Food and The Nine Tailors

The beginning of the 4-part TV series "The Nine Tailors" --
a 1914 wedding in British upper class splendor.

The TV series "The Nine Tailors," originally broadcast on the BBC in 1974, begins with an opulent wedding. In the impressive reception hall of a fine country mansion, servants are placing the wedding cake and a remarkable collection of sweets on the buffet table. The night after the wedding, which took place in 1914, the mansion's butler and his accomplice steal a £60,000 emerald necklace from one of the guests. Lord Peter Wimsey, played by actor Ian Carmichael, is a guest at the wedding; he chases the fleeing suspect in a fast car.

The first episode of the TV series continues with the experiences of Peter Wimsey in the trenches of Word War I, providing the back-story of his relationship to his incomparable gentleman's gentleman, Bunter. It's a very dramatic and fast-paced hour of drama. Only at the very end of this episode do we go forward 20 years to 1934, when Wimsey and Bunter crash their car into a snowdrift in the same little town -- the point in time where the original novel by Dorothy Sayers begins. I find this rearrangement of flashbacks in the book into an exciting first episode to be very effective and enjoyable.

Ian Carmichael as Lord Peter Wimsey. 

From the second episode onward, the TV drama follows the book quite closely, continuing to dramatize every possible action scene with enthusiasm. In fact, this TV treatment seemed so exciting that we watched all 4 episodes in one night. 

I've already written about my visit to the prototype of the little town and the church that is central to the plot of Sayers' book. I believe that some of the filming was done at that location or at least using a reconstruction of that church. If anything, this treatment an improvement over the book, as the long-winded digressions on bell ringing and other technical subjects were condensed sufficiently to contribute to the plot without retarding the action. Even though I don't find the sound of pealing bells particularly appealing, it's much nicer to hear them than to read about them!

The Five Red Herrings, another Lord Peter Wimsey novel, was also made into a BBC TV series with Ian Carmichael as the detective. I also watched it recently, but did not like it nearly as well -- in fact, I found the acting wooden and dialog too staged, which is odd since it dates from only a year later. The actors in "Nine Tailors" seemed much better suited to their roles, especially the character parts like the Rector, his wife, the doctor, and the eccentric village people.

For all my blog posts about Dorothy Sayers, including this one, click here.

Monday, January 25, 2016

Saint Wendreda and the Nine Tailors

Lord Peter Wimsey again! The Nine Tailors is the only Dorothy Sayers mystery that I remember reading in the past, and I decided to read it again. It's quite long for a detective novel, and contains enormous detail about English bell-ringing. The bells are central to the plot, but I eventually found the technical descriptions about them a bit tedious.

If you aren't familiar with the terminology, "tailors" are peals of the bells: it was a tradition to ring the bells of a village church tower nine times to mark a village man's death. Specifically, amateur detective Lord Peter Wimsey spends a lot of time in a village where the Rector is obsessed with ringing changes on the bells of the local church. He himself participates in a 9-hour sequence of bell ringing to bring in a New Year; that is, pealing the bells in various mathematical and not necessarily musical sequences. At least now I know why I have never understood what I was hearing when bells ring in the New Year or something -- always sounded like noise to me.

The Nine Tailors also contains quite a bit of description about the architecture and decoration of the church whose bell tower is involved. This, I found more interesting, because I once visited the church that was the prototype for the fictional building. Its main feature is an "angel roof" with 120 wooden sculpted angels at the ends of the hammer beams that support the roof. Friends who were very dedicated Dorothy Sayers fans took us on a tour of places of importance to her novels. Some photos of that tour (March 13, 1999) --

The angel roof of St.Wendreda's church in March, England, prototype of the church in The Nine Tailors. 

Our friends Sheila and John with the key to the angel roof church.
We had to ask at the local pub "The Stars" to obtain the key. 

Churchyard of St. Wendreda's. The keys to the church and the cemetery are both plot elements in The Nine Tailors. 

St. Wendreda's church tower.

Mae and John looking over the church.

