Perfect Steak

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Here’s something mouthwatering. I inspired from Jamie Oliver. Get any good meat that you prefer. For this you need:

• olive oil
• garlic
• sea salt
• dash papper
• some nice herbs; thyme, or herbes de provence, or rosemary…
• butter
• some water
• half a lemon

Rinse the meat cuts under cold water (I do this to get any unwanted juices out). Pat dry with kitchen towel. Rub olive oil into meat cuts. Sprinkle sea salt, pepper and herbs onto a tray. Press each meat cut into the spice mix. To round it all off, squeeze garlic on top of each meat cut.

Heat a nice frying pan and mix some olive oil and butter into the pan. Fry each steak individually. When they are all fried and have a nice brown grilled surface, add them together into the pan. Add a generous sprinkle of water, press some lemon across the steaks, and then…put a lid on it! Literally!

Lower heat to low. Let simmer a little. Then serve up each steak, and use the drippings to make a great sauce.

Serve with broccoli and Roz Basmati bel’Sha’areyya.

Chocolate Chip Sponge Cake

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Here’s another ultimate cake coming up! This happens when you really want to bake something mouth-watering but you’ve got “nothing” at home… In fact, it’s a spongey chocolatey sauce filled dream.

• 2 eggs
• 2 dl sugar
• 2 tsps baking powder
• 2 tsps vanilla sugar
• 2 1/2 dl flour
• say 120 grams melted butter
• 1,5 dl hot water (not boiling!)
• At least 200 grams dark or milk chocolate
• A squirt of lemon juice

Crack eggs into big bowl, add sugar, baking powder and vanilla sugar and stir till smooth (don’t whisk). Add flour and stir (it’s going to seem like a tough dough but that’s OK). Add the melted butter and hot water, stir. Now the batter is watery again   Pour batter into a breaded pan. Break the chocolate into chunks. Sprinkle liberally over the cake, drizzle some lemon on top.

Bake in the middle of the oven at 150 degrees Celsius for about 30-35 minutes. Take out and let cool before you dig into the melted chocolate – a valuable lesson learned by yours dearly!

Roz Basmati bel’Sha’areyya

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

This is a lovely dish that goes well with both chicken and steak. Serves 4 people (or 3 if they are men).

• 2 Cups basmati rice, rinsed in a sieve and set to swell for at least 30 minutes
• 1/2 Cup vermicelli pasta, also known as “sha’areyya” in the Middle East.
• Butter for cooking
• Maggi cube
• 2 1/2 Cups water
• A squirt of lemon juice

Melt the butter in a rather large pot. Add the sha’areyya and fry till deep golden brown. Add the rice immediately (it takes just a minute or two for the pasta to fry!) and stir. Crumble Maggi into the rice and pasta mixture. Stir so that it coats the rice and pasta. Add water.

Let simmer on low for about 20-30 minutes. Remove from the stovetop. Fluff with a fork, drizzle lemon juice on it. Serve.

Tomato Salad

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

This is going to seem so mean, but, honestly there are no real measurements for this salad. It really is literally “as you wish my dear”. The photograph above shows the child friendly/onion hater friendly version, where I simply swapped the onion for cucumber (and yes, for those who know Swedish; “det går lika bra med selleri” ) and also used much less seasoning. But, here is the basic dish:

• say 4-8 big Ripe red tomatoes, diced
• 1-2 big onions, chopped finely
• As much cumin as you can take (at LEAST 2-3 Tbsps)
• Salt, to taste
• Pepper, to taste
• Lemon juice, to taste
• A good splash of vegetable oil

Just chop it all up and mix it around. Let sit in the fridge and “marinate” for a while. Serve chilled.

Fried Betengan

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

This might not look like much, but trust me; it is!

• 2 eggplants
• as much garlic as you can handle
• juice from 1-2 lemons, depending on size
• olive oil or vegetable oil for frying
• salt

Peel and slice the eggplants. Arrange them in a colander and sprinkle them with salt. Next what happens is that they will “sweat”! Yes; they’re going to let out a brown liquid. This is good. Let it sit there for at least half an hour (sometimes I let it sit in the fridge overnight).

Next get out some kitchen towels. Pat the eggplant slices dry; get that liquid out of there.

Crush garlic and squeeze the lemons, all into a small container, and set it aside for now.

Heat up a frying pan and add a generous amount of oil. Let it heat up properly. Add the slices of eggplant and fry until dark golden brown. Put the slices in a bigger container or serving plate. You’re going to be frying in batches; be prepared for lots of oily stuff… When all is done, pour the lemon and garlic mixture over the eggplants. Let sit and marinate like that; this is served at room temperature. And it’s even nicer after a day of marinating. Store in the fridge though; take out as much as you want and let it warm up to room temperature.

I like to eat this with khobz shamy – and some coffee…

Summer Breakfast

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

These days feel like I am living in the Middle East again only now, for some reason everyone is speaking Swedish around me Nights never go below 20°C and daytime reaches past 35°C – ma’sha’Allah!

