cooking

My friend Mrs. A. made amazing sour cream enchiladas last night. I wont give you the exact recipe, I haven't asked permission to post it, but here's a variation which is just as yummy.

4 whole chicken breasts
8 medium sized whole wheat tortillas
1 12oz container of sour cream (plain greek yogurt would work here too)
2 tbsp flour
8oz shredded cheddar cheese
1 package of baby spinach- steamed
2 cups chicken stock
1 head roasted garlic (you could use raw- 4 cloves very finely chopped)

Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper. Place on a baking sheet and roast in a 350 degree oven for 20 min or until just cooked through (they are going to bake again). Heat your chicken stock in a saucepan with your garlic. When just boiling, add the sourcream and the flour, turn the heat WAY down and season with salt and pepper. Wisk together until smooth.
In a bowl, shred the chicken, add the spinach and the shredded cheddar (reserve 1/4 cup). Take a tortilla and place it on a plate, ladle some of the sour-cream sauce onto it and flip to coat. Fill the tortilla with a generous handful of the chicken mixture, roll and place in a baking dish.Repeat with other tortillas until the pan is full. Pour any leftover sauce over the enchiladas, top with the reserved cheddar. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes. Top with chopped fresh cilantro and spring onions. Serve with salsa.

Its not much to look at, but it is tasty.
On the heels of yesterday's total washout of a supper (I hit a personal nadir with scrambled eggs and toast...) I decided I needed to redeem myself and make something delicious which everyone would/ could eat... Yeah, right.
Instead, I had some nice lamb shoulder cubes and decided to make Lamb Rogan Josh. If you Google this dish, the cut of the lamb varies wildly from a bone in shank to the shoulder cubes but I think I quite like it as a stew rather than trying to deal with it as a roast with the bone-in.
one white onion
two cloves garlic
1 thumb of ginger (suddenly American ginger is unavailable here. we have only the Chinese kind and I'm leery of eating stuff from China... so I substituted 1 generous tsp. of powdered).
1 tsp. turmeric
1 tsp. curry powder
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. garam masala
1/2 tsp. indian chili powder ( I skipped this because of the kids...)
1 lb lamb shoulder cubes
1 16oz can chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup full-fat plain yogurt (low fat is possible, just not as good)
cilantro
salt and pepper to taste.

Put your onions in a heavy saucepan with about 1tbsp neutral oil and cook them until browning. Add your meat and spices. If I get meat from the supermarket the same day as I'm cooking it, I put it into a dish with the spices ahead of time, if not, just add the meat and spices to the onions and cook until meat is beginning to brown on the outside. Add the tomatoes and cover. Cook for about 45-50 min on low until meat is very tender. About 10 minutes before serving, blend in the yogurt, avoid boiling it or it will break and you wont get the creaminess you want. Stir in cilantro, salt and pepper to taste just before serving.
Serve over basmati rice with a side of steamed veg. Mostly accepted by the children. Only baby Chuck actually liked it.

Ice Cream Cake is one of those things that seems like it would be difficult to make, but is actually incredibly simple and incredibly versatile.

We are full on Dubai Ramadan blobs. Its scorchingly hot outside. Most days, it isn't really possible to go outside until around 4pm. We get up, the kids play on the Wii until lunch, then we hang out. Friends start dribbling in as the afternoon wears on, other bored moms and kids for coffee and tea.
I'm glad of the company and I like that people feel comfortable dropping by my house, BUT, I do get kinda tired of figuring out what to serve them.
All the snacking isn't great for the vegan program either...

Fruit salad is really what I should be eating. But instead we're downing jar after jar of nutella slathered on 'Wholesense' digestive biscuits, poundcakes which the people from the Little Island (England) seem so fond of these days, and of course the ubiquitous arabic bread and hummus. We've got Swedes bringing us odd jars of mushrooms that they DEFINITELY DONT SELL AT IKEA and madeira soaked, nut and chocolate covered marzipan bars (heavenly).

I really don't know where to begin to return to my healthy eating program. I know in about two weeks all this snacking is going to cost me too...

