Israeli Market Spices
Last night I was doing some more unpacking in my kitchen and I came across a jar that was big enough to store the spice mixture I bought at Carmel Market in Israel. They had been in the plastic bag I bought them in, and I was afraid to open it and make a mess (and lose some spice) if I didn’t have a container ready to transfer it to. My jar fit almost all of the spice mixture and because I couldn’t let any go to waste, I needed to find something to eat with it fast.
I don’t know what is in the spice mix, and the vendor didn’t speak any English, but it smelled good. Thanks to my broken Hebrew and a game of 20 questions, I was able to understand that would be good in salad, with fish, or just with olive oil and pita.
I had none of those things, but I did have some broccoli and beans with onion and garlic that I made to eat with my spaghetti squash so I tossed it in a skillet (I now have a microwave-free kitchen) with all the spices that wouldn’t fit in the jar and some of my Israeli olive oil and heated it up. I ate it with a scoop of red pepper hummus.
I need to see if one of my culinary friends can tell me what is in the spice mixture (as someone fighting allergies and congestion my whole life my sense of smell is not very smart for differentiating spices), or if one of my Middle Eastern friends knows this mixture and if it has a name.
