Back when I had more access to videos, I came across Alise Malka who is an appealing older Moroccan lady (I think from Casablanca) now living in Haifa who makes excellent food.

She's seems shomer Shabbat at least and made sure to cover her hair in her challah-making video because she made the bracha of separating the challah.

Her video on how to make her Shabbat chamin (Moroccan cholent/Sabbath day stew) was impressive; I'd never seen a chamin like that.

My mother-in-law makes the standard Moroccan chamin with whole potatoes, whole unpeeled eggs, cut-up chicken or meat, garbanzo beans, and seasoned rice and/or wheat berries in separate cooking bags.

But Alise brings Moroccan chamin to a whole new level, which is why I call it Alise Malka's Deluxe Moroccan Chamin.

I think her Facebook page offers more exact measurements than her video, but I'm not sure because I've no access to Facebook. In her video, exact amounts were usually (but not always) stated and a couple of the ingredients left me in the dark.

For example, she adds a spice called "meruzhiya," but my husband had no idea what it was, nor could I figure it out using Google translate for French or Arabic (mostly because I don't know how to spell in French or Arabic). 

My mother-in-law knew what what it was, but hadn't used it since she left Moroccan around 50 years ago because she never knew they'd started selling it in Eretz Yisrael (and probably it's not widely available, else she'd have heard of it by now).   

Also, Alise uses a deep & wide oblong-shaped pot, which I don't have, so I needed to arrange the ingredients in the pot differently than she did.

If you use a crock-pot, that's probably closer to the size and shape Alise uses.

So I'll list the ingredients and how Alise made it, then offer you alternatives.

I haven't been able to make this more than once because my big kids prefer a heavy-duty Ashkenazi cholent. (Yeshivah boys are all the same, regardless of ethnicity.) But they liked this deluxe chamin well enough.​

• This isn't a recipe for beginners. If you're not used to cooking, you could still try it, but the recipe isn't exact enough to guarantee a good result for an inexperienced cook.

• You need start planning this well in advance — at least 3 days (UNLESS you have all the ingredients in stock & use canned garbanzo beans/chickpeas & use raw meat without cooking it before).​

 

• Cooking bags are essential to this recipe, so make sure you have at least 3 cooking bags available.

 

• Remember to say, "L'khvod Shabbat!/In honor of Shabbos!" with a happy heart at some point during the actual preparation of the chamin.

IMPORTANT NUTMEG NOTE!: Fresh whole nutmeg is important in savory recipes. The ground nutmeg you buy in the supermarket in a container is usually not so fresh. It tastes fine in sweet recipes (like nutmeg cookies). But in savory recipes, the not-fresh ground nutmeg adds the taste of burnt rubber & ruins the whole darn thing.

Ask me how I know...

BUG-CHECKING NOTE!: All the grain/legume ingredients can be found bug-and-worm free, including the wheat berries (known as chitah – "wheat" in Hebrew) in vacuum-packed packaging, like the Kitov brand. Double-check to make sure it says CHECKED INSECT-FREE /Nivdak v'naki mitola'im v'charakim. (Some companies vacuum-pack for freshness, but you still need to check for critters, so make sure its status is stated clearly on the package.)

If you buy the unchecked not-necessarily-insect-free brand, you need to know how to check the garbanzo beans, rice, and wheat berries.

Dates also need to be checked before plopping them into the pot.

Onions sometimes need checking; it depends.

Spices sometimes need checking; it depends.

Din Online states that garlic cloves really need to be peeled and washed before use. Alise uses unpeeled cloves in her wheat berries, but you can use peeled garlic cloves or garlic powder.

If you don't know how, you can start at the link below, which covers whether you need to check this food and how to do so for the USA, UK, and Eretz Yisrael:
https://dinonline.org/Bedikat/chickpeas/

Hover your mouse-icon over the star under the country of your choice to see whether this food is presumably clean, rarely infested, sometimes infested, usually infested, or externally infested in your location.

(If you click on a star, it takes you to this page, which explains what each of those categories means.)

To look up other foods, simply click on the "Select Items" drop-down box in the upper center of the page, then click on the food of your interest.

​To make the chamin Alise's way, you first need to:

• Start soaking the garbanzo beans around 3 days earlier, making sure to rinse them and change their water every day.
• Prepare the meat (calf's foot or whatever meat you use) the day before.

