A happy birthday and a recipe for a most decadent cheese cake

The best cheesecake we know

A couple of weeks ago I turned 39. I must confess I wasn't too thrilled about it. Though I never hide my age the passage of time is starting to be cruel. I cannot ignore anymore the signs time is marking on my face and skin. This year I allowed myself a bit of dark, moody brooding before the big day. It didn't last long tough, because we all took a day off and went to celebrate my birthday weekend in the north part of Israel with all my family, parents and brothers included. It was a perfect day. Unpredictable great weather with beautiful deep blue sky dotted with white clouds (we call it The Simpsons sky), empty roads with no traffic jams and an almost completely empty national park. We hiked the short but challenging Arbel cliff that hangs over The Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), combining adventurous rock climbing on ladders with history and archaeology. The Arbel is a fort built into the rock like something out of Game of Thrones, which makes it a great place for pretend knight dual or hide and seek. 

   

The Arbel

Hiking the Arbel mount

thorns of summer

We ended the day in a lovely family gathering at the hotel lobby where we all stayed. We had a cake of course, with only one candle; I think the heat from 40 candles would've caused a fire.  

All together now

Since we've recently celebrated the Jewish holiday of Shavuot every Israeli and Jewish food blog had recipes for cheesecake. Although I was reluctant at first my friend and food blogger Foodbridge convinced me to publish my version for cheesecake.  It is my daughter's favorite because it combines perfectly sweet, savory and sour flavors.

Cheesecake recipe modified from Doram Gaunt's cookbook "A tall man cooks".

A 22cm tin lined with baking paper.

Cake base:

150gr savory gluten-free pretzels (Osem has a special edition for Passover from potato flour) or any savory crunchy gluten-free crackers.

125ml (half a cup) Nutella spread.

75gr butter

The filling:

4 eggs

250ml (1 cup) sugar

500gr 5% white cheese – Quark cheese (gvina levana)

200gr soft ricotta cheese

1 tablespoon lemon zest

1 table poon corn starch

2 tablespoons lemon juice

Ganache topping (Not necessary)

100gr dark chocolate at least 60% cocoa solids

100ml whole cream

Preparation:

1.       Making the cake base:  In a food processor grind all the ingredients to crumbs. With moist hands take the base and flatten it on the bottom of the cake tin and chill for one hour in the refrigerator.

2.       Heat the oven to 150 centigrade

3.       Prepare the filling: bit together the eggs and sugar (at least 5 minutes in an electric mixer), add the cheeses, and lemon zest and mix. Dissolve the corn starch in the lemon juice and add to the mixture.

4.       Assembling the cakes: pour the mixture on the base and bake for 50 minutes until the cake is stable. Cool the cake for at least 5 hours in the fridge before serving.

5.       If you want to top the cake with ganache, boil the cream, take it off the heat and immediately add the chocolate, mix and cool. Spread carefully on the cake and let it cool for another hour.

Have a bite

The great outdoors

A carpet of tiny Irises covers The Israel Trail near Jerusalem

Tiny iris ( Moraea sisyrinchium)

Recently I met a very interesting person, a tourist from Canada that isn't Jewish and came to visit the area out of curiosity and a sense of adventure.  I got to meet him through a friend we've acquired a couple of years ago on our great tour in Canada. Since the guy arrived just before Passover the DH and I took it upon ourselves to explain our non-suspecting visitor what happens in Israel come Pesach. We met him for beer and conversation in a Jerusalem pub. Although he is Quebecois he speaks very good English, far better than my pitiable French. We had a very nice evening, discussing many issues in history, geography, politics and a lot of explaining about Pesach, especially in Jerusalem. We've also recounted our own visit to Canada. I described to him my awe and wonder from the size of the country. The huge impression all the woods and running water made on me, coming from this arid corner of the world. I tried to explain how liberating it was to be in empty huge wilderness, as I'm not used to so much open space.

He was very attentive but didn't really get what I'm talking about.

