Ambrosiac musings of a food maniac

Spawned from a fried corn with butter and breadcrumbs dish my mom used to make, this dish has now taken a life of its own, full with haute cuisine ingredients such as truffle oil or aged parmesan.

Done right, this is one of the best ways I can think of to make use of fresh ears of corns.

After much experimentation, I believe this to be the ultimate form of this staple Israeli dish. The fenugreek seeds I believe to be a unique addition of mine to the basic recipe, and the smoke paprika gives it quite a poshy twist.

The quantities are for two diners, but this dish could be multiplied to infinity, or at least to the size of your largest pan. It's perfectly possible to make Shakshouka in a giant Paella pan.

A fantastic dish with aromas of honey, garlic and spearmint. You can use the oven to bake a side dish while the rack is being roasted. Just place baby root vegetables in a baking pan at the bottom of the oven; the fat and marinade dripping from the rack will coat them with a fine layer of amazingly tasty gravy.

Make sure to have your butcher crack the backbone, so that you'll be able to easily separate the ribs after roasting them.

Searing the avocado gives it a nutty taste that is just delicious. The lightly seared squids are just melting in your mouth and taste amazing. Be careful not to over-cook them, as this will make them rubbery and yuckie.

I'll admit that I'm a bit influenced by the Israeli version of Master Chef with this dish, but hey - at least it gets me in the muze for something new, for a change!

The crêpes are light and delicious; replacing the milk from the traditional recipe with yogurt provides with a tinge of sourness and allows the crêpes to become slightly lighter in texture.

This is also my first attempt at shooting my own dishes - albeit using Keren's camera.

Butternut squash is not what I would usually consider a 'sexy' vegetable (well, fruit, actually. At least botanically-speaking). It usually makes its appearance roasted with some olive oil or herbs, but up until today I never found a way to use it as a prominent ingredient in a dish.

Then I imagined to myself how would the squash taste combined with cinnamon, goat's milk and Gewürzt and decided to give it a shot. The resulting purée is sweet - but not too sweet, with a rich scent of cinnamon and a strong hint of goat's milk.

When I was a young boy, my mother introduced me to the wonderful combination of ripe avocado and baby radish. She's always described the taste as having a nutty characteristic, which is one of the only culinarily-sophisticated expressions I heard from her as a child. My mom was, and still is, more of a practical kind of cook.

Years later, it suddenly occured to me that if the two worked together so beautifully on a loaf of bread, they should work even better in the warm embraces of a good salad.

As I've told you before, I really like kid goat meat. It is reminiscent of spring lamb, but much more tender and a lot less fatter. This dish is great served with rice (I used whole rice) that can absorbe the tastes from the rich gravy.

These gnocchi are awesome; the bright pink from the beet and the bright green from the chard-ricotta sauce is quite the eye candy and the taste is just amazing. The beets don't dominate the gnocchi, they just add a hint of beetiness.

Thanks to our friend Yael for providing the basic gnocchi recipe that she brought home from her stay in Italy.