A Lag B’Omer Feast From the Lower Galilee

Photos by Alicia Mesry

Shared by Loren Abramovitch
Recipe Roots: Yodfat, Israel > Brooklyn

Before holidays in Yodfat, the small moshav chef Loren Abramovitch grew up on in northern Israel, families would gather to divvy up responsibilities. Community members would take on the task of building a Sukkah, preparing food, cleaning up, and planning activities for the kids, explains Loren, who now works as a chef in New York City.  

In Yodfat, it’s not just the major holidays that are celebrated together. Shabbat meals are enjoyed communally with clusters of families and neighbors gathering each week. On Thursdays, says Loren, there was always an excitement about whose home they would visit for Shabbat dinner. 

Loren (center left) pictured with his peers working on a farm in Yodfat in the 1990’s.

The community, both in and around Yodfat, left a mark on Loren. “All the time, people say ‘Tell me about your roots,’” Loren explains, thinking his heritage must inspire his cooking. His mother’s family moved from Poland to early British Mandate Palestine in the 1920s and his father’s family came from Romania to Israel by way of Cyprus in the early 1950s. “My grandmother used to make me mamaliga,” a cornmeal porridge, and other classic Romanian dishes.

Loren says, his roots lie in his village. “That’s the food I learned how to eat and cook,” he adds. Here, the cooking is distinctly Galilean, influenced heavily by the local Bedouin and falah, or Palestinian farming, communities; and terroir, hospitality, and simplicity are all revered. 

Just a 30 minute walk — or an even shorter trip by horse — from Yodfat is Goats With the Wind, a famed goat cheese farm, run by family friends Dalia and Amnon. The couple would invite Loren and his family for meals and slaughter an animal for the occasion, serving it alongside a spicy tomato salad or a dish of eggplant, cilantro and pomegranate. “I feel gifted because not a lot of people have access to this quality when they’re very young” explains Loren. As Amnon and Dalia cooked, Loren says “my eyes were filming.” 

He also remembers childhood trips to visit Bedouin and Palestinian neighbors where he was offered tea and fresh labneh as he watched a cook make fresh pita and learned a particularly warm approach to hospitality. “That’s the biggest gift that I could get from there,” he explains. 

A local neighbor harvesting beets in Yodfat in 1984.

In the lower Galilee (and across Israel), fire and enjoying time outside cooking over an open flame is central to the culture, says Loren. Like other children in Yodfat, Loren started cooking outside when he was young, including at the springtime celebration of Lag B’Omer, which is marked in Israel with bonfires. Friends would use a phone/intercom system that linked homes in Yodfat and conference in others to plan the meal. “Every kid had this kind of mission — what he needs to bring from home,” says Loren. Someone would bring potatoes, another tea or ingredients to make pita the way they learned from Bedouin cooks. Together, they would prepare a meal in the flames.

This spring, we asked Loren to recreate a Lag B’Omer meal, inspired by his childhood, in his Brooklyn backyard. Sweet potatoes are seasoned with sage, garlic, and butter, and Yukon Golds are stuffed with spinach and cheese. Pita is finished with fresh zaatar, butter, and sea salt, while beets are charred and served with sourcream alongside chubeza (mallow) fritters with sheep's yogurt. 

Like the food he was raised on, the recipes Loren shared with us rely on simple preparations, the best of ingredients, and a connection to the past. “When you come up with a really really really good recipe — or dish — it has to have something [from] your past,” says Loren.

Fire-Cooked Potatoes Stuffed with Spinach and Cheese

Makes: 6 servings
Total time: 1 hour and 45 minutes

Ingredients
⅓ cup olive oil
3 bunches scallions, chopped
2 large bunches spinach, chopped
3 hard boiled eggs, cooled and roughly chopped (optional)
½ lemon, juiced
1 tablespoon kosher salt, plus more for assembly
9 Yukon gold potatoes
4 ounces Tzfat cheese or sharp cheddar cheese, sliced into ¼” - ⅛” thin pieces

Preparation
1. If not cooking in a fire, preheat the oven to 500 degrees. 

2. Heat ⅓ cup of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat on a stove or over a fire. Add the scallions, and cook for 5 minutes, until they begin soften. Add the spinach and saute until wilted. Remove from the heat and let cool.

3. Once cooled, add the eggs (if using), 1 tablespoon of salt, and lemon juice. Mix to combine and set aside.

4. Slice the potatoes in half lengthwise. Using a spoon, scoop out the middle from each half, leaving ½” of the potato inside the skin. Save the scooped out potato pieces for another use. 

5. On one half of each potato, sprinkle salt, then fill it with ⅓ cup of the scallion and spinach mixture. Take the other potato half, sprinkle it with salt, and press 1 slice of cheddar into the bottom. Close the halves tightly, and tightly wrap the potato with foil.