Valentines Song...

I wanted to make a super fudgy chocolate pound cake for my DH yesterday. I think I got pretty close... I used Nigella Lawson's recipe for Madiera cake as the basis, but substituted chocolate for the lemon and made a few other changes as well...

150g salted butter (softened)
200g sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 eggs
100g best-quality cocoa powder + 2tbsp. neutral oil
200g + 3 tablespoons self-rising flour

Pre-heat oven to 170. Butter and Flour an 8" loaf pan. Cream together butter, sugar and vanilla. Blend the cocoa with the oil in a small bowl. When the cocoa mixture is smooth, add this to the butter & sugar mixture.
Add the eggs one at a time with a tbsp. of flour, blending well after each addition (I'm not sure why this is important, except one cake I made without doing it was the consistency of a brick...).
When the eggs are added in, stir in the remainder of the flour just until well incorporated.
Fold the mixture into your pan and bake for around 35 - 50 minutes. Do NOT over cook. After 35 min, check very carefully every five minutes.
Cake is done when a toothpick comes out with just a bit of crumb on it (clean = overdone).
Its a very buttery cake so refrigerate it. Serve cool, topped with whippped cream.

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If you were a occasional reader of this blog you might get to thinking all we do around here is throw parties. Which is sorta true. Its just that if you are drunk in public you can go to jail. If you are in your car and get pulled over for drunk driving you go home or to jail (a law which I kind of applaud). Hotels here serve alcohol, but you aren't supposed to drink it and intoxication is a serious crime, while being sort of encouraged. Oh, and you can't posses alcohol without a license, which we do have but is unclear on weather or not it covers me too and if it is allowed to transport the alcohol (even from the store where you bought it).
It's all too much for me to figure out and I'm loathe to run afoul of the law here, so I'd prefer to entertain people in my home and not have to think too much about this stuff.
On Thursday, I am having a tiny party. Or possibly a big party, nobody in Dubai RSVP's, like EVAH, so it could go either way.
It also has another little wrinkle. We are supposed to go to the beach from 3 -6p and then return to my house for said party. My beloved is not here to help me with this so I need a mess of food I can make up in the morning and then just pull out of the fridge when I walk in the door... tricky business, that.
Here's what I've come up with so far: deviled eggs, a bunch of tiny tuna and chicken salad sandwiches, cheeses and French bread, vegetable platter with hummus and yogurt dips, and some tortillas with fresh salsa and guacemole.
But I'm feeling like this is very boring fare.
I thought about livening it up with caviar, something you dont see at parties that often and the lesser grades of which are really sort of reasonably priced.
What to do, what to do...

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I love Good Seasons salad dressing. My mom used it, always. It reminds me of her so I'm biased, but I find it so delicious and so versatile.
Right now, I have this huge jar of Good Seasons mixed with farmer's market pesto that I'm slathering on positively everything.
Chicken, pattypan squash, zucchini, salad, bread. Etc. etc.

Delicious as a dressing on a mozzarella and tomato sandwich.

Here's my alteration of the standard recipe.
One envelope good seasons
1/4 cup of water
a healthy splash of cider vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil
1 cup best-quality pesto (vegan, no cheese, works better in the dressing, if you can get it)
Blend it all up. Eat on stuff.

I used to think that it was MSG that made the Good, but actually, come to find out there isn't any, another bonus.

That's all for my good season's ad.

Post hurricane Irene, we are gearing up to get my sister married. It appears that all caterers in my little town believe they are Escoffier and think it is therefore appropriate to charge thousands upon thousands of dollars for food and labor. One proposed paying the waiters a little less per hour than we pay our attorney! with a mandatory 18% gratuity tacked on. Who knew so many culinary movie stars could be packed in such a small place?
And getting slowly to the point of this post, I'm doing it myself...

