♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ - This week on Milk Street, we travel to the Igra Rama restaurant in Tel Aviv.

We start with a couscous recipe, but it's prepared just like risotto.

Then we make a panna cotta with yogurt, also with some Middle Eastern spices.

And finally, we make a spicy meat pizza called lahmajoun.

Stay tuned as we explore the new cooking of Israel.

- Funding for this series was provided by the following: - For 25 years, Consumer Cellular's goal has been to provide wireless service that helps people communicate and connect.

We offer a variety of no-contract plans, and our U.S.-based customer service team can help find one that fits you.

To learn more, visit ConsumerCellular.tv.

♪ ♪ - We'd like to be the first to welcome you to Tel Aviv, where the local time is approximately... ♪ ♪ (indistinct chatter) - What a perfect day-- oh.

♪ ♪ The schedule today?

- So, I would like to take you to the Old Jaffa.

So, welcome.

Yeah, you know, we have the vegan scene, the gay scene, the beaches, the history, the food.

We have everything as a big city has, and sometimes even much more than that.

- I am serial pickler.

- So people come here, and what happens?

- (laughs) - Here we go.

- The idea was opening a table with sour food, inviting people to come and eat, drink, and tell a sour story.

I didn't dare to ask, but I really want to hear a sour story.

- I've got a lot of them.

- This is HaCarmel Market, which is the main market of Tel Aviv, of all the central of Israel.

(indistinct talking) - They say the same thing every time, l'chaim.

- We are in Igra Rama.

It's all about local food, local ingredients from the sea and from the earth and from the soul.

- So, what are some of the misconceptions, let's say, coming from the United States, about Israeli food?

In my mind, I have a...

I had a vision of Israeli cooking, which is actually totally wrong.

It's much more interesting, it's much more eclectic.

- Yeah, actually, I think Tel Aviv food scene is, like, really special.

Like, we eat fresh vegetables.

All the time, you will have salad on the table.

We eat together, you know?

We love to share, we-- not every person take a dish.

We, we call it, like, the open table.

We don't have, like, a tradition, like Italian people.

They cook for a few hundred years, but actually there is, like, food in this area 2,000, 3,000 years ago.

And in the last ten years, a lot of chefs starting to learn about it and about tradition, helping to build it.

- Jewish people have come from all over the world, right?

- Yes.

- From Russia, from Eastern Europe, and they all have very different culinary traditions, right?

So it all comes together here.

Did that meld into a national cuisine, or it's still, it was still depending upon where your family came from, or...?

- Absolutely, yes, it's meld to Israeli cuisine.

You can see people originally from Russia, schug, spicy food...

Even the shawarma and the falafel, I don't think there is one guy, girl in Israel that don't like it, you know?

Hummus, to speak about the Palestinian cuisine.

- Right.

- Coming from Africa and Arabs country, and you or everyone brings their own food.

And we learned how to do it here, you know, together, making a tradition and making a new Israeli food.

- All right, let's talk about your cooking, for example.

Let's take a dish.

The couscous was great.

- Ah, the Israeli couscous.

We're making it more like we're making a risotto, with the stock and, and butter in the end.

But the most important ingredient by flavor is, like, it's called the t'becha.

It's coming from the Tripoli kitchen, in, in Libya.

You take spinach or mango leaf, just making them inside of a oil for, like, a few hours, and we use it inside of the sauce.

Also, you have your sage and white wine, and, of course, pecorino cheese that made here, in this north of Israel.

♪ ♪ - You're a true believer, right?

- For me, when I wake up in the morning, I think about food.

When I go to sleep, I think about food.

When I go home after a long day of 12, 14 hours, I can cook a meal for my family or for myself.

For me, it's everything, you know?

When I do food, I treat it like it's the most important thing in my life, and I love it, so... - You don't know how to do anything else.

You're like me.

- Yeah.

- You're stuck.

You love it, but... - Yeah, I'm stuck, but I love it-- I work hard, but I love it, and... And there is nothing else for me, you know?

My family, to have fun, and food, food, food, food.

- Thank you very much, it's been a pleasure, and thanks for cooking for me.

- Thank you, thank you.

- It was really excellent, thanks.

♪ ♪ - You know, once in a great while, when I'm traveling, there's this little dawn of realization.

