Shared by Hagit Bilia
Recipe Roots: Bad Reichenhall, Germany > Haifa > Tel Aviv > Fort Lauderdale
Casablanca, Morocco > Haifa > Tel Aviv

The dishes on beloved food blogger Hagit Bilia’s table in Tel Aviv are always changing. One day, there’s a salad of purple cabbage and ruby-red strawberries, another, silky eggplant slices studded with chili slivers, and a third, a large puff pastry pie filled with cauliflower. She describes her vegetable-forward approach to food as laid back Israeli, the type of cooking that isn’t confined to tradition or her Moroccan and German roots. If she doesn’t have a specific spice in the house — not to worry, says Hagit, who is best known by her cooking persona Liza Panelim.

Haigt’s grandfather Max (left), Mother (center) and grandmother (right) in Israel in the 1950’s.

That culinary philosophy is punctuated by what she calls a “traditional course” every Friday night. No matter the season, Hagit serves a Moroccan fish recipe from her father’s family and a chicken soup studded with carrots and zucchini from her mother’s. Hagit’s first learned to make the soup when she was 10 from her mother Sarah. Despite being a long time vegan, Sarah wanted Hagit to learn to make the family recipe. She taught her how to make it with noodles, while a cousin called “aunt” Pola showed her how to roll matzo balls for a different finish.

Hagit grew up with few relatives from her mother’s family, as many perished during World War II. Pola, who was a cousin of her grandfather Max, “was like my grandmother,” Hagit explains. She showed her how to form small meat-filled dumplings called vareniki, and how to make potato and flour mixture she called kigelach that she added to pots of the Shabbat stew cholent. The food was modest, even tinged with sorrow, reflecting the family’s past, Hagit says. But, it is also food that sustains that “really goes into your bones.”

When Pola was close to 80-years-old she traveled from Israel to Florida, where Hagit’s parents now live. The family prepared the chicken soup recipe for her because, “it always makes you feel at home,” Hagit explains. Pola sat down to a bowl and proclaimed “אַ-מְחַיֶיה” (a-mechaye), saying that the soup had revived her.

Today, back in Tel Aviv, when Hagit prepares the soup for her family of six, it’s unchanged from how she learned it. “I’m not trying to be creative [with] the traditional food. I want the tradition to be tradition,” she explains. “This is our story.”

It’s one of the recipes she’s taught her children to make and shared on her blog. Hagit adds: “I always tell my children, I have no money to give you, I just have all my recipes. That is your heritage.”

Chicken Soup with Noodles

Makes: 6-8 servings
Total Time: 2 hours and 30 minutes

Ingredients
2 bone-in skin-on chicken quarters
4 chicken wings
2 carrots, cut into 1 ½ inch pieces
2 zucchini, cut into 1 ½ inch pieces
2 medium yellow onions, peeled
1 golden potato, peeled and cut in half
4 celery stalks with leaves, roughly chopped
½ bunch dill and ½ bunch parsley, tied into a bouquet with butcher's twine
1 parsley root, parsnip or celery root, peeled and cut into 1 ½ inch pieces
2 teaspoons ground sea salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
12 ounces store-bought wide or thin egg noodles

Preparation

1. Place the chicken quarters and wings into a large pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Turn off the heat and drain the water and scum from the pot.

2. Return the chicken into the pot, and add the remaining ingredients including, the carrots, zucchini, whole onions, potato, celery, dill and parsley, parsley root and salt and pepper. Cover the ingredients with enough water to reach about 1-2 inches below the top edge of the pot.

3. Place the pot over high heat and bring it to a boil. Place a lid on the pot, reduce the heat to low and cook the soup on a simmer for 2 hours.

4. Before serving, discard the parsley and dill bouquet from the soup.

5. Cook the noodles as per the instructions on the package. Add the cooked noodles into the soup immediately before serving.

6. Serve the chicken noodle soup hot.

Meatballs with Onion "Jam"

The cooking on Hagit’s Moroccan side of the family was joyful and well spiced with cinnamon and cumin. There were dishes like turmeric chicken, salads, and meatballs with caramelized onions that become almost like a jam with the addition of raisins. Hagit’s grandmother never shared her recipes with Hagit. When she was asked about a dish, Sul would give vague directions like “stir until it’s tasty,” Hagit explains. But, “I remember the flavors and the taste. And I remember the smell of her kitchen,” she adds. Overtime, Hagit was able to recreate this recipe.