​Here we go:

For the main chamin straight in the pot:

• Soaked dried garbanzo beans/chickpeas (called gargirei chumus in Hebrew) – maybe around a cup?
• 3 onions, sliced & fried
• 3 large pieces of meat (Alise used at least 2 calves' feet, plus another piece of meat), rinsed, cooked & frozen
• 5 peeled potatoes 
• 2 peeled sweet potatoes 
• 3 hard-boiled eggs (Egg shells are not so clean, plus the ink stamp, so make sure to boil & clean them before; you can boil them in clear vinegar for extra hygiene, plus vinegar prevents them from cracking or popping out of their shell during cooking.) 
• 2 tsp chicken soup powder
• 2 tsp turmeric (called karkum in Hebrew)
• 1 tsp black pepper
• ¼ cup some kind of oil tinted with paprika 
• 1 or 2 dates to add color.
• Fresh nutmeg (the actual whole nut)

(If you know what meruzhiyah is, it also goes straight into the pot. She also used some kind of syrup too, but I couldn't understand what that was either, so I left it out.)

For the beef "cake" in a cooking bag:

• 500 gm./1 lb. ground beef
• 2 tsp sugar
• Ground peanuts (¼ cup?)
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 Tbsp bread crumbs
• 1 Tbsp oil
• 1 egg
• A pinch of salt

Wheat berries (called simply chitah – "wheat" in Hebrew) in a cooking bag

• 1 cup wheat berries
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp chicken soup powder
• 2 tsp sugar
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp salt
• 3-5 whole unpeeled garlic cloves (use peeled & washed or garlic powder)
• At least 2 cups water 

White rice in a cooking bag

• 1 cup rice
• 1 tsp chicken soup powder
• 1 tsp white pepper
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 cups water

Chamin-Base Straight in the Pot

• ​Garbanzo beans – Make a layer of these beans over the bottom of the pot.
• Fried onions – Spread out on top of garbanzo beans as another layer.
• 3 large pieces of meat (also calf’s foot), rinsed, cooked & frozen – Place on top of onions near side of pot.
• 5 peeled potatoes – Place next to meat on beans & onions toward center.
• 2 peeled sweet potatoes – Place next to potatoes (or add to boiling water at the end if you wish to better keep their shape because they fall apart during cooking).
• 3 hard-boiled eggs – Place right in center.
• Add spices.
• Add 1 or 2 dates for color.
• Grate nutmeg over ingredients.
• Drop the entire nutmeg nut into the pot.​

What to Do Instead:

• Canned garbanzo beans can be used instead and will taste good, but won't have that "every bean individually cooked" taste to them.
• You can just skip the calves' feet altogether and use your favorite red meat. 
• I'm really not sure about the exact amount; just include whatever red meat in whatever amount you like.
• I used only 3 potatoes & 1 sweet potato, yet increased the eggs to 6. It turned out fine. 
• Just add oil & paprika separately, especially what's known in Israel as paprika b'shemen/paprika in oil.
• ​I cannot stand that much nutmeg in a savory dish, so I skipped dropping the entire nutmeg nut into the pot.
• You can used date syrup (silan) instead of whole dates, not sure how much; just however much looks good to you.
• If, like me, you're using a circle-shaped pot and cannot arrange the ingredients like Alise does, just improvise according to the size & shape of your pot.

• Pour boiling water over everything, more or less covering the contents.

• Place the bags of rice and wheat berries into the pot, twisting them in a way so that the bags stay closed without needing to knot them. (It's a pain in the neck to get the knot open for eating later.) I close the lid on them in a way that doesn't keep the lid open, if you get what I mean; hard to describe in writing.

You are now (finally!) ready to cook the whole shebang.
​

• Bring to a boil, then let simmer for however long you like, then set your crock-pot to Shabbos-mode or place on the blech/platta/Sabbath hot plate, and feel pleased about your special deluxe chamin accomplishment.

​

HAPPY PURIM!

For some reason, this seems like a good time to talk about schmaltz.

I've always wanted to try schmaltz (rendered chicken fat) because it sounds just the thing I'd want spread on soft bread or mixed in a potato kugel, but I never had the opportunity (though I did see it in the kosher section of a supermarket aisle once).

I tried making it once years ago, but I didn't know what I was doing, so I ended up with a bunch of over-fried gribbenes (unmelted chicken pieces 'n' fried onions) and no schmaltz.

This time, I decided to follow the recipe (in The Spice and Spirit Kosher-Jewish Cooking cookbook) more carefully and it really wasn't difficult.

