"Meatloaf" (ميتلوف - عرق لحمة مفرومة بالبيض المسلوق)

Meatloaf in my opinion is an irresistible dish!
It's also very easy to prepare.
This recipe is enough for 4-6 persons.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs (3/4kg) minced meat- veal or beef.
1 medium minced onion.
4 boiled eggs.
1/2 tsp all spice powder.
Salt and pepper.
1/2 tsp Cinnamon.
1 tbsp bread crumb.

For the sauce: 1 tbsp tomato paste and 1 cup of water, salt and pepper.


Directions:

1. In a sauce pan, stir 1 tbsp tomato paste, 1 cup water and season with salt and pepper. Stir until completely dissolved over medium heat.
2. Preheat oven over 365F.
3. Mix the meat with minced onion and season with salt, pepper, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1tbsp bread crumb and 1/2 tsp all spice powder.
4. Cut a piece of foil in a rectangle shape and spread the meat over it. Don't let the meat to be very thin when u spread it.
5. Add the 4 whole boiled eggs horizontally.
6. Then start rolling the meat like the Swiss Roll by lifting the foil up. But make sure that the foil stays out always, until you cover all the eggs and the meat is closed from all sides. Press hard on the meat to fill all around the eggs.
7. Then start covering the meatloaf with foil and close it very tightly from both ends.
8. Put it in a Pyrex dish and add sauce in that dish.
9. Put the dish in a lower rack in a preheated oven over 365F.
10. Leave in oven for 45 minutes.
11. After that, uncover the top of the meatloaf and pour some of the sauce over the surface.
12. Leave for 20 minutes then turn it on the other side for another 20 minutes. Again pour sauce on the surface.
13. Take out from dish and foil and leave it to cool down for 30 minutes.
14. When it completely cooled down, remove from foil and start cutting it into thick slices.

Tip: Next to the "meatloaf", we can prepare mashed potatoes and sauteed vegetables as side dishes.

Enjoy our dear readers, and don't forget to follow the blog for many new interesting and delicious recipes!

"Crab Meat Salad" (سلاطة كابوريا)

Crab Meat Salad is a very easy salad, and needs just a few minutes for preparing.
It also has a very delicious taste!

Ingredients:

4 packets of crab meat chunks (225gm/each).
1 green pepper.
1 can corn (200gm).
1 lemon.
Salt & pepper.


Directions:

1. Cut 1 green pepper cut into cubes.
2. In a big bowl mix the crab chunks with green pepper and corn.
3. Squeeze 1 lemon (or 1 1/2) and season with salt and pepper.

I hope you enjoy this quick and tasty salad!

"Fried Fish Fillet" (سمك فيليه)

Seafood lovers..enjoy this lovely recipe!
I use Tilapia fish in making "Fish Fillet".

Ingredients:

6 pieces of tilapia fillet.
1 minced green pepper.
3/4 tsp minced garlic.
1 tsp cumin.
Salt & pepper.
1 1/2 squeezed lemon.
Flour.


Directions:

1. Rub the fish with flour, then rinse. Rub it again with salt then rinse. We do that in order to clean the fish.
2. Marinate the fish for an hour, by 1 minced green pepper, 3/4 tsp minced garlic, 1 tsp cumin, salt, pepper and 1 1/2 squeezed lemon.
3. Leave it for at least 1 hour.
4. Preheat oil for deep frying to 340 F.
5. Dip fish in flour from both sides, then start frying.
6. To make sure that it's thoroughly cooked, you can insert a knife in the thickest area of the fillet while it's frying!
7. Remove when the fish turns into medium gold color.
8. When fish is served, you have to squeeze some lemon drops over each fish fillet. Another option is just to cut some lemon pieces in a plate, and each person adds the desired amount of lemon to his fish!

