Zahav cookbook - success and failure

My son Tom lives in Philadelphia and he told me about Zahav. The word zahav is hebrew for "gold" and it is an Israeli/ middle eastern restaurant run by Michael Solomonov, a young American Israeli. I have to say that every page of this cookbook excited me and I recommend it for everyone. I tried to take Tom and his girlfriend to Zahav for his birthday in July but it was totally booked. I am thinking of taking the family to Zahav for my birthday in December.

I have made a variety of dishes from the Zahav cookbook. The biggest success was the salmon, with a rice pilaf that is flavored with poppy seeds and fresh dill. It helped a lot that I had the middle-eastern style skewers which are flat and sword-like. You buy a thick salmon filet, with the skin on. You rub in with a rub that consists of grated orange zest, minced garlic, and salt, for at least 4 hours. Then you cut it up into cubes, roughly an inch on a side, each cube with a skin side. You build a hot charcoal fire -- I did that in my Weber, and left off the grill, you are supposed to cook directly over hot coals. You paint the cubes with pomegranate molasses and you start with the skin side down and cook until the skin burns. Then you flip the flat skewers over and cook the top for a couple more minutes. I have never had such succulent juicy perfect salmon. I had worried that the flavors of orange and pomegranate might detract from the salmon flavor, which we love, but it was very subtle and it definitely added.

The rice recipe is a little long to reproduce but the poppy and dill flavors are mild and support the salmon flavors in interesting ways. Solomonov says it reminds him of lox on a poppy seed bagel, and indeed it did remind me of that.

My failure, today, was with the most popular dish at Zahav, an appetizer of cauliflower florets deep fried until brown and crunchy, salted heavily "like French fries" and served with a delicious sauce of Labne (thick yogurt) with lots of herbs, including fresh dill, chives, garlic, mint and parsley. The sauce was perfect. But the cauliflower was really soggy. I was supposed to use 3 inches of oil and heat to 375. I was cheap and used 1 inch of oil and when I threw in a batch of small florets, the temperature dropped 50 to 75 degrees. I cooked for 6 minutes until mahogany brown as specified but when I drained them they were very soft. I decided that if I brought the oil up to temperature and put the florets back in, I might be able to crisp them (as in double cooked French fries). What I got was soggy burned florets.

I am also bad at making good French fries at home and I think there is definitely something I am doing wrong. I am thinking that 1) with only one inch of oil, the temperature swings are inevitable and that is ruining the dish. And 2) the small florets aren't ideal, and I put in too many at a time. I want to serve this at a dinner party next Saturday so I want to continue to experiment. I am thinking 1) add more oil and get it to temperature and then 2) put in larger florets, one or two at a time, just to see if I can get them to crunchy-ness.

I have a feeling that someone here is going to be able to set me straight. On the other hand if I can cook perfect french fries at home that probably means I will gain 100 pounds in the next year, so another strategy is to forget the damned cauliflower and do something else. BUT it is so intriguing to read about how much people love these at his restaurant, and my son said the cauliflower and the fried cheese were his 2 favorite dishes.

The cheese is Halloumi which fries beautifully. I can buy it at a Greek market 2 blocks from my house. I made a small batch and Tom said it was exactly like at the restaurant so I think I can nail that. It is served on a sauce that consists of a purée of dates and toasted walnuts with a little vinegar etc. Imagine a fried salty cheese cube with a dip coating tasting of dates and walnuts.

Right now I am excited enough to basically want to cook my way through the book.

One more thing -- I made the Albondigas, interesting but a little boring. Nice touch that they include sliced almonds.

[Jenise]

Frank, I don't deep fry, so I feel your pain. A question: are you buying florets already separated and bagged--Costco, for one, sells them this way. If so, they've probably been treated with that chemical stuff that preserves and discourages discoloring. That right there might be what's inhibiting the crisping process.

Taking another tack, one of the most delicious things I've ever had made out of cauliflower was not florets, but slices of cauliflower. And beautiful--it withers some in the frying process and looks like lace. It makes sense that reducing the density of the moist cavity would produce a crisper result with more exposed surface area. For your 1" depth method, this might be the way to go. They'll cook faster, too.

I am also not a deep fry expert but my guess is to watch how moisture travels within the food. It may well be that cauliflower is structurally so rigid that the water cannot escape fast enough during the fry; hence, the food ends up limp. Would you consider changing to a 'cauliflower steak'?: cut the head into 1" thick slices, as if you were cutting a boule bread. You'll get lots of surface area in contact with the pan and, of course, by cutting across the structure you will set the moisture free.

Regarding the deep-fried cauliflower, to get the crisp brown outside you need a short cooking period. Otherwise the cauliflower will release its moisture and everything will go soggy. So the florets need to be as dry as possible--wash them well in advance so they get a chance to dry out. Otherwise they will partly steam. And I think you really do need the full three inches of oil. Otherwise, as you discovered, the oil temperature drops, you have to leave the florets in the oil too long, and they come out soggy and greasy.