Now I've made it twice.

And this is how:

As I collected fat & skins over the weeks, I washed them before adding them to the collection in the freezer, so they were clean and ready to render when thawed.

I used any kind of animal fat I'd collected (not just chicken), added the chopped onion and water, then let it simmer forever — I mean, until all the water evaporated and no more fat was melting out of the skins.

In consistency, it turns out like coconut oil: a mushy solid when cold, a liquid when hot.

It's a pale yellow color.

And it really makes the cholent taste better when the onions and meat are browned in the schmaltz.

It is also really good spread on bread and used instead of butter in mashed potatoes.

I also want to try it in pie crust (like for a chicken pie) instead of margarine or oil. ​

The only downside is that a whole load of saved-up fat renders down to only around a half-cup of schmaltz.

Anyway, now that I see that it's not so hard to make and also very delicious, I've decided to do it regularly, like when ever I have enough fat to make a batch.

Also, it makes me feel so Jewish-housewifey to use the chicken skins and animal fat instead of throwing them in the garbage.

I know animal fat is considered terribly unhealthy nowadays, although I've also heard that's not necessarily true (in some circles, margarine & canola oil are considered much worse than schmaltz).

I think the quality of the fat might also prove to be a big factor.

​For example, if you make schmaltz from free-range grass-fed animals that aren't pumped with hormones or antibiotics, your schmaltz will probably be a healthier fat.

But I did this using regular glatt kosher chicken & meat.

Anyway, that's my happy experience with schmaltz.

Israeli potato salad graces my mother-in-law's table every Shabbat and chag, and it appears frequently on mine too.

It's a colorful, pretty, and flavorful potato salad. It's also versatile as you can customize it to your taste by omitting or increasing any of the ingredients, and it will still turn out good.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

• 2 fist-sized potatoes (or one giant potato cut in half for quicker cooking)
• 1 small to medium carrot (depending on how much you like carrots)
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup peas (fresh or frozen is best, but canned is okay too)
• 1 pickle
• mayonnaise (however much you like)
• salt
• white or black pepper

Prep

• Peel carrots and potatoes, then boil them with the egg until soft enough to cut and eat with pleasure, yet not too mushy.

(This takes around 30 minutes.)

*You can dice the pickle during this time.

• If using frozen or fresh peas, you can either add them to the boiling carrots, potatoes, and egg, or you can pour boiling water over them and let them sit covered for at least 15 minutes, depending on how you like your peas.
• When ready, pour everything into a strainer.
• Let the carrots, potatoes, egg, and peas sit until cool enough to handle comfortably.
• Dice everything into cubes. (They need not be perfect cubes; just however you like your cooked veggies. You can also slice everything or cut them into chunks.)
• Dump everything (the carrots, potatoes, egg, and pickle) into a bowl.
• Add however much mayonnaise, salt, and pepper you all like.
• Mix it all together.
• Transfer to a storage container and/or serving bowl.

And there you have it: Israeli potato salad.

Betayavon!

To save/download a shortened version of this recipe (i.e. without all the little tips), please right-click the image below, then click "Save Image As" and save it to your desired folder.

When you grow up Ashkenazi lite and marry a religious Moroccan, there are many tradition-based surprises in store.

​For example, I was disappointed that Moroccans are one of the only Sephardi groups who DON'T eat most kitniyot (legumes) on Pesach (Passover).

No rice, no corn, no garbanzo beans, no soy oil, and so on. However, they do eat certain kinds of fresh kitniyot like:

• Green beans
• Yellow beans
• String beans
• Peas
• Fava beans

...as long as they’re fresh and not dried.

Fava beans, also known as broad beans, and called fulim (FOO-leem) in Hebrew, play a starring role in Moroccan Pesach meals.

​(For example, Moroccan Pesach cholent includes fulim that have only been shelled once, which is exactly what you get when you buy a bag of frozen fulim in the freezer section in Israel.)

After discovering that I really never will eat rice on Pesach, I then discovered that Moroccans have a traditional soup served at the Seder (the first night of Pesach in Eretz Yisrael, the first 2 nights of Pesach everywhere else) that has absolutely nothing to do with chicken (or matzah balls, for that matter).


My initial reaction to the thought of eating boiled cabbage instead of chicken soup with lots of fluffy matzah balls was “Yuck!”

