In the JNF Kitchen: Grilled stone fruit with zuta sorbet

This recipe of the week comes to us from La Boite, a biscuits and spice shop in New York City owned by Israeli chef and spice blender Lior Lev Sercarz. Lior and La Boite have gained international fame for mixing spices in a unique way and selling some of the world's rarest blends. He opened his culinary superstore after traveling and studying around the globe, and dreams of establishing a cooking school in Israel's north along with JNF. Lior was one of our first guests on the JNF podcast, IsraelCast - you can hear more about his journey on that episode!

This dish was served as the dessert course in the first ever Maccabi Games Culinary Competition earlier this month. Team USA (Lior, along with Yehuda Sichel, and Lissadell Cohen) placed silver, and this dish definitely helped them get there! Grilled fruit is served over zuta and arak sorbet in a chilled soup. Here, we have a recipe for a sable cookie instead of the grissini created for the competition.

Mazel tov to Lior and team on this win! Enjoy this #RecipeOfTheWeek, and if you make any of these recipes, be sure to send a photo of your creation to teddyherzl18@gmail.com or tweet it to @JNFUSA with the hashtag #JNFfoodie. We might share it!

Serves 10

Ingredients & Directions

Chilled Soup
3 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp Borneo spice

Mix all and bring to a simmer for 5 minutes, refrigerate and fine strain. Keep cold.

Sorbet
4 cups water
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 1/5 tsp zuta leaves
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup arak (or pastis or pernod)

Combine water and sugar and bring to a simmer, then add the zuta. Remove from heat and refrigerate. Fine strain and add lemon juice and arak. Process in an ice cream machine or make a granita by freezing partially and breaking up with a fork.

Sable Cookie
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking power
1/4 tsp salt
5 tbsp chickpea flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/5 cup butter
1/4 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 3/4 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tbsp Aleppo chilies

Mix all ingredients in a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. Roll out dough between two sheet of parchment paper to ¼” thickness, freeze. Cut into 1” circles or squares and place of parchment on a baking tray. Bake at 325°F for 8-10 minutes.

Grilled Fruits
3 nectarines cut in wedges
5 apricots, cut in half
2 peaches, cut in wedges
3 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp Borneo spice
1 Tbsp olive oil

In a mixing bowl toss the fruit, honey, spice, and olive oil. Cook on a grill or grill pan (or sauté pan) until caramelized. Set aside.

Plating
In a bowl place 1 peach and nectarine slice, and one half apricot. Pour 1/3 cup of the chilled soup into the bowl. Place a scoop of the zuta sorbet on top of the fruit, optionally garnish with some sliced mint leaves and fresh berries. Serve with a few of the chickpea sables.

This post originally appeared on the La Boite blog.