Like, "Why didn't I think of that?"

And one of those happened at Igra Rama, where they cook couscous like risotto.

And I'm going, like, "Why didn't I think of that?"

- Right?

- I mean, what a great concept.

- Pearl couscous, which is actually pasta, not a grain, so it's starchy, like arborio rice would be.

So we're basically going to just draw that starch out and make a really nice, creamy consistency.

As you would with a traditional risotto, we're starting with some onions.

They're cooking in butter with a little bit of salt and pepper.

So I'm going to add a little bit of garlic.

This is sliced garlic.

It's so much easier to prep.

It's nice and soft by the time it cooks.

You can smell it, it smells great.

- And it doesn't have a strong bite to it.

- Right, when you mince it is... - Which is what I like, yeah.

- That's when it gets really kind of pungent and aggressive.

So we're going to add the couscous here.

You're going to toast this like you would toast arborio rice.

This will take two to three minutes.

So we have some nice, toasty flavor on our couscous.

So I'm going to deglaze the pan with a little bit of wine.

(sizzling) I want to just cook this until it's almost evaporated.

You can almost see, it's already starting to get kind of creamy in there.

So I'm going to add three cups of water.

Now, usually when you make risotto, you would use chicken stock or even a vegetable stock.

We found that chicken stock was actually a little heavy, so we preferred the water here.

I'm going to add a little bit more salt... And we're actually going to cook the asparagus right in here.

But we need to give the couscous about a five-minute head start.

So I'm going to bring this to a simmer and let this go five minutes, and then we'll add the asparagus.

You can see this is already starting to get a little thicker and creamier.

It's still very al dente.

It has another probably five minutes or so to cook.

But it's time to add the asparagus, and you'll notice I have two different bowls of asparagus.

- (chuckles) - We're going to... - Yes, Lynn, I do notice there are two bowls there.

- (chuckles) We separated the stalks from the tips.

The stalks are going to take a little bit longer to cook, so we've cut these up into smaller pieces.

The stalks will go in now, and we'll cook these for about three minutes, and then we'll add the tips and let those cook for two more minutes.

So now we can add in the tips of the asparagus.

These are going to cook for two more minutes.

We want the asparagus to be really nice and tender, and we want most of that liquid to be absorbed.

So, Chris, this is al dente at this point, and we've absorbed all of that flavorful asparagus liquid.

To finish it off the heat, we're going to add a little bit of butter.

I think when you had this in Tel Aviv, you had it with pecorino cheese.

- Mm-hmm.

- We went for a little bit milder flavor, so we're using parm, and parsley.

- It does have the texture of risotto, I do have to say.

- I know-- if you would hand me the bowls... - Mm.

Mm.

Man.

Is that good!

The asparagus still has a little bit of crunch to it, which is nice for adding texture to the dish.

- I agree.

- And the couscous is not chewy, but it has texture.

So this is couscous risotto with asparagus, an idea picked up in Tel Aviv, at a small restaurant called Igra Rama, outside of the Carmel Market.

And this concept of using couscous instead of rice to make something like risotto is a great idea.

It's a little bit lighter than rice, and it's a little bit less work.

Just do it in a skillet and you're done.

So couscous risotto, asparagus, gets an A.

♪ ♪ You know, I visited Tel Aviv recently, and what I did not expect to find there was a whole new way of making panna cotta.

So we were in Igra Rama, and the chef, Aner Ben Refael, makes a panna cotta, but he uses yogurt.

The other thing they did was, instead of putting a strawberry coulis on it, they used sumac, which is sort of a tart, a sour berry, turned into a sugar syrup, so it had a really savory, lemony flavor on the outside, and a sweet yogurt panna cotta on the inside.

So we'll show you how to do it.

We're going to start with lemons.

We zested one already, and now we're going to take strips off this one.

Just try to do about eight strips going around.

♪ ♪ There we go.

This is a teaspoon and a half of powdered gelatin.

We have two tablespoons of water, and we're just going to let that sit and soften.

And now we're going to juice the lemons.

Of course, this is a lot of lemon to this, because we want that to offset the creaminess of the panna cotta.

And I'm going to need about a quarter-cup of juice out of these lemons.