Tips:

• You can prepare some "brown rice" and "tahina" next to it. Both recipes are included on our blog. French Fries would also be good.
• This dish is very much liked by kids and adults for it's delicious taste!
• That's besides to the nutritious benefits of fish, such as being an excellent source of Omega-3 acid, vitamins and minerals.
• It's also well known of lowering blood pressure and helping prevent heart deseases.

Enjoy your healthy meal!

"Fried Cauliflower" (قرنبيط محمر)

Our recipe today is very simple. It can be used as a side dish or an appetizer.
It's a very yummy dish for vegetarians or cauliflower lovers!

Ingredients:

1 bag of frozen cauliflower (500 gm).
1/4 cup flour.
1/8 cup breadcrumb. (بقسماط)
1/2 tsp minced garlic.
1/2 tsp cumin.
Salt & pepper.
About 1/8 cup water.
Red pepper powder (optional).


Directions:

1. Defrost the cauliflower.
2. Preheat the oil (we'll deep fry the cauliflower, so heat it to 340F).
3. Mix about 1/4 cup flour, 1/8 cup breadcrumb, 3/4 tbsp salt, 3/4 tsp pepper, 1/2 tsp cumin and 1/2 tsp minced garlic.
4. Add the cauliflower and stir, so that all would be seasoned equally. Then add 1/8 cup water, and stir once more. You have to use your hands in mixing/stirring all.
5. Make sure that the cauliflower isn't getting sticky, if this happened just add more flour.
6. You can add a sprinkle of red pepper powder if you like it spicy!
7. Leave it in its seasoning for an hour.
8. When you start frying, make sure that you drop it in oil one by one, because we don't want the cauliflowers to stick together in the fryer.
9. When they start to get a golden color remove them on a paper towel.

Tip:

• The breadcrumb gives a crunchy taste, so don't forget to add it!
• We can decorate our dish by sprinkling some chopped parsley over the cauliflower.

Enjoy my dear readers.

"Chicken Rolls" (صدور الفراخ المحشية)

Chicken Rolls are very delicious.
They are not just chicken, they're also stuffed with vegetables, which makes the meal even healthier!
It won't take you even too much time to prepare them, only about 20 minutes.

Ingredients:

8 thin slices of chicken breast.
1 green pepper.
1 medium onion.
1 carrot.
3 tbsp olive oil.
1 minced onion for marinating the chicken
1 filled tsp tomato paste.
Salt & pepper.

Directions:

1. Marinate the sliced chicken with 1 minced onion, salt, pepper and 1 filled tsp tomato paste. Leave the chicken for at least 1 hour marinating.
2. First start by slicing the onion, carrot, and green pepper into thin slices then cut into short pieces.
3. In a frying pan add 3 tbsp olive oil on medium heat, then add the sliced vegetables.
4. Season them with salt and pepper.
5. Keep stirring the vegetables until they get tender. Then remove them from the pan onto a kitchen paper towel.
6. Start stuffing the chicken slices by taking 1-2 tsp of vegetables (depending on how big the chicken slice is) and put it on the wider side of the slice then start rolling. 
7. We take each of the rolls and put it in a square piece of foil and roll the foil around it tightly and close it from both sides. Each separately!
8. Put all the chicken rolls in a baking dish (I use a Pyrex dish), and little water for the bottom then into a preheated oven on 350F.
9. Leave it for 15 minutes then turn the rolls on the other side for another 15 minutes.
10. After that, remove the rolls from the foil and put back in the dish and in the oven back for 5 minutes.

Tip: Some people prepare "Soy Sauce" for dipping. Others like it just like that!

I bet you'll love this dish!

"Potato Kofta" (كفتة بالبطاطس)

In the Middle East, people like "Kofta" a lot.
There are plenty of ways for making Kofta, and this is one of the most popular ones.

Ingredients:

1 lb or 1/2 kg minced meat (beef or veal).

1 minced onion.

1 bunch of minced parsley.

1 medium sized boiled and peeled potato.

1 beaten egg.

Salt and pepper.

Breadcrumb.

