It is part of life in the foreign service, but a part that we haven’t yet experienced. Our first departure. Not ours, but our friends. They were the first friends that we made here and they are moving on to Afghanistan. I don’t know if it has fully set in that my friends are moving away, but the “normal” reaction to a friend moving away is slightly different. For one, we knew when we met them that they’d only be around for a year. Two, they are going to Afghanistan and there is a chance that we could overlap with them there by a month of so next year. Three, they are also Latin Americanists, so if we all had our way we’d be serving in Latin America in the future (there are many posts there and they all know each other pretty well…so we could likely be neighbors again). And finally, there were our neighbors in DC! We didn’t know them then, but they only lived 1 block from us, and there is kind of this general feeling that someday all of us will be living in DC again.
So they are really great people because they are always happy and optimistic. No one here (besides Paul) has encouraged my cooking and baking as much as Liz because she is so complementary of everything I make. It may not be amazing or professional, but she thinks it is! I will also always remember the eloquent soliloquy Liz gave on a long car ride professing her love of all things Israeli. And so, for one of their final nights here we are having them over for a dinner including our best Israeli dishes. It will pay homage to Liz’s passion.
Paul is making his delicious hummus – and though the Israeli’s don’t put additional flavors in their hummus (that is an American thing), we are probably going to make it a roasted red pepper hummus. The red peppers are from Israel…so it is still pretty Israeli. For dinner Paul is making shakshuka. Friends and family that have come to visit have had this great dish! It is a spicy tomato base with poached eggs on top. We serve it with this great olive or onion bread from the “bread guy” in the market.
Dessert – that is my specialty. But I don’t do Israeli desserts. Primarily because they aren’t good . But the theme of this dinner is Israeli so I thought I might do a modern (improved) take on an Israeli dessert, or make an American dessert with distinctively Israeli ingredients. So I went to the market and got two fruits that I’ve never even tasted before. A challenge!
My safe starting point for dessert is a cheesecake. I have a great recipe and I happen to have cream cheese, thanks to my recent visit to the States! (You can buy cream cheese here, it is just $7 or $8 for a 6oz box.) I’ll not describe the cheesecake process to much except to say that a.) I don’t understand the Israeli dairy isle and I may have used Greek yogurt instead of sour cream, and I forgot to read one VERY important line of the recipe. Nonetheless, the batter tasted amazing when I cleaned the beater so I’m sure it will taste amazing! (It is just slightly more golden brown on top.)
While making the cheesecake I kept feeling these tiny but very painful pricks in my hands! I wasn’t too surprised because (as Paul likes to say) “everything in Israel has thorns.” So the first fruit I choose is from a cactus. It is sometimes called a prickly pear. With some quick internet research I discovered that you are supposed to wear gloves until you’ve peeled it – that would explain the teeny tiny white splinters in my hands! If you look closely at the glove in the picture you can see the finger is full of them.
The other…interesting…thing about the prickly pear is the taste. I knew to stay away from lychees (which aren’t in season now anyways) because they taste like a cross between a grape and a watermelon. Well, the flavor of prickly pear is described as a.) pear, b.) watermelon, and c.) green beans. I don’t know. I really don’t know. After I peeled the prickly little sucker the fruit was juicy with lots of little hard seeds. So I decided to make prickly pear syrup – sans pricklies and seeds. The final product turned out well…but I probably won’t be buying them again.
The second fruit was much more enjoyable and I only learned the name of it this morning: eskadenia (in English I think it is a loquat – which is actually Japanese, so we’re going to stick with the more Israeli name). Since I could find no information on “small Israeli peaches” last night, baking with them was a total shot in the dark. Let me jump to the conclusion: they are delicious! Or at least: my eskadenia Bordeaux glaze is delicious!! On their own they look and taste like mini peaches with a slightly softer, lighter flavor. They are slightly firmer, so I figured they’d hold their shape if I diced them. 
Then, I decided to make a syrup/glaze topping, but they aren’t really juicy. I didn’t have juice on hand, so I threw in some Bordeaux (a tangy slightly dry wine). I topped this off with some sugar – it is a dessert – and reduced the concoction (intensifying the flavors of the wine). It was pretty good, but to really knock some socks off, I added a splash of vanilla. Oh…my…gosh. It was so good I made a second dish of it. (6 pitted and diced eskadenia, ¼ cup sugar, ½ white wine – bring to a simmer over medium heat and reduce for about 20 minutes until there is about ½ of the original liquid left and it is slightly syrupy. Let it cool and then add a dash (3 drops maybe) or vanilla. Stir and use as a topping.)
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