So this does have a cup of cream, and to that we're going to add sugar, of course, a third a cup of sugar, two sprigs of thyme-- you want to use a lot of thyme-- and just a little bit of salt, and we're going to use four of these lemon strips.

And we're going to bring this up just to a gentle simmer, when the outside starts to bubble, just so we infuse the cream with those flavors.

Meanwhile, we're going to make the sugar syrup.

So we have a quarter-cup of sugar, half a cup of water.

We have the other pieces of the lemon peel, and we have a quarter-cup of lemon juice, which is perfect.

So add just a pinch of salt.

Bring this up to a simmer, and simmer it down till it reduces to about a third of a cup.

Now, this is the surprise ingredient, sumac.

These are small red berries.

They're lemony, they're citrusy, and then they're a little bit sour, so we'll put that in.

Meanwhile, the cream mixture has simmered.

We added the gelatin, which has been softened with the water in it, and let that cool a bit.

And pour that through a strainer to two cups of yogurt.

This has to be whole-milk yogurt, not Greek yogurt, which is too thick.

And now we're going to whisk in the zest of that one lemon, which I did, we did initially.

This yogurt's going to make the texture really creamy.

And now we're going to divide it among six bowls or ramekins.

So we're almost done.

We have three hours in the fridge to firm up.

We'll strain out our sumac-lemon sugar syrup, and chill that, as well.

It's all set to go.

Add the syrup just before you want to serve it.

It shouldn't sit on top too long.

So it has a wonderful lemony, zesty flavor from the sumac and the lemon, and the sweetness from the yogurt and the slight sourness, as well.

So sour, sweet, creamy, and tangy all together.

So yogurt panna cotta with sumac sugar syrup.

It's one of our all-time favorites here at Milk Street.

- We're going to Hummus Shlomo and Doron to meet Elad.

He's the new generation, a new way of... A new philosophy, actually, a new way of eating the hummus.

He's going to tell you about it.

- Okay.

- Okay?

Please.

Elad!

- (laughing): Hey.

♪ ♪ All right, so, welcome to Shlomo and Doron.

Shlomo and Doron is a hummus place, existed for 82 years.

I'm the fourth generation here.

For two generations, what was served here is only a bowl of fava bean stew with tahini, with a hard-boiled egg, with a little bit of lemon, a bit of spices and parsley.

This was the dish that was served here for two generations, and what I'm doing is trying to make it a little bit more funky.

♪ ♪ Here we got the Mexican.

It's hummus with a mash of frijoles, which is Mexican black beans and fava beans, chopped jalapeño pepper, pico de gallo, and on top, we have also nachos flakes, which gives the crunchiness.

- Does anyone ever say you can't do hummus Mexican-style?

- For two years, people were laughing at my face when I said we have a special dish with hummus.

- I think it's great-- I think it's great.

- Um, yeah, because... - Good for you.

- ...because you're not, you're not here, and you're not part of the tradition.

- Right.

- If you were part of this tradition, it would look very, very strange to you.

But the taste talks.

And if it's good, it's good.

You will tell me.

(laughs) Try it.

- Go for it.

- Dip in, don't be... - Oh.

- Don't be afraid, it's underneath, all the ingredients-- of course, yeah.

- Mm.

I love the fact you took something traditional and pulled in a New World take on it.

It's really great.

Mexico, the Balkans, shakshuka, falafel, it's really good.

- Thank you so much.

- Todah, todah.

- We're honored to have you.

- Thank you, thank you.

- Thank you so much.

♪ ♪ - Let's just go over here.

♪ ♪ - Hi!

- Hi, how are you?

- Hi, Chris.

- Hi, nice to meet you.

- Shira.

- So this is your place?

- Yeah, that's my place.

- How long have you had it?

- Going to be celebrating ten years in November.

- You made ten years of running a restaurant?

- We started as a hair salon 12 years ago, me and my partner, and we didn't really know how to cut hair.

- (laughs) - We... used to cut friends' hair.

And we were good at it.

And we were good at talking to people.

And so many people came and just stayed.

And we used to serve them, like, pretzel with sesame and labneh.

And after a while, when we saw that people come and sit, and said, "Why don't we open our own place that people can actually come and sit and pay for it?"

- Can I ask you a question?

- Mm.