To return to the novel: the Rector and the village inhabitants in The Nine Tailors are all very deferential to Lord Peter Wimsey, as Wimsey's family are the local nobility -- his brother is the Duke of Denver, the local area (fictitious). Although the term isn't used, Wimsey is very condescending in the old sense, which meant the way a noble is actually supposed to treat his inferiors. I am rather fascinated by the way the word has evolved from praise for the behavior of a person who was born into a socially superior stratum to criticism for a person who acts as if he was born superior, and expects to be treated as such! This mutual view is reflected, I think, in the way the Rector and his wife offer meals to Wimsey:

• "Can you eat shepherd's pie?" she asks. "You're sure? The butcher doesn't call today, but there's always cold ham." (p. 51)
• "The butcher says he has some nice calf's liver today, only I don't know if you can eat it," she says on a later occasion. "Theodore is very fond of liver-and-bacon, though I always think it's rather rich." (p. 187)
• After singing hymns on Christmas Eve, Wimsey returns to the Rectory with the Rector, his wife, and others "to eat cold roast beef and trifle." Not his usual French-style menu! By this time, Wimsey is being nobly helpful to the locals, and no apology seems needed when they share their meal with him. (p. 377)

The novel's time frame spans an entire year, which allows a vast amount of detail (maybe too much for me) about life in the village while a murder mystery is being solved. I also found the level of detail about the drainage systems in the fens of England to be a bit excessive, though rising water when the sluices are breached causes some of the most exciting scenes in the novel, as well as requiring another type of bell ringing: sounding an alarm. On our tour of the area, we also looked at some of the dykes and sluices that keep the former wetlands from being flooded.

If you decide to read The Nine Tailors expecting the usual pace of detective fiction, you must be quite patient! But tastes vary -- I've become a bit weary of both the pace of these novels and the extreme class-orientation they show. However, I'm planing to watch the TV series that was made of this book in the 1970s.

Sunday, January 24, 2016

Stephen Darori Spicey Chicken Rubs

Total Time:
Prep:5 min
Inactive:20 min
Cook:15 min

Yield:4 servings

Level:Easy

Ingredients
Israeli Spice Rub:
1 1/2 tablespoons (1 1/2 palmfuls) sweet paprika
1 1/2 tablespoons (1 1/2 palmfuls) ground cumin
1 teaspoon (1/3 palmful) dried oregano
1 teaspoon (1/3 palmful) ground coriander
1/2 to 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (medium to hot in spice level)
1 1/2 teaspoons (1/2 palmful), coarse kosher salt
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (split, 8 pieces) 1 1/2 to 2 pounds
Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
Warm pita or flat bread, for passing
Serving suggestions: Serve with tomato relish and zucchini (recipes follow). Piling the relish and the chicken in a warm pita is a fun way to combine the flavors and textures of the many.

Orange and Yellow Tomato Relish:
3 vine ripe or small round red tomatoes
2 orange or yellow tomatoes
1 small sweet onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup (2 handfuls) flat-leaf parsley leaves, chopped

Dressing:
3 tablespoons (a couple of glugs) extra-virgin olive oil
1 ripe lemon, juiced
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
Kosher salt
Zucchini with Mint and Parsley:
4 small, tender zucchini, about 1 1/2 pounds (look in organic section of produce counter)
3 tablespoons (3 turns around the pan) extra-virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup (half a bundle) chopped fresh mint
1/2 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves (a couple of handfuls)
Kosher salt and pepper

Directions
Israeli Spice Rub:
For the spice rub combine the paprika, cumin, oregano, coriander, crushed red pepper flakes, and kosher salt in a bowl. Place in a sealable jar, keep in a cool dry place for up to 6 months.
Place chicken in a shallow dish. Drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil to barely coat the meat. Rub chicken liberally with 4 tablespoons of the spice blend. Let stand 10 minutes.
Grill chicken 6 or 7 minutes on each side or until juices run clear.

Dressing:
Seed and chop the tomatoes and combine with onion and parsley in a shallow bowl. Combine oil, lemon juice, and spices in a small plastic container with a lid. Shake dressing to combine and pour over salad. Season salad with kosher salt and toss to combine well. Let stand 10 minutes and serve.
Yield: 4 servings

Zucchini with Mint and Parsley:
Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Cut zucchini into 1/4-inch slices. Add oil, garlic, and zucchini to pan and saute 7 to 8 minutes, turning occasionally with a firm shake of the skillet, until zucchini are just tender. Add mint, parsley, salt, and pepper, and cook 1 minute longer. Remove from heat and serve.

Yield: 4 servings

Rugalach: Its History and Auntie Eddie Kaplan Wack's Rugalach Recipe

How to Make Chocolate Rugelach, a Favorite Jewish Pastry

Rugelach (/ˈruːɡələx/; roo-ge-lahkh; Yiddish: רוגעלך‎) and Hebrew: רוגלך‎‎), other spellings: rugelakh, rugulach, rugalach, ruggalach, rogelach (all plural), rugalah, rugulah, rugala, roogala (singular), is a Jewish pastry of Ashkenazic origin. It is very popular in Israel, commonly found in most cafes and bakeries. It is also a popular treat among American and European Jews.