2 other  beaten eggs.

Oil for frying.

 

Direction:

1. Peel 1 medium sized potato and boil.
2. Mash the potato with a fork until it becomes very smooth.
3. Beat 1 egg and season with little salt and pepper.
4. In a big bowl, season the meat with salt and pepper.
5. Mix the meat with minced onion, boiled potato, minced parsley and the egg very well.
6. Start heating oil, because we'll deep fry the Kofta!
7. Beat 2 eggs and season them with salt and pepper in a medium sized bowl.
8. Prepare a big plate and put breadcrumbs in.
9. Start taking small amounts of the mix in your hand and form your Kofta in a curved rectangle shape.
10. Dip the Kofta one by one in the eggs from all sides, then in breadcrumbs. Make sure that the Kofta is covered well with breadcrumbs.
11. Start deep frying.
12. Kofta should be medium brown in color.

Tip: To mash potato in an easy way, add first about 2 tbsp hot water to it!

Bon Apetit.

"Pound Cake" (كيكة)

Today I'll give you one of my favorite dessert recipes.

Pound Cakes can be eaten anytime you like, at breakfast, as a snack, or with tea in the afternoon.

The following ingredients are enough for 2 baking loaf pans.

Ingredients:

1 cup butter/ghee.
2 cup sugar.
3 cups flour.

5 eggs.

Less than a cup milk (between 3/4 and 1 cup).
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder.
2 tsp Vanilla extract.


Directions:

1. Start by warming up the oven to 350F.
2. Beat the butter (or ghee) with sugar on high speed for 10 minutes!!
3. Add the eggs and vanilla extract and beat again.
4. Add the flour through a * sieve, by adding some of the flour in the sieve and shake it, until it all goes down onto the mixture. Keep repeating until you finish all the 3 cups of flour. The reason for doing that, is that we need air to come into the mixture. For if you added all your flour without the previous step, your cake will be thick and sticky! And we need it to be fluffy and light!
5. Add the baking powder and beat the mixture.
6. At last add the milk and beat all again.
7. Brush the bottom and sides of the baking pans with ghee.
8. Add half the mixture to each of the baking pans. Always fill the baking pan maximum to its half!
9. Put the baking pans in the oven on the lower rack.
10. After approximately 35 minutes check if it's fully baked, by inserting a knife in it. If the knife comes out clean, then the cake is baked.
11. When you take the cake out of the oven, you have to remove it immediately from the baking pan into your serving dish.

Tip:

• If you need the cake to be a "vanilla-chocolate" one, you can add about 4 tbsp cocoa after adding the mixture in each loaf pan and stir lightly with a spoon.
• Use nonstick baking loaf pans.

* sieve:

Enjoy your cake!

"Chicken Liver" (كبدة فراخ)

Chicken Liver is very healthy as it's rich in Iron, Vitamin A and B.
Besides to its nutritious advantage, when you try this recipe, you'll find it very tasty!
 

 Ingredients:

500 gm chicken liver.
Flour for washing the chicken liver.
2 cardamom. حبهان
2 gum mastic. مستكة
2 tbsp ghee. سمنة
Salt & pepper.
1/2 lemon.


 Directions:

1. Start by boiling water on the stove in a sauce pan and add 2 cardamoms and 2 gum mastic.
2. Rub the chicken liver with little flour then wash, then rub it with salt and wash again. Be gentle while washing it or else the liver will be crushed in your hands.
3. When the water starts boiling add the washed chicken liver and leave it for 10-15 minutes maximum.
4. Remove from stove and spill out the water and the cardamoms.
5. Rinse under water again, because while boiling blood will come out of the liver.
6. In a big fry pan, add 2 tbsp ghee over high heat, when the ghee melts wait a few seconds more then add the chicken liver and season with salt & pepper.
7. Lower the heat to medium, and stir every now and then so the chicken liver won't burn.
8. You can squeeze 1/2 lemon over it at the end and stir all again, it adds a very nice flavor! (some people don't like lemon, so it's optional)
9. Remove from stove when u reach a nice dark brown color. It should take less than 5 minutes for frying.
   

