Rishta رشتة

For the pasta, you need:

1 bowl of semolina

2 bowls of plain flour

1/2 tsp salt

Water to bind it all into a firm dough

1 tbsp olive oil (optional)

Extra flour and olive oil

Pasta maker and rolling pin

Couscousier or steