letting it rise, William divided the dough into three parts and braided them together.

He then coated the top of the dough with egg white and sprinkled it with sesame seeds and he made a beautiful loaf that looked like this.  It was as delicious as it looked.

I'm finally getting some of our cooking project posts done.  You can read about Egypt here and Persia and Pakistan are coming soon.