New look and a few pictures

Hi everyone!

It has been a very long time since I've last posted anything. I have finally changed the look of my blog, I hope you all like it as it reflects exactly what the majority of posts will be about!

As it the month of Ramadan where Muslims fast from dawn 'til dusk, I've been preparing some yummy stuff lately. Not all are new recipes but for the mean time until fasting is over, here are some pictures of dishes I've been dishing up before and during the fasting month!

Until the next post

Enjoy!

Zaatar Pizza (Manoush Zaatar)

Hello one and all!

I'm back with a very quick and easy pizza recipe and the dough used for this particular recipe is extremely versatile and can be used for almost anything!

I came across this 10 min. dough recipe a few years ago on an Arabic forum (can't remember the name for the life of me) and I found this amazing recipe! It comes in two parts and only takes 10 mins.

Part one:

1/4 cup sugar

2 Tbs fast acting yeast

2 cups warm water

2 cups plain flour

Whisk to combine, cover with cling film and a tea towel and allow to sit for 10 mins.

Part two:

1/2 cup olive oil

3 cups plan flour

Mix in part two with part one, once the 10 mins. is over. At this point you can either use your hands to mix or use a mixer with the dough attachment to combine everything together.

You will find that the dough will keep rising and this recipe is good for at least 3 large pizzas.

For the Zaatar you can purchase the zaatar mix from a middle eastern grocer or dry your own oregano and add sesame seeds to it.

Zaatar mixture

In a bowl mix in 5 tbs of the zaatar mix with enough olive oil to cover the dry zaatar. Stir with a spoon.

Take a hand full of dough you like and press it down on a pizza tray or you can free handed-ly shape your dough. Spoon a few table spoons of the zaatar and oil mixture on to the dough and spread around to cover the surface. Place in the oven until golden*. Add a pinch of sumac on top of the pizza for added taste.

For a healthier option you can substitute plain flour for wholemeal flour, which is what I did!

*You may find that the zaatar has dried up you can simply add more mixture while its cooking to keep it moist.

Dawoud Basha

I know it's been a while since my last post. Sorry! I have been rather flat of late and I haven't been cooking anything worth exhibiting.

A few weeks ago I made an Arabic dish called 'Dawoud Basha'. There are a few ways of making this dish, however when you've got a very active almost 2 year old and studying full time; fast, simple and tasty is what you always go for on a daily basis. I will admit since the last post there have been more days I've bought lunch or dinner than I've actually cooked o_O

Without further ado here is my version of 'Dawoud Basha'

Ingredients:

1kg of koft

1 big onion

3 cloves garlic

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1 big red capsicum (cut into strips)

1 big red capsicum (cut into strips)

1 can of good quality diced tomatoes

2-3 tablespoon of tomato paste

1 tablespoon of powdered beef stock

salt

pepper

water

Method:

1. Roll kofta into medium sized balls and set aside on a plate
2. Finely chop onion and garlic and fry until just golden
3. Add kofta balls and fry until sealed
4. Add both capsicums and fry for a minute
5. Pour in the can of diced tomatoes
6. Add water to barely covering the meat
7. Add tomato paste paste and powdered stock and stir
8. Add salt and pepper to taste
9. Cover and let the soup simmer on low for 20 mins or until kofta is cooked through

Serve with rice and enjoy!

Don't forget to check out my facebook page where I post extra pictures of things I make! Make sure to follow me on instagram @tastytantrums.

Until next time my lovelies XOXO

Recipe of the Week

Here again!

I've decided that Sunday will be the day where I will choose a couple of recipes that I've used during the week that I love. Of course this doesn't mean that I won't add more according to everyone's requests.

Lets get started. This week I made an Arabic dish called "Fatet Lahmeh". The recipe I used is from the Manal Al-Alem cookbook 2010.

Thankfully this book has English translations to all the recipes in the book.  
So here it goes:

Ingredients:
1-1.5kg diced lamb
1 tsp salt
1 onion quartered
2 cinnamon sticks
10 whole black peppers
3 cups short grain rice
10-12 cloves minced finely
2 tbs ghee
3 rounds of Arabic/pita bread cut into 2cm squares
1/2 cup of vinegar.

Method:
1. Place lamb into either a pressure cooker or pot with onion, cinnamon, pepper and salt. Cook until tender.
2. Once meat it cooked drain it out and keep the water for later.
3. Cook the rice (however you usually cook it)
4. Heat up some vegetable oil and deep fry the bread. Set aside.
5. Place ghee and garlic into a saucepan and saute on high until the garlic turns golden.
6. Pour the vinegar into the garlic and bring to a light boil for 1 min.

How to assemble the dish:
1. Place fried bread at the bottom of a deep dish
2. Spoon half the garlic and vinegar mixture onto the bread. At this point you will also need to wet the bread with some of water that the lamb was cooked it. Just enough to wet the bread or else they bread will go completely soggy. You want there to be a bit of crunch!
3. Evenly spread rice over the top of the bread.
4. Place meat on top of rice in an evenly fashion.
5. Drizzle the remainder of the garlic and vinegar mixture over the meat.

Next recipe is a sweet one. These Arabic butter biscuits (from what I'm told) originated from Jordan.
These would have to be the most EASIEST bikkies you'll ever come across. These are also I sometimes treat as you will find out soon.

Ingredients:
2 cups ghee
2 cups icing sugar
3.5 cups plain flour
nuts of your choice

Method:
1. Pre-heat the oven to about 160 C fan forced (180 C gas)
2. Using an electric mixer, mix the ghee and icing sugar until well combined with a smooth texture.
3. Add in the flour and mix on medium until well combined.
4. The consistency should be that of dough. 
5. Take small amounts of the dough and shape them however you like.
6. Add either almonds, pine nuts or pistachios to the the shape for decoration. Or you can leave it plain.
7. Bake for around 15 min. 
Here are some examples of how 'Gharaybeh" can be shaped:

Baking tip!
 You don't want them to go brown! These bikkies are meant to be pale in colour. once you notice them starting to crack from the tops they should be about right to come out.


   

Here are what mine looked like:

I hope someone gives these recipes a go and let me know how you went!

Tasty hugs!

“Always start out with a larger pot than what you think you need.” 
― Julia Child

Get Stuffed Friday!

It started with...

And ended with...

And this...

I haven't eaten this much for months!

Today's feast consisted of an Arab dish called "Fatet Lahmeh". There isn't a western equivalent that I know of. The dish has 3 main components: Meat, rice and fried Lebanese/Arabic bread.

Desert was made by my dear husband. In Arabic these are called "Ghraybeh" or in English Butter biscuits. They're not quite like short-bread but it come close. Some people like them with Pistachios on the top but I prefer them without as I'm not much of a nut person.

Lastly which just pushed it over board was mango and vanilla ice-cream. I can't tell you all enough how much I LOVE mango Weis Bars! So when I can't get to the shops and have me some Weis, this is the closest thing I have. Mangoes are certainly coming back into season which excites my taste buds to bits!

In tomorrows post I'll put up the recipes for both the "Fatet Lahmeh" and Arabic butter bikkies!

Hope you've all had a great week!

Fat Hugs!

“The only time to eat diet food is while you're waiting for the steak to cook.” 
― Julia Child