Carrots are pretty versatile vegetables turning themselves to just about anything sweet or savoury. Omek houriya (or omi/ommok houriya/houria depending on the transliteration) showcases them in their (almost) natural form, with the flavour enhanced by harissa, cumin, caraway and coriander seeds. This Tunisian recipe is usually served with a topping of tuna, egg and olives but works just as well without the fishyness (or egg, and in my case olives as I realised I had none in the house...). Simple and a perfect way to use up any carrots languishing at the back of your fridge.
Ingredients
Carrots (amount left to the cooks discretion)
Olive oil
2 cloves of garlic
2 tsp smoked paprika
2 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp coriander seeds
2 tsp caraway seeds
1 tablespoons harissa
Salt and pepper to taste
1. Boil the carrots until done (~ 10 minutes or thereabouts. You don't want them to be too mushy
2. Drain and mash or blend to a puree. The texture varies, some cooks blend it to a smooth paste, others a more chunky texture
3. Add the crushed garlic, I like adding it when the carrots are still warm as the flavour infuses through the mixture
4. Dry roast the cumin, coriander and caraway seeds in a heavy based pan and then grind. You *could* use ready ground spices, but if at all possible try to grind the coriander yourself, it tastes totally different from the pre-ground stuff
5. Add to the carrot mixture and taste. Season and stir in a splash of olive oil
6. Now mix in the harissa, I have suggested a tablespoonful but it really depends on what brand you are using
7. Eat, traditionally it comes topped with tuna, hardboiled egg and olives
First off I have to say that I am not a big fan of ice cream... I know... I know... I'll let that statement sink in, I accept that I am abnormal. Having said that I do indulge on occasion, such as when the weather is particularly warm (all too rare in the UK) or when like at the moment I have been struck down by laryngitis. Nothing eases a sore throat like smooth and creamy ice cream melting its way down to your stomach.
And onto kulfi, Indian / Pakistani style ice cream, while it shares a lot with its European cousin, it is all together a richer experience, and an absolute doddle to make. No churning required, no fiddling around with egg yolks or anything like that. Just add the ingredients to a pan, cook for a short while and you're done. With regards to flavour, traditionally it's cardamom, rose, mango, saffron, pistachio or malai (cream). For a first attempt I stuck with tradition and went for a combination of rose, cardamom and pistachio, though in addition to the more traditional stuff I also flavoured half the batch with violet, which I have to say was very tasty.
In fact spurred on by that break from tradition I sense another kulfi making session in the near future where I can experiment with date and walnut, apricot and orange blossom water, Turkish delight, halva and an assortment of other Middle Eastern flavours...
Tempted? Try the recipe below, easy as pie and guaranteed delicious results every time!
Ingredients
397g condensed milk
400ml milk
2 tablespoons skimmed milk powder
12 cardamom pods
1 tablespoon rose water
50g pistachios (crushed)
1. Add the condensed milk, milk, milk powder and 8 of the cardamom pods to a heavy bottomed pan and bring to the boil
2. Simmer for 10 minutes until thickened, take off the heat and allow to cool
3. Strain to remove the cardamom pods
4. Grind the seeds from the remaining 4 cardamoms into a powder and stir into the cooled milk along with the crushed pistachios and rose water
5. Pour into individual containers (this amount makes enough to fill 4 yoghurt pot sized containers) and freeze overnight
6. Eat, and enjoy the fact that you have made something that tastes 100 times better than any shop bought ice cream!
I love the taste of vegetables cooked over an open flame, however having an electric oven and hob just doesn't get the same results. I took advantage of the long Bank Holiday weekend and decided to set up a barbeque (one of those disposable supermarket ones) and grill some veggies. Aubergines for baba ghanoush (oven cooked ones taste okay; however burned and charred skin takes it to another level of deliciousness entirely...) were my first choice, and as the charcoals were still white hot I decided to throw on some peppers without any clear idea on what to make with them.
Grilled salads are popular all over North Africa, and this one salad mechouia (or salad mashwiya /meshwiyya depending on the transliteration - meshwiya meaning grilled or roasted in Arabic) makes use of grilled red and green peppers, chillies, tomatoes, garlic and onion. The salad is also found in Israel, brought over by the Moroccan immigrants and is known as matbucha, though the Israeli version is probably heavier on the tomatoes.
