JERUSALEM MARKET
Mike Regan captured the buzz of Machane Yehuda Market in the photo mural in Zahav’s dining room.
Jews who keep kosher do not mix milk and meat in the same dish or even the same meal. This is actually an extremely difficult way to cook great food. I was trained in classic French technique, which was built on large quantities of butter. When I worked in an Italian restaurant, it seemed like the whole kitchen was covered in a light dusting of Parmigiano-Reggiano. Israeli cooks may not have some of these things that we take for granted in the kitchen, but tehina is the great equalizer.
Plenty of Israelis eat treyf these days. Pork is sold as “white steak” and the beautiful shellfish from the Mediterranean would test the faith of Job. But at Zahav, and in this book, we choose to honor the spirit of a few fundamental rules of kosher cooking. We don’t serve pork or shellfish, and we don’t use milk and meat in the same dish. The reason is simple: Kosher rules help define the boundaries of Israeli cuisine. The second you add pork or shellfish to a dish, it can become Greek or Turkish. When you add yogurt to lamb, it can become Lebanese or Syrian. Without the influence of kosher rules, the notion of Israeli cuisine itself begins to fray.
I’ll be honest. I’m eating a bacon cheeseburger as I write this. And sometimes when I’m cooking in the restaurant, I’ll say to myself, “Man, I wish I could baste this piece of meat with butter, or add lobster to this dish.” I don’t keep kosher at home, nor am I asking you to do so. Some of the recipes in this book would be great with shellfish or pork; for example the tarator sauce (see recipe) is amazing with fried mussels. And I’m not going to stop you from grinding bacon into kofte (see recipe). Sometimes, I’ll make suggestions for nonkosher variations of recipes. Otherwise, I’ll leave it up to you to figure out how to disappoint your Jewish relatives.
Mike Regan captured the buzz of Machane Yehuda Market in the photo mural in Zahav’s dining room.