by Levana Kirschenbaum
Let’s toast Israel’s 60th Birthday with this twist on the traditional seabreeze, which is usually made with grapefruit juice. The pomelo is a citrus fruit, but larger than the grapefruit, and more fragrant and less tart. So get your juicer out and brace yourself for a truly refreshing cocktail.
1 cup vodka
1 1/3 cups […]

by Levana Kirschenbaum
For a refreshing change from traditional Greek salad, try this sweet and tangy summer salad. The red pepper flakes give it true zip. Use them as sparingly or abundantly as you wish.
Ingredients:
8 cups watermelon, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
3/4 cups crumbled feta cheese
2 cups cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
1 cup chopped fresh […]

by Levana Kirschenbaum
I wouldn’t presume to wax nutritionist–there are many qualified people for that. Rather, since a whole lifetime of cooking and eating has somehow kept me and all mine healthy and trim, G-d bless, I decided I must be doing something right, and I would like to share some of my practices with you.
1. […]

by Levana Kirschenbaum
Italian for “pick-me-up,” probably because it puts together three of our favorite intense robust flavors: rum, chocolate and coffee (please don’t try to substitute any of them!), this dessert is so fabulous that I never bother to make the original dairy […]

by Levana Kirschenbaum
Ingredients:
5 pounds tomatoes (7-8 large, or 20 plum tomatoes), split across
3 heads garlic, points sliced off, leaving the cloves exposed
4 medium purple onions, peeled and split across
3 red peppers, halved and seeded
1/4 cup olive oil
coarse sea salt to taste
10 cups water (2 1/2 quarts)
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup dry white wine (not cooking […]

by Levana Kirschenbaum
This is for hot food lovers only! It leaves store-bought versions in the dust.
Ingredients:
3/4 cup red pepper flakes
2 cups very hot water
1 bunch cilantro, stems off, about 1 cup tightly packed
1 head garlic, cloves separated and peeled
1 cup olive oil
1 1/4 cups paprika
3 tablespoons cumin
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
1. Soak […]

by Levana Kirschenbaum
Ingredients:
8 servings of chicken, 16 pieces total: legs, thighs, cutlets
1 large onion, chopped
4 large cloves garlic, chopped
3 red bell peppers, cut in thin strips
3 large tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 cup dry white wine
Good pinch saffron
5 bay leaves
¼ cup basil leaves, packed
Freshly ground pepper to taste
Directions:
1. Sauté the chicken on all sides for […]

by Levana Kirschenbaum
Dipping fish fillets in coconut milk makes for an incredibly moist and tender fish. I love to coat my fillets with cornmeal, as it makes a thin, crisp, golden crust, much more so than flour or matzoh meal does. St. Peter’s fish, from the Kineret River in Israel, is also called tilapia when […]

by Levana Kirschenbaum
Romaine lettuce hearts are very tender and crisp. They cost a little more than whole heads of romaine, buut they are worth it, especially because no leaves get discarded. This is the salad of choice in my home, and romaine hearts are the only salad greens I ever cut with a knife because […]

by Levana Kirschenbaum
A meal in a package! That’s what this simple fish dish is. Enclosing it with its toppings in foil or parchment seals in all its flavors. Papillote is a cute French word that means curl, flutter or blink. In the food world, it refers to the frill that tented paper forms around […]