It's a simple recipe and one that literally takes a couple of minutes to put together (assuming you already roasted the veggies)
Ingredients
2 green peppers
2 red peppers
1 green chilli
1 large red onion
2 tomatoes
2 large cloves of garlic (unpeeled)
2 tsp capers (optional)
1 tsp caraway seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
Olive oil
Lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste
Black olives (to garnish)
1. Put the veggies on the grill and cook until well done and slightly charred. Leave to cool and then peel
2. While the vegetables are grilling, dry roast the cumin, caraway and coriander seeds in a frying pan for a few minutes until the aroma is released. Grind in a pestle and mortar
3. Chop the peeled peppers into small cubes and toss them in a large bowl (some recipes call for all of the vegetables to be blended, however I prefer my salad chunky - each to their own...)
4. Roughly blend the onions, garlic, chilli and tomatoes together and then add to the chopped peppers. I add some capers at this point.
5. Stir in the ground spices and add the olive oil, lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste.
6. You can eat immediately, but it tastes better after a few hours to allow the flavours to blend. Serve at room temperature decorated with black olives.
I was on a halwa making roll this weekend, and as I had some half empty bags of dates and figs I decided to make up another batch of halwa. A super easy recipe that is rather tasty, and a good way to use up those half empty random bags of dried fruit at the back of the kitchen cupboards...
Ingredients
110g chickpea flour
250g dried dates and/or figs
4 tablespoons rose water
100g margarine (melted)
200ml milk
100g sugar
50g chopped mixed nuts
Desiccated coconut (to decorate)
1.
Cut the fruit into small pieces, put into a container and pour in a little boiling water to just cover them. Leave overnight (or a few hours)
to soak and then puree
2.
Dry roast the chickpea flour for around 5 minutes in a heavy bottomed
pan until it loses its 'raw' smell, then tip into another container
3. Add the fig/date puree, chopped nuts, sugar, milk and rose water to the pan and slowly heat, adding around half of the melted margarine
4. Sift in the chickpea flour and stir well
5. Bring the mixture to the boil and then turn the heat down, stirring constantly
6. Now add the rest of the margarine
7. Keep on stirring until the mixture starts to pull away from the sides of the pan, this takes around 10-15 minutes
8. Pour into a container lined with cling film. Decorate with some desiccated coconut (optional)
9. Leave to cool and then cut into pieces
I was tidying out the kitchen cupboards over the weekend and found half a bag of chickpea flour, hmm... what to do with it?
While I did fancy making some onion bhajis the thought of cooking up something sweet with it was also mighty appealing, so I decided upon making halwa. This version is somewhere between Middle Eastern style halwa and an Indian barfi. I kind of made up the recipe as I went along and it turned out pretty tasty. Note: despite the fact that this is fruit based it probably contains a million calories, but sometimes it's best not to think about these things too deeply...
Ingredients
110g chickpea flour
250g dried apricots
Fresh orange juice
4 tablespoons rose water
100g margarine (melted)
200ml milk
50g pistachios
Rose petals (to decorate)
1. Cut the apricots into small pieces, put into a container and pour in enough orange juice to just cover them. Leave overnight (or a few hours) to soak and then puree
2. Dry roast the chickpea flour for around 5 minutes in a heavy bottomed pan until it loses its 'raw' smell, then tip into another container
3. Add the apricot puree, pistachios, milk and rose water to the pan and slowly heat, adding around half of the melted margarine
4. Sift in the chickpea flour and stir well
5. Bring the mixture to the boil and then turn the heat down, stirring constantly
6. Now add the rest of the margarine
7. Keep on stirring until the mixture starts to pull away from the sides of the pan, this takes around 10-15 minutes
8. Pour into a container lined with cling film. Decorate with some crushed pistachios and rose petals (optional)
9. Leave to cool and then cut into pieces
Muhammara (or m'hammara) is a dip found over the Middle East and and beyond (there's also an Armenian version called garmeroug), its origins are said to lie in the Syrian city of Aleppo. Primarily it consists of either fresh or dried peppers, ground walnuts and olive oil, flavoured with pomegranate molasses and sumac. It can be eaten as a dip, spread on bread or served as a sauce, typically for grilled meats or fish.
