Lew Shaw’s Blog from Haifa

Two Sisters Who Married Two Brothers on the Same Day

On Sunday, Abbie invited me to join her and three South African women for a cooking class in Der al-Asad, an Arab village near Carmiel.  I met Abbie at 8 AM at the Alonim junction and she drove us to the village.  There we were welcomed by two sisters, Camla and Rin, who, in heavily Arab-accented Hebrew, described themselves as in the title of this story and who run a catering business and do cooking classes specializing in regional (Galilee) Arab cooking (http://www.camla.co.il/).  We sat in their living room drinking cups of fennel tea while they gave us background of their business and their experience in culinary arts, some history of the village, and their philosophy about authentic, healthy Arab food.

We then moved to their kitchen, which I found well set up, immaculately clean, and very organized.  They are set up to handle catering for up to 1,000 people, and regularly do Bar Mitzvahs, weddings, and all sorts of corporate and kibbutz events, as well as Arab celebrations.  The menu was to be vegetarian and included red lentil soup, madjadra (here made with bulgar instead of rice), deep fried vegetables cooked with rice and vermicelli, cabbage leaves stuffed with vegetables, mushrooms, and rice, and several salads.  We even wandered through the woods outside their house to look for some greens for the salads.

Each of us donned an apron and was given a task.  Mine was to dice onions, which were then put in a frying pan with tons of olive oil to brown for the madjadra (one of my favorites).  I then rinsed tiny brown lentils to be boiled before adding the bulgar and the onions.  These lentils retain their firmness after cooking.  For the red lentil soup, we used lentils which disintegrate while cooking.  These were added to a base of sautéed onions and wild celery, along with salt, cinnamon, clove, bay leaf, and some other spices, to simmer for the soup.  Meanwhile, cabbage was cored and steamed until the leaves were soft enough to roll.  Vegetables and mushrooms were sautéed for the filling.  We then all rolled the cabbage leaves and put them into a pot to simmer.

Then we went on an amazing field trip while everything was cooking.  Behind the house, a third sister was manning a wood-fired oven for making pita.  The wood came from olive trees and they also burn the dried pulp left over from making olive oil.   The sister was making lots of pitas, enough for the extended family for several days.  We put labane (yogurt with garlic and spices), zatar, and olive oil on a few pitas and threw them into the oven for a little snack before our feast.  I can’t possible describe how good they were and I was not leaving room for the huge meal in store.

We then went back to the kitchen to make several salads.  One was a traditional taboule, with lots of bulgar, parsley, and lemon juice.  Another was with wild zatar leaves.  A third was with a local green very similar to arugula.  And another included raisins, peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, and greens.

We all plated up everything and brought it into the next room for lunch.  Being quite full already, I still managed to eat some of everything.  What was left we put in containers and I have several meals here to enjoy!  After some strong coffee, we said our goodbyes, exchanged e-mails, and were on our way.