Traditional rugelach are made in the form of a crescent by rolling a triangle of dough around a filling.Some sources state that the rugelach and the French croissant share a common Viennese ancestor, crescent-shaped pastries commemorating the lifting of the Turkish siege,possibly a reference to the Battle of Vienna in 1683. This appears to be an urban legend however, as both the rugelach and its supposed ancestor, the Kipferl, pre-date the Early Modern era, while the croissant in its modern form did not originate earlier than the 19th century (see viennoiserie). This leads many to believe that the croissant is simply a descendant of one of these two.

An alternative form is constructed much like a strudel or nut roll, but unlike those, the rolled dough and filling are cut into slices before baking

The name is Yiddish, the Jewish language of eastern Europe. The ach ending (ך) indicates plural, while the el (ל) can be a diminutive, as, for example, shtetlekh (שטעטלעך, villages) is the plural of shtetl (שטעטל, village), the diminutive of shtot (שטאָט, town). In this case, the root means something like "twist" so the translation would be "little twists," a reference to the shape of this cookie. In this context, note that rog (ראָג) means "corner" in Yiddish,. In Polish, which influenced (and was in turn influenced by) Yiddish, "róg" can mean "corner", but can also means "horn"—both the kind on an animal and the musical kind. Croissant-shaped pastries, which look like horns, are called in Polish "rogale" pl:Rogal świętomarciński. That word is almost identical in pronunciation and meaning to the Yiddish "rugelach".

Alternatively, some assert that the root is rugel, meaning royal, possibly a reference to the taste. This explanation is in conflict with Yiddish usage, where the word keniglich (קעניגליךּ) is the dominant word meaning royal.

Finally, in modern Hebrew, they are known as roglìt (רוֹגְלִית), a post biblical Hebrew word meaning "trailing vines", though the name rugelach (רוגלך) is still commonly used by Hebrew speakers.  The Yiddish word ruglach probably came first. The modern Hebrew is probably a neologism, chosen for its similarity to the Yiddish and its descriptive meaning.

This much-loved Jewish cookie is ubiquitous in Israel nowadays, where varieties range from average pastry at neighborhood grocery stores to gourmet delicacies at the country's best bakeries. This recipe takes the treat up a notch.

Rugelach, a much-loved Jewish pastry, is ubiquitous in Israel nowadays, where varieties range from merely-average cookies sold at neighborhood grocery chains to gourmet delicacies at the country’s best bakeries.

This lightly yeasted pastry has its roots in the Ashkenazi communities of Eastern Europe, where it was made with traditional fillings such as fruit jams, poppy seed or nuts. From there, it followed Hungarian and Polish Jewish immigrants to Israel and the United States.

But the versions prepared in each country diverged. American bakers, in the name of convenience, substituted a sour-cream or cream-cheese dough in place of the yeast dough.


Professional Israeli bakers, on the other hand, took the pastry up a notch – making an all-out laminated yeast dough just like that used for croissants, with many thin layers of butter.

While rugelach is popular year-round, it's also traditional to eat it over Hanukkah, along with the fried foods eaten for the holiday.

The secret to bakery-quality rugelach is just a little advance planning. Leave yourself extra time, in order to make the dough a day in advance, and let the dough rest as needed between steps. This makes the dough more manageable and pliable, which is necessary when you’re rolling it out into the fine, butter-filled layers that give these pastries their lovely texture.

Auntie Eddie Kaplan Wacks's Rugalach Recipe: 

After my folks abandoned me for Israel the for Kaplan sisters ( my father's first cousin) alternated in inviting me for Friday night dinner . The youngest Anita Kaplan Dubowitz relied entirely on her wonderful maid and companion and the meals tended to be Chicken Pies and deserts indigenous to the Cape Coloured Community , Sylvia Kaplan Schiff's roast were excellent and always to perfection. Auntie Lakey Kavalsky meals tened to be fish and always milkadik.Dinning with her was as close as I have got to dinning with Elizabeth R at one of her state Banquets. Her home was filled with antiques and she had a quite elegance unmatched by any of her sisters especially Aunt Eddie Kaplan Wacks who loved to bobamise with a down to earth lack of tact...... farible updates  she narrated with excellence and spice, always adding new twists.   But it was the seating  arrangement that I always found most amusing. there was the large adult table where she , her hubby and son and daughter-in-law Leslie and Rhona wacks sat  and there was the bridge table where  I was directed and sat with her grandkids Samara and Rael Wacks ( a decade or more younger than me) sat. I , the in my late 20's used to ponder whether entrance to the adult table was 30, 35, or 40. 