First up- Two Hot Appetizers....
Sundried tomato and goat cheese tartlets.
2 large logs of goat cheese
2 packages of cream cheese
4 eggs
2 8oz jars of chopped sundried tomato in olive oil
fresh herbs (marjoram and thyme, in this case...)
pepper and garlic powder (tsp. each?? to taste)
Blend all ingredients with a hand mixer, spoon into prepared puff pastry cups (c'mon I'm not THAT good...) garnish with herb leaves. Bake at 350 for around 6min, longer if freezing first. (makes 120 bite size, or 60 muffin-cup size)

Broccoli Rabi Stuffed Mushrooms
2 large heads broccoli rabi
1/2 cup prepared roasted garlic (chopped)
salt & pepper, olive oil (a lot)
1/2lb ricotta cheese (season with salt and pepper)
camembert cheese (1.5lbs)
6 LARGE boxes of button mushrooms
Chop rabi finely. In a large sautee pan, fry the rabi and garlic in oil until well mixed, and rabi are beginning to soften. Season with salt and pepper.
Spoon ricotta mixture into mushroom caps, top with rabi.
Coat the bottom of a baking sheet with olive oil and assemble the mushrooms. Bake at 375 or so for around 40 min or until mushrooms are tender. Top each with a dollop of camembert. Try to serve them before you gobble them all...

My camera seems to have disappeared in the festivities, so you'll have to imagine. I can tell you it all disappeared mighty quickly...

Sometimes, and maybe this is a condition of living in Dubai where you can literally get almost any foodstuff that exists (except black beans, there is a black bean shortage again), I forget that the easiest, simplest food is often the best tasting.

Ages ago, I saw the movie Julie and Julia. There were aspects of this movie that annoyed me, mostly the Julie part. My Tuscan response to all that existential angst is 'go a dig a ditch, you'll feel better' (I suppose preparing all the recipes in Mastering the Art of French Cooking is a bit of metaphorical ditch digging, but I digress...). I was, however, really fascinated by the story of Julia and Paul Child before she was The French Chef.

I only realized in the last two days that this story comes from the much better book My Life in France which my DH has left lying around the house at an opportune period of severe jet lag. The book bubbles over with Julia Child's particular utterly charming joie de vivre. I personally think the filmmakers should have ditched Julie altogether and just gone with the My Life in France Story.

So where is this taking me... I'm not about to begin cooking my way through any of her books, Julia wasn't homeschooling 3 and I doubt my liver could survive such an adventure. BUT I am desperate to get a hold of Mastering the Art... I've always wanted to make Daube de Boeuf and Cassoulet that didn't taste like mud and I really need to acquire some pastry skills. Perhaps a bi-monthly Julia Child dinner party? I wonder if this could be done in Dubai??

Julia Child-like scrambled eggs:
The key is patience, which I do not have, but if you can force yourself to do this slowly, the results are certainly yummy.

Heat a blob of butter in a small saute pan (about 1 teaspoon) over a very LOW burner.
GENTLY scramble your eggs in a bowl. It makes a BIG difference, do not whip them. STIR.
When the butter is bubbling and beginning to turn a little brown, pour in your eggs.
WAIT 2 minutes. Now gently stir the eggs. Watch them come together in small curds.
BEFORE they are fully cooked, pull them off the heat (they will continue to cook). Salt, pepper and serve. Julia added gobs more butter and cream at the end but I just cant bring myself to do it (protecting the liver and all...)
Quite worth the wait, something very different from my normal (and now considered icky) eggs.

Click on this for Dan Ackroyd as Julia Child- hysterical. I wonder what she thought of it?

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So we're going to Istanbul Flower tonight with a mess of friends. Sometimes, not always, but often, this particular group tends to return to our house for coffee and continued discussion of "WHAT is going to happen in Dubai???!?!?!?!" after dinner.
So I usually provide dessert. Sometimes I go to Al Reef Bakery and get the baklava selection. Sometimes I make apple crumble which is what I was thinking I might do today.
But then THIS beautiful box of arabic sesame sweets caught my eye when I should have been looking for apples. Oh man! I have been thinking about giving these things a try forever and let me tell you, they are AMAZINGLY GOOD!!!
Clockwise from 1 o'clock (click on the photo to see it in its full size sesame glory...)
1. chocolate and sesame- smooth on top and flaky in the middle
2. plain sesame- smooth throughout
3. pistachio and sesame- crispy pistachio on top, smooth sesame, then flaky sesame in the middle.
4. wafer cookie- wafer cookie rolled around fluffy sesame filling with chocolate bits (favorite!)
5. ribbon- a ribbon-y stick of sesame and chocolate sesame paste
6. sesame ribbon- smooth sesame paste ribbon
According to a friend who knows such things, you have to check the production/ expiration dates religiously. Anything more than a week old and they get stale although they are dated to be good for a year.
This is bad bad bad because I was trying to quit eating sugar. Not today.