So, breakfast is this:

• natural yoghurt, that I put in the freezer long enough for it to start getting those lovely ice crystals
• frozen berries (I had raspberries and blueberries but any berry will do)
• big glass of cold coffee (yes; COLD. Make it then let it cool, wa bas )
• add ice to the coffee after you add milk (if you hate milk then just add ice)

Bamya

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Tonight is an improvised dish. It’s based on Bamya but, I don’t know…

• 500 grams chicken fillet
• 500 grams bamya
• some garlic
• spices of my mood
• wahda  Maggi cube…
• tomato purée
• 5 dl water
• noss lamoon (the aseer, not the chunks!)

Serve with roz mu’ammar. Like someone once said about another fusion dish I made: ”If an alien would come down to your kitchen now and eat this, he’d say “This is NOT molokhayya” LOL.

Who knew aliens ate molokhayya…?

Chicken with Olives

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Really easy to make, but tastes better if you cook it one day in advance (or, like me, just forget to eat it and have it tomorrow instead…)

• approx 3-4 chicken fillets (or if you are into it, take a whole chicken and cut it up and use instead, but for me this is too gory)
• as much garlic as you can take
• 3-4 tomatoes, chopped (don’t use the ones from the can, that’s just nasty)
• approx 1/2 dl olive oil
• 1/2 tsp. turmeric
• 1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
• 1 small can olives without the stones
• 1/4 of a deep frozen package of  coriander (Arab supermarkets have this)
• juice from about 1 lemon

Heat the olive oil in a wide pot. Chop tomatoes, add into pot together with crushed garlic. Fry a few minutes.

Add all spices now, or else someone will get a mouthful of turmeric or pepper. That’s not nice.

Cube the fillets or cut the chicken up in chunks, and add to the pot. Make sure all the chicken is covered in the tomato mix. And make sure all of the chicken gets fried properly. Add olives. Then add some water, a few deciliters so that the chicken and olives are almost covered. Add coriander.

Put the lid on and let simmer on low for at least 30 minutes or more. Squeeze the lemon juice in towards the end before you serve the food up.

This dish goes well with basmati rice, but you can use bulgur as well. As you wish.

Foul

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

This is a typical Egyptian and Middle Eastern breakfast dish. My recipe comes from Mahmoud, a close friend from Cairo:

• 1 can fava beans (in Middle Eastern food stores the label says “fool medammes”)
• samna (ghee), for frying.
• almost 2 tomatoes, chopped (do not use too much tomato!)
• ca 1 tsp. salt, or as you wish
• ca 1 tsp. pepper, or as you wish
• ca. 2 Tbsps. lemon juice, or ask you wish (don’t use too much lemon juice!)
• ca 1 Tbsp. cumin, or as you wish

Get out a big frying pan. Add the fava beans, mash them with a spoon. Add a generous amount of samna. Blend the rest of the ingredients in, adding the tomatoes last, and stir continuously until it’s done.

Served with khobz baladi (not always easy to find in the west; they are small, pita bread-sized gray brown breads. Very nutritious), sliced cucumber, sliced tomato, boiled eggs, natural, plain yoghurt in a small bowl on the side, and a cup of tea. With a breakfast like this, you’re good all day long until you get back home!

Chicken Soup

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Just, ما شاء الله! Traditional Yemenite chicken soup, cooked to perfection.

• ca 2,5 liter water
• 1 whole chicken
• 2 tbsps. tomato puree
• 8 garlic cloves, or as much as you want
• 1 bunch of fresh parsley, or one small box frozen parsley
• approx. 1/4 of a package frozen coriander (you can get this at Middle Eastern food stores)
• 2. tbsps. cumin
• 2 tsps. turmeric
• 1 tsp. black pepper
• salt, as you wish
• 4 medium sized potatoes, peeled and halved or quartered depending on size.
• 1 tbsp flour
• 1 tbsp cold water
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• one Maggi cube (yea I know it’s in all my food…)

Now get out a really big pot. We’re having soup for dinner.

Pour the water into the pot and let it boil. Add chicken, tomato puree, garlic, cumin, turmeric, salt, pepper, parsley and coriander. Lower the heat to low and let everything simmer at least one hour.

After that, get out the biggest bowl you’ve got. It should be able to take on at least 3 liters of stuff. Pick out the chicken from the pot and put it on a cutting board. Get out your big sieve, pour the soup through the sieve and into the big bowl. Now there’s a bunch of soft garlic and boiled herbs in your sieve. Mash them all up and add them into the soup. Pour the soup back CAREFULLY CAREFULLY into the pot and return the pot to the stovetop.

Now you’re going to get out the meat from the chicken. This is really easy because the chicken is so soft now. Cut the meat into small pieces and add into the soup. Put the soup at medium heat. Add the potato and let it all simmer about 15 minutes or until the potatoes are done.

Mix the flour with the water, into a starchy sauce. This will add some body to the soup.  Make it less watery. Finish off with adding lemon juice and maybe some  hawaidg if you have it.

Eat it with “big round bread”.