-Paul W.

Thanks Paul I think that is valuable advice.

And thanks for the responses Jenise and Jeff -- I have made "cauliflower steaks" many times and they always turn out delicious. But THIS meal is supposed to be Israeli-Middle Eastern and that dish doesn't qualify. The deep fried florets are evidently served all over Jerusalem and even as street food. So it's that cauliflower or no cauliflower. As a scientist I am really considering trying again, but I am also thinking of something that is foolproof that I have done before.

You buy about 100 cherry tomatoes, cut them all in half, put them cut side up on a baking sheet, spray with olive oil, and sprinkle liberally with Zaatar, and bake for a long time in a low oven until the tomatoes are soft and caramelized a little. You serve the zaatar tomatoes on crunchy pita chips. Cut pita in half and toast -- maybe with olive oil and zaatar.

The good thing about that is that it introduces people to the wonderful flavor of zaatar (thyme, sesame, sumac, and salt) and it's not very caloric. And I think it would go with Zahav's heavenly hummus, and the fried halloumi cheese with a date/nut sauce. The tomato recipe is not in the Zahav cookbook but it's in a Lebanese cookbook I have and I'm sure it is a common dish all over the area.

In the Zahav cookbook they say that the best Tehina in the world is made by a small business in Israel -- they grow the sesame seeds in Ethiopia and process in Israel. The brand name is "Soom" and it's available on Amazon -- I bought a 4 pack and gave one to my son. The Zahav recipe for hummus has you making a sauce with the Tehina, garlic, and lemon juice, and then you puree the sauce with the chickpeas. I can type it in if anyone is interested. Several reviews said it's the best hummus ever. I plan to peel the chickpeas FWIW although that isn't in the recipe.

There are various spellings and pronunciations -- Solomonov uses "tehina" and explains that the "h" is really a hard back throat "ch" because evidentlyl that's the Hebrew pronunciation, and the transliteration of the Hebrew word.

I love fried halloumi and would agree that the tomatoes would go really well with that.

And please do post the hummus recipe.

I love fried halloumi and would agree that the tomatoes would go really well with that.

And please do post the hummus recipe.

First -- last night I made pargiyot which is chicken thighs marinated in pureed onion and lemon juice and garlic, and cooked on skewers over charcoal. And following Jenise's example I threw in some poppy seeds and fresh dill with some basmati rice I had made the usual way. Very similar in taste to what I had done with the pilaf but that involved jasmine rice soaked overnight and then cooked in the oven. Nice.

Mike -- the hummus recipe is long and complex but I think I can figure out how to describe it (later). Meanwhile the basic theory is this -- most American hummus involves a lot of chickpeas and a dab of tahini. Zahav hummus involves less chickpea and more tahini, it looks like the 2 are about equal in quantity, so you get a mouthfeel that goes toward peanut butter.

But Solomonov's other goal is to make tahini that is light as air, so you don't just pile in the tahini. Instead you make a tahini sauce that involves mixing the tahini with a LOT of garlic and lemon juice and then whisking in an amount of ice water that is nearly equal to the amount of tahini. After you have made this velvety creamy sauce it is a piece of cake to make the hummus, you just spin equal amounts of chickpeas and tahini sauce in the processor.

I was amused at the start of this recipe, he says "I assume the hummus is the reason you bought this cookbook"!!

That does sounds like a pretty complicated recipe for hummus, but it also sounds like it would come out quite differently from the standard version. As he says, I'll be looking for the book just for that.

I made the tahini sauce today so I can tell you a bit more. You start by dismantling an entire head of garlic and dropping the cloves with the paper husk into a blender. Then you squeeze THREE lemons, about 3/4 cup of lemon juice, and add that to the blender. Put in 1/2 tsp of salt and blend. AFTER blending you must leave the mixture in the blender for at least 10 minutes. There is some kind of reaction between the lemon juice and the garlic that makes the garlic flavor surprisingly mild and smooth. Then pour the mix into a fine strainer and push to get all of the juice out.

Then you need 2 cups of tahini. I had an 11 ounce jar of the very fine Soom tahini, and I didn't want to open 2 jars, that stuff is expensive, so I opened a new can of Joyva tahini and spent 15-20 minutes stirring the hard cake at the bottom into the oil. When I was done -- there didn't seem to be an enormous difference between the Joyva tahini and the Soom tahini, although the Soom had a richer flavor. At any rate I had 2 cups of combined tahini. You get a large mixing bowl (it should be larger than you think you need) with the lemon/garlic juice in it -- add 1/2 teaspoon of ground cumin and 1 more tsp of salt, and then gradually stir in the tahini. It will harden and "seize" and when that happens you have to whisk in some ice water. Eventually you want maybe 1 1/2 cups of ice water.