- Is there such a thing as the Israeli taste?

Or it's such a diverse place that there's no such thing?

- I don't know if there's such thing as Israeli food, because it takes from so many places.

- Right, right.

- We're immigrants' country, like, like the States.

One of the most popular dishes here is an Indian dish.

♪ ♪ Lahmajoun is coming.

It's, it's, like, the local pizza.

Turks call it lahmajoun.

Here we call it lahma b'ajin.

It means meat on dough, on pastry.

Beef and lamb with yogurt with local leaves.

(dog barking) - Very good.

- It's so simple but it's perfect.

Yeah, that's really good.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ I have to admit I spent most of the afternoon at the Shaffa Bar, and I ate almost everything on the menu, of course.

But there was lahmajoun-- they have a lot of traditional dishes there-- which is essentially a spiced meat pizza.

It was delicious and we thought, "Hey, you know, it's a different way of doing pizza."

We'd bring that back to Milk Street, because it was just so good.

- And you might know, I'm a little bit dough-phobic-- I'm not a huge baker-- but this is so forgiving and so easy and really delicious that it's really helped me get over my fear of, of making dough.

So to get started, we have some bread flour-- one-and-three-quarter cups.

We also have a teaspoon and a half of instant yeast and one-and-three-quarter teaspoon of kosher salt.

So I'm just going to blend this up really quick here.

(processor whirring) We have three-quarters of a cup of whole-milk Greek yogurt.

It helps the dough stay really tender and moist.

- It also makes it easier to roll out.

It's just easier to work with, too.

- Absolutely.

And then I have a quarter-cup of water here.

And a tablespoon of honey.

Gives a little sweetness, and the yeast loves that.

And I love it, too.

I'm just going to get the motor running.

We're going to look for it to form a ball.

(processor whirring) Okay, Chris, if it's not forming a ball, we're just going to add a little bit of water.

So a tablespoon at a time is good, and I can just do that with the motor running.

(processor whirring) So you can see the dough has gathered together.

You want this to be kind of tacky and stick to the sides of the bowl.

So if it was not doing that, I would keep adding more water until we got to that point.

I'm going to get a little bench flour.

Because it is quite sticky and nice to work with.

And then you just want to knead it a few times.

And then we're going to divide it into two little balls.

And you can kind of roll it until you get a nice little ball.

I'm going to put them seam side down.

- You don't look like you have dough-phobia at all.

I mean, you're doing fine.

- ...feeling pretty smug.

So we are going to cover these with some plastic wrap, and then it's just going to hang out for, like, an hour, an hour and a half.

You're looking for it to double in size.

Now, while that happens, I'm going to go wash my hands and we're going to make our meat mixture.

It's time to make the topping.

And do you know my favorite part about this topping, besides being super-delicious?

- That would be my favorite part.

- I mean, that really is... Second-favorite?

- Okay, what is it?

Surprise me.

- You don't have to cook it.

- So you're going to put raw meat on the dough?

- I am-- don't freak out.

So we have some yellow onion, a white onion.

I'm just going to pulse this a few times to break it up.

Now we're going to add tomato paste, some drained roasted red pepper, and this really delicious spice blend of smoked paprika, red pepper flakes, some cumin, and then salt and pepper.

It's really warm, little bit spicy.

And we're going to blend this up.

(processor whirring) Now we're going to add the raw meat.

You don't want to blend it too much, because that can actually make the meat get tough.

So we have eight ounces of ground beef here, and I have to say I've made this with ground lamb, and it is equally delicious.

- Well, traditionally it would be usually lamb, right?

On the lahmajoun.

(processor pulsing) ♪ ♪ - Now, I'm just going to transfer this into the bowl, and it can hang out in the fridge while the dough continues to rise.

We still have about an hour.

♪ ♪ Check this out, Chris.

Look at these guys.

I'd like a gold star, please.

And lucky for you, there's two balls of dough here.

So, like, why wouldn't I make you do half the work?

- That's fine.

- Yeah.

I'm going to give you a little bench flour.

We're going to get these guys started on the counter, and then we'll finish him up on the pizza peel.

- Okay.

- You could also use an inverted sheet pan at home if you don't have a pizza peel.

That's what I did.

These are pretty rustic.

- Okay.