Tip:

• Some like to fry a sliced onion with the chicken liver as well.
• You can serve the chicken liver over a bed of shredded lettuce!

Enjoy a nutritious tasty dish everyone.

"Canape"

In the Middle East, "Canape" is a popular light dish. 

So here you are, if you have people coming over and you don't feel like cooking, you can prepare various kinds of canapes. I will help you with some ideas, but you can always use your creativity for new toppings.

Canape can also be served as an appetizer before your main course.
Very easy to prepare at home and of course cheaper than buying them ready made.
Canapes are always delicious and they look very attractive on the serving dish!

Ingredients:

1 Baguette (French Bread) for each kind of topping.

Tuna topping:
2 small tuna cans (200gm/each) + 1 1/4 tbsp butter + salt & pepper.
1/4 tomato cut into small cubes for decorating.

Eggs topping:
4 boiled eggs + 2 tbsp butter + 3 tsp mustard + salt & pepper.

Some sliced black olives for decorating.

Blue Cheese topping:

125 blue cheese (about 1 piece) + 1 tbsp butter.

1/4 green pepper cut into small cubes for decorating.

Smoked Salmon topping:

Thin sliced smoked salmon (Lox) + lemon.

Small pieces of regular onions for decorating.

Directions:

1. Cut the bread into thin slices, about 1/2 inch or 1 cm thick.
2. For the "Tuna", mix the ingredients in a kitchen machine then spread on each slice. Cut the tomatoes into small cubes and put on top in the center for decoration.
3. For "Eggs", again mix the ingredients in the kitchen machine and spread on the slices. Decorate with black olive slices.
4. For "Blue cheese", same as previous steps, and decorate with small cubes of green pepper.
5. For "Smoked Salmon", squeeze lemon on all the smoked salmon slices.
6. Then put one slice or even half, depending on it's size and thickness, over the bread slice.
7. Cut an onion into very thin slices and then cut them into halves or more. Then decorate the salmon with the onions. Onions give a very good flavor to the salmon.

Enjoy these delicious varieties and try to invent others!
Have Fun dear readers.

"Molokheya" (ملوخية)

Molokheya is a very special dish for middle eastern.
Even children like eating it a lot!

Ingredients:

1 frozen molokheya bag (about 400gm).
Chicken broth.
2 tsp minced garlic.
1 tsp coriander (كزبرة)
1 tbsp ghee.
Salt and pepper.


Directions:

1. Boil the chicken broth and season it with salt.
2. After boiling the broth, put in another nonstick sauce pan the molokheya while it's still frozen over low-medium heat.
3. Add 2 ladles of the boiled chicken broth over the molokheya and start stirring, until it's homogeneous.
4. The molokheya should not be thin like a soup, so don't add too much broth!
5. Season with some salt and pepper and keep stirring.
6. When you feel that the molokheya started to boil, lower the heat.
7. Add 1 tbsp ghee to a nonstick fry pan and fry 2 tsp minced garlic on medium heat.
8. Add immediately some salt and pepper and 1 tsp coriander and stir.
9. Take 1 ladle of molokheya and pour over the garlic and stir in the sauce pan then pour quickly back on the molokheya sauce pan.
10. Stir all and increase the heat back to medium until you see it started to boil then remove from stove.

Tip:

• Some people like to prepare red onion with vinegar on the side. Red Onion is cut into small cubes and vinegar is poured over it. You can take some and add it over the molokheya, tastes very good!
• Molokheya is usually eaten with white rice, although some like to eat it with pita bread. Others just like eating it plain.

"Swiss Roll"

Our recipe today is for people with sweet tooth!
"Swiss Roll" is a very delicate dessert. I hope you'll all like it.