Makes: 6-8 servings
Total Time: 1 hour and 30 minutes

Ingredients
For the patties/meatballs:
¾ pound ground beef
¾ pound ground chicken (dark meat)
1 teaspoon ground Ras El Hanout spice blend
¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground paprika
½ teaspoon ground turmeric
1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 yellow onion, finely chopped
1 bunch fresh parsley, finely chopped
1 tablespoon ketchup
1 egg
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup semolina flour
3 eggs, beaten

For the Onion “Jam”:
¼ cup olive oil
5 large yellow onions, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
¼ cup balsamic vinegar or 1 tablespoon pomegranate concentrate
½ cup golden raisins

For garnish (optional):
3 tablespoons roasted walnuts, roughly chopped
5 sprigs fresh parsley, chopped
3 sprigs fresh mint, de-stemmed and chopped

Preparation
1. Make the meatball mixture: Place the beef, chicken, Ras El Hanout, cardamom, cinnamon, paprika, turmeric, salt, pepper, baking soda, onions, parsley, ketchup and egg into a large mixing bowl. Use your hands or a wooden spoon to mix well until everything is combined well. Cover and refrigerate.

2. Make the onion “jam”: Place the olive oil in a wide pan or pot over medium/medium-low heat. Once the oil is hot, add the onions and salt and sweat the onions for about 10 minutes, stirring often. Add the brown sugar, balsamic vinegar, pepper, and raisins and saute the mixture for about 30 minutes, stirring often, until the onions are soft and a deep golden brown. Transfer off the heat and set aside.

3. Sear the meatballs and assemble the pot: Heat up 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a wide pot over medium high heat. Place the semolina flour on a rimmed plate and place the beaten eggs into a separate wide bowl. Take about 1 heaping tablespoon of the meatball mixture and shape it into a 2 inch circular patty. Coat the patty in the semolina flour, shaking off any excess and then dip and coat the patty in the eggs, shaking off any excess. Gently place the patty into the hot oil in the pot. Repeat and continue shaping and adding as many pattys into the pot as you can fit without overcrowding. Sear the patties on both sides until lightly golden, about 2-3 minutes per side. Transfer onto a plate and continue searing the remaining patties in batches.

4. Once all the patties are cooked, return them into the pot in a few layers (the same one that you seared them in). Add 1 ½ cups of water and evenly sprinkle the onion “jam” on top. Place a lid on the pot, reduce the heat to low and cook on a low simmer for 30 minutes until the patties are cooked through and the liquid has reduced.

5. Sprinkle the walnuts, parsley and mint on top of the meatballs, if using and serve hot. Serve with a side of rice.

Hagit's Cholent

This recipe is Hagit’s own creation, but draws on both sides of her family, using chickpeas like her Moroccan grandmother Sul and a mixture of potatoes and flour she calls kigelach like her Russian aunt Pola. Hagit worked hard on the recipe, but over time, she says, she’s learned that she can be a bit more relaxed when she makes it, knowing that after 12 hours in the oven, the dish will taste right, no matter what.

Makes: 6 - 8 servings
Total Time: 1 hour and 30 minutes + overnight soaking + overnight cooking

Ingredients
For the kigelach:
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 yellow onions, finely chopped
1 russet potato, peeled, boiled and finely mashed
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 heaping tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 eggs

For the cholent:
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 yellow onion, unpeeled and quartered
16 ounces dried barley
8 ounces dried chickpeas, soaked overnight
8 ounces dried white beans (cannellini or navy beans), soaked overnight
2 beef marrow bones
1 veal osso buco bone (or 1 more beef marrow bone)
3 pounds bone in beef shank or flanken (shoulder) cut into 2 inch sections
2 chicken or 1 turkey leg quarters bone-in skin on
6 yukon gold potatoes, cut in half
6-8 whole eggs
1 head of garlic, unpeeled and cut in half crosswise
2 tablespoons ketchup
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon silan (date honey) or brown sugar
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Preparation

1. Make the kigelach: Heat up the oil in a skillet over medium heat and sauté the onions until softened, about 8-10 minutes. Add the onions into a heatproof bowl and let them cool for about 5 minutes. Add the mashed potato, 2 cups of whole wheat flour, brown sugar, salt, black pepper, and two beaten eggs. Mix very well with a wooden spoon until combined. Shape the mixture into a round ball. Place the kigelach into the pot on top of the eggs and potatoes.

2. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees fahrenheit.

3. Assemble the cholent: Take a large dutch oven or stainless steel pot (6-8 quarts). Place 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil and the onion in the bottom of the pot. Place the barley, chickpeas and white beans in one layer (each in its own mound on a third of the layer). Place the marrow bones, ossobuco, beef, and chicken on the next layer above the barley and beans. Add the potatoes, eggs, and garlic on top. Place the kigelach on top of the potato and egg layer.

4. Make the sauce: Add 2 tablespoons of ketchup, 3 tablespoons of soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of silan or brown sugar, 2 teaspoons of kosher salt, 1 teaspoon of ground black pepper and ¼ cup of water into a large bowl. Stir the ingredients together until combined. Pour this sauce evenly into the pot with the cholent components. Add enough water on top to cover all the ingredients in the pot.

5. Bring the pot to a boil over high heat. Skim any scum that rises to the top. Place a lid on the pot and transfer into the oven. Cook for 8 hours or overnight. Check the pot occasionally and add additional water if needed to come at least halfway up the ingredients.

6. Serve hot.