- We're looking at about, like, six by 12 inches.

- We're going to do a rectangle?

- Yeah.

- Okay.

All right, Chris, this is looking pretty good.

So not too thick.

It's a substantial dough.

So here's your peel.

Now, we want to be pretty generous with semolina flour to start, so it doesn't stick.

- Am I putting mine on?

- Yes.

- Are we putting two on at a time or one?

- No, we each have our own peel.

- Oh.

- And we put down a pizza stone, or, again, you can use an inverted baking sheet.

And we're going to slide these right onto there so it gets extra-crisp.

Now we can top them.

So you're going to start by just brushing some olive oil.

And now you're entitled to half of this, Chris.

I gave you a little offset spatula there if you want to smooth it out.

- Now, I'm leaving edges, I assume, on this, of course, like a pizza?

- I like to leave edges, yes.

Okay, do you feel good?

- Yeah, I'm good to go.

I think that's pretty good.

- All right, cool.

So, going to pop this in that oven, nine to 12 minutes, and we'll be eating pizza.

♪ ♪ - Now, I don't buy any of this dough-phobia nonsense.

I mean, it looks great.

- Thank you, Chris.

We're going to add a little bit of peppery arugula.

And I'll let you, you know, dress your own.

- You don't want to, like, mess up the spiced meat with too many greens, right?

I mean... - Right.

I mean, it's a delicate ratio.

And then this is just more of that Greek yogurt, but thinned a little bit with water.

Adds a nice little tartness.

- This is, by the way, exactly the way they served it at the Shaffa Bar in Jaffa.

- All right, Chris, since you were so smitten with my pizza, lahmajoun, we'll have mine to start.

I have no doubt that we'll make it through both of them.

- Smells great.

- Mmm!

- Oh.

I'm very happy right now.

It's perfect.

It has spice, a little bit of heat, not too much.

And the dough is crispy on the outside, but sort of soft underneath.

So, lahmajoun, which is essentially a Middle Eastern pizza.

You can find it from Istanbul all the way to Tel Aviv and Jaffa.

Spiced meat topping, either beef or lamb, on what amounts to pizza dough.

So if you'd like this recipe, all the recipes from this season of Milk Street, please go to MilkStreetTV.com.

All episodes and recipes from this season of Milk Street Television are available for free at our website, MilkStreetTV.com.

Please access our content, including our step-by-step recipe videos, from your smartphone, your tablet, or your computer.

- The new Milk Street Cookbook is now available and includes every recipe from our TV show, from authentic lasagna Bolognese and roasted cauliflower with tahini and lemon to Indian butter chicken and flourless French chocolate cake.

The Milk Street Cookbook offers bolder, fresher, simpler recipes.

Order your copy of the Milk Street Cookbook for $27, 40% less than the cover price, and receive a Milk Street tote with your order at no additional charge.

Call 855-MILK-177 or order online.

- Funding for this series was provided by the following.

- For 25 years, Consumer Cellular has been offering no-contract wireless plans designed to help people do more of what they like.

Our U.S.-based customer service team can help find a plan that fits you.

To learn more, visit ConsumerCellular.tv.

♪ ♪ - Ladies and gentlemen, we'd like to be the first to welcome you to Tel Aviv... - Welcome to Oaxaca's airport.

- Welcome to Beirut.

♪ ♪ (man speaking Hebrew) - (speaking world language) - Bonjour, je m'appelle Chris.

- We call it supa kanja.

It's the word for gumbo.

♪ ♪ - Christopher, you have to make the authentic, original cotoletta alla Bolognese for me.

♪ ♪ - So this is the Eduardo García blender.

- This is the no electricity.

♪ ♪ - Next is dessert.

- That is really good.

♪ ♪ I notice when you cook sometimes, you add a little bit of something, and then you just put the whole bowl in.

- I like to be generous with my food.

Generosity is important in cooking.

- That's true.

♪ ♪ - Can start building bridges, and food is definitely a perfect common ground.

♪ ♪ - This is a generational thing.

It's, it's something that you inherit.

♪ ♪ - Yeah, that was great.

(woman speaking Mandarin) - What was this for?

What did she say?

- You get one more chance.

- Salute.

- How is it?

He's speechless.

- I'm speechless.

That's so good.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