He kept traveling here in Israel and in The Palestinian Authority, went to the Galilee and Golan Heights, enjoyed the night life of Tel-Aviv and before he went on in his travels he came to celebrate Independence Day with us. I believe he now understands a lot more about the complexity of the situation here and comprehended better the reality of life here for both Israelis and Palestinians. But what he understood best was the size of the country.  He was amazed that his hike in The Tel Dan National Park ended in an hour and was crammed with people. After telling me that, he said: "I now get the way you feel about traveling in Canada, you live in a very claustrophobic country, no great outdoors."  I just smiled.

Our guest has left for the great Turkey and its splendor. 

We're still here. Yes, it's crowded and there is not much open space left but we are trying to make the best of it. Those past months we went outdoors as much as possible. Not doing great hikes or challenging treks but rather picnicking, relaxing, and taking lots of pictures even in the weirdest of weather. 

There is great beauty even in the smallest of places as hopefully you can see in some of my photos.

Not to mention my DH who is a wonderful cook, in and outside the house.   

Having a picnic at Hirbat Saadim in The Jerusalem Mountains- we were freezing so a nice fire kept us warm

Carpets of cyclamens near Jerusalem

Green almonds

Anemones blooming 

Sunset on Lachis

Strider -Walking Wadi Barak, in the southern part of Israel

Happy campers-having breakfast in Wadi Barak camping site.

I'm only happy when it rains

After a very long summer finally we were blessed with stormy weekends. As my loyal readers know, my favorite season is winter. Unlike most Israelis I adore gray sky, thunder storms, wool scarves and sweaters. Most Israelis love the beach at summer but I on the other hand try to avoid it as much as possible. When winter arrives I love to take long strolls on empty beaches taking pictures of the roiling sea. Since weekends are the only time left for hiking and photographing, I wasn't deterred by weather forecasts and went traveling with the family. One weekend was spent in the old Crusaders fortress of Apollonia (near Herzelia) and another in the city of Acre.  I'd like to share with you some of the lovely images of sea at winter.

From Herzelia to Hedera

Tel-Aviv and stormy sea

Acre marina

Cloud over the Old City of Acre

We discovered a small but charming national park in the North. Ein-Affek is an attempt to restore the original marshland ecosystem of the Haifa Bay area. The dried up water holes were filled with water and the fish, birds, and turtles followed. Even buffaloes which once were abundant in the area and disappeared were restored. It's nothing like the rivers and lakes we saw in Canada but it's pretty and it's ours.

Cormorant, buffaloes, water lily and herb tea in Ein-Afek National Park

Sun sets over the Mediterranean 

Going home

How I spent my summer vacation (and a recipe)

Akziv Beach National Park

When I was at elementary school the first day of any school year started with writing the assay: "how did I 

spend the summer holyday".  I want to share with you a bit of what we did this summer. In contrast to last year's summer that we spent in Canada, this year we mostly juggled between work and kids on vacation. This year's summer broke records, we had such long heat waves that air-con became as essential as breathing.  In spite the heat we tried to get out of the house and break the routine. We had a lovely five days break in the Greek island of Crete. While at home we went mainly to movies or museums (yes, especially for the air-con not necessarily or culture) and travelled mainly in the car. We had a nice picnic in the Carmel woods with food blogger   Foodbridge and her family. Somehow between the 

 work, the heat and the long endless vacation we had fun.

.Having said that I'd really like to spend next year's August in a very cool place, The North Pole will be nice

View of the Jordan river south of the Kinneret

Picnicking in the woods

Hot day requires some cold juice in Wadi Nisnas, Haifa

Israel Museum in Jerusalem

Keshet cave in the Western Galilee 

Sunset on Akziv beach

  

There is still an abundance of summer fruits in the markets and this cake is a wonderful way to use them.

Upside down gluten-free fruit cake

Ingredients:

A cake tin 26cm diameter.

Fruit lair

1kg fruits (plums, apricots, peaches etc.) pitted and cut into halves.

