Spinach Pie

This is my mother's version of Spanakopita.  It is slightly different that the traditional greek recipe in that she uses sour cream as a cheese and substitutes puff pastry for the phyllo dough.  I find that puff pastry is much easier to use than phyllo dough and it tastes much better.  The recipe I've given is the basic recipe.  It is my favorite.  At the bottom you'll find suggestions for things to add to the dish.  You can follow all the suggestions or just some.

• 2 10 oz packets of frozen spinach
• 2 1 lb packets of puff pastry (defrost in the fridge the day before)
• 1 1 lb container of sour cream or ricotta cheese.  (Make sure you drain out any extra water/whey before using)
• 2 medium onions (or more)
• Salt
• Pepper
• Nutmeg

1. Preheat oven to 375 farenheit
2. Defrost spinach in microwave.
3. Squeeze out excess water.  This is a very important step because you don't want the pie to be soggy.
4. Dice the onions
5. Sautee the onions in olive oil.  
6. Add spinach and season with salt, pepper and nutmeg
7. Continue sauteeing until spinach has wilted, onions are soft and any excess water is gone.
8. Turn off heat.  Mix in sour cream (make sure that you've removed excess liquid from sour cream if there is any).
9. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg if needed
10. Butter/oil baking dish
11. Like bottom and side of dish with puff pastry
12. Add spinach mixture
13. Cover with another layer of puff pastry.  Or alternatively, decorate top with criss-cross strips of puff pastry (this method makes it look prettier).  
14. Seal edges and decorate with left over pieces of puff pastry
15. Brush puff pastry with egg, milk or butter (this will make it nice and brown when it comes out of the oven).
16. Bake for 1/2 hour or until puff pastry has risen

Additions/variations

• Add 1 cup or more of feta cheese like the greeks do (step 8)
• Use ricotta cheese instead of sour cream.  You can also try using cottage cheese but make sure you use the small curd version.
• Add 1/2 cup of chopped parsley and/or 1/2 cup of chopped dill (sautee with spinach - step 5)
• Add 1 egg to spinach mixture (step 8)
• Substitute one of the onions for diced leeks or diced scallions (step 4)
• Add sauteed chicken breast pieces (step 8)
• Replace spinach with another green such as kale (step 2)

The difference between cooking beef for stew and lamb for stew

In most of my recipes, I use the beef method because beef is more widely available in the U.S. where I am living right now.  To cook beef for stew, use the following technique:

•  Sautee beef cubes in olive oil, salt, pepper and spices until brown
  
• Add water
• Bring to a boil 
• Reduce heat to low and simmer covered until beef is cooked (45 min - 1 hour)

Lamb takes longer to cook so I use the following method

• Sautee lamb cubes in olive oil, salt, pepper and spices until brown
• Add water
• Reduce heat to medium and simmer covered for maybe 45 min
• Reduce heat to very low for maybe 10 min until meat is completely tender

Mudallala

This is a Saudi recipe that my mother makes a lot at home.  It is really simple to make yet it tastes delicious.  I don't know the exact english translation for mudallala.  It means a spoilt girl (i.e. spoiled by her parents) except for it has a more positive connotation.  If anyone can think of the exact translation please let me know!

Ingredients

• 2 cups of basmati rice, soaked
• dried dill weed (sbint/shbint in arabic)
• 2 chicken breasts (around 1 lb)
• 1 bay leaf
• Cardamom
• tumeric
• 1 maggie cube
• 1 lb (or more) of greek yogurt or lebnah (you can also mix sour cream and lebnah together)
• Sumac

1. Preheat oven to 375 farenheit
2. Chop chicken breasts into one inch pieces.  Place in water.  
3. Add 1 bay leaf, some cardamom, some tumeric, 1 maggie cube and some salt and pepper.
4. Bring to a boil and then simmer on low until chicken is done.  Take chicken out
5. Cook rice in chicken broth.  (1.5 cups of chicken broth to 1 cup of rice if using absorption method.  Ratio doesn't matter if using strained rice method).
6. When rice is done, add a lot of dill to the rice (alternatively you can add the dill when cooking the rice).  Rice should become a greenish color
7. Take a casserole dish.  Line with olive oil.
8. Place 3/4 amount of rice in dish.  Press to flatten
9. Add chicken
10. Cover chicken with more rice.  Press to flatten.
11. Cover with lebneh or greek yogurt
12. Top with sumac
13. Place in oven for 1/2 hour. 

Chicken and Vegetable Casserole

This is a quick and simple dish that my mother used to make us when we were younger.   I still make it a lot.

