The Kitchen Guru

There are times for fancy or complex flavored  food and other times when either under time pressure, or seasons changing, or the need to make the produce sing for its self, that simple is best.  When I cook for the students at Midreshet Zohar,in Bat Ayin this is one of the quickest, easiest, yet  delicious and most requested meals for their Wednesday evening class.  This simple vegan  menu of  Oven roasted  Vegetables with Herbs, Eggplant with Tahini  Yellow Bay and Coconut Scented  Rice  creates  a line  at the table, also there is never a scrap left how ever much is made.  It seams almost cheating to give out a recipe for this  but here we go. Quantities for 10- 12  Preparation time  15-20 minutes   Cooking time  80 -90 minutes for vegetables  15 minutes for the rice   5 minutes the Tahini  Roasted Vegetables  you can use any but these are the most popular  4-5 medium size zucchini 2- 3 Fennel 2 tomatoes 2 red onions 3 sweet potatoes 2 whole garlic 1

  Rabbi Guido’s* Delight ….( or how to keep your inner  Guido satisfied ) (*Guido /ˈɡwiːdoʊ/ the slang term for a urban Italian American. The Guido stereotype is multi-faceted. This has   come to refer to Italian Americans who conduct themselves in an overtly macho manner often as the enforcer or the debt collector.) I am from the UK and not to familiar with New York Italian culture only what I I have picked up from network broadcasts…recently when my friend told me her normally mild mannered   husband had acted as a Guido and got much needed money back from an outstanding creditor, I was at a loss, till she explained the term Guido to me, her husband who is actually a Rabbi used strong silent but firm tactics, and earned the nick name “Rabbi Guido “ As I said, the folk culture is a bit lost on me, the food however is a different story, back the 1970’s in my pre- Kosher, pre- gluten free and pre- dairy free days, I use to frequent  a little hole in the wall Italian cafe

Soft and creamy comfort food. At the age of 27 after a month in hospital major surgery and post operative complications  I was discharged  to  a national health convalescent home on the outskirts of London. The place was primitive, the food diabolical the smell of antiseptic mixed with over boiled cabbage   wafted all over, I survived my ten days in what my mother called " Colditz  Castle"  on bananas, tea, boiled sweets  plus the occasional grapefruit. After a week I was deemed fit enough to be allowed  and afternoon pass out of the building.  A  colleague and  good friend  collected me  and as we sped away across Hertfordshire to his home to enjoy a quiet afternoon in the sunshine , he said "  What would you like to eat, just name it, I will get it or make it" I thought for a moment, and without hesitation . "Soft creamy scrambled eggs, on good wholewheat toast, served with grilled mushrooms and a cup of really good percolated Italian coffee."

When ,this morning I read on Facebook  a post from my son  saying,  " Telling Eitan how my great-grandmother used to lift me up to look out the window when the train was passing. Crazy thing is that I was his age back then and the memory is crystal clear. Warms my heart." It warmed the cockles of my heart too,  because  over 55 years ago,   my maternal grandmother use to  lift my cousins and I  on to her draining board to look out of her kitchen window at the trains that went past. Grandma knew all the times, "That's the  London, Portsmouth, or Brighton train." she would tell us. Sometimes,if we were very lucky    we would walk over the bridge  from her home to Hove station and get the train for a seven minute trip to Brighton station or Portslade station, go shopping and return to her home.  Maybe my  grandma instilled in me my love of train travel, or  maybe my love of her created the love, either way to this day I still find trains  magical One of