But upon tasting this traditional Moroccan soup of fulim and cabbage, my reaction immediately transformed into “YUM!”

I also fell in love with fulim.

The ful bean is an absolutely delicious bean that doesn’t provoke any embarrassing digestive reactions later.

Now, every time I read an article on fulim, it always mentions how some people are allergic to this bean. I have never personally encountered someone with a fulim sensitivity, but I guess you’re supposed to warn people anyway.

So there's your warning.

(UPDATE: I have since heard from a lovely person who was unwittingly fed fulim and nearly died. Hashem yerachem.)
 
This is an incredibly healthy soup, as you’ll soon see.

It’s also low-gluten (or possibly gluten-free?) and low-carb. 
​
Feel free to make this during the year if your custom forbids you to eat fulim on Pesach.
 
My mother-in-law (who grew up in Tafilalt and moved to Meknes to marry and also gave birth there to her first 3 children — including my husband) taught me how to make it.

The exact amounts depend on the size of your pot and your personal taste. We always use a huge pot for this because everyone loves it so much.
 
The time-consuming part is preparing the fulim.

Initially, I thought it was impractical to shell mounds of fulim Erev Pesach. Who has time or energy for that? But believe me, it really is worth it.

Originally, Moroccan women finished their Pesech cleaning in a timely fashion and then sat down together the morning of Erev Pesach to shell out all the fulim.

(Remember, you had large homes and several guests and/or multi-generational families back in Morocco, so you had a bunch of sisters, grandmothers, mothers, and daughters available for copious social fulim-shelling.)

​My sons help me, but they don't have the same dedication and patience for it that my mother-in-law and I have.

So when I don’t have Moroccan females on hand, I start preparing the fulim the night before.

Or, more accurately, I TRY to prepare it the night before. That doesn't always happen.

So here’s the recipe and variations will follow…
Note: Depending on your geographical location and what brand of cabbage you buy, you may need to rinse off each leaf and check for bugs. Ditto with the cilantro/coriander/kusbara.

Ingredients

• A head or two of white (i.e. light green) cabbage
• 1 generous handful of cilantro/coriander/kusbara
• 1.5 kilos/3 lbs. of fresh fulim pods, as plump as you can find—indicating that the beans inside are extremely plump and large. (You should be able to get them at any shuk in Eretz Yisrael at this time of year.)

Note #1: You can buy fulim frozen and shelled out of their pods in your local Israeli supermarket, but they are smaller, making it harder to peel off that second shell. Plus, you’ll need to thaw them completely before you start shelling them, or else you’ll end up with freeze-burned fingers. Ask me how I know...

Note #2: Also, sometimes it happens that you buy pods with massively swollen bumps that hint at gargantuan fulim inside...only to discover tiny fulim. This usually doesn't happen, but you may run into a couple of deceptive pods like this. Forewarned is forearmed! Just remember that this, too, is for the best!

• Garlic cloves (as many as you like)
• A couple of chunks or slices of red meat (or more if you like)
• Your favorite Pesach oil (coconut is not recommended unless you like coconut-flavored cabbage)
• Turmeric (as much as you need to get your desired taste and color)
• Black or white pepper
• Salt

​
Directions:

• Using a sharp and large enough knife, slice the cabbage thinly.

(While you can use a food processor or shredder for this, I find that it makes them too thin and wispy, giving the soup a web-like texture in your mouth. But if you like that, then go for it.)

• Toss all that cabbage in your pot.
• Fill the pot with water to cover and then turn on the high heat.
• When it will boils, turn the heat down to a merry simmer. (The cabbage needs to cook forever, so just start it cooking right away while you prepare everything else.)
• Peel the garlic and then do whatever you like to do with garlic (i.e. leave it whole, slice it, mince it, halve it, or whatever) and toss that into the pot with the cabbage.
• Mince the kusbara and toss that in.
• Add the oil (however much or little you want)
• Add the pieces of meat.
• Add the spices.

Now get to work on the fulim:

• Break open the pods and pop out the ful beans.

(My mother-in-law calls this “once-shelled fulim.”)
Now comes the patchky part.

• You need to peel this soft “shell” off of them, too.

(My mother-in-law calls these “twice-shelled fulim.”)

How?

Dig in your fingernail and just scrape or peel the soft shell off. Sometimes, you can even pop the fulim out of this second shell, depending.

The plumper and larger the fulim are, the easier this will be. (That’s why when you were shopping for fulim pods, you went after the plumpest looking ones.)

