Iraqi Geymar قيمر عراقي

Geymar

4 1/4 cups full fat milk (1 litre)

2 cups whole cream (1/2 litre)

In a large tall pot that holds all the liquid above mix the milk and cream and put on a medium heat.

DO NOT LET IT REACH A BOIL, watch it very closely and just as it gets close to a boil remove from the heat and place on another burner (which has been set to a very low heat)

Allow it to sit on low heat for 2 whole hours.

Once the two hours are up remove it slowly or turn off the heat until it comes to room temperature on it's own (without shaking it or anything)

Now have room in your fridge prepared and place the pot in the fridge overnight.

In the morning skim off the thick creamy layer at the top and place it onto a plate. You're all set.

With the rest of the liquid you could make yogurt or use it up however you wish.

NOTE: This pot should never be covered, and remove from heat immediately if you see it bubbling.

المقادير :

لتر حليب كامل الدسم

نصف لتر من كريمه كاملة الدسم

الطريقة :

يمزج الحليب بالكريمه كاملة الدسم في قدر عميق على نار متوسطه

يراعى عدم فوران المزيج وأنما يكون قريب من الفوران يرفع فورا من النار المتوسطه

ويوضع على نار هادئه جدا لمدة ساعتين من الزمن

يرفع من على النار ويوضع جانبا الى أن تخف حراره ولا يحرك ابدا

يوضع في الثلاجه بعد تغطيته وفي الصباح يصفى الحليب الزائد ويوضع القيمر في صحن ويتناول مع المربى او العسل

أما الحليب الزائد فيمكن عمل اللبن الرائب منه أو استعماله في عمل الجبن أو تناوله مع الشاي أو القهوه

ملاحظه : يجب أن لا يغلي المزيج نهائيا ويجب ان يرفع ما أن رايتي تكون فقاعات .

Mersu: An Ancient Confection

Here's a healthy super easy recipe, no baking required and they make wonderful little energy boosters.

These little treats date back to the the Babylonian times as some of the earliest treats known to man. They were called Mersu as mentioned on the old Babylonian culinary tablets.

They are still popular today and back home my grandma taught us how to make these, she would knead the dates into a dough and then us children would gather around and follow her lead of rolling little balls out of the dates and stuffing them.

There are a few steps so it's a bit of an assembly line but it's fun. Also there are variations so you can make whatever you like but what I remember was walnuts, coconut and sesame seeds.

My favourite is the walnut date sesame seed because I love the crunch of the hidden walnut piece inside and then the toasted sesame coating just works beautifully with the sweet date paste. It's really addictive!

So we begin with date paste, or those dry pitted dates from the bulk store bin.

Chop your dates up with a knife then pour some hot water over your dates, so for every 2 cups about a 1/2 cup of warm or hot water. Let it sit for a bit then drain the water off.

Now start kneading until you get a dough.

You could add a drop or two or oil to help with the mixing.

Prepare your ingredients in advance:

- A bowl of toasted sesame seeds

- A bowl of coconut

- A bowl of chopped/ground pistachio

- Walnuts (cut into quarters or halves - small enough to fit inside)

Now take a bit of dough and roll it between your palms.

Take a piece of walnut and shove it inside then close it up and roll it again.

Now set these aside until ready to coat them. Once you've prepped a descent amount you can move to rolling them into whatever coating you like or if you have help your little ones can do this for you.

Set them aside and you're all ready to go!

It's that easy.

Enjoy with tea, arabic coffee, as a nice snack or energy boosting treat!

During the recet Iraq war there was a time when the American soldiers were doing surveillance in all the houses so they paid a visit to my grandfathers house, when they entered my grandma was sitting in the living room rolling these little treats and they were curious as to what they were so she let them taste, they loved them so much and so she offered for them to take some. They were delighted and began filling their pockets with these little sticky confections.

Yumyum!

Mahshi - stuffed vegetables

Sometimes the most time consuming recipes can actually be the most relaxing to make. Today I spent a fair bit of time in the kitchen, but it was all well worth it and very enjoyable.

I made " summer time grape leaves" (my summer blend is just herbs, garlic, olive oil and rice, no heavy tomato paste, meats and spices like the winter version)

Another summer version I make is using yogurt but lately

I've preferred them like this as the leaves stay fresher in the fridge this way (and they make yummy snacks all through the night)

I can serve with a mint/yogurt sauce on the side though!