So one Thursday she canceled me without a bobmise that would lead to a small fabrible with her but then said she was baking a fresh batch of rogalach and I should pop in and get so. I did and between telling me about bridgehands and sending garooses to my folks and sister Leah, Lena, Lousiana , Lacey, Lala but any never remembering her name was actually Lesleigh ( the same as her only son) , I got the Kaplan Heritage Recipe  for rugalach.

Recipe Makes 20-24 rugelach pastries.

Ingredients
For the rugelach dough:

2 cups flour

2 tbsp sugar

1/4 teaspoon yeast

1 large egg at room temperature

1/4 cup softened butter (50 grams(

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/3 cup milk

For folding the dough:

100 grams softened butter (1/2 cup)

For the rugelach filling:

1/4 cup chocolate

1/4 cup softened butter (50 grams)

1/4 cup sugar

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

For the glaze:

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons water

Directions

Ideally, start a day before you plan to make the rugelach. Put flour in a bowl. Add yeast, sugar, softened butter, egg and milk. Mix to form a dough. Add a bit more flour or milk if needed, a teaspoon at a time, until the dough comes together as a soft, but not sticky, ball. Knead for a few minutes, and then set aside. Wrap in plastic.

Let the dough rest in the refrigerator for a minimum of one hour, but ideally overnight.

On the day you want to make the rugelach, preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit).

Take out the dough, and let the butter soften until room temperature. Lightly flour a large work surface. Roll out the dough into a large rectangle. Spread evenly with the butter, leaving the edges clean. Fold into thirds (left and right), and then fold into thirds again (top and bottom). Re-wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

In the meanwhile, make the filling: Put the chocolate and butter in a microwave-safe bowl, and microwave for 30 seconds, until it starts to melt. Mix in the sugar and cocoa until smooth. ( the original recipe was melt in a dish on the stove)

Take the dough out of the fridge, and roll it out into a long rectangle about 30 centimeters (12 inches) deep and 3 millimeters (1/8 inch) thick. Spread with the filling, leaving the edges clean. Fold in half lengthwise, so that the rectangle becomes a long strip about 15 centimeters (6 inches) deep. Roll out lengthwise a bit more, until the dough is close to 3 millimeters (1/8 inch) thick again.

Using a sharp knife, cut the dough into elongated, 15-centimeter (6-inch) long triangles with bases of 6-7 centimeters (2 inches). Starting at the base of each triangle, roll into a croissant shape. Arrange finished rugelach on a baking sheet covered with baking paper.

Place the rugelach in the oven, and bake until lightly golden, 20-25 minutes.

While the rugelach are baking, prepare the syrup: Bring sugar and water to a boil in a small saucepan.

When rugelach are golden, remove from the oven and brush with syrup.

Rosh Hashanah Menu: Sephardi, Ashkenazi, Asian or Israeli

Roasted chicken and eggplant in pomegranate and date molasses Vered Guttman

Sephardi Rosh Hashanah seder

Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews start the Rosh Hashanah meal with a series of symbolic foods.

Each of the foods, including black eyed pea, squash, pomegranate and dates, are accompanied by a blessing, called Yehi Ratzones (Yehi ratzon, meaning “May it be your will” in Hebrew), based on their name in Hebrew or Arabic.

Here are the accompanying blessings.


Chilean sea bass, prickly pear and mint ceviche

Contemporary Israeli style Rosh Hashanah menu

Celebrate the Jewish new year with innovative recipes featuring bright Mediterranean ingredients.

Spicy carrot kugel.Dan Perez

Ashkenazi Rosh Hashanah menu

Make this new year meal about Eastern European Jewish comfort food, with some traditional recipes and some with a twist.

Pho-chicken soup with kreplach dumplingsVered Guttman

Asian Rosh Hashanah menu with an Israeli touch

Make this Jewish new year dinner unconventional with these Asian-inspired holiday recipes.

Rosh Hashanah Menu: Sephardi, Ashkenazi, Asian or Israeli

Roasted chicken and eggplant in pomegranate and date molasses Vered Guttman

Sephardi Rosh Hashanah seder

Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews start the Rosh Hashanah meal with a series of symbolic foods.

