Recipes

Here are a few choice items representative of our travels. We love to cook, but this collection is unique in that all items were discovered in another country and then tested in our home kitchen.

Israel

Wasabi Sorbet from Uri Buri in Acre/Akko

1 Tbs wasabi powder whisked into 1 cup of cold water. (This will give a significant bite. We have tried it with half as much wasabi and it is also good.)

2/3 cup sugar syrup (we typically do a 50/50 water/sugar syrup)

2 tsp rice vinegar

Mix the ingredients and put in ice cream maker.

At the restaurant, they serve smoked salmon on a plate with good soy sauce on it, and then a scoop of this ice cream in the center. We loved this dish and it is often featured in television stories about Uri Buri, but the recipe is not in the recipe book. When we dined there, Uri Jeremias, the owner, greeted us at the table and we asked him about the wasabi sorbet. I took note of his description--general amounts like "a spoon of wasabi" and the ingredients list-- and then we experimented with amounts at home, resulting in the recipe above.

Images of the wasabi ice cream with salmon at Uri Buri; the chef with Dan and Sarah; view of the beautiful boardwalk; and a page of the menu

Vietnam

Egg Coffee / Ca Phe Trung

serves 2 (adjust recipe so that there is one more egg yolk than the number of cups you are making)

3 egg yolks

1 Tbs sweetened condensed milk

2 tsp sugar

2 drops of vanilla, caramel, or alcohol of your choice (optional)

sea salt, up to 1/8 tsp (optional: this will make it taste more like the Hoi An/Hue sea salt coffee version)

Robust drip coffee. (You may also do this with hot chocolate!)

Beat yolks, milk, sugar and optional flavorings until soft peaks form. Can take up to 10 minutes.

While you are beating these ingredients, have your coffee dripping. The Vietnamese way is "robusta" coffee grounds made in individual drip cups, but you can make your coffee how you like it. (You can see a picture of the coffee we made in class below. In the last picture, Sarah is portioning the cream into cups and there is a silver drip coffee maker in the foreground.)

Pour the yolk/milk/sugar mixture into cups dividing evenly and leaving at least an inch of room. See the video below.

Pour the coffee into the center of the cream in each cup, dividing evenly. See the video below

This recipe is from a cooking class we took with Apron Up in Hanoi, Vietnam. We also learned to make bun bo nam bo, banana blossom salad, and rice rolls with them and recommend the company. We liked that we could request items that are not on their usual cooking school list. The chef who taught us said that the original egg coffee, developed at Cafe Giang, has a proprietary recipe but those who have attempted to replicate it have improved on it in her opinion. She said the main difference is the amount of sweetness, and also thought the addition of vanilla or caramel was one of the best alterations. In Hoi An, the local special coffee is salt coffee. For this version, you can add sprinkle up to 1/4 tsp of sea salt on top of the egg cream.

Mexico

Agristada: egg sauce from Mexico This comes from the restaurant Merkava in Mexico City, which features Jewish Mexican foods. Everything in this restaurant is delicious and we came twice in our short trip there because we wanted to try everything on the menu! Pescado con Agristada is a traditional Jewish Sephardic dish. The creaminess of the sauce comes from egg yolk, not dairy products, and so it pairs with meat, vegetables or fish and remains kosher. The version at Merkava does contain butter, so is not parve, but is 100% delicious. It goes will with any white fish or with roasted artichoke hearts or asparagus.

3 eggs 

1 whole lemon juiced (whisk together)

Add a little warm chicken stock--added slowly to temper the eggs.

Add a stick of butter a little at a time, stirring constantly to avoid scrambling the eggs.

Add salt at end 

(You may need to strain it if you have accidentally scrambled the eggs)

(Serves 4) 

Take your white fish and heat 10 min in cast iron skillet with skin side down. Flip. Put in 

400-415F  5 min in oven. 

Rest with a little butter melting. Spoon the lemon sauce over it and  add fennel fronds

Left: Agristada with fish. Center, the menu. Right: grilled whole cauliflower with labneh and zatar--it was so fabulous we make this all the time at home now, but with sliced cauliflower for ease of preparation.

London

Brown's Hotel Stout Cake

This stout cake stood out among the many delicious savory and sweet yummy things served at their high tea. In the photo at right, it is the dark brown slice in the center of the table.

200 g Butter

310 g Demara Sugar

160 g egg

200g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

2tsp baking soda

320g Stout

120 g cocoa powder

Bake at 160 degrees Celsius for 45 min. Use a toothpick to test: it should remain a bit gooey. If it comes out clean, the cake will be too dry. If it is dry, give it a coffee-sugar glaze to moisten it, or coffee icecream. Coffee sets off the stout.

Japan

Sake Kasu Cheesecake from Yuba Cuisine Higashiyama Yuuzu

100g Sake Lees (you can find these fresh at a good Japanese grocery store or from a sake manufacturer)

100g cream cheese

125 g good quality, rich soy milk (unsweetened)

70 g sugar

1 egg

20g flour

Bake! Presumably, as you would any cheesecake.

Note: we made this with the above directions and it was too strong. Perhaps the serving size was tiny at the restaurant, or perhaps they gave us the wrong measurements. I suggest adding about a tablespoon of sake kasu to your regular cheesecake recipe instead.