Ingredients:

6 eggs.
1 cup flower.
1 cup sugar.
1/2 tbsp vanilla extract.
Apricot jam for filling.
Powdered Sugar.

Directions:

1. Start by heating the oven to 350F.
2. In a big bowl, mix the eggs, sugar, & vanilla very good.
3. Then add the flower and mix all again.
4. Spray a rectangle nonstick baking dish or brush with ghee or butter, then pour the whole mixture in.
5. Put in oven in the lower rack.
6. After 20 minutes we can check if it's fully baked by pressing with our finger on its surface. If the surface stayed down from our press then it needs more time, but if it went up again then it's done.
7. Prepare a wax paper (ورق زبدة) that should be a little larger than your baking dish and sprinkle a lot of powdered sugar all over it!
8. After the cake is baked we take it out of the baking dish and lay it on the wax paper.
9. Cut the side of the cake (left and right), which are the short sides with a knife. This will ease the rolling afterwards.
10. Heat in microwave or on stove some apricot jam until it starts to be saucy for easy spreading!
11. Spread the apricot jam on the whole surface. Don't spread a lot of jam, or else it will pour out of the sides when we start rolling it.
12. Now this is the challenging part, start rolling the cake from the long side using the wax paper, but make sure the paper always stays outside. Wrap it then like a bonbon/candy. All this has to be done, while the cake is still warm!
13. After 1 hour, remove the wrap (wax paper) and sprinkle more powdered sugar, if you feel that it needs more.
14. Put in a serving dish and enjoy!

Tip:

• If you want to make the Swiss Roll with chocolate topping and filling, use cooking chocolate and melt it. You can also you any chocolate topping/frosting.
• This time don't sprinkle any powdered sugar on the wax paper.
• Spread the chocolate on the cake for filling then roll.
• Wrap as previous directions and leave for 1 hour.
• Unwrap and spread the chocolate on the outer side of the Swiss Roll. You can decorate with chocolate sprinkles, or some chopped hazelnuts. Use your imagination and be creative!

Enjoy everyone.

"Lobster" (استاكوزا)

Anyone interested in Lobster? 
Then here you are, the Lobster's recipe! Very simple and quick.

Ingredients:

2 lobsters (alive)!
4-5 lemons.
1 big sliced onion.
Salt, pepper, & cumin for seasoning.

Directions:

1. Lobsters have to be cooked while alive! So put them in an extra large pot and add 1 sliced onion and 4-5 squeezed lemons (depends on how you like it, I usually use 5 lemons).
2. Season with salt, pepper and 1 filled tsp cumin.
3. Cover the pot and shake it hard, so that the lobsters are well seasoned.
4. Then add very little water to the bottom of the pot, so that lobsters, while cooking won't get burned.
5. Cook on low to medium heat for approximately 35 minutes.
6. Every 10 minutes shake the pot and check if it needs little water for the bottom again.
7. When they're fully cooked you'll notice that their color is very reddish!

Tip:

• Lobsters and crabs are cooked while alive, because if they're dead, they start to be poisoning! Don't take any chances with that!
• Don't overcook, so that the lobster's meat won't stick to the skin or shell.
• Use your crackers and thin forks to eat it all up.

Have fun eating your lobster!

"Veal Bottom Round Roast" - (فخذة بتلو)

Our delicious recipe today, is specially for meat lovers.
It's an elegant main dish for any occasion you have.
We'll be using "veal-meat" and we'll roast it in oven, so we can minimize the amount of fats in this meal!

Ingredients needed:

Veal Round Roast (about 5.5 lbs)
5-6 Garlic cloves (to be inserted in the meat). فصوص ثوم
2 Minced onions.
3-4 garlic cloves to be minced for outside seasoning.
3 Tbsp BBQ sauce.
Juice of 2 squeezed lemons.
2 Tsp cinnamon.
Nutmeg powder. جوزة التيب
2-3 Bay leaves. ورق لورة
1 1/2 tbsp mustard.
Salt & Pepper.

