Monday, January 18, 2010

Stranded in Masada!!

Here we are, a week into Jonah's visit, and it has been nothing but great adventures. We spent the weekend in Haifa, looked around there which was beautiful, but ultimately not THAT exciting. I wanted to make sure that he got to see as much of Israel in his two weeks as possible, and so we ventured to Masada - which is supposedly where the Romans attempted to bring down King Herod and his people atop the mountain, but by the time the Romans built a giant ramp, King Herod has successfully instructed all his people to commit suicide, so there was really no one to conquer, gruesome I know - I take solace in the fact that that story is probably only 50% true, if that.

We ventured to Masada, of course stopping quickliy in Ein Gedi - which is the Oasis on the Dead Sea. It really was beautiful, and although we spent our time instead of in the Oasis, on the Dead Sea, we had a really nice time and it was stunning none the less.
Jonah, here shown enjoying the buoyancy! After spending the day, tanning (January 17th, and I said tanning! Ridiculous.) We took a bus to our beautiful hostel in Masada and decided to spend the day in the hostel, resting up for our 1.5 hour hike the next day up Masada. However, nature had other plans for us - it rained all night with thunder and lightening and by the time we got up in the morning to hike, the roads in both directions out of Masada were closed, there were no buses, taxis, etc. and we were not allowed to climb the mountain!!!! We were trapped!! Our hostel was right outside the mountain so we did have a unique and amazing view, and at the end we got a bus out and were home by Dinner time!

Now! Dinner time! The most important part of Any Day :D
We found some shrimp at the near by market the other day, which was a great find, since Shrimp isn't Kosher, and it's very difficult to buy non-Kosher products in local grocery stores. So we had big plans for this kilo of shrimp we bought, however, tonight Jonah felt like a creamy pasta with Shrimp and I wanted to attempt to remake my favourite Thai dish of Tom Yom Guong Soup! (With Shrimp :) )
Jonah's pasta was very simple, and doesn't require a recipe; he heated a jar of tomato sauce in a pan until bubbling, added a healthy dollop of Phili' Cream cheese, waited until combined added the shrimp, and there you go! Cook some pasta and it looked delicious!









Now, I have to say my soup was a real REAL triumph! I thought about what flavours were in my Thai soup, having simple ingredients, I used whatever I could to imitate those flavours, it came out A)looking gorgeous B) tasting VERY similar, if no identical and C) taking only about 15 Minutes to throw together!
Lee's Tom Yom Guong Soup:
2 Cups Chicken Stock
1 Inch Grated, Fresh Ginger
4 Large Cloves, Fresh grated Garlic
Handful of full mushrooms
Half a small Green Chili -Chopped as finely as possible
Handful of Small yellow cherry tomatoes
The Juice of one Lemon - FRESH PLEASE!!! it really makes a difference...
LOTS of fresh Coriander leaves
Health splash of Soy Sauce
10 Raw, De-veined, skinned Shrimp

Boil the stock with the grated garlic and Ginger; add the Soy Sauce.
Almost right away, add the chili, tomatoes, lime juice, and half of the coriander leaves. Simmer together until everything is soft. Then, once the broth is finished, add the mushrooms so they don't soften too much, and the shrimp as to make sure they don't get overcooked! That's it! It's spicy, lemon-y, and amazingly comforting

All in all, it was an eventful two days, and exciting none the less. Accomplishments in the kitchen, to me, are the best sort of adventures anyway :) Perhaps if it hadn't been for the Masada fiasco, I wouldn't have craved this sort of comfort food, and found out how easy this favourite of mine truly is to make!


1 comment:

  1. omg i am tres jaloux! personally...i think I would have asked for a bit of both meals!! Both comforting after Masada disaster! Hope Jonah gets a chance to see it again one day!
    xo

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