• Once you have all your fulim peeled twice, then you can add them to the soup.

(You will be shocked and maybe even dismayed at how few fulim there are compared to the massive amount of pods you bought. That's okay. It's all part of the process.)

• Let the soup simmer forever (2-3 hours or more?), periodically checking to make sure there is enough water so it won’t burn.

​
The cabbage should be pretty soft. Yeah, cabbage never seems to get so soft, but it should be nice and limp.

And there you have it: your very own authentic Moroccan Pesach Seder Soup.

Tips & Variations:

• You don't need to add the ingredients in the order given. For example, nothing bad will happen if you add the meat before the garlic or kusbara, or if you add the spices before the veggies and meat.
• Add potatoes, either with or instead of the fulim. (In fact, if you can’t eat fulim on Pesach, just use this recipe with potatoes instead.)
• Use parsley or dill instead of kusbara.
• Go ahead and buy a bag of frozen fulim and use the fulim as is without shelling them a second time.
• Use a different kind of meat (meatballs, chicken, etc.)
• Omit the meat altogether to make a vegan soup.
• You can omit the oil.
• You don’t have to use such a large amount of fresh kusbara.
• You can use dried or powdered versions of the garlic and kusbara.
• I suppose you could use saffron in place of turmeric. (Maybe that was even in the original recipe way back when...)
• You don't need to start boiling the cabbage while you prepare everything else. You can also prepare everything first with the cabbage, then add the water and start cooking.
• You can prepare the fulim in advance, either partly (by shelling them out of their pods) or completely (shelling them out of their pods, then peeling off the skin).
• Fulim freeze nicely in both states of shelled-ness.
• If you don't manage to use all the fulim you bought, you can freeze them (shelled or shelled and peeled) for later or to add to your Pesach cholent.

Enjoy!

Growing up under the strong Ashkenazi influence of Jewish America, I always thought that chicken soup, gefilte fish, matzah balls, kugels, etc, were THE traditional Jewish foods.
 

But Sephardim have a whole other tradition of foods associated with Shabbat and the chagim [Jewish holidays]. And to my happy surprise, the food is generally more colorful, healthier (except for chicken soup, of course), and more delicious than its Ashkenazi counterpart (although I still love gefilte fish and a really good carrot kugel).
 
Anyway, a Moroccan staple for the major chagim is basar v'shizifim -- meat and prunes.
 
Yeah, I thought that sounded really unappetizing the first time, but the first taste changed everything and now I make it every Pesach and Shavuot and Sukkot.
 
And it's also a Rosh Hashanah classic.
 
Usually, Moroccan food isn't sweet, unless it's a dessert. But this is a delicious exception.

I'm giving you the recipe, along with its variations, but please note that even though it's pretty easy, I learned it by watching my mother-in-law and neither of us use exact measurements. So this is a Cook-on-a-Wing-and-a-Prayer recipe.
 
Basar V'Shizifim (photo at the very bottom of the post)
Ingredients:

• Meat (whatever part you like, preferably one that gets really soft while cooking)
• Prunes (however many you all like and preferably without pits)
• Oil (a nut oil is particularly nice in this recipe)
• Onions
• Turmeric (or saffron)
• Peeled almonds (a handful or more, depending....my mother-in-law insists that the almonds don't taste good unless we peel them ourselves by soaking them in hot water and then popping them out of their skins, but I think buying whole or slivered skinned almonds works out just fine)
• Cinnamon

 
Directions:
(I'm going to explain the authentic Moroccan way, but feel free to cook the meat the way you're used to, if that's easier.)

• Place the meat in a pot of water and bring to a boil, then just let it simmer for hours (being careful that it doesn't burn) or until whenever it seems soft enough.
• After it's cooked enough, put the meat in the freezer (wrapping it in a plastic bag or something like that) until it is kind of frozen, but not rock-hard because you'll need to cut it.

In the meantime, slice or chop the onions and saute them in oil until they smell and look really good.

• Wash the prunes in soapy water (to avoid bugs)
• Toss them in with the onions.
• Add however much water, like maybe just enough to cover the prunes. (Be careful that the oil doesn't snap the water back up at you.)
• Add honey, turmeric, salt, white pepper, and cinnamon in whatever amounts you find most delectable. (If you're not used to using turmeric, its smell and taste are strong and I personally don't it them pleasant, but you can't beat the color and the health benefits turmeric provides. You can start off with a teaspoon and see how that you like it.)