I'm sold on the whole mostly vegetarian thing and I might try to quit dairy products altogether.
Tonight the boys wanted a treat after their dinner of sesame buckwheat noodles, steamed vegetables and seared tofu (which they ate!). So I made these nearly healthy chocolate chip cookies.

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup sesame butter
1 egg
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup oat bran
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Cream together butters and sugar, add eggs and vanilla, beat well with a spatula. In a small bowl, combine dry ingredients and fork sift. Add the dry to the wet ingredients and blend well. Add chips. Roll dough into a roughly 2" thick loaf. Slice into 2 doz. cookies. Bake for about 15 minutes or until dry. They expand a bit, but not too much so watch them carefully for done-ness. They get nice and crispy when cool.

Love cold sesame noodles when the weather is hot. So many recipes for them are really peanut noodles so I decided to try sesame tahnini instead to amp up the sesame flavor. I also wanted something that was a bit like a salad with noodles in it...

Cook one bunch soba noodles according to package directions.
In a medium size bowl, combine:
1 tbsp. sesame tahini
1/2 tsp. rice wine vinegar
1/2 tsp. toasted sesame oil
one finely-chopped clove of garlic
one finely-chopped small thumb of ginger
a splash of sriracha or other hot sauce
2 tbsp. warm water
1 tsp. toasted sesame seeds
2 tsp. soy sauce

Mix noodles with the dressing. Then toss with:
1/2 cup blanched green beans
1/2 cup julienned cucumber
1/2 cup shredded lettuce
1 generous bunch of pea-shoots, fresh cilantro and chopped
spring onions

We stayed around the corner from a cool little hotel (in a not-so cool hotel, but that's another blog altogether...) with a great restaurant.

We were leery about eating there at first because it is located directly across from the Four Seasons Hotel ($650 night for a double...) and we figured the bill would kill us.

That and some very serious looking very white people couldn't hide their distress at the appearance of our gang. However, it's Turkey and the people running the restaurant were more than happy to have a gang of little guys in their place. The mayonnaise winced through their meal each time the children spoke or were kissed on by the waitress but happily, they were done pretty quickly.

As it turns out the restaurant is rather reasonable and quite delicious. Great service MORE than made up for the dramatics of the clientele.

By this juncture in our trip both the husband and I were feeling the effects of all that grilled meat so we opted for lentil soup and to share a platter of vegetarian mezze (appetizers). It was definitely high on the list of memorable meals for me.

Turkish lentil soup is made with red split lentils and is quite delicate and delicious. The recipes in every place we ate seem pretty standard but the one at this hotel was distinctive for its fresh, bright taste. Sumac differentiates this soup from other lentil soups.

Our waitress brought us a large fresh loaf of puffed crispy bread coated with sesame seeds. The appetizer plate consisted of
Cubes of eggplant roasted in olive oil and salt.
A roasted eggplant spread like Baba Ghanoush studded with pomegranate seeds.
Roasted red peppers with parsley and olive oil
Yogurt cheese with herbs
A super creamy hummus
Boiled potato seasoned with fresh herbs and oil and a
Tomato and olive pesto-like spread.

I know it all sounds rather simple, but it was perfectly delicious. Each thing simply sang with bright juicy vegetable flavors. I think the Eggplant is very different in Turkey. It is sweeter and smaller and doesn't have that nightshade bite to it. Whatever they are doing in their little kitchen, they are making some alchemy.