I was inspired to make this after reading the Comptoir Libanais cookbook, but I've moved away from the traditional ingredients slightly, I had a bag of ground hazelnuts in the cupboard that needed to be used up, also I had no aleppo pepper, which is the type of chilli that most versions are based on, however I did have some dried ancho chillies which I figured would give a nice earthy smokiness to the finished dish.
It's pretty easy to make, and with the exception of the time taken to roast the peppers, it's something that can be whizzed up in minutes.
Ingredients
2 red sweet peppers
2 large ancho chillies
100g ground nuts (I used hazelnuts, traditionally walnuts are used)
1 tsp sumac
1 tsp ground cumin
1 large garlic clove (crushed)
1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses
Olive oil
Handful of fresh coriander (optional)
Salt to taste
1. Roast the peppers until the skin is blackened, allow to cool and peel
2. While the peppers are roasting soak the ancho chillies in boiling water (for around 30 minutes)
3. Add the cooled and peeled sweet peppers, rehydrated chillies and coriander to a blender with a dash of olive oil (can add more to taste) and the pomegranate molasses and blend until smooth.
4. Stir in the nuts, crushed garlic, sumac and cumin. Add salt to taste.
5. Eat!
Despite recent posts to the contrary I'm not big on sweets, preferring
savoury any day. However, I've currently got a bit of an obsession with
making North African sweets and cakes,
partly prompted by the gorgeous patisseries I was window shopping in
when I visited Paris last November, and partly due to boredom. I hate the
winter, I hate the cold and I hate the rain. For the past few weekends
the weather has been dire and the incentive
to go out and 'do' something has been sadly lacking. Add to the mix a
Winter lurg and you’ve got a recipe for staying at home.
Mlabes are a Tunisian and Algerian delicacy, beautifully iced almond
biscuits that melt in the mouth. I searched high and low for a fool
proof recipe, but the majority I found online seemed to be based on the
same original recipe, one that had at some point
been translated from Arabic, in itself not a problem, but no one seemed
to know what one of the mystery ingredients was (kthira*) so omitted
it. All the recipes did contain egg whites, and as I'm not overly fond
of using eggs if I can get away with it I decided
to play around with the ingredients a bit. Using margarine as a binding
agent seemed to work acceptably, admittedly my cookies are probably a
bit 'heavier' than they should be, but I like the texture. I also
substituted half ground pistachios for the almonds.
I should point out that any weights listed below are an approximation
only; I didn't weigh anything out while I was making the cookies, and
adjusted the ingredients depending on the texture. You want the dough to
hold together and be quite malleable, so adjust
the ground almonds / margarine accordingly.
For the icing, I used an all-in-one royal icing mix (icing sugar and
powdered egg white), and added a little more water than the directions
on the packet stated so I could dip the cookies in.
Ingredients
200g ground almonds (or 2/3 almonds 1/3 ground pistachios)
50g sugar
2 tablespoons rose water (or orange flower water)
50g margarine (melted)
1. Mix the ground almonds and sugar in a large bowl. Stir in the rose water.
2. Add the melted margarine slowly, you should have a slightly oily
malleable dough. If it's too crumbly add more margarine, too loose then
add some more almonds.
3. Pinch off small pieces of the dough and roll into balls slightly smaller than golf ball size
4. Arrange on an oiled baking tray and bake at 175C for 20 minutes
5. Allow the cookies to cool completely before icing them
Icing
1. Prepare the icing according to the packet (or Google a recipe for
royal icing if you want to make your own with egg whites!) you may need
to add a little more water, the icing should be thick enough to coat the
cookies without slipping off, but not so think
that you’ve got to trowel it on! You can either leave the icing plain,
or flavour it. I made half with plain icing, and added some violet
essence and mauve food colouring to the other half
2. Dip the cookies fully into icing and place on a rack to dry
3. Traditionally they are topped with a diamond of gold or silver leaf, I
used a combination of edible gold glitter, bronze sprinkles, and gold
stars. To go with the violet ones ideally I would have topped them with a
crystallised violet petal…
4. Step back and admire your finished work. Sure they are a little wonky
and the icing may not be great, but for a first attempt they are not
bad at all
*Best guess for kthira is that it is a gum or a resin similar to mastic or gum arabic...