Ingredients

• 1 packet (or can) of canned or frozen artichoke hearts 
• Fresh or frozen broccoli 
• 2 chicken breasts (around 1 lb)
• 1 container low fat sour cream (1 lb)
• Whole wheat bread crumbs (from 1 slice of bread or more)
• 3 medium sized potatoes or more
• 1 maggie cube (or chicken stock)
• 1 bay leaf
• some grated parmesan cheese (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 375 farenheit (I think thats 180 celcius)
2. Boil broccoli and artichoke hearts in salted water until cooked but still crunchy
3. Cut artichoke hearts into halves and chop broccoli into pieces as big as artichoke hearts
4. Peel potato and slice
5. Chop chicken breasts into pieces as big as broccoli and artichoke hearts
6. Cook chicken in water until it is almost done (but not completely).  Add 1 bay leaf, salt, pepper and 1 maggie cube while cooking.  If you use chicken stock instead of maggie then omit water (obviously)
7. Place all above into a casserole dish.  Add around 1/2 to 1 cup of the chicken stock (you can also use vegetable stock for this part)
8. Cover completely with sour cream
9. Top with breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese
10. Place in oven for half an hour
11. Remove from oven and place in broiler for 5 min (optional)

Notes:

• You can use different vegetables for this - zuchinni, carrots, spinach, brussel sprouts etc.
• Instead of boiling the chicken, you can fry it with 1 bay leaf, salt and pepper until brown.  You still have to add chicken or vegetable stock to the casserole in step 7 though.

Trout with Tomato Onion Sauce

Ingredients

• two medium sized trout
• one large onion
• two medium tomatoes
• dried or fresh tarragon
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• White wine vinegar

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees farenheit
• season the fish with salt, olive oil and tarragon on both sides and also on the inside.  Do this first so that the fish has time to absorb the seasoning.  If using fresh tarragon, put two tarragon springs on the inside
• dice one large onion and two medium tomatoes.  Add salt, pepper and more tarragon (chopped fresh or dried).  
• Sautee mixture in a pan with olive oil and two tablespoons of white wine vinegar until onions and tomatoes are soft.
• Assemble trout in a baking dish.  Pour a bit more olive oil in baking dish to prevent sticking
• Spoon half of mixture into trout and pour the rest on top
• Cover baking dish with foil
• Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes

Why a cooking blog?

If you knew me, you'd be surprised that I started a cooking blog. Although I love cooking, I am more interested in politics, religion and current events. I read the news daily and keep myself updated on what's going on in the world by visiting various blogs - my favorites being Angry Arab, Nido Generation, Baghdad Burning and other Middle Eastern/Bahraini blogs. I enjoy discussing politics with my husband(who is also obssessed with politics) friends and family and I grew up with a very politically minded family. So why a cooking blog? Well a cooking blog doesn't take much effort. You just post your recipes and thats about it. But most importantly, cooking makes me happy. I see it as an outlet to life's frustrations. Whenever something is bothering me, be it personal or political, I start cooking something. Cooking is almost magical - You take a bunch of ingredients, put them together and then end up with something delicious and satisfying. If someone enjoys a dish I made or a recipe I gave them, then I feel happy and satisfied. I also love listening to people's ideas on how to improve a recipe and make it even better. I love how recipes can become personal - with each cook adding a special something that makes a recipe uniquely their own. I hope you enjoy my recipes and please feel free to send me some of your own!

Learning how to cook Middle Eastern Food

I admit that while I am not the best cook in the world, for a 25 year old, I am pretty good! When I came to college, I had no idea how to cook at all. I had watched my mother cook in the kitchen and helped her with mundane tasks such as chopping onions and making salad. However I had never made a meal from start to finish. I had never needed to. Why learn how to cook when you already have someone to do it for you (and do it well too!)??? I did know how to bake though. My sister and my cousins and I would bake cakes and cookies all the time (from scratch by the way. We wern't dependent on betty crocker like most people are today!)
All this changed however, when I graduated from high school and went to college in the University of Virginia. While UVA was an excellent school, Charlottesville wasn't exactly diverse. It had no Middle Eastern restaurants whatsoever. After living for one year in the dorms and surviving on disguisting dining hall food, I finally moved to an apartment. I realized that I finally had a chance to get myself out of the misery I was in by learning how to cook! My first cooking experience was with rice. I had no idea how to make it. My roomate (and best friend!) who is Iraqi taught me how to make rice the easy was (3aysh/ruz mash'7ool). I was really proud of myself! My mother also would send me emails with certain recipes I had craved. I learned the most however, from cookbooks. I bought several and I would follow the recipes exactly. Most of the cookbooks I bought were ones that my mother uses home also. A few months later, I had become an expert in cooking! The next year and the year after, my roomate and I invited over 50 people for fu6oor during Ramadhan! We did a crazy amount of cooking but everyone loved the food (of course they were hungry college students) and had a good time.
So for those of you wanting to learn how to cook, I suggest buying a few cookbooks like I did! Here are the cookbooks that I can't live without:

• The New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden: I love this book because the recipes are simple but they turn out great. The book has recipes from every region of the middle east with the exception of the khaleej and Iran. There are a lot of Egyptian recipes which is good since egyptian recipes are hard to find in other cookbooks. I've tried several recipes from this book and they all have turned out to be great! My mother loves this book also. I definately recommend buying this book if you want to learn how to cook!
• The Complete Middle East Cookbook by Tess Mallos: This is another book that my mother relies on a lot. The book is divided into regions and spans the entire Middle East with the exception of the North African countries. I recommend buying it simply because it has recipes from everywhere.
• The Arab Table by May S. Bsisu: This book was recently published in 2005. I bought it for my sister first but then I couldn't resist the temptation to buy a copy for myself also! Bsisu is an excellent cook! She is half Palestinian-half Lebanese and has lived in Kuwait for most of her life. So as you can imagine, she has a lot of recipes from all three countries. She also has recipes from other arab countries as well. Go buy this book now! Some of the recipes take a while to make but thats because she doesn't like taking shortcuts. Get this book if you want to be a good cook!
• Recipes and Remembrances from an Eastern Mediterranean Kitchen by Sonia Uvezian: Sonia Uvezian is Lebanese of Armenian descent. The book covers recipes from the Levant (Al-Sham) region only. The recipes are amazing and delicious! Her version of mulookhiya is the best that I've ever tasted! I also learned how to make amazing Laban Ummo (Lamb with yogurt sauce) from this book. What's sad about this book though is that Uvezian decides to ignore Palestine completely. The book contains pictures and ancecdotes from the 19th and early 20th century, but mysteriously, any reference to Palestine was left out. This is all very strange because she keeps talking about the "greater syria region" but only refers to Syria, Lebanon and Jordan from being part of that region. She talks about some dishes of Palestinian origin but never mentions where dishes of Palestinian origin come from! The only other place is when she mentions Palestinians is when she talks about the make-up of the Jordanian population. She states: "At present, however, the Palestinians, who have emigrated from their homeland in what is now Israel, represent the majority." Emigrated?????????????? Expelled or massacred are better words to use if you ask me! Anyhow.. I digress.. Buy the book. Its great! Too bad she thinks of Palestinians as a bunch of people who willfully emigrated from their homeland to Jordan though.
• A taste of the Arabian Gulf by Afnan Rashid Al Zayani: Since there are so few cookbooks that focus on Bahrain or the Khaleej, this book is your best bet if you want to learn anything about khalijee (and specifically Bahraini) cooking. Since the author is half Iraqi (I think.. many of the Al Zayanis have married people from Iraq) it also contains numerous Iraqi recipes. Since Bahrain has a large population of persian origin, she also includes many Iranian recipes. I rely on this book a lot. Honestly, I don't know what I'd do without it! I wouldn't know how to make many of the dishes I grew up with had it not been from this book! My only problem with some (actually most) of the recipes in the book, is that the author doesn't provide us with the simplest way to make the recipe. There are easier and quicker ways to make the same recipes which achieve the same (if not better!) results. Since my mother emails me a lot of recipes and has taught me a lot of cooking techniques, I have learned how to tweak her recipes in order to reduce my cooking time and still achieve a great result.

Books that I plan to buy (and that you should buy too!):

• New Food for Life: Ancient Persian and Modern Iranian Cooking and Ceremonies or a Taste of Persia, both by Najmieh Batmanglij . I have many cookbooks that contain Iranian recipes, but I still don't own a book solely dedicated to Iranian cooking. Batmanglij is THE expert on Iranian cooking. Ask any Iranian cook and they will tell you! My mother owns the book a Taste of Persia. She loves it! I made one recipe from it, maragat bathinjan (Eggplant stew) and it turned out to be amazing! I made it three years ago and I still remember how it tastes! The cool thing about a Taste of Persia is that it has pictures for every single recipe. New Food for Life has more recipes than A Taste of Persia and more historical information. However, it doesn't have pictures for every single recipe. I am not sure which one I'm going to buy but most likely I'll buy New Food for Life.
• Delights from the Garden of Eden: A Cookbook and History of Iraqi Cuisine by Nawal Nasrallah: Iraqi food is simply the best food in the Arab world. I may be a little biased since Bahraini food is very close to Iraqi food but I still stand by my point! Unfortunately I don't own any Iraqi cookbooks. Most of the Iraqi recipes that I have made come from Afnan AlZayani's cookbook and Tess Mallos' cookbook. I did a lot of research on Amazon.com and it seems like out of all the cookbooks dedicated to Iraqi cooking, this one is the best. I can't wait to buy it!

I hope this list encourages you to go out and buy your own cookbook. Believe me, anyone can learn how to cook! You just need to be able to follow directions. And once you master that, you'll soon be able to internalize the techniques and make things without using any recipe!