The result is a sauce with a great tahini flavor but a texture and body a little reminiscent of home made mayonnaise.

Solomonov says that the tahini sauce will keep for a week or so in the refrigerator. He also says that the hummus should be served fresh, and does not talk about refrigerator time for the hummus. So I stopped there.

Louise didn't measure the dry chickpeas ( ) before she soaked them Monday night and cooked them yesterday but she estimates that it amounted to about a cup and a half. She thinks the cooked chickpeas will be OK in the fridge for 2-3 days so probably we will make the hummus on Saturday which is the day of the meal. The ratio is 1 cup (dry) chickpeas to 1 1/2 cups of sauce. And you simply combine those with a little more salt (1 tsp) and cumin (1/4 tsp) and whiz in a food processor -- for longer than you think is really necessary. When you serve you can top with a little more tahini sauce, some paprika and chopped parsley. Drizzle with oil. And, I think, there you have it!

My friend Susan made this with only "store bought" tahini and wrote me raving about the result, so I have high hopes.

I've used the tahini sauce a couple of times -- a couple of teaspoons on a salad really wakes it up! And Louise fried some of my cauliflower florets with sliced shallots. Tahini sauce made it really special.
The Zahav cookbook uses this sauce in many recipes.

One of my smartest students (he took my class a year or 2 back) came to my office to ask about grad school recommendations -- he is Tunisian so I asked him about some of the stuff we will be having tomorrow night. He says his family makes a date sauce like what I am making for the fried Halloumi cheese. His family uses toasted almonds instead of toasted walnuts but they use it for a sweet contrast for salty stuff, exactly like the halloumi recipe. I thought about switching to almonds but I wanted it to be exactly like Zahav so I'm doing it with walnuts. I think I have wangled an invitation to eat with his family some day, he was impressed that I knew so much about the foods that she makes. In Tunisia they make briq? ("breek") which is egg and tuna tucked into dough and deep fried. I mentioned that the tomato recipe I am making uses baguettes (I will use Keller toast) instead of pita. He said "we use baguettes too" -- of course Tunisia is about as French as Lebanon where I got the tomato recipe. They don't use za'atar though. He told me about a sauce that they use instead, when he talks about Tunisian food I can't spell it, it sounds like it's all consonants. "Mb-bdm". I mentioned Labneh and he said "lbnuh" but it's obviously the same thing.

I am =so= looking forward to this meal!! And of course I'm also looking forward to eating with my student's family some day. I just worry that I might do something rude by mistake. I thought of wearing a glove on my left hand so I won't eat in an unacceptable way...

In Tunisia they make briq? ("breek") which is egg and tuna tucked into dough and deep fried.

Brique/Brick is the French word for the various savory phyllo dough pastries from across the Maghreb. They use many different fillings. You can google and get lots of info.

But your meal sounds great! I heard Mike Solomonov on Fresh Air last month and he was an interesting guy, to say the least. I especially found it interesting the way he was so negative about all the humus products we have in contemporary American culture. He seemed very serious about the freshness/non-refrigeration issue.

So I think the party was a big success. People liked the Zahav hummus but nobody raved about it. On the other hand the fried halloumi cheese with date paste was kind of a sensation, you have to cook it right at the last minute so everyone watched me fry it up and empty the pan onto the layer of date paste, and then they couldn't believe the flavors. The zaatar tomatoes on labneh and Keller toast went quickly but once again, not a big deal.

The second big success was Na'ama's fattoush from Ottolenghi's "Jerusalem" cookbook. I had assigned it to the host couple and photocopied the recipe. They executed it perfectly. I had never tasted it and I think we were all surprised that the torn up pita bread, soaked with buttermilk, gave the impression of chunks of chicken stirred into a refreshing Israeli salad. Everybody loved it.

The main course was lamb, rice, and grilled eggplant. My friend Janise had spent 3 days making the famous lamb shoulder from Zahav. She hadn't told me which recipe she chose. This is one of the few dishes from the Zahav cookbook that doesn't produce a close match to what you get in the restaurant. I read a review that says that Solomonov slow-smokes the shoulder instead of a long braise -- and that what you get from the recipe is a very good braised leg of lamb, which is what Janise got. We all thought it was delicious but it was hard to taste the pomegranate molasses and I think she was disappointed. The eggplants were buttery and delicious.

FWIW tonight we were finishing a Costco rotisserie chicken and I had a pile of rather dry breast meat. A couple of teaspoons of Zahav tahini sauce and wow! Moist and flavor packed!

There are so many other dishes I want to try in that cookbook. I ordered some date syrup. I want to try his chicken liver recipe. You "cure" the livers by drying them and treating them with salt and baharat. After overnight in the fridge you fry them up (or, in a different recipe, skewer and grill). I like chicken livers and I can imagine these must be wonderful. For the sauce for the fried version you take some tahini sauce and blend in some caramelized onions.