With or without the marijuana, Alon Shaya's cookbook a non-kosher salute to Israeli cuisine
In the preface he writes, "There's something about Israel that draws me. The mixture of cultures and faiths, the richly varied landscape, the tensions that have been deeply woven into the place since its beginning: so much about this country is magnetising. Religiously, politically " and culinarily. Israeli cuisine is a gumbo, a melding of many food cultures. In only a few decades, the population of a country smaller than the state of New Jersey has gone from just over a million people to eight million. Jewish immigrants brought their family recipe books from Germany, Bulgaria, Yemen, France, Spain, Turkey, Morocco, Greece, and many other countries to a land with an already rich Arab food culture.
A recipe from Alon Shaya's cookbook.
As I found out on my first trip to Israel, Israeli food in this book doesn't necessarily mean kosher food. A few of the recipes contain pork, some contain shellfish, and others go against different Jewish culinary laws.
There are recipes for falafel; roasted bone marrow with gremolata and brioche; five-onion soup with provolone toast; kale and andouille jambalaya; smoked chicken with harissa; lobster green curry; crab cakes with preserved lemon aioli; cherry and pistachio cookies; curried sweet potato and leek pie; classic hummus; and pita bread.
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
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