Zest from half a lemon

3-5 sugar spoon

10-20gr butter

Cake

200gr soft butter

1 cup of sugar

6 eggs

1 tea spoon vanilla extract

2 cups of gluten-free flours dived to 1/3 soy flour, 1/3 corn flour 1/3 tapioca flour.

1 table spoon baking powder

Assembling the cake:

Layer the tin with baking paper, spread butter on the paper. Arrange the fruits densely so that the fruit's inside are upwards.  Spread the sugar and half the amount of the lemon zest.

1. Pre-heat the oven for 160 centigrade

2. Whip together in a mixer the butter and sugar till a soft foamy batter, add the eggs one by one.

3. Lower the mixer speed and add vanilla extract, flour, baking powder till again the batter is unified.

4. Pour the batter on the fruits and bake for 60-70 minutes.

5. Let the cake cool properly and then flip it on a serving dish so the fruits are upwards.

Upside downgluten-free plum cake

A family heirloom

Have you met Señor Del Mundo?

If you speak Spanish or Ladino you might be appalled by this question that actually asks if you met your maker or in Hebrew "Adon Olam" aka God.  For years I heard my grandmother speak about this guy on many occurrences. I thought he was a friend of hers from abroad called Mister Delmundo. My Ladino improved as I grew up and I believe only when I got to school I finally realized who the mysterious Señor was.  I still think he's my grandmother's pal.

My mother's mother was born on board of a ship sailing the Black Sea from Istanbul (than Constantinople) to Constanta in Romania. She was born to a Sephardic family that according to household myths were direct descendants of Jews deported from Spain.  She married an Ashkenazi from The Ukraine but never abandoned her Sephardic heritage and especially the food. She had a fascinating life story: born in the era of The Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires and living to see the fall of Communism, tiny cell phones and emails. I didn't know all this about as a child, I only knew her as my "safta". She lived with us and helped in my upbringing. She was a very important figure in my life and a major impact on my nutrition. In short, she spoiled me. She had her clever way to feed me stuff that otherwise I would not touch. For example in order to make me eat spinach and cheese she would bake an Inchusa. I loved inchusa, never refused a slice. Throughout my childhood and rebellious adolescence inchusa was the taste of comfort. Now my mother makes inchusa from time to time reminding us of my grandmother that is still very present in our lives although she passed away 15 years ago.

I ate inchusa all my life but only recently I've discovered its origins. This was thanks to my acquaintance with Gil Marks and his Encyclopedia of Jewish Food. There I discovered that Inchusa is a traditional Sephardic tart containing a sweet or savory filling. The name originates from the Spanish enchusa, an herb from the borage family that was primarily used in the tart but later replaced with spinach. The custard was originally baked without a crust. To prevent it from sticking to the baking pan some flour was mixed with oil and the thick spinach and egg mixture gratin was spread over the top and baked.

The Sephardic culture and the Ladino language are slowly disappearing though there are efforts of preservation; the number of Ladino speakers is dropping steadily. I don't speak it to my kids though I grew up on it, my grandmother spoke very little Hebrew. Recently I've met two lovely ladies that have Turkish grandmothers and are trying to keep their legacy through food, and cooking. Liz and Ariella made me realize that making my kids inchusa or other Sephardic foods is a way of keeping my Sephardic legacy.

I baked inchusa for the first time last week and it was a great success. I made the gluten-free version (something my grandmother never heard of). My middle child got a school project. She has to bring something to class for "show and tell". It needs to be related to our family history and to combine something of Jewish history. My brother suggested I'll bring an inchusa, which is our true family heirloom.

Inchusa

1/2kg spinach leaves without stem and washed, chopped.

150gr Feta cheese

3 eggs

3 tablespoons canola oil

3 tablespoons of flour (corn mill for the gluten-free version)

2 tablespoons grated cheese (either cachkaval or parmesan)

Salt and pepper.

Heat the oven to 180 centigrade.

Oil and flour a 22cm round tin or Pyrex

Mix all the ingredients till the mixture is unified. Pour to the tin and bake till a crust is formed.