Each of the foods, including black eyed pea, squash, pomegranate and dates, are accompanied by a blessing, called Yehi Ratzones (Yehi ratzon, meaning “May it be your will” in Hebrew), based on their name in Hebrew or Arabic.

Here are the accompanying blessings.


Chilean sea bass, prickly pear and mint ceviche.Vered Guttman

Contemporary Israeli style Rosh Hashanah menu

Celebrate the Jewish new year with innovative recipes featuring bright Mediterranean ingredients.


Spicy carrot kugel.Dan Perez

Ashkenazi Rosh Hashanah menu

Make this new year meal about Eastern European Jewish comfort food, with some traditional recipes and some with a twist.


Pho-chicken soup with kreplach dumplingsVered Guttman

Asian Rosh Hashanah menu with an Israeli touch

Make this Jewish new year dinner unconventional with these Asian-inspired holiday recipes.

Roshfeld’s Captain Curry.at Tel Aviv's Upscale Sarona Market

Radical Indian Street Food Comes to Tel Aviv's Upscale Sarona Market

Finally, a good reason to head to Sarona: Roshfeld’s Captain Curry.


Not that it’s anything new, but it’s always nice to be reminded of how Tel Aviv so easily blurs the lines between high and low when it comes to the food choices the city has to offer. You can grab a 10-shekel slice of pizza on the street or enjoy a 65-shekel pizetta at a trendy bar. You can bite into a delicious shwarma in a pita from a local shwarma joint, or dine on shwarma served up with molecular amba jelly at a fancy chef restaurant. You can enjoy some cheap burekas from the Carmel Market or nibble on some pricier ones in the market at the Tel Aviv Port. I could go on, but you get the point.

And yet, one type of cuisine has seemed to remain the sole domain of restaurants – Indian food. And this is rather peculiar when you consider that, for the past couple of decades or so, Israeli Gen Xers have been traipsing back and forth to India, photographing it and writing about it and coming up with a whole unique, New-Agey lingo about it. But Indian food? You can hardly find it. And Indian street food? Forget about it. There may have been a few attempts here and there, but none lasted very long. All we have pretty much are a few longtime establishments and some adaptations by various chefs in their restaurants.




Chef Yonatan Roshfeld’s new Indian street food stall, Captain Curry.Eran Laor

In a way, it’s easy to understand. Indian food tends to inspire a dichotomy – you’re either really into it or really not into it. There’s no middle ground. And that’s a problem, because Tel Aviv street food stalls generally aim to appeal to a broad common denominator. That’s certainly their right. So it’s rather symbolic that Captain Curry, chef Yonatan Roshfeld’s new Indian street food stall, opened recently at Sarona Market, taking over the location of the decidedly average Gina Falafel.




The menu at Captain Curry is a bit limited compared to the standard restaurant, but it does offer a wider selection than many of the other food stalls in the market. The chota (“small”) category includes six appetizers (9-39 shekels); there are four main courses inspired by “the Captain’s childhood memories” (52-56 shekels); biryani lamb and chicken (62 shekels) that gets a section unto itself – “From the Palace Kitchen.” In keeping with Indian culinary traditions, and in the spirit of the times, some of the dishes are vegan.

Tasty wings

For starters, we ordered the Goa Beach chicken wings
(28 shekels for a small portion, 38 shekels for a large portion). They were served in a plain tin foil pan set atop one of the prettiest take-away trays I’ve seen in the city, along with cutlery in a colorful cloth bag. There was plenty of sauce and plenty of fresh cilantro, but not so many wings. Just four half-wings, to be precise. Without considering the price, that is a very small amount. And considering the price, it’s downright aggravating. Luckily for me, and for them, I can’t remember when I’ve enjoyed such tasty wings anywhere. They were quite meaty and tender, and grilled just right before they were slathered, or flooded, with a sauce made of yogurt, mango and coconut. Each taste brought a pleasurable deliberation over whether it was more sweet or more spicy, and I ultimately decided that it didn’t matter, it was just so incredibly good. After finishing the chicken, I had a nice amount of sauce left, and I thought of going to one of the local bakeries and getting some bread to sop up every drop with.




