Stop and pick the loquats (shesek, nispero, biwa). Those mother-clusters of oval, orange fruits you see everywhere during may and June are edible indeed. If you pick them, make sure to select only the very orange with brown spots, those…
Hi everyone! I will be teaching a class next month at Los Angeles Valley College. If you live in Los Angeles, please join us. It’s going to be a fun and important class. Baking bread is a valuable skill that…
I love cabbage so much that I asked my jewelry-designer friend to make me a cabbage charm. Vegan-boy on the other has a lot of attitude about cooked cabbage. I must to caramelize the shit out of the cabbage and…
Hi everyone, Next month I will be teaching a cooking class – “How to cook simple, delicious and nutritious meals” – at Los Angeles Valley College. If you’re from Los Angeles please join or forward it to your Angelenos friends…
These are Turkish sesame bagels, also known as simit, are made with all-purpose flour and yogurt. But I was curious what would happen if I substituted the two with gluten-free flours and vegan yogurt instead. If the recipe is here,…
I don’t know how comfortable you are about including non-traditional dishes, like this one, in your Thanksgiving feast. If you are open to it, then you must try this one. It requires only four ingredients and take about 30 minutes…
These Spanish cookies (tortas de aceite y anís) are the delicate sisters of my grandmother’s anise cookies. They taste very similar, but the Iberian cookies are flaky and dissolve in the mouth. Whereas the Moroccan anise cookies are more rustic…
My recipe video of this cashew cheese is my most popular video on Instagram. I am not sure how it became viral. I’m assuming someone with large following, liked that that the recipe is extremely easy to make and requires…
It’s been a while since I posted anything. As some of you know – from my Instagram stories – we moved, again. This time not too far though. To a close-by neighborhood that has a better public high school. I…
Vegan-boy wants chana masala. Teenage-boy prefers something with Korma sauce. Helicopter-dad doesn’t care. He’ll eat anything. Although he prefers to avoid chickpeas. They make him gussy. Neurotic-mom is up for Indian but not korma. It’s too sweet for her. To…
Whenever the neurotic mom passes by a bakery that sells good sourdough bread, like Gjusta in Venice Beach, she buys one or two boules for her family. She can eat gluten, though it might give her headaches. Sometimes she takes…
Teenage-boy craves Indian curries every day. His mom loves Indian food but hates peeling and grating ginger and garlic. Sometimes she asks teenage-boy to do it for her or cook for them. He is usually up for it. But most…
Vegan boy complains that there’s nothing sweet in the house. He threatens to go to CVS to buy candy. Neurotic mom says “Wait! Don’t go, I’ll make something”. Quickly she melts a bar of Trader’s Joe’s 72% dark chocolate and…
Summer, you’re hot, toasty, sweaty, smelly, exhausting, Yet, I miss you in the winter and welcome you with open arms in the spring. You and this refreshing and light cauliflower dish. This recipe works also with labneh or lemony tahini.
Some rigid on instagram got uncomfortable when I called a non-dairy cheese cheese. Well a) what am I supposed to call it? Bob? and b) who cares what we call it? c) I get uncomfortable when they eat cheese, but…
Although I grew up in Israel and was familiar with tahini, the first time I had tahini as a dip, rather than as the sauce that moistens your falafel, was when I moved to New York in 1997. My friend-sister,…
Not much is happening these days, but no complaints. The highlight of this week was a trip to Underwood Family Farms. That and this dish. I was pretty impressed myself, because this is exactly the kind of dish that makes…
When I was a kid, my mother cooked eggplants at least twice a week. I didn’t mind the eggplant cooked with meat and tomatoes, but I found the baba ganoush disgusting. I couldn’t even look at it. My love affair…
I started to have a blast in the kitchen when I felt comfortable improvising and cooking without recipes. Now don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing I love more than a good cookbook. However, I find it liberating to be able…
Here are a few things I learned about the history of lentils with my commentary: