The perfect Eid cookie! A melt in your mouth buttery shortbread cookie that is PERFECT with turkish coffee or espresso. They look fancy but are super easy to throw together and you can have them ready in a tin for when your guests pop in.
Basic Egyptian Ka'k (shortbread)
Approx. 60 cookies
4 cups flour
50 g powdered sugar + extra for dusting
3/4 tsp baking powder
sprinkle of salt (1/16 tsp) 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tbsp Ka'k essence (or ground mahlab, which comes from the pit of a cherry giving it that almost almond like essence)
Whisk all of the above.
Add until absorbed:
300 g ghee or clarified butter at room temperature, it's creamy textured (or 1 1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp)
Splash of orange blossom water
Incorporate the milk until dough forms:
40 g milk at room temperature, or add up to 80 g if needed
Mix all together and roll into balls. Use a tbsp sized scoop if you have one and put evenly sized balls of dough onto your baking sheet.
Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat the oven to 180C/ 350F for 22-25 minutes until firm to touch and golden all over. Remove from oven and cool
Lay on a tray or flat surface and dust with powdered sugar using a fine sieve and tapping the edge from a height over the cookies.
Store in a container, these will keep for a very long time.
Blend together well into mixture, slowly pour the yeast mixture into the grainy mixture until it comes together, never over knead the dough. Once it comes together and you can make a little patty then cover and let it rest for 15 minutes covered with plastic wrap.
Divide the dough into small balls (as many as the fillings you have)
Heat oven to 400 F
Keep everything covered with cling wrap while working.
Fill the dough balls with the filling and shape into desired shapes.
Seperate date and pistachio on seperate trays as pistachio cooks longer.
Bake as soon as they're ready, divide oven in 3rds using oven trays and put the first tray on the bottom rack for 7-8 mins.
Once it takes a golden color remove and put on top rack another 5 mins to finish while adding new tray to bottom.
Remove and cool tray, as soon as cookies are able to be moved move them to cooling rack and once they're cold store away in a tupperware.
Mini Lamb Meatballs with Moroccan inspired dipping sauce
In a bowl add: - 1 lb ground lamb - Splash of worstershire sauce
In a blender pulse/grind the following:
- 1 slice bread
- 1/4 red onion
- 2 cloves garlic - 2 sprigs of mint, remove and wash leaves
- 2 sprigs parsley, remove and wash leaves
- zest of 1 lemon
- 1 tbsp pomegranate molasses
- Salt & black pepper
- 1 large egg
Add the marinade to the lamb and gently blend it, do not over mix. Let it sit out until it comes to room temp, about 30-40 minutes.
In a saucepan heat oil (I used grape seed oil for the browning, don't waste olive oil on this task)
Brown the meatballs on all sides in batches as not to overcrowd, in a large skillet I could finish the pound of meat in 2 batches.
When cooking lamb you do not want to overcook so it just comes down to browning them and then remove them by placing them on a paper towel lined plate, they could still cook at this stage so take them out a little early. Brown on high heat in hot oil as not to let them get grey and soggy but let them brown instantly on all sides without overcooking the middles too much, use a splatter guard as it will splash because the ground lamb contains a lot of fat inside it.
Set the meatballs aside.
Spicey tomato dipping sauce:
This is an interesting recipe, I actually created it using leftover pizza sauce I made the previous day (which I grated ginger into, I love my ginger pizza sauce!! If you haven't seen my previous post on it then click here ) So I had this amazing sauce on hand and simply added abit of spice into it.
When I began with the recipe for pizza I did the following:
- 1 1/2 cups strained tomato sauce from a jar
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 large piece of ginger, about twice the size of a thumb, peeled and grated.
Salt & black pepper
I simmered all of this until the tomato sauce was thick and delicious with an intense ginger flavour. Spread on pizza and you're good to go.
For the meatball dipping sauce I began with the following:
Add to a shallow pan:
- 1 1/2 tsp oil
- 1/4 tsp cumin seed
- 1/2 tsp spanish paprika
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp lemon zest
- 1 tbsp harissa (I buy a can, divide and freeze in small cubes for future use)
- 2 tbsp chopped roasted red pepper (I buy them on sale and roast in the oven covered with olive oil on 400 until soft with blistering skins, they go into a jar with olive oil and into the fridge after peeling)
This recipe is very versatile, just use whatever you got on hand, if you don't have something here then omit it, that's kinda how I cook so I happened to just have these ingredients (harissa/roasted red pepper) in the fridge and so they went in. If you want a basic sauce recipe just go with the tomato/ginger and spices, and it'll be delicious!
You can put the meatballs in the sauce or serve separately, if you think your guests would prefer a little variety why not put the red sauce in one bowl and then do a yogurt dipping sauce in the other (1 cup yogurt, chopped mint,1 tsp lemon juice, salt, black pepper)
Here I have a saffron rice with peas, and a roasted eggplant dish, yogurt, tea and it's quite a party!
Eggplants are roasted on the fire (on the BBQ) until skins are blistering. I remove the skins and seedy innards and reserve the flesh. I chop on a cutting board to the point where it's like a dip and add smashed/grated garlic to this too, season with salt, 2 tbsp lemon juice, drizzle a tbsp of tahini over and blend.. Garnish with pomegranate seeds. Just have fun with it!
I want to express my excitement for this product that I recently discovered, it's called Cookin Greens and it's basically all those good healthy greens that you should be eating but might be too intimidated to try, or maybe like me you're just too inconvenienced by the process of buying those large bunches of wet leaves from the supermarket and then having to shove them in the fridge somewhere and wash/chop/blanch whenever you have a moment in your busy life!
Who has time for all that? I'm sure those are some of the reasons that people are less encouraged to buy them regularly! .... so you can imagine my excitement when I saw this bag of frozen greens on tv, I mean flash frozen greens which are at the convenience of your fingertips, just open the bag and throw it into soups, pasta dishes, casseroles, blanch, steam, make dip, whatever you fancy but you can at least sleep at night knowing that you've had your GREENS! Those greens that we keep hearing about as cancer fighting and probably the healthiest of all the vegetables.
I will be buying these, for sure! They are available at the organic frozen freezer in Metro, and Loblaws Superstore as well as other stores, check their site www.cookingreens.com for more details. I think it's totally worth it because you're getting the healthy and fresh greens which you sometimes can't even get in the regular produce department.
I wanted to make something that is fun for parties so a Turkish borek was perfect, we make it regularly in our household and it's a hit with guests because it's crispy, delicate, fancy and vegetarian too but healthy all at the same time! Normally we make it with spinach but adding the greens will just bump up the nutrition. You can do it with just greens or greens and feta cheese.
- 1 pack Cookin' Greens designer mix (it containers spinach, rapini, collards, onion, yellow wax beans) I dumped it all into a shallow pan and picked out the wax beans then threw them back into the freezer for another use.
Blanch greens: Place in a pot with 1/2 cup water, pinch of salt and 2 cloves of garlic whole, steam for 5-10 minutes. Strain the greens from the water really well and place into shallow pan.
Use the water for soup or just add some salt and drink it! It's healthy :)
- 1 cup feta cheese
- 1-2 tbsp lemon juice (optional)
Shell:
- 1 package phyllo from freezer, thawed overnight in fridge.
Batter, mix in a bowl:
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup yogurt
- 1/2 cup olive oil (or melted butter) You can use another oil if you'd like.
- 2 eggs
Pinch of salt
Preheat oven to 350 F
Open phyllo package, lay the pieces flat.
Take 2 layers and place in pan, if the pieces are larger than the pan it's ok, crinkle them up a bit to make it fit.
Add a ladle or so of batter and spread over the phyllo layer, using hand make sure to cover all areas so the phyllo isn't dry.
Do another 2 layers, then batter, then another 2 and batter and another 2 then you would have achieved 8 layers. No batter on the top here.
Add the greens, spread out.
Grate the feta with a large grater over top, sprinkle with lemon juice and begin with another 8 layeres, two at a time adding batter over top each 2 layers. If you want them more crispy use less batter, you could have 2 ladle fulls leftover like me.
Score almost all the way through into long finger shapes or into squares, if making appetizers do them smaller.
Bake, and check in 35 minutes. Broil on top if needed for a golden layer (it boils in seconds so stay close to the oven)
Recipe adapted from this lovely video by Turkish Mother and Daughter duo cooking in the kitchen.
Enjoy!! :)
.. And there is no excuse when it comes to entertaining... I threw together this little party grazing station in seconds!! Thanks to the mounds of stuff I collect from my favourite places like IKEA/ Chapters/Indigo and HomeSense as well as some small treats I had laying around (dry nuts/cookies, kettle corn) it all came together.
This is my take on the cheese ball (the famous creamy soft appetizer served with some kind of crispy chip/bread at parties)
Here I've added my middle eastern touch, and served them with homemade lavash (it's really quite simple to make, you will be surprised!)
We'll start with the cheese ball(s)
I used soft savoury cheeses, no cream cheese here.
I start with Lebneh, it is a middle eastern soft creamy "cheese" made from yogurt, basically it's a strained yogurt, it's like the greek yogurt and it's the base used in dips or just served as a breakfast food drizzled with olive oil (you've probably seen it on my blog before!)
I made my lebneh because it's super easy, check out the basic instructions here on my flickr. Salt is added during the process so it's already seasoned.
Even after it's done sometimes lebneh can release some water as it sits so before making the cheese ball I strain some again by placing the desired amount into a bowl lined with a clean sheet of paper towel (a sturdy paper towel brand is better so that it doesn't fall apart) This should just make it extra firm.
The second cheese I used is goat cheese and the third variety is sheep's feta, both these were whisked together until creamy (feta is a bit crumbly so it requires a bit of whisking into the goat cheese to yield a smooth consistency)
I'd say the ratio is 50 % lebneh to 30% goat cheese and 2% feta.
For flavourings you can add whatever you like into the cheese or leave it plain! I grated a small clove of garlic and zested a lemon (just a bit!) No need to add salt and all these cheeses have enough salt.
Blend, mixing well (you can set it in the fridge overnight!)
Now I roll out 3 pieces of cling wrap and 3 big dollops of this creamy cheese mixture in the centre of each piece, divide in thirds so they end up equal.
Bringing the sides of the cling wrap together and twisting at the base, I tried to shape the cheese into a ball as best as possible then set them all on a flat plate and into the freezer for 20 minutes or so (this will make it easier to work with)
For the first cheese ball I rolled it in toasted pine nuts (toast the day before if you'll be too busy the day of your party!) Toast in a dry pan on medium low until golden and move them around so they don't burn.
Set aside to cool.
When I was ready to roll I removed the balls and simply rolled the top and sides because this cheese is pretty soft so I upwrapped the top and held the bottom with the cling wrap and just dunked top facing down into the pine nuts and then covered the sides by rolling gently.
I set it gently on a plate and pulled out the cling wrap from under.
The same technique worked for the chives (chopped finely) and the last one is covered in a light dusting of coloured pepper corns that were crushed in the mortar and pestle. Using coloured peppercorns is better that straight black ones because the green/pink peppercorns are more mild (I don't even think they're actual peppercorns but more like in the berry family or something) I love black pepper but this one might be too intense for some people so you could switch this for anything else that you prefer.
LAVASH:
The lavash is of 3 or 4 varieties but the dough is all the same. It begins with the awesome recipe from my favourite bread book, Peter Reinhart's "The Bread Baker's Apprentice" (I travelled around the world clutching this book and preferred to leave behind clothing just so that I'd be able to carry this book back with me! It is that fantastic!)
Check out the recipe here in case you do not have the book, but I highly recommend getting it.
I made the dough, proofed it overnight (yeah yeah, a little longer that I should have but anyway.. ) then divided it into 3 equal sized balls.
I rolled out and baked one at a time. Rolling out each piece really thin, drizzled and wiped it with a bit of water and sprinkled the first with toasted sesame seeds, the second I did half with toasted cumin seeds and sea salt and the other half with toasted corriander seeds and sea salt.
The last one I grated a bit of aged parm cheese (the real stuff)
Bake, break 'em up into bite sized pieces and start dipping!!
I'm a thirty-something Canadian girl inspired by my rich & very diverse (Africa-Europe-Asia....) heritage! Join me here for an adventure in food, lifestyle and all good things with a touch of exotic.
