Miriam Kresh: Israeli food writer and online cooking coach (Judean Rose)

Miriam Kresh was 17 when she learned to make rice by her mother’s side, in the style of Latin America. Producing the perfect bowl of rice, each grain separate and with the right amount of bite, was for Miriam a revelatory process. The cook needs only to follow the age-old steps, step by step, for flawless results. Miriam did just that, following the steps as she stood alongside her mother, cooking rice. It was in those moments that Venezuelan-born Miriam Kresh, a food writer, cook, and cooking teacher, first encountered kitchen magic.

In the years following that first pot of rice, Miriam, now 70, moved from place to place, living in the United States, Venezuela, and Brazil before making Aliyah in 1976. Today, Miriam Kresh makes her home in Petach Tikvah, Israel. The food she cooks, the recipes she develops and teaches, all reflect her journey, and all of it is delicious.

You don’t have to imagine it—tucked into the following Q&A is a mouthwatering recipe from Miriam’s Kitchen. Miriam Kresh is gracious like that.

Varda Epstein: What can you tell us about your background? You come from an intriguing mix of cultures. 

I was born in Venezuela, of an American dad and Nicaraguan mom. I lived in the States for ten formative years, during which English became my most important language. My parents were cultured, cosmopolitan people who enjoyed cooking and eating foods from many different cuisines. Mom had a fine palate and a fine hand in the kitchen. While cholent and chicken soup were Shabbat standards, she would occasionally produce a sumptuous dish like duck a l’orange. She set a high standard in home cooking, and I’ve done my best to keep it.

Varda Epstein: Who taught you how to cook? How do those early cooking adventures impact on your cuisine and your methods, today? I remember you once telling me that you always have to have a tomato in there, somewhere!

Miriam Kresh: Yes, I love a juicy tomato, but I was probably talking about garlic. I love garlic, to the point where my family and friends make fun of it.

My mother taught me the first dish I ever cooked, when I was age 17. It was rice, Latin American style. Mom taught me to first toast the rinsed, drained rice in a little oil, then add salt and crushed garlic. Next, to stir in boiling water, and cover the pot tightly. Cook at very low heat for 20 minutes until all the water has been absorbed and each grain is separate and tender. Rice made this way goes through frying, seasoning, and steaming. This taught me multiple lessons, not only about flavor, texture, and timing, but also about focus. The essential lesson was to pay attention. Cooking has taught me a lot about mindfulness.

Once I understood that cooking involves a flow of successive stages, learning other dishes was natural. As I became more confident and discovered a certain culinary talent, I made a point of learning from other cooks whose food I admired. Having kept kosher now for 50 years, I’ve learned to adapt certain well-loved dishes from treif to kosher. One example is Brazilian feijoada, a stew of beans and about four kinds of pork. I found substitutes and developed a kosher feijoada that’s pretty darn good, if I say so myself. The recipe was published on the Forward and picked up by the NY Times, who linked to it.

I’ll talk to anyone about food and cooking, and shamelessly solicit recipes. As a food writer and reporter, I’ve had great opportunities to learn from professional chefs. 

Eggplant Stuffed with Bulgur and Herbs (photo: Miriam Kresh)

Varda Epstein: I remember you won the contest for the cooking column at “Green Prophet.” Do you still write there? Where else have your cooking columns appeared? 

Miriam Kresh: I still write for Green Prophet. At the moment, I’m working on a review of The Eucalyptus Cookbook, by Moshe Basson, chef of the famous Jerusalem restaurant bearing that name. The review should appear in Green Prophet by the end of this month (September 2024). My first food writing was self-published: a blog I used to run named Israeli Kitchen. An online magazine called “From The Grapevine” bought the blog – domain, content, and all. I was ready to move on anyway and welcomed the opportunity to sell it. Subsequently, they sold their content to a different online magazine, Jewish Unpacked. My recipes are still online there, and I still get fan mail
from there. I understand that some individual now runs a blog under the name Israeli Kitchen; they never asked permission to use the name.

I’ve had recipes and articles published across the English-language Jewish spectrum, from left-leaning the Forward to the Haredi HaModia. I wrote a chef interview column at the Jerusalem Post for several years, besides features on non-cooking-related issues. Many of my freelance articles appear across the Net. Sometimes I Google my own name and am surprised to find my work copied onto sites I had no idea existed. That’s the way it is.