A trip to the arabic grocer the other day had me hauling quite a bit of stuff home, well it's Ramadan and there are so many specials! :)

These little white eggplants were the cutest, so fresh and their skins tender and pearly, I've never cooked with them before but my mother has mentioned using them a long time ago.

I restrained myself and only got 2 because eggplants cause a throat allergy for me so I figured this would be a treat that hopefully would be ok.

I reserved less than a third of the rice blend and added fresh dill to that and then stuffed the vegetables and cooked them off in a small pot separate from the other grape leaves. I stuffed a few grape leaves with the dill mixture in the vegetable pot though :)

For photo instructions on how to roll the grape leaves refer to my older post here

Guess I don't have to cook tomorrow! And now I'll leave you with a photo sequence of putting together my mahshi dish.

Stuffing and rolling dolma

Baghali Polo

Here is a familiar dish that I recently learned had roots in Persia. My mother was introduced to this dish by my sister's childhood Kurdish friend when her mother brought a plate of it over to our house. It's a dill and fava bean rice, known as Baghali Polo in Persian Cuisine.

Favas in Arabic are Baqila, and they are very popular all over the Middle East. In Iraq they are known as Bajila and the dry form is boiled and served as a nice soup - introduced to you hopefully in another post sometime - and the green form is also cooked in this Persian style rice.

All that said I doubt they are as pouplar anywhere as in Egypt, where it is a hearty rustic dish that everyone is familiar with and known as "foul mudamas"

Just like peas and mint are a pouplar combination favas go beautifully with Dill, Shbint in Kurdish or Shibitt in Arabic and Farsi or sometimes Sheveen in Farsi too.
The rice my mother knew was made with a round calarose type rice in Kurdistan but upon searching almost all the Persian recipes were made with a nice fluffy basmati, and being my favourite rice I thought to go with it.

I've combined two recipes that I found online but it's a simple recipe.

-Lots of chopped fresh dill

-Shelled green baby favas (I had thawed from frozen)
-Soaking basmati in salted water for a few hours

-Took the recommendation from one recipe to sautee the fava with some garlic and set aside

-Bring Basmati to a boil for 10-12 mins in a big pot of salted water, drained and rinsed.

Then it was all assembled layering the rice over some oil and a few drops of water and then adding dill, fava and more rice until the last layer was rice. Making holes in the rice and steaming on high for 8 mins or so then adding a bit of water (less than half the amount of rice) and steaming with a lid covered in a kitchen towel for 40 mins or so on a low setting.
A little melted butter can be added to the top when it's done then flipped out onto a pan and gently arranged for serving.

Next time I'd like to add more dill, lots more and see what other things I can do to learn how to perfect the cooking process. I'd also like to add more chopped dill to it after it's cooked because I like the fresh taste.

Any tips and ideas are welcome, feel free to comment and let me know what you think.

Bamia (okra)

Bamia (okra)
Originally uploaded by Adventuress Heart.

Haven't had much to post lately, the weather seems to be changing day to day, two days ago it was sunny, then cloudy and now rainy, typical spring weather I guess.

Thank you all for your kind - get well soon - wishes :) I'm feeling a lot better and hopefully by next week this flu will be completely gone.

Today I've decided to post some mini video clips on a simple dish I prepared a while ago, the photo as usual went up on flickr. Okra is not something that most people are familiar with or enjoy, however in the middle east it is VERY popular and one of my favourite dishes since childhood, It's fairly simply and very yummy, usually made with beef stewing chunks but can also be made vegetarian.

Types of Okra (known as bamia in arabic) are fresh, frozen, canned or even dry.

Fresh okra can be boiled in a light salt water for a bit before adding into the sauce or can be added directly, canned should always be strained well and added at the very end because they're already cooked. Frozen can be added at boiling point and right before simmering.

Ingredients:

- few tbsp Oil
- 4 medium garlic bulbs, skinned and slivered.
- 1 package frozen okra
- 1 jar of strained tomato
- salt/black pepper


Rice:

- Oil
- 3 cups Calrose rice
- 1/2 cup Vermicilli noodles
- Salt

1 3/4 cup water per cup of rice.

If you're going to add stewing beef, saute/brown it with the garlic and then add tomato and boiled water then allow to simmer until it's done. Once the meat is tender add the okra and simmer a little bit more for the flavours to blend.