In June, when we find plenty of lovely local apricots, we buy quite a lot and after eating the more ripe ones, we usually halve, pit and roast the rest, then freeze them to have at hand and make tarts, or top a flat bread, complementing them with spicy smoked cheese.
Make the mousse a day ahead, or even a couple of days before. When you are about to serve the dessert, assemble the pre-baked puff pastry and serve the mousse on the side.
Serves 6-8 (more…)
In this recipe both cooked spinach and fresh parsley and cilantro are mixed together. It is my adaptation of an Armenian dish.
In Israel you will most often find the vivid pink ‘borani’, made with beets and beet greens instead of spinach (see variation).
As an alternative to the traditional pita bread, I prefer to spread it on toasted whole wheat or multi-grain bread, rubbed with a clove of garlic.
It can also be a side dish, accompanying poached or grilled fish or chicken.
Makes about 3 cups. (more…)
I whipped up this fast and quite delicious dessert using the last nectarines of the year. But you can also use apples, instead.
I caramelized some sugar, then laid the peach or apple segments on it and cooked for a few minutes, before covering with two layers of pastry and baking.
I bought quite a few nectarines the other day, as we at end of October, far beyond peach season. Although they looked unripe, when cut, their flesh was overripe, almost rotten around the stone –probably because they were refrigerated for far too long.
Since they were not good to enjoy as part of my morning fruit-plate, I thought of using them to make an upside-down tart, using frozen, store-bought puff pastry as the crust.
I have had quite a lot of misses in the past trying to bake upside-down fruit tarts, but this time I used my new, very light, aluminum, non-stick Neoflam skillet which made it so easy to bake and invert the tart perfectly, for the very first time…
Serves 8-12 (more…)
The frozen pomegranate juice produced on Kea had inspired me to make a granita/sorbet adding syrup scented with the rose geranium leaves from our garden.
The other day I came upon a couple of small jars of Rose Petal Jam that I had made a few seasons ago, and totally forgot.
Tasting them I found that they were still nicely fragrant, although their color had darkened somewhat. ‘Why don’t I use them, together with pomegranate juice, to make a rose-scented granita,’ I thought, and so this one was created.
You may need to add some good quality rose water, depending on the fragrance of the rose petal jam you use.
Our friends and guests loved this very fragrant granita, so here is my very simple basic recipe. You can adapt it depending on how sweet or tangy you prefer your desserts.
Serves 8-12 (more…)
The past few years had spoiled us, being somewhat cool and nice, with lots of rainfall in the winter. This dry, extremely hot summer almost destroyed our trees. On the other hand, less rain and humidity brought less bugs, and with the appropriate drip irrigation we managed to produce more vegetables.
Last winter we did not get much rain in Kea, and this, the 2021, summer was particularly hot for more than a couple of days: for about two exhausting weeks the temperature remaining very high, even at night, something quite rare.