Roasted Butternut Squash with Shallots and Parmesan (photo and recipe: Miriam Kresh)

 

RECIPE: Roasted Butternut Squash with Shallots and Parmesan

You can easily make this recipe vegan by omitting the cheese and adding 1 tablespoon Balsamic vinegar to the olive oil indicated in the recipe.

Some prefer to eat butternut squash with the peel on. It’s perfectly edible, with a crisp/tender texture.

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

·        4 cups butternut squash, peeled and chopped into 1″ cubes

·        3 medium shallots or 1 large red onion, peeled and cut into medium-sized chunks

·        3/4 cup white flour

·        1/2 teaspoon baking powder

·        1 teaspoon finely chopped dried rosemary, or dried thyme, or za'atar

·        1/2 teaspoon salt

·        1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

·        1/3 cup grated Parmesan, Kashkeval or other aged cheese

·        2 large garlic cloves

·        1/3 cup olive oil

Directions:

1.      Preheat oven to 400° F (200° C).

2.      Put the flour and dry seasonings, except the cheese, in a large bowl.

3.      Dredge the vegetables in the flour/seasoning mixture. Place the pieces on a parchment- lined baking sheet, leaving a little space in between the pieces.

4.      Sprinkle the cheese over the vegetables.

5.      Crush the garlic. Scrape it into a bowl with the oil (and the Balsamic vinegar, if doing this vegan). Drizzle the garlicky oil over the vegetables.

6.      Bake for 30-40 minutes. The butternut squash should be soft and caramelizing slightly.

Varda Epstein: You’re also a dab hand at descriptive writing, with an ongoing series on Substack. Tell us about that, if you would.

Miriam Kresh: I write fantasy fiction, something I’ve always wanted to do, and now have time for. The stack is named Fantastical Fiction. I do my conscientious best to write quirky stories about strange people and strange events…but can’t seem to keep food out of them. Recently I published a short story where a woman goes out to buy butter and meets the Mad Hatter from "Alice in Wonderland."

Varda Epstein: Why did you make Aliyah? What is your general philosophy about Aliyah? Is it something you feel every Jew should do?

Miriam Kresh: My family are Zionists from way back. My Dad, as a youth, did fundraising among American Jewry to buy weapons for the Hagana. My family weren’t 100% religiously observant, but there was always Shabbat, chagim, Hebrew lessons, shul: we were part of the Jewish milieu, wherever we lived.

I made Aliyah from the conviction that Israel is the place where a Jew should live. I was living in Caracas, Venezuela again, in my early twenties. It was a peaceful and prosperous country then. No noticeable antisemitism. The Jewish school had functioned for decades and was still going. Chabad had established a kindergarten and a Kollel. One building in a middle class part of Caracas housed the various youth groups, the Jewish Agency and the Israel National Fund. There was a Jewish social center, a handsome building in a good part of town. A Jewish bookstore, two kosher butchers, at least three shuls that I can remember.

All that’s gone now, under a communist dictatorship. But I couldn’t know that would happen. Nobody could.

What I did know was that I was out of place. The Jewish kids my age were away at university, often abroad, or were getting married. I was a footloose single, feeling empty. I became religiously observant in a search for meaning; became close to other religious families. But I wasn’t fitting in, either too old to be with the cool kids or too young to be comfortable among the marrieds. The more I looked around, the clearer it became that I needed to live not just with Jews, but in Jewish society. To prepare for Aliyah, I read up on Jewish and Israeli history and closely followed current events in Eretz Israel.

Then Entebbe happened. I made a bargain with God: get those Jews home safe, and I’ll make Aliyah. As we know, Yonatan Netanyahu tragically lost his life in that rescue mission; somehow it hardened my determination to get to where being Jewish matters most.

So here I am, all those years later. Now, should every Jew make Aliyah? Historically, Diaspora Jewry has supported Jews in Israel since ancient times and until today. We still need that support. What I say is, yes, send us all kinds of support, we need it – and send your children.

I hope the time comes when every Jew will live here. But doubt it’ll happen in my lifetime. On the third hand - who knows? 

Swiss Chard Stuffed with Potatoes (photo: Miriam Kresh)

 

Varda Epstein: What made you choose Petach Tikvah as your home? What do you like about this city?

Miriam Kresh: I lived for years in Jerusalem, then in Safed. I moved to Petach Tikvah with my late husband and youngest daughter because my aging parents lived here and needed me. My tsadik late husband promised we’d move to be near them when the time came, and it came. Now my folks are gone, and I comfort myself knowing that we were there for them till the end.