Tandoori at Captain Curry.Eran Laor

But I decided instead to go for a main course of Tandoori chicken. Laid across a reasonably
sized bowl were two skewers of chicken that was pinkish-red from its seasonings, and drizzled with a little sour cream. The bowl was filled with white rice mixed with cilantro, fried chickpeas, minced red onion and a little red masala sauce. How inventive can one be with a chicken skewer at this point? Just a few weeks ago I was disappointed by the skewers of chicken tenders in the Ramen soup at Miazaki in Shuk Tzafon (North Market), so I came in with lowered expectations. But once again, I was very pleasantly surprised. The chunks of meat on the skewers were quite large and very tender and juicy and flavorful. With the first one, I couldn’t resist eating the whole thing right off the skewer. I gently mixed the meat from the second skewer in with the rice. I can’t vouch for how aesthetic it turned out, but it sure was delicious, with each of the ingredients making itself felt in just the right way.

Another main course was Raja Mun Beef with Egg Yolk and Hot Green Peppers (56 shekels). I’m no expert here, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see this dish become a major hit on Instagram. Atop a bed of white rice comes a dish of shredded beef, black lentils, fried onions in a chickpea flour tempura, and red hot chili peppers (apparently in place of the green ones listed on the menu). In the center of the bowl was the pale orange yolk, and on the side is a crisp round disc made from chickpea flour. It’s quite lovely to behold, and more important, quite tasty to eat. The yolk is beaten and mixed in with the rest, perfectly offsetting the spiciness of the dish. This, too, was a successful, rich and filling dish – which is all the more welcome as the prices here are a bit on the steep side.

The food at Captain Curry is not completely authentic. It is Roshfeld’s take on the boundless variety of Indian street food. And it bears pointing out that he is not aiming to please the average taste buds either. The food is seriously seasoned, the Indian flavors are dominant, and nearly every dish is at least somewhat spicy. In fact, you could say this is the most radical food stall in the Sarona Market. And this is a point worth lingering over – In my previous visits to the covered market, I found food that I liked a lot and food that I wasn’t so keen on, but no matter how good, none of it really stood out as being so different from what you could pretty easily find elsewhere in the city. Captain Curry is the first place here that really feels unique, and it does so in a very good way. That alone makes this captain worth saluting.

Pescado Fish Restaurant, Ashdod and some of their fish recipes

Baked fish with white wine and tomatoes. Dan Peretz

With these Rosh Hashanah recipes, you won't have to fish for compliments

Yehi Zino is one of the few Israelis to have truly mastered the secrets of the Mediterranean, 
and his skills are on display daily at the Pescado fish restaurant in Ashdod. Four recipes for 
the holidays from one of Israel’s most talented young chefs.

“If you don’t have any fish, don’t talk to me,” Yehi Zino says good-naturedly on the phone. Zino, chef and co-owner of the Pescado fish restaurant in Ashdod, has a gentle way of talking that exudes a Zen-like calm. But when the subject is the daily catch, it’s a serious business.

Even a chef whose partners are some of the biggest fish merchants in all Israel — the Zion brothers — has to go out every morning to “hunt” for the best local fish. For someone who’s made his reputation with a fish restaurant that’s become known as a place where both imported and locally caught fish can be enjoyed, he has had to get up early and nurture an extensive network of ties with local fishermen and traders at the daily fish auction. “He’s the first to choose, but he has competition,” laughs his partner, Eran Zano.

The two men opened their kosher Ashdod restaurant in 2009 (“Everyone thinks we’re brothers, but we’re not related,” says Yehi. “We were good friends when we were kids, then we went our separate ways in school. But then we connected again on a trip to South America”).

Yehi Zino is an unassuming fellow, with none of the pomposity so often associated with chefs. And his easygoing nature carries over to the kitchen staff and into the restaurant itself.

He was born in Ashdod in 1982. “The appreciation for good taste is something I got from home,” he says, when asked what led him to kitchen work, “though I never dreamed of becoming a chef.” What was supposed to be a temporary shift at Café Puzzle, a local beach restaurant, led to a six-year stint in the restaurant’s kitchen (“And on Wednesdays, my only day off, I would go to work with Yossi Suissa, who had the Terrine restaurant in Yavneh, and he started to teach me about fish and seafood”).

He then catered for private events, learned how to prepare sushi and worked for six months at the Zepra restaurant in Tel Aviv. Then, just after he’d sent a letter applying for a job at the famed Arzak Restaurant in San Sebastian, Spain, he received a phone call asking if he was interested in taking over Pescado, a local fish restaurant and bar where he’d also previously worked for a few months.