If you are in Istanbul, run, don't walk to this restaurant...

Today we had Mr. Dumpling's 9th birthday party! I cannot believe that this person who used to fit quite comfortably with his head in my hand and the rest of his body stretched out along my arm is 9. Really, where did the time go??

He loves sushi, he loves candy, so for his party we made candy sushi. Its very simple, silly, a little disgusting, and fun.

Make some Rice Krispie treats but instead of the six cups of cereal the recipe calls for, use 5. Spread the mixture out in a baking sheet, press it down well with saran wrap, and refrigerate for about 1 hour, you want them soft, but holding together.

Trim the edges of the treats so you have a flat sheet. On the edge of the sheet place 4 gummy worms (pref. of different colors) and roll the sheet over the worms squishing the cereal around them as you go. Cover the outside of your roll with fruit roll ups. Slice.

Take some Rice Krispie treats and cut them into squares about 1" X 3". Top each with a gummy frog or gummy fish. Attach the frog or fish to the rice using a stretched gummy worm or a bit of the fruit roll up.

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Indian food is really, relatively easy to make. At least according to my neighbor who is from S. Africa by way of Gujarat State. But she has something like 200 different spice powders on a rack from Ikea hanging by her stove. I have six or eight plus some garlic powder I bring in from Italy when I can. I do love Indian food though. This causes me to resort to the Indian Pavilion in the supermarket shopping center.
A medium sized restaurant tupperware container of Tadka Dahl will set you back about 21dhs. or $5.72 This is, in point of fact, a wholly outrageous price for what amounts to mostly lentils and some onions. So I learned to make my own.
In a heavy bottomed sauce pan, cook one cup of split red or yellow lentils with one liter of water and two teaspoons turmeric. Add a sprinkling of mustard seeds and methi (fenugreek seeds). In a separate frying pan, sautee one onion, 4 or 5 cloves of garlic, a thumb of ginger and a green chili until the vegetables are soft. Add a tsp. of garam masala, stir well and continue to cook on low until fragrant. Add your cooked vegetables, 1/2 of a veggie stock cube and about 1/2 cup of chopped tomato (canned are ok), to the lentils. If the water has cooked off, add another 1/2 cup. Continue to cook this on low for 10-15 min. Season with salt and pepper. Serve over brown rice.
I added about a cup of finely chopped zucchini just to up the veg content. But this left T. shaking her head in disgust at me... I couldn't really taste much impact from the zucchini.

Its my husband's birthday, so we're having a party. I knew I was in trouble when I was told that the guest list was being 'tabulated'. This party was supposed to be like a party we went to a couple of weeks ago which had 4! couples, but somehow 25 people have been invited to my house tonight! I don't have a maid anymore so what the h$&# am I supposed to do here....
Man's infinite capacity for clue-less-ness kinda blows my mind, really.


My goal with the food was to avoid having to do dishes so everything was either small enough that you could just pop it into your mouth or served on a skewer or slice of bread...

Hot Snacky bits-
Hot dogs- seared in a pan, rolled up in Lebanese Flat bread with some mustard and carmelized onions. Secure with toothpicks, slice. Everyone loves these.
Chicken skewers- Marinate chicken bits in yogurt, tandoori masala, chili powder, turmeric, salt and pepper. Skewer with tomato and onion, broil.
Cheese tarts- blend soft cheese, sundried tomato, herbs, salt and pepper with an egg, scoop into muffin cups lined with puff pastry, bake. Eat.

Cold Snacky bits-
Skewer tomato, fresh mozzarella, basil leaves with a toothpick. Drizzle with oil, sprinkle salt & pepper.
Mix well drained tuna with way too much mayo, capers, chopped tomato salt and pepper. Serve on slices of French bread.
Shrimp cocktail. If you cant get horseradish for cocktail sauce, ketchup, hot sauce, salt and pepper makes an acceptable substitute.

Veggie and hummus platter
Fruit platter.

Plus some other stuff I cant remember right now...