Let that all simmer while you deal with the meat.

• Take out your not-too-frozen meat and slice it up, being careful not to slice thin slices because you want the slices to hold their shape. (I didn't know this at first, but the whole point of freezing the meat is to facilitate nice and neat slicing.)
• Place the meat slices on the prune and onion mixture.
• Add more water, maybe just to cover.
• Let all that simmer until it looks and smells fabulous, being careful to add more water if necessary. (Maybe at least half-an-hour? I usually make it longer because I like my cooked fruits and veggies VERY soft and mushy.)
• Toast the skinless almonds either in the oven or in a frying pan, probably with a little oil. Watch and stir them well so they don't burn. (This part is only a minute or two.)
• Just before serving, sprinkle the meat-prune mixture with the toasted almonds. (If you do it long before, the almonds get mushy.)

You can serve the meat and prunes side-by-side, or in a mixture over rice or whatever.
 
Variations:

• Moroccans also use veal or lamb or chicken in place of the meat. When using chicken, you don't need to freeze it, so you can skip that whole step.
• Moroccans sometimes add dried apricots to the prunes. This makes for a pretty dish.
• Moroccans also sometimes add dried figs. (Just make sure you open them up and check them for bugs or worms first.)
• You can add wine with the meat when it's first cooking or later, with the prunes.
• If you don't mind cutting up uncooked meat, you can just do that at that beginning and skip the freezer step.
• You can leave the prunes (or dried apricots or dried figs) whole or cut them up.
• You can change the order written here and place the meat slices on the onions and THEN add the prunes and spices and water.
• You can leave out the salt and pepper and turmeric, if you wish.
• You can substitute the honey for sugar, brown sugar, or molasses -- or just leave out the sweet stuff.
• You can substitute the almonds for any other kind of nut -- or just leave them out.
• You can substitute the cinnamon for nutmeg or any other spice you like -- or just leave it out.

Feel free to play around with this dish and fine-tune it to the tastes of yours and your family's.

Chag Sameach & Shanah Tovah!

As a young boy in Casablanca, Simo Sabach fell in love with the sea. What started out as a childhood hobby turned into a livelihood as Simo caught and sold fish for a living. In the early Sixties, he moved to Eretz Yisrael with the intention of continuing his beloved occupation on this side of the Mediterranean.

But the agency clerks told him they were sending him to Kiryat Gat.

“Is there a sea there?” he asked.

“Surrrrrrrrrrre, there’s a sea there!” they answered.

There isn’t.

But the sea laps at the beaches in nearby Ashkelon.

So Simo managed to get a truck ride regularly to Ashkelon. While the other passengers went swimming, Simo went fishing.

But to support his wife and five children, he needed to work in the Ligat textile factory in Kiryat Gat.

Finally, Simo reached a point where he could quit the factory and dedicate himself to the sea and its fish. Along these lines, he opened a store called Hayam V’Ani 1 – The Sea and Me 1 – which sold fishing and camping equipment. Near the city shuk, he then opened Hayam V’Ani 2 – The Sea and Me 2 – and has been selling fish (and dispensing fish preparation advice and tips) there ever since. He’s known as “Simo Hadayag – Simo the Fisherman” and sports a skipper’s cap.

But Simo not only sells fish. He and his wife, Zahava, specialize in fish dishes. It looks like he also opened a kosher fish restaurant there, but I couldn’t see what hechsher.

Simo says, “My joy is to see people leave here with a smile and return happily because of the friendly service and the love for fish and people.”

Fortunately for us, Simo produced a book of fish recipes called Hayam V’Ani 2 (which is where I got all this biographical information from), which includes jokes, stories, tips, recipes, and lots of descriptive photos.

I always liked fish okay, but after a fish-connoisseur gifted us Simo’s book, I started making all kinds of fish every day: Moroccan-style tuna, Moroccan-style perch, chreimeh, cooked-then-roasted carp, fish balls (with or without potatoes), broiled or grilled fish, fried fish, stuffed fish, baked salmon, fish and couscous, fish sauce, caviar, and even Moroccan-style gefilte fish!

Simo's recipes have made me a fish lover.

Simo’s book is in Hebrew, but because most of the words repeat themselves, once you know the vocabulary, you can follow the book just fine.