Eran Zano “also got the same phone call,” Yehi relates. “We met at the beach the next day, and the day after that we bought the restaurant. I didn’t know what I was getting into. In retrospect, I can’t believe I did it — opening a restaurant with just the knowledge I had then. The food I served seven and a half years ago is nothing like the food I serve today.”

Minimalist delights

Good fish restaurants rise and fall on the quality of their ingredients. In 2009, it was still possible to eat well at Pescado, but it’s hard to compare the meals back then to what this young and talented chef serves up today.

In addition to his great talent, Zino also possesses boundless curiosity about flavors and ingredients, and a keen thirst for knowledge. The basic menu, like the design of the restaurant, is minimalist: white ikra, spicy tomato salad, several Asian-inspired raw fish dishes, and four or five fish dishes based primarily on the selection available from imports and fish farms (sea bream, sea bass, salmon and meagre).

Then there’s the daily selection of locally caught fish, depending on what the sea and local fishermen can provide (even Zino, one of the few chefs who keeps a careful daily record of the fish being brought to the market, admits that in the modern age and with the current fishing situation, it’s hard to define any clear seasonality).

The dishes on the menu, either Asian- or Mediterranean-inspired, appear simple, with the flavor of the main ingredient front and center, and the type of fish dictating the cooking method. But they are also very elegant dishes and their originality shines through.

After years of study (and trial and error), Zino is one of the few people who has mastered the secrets of the Mediterranean. Word of this excellent fish restaurant located on the Ashdod shore — and unfortunately, even in a country that sits along the Mediterranean coast, there are not many of this caliber — has spread and the place is almost always packed. Even on a Sunday afternoon, a time when most Israeli restaurants are at best half-full, Pescado is bustling. Besides the many locals who have made this pleasant, southern Israeli restaurant their second home, lots of people (including us) travel from further afield just to eat Zino’s fish.

Zino’s fish recipes

Spiced Moroccan oil:

Ingredients:

2 liters (8.5 cups) canola oil

1 cinnamon stick

2 tbsp. grated shata pepper

2 tbsp. sweet Moroccan 
 paprika

5 sweet peppers

Place all the ingredients in a pot and simmer over the lowest flame for 40 minutes. Make sure the oil doesn’t start to bubble, since the paprika burns easily.

Remove from the fire and let cool. Blend the contents of the pot using an immersion blender or food processor and then filter through a piece of cheesecloth. The seasoned oil keeps well and becomes even tastier after a few days.




Moroccan fish. Simply superb. Dan Peretz

Moroccan fish

This traditional dish, a skillet filled with fish in a hot tomato and pepper sauce in which to dip thick slices of bread, does not appear on the restaurant’s menu. But Zino sometimes makes it for groups of regular customers who come and sit in the restaurant every day, and it is simply superb. The degree of spiciness can be adjusted as desired.

Ingredients (for 6 servings):

1 kg. sea bass, sliced; or 6

grouper fillets, 150-170 gm.

each, sliced with the bone; or

one grouper head taken from

a fish weighing 6-8 kg.

Separated and peeled cloves

from 1 head of garlic

6 fresh whole red chili 
 peppers

2 sweet red (gamba) peppers,

sliced in wide strips

300 gm. whole cherry

tomatoes

Separated leaves from one 
 bunch of cilantro

250 ml. spiced Moroccan oil 
 (see recipe)

200 ml. water

Preparation:

Salt the fish well on both sides with fine salt. Heat a little of the oil in a wide pot and fry the garlic until golden. Add the peppers and tomatoes and fry for 4-5 minutes.

Add the water and the fish slices and bring to a boil. Add the rest of the oil, cover the pot, lower the flame and simmer over a low fire for about 15 minutes, until all the fish is cooked.

Remove from the fire and sprinkle cilantro leaves on top.




Zino gets up early to hunt for the best local fish. Dan Peretz

Baked fish with white wine and tomatoes

Can be made with sea bream, meagre, red snapper or mullet.

Ingredients:

1 sea bream, weighing 1 kg.

3 shallots, peeled

5 scallions

150 ml. white wine

2 ripe tomatoes

10 whole cherry tomatoes

2 fresh whole red chili peppers

1 small spring of tarragon (or 1 star anise)

Coarse and fine salt

Ground dried chili

Ground black pepper

0.5 cup water

Leaves from 1 bunch basil

Olive oil

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees Celsius (482 degrees Fahrenheit).

Heat a cast-iron skillet, slice the shallots width-wise, sear them in the skillet and then set them aside.

