Chocolate Tart

Picture by Oren Cohen

"My life is all about cooking and baking, and I love sharing my life with other people."

By: Shusha Biton

Chocolate Tart 

Crust 
100 g of sugar
200 g of butter 

300 g of flour 

1 egg  

Zest of one lemon 

A drop of vanilla extract

Filling

200 g of dark chocolate, good quality, at least 60% cacao

200 ml cream

Day one: 

1. Mix all the ingredients for the dough. Work with it until uniformed.

2.  Wrap the dough with nylon and refrigerate over night. This dough is enough for one big tin, or approx. 7-8 smaller (the one on the pic is 8 cm).
 

Day two:

1. Heat the oven to 170C degrees.

2. Take out the dough from the fridge approx. 5 min before starting to work with it. 

3. Roll the dough and place it in a baking tin, not to thin. Pick small holes in the dough with a fork to prevent it form swelling (you can also, if ambitious, put baking paper on the dough and add rice to the tin. That way it will stay in place in the oven).

4.  Bake for 15 minutes in the oven until a nice golden color. Let cool.

5.  Melt the chocolate.

6. Boil the cream and add the chocolate. If you want you can add nuts, coconut, chocolate pieces, or even hard candy to the ganache. Mix well. Let cool.

7. Add the chocolate filling to the tin with the pie crust.

8. Put in the fridge until it's completely cold and stiff.

9. Decorate with nuts, candy or fruit. 

  
Enjoy! 

© 2012 Jill Schweber and Channa Waje, all rights reserved

Cauliflower with Apple and Tumeric

Here’s a dish for the cauliflower fan:

Cauliflower, nuts, apple and coriander, that’s a lovely combination. The beautiful yellow color comes from a dash of tumeric in the water while boiling the cauliflower. It's simple to make and a perfect side dish to both meat and fish. If you think apples are out of place, just skip them.

Ingredients (serves 4)
Water
Salt
1 cauliflower
1 apple, sliced
1 tsp tumeric
4 tbs of sunflower seeds
A handful of coriander, chopped 
6 tbs olive oil
4 tbs of lemon juice
Salt and pepper

1. Put the cauliflower in a pan and cover with water. Bring the water to boil and add salt and tumeric.

2. Boil the cauliflower until al dente (not too soft). Then remove from the water and rinse it with cold water.

3. Dived the cauliflower to bouqets.

4. Rost the sunflower seeds until they receive a nice golden color. Let cool for a bit.

5. Mix all the ingredients, let it rest for about ten minutes. Transfer to a nice serving dish.

Enjoy!  

© 2012 Jill Schweber and Channa Waje, all rights reserve 

Beetroot Salad with Nuts

This is a salad that my mother makes at home in Sweden, and we all love it. She actually discovered it by mistake, because there were leftover beetroot and beans in the fridge. It's a really good and healthy salad with nuts, beans and carrots. It's perfect with a grilled steak in the summer, but also as a side dish for just about any occasion.

Ingredients

Salad
1/2 cup of assorted nuts (sunflower seeds, cashew cores, pumpkin seeds)
1/2 can of kidney beans
1 carrot, finely diced
3-5 rosted beetroots, finely diced
A handful of chopped parsley
Olive oil
Sea salt (for the nuts)

Dressing
3 tbs pumpkin seed oil (olive oil is also ok but not the same)
1 tbs balsamic vinegar
Sea salt
Black pepper, freshly ground
1 tsp garlic powder

1. Grill the beetroots in the oven for about 45 minutes (or until soft all the way trough) at 225°C.

2. Put some olive oil in a frying pan and fry the nut mix until it gets a nice golden color. Season with sea salt.

3. Take the nut mix from the pan, save the oil and fry the beans for a couple of minutes.

4. Place the diced carrot, beet roots and chopped parsley in a bowl. Add the fried beans and the nuts and mix.

5. Mix all the ingredients for the dressing and mix it with the salad.

Enjoy! 

© 2012 Jill Schweber and Channa Waje, all rights reserve 

Vanilla Ice Cream with Tahini and Granola

Tahini is not only used for food and cooking, it’s also a very popular ingredient in desserts and sweets in Israel. We will return a lot to this subject on the blog as, it’s very possible that we are a bit obsessed with tahini (and sweets). We are starting the tahini and sweets series with a very simple and tasty tahini ice cream. This is a dessert you’ll make in a flash, without a lot of preparation. This dessert is perfect when friends are coming over and you don’t want to invest too much time but still want everyone to LOVE it. 

 
Ingredients  (4 servings)
Vanilla ice-cream (good quality)
1 cup granola 
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds 
1/4 cup raisins (if not in the granola)
8-9 dates, sliced into small pieces

Tahini 
1 cup raw tahini
1 cup water
1 lemon

1. Mix the granola with the pumpkinseeds, raisins and dates. 

2. Mix all the ingredients for the tahini. 

3. Place ice-cream in a serving dish and pour the tahini on top of it (use a lot), and then add the granola.

Enjoy!