Here is the basic vocabulary:
(Sorry the Hebrew isn't in Hebrew letters, but stuff starts getting wonky when I mix the languages.)
agvaniya – tomato
batzal – onion
chofen kusbara ketzutza – a bunch (a handful pre-minced) of minced cilantro
gamba aduma – red bell pepper
kamon – cumin
kimel – caraway seed
pilpel adom matok – sweet red pepper
pipel charif – hot pepper
pilpel lavan – white pepper
resek agvaniyot – tomato sauce
shemen – oil
shinei shum ketzutzot – minced garlic cloves

ad sheh hamayim mitadim – until the water evaporates
l’hanmich et ha’aish – lower the fire
lifros – to slice
litagen – to fry
l’atof – to slather
michseh – lid
parus – sliced
reticha – boiling

And that’s most of it.

You don’t need to follow the recipes exactly and can substitute or add and eliminate according to your preferences, just making sure you adjust water amounts and so on.

Simo has no idea I’m a fan or even that I exist.

Hayam V’Ani 2 is located in Hashuk Hechadash 118, Kiryat Gat.

Simo can be reached at or at (08) 688-9568 for deliveries and orders (and I guess if you also want to know where to buy his recipe book and which kosher certification he uses).

Fish Translations
Here are some of the different fish Simo uses in his recipe book:
(I am 95% sure of the translations, but not 100%. Apologies for any errors.)
amnon/musht – tilapia
bakala – hake
barbonia – red mullet
bass – sea bass
betzei dagim – caviar
buri – gray mullet
dag moshe rabbeinu – plaice
denis – sea bream
forel/truta – trout
karpion – carp
kasif – silver carp
lavrak – striped bass
lokus – white grouper
musar – red drum
musar yam – corvina
nesichat hanilus (or just nesicha) – Nile perch
sardinim – sardines
sargos – zargoza
tuna – tuna

Throwing a bunch of Simo’s tips and recipes together gave me this delicious and attractive one-pot meal of tuna steaks and potatoes. (Because I tend to cook by sight, smell, and mood – as opposed to measurements – this isn’t an exact recipe, so be forewarned.)

Tuna Prep:
Most Israeli fish sellers recommend marinating tuna steaks in a bowl of water with lemon slices, maybe with baking soda also, for at least twenty minutes.

The Moroccan way to prepare any fish for cooking is to marinate the fish in salt and vinegar (or lemon juice) for hours and then to set the fish over a strainer to drain for hours (for convenience, this is often done over night).

• But you can eliminate all the prep; it will still turn out fine.

Actual Recipe:

• In a wide shallow pot, spread just enough oil to cover the bottom.
• Then make pretty circles with lots of sliced tomatoes and red bell peppers and maybe a can of crushed tomatoes. (For extra prettiness, you can also use orange, yellow, or green bell peppers.)
• You can also add a hot pepper or two.
• Then place sliced potatoes on the tomatoes and peppers, as many potatoes as you need.
• Then scatter 4 or 5 garlic cloves over it all (whole or sliced or however you like).
• Then sprinkle over everything lots of paprika, salt, some cumin, and a little bit of white or black pepper.

Note: It’s very important to know that tuna must be cooked as minimally as possible to create a moist texture. Tuna dries out super fast during cooking. Also, I personally like my vegetables mushy. So I add enough water, put on the lid, and cook everything for a really long time.

• In the meantime, you can prepare the tuna-slathering sauce with oil, water, lemon juice, minced cilantro, minced garlic, paprika, cumin, and salt.
• When the vegetables are cooked to your liking, you slather each tuna steak in the pretty red-with-specks-of-white-and-green sauce and place them on top of the potatoes.
• Check the water level.
• Watch it like a hawk, ready to flip the tuna steaks the moment they seem ready.
• Then watch it like a hawk some more and remove it from the flame the very moment the tuna seems cooked enough - its dark flesh should turn kind of white inside.

(Keep in mind whether the tuna will be later placed on an electric platter for Shabbat or will be eaten immediately, as far as cooking times go. You can cook it for a little longer if it won’t be heated later.)

And that’s it.

You can also do this without the potatoes and it freezes really well. Also, you can play around with it to your heart’s content. You can eliminate the cilantro and use parsley or dill instead – or none of them. You can use just tomatoes or just canned crushed tomatoes. You can omit the cumin or add onions.

Note: This recipe also works well for salmon and Nile perch (nesicha). Just adjust the cooking times since other fish aren't ruined by longer cooking.