For Birthday Cake we had a 15 layer Russian Honeycake. Spinney's sells these. They are the most delicious cake I've had, maybe ever. I decorated it with sugared currants and blackberries.
A friend who is Italian and therefore cannot go anywhere without too much food, brought a tiramisu and some Dunkin' Donuts for the children.

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Never been much of a New Year's resolution person. But I did decide that I don't want to let this blog die. Its too much fun to go back and read about what we were doing and eating at different time points. When I started this I hoped it would exist as a recipe journal for my kids, something I think is more important with the passing of my dad since he was so secretive in the kitchen... Anyhoo...

We're back in the UAE and back on the healthy program after a Christmas of booze, cheese and a hideously unsuccessful turducken. Which maybe I'll recount for you, but I'm still feeling rather broken up about...

My DH has to fly today and since I was up at 4a, I made him this lovely breakfast frittata (really baked eggs...). You can fool around with ingredients as much as you want and based on what is available, but try to stick to a theme, today was Mediterranean/ Greek.

Breakfast frittata
Lightly grease a small-medium sized casserole pan (8"x6"x4"), with butter or olive oil (1/4 tsp is all you need). Fill it with:
1/4 cup chick peas
6 kalamata olives- chopped
1/2 cup asparagus- cut into 1/2" pieces
1/3 large red pepper- chopped
1/4 cup low-fat feta- crumbled
1/2 red onion- also chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
5 eggs
salt and pepper to taste
Bake at 350 or so for around 25 min or until set in center. Its actually better served at room temperature than hot out of the oven.

Updated Review:
Ok so I finally went back over to Sumo and I'm kind of thrilled to report that all the stuff I hated about it has been fixed! They've got a fume hood and or they are cleaning the grease traps! They are chopping the seaweed a little finer! My hair doesn't smell! Whoohooo! I'm thrilled. I can now recommend you go there.

I used to love it, but now I hate it... Sumo Sushi is a Dubai sushi chain. It has a lot going for it, like not hideously unhealthy kids meals (rice, fruit, edamame, other cold veg and entree), fresh fish, and some innovative dishes like the sushi sandwich (a chopped spicy tuna layered in rice 'bread' with a seaweed 'mayo' inside. They have a cute logo and the one we go to, in Town Centre is a contained restaurant but entirely open and smack dab in the middle of the mall, which makes for fun people watching without it being a food court kind of experience. It also has some low tables where you sit on the floor, which is always fun for the kiddos.
Prices are fair enough. A family of five with the meal described below runs around $100 (but this is with the ubiquitous overpriced Dubai juice cocktails, which I'm trying to get the kids to avoid these days...).
We usually all start with a cup of miso soup. Sumo's miso seems to be made from a powdered mix. Its a little briny but it is redeemed by generous chunks of silken tofu and lots of seaweed. I think I'd prefer the seaweed chopped a bit finer, its difficult and a little silly to eat it.
My DH usually gets a salad called 'Avocado Maguro'. Its avocado and tuna with sesame seeds and a soy vinaigrette dressing. I ordered a Seaweed Salad once and instead of what I am used to (long strings of seaweed in a peppery-vinegar dressing) I got a garden salad with large, flat, hard-to-chew pieces of green seaweed standing in for the lettuce.
Usually I get a Tuna Lover's Bento or a Salmon Lovers Bento and the Husband gets something called a Rock and Roll. Sometimes we split a small sushi sandwich with it too.
The Rock and Roll is the origin of my problem with Sumo Sushi. Its a roll of tuna, avocado and salmon with the outside rice covered in crispy fried bits of panko. I fear, that like a lot of restaurants in Dubai, Sumo Sushi has fry-o-lators and no fume hoods. Over time, this is causing EVERYTHING in the restaurant to begin to smell a bit like fried food, including the tables and chairs and your hair when you leave because bits of grease become airborne as they cook with no hood.
For me, the effect is revolting. I cannot stand the smell of the place and am to the point where I avoid the Town Centre mall because of it. My enjoyment for Sumo would be immediately salvaged if they got a fume hood (if they have them they need to be cleaned desperately). And I'm bummed that we have to find a new sushi place...