h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The Turkish supermarket near where I used to live ended up calling it halva because nobody recognised it otherwise.

But then, all the Turkish fastfood places have to offer you tzaziki because nobody recognises cacik

stuff indeed. I have a recipe for caramelised sesame biscuits, may have to dig it out!

Oh god do those sound GOOD.

Oh, yes. I like that kind of halva very much indeed.

Halva (or halwa) also seems to be a generic name for any kind of sweetmeat made anywhere east of the Mediterranean. I sometimes make Indian halwa with carrots or courgettes.

I imagine you've no shortage of vegetarian/vegan food with both the Jewish and Arab traditions to draw upon. Lebanese food is simply the best in the world. I used to go to a restaurant owned by an Israeli guy who was raised in Beirut. He served a mindblowing haroset ice-cream. Just the thing for Pesach!

Well, it depends... as with pretty much all mediteranean cuisine, there are definitely more options that are based on fruit and vegetables, and more use of oil instead of butter or () animal fat such as lard.
However, meat is very popular, as well as dairy - especially here in Israel dairy is very big. A really great selection of cheeses, yoghurts etc. Also, because Israel is such a mosaic of ethnicities, you can find a mixture of many sorts of cuisines.
It's definitely easier to find a vegetarian-friendly place; many many cafes are vegetarian, since it's the simplest way to remain kosher (sometimes they have fish, but most of the menu would be based on salads, sandwiches, quiches, pastas etc., and of course desserts). Vegan is a bit trickier, but honestly, I suppose it always is; but then again you could probably just buy some vegetables and make your own stuff. Vegetables are so much cheaper here than they are in the US; I cannot understand it, really, why they are so expensive there. It's such a big country after all, there are bound to be many places growing vegetables! I have once seen bell peppers at $1.50 A PIECE. Here this is usually the price per KG, more or less. And peppers are pretty light, you can fit a bunch of them in a KG...

But I'm rambling!
Lebanese cuisine is indeed one of the best middle-eastern cuisines, in my opinion. Morroccan and Persian cuisines are also interesting, with some very elaborate dishes. Some of that leaked to Iraqi cuisine as well. There are some nice Egyptian dishes, but the ones I know tend to be pretty basic. Palestinian cuisine is a lovely mixture of everything in the area, with clever usage of a lot of local herbs and plants. Can't really think of any other ethnic cuisines from the area... well, Ethiopian and Yemenite might count, I suppose, but what I know of them is not very interesting. Tasty, but not exciting.

And Haroset ice cream sounds very very cool.

Oh, and PC, I have looked a bit for tahini cookie recipes, and could only find ones that also require butter or margarine, so far. Which is odd, because I'm pretty sure we didn't use any. I'll keep looking!

>>Israel dairy is very big

Same in the Palestinian territories, of course. Everyone's heard of the famous cheese shop, Cheeses of Nazareth.

Blessed are the cheesemakers.

Um, Nazareth is actually inside Israel - well within the famous 'green line'.

I stand corrected. I always thought it was on your neigbours' bit.

Oooooh, and a geography lesson, too!

The one bit of middle eastern cooking I don't tend to like is the sweets, because they're just *too* sweet. If my mother's cousin sends even one more bag of those sugar-encrusted nuts from Iran... They're more sugar than nuts!

Same with Russian sweets, though. Don't eat their cakes, either

But their fruity, nutty, condensed milk-flavour ice cream is rather

If the tahini cookies recipe calls for butter or margarine, that's OK, I can work with it.

Lebanese food is yum! We have a nice Lebanese restaurant nearby and they even deliver, so I get some of their stuff sometimes.

Alright, some more googling have yielded three recipes that seem alright, and use oil as well as tahini (I am starting to soubt how much my memory of not using any butter at all was correct...). None of them have any useful comments, but they seem pretty close to 'traditional' sable cookies, so should be okay. Let me know how they turn out, if you make them! We cannot use flour this week, and besides, have a bunch of other sweets to deal with at home.

Recipe A (the simple one)
--------------------------------------

* 1.5 cups flour
* 0.5 cup sugar
* 0.5 cup oil [I would recommend a neutral oil, like corn/soy/canola]
* 0.5 cup crude tahini
[NOTE: as far as I know, a standard 'cup' around here is a bit smaller than the US measure - ours is closer to 200ml, yours to 240ml. However, when we make stuff at home we usually fill the cup a bit over the brim, so I think there's some flexibility to it. I would advise using your regular cup, but not tightly packed, and definitely not heaped over.]
* 1 bag vanillin sugar [I'm thinking it can probably be replaced with some vanilla extract, or some other mild flavouring, or dropped altogether]

1. Mix everything together in a bowl, until it is dough.
2. Make little balls of dough. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
3. Bake at 160°C [320°F] until lightly golden.
4. Only remove cookies from sheet after they have cooled, because they are very crumbly when hot.


