Breakfast - Israeli style!

Limonana - Israeli-style lemonade made from fresh
lemons and mint leaves

In French class throughout junior high school, high school, and even college, food was used as a way to learn about the culture, and what better way to teach?  Teenagers, food, and school - it's a win-win situation for everyone involved!  Except perhaps the custodians. . .

As I'm sure you can imagine, hungry students in a Hebrew Ulpan are no different - food is just as alluring, even if we have to make it on our own and -gasp!- clean up after ourselves, too.  That is why today our teacher declared Yom Bishul, Cooking Day, where we were put into groups, given recipes in Hebrew, and set loose in the kitchen with plenty of raw ingredients in hand.  Two hours later we had a most magnificent feast!

Our taphrit, menu, included shakshouka, falafel, vegetable salad (Israeli salad), tehina (sesame) salad, eggplant and mayonnaise salad, fresh lemonade with mint, and brownies (for no reason other than we're addicted to anything containing chocolate).  I worked with three other students on preparing the shakshouka, a main course made with poached eggs in a tomato-based vegetable stew.  All of these dishes were fairly simple to make, and I've included recipes as possible, and a link to one recipe that would be a little too long to include in the list.  Enjoy!

Finished shakshouka.  We made a huge batch for 17 people,
but it is easily adjusted for any number of servings.

Authentic Israeli Foods:
1. Shakshouka

2. Falafel - We used a prepared falafel mix that just needed to be prepared then fried in a giant pot with lots

of oil.

3. Tehina - This comes as a sesame sauce that we mixed with water, fresh lemon juice, garlic, parsley, and salt.

4. Eggplant and mayo salad - Roast eggplants on an open flame if available (gas range works), peal them and scoop out the innards, mix that with some mayonnaise, lots of garlic, parsley, lemon, salt, and pepper.  Other sources suggest preparing this with tehina instead of mayo. (Don't worry, Mom, I still much prefer your baba ganoush!)

5. Lemonade - melt a bit of sugar into boiling water, mix that with fresh lemon juice, and add fresh mint leaves.  Can also be pureed together with the mint leaves to create limonana, which is the Hebrew name combining limon (lemon) and nana (mint).

6.  Brownies - two girls made these from scratch, but there's nothing intrinsically "authentic" about these in Israel.  They're just good, ol'-fashioned brownies!

Who says learning Hebrew can't be tasty?

P.S.  Pictures of our cooking exploits are linked to the Photos page!