Israeli Style Shabbat Dinner

This week, we visited Our Big Kitchen (OBK). It is a kosher and halal approved commercial kitchen located in Bondi. The kitchen is open to anyone who wants to use it to empower themselves or to help others.The kitchen was built by donations and runs on donations – of goods and services, food and most importantly, donations of time by volunteers.

Here are some biscuits that were baked by volunteers, ready for delivery.

Our meal this week was inspired by Lynda Ben-Menashe, with a selection of old family Shabbat recipes from a time when Lynda was living in Israel. The sabbath starts on Friday night, and until the sun sets on Saturday, the Jewish people rest. So the Jewish kitchen is very busy all day Friday, preparing meals for our Sabbath.

The first recipe we made was a deliciously soft and moist chocolate cake. Above, we can see the women working together in creating this spectacular dessert.

What is so special about our Interfaith Cooking days, is not only the new and exotic recipes we cook each week, it is the conversations we share together.

We enjoyed a chicken dish baked in spices, date syrup and slowly cooked in its juices. We made a Middle Eastern rice dish, where the onions were cooked in oil and margarine first, then the rice, parsley and stock were added. When the stock was boiling, we reduced the temperature until the rice had absorbed the stock. This is a great dish that stays warm on the stove for hours with the lid on and the gas off.

As part of the dessert, Elaine poached pears in a wonderful cinnamon, cardamon syrup, which worked so well with the chocolate pudding / cake.