Kofta Saniya (Middle Eastern Meatball and Vegetable Casserole)

 

I had a couple of eggplants and different peppers leftover in the fridge that needed using up... here's a great recipe for that sort of thing!

This is a delicious Middle Eastern casserole with spiced meatballs, a variety of roasted peppers and eggplant in olive oil, all baked in a zesty tomato sauce. 

For the meatballs:

- 1 lb medium ground beef

- 1 large bunch parsley, finely chopped

- 2 cloves garlic, minced/grated

- 1/4 red onion, minced or grated

- Salt and black pepper

Mix all of the above together and make gold ball sized meatballs .. now taper each side slightly by flattening it in your hand.  Set aside to marinade until the meat is room temp. 

For the vegetables:

- 1-2 eggplants 

- A variety of peppers - I used the long red and green ones like you see here 

- 1/4 cup olive oil (Goog EVOO from Olive That!) 

- 1 red onion, sliced in rings (set aside for later) 

Slice the eggplant lengthwise or into rounds, salt them lightly and set them flat on a plate for them to release some of their water. 

Clean the peppers out and cut them in thick ring sizes. 

Heat the olive oil in a pan and add the peppers, cook on medium high until they're slightly blistered and wilted/caramelized. 

Add them to a casserole dish. 

Now add the eggplant and sautee on both sides until nice and golden. Set aside. 

(I do this part outdoors!) 

Fire up the grill!! 

Add the koftas to the grill and allow them to get nice and grilled (marks and all) They should be still raw inside, so I use a high temperature and simply brown the outsides. 

Leftover ingredients 

- 1/2 jar pessata (strained tomato) 

 -1 tbsp turkish aleppo red pepper flakes

-3 slices of lemon (washed rind) 

Add the onion rings over the peppers in the casserole dish, and nestle the meatballs (koftas) from the grill nicely over the vegetables. Sprinkle the turkish aleppo red pepper flakes over.  Top with pieces of eggplant. Finish with the strained tomato sauce, pouring it over top, shake the casserole so some of the sauce goes to the bottom and coats everything.  Add slices of lemon to the top (optional!)

Bake at 375 for about 30-40 minutes or until the meatballs are cooked through and all it smells delicious! 

Enjoy with bread or white rice! 

Simple Broad bean soup تشريب الباقلاء

Iraqi broad bean soup

This is a simple yet delicious traditional recipe that is often eaten in the fasting month of Ramadan.

These are not fava beans but broad beans and they're dried, they are large and flat, you may be able to find them at your local supermarket if you have a wide variety of legumes or try a middle eastern shop

Measure out desired amount of beans and soak the night before in a large bowl of water.

The following day place the beans and their water in a large pot and add more water over top.

Peel one or two large onions and throw them in whole then boil and simmer until they are tender. Salt it and simmer some more, at this point the onion may totally fall apart but thats ok.

If you have a pressure cooker this is a good place to use it, also if you salt beans too early sometimes they can become tough and not cook properly so I tend to salt once they become a bit tender.

You could add garlic in if you like but I like it very plain like that and then eaten with flat bread (even day old bread works because it will be torn into small pieces and placed in the soup, traditionally you place the bread in the bowl first and then pour the soup and beans over)

Add a wedge of lemon and enjoy!
** Usually because the peels of these beans are tough we don't eat them, so gently apply pressure to one side of the bean, either the top of bottom and the inside should come out easily to eat.

Here I made the bread myself because I did not have time to go to the store.

Here's my recipe for a tanoor style bread using an outdoor BBQ grill.

1 tsp instant yeast

1 tsp sugar

some water

proof for 10 minutes

Add 3/4 cups yogurt

1 tbsp oil

A dash of salt

3 cups flour and blend with hands until it comes together, it will be sticky but knead it with hands in a bowl until it is smooth.

Allow it to rise at least 2 hours.

Divide in smaller balls and place them on a tray lined with plastic wrap. Cover with another sheet of plastic wrap and let it rise until ready to use.

Heat bbq outdoor grill until it reaches above 500. Oil the grill, I have a cast iron so I clean and oil it every use.

Set a little bowl of flour close by and flour hands then pat the balls of bread one at a time into a flat shape, stretching and flattening

Place on the grill and flip over as soon as it is browned slightly on the bottom and bubbles formed on the top, it all happens very quickly.

Flip it over just until the puffy spots turn slightly brown and charred then remove it and place on a clean plate. Use a stick of butter to butter the top of each one.

Serve hot or set in the fridge or freezer for later use.

Garnish with fresh cilantro and a sprinkling of salt.

For the salt chop tomato and cucumber finely into small squares and season with salt and a squeeze of lemon juice, mix and enjoy with any arabic meal!

Paloodeh

Here's one of my favourite refreshing summer drinks!

Recently I discovered it's called Paloodeh in Persian.

Whenever I make this drink it brings back fond childhood memories of the first time I had it in Kurdistan.

Thursday night was always a time to kick back and enjoy the weekend (Friday was the holiday!) We almost always had an engagement on Thursday evening either an invitation to someone's home or hosting guests in our home.

One of my father's distant relatives used to invite us frequently to their home, his wifes' a very sweet lady and she absolutely adored us children, we knew the couple before they were married because I remember my parents offering to host their wedding in our house because as university professions they were living out of the tiny dorm quarters at the time.
Their wedding, which is a whole other story was quite a festive, exciting and memorable event for us girls! It was probably the first Kurdish wedding I experienced.

When they moved to their own home they were extremely generous inviting us over all the time, I loved to explore their garden which had pomegranate trees growing in the front yard and many varieties of vegetables around the side of the house. Aunty used to let us tour the garden every time we visited and showed us the progress and changes she'd made.

On one memorable visit she presented us with these tall glasses filled with an orangy frangrant drink. As little kids my mother suggested I share the glass with my sister because it was simply too much to drink but Aunty was super nice and insisted that we can drink up and if we couldn't finish the rest then it was ok. Once I began sipping I was hooked!! This sweet perfumey drink was phenomenal!!!

My mother asked what it was and aunty told us they were melons crushed up with a lot of ice, no wonder because at that point we all had brain freeze but it was so worth it!

Ever since she discovered we loved it so much she made sure to make some for us whenever we were over <3


Now for the recipe:

Melons on their own are such a wonderful flavourful fruit that they make an elegant and easy drink that whips up in minutes. There is no milk or yogurt in this drink, it is extremely refreshing and simple!

All you need is a blender, some chopped (cored/peeled) cantaloupe, simple syrup and lots of ice. Blend until smooth and enjoy!

If you want a variation dress it up with some mint, maybe an infused simple syrup (saffron, ginger.. )

Give it a try, it's sure to impress! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

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!

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.