Optional: side vegetables as baby carrots - red baby potatoes - zucchini pieces.


Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. Insert about 6 garlic cloves in various areas in the meat really deep, so that the surface of meat would close over them.
3. Mince 2 onions and 4 garlic cloves and season the whole roast.
4. Also season with 3 tbsp BBQ sauce, 2 squeezed lemons, 2 tsp cinnamon and less than 1/2 tsp nutmeg powder,1 1/2 tbsp mustard. And at last of course the salt and pepper.
5. The meat should be covered all with that seasoning then we put it in an oven dish (better a nonstick one), next to the meat we put 2-3 bay leaves.
6. Cover the dish with foil and leave it for about 40 minutes in the lower rack.
7. Then we check on the meat and turn it on it's other side. We can take from the sauce in the bottom of the dish and pour over the upper side of the meat.
8. Leave it for another 25 minutes. Then we can check if it's fully cooked or not yet, using a knife or a fork. If you felt that it's almost done, you can add some vegetables like baby carrots, baby potatoes and some zucchini pieces.
9. Leave it then until the vegetables are cooked but not too tender, while still covered!!
10. You can uncover the dish for the last 10 minutes.

Tip: We can prepare many side dishes like rice, cannelloni, cheese puff pastries and many more.


Enjoy!

"Crabs" (كابوريا)

Yummy Yummy Crabs!!!
One of my favourite dishes. You cannot get enough of eating crabs!

Ingredients:

1 dozen of crabs. (they must be alive!!)
3 squeezed lemons.
2 sliced onions.
Salt, pepper, & cumin for seasoning.


Directions:

1. In an extra large pot add the sliced onions and the 3 squeezed lemons.
2. Then add the crabs, while they're alive!
3. Season them with salt, pepper and about 1 tbsp cumin (sprinkle some red pepper powder if you like it spicy).
4. Cover the pot and shake it while closed really hard so all crabs would be seasoned.
5. Then uncover and add about 1/3 cup of water or less, we just need the water so that the crabs won't get burned while cooking.
6. Cook over low to medium heat (more to medium).
7. Every while you have to shake the pot, so that all crabs would be fully cooked equally.
8. Crabs would take about 25 minutes until fully cooked.

Tips:

• Never cook already dead crabs nor lobsters, because they get poisoning after they die. People say that they are safe to be cooked if only dead for a few hours, but I don't like taking risks!
• You can add more than 3 lemons if you desire.
• Don't overcook crabs or else their meat will stick to their shells and they'll be very hard to eat.
• You'll need some tools like special forks and crackers to eat your crabs easily, and here are their pictures:

Bon Appetit dear readers!

"Mussels" (جندوفلي)

This is a very tasty recipe for mussels, and what's nice about it, that it doesn't take much time for preparing!

Ingredients:

2 lbs mussels.
1 big sliced onion.
2 tbsp Tomato paste.
1/4 tsp minced garlic.
Salt, pepper, & cumin.
1 tbsp Oil.
Vinegar for cleaning the mussels.



Directions:

1. Soak the mussels in a bowl filled with water and some vinegar for 15 minutes.
2. Then rinse the mussels.
3. In a pot add 1 tbsp oil and fry the sliced onion until lightly yellow.
4. Add about 2 tbsp tomato paste with little water and season with salt, pepper and about 1/2 tsp cumin and stir.
5. Add 1/4 tsp cumin and stir again. The sauce has to be thick!
6. Add the mussels and stir all the ingredients. This dish should be cooked on medium heat and uncovered.
7. Optional: Add some parsley flakes and 1 squeezed lemon.
8. After 15 minutes you can cover the pot.
9. Check on it after 10 minutes, if you find all mussels opened, this shows that your dish is fully cooked!

Tip:

• Don't eat the closed ones, better to throw them away!
• As a side dish you can prepare pasta with marinara sauce.

I hope you enjoy this delicious seafood dish!