Place the scallions and white wine in an ovenproof pan and cook over a direct flame.

Cut a cross-hatching pattern in the thick parts of the fish, and salt the fish well with fine salt.

Place the fish in the pan and arrange the shallots, cherry tomatoes, peppers and tarragon on top. Season with coarse salt, dried chili and black pepper. Cut the tomatoes in half, squeeze them over the fish and vegetables, and then add to the pan.

Put the pan on the stove and bring to a boil until the alcohol evaporates. Add the water and pour on a generous amount of olive oil.

Place the pan in the oven and roast for 10 minutes, until the fish is cooked. Remove from the oven, sprinkle basil leaves on top and serve immediately.




Stuffed cigars with 'fish wings.' Dan Peretz

Stuffed cigars with 
fish ‘wings’

“Wings,” in the parlance of cooks and fishermen, are the front fins on either side of a fish’s head. The flesh of the fish is more fatty in this area, so it has less tendency to dry out in cooking and is easier to remove from the bone (the bones here are mostly bigger). In terms of taste, we’re talking heaven. Last month, some wonderful local fish was available in the markets and restaurants, and some restaurants put “fried wings” on the menu. Preparing these stuffed cigars takes a little work, but the delicious warm 
cigars are totally addictive.

Ingredients:

2 kg. “wings” of large sea fish

(grouper, amberjack, meagre)

2 bunches scallions

4 large white onions, peeled and

finely chopped

2 tsp. cumin

Cigar leaves

Fine salt

Coarsely ground black pepper

Olive oil

Vegetable oil for deep frying

For the paste:

0.5 cup flour

1 cup water

For the dip:

3 tomatoes

Olive oil

Salt

Coarsely ground black pepper

Heat the oil in a pan for deep frying and fry the wings until brown. Remove the wings from the pot and place in a strainer until they cool a bit. Putting on rubber gloves, gently separate the flesh of the fish from the bones and skin, and place in a mixing bowl.

Cut the scallions into 4-centimeter (1.5 inch) segments. Heat a skillet, pour in a little olive oil and sear the scallions for about 2 minutes, until soft. Remove from the skillet and add to the bowl with the fish.

Heat a little olive oil in a skillet and fry the chopped onion until brown and caramelized, remove from the skillet and add to the bowl.

Mix the contents of the bowl well, add the cumin, salt, pepper and olive oil and refrigerate.

Prepare paste by mixing the flour and water.

Fill the cigar leaves: Spread a cigar leaf on the work surface. Place a little bit of filling near the end closest to you and roll it up as you would when making stuffed grape leaves. Fold the edges of the leaf on the right and left over the mixture and start to roll from the bottom until you obtain a small, well-closed package with no holes. Spread some of the paste over the edges of the leaf to seal.

The dip: Grate the tomatoes, transfer to a bowl, season with olive oil, salt and coarsely ground black pepper.

Heat oil in a pan for deep frying, fry the cigars until golden brown and transfer to a platter lined with paper towels.

Serve warm, with the tomato dip on the side.

Fish soup

A marvelous thick soup that just calls out for great crusty bread to go with it.

Ingredients (for 6 servings):

For the stock:

0.5 kg. cleaned red mullet

1 carrot

1 onion

1 leek

2 tomatoes

1 sprig tarragon

200 ml. white wine

1 liter water

Olive oil

For the soup:

5 carrots

2 onions

1 bunch celery stalks, without

the leaves

2 medium-size leeks

0.5 liter grated tomatoes

Olive oil

To make the stock:

Soak the red mullet in ice water for 10 minutes.

Coarsely chop 1 carrot, 1 
 onion, 1 leek and the 2 
 tomatoes.

Drain the fish and cut into big pieces. Heat a little olive oil in a large pot and add the fish. Then add the chopped vegetables and tarragon, and fry together until the vegetables are seared.

Add the white wine, let the alcohol evaporate and then add 1 liter water. Bring to a boil, lower the flame and cook at a gentle boil for 45 minutes.

Use an immersion blender or food processor to crush the contents of the pot, then put through a fine sieve. Mash again and put through a fine sieve.

For the soup:

Dice the onion, celery, leek and carrot into pieces of approximately equal size. Heat a little olive oil in a pot and fry the diced vegetables until golden.

Add the strained fish stock to the pot, bring to a boil and then lower the flame. Simmer for 20 minutes over a very low flame. Add the grated tomatoes and simmer for 20 more minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.