Israeli Breakfast

When I cook, I try to free myself from any restrictions. I try not to cook from my head, but to cook from my stomach. It’s not about knowledge. It’s about being tuned to the ingredients. I use only seasonal ingredients. Fennel seeds, the chilies, the salt, the sugar. Wow. (knife clattering) It’s like being a jazz musician. You just do, you just do. So this is an amazing pot from India that actually you cook in it. Okay, so let’s pick something. Some lemons, hmm, very nice. We’re going to go for our lovely salads. Okay. Wai, wai, wai, wai, wai. (Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow.) Okay. It’s the best. Very heavy metal. Do you like heavy metal? (gentle guitar music) (door squeaking) Okay. Oh, wow. I love watermelon. We in Israel eat all the time watermelons. All summer long, we eat with it, feta cheese, but with a small twist. So let’s start by cutting the watermelon. (watermelon thunking) (knife clattering) (knife slicing) (knife clattering) For the salad, I need only the red part. Let’s do another one. Watermelon in Israel is the classic dessert. We have tons of watermelons. This is the seedless one, but the heirloom kind is with the seeds. And when I was a child, in Tel Aviv, every day in the afternoon, there was lots of watermelons and they will shout for al ha Sakin, al ha Sakin, “on the knife,” “on the knife,” literally. And we come and will cut half of the watermelon. We loved it, I love this moment of al ha Sakin. Let’s cut it into cubes. (knife thunking) Bite sized, kind of. (knife thunking and clattering) There are many ways to choose a good watermelon. Sometimes they’re too ripe. Sometimes they’re not ripe enough. You tap it. (fingers tapping) Tap your fingers on top of the watermelon, it has to be, you have to feel the echo, like you do for eggplant in a way, or like you do for a bread when you want to see if it’s ready. (knife thunking) Wow. Okay, and now let me take the purslane that we took in the garden. Purslane is a lovely herb that we used to give to the chickens here in Israel. There’s a lot of pectin in it, like in okra and in quince. And so they add it to their soups in order to thicken them. You just separate the leaves from the stem. Let me crush some black pepper. (pestle thumping) And I’m going to add some black pepper. Put some gray salt. Not too much. And then I put the cheese on top. It’s a feta cheese, but it’s a local one that is made not far away. In Tzfat, it’s a city, it’s an old city, not far away from here. And this is a very distinct feta cheese that is made out of sheep milk. The idea of this salad is the sweetness of the watermelon and the crunchiness of it, and then the softness of the leaves, the softness of the cheese, contrasting textures and flavors. Drizzle on some olive oil and this is ready.