Recipe B (the vague one)
-------------------------------------

* 0.5 cup crude tahini
* Baking powder [Did not say how much - I'd guess 0.5 ts, at most]
* 1 bag vanillin sugar
* 1 ts vanilla extract [Why both? I can't see the point]
* 0.75 cup sugar
* 0.25 cup oil (or 100g melted butter/margarine [which is not relevant for you])

1. Make everything into dough.
2. Make balls, place on lined sheet.
3. Bake at 180°C [~350°F] for about 20 minutes, until lightly golden.
4. Sift powdered sugar on top. [This is actually a very recommended step for all sable cookies, I think. It makes them more... melty, somehow.]
5. Only remove cookies from sheet after they have cooled, because they are very crumbly when hot.


Recipe C (the kinda complicated, yet somewhat more health-conscious one)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

* 2 cups whole wheat flour
* 1 ts baking powder
* 0.5 ts salt
* 0.5 cup crude tahini (preferably whole sesame tahini)
* 0.5 cup water
* 0.5 cup canola oil
* 0.75 cup brown sugar
* A few drops of rose-water (optional)

1. Mix in one bowl the flour, baking powder and salt.
2. Mix in another bowl the tahini, water, oil, sugar and rose-water.
3. Combine the two mixtures to form a dough.
4. Make cookies, using two spoons or a scoop.
5. Place in lined sheet; you can sprinkle chopped nuts or almonds or drizzle some Silan [a sort of molasses made of dates] on top.
6. Bake at 180°C for about 15 minutes; chill [see the note on previous recipes].



~*~
As you can see, those are pretty much the same, with some variations, so I guess you can figure out the basics and then just play it by ear. Enjoy!

Well, there are some good desserts, but yeah, a lot of them tend to be on the oh-my-god-WAY-too-sweet side...

Try looking for Ma'mul - soft crumbly pastries filled with date paste - they are excellent. I am also quite fond of Knafeh, a desert made from cheese and Kada'if, which is a sort of dough that looks like a lot of tiny noodles stuck together; it is often drenched with syrup, but in good places it will not be too much syrup, just enough to put everything together. Also, Qata'if (or Atayef in the local dialect), a traditional Ramadan dessert, are lovely - they are a sort of pancake made from a yeast dough, lightly fried, then filled with either cheese or a nut mixture. And of course drenched with syrup... but again, good places will have it right. Yum!

Iranian Nowruz cookies

A colleague of mine comes from Isfahan, Iran and her Nowruz cookies are just delicious. Some of them are at the sweeter end, but I'm willing to make that sacrifice

That's another benefit of working at a "multi national" place. A lot of holidays to celebrate and lots of good food to explore

I've a sudden craving for rasmallai. Nut-stuffed cheese balls in a milky syrup. Nicer than they sound. Honest.

Fortunately, I may not have to crave for too long. It's C's birthday, so shortly we're about to pick up her dad and go here for lunch:
http://www.motherindia.co.uk/index.php?action=cms.argylest

I've known the boss, Kasim, for about 18 yrs, from when they started out in another location, near where I worked at the time. They're the best in Scotland. Don't take my word for it...here's their former employee, Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2005/nov/25/foodanddrink

Or on Street View:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=glasgow+kelvingrove+museum&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=11.458429,26.323242&ie=UTF8&ll=55.86763,-4.290977&spn=0,359.974294&z=15&layer=c&cbll=55.867563,-4.290842&panoid=jX1-SgWPas9zKDKy11AkHA&cbp=12,212.8116660821059,,0,-5.066777963272115
(pan around there to see the Kelvingrove Museum, where I took the kids to see an absolutely shite Dr Who exhibition last week).

Daal and chappatis and aubergine pakora beckon.

I have both vanilla sugar (and have seen and used both vanilla sugar and extract in the same recipes- go figure!) and rose water at home, so I can try these out soon! I've always got a big jar of tahini on hand, too.

The worst dessert ever: sticky rice with durian. Yes, Ed, I know you recommended durian, but agh! It tastes as bad as it smells. That dessert was like eating rotten pudding in an outhouse with a tar roof on a hot day.

Durian's on special at the greengrocer's near here. Shall I send you some in the post?

If you did, the US Customs marshals would probably come kick in my front door, haul me away, and throw me in prison for life.

Um, I mean, no, thank you.

I just realized I'm out of vanilla sugar- but I know where to get it. Maybe we'll pop over next weekend. There's a shop next door to that market which sells containers, and I need some more...

It's the thought that counts.

This whole thread is an education in how little I know about world foodie things! I'd be more ashamed about it if I had the nerve to try some of this stuff, but as I have a really good, if convenient excuse I don't.

So all I'll do is drool vicariously!