Petach Tikvah is a butt for jokes around the country, regarded as an industrial town with no night life, sort of a drab suburb of Tel Aviv. But there are important schools and hospitals here, and between my parents’, my husband’s, and my children’s needs, not to mention my own, I’ve been well served here.

There’s city development with a new eco-consciousness going on all the time. There’s a big movement of hi-tech businesses to Petach Tikvah. The shuk (open-air market) is open every day. The mayor, Rami Greenberg, is accessible and menschlicht. And transportation is good. Don’t mean to sound like a promotional brochure, here… But Petach Tikvah has been good to me. 

Varda Epstein: Aside from writing about food and cooking, you’ve also taught classes. I remember you teaching virtual cooking classes during the pandemic. It was so chill and pleasant. A really lovely break from the fear and isolation. Can you describe how that worked for our readers? What are some of the menus you cooked in tandem with your students?

Miriam Kresh: I began the Israel Cookalong with a clutch of international participants - friends, and friends of theirs. We were all so lonely and bored, being stuck at home. We cooked together in real time, via Zoom, every Sunday. It was safe and fun, like having a party in the kitchen every week. And each had a delicious fresh dish by the end of the session. That version of the Cookalong had a good run of three years. Some people came and went, but a core group formed. We’re all still good friends and stay in touch.

My focus is on Israeli/Mediterranean/North African dishes like humus and majadra (spiced lentils and rice), expanding to fancier foods like artichoke bottoms stuffed with meat and pine nuts, and baklava. I teach a lot about Israeli foodways. My students enjoyed learning about typical culinary herbs and spices - like za’atar, the fresh herb, and za’atar the spice blend, which is based on it.

There was one month when I taught classic Ashkenazi cooking. Blintzes, knishes, kugel, cholent. The week we cooked cholent, my Japanese-American student in Ohio served it to guests. She said they loved it! You don’t have to be Jewish to enjoy cholent.

I’m proud of having taught the group a different world of food. But I’m happiest that one nervous participant who thought she’d never master cooking gained the confidence to cook, and cook well. I love knowing that she gained an important life skill through the Cookalong. 

 

Varda Epstein: Tell us about your latest foray into the world of cooking and sharing about food. What are you cooking these days, and with whom?

Miriam Kresh: My new project is a Cookalong for English-speakers in Israel. It’ll be via Zoom, twice a month, on Thursdays. The sessions will be one hour long, sometimes an hour and a half if we’re cooking more than one recipe, or if the recipe is more elaborate than usual.

By popular request, this Israeli Cookalong will be vegetarian, at least in the beginning. That might change, according to the wishes of the group.

The sessions are for pay, but you don’t subscribe to X number of sessions. You just choose which Thursday’s menu appeals to you, and register ahead of time. I send out the monthly menus the first week of the month, and email the recipes by Sunday to give participants time to shop.

I also give private cooking classes, via Zoom. These one-on-one sessions are great, because you get 100% of my attention, and cook the recipes in your own kitchen with me coaching. 

Tajine of Sweet Potatoes and Prunes (photo: Miriam Kresh)

Varda Epstein: What’s your favorite food/dish? 

Miriam Kresh: Now that is a question. There are foods I’ll gladly eat every day, like black beans and rice as my Mom used to cook them. Then I have a weakness for lamb. I’d say my favorite is a festive tajine of lamb cooked in the Moroccan way, with dried fruit, and funky spices like saffron and cumin. But I couldn’t eat it every day! Or even every month. That’s a dish for birthdays and holidays. 

Miriam Kresh

Varda Epstein: What’s next for Miriam Kresh?

Miriam Kresh: The new Israeli Cookalong! Can’t wait to begin. Spoiler alert: the first class of the year will be salmon baked in coconut sauce. While the fish is in the oven, we’ll cook turmeric rice.

I also teach a floating class where participants make homemade condiments, relishes, dips and spreads. That’s available on demand either privately or as an extra session for a group.

Betayavon (bon appetit)! 

 Contact Miriam Kresh at miriamkresh1@gmail.com for full details about the Israeli Cookalong, or to book a private class. Or WhatsApp Miriam at 050-786-7211. Outside of Israel, it’s +972 507-867-211.

---

---

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism  today at Amazon! Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.  Read all about it here!

Read More