6. If cooking with a fire, tuck the potatoes into the bottom center of the bonfire and cook for about 1 hour until charred on the outside and tender on the inside. If using an oven, transfer the potatoes to a sheet tray and roast in the oven for 1 hour to 1 hour and 30 minutes, until fork tender and browned on the outside. Unwrap and serve immediately.

Fire-Cooked Sweet Potatoes Stuffed with Sage and Butter

Makes: 4-6 servings
Total time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients
6 sweet potatoes
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 bunch fresh sage
Kosher salt

Preparation
1. If not cooking in a fire, preheat the oven to 500 degrees.

2. Slice each sweet potato in half lengthwise. Using a knife, carefully slice 2 small ⅛” trenches along the inside lengths of each sweet potato. On one half of each sweet potato, sprinkle salt, then spread 1 tablespoon of butter across the entire length of the sweep potato. Press 3 sage leaves into the butter. Sprinkle the other half of the sweet potato with salt, and press the halves together to close tightly. Wrap each sweet potato in foil.

3. If cooking with a fire, tuck the potatoes into the bottom center of the bonfire and cook for about 1 hour until charred on the outside and tender on the inside. If using an oven, transfer the potatoes to a sheet tray and roast in the oven for 1 hour to 1 hour and 30 minutes, until fork tender and browned on the outside. Unwrap and serve immediately.

Charred Beets with Sour Cream

Makes: 4-6 servings
Total time: 1 hour, plus cooling

Ingredients
6 beets
Sour cream for serving
Olive oil for serving

Preparation
1. If not cooking in a fire, preheat the oven to 500 degrees.

2. Wrap each beet in foil.

3. If cooking with a fire, tuck the beets into the bottom center of the bonfire and cook for about 1 hour until charred on the outside and tender on the inside. If using an oven, roast for 60 minutes until the beets are easily pierced with a knife and browned on the outside. 

4. Remove from the oven and unwrap. Once cool enough to handle, peel and cut into 1-inch pieces. Serve with a dollop of sourcream and a drizzle of olive oil.

Fire-Cooked Pita Stuffed with Zaatar and Garlic

Makes: 12 pitas
Total time: 3 hours

Ingredients
For the dough:
3 ⅔ cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ cups water
4 teaspoons kosher salt

For the filling:
2 bunches fresh zaatar or oregano leaves (about 2 cups)
1 garlic clove, grated
½ tablespoon ground aleppo pepper
½ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ cup olive oil

Preparation
1. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour and water with your hands until it becomes a shaggy dough, then knead it in the bowl for 7 minutes until it comes together to form a sticky dough. Cover the bowl with a towel or plastic wrap and rest for 10 minutes.

2. Add the salt, and knead again for 5 minutes. Cover and let it rest for 1 hour.

3. Turn out the dough onto a clean surface, and divide it into 12 equal pieces. Lightly flour the surface, and roll each portion into a ball. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured sheet tray, loosely cover and rest for 30 minutes.

4. Make the filling: add the zaatar or oregano, aleppo pepper, salt, garlic to a small bowl. Add the oil, and mix to combine.

5. Preheat a large cast iron skillet or griddle over medium heat on a stove or over a fire.

6. On a floured surface, roll out the pitas: Work with one piece of dough at a time, and keep the unused dough covered to avoid drying out. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough into a 6” circle, about ⅛” thick. Then using your hands, gently pick up the dough with your hands and shift your hands along all the edges of the dough, allowing the gravity to stretch the dough as thin as it can get without breaking. Evenly spread 1 tablespoon of the filling across one side of the dough, then fold it in half to make a semicircle shaped pita. Press down and seal the edges.

7. Cook the pita in the skillet for 4 minutes on each side, until the dough is browned and crispy. Transfer to a cooling rack, and repeat with the remaining pitas. Serve warm or at room temperature with yogurt and a drizzle of olive oil.

Mallow and Scallion Fritters

Photos by LEV.

Makes: 4 servings
Total time: 30 minutes

Ingredients
2 bunches mallow or dandelion greens or swiss chard, stemmed and roughly chopped
1 bunch beet tops, stemmed and roughly chopped
1 tablespoon kosher salt
3 eggs
1 cup olive oil

Preparation
1. Add the greens to a large mixing bowl, and sprinkle with salt. Massage gently until the greens begin to wilt. Squeeze out the excess liquid from the greens in batches and transfer the greens to a new bowl. Add the eggs and mix well to combine.

2. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium high heat over a stove or open fire. Scoop 2 tablespoons of the fritter mixture and form it into small disk-shaped patties. Add the patties into the oil, and fry for 6 minutes on each side, until golden brown. Transfer to a paper towel lined plate. Repeat with the remaining mixture. 

3. Serve the fritters hot or at room temperature with sheep’s milk yogurt.