Just one more article today – this time totally food related.
I love the idea of making foods that our ancestors ate long ago.
Here’s a salad that opens your palate to beautiful flavors, very easy to make and comes to us from ancient times.
This is one of my favorite salads, which looks totally unpretentious, but is packed with flavor. Unfortunately, the prohibitive cost of pine nuts here, in New York, prevents me from making it as often as I would love to, but for a special occasion, it is just great.
The famous Arab geographer al-Maqdisi, writing in the year 985 CE, noted among the marvels of Jerusalem pine nuts, called kadam, which are unrivaled anywhere on earth.
Roast the pine nuts carefully in a small pot on a low flame, using a little oil. It is important to stir constantly. Don’t do other things in the meantime! Stir all the time and make sure the pine nuts do not burn.
With a large, sharp knife chop the coriander and the parsley, place in a bowl and add the pine nuts, which have by now cooled.
Squeeze in lots of lemon juice, drip in a little olive oil, season with garlic, vinegar-wine, and salt. Taste, adjust the seasoning and serve. A few green onions, very thinly sliced, can be added to the salad.
Make sure to wash parsley and coriander MANY times in a big bowl of water. These greens tend to be very dirty. For kashrut reasons, of course, I also leave them undisturbed for about 15 minutes in lots of salty water and then carefully pick them up from it, washing yet again in clean water afterward.
I always knew food history was more complicated than what contemporary political figures would like us to think.
I am planning to go to Israel B’H soon, and hopefully, will try to go Neot Kedumim again (I was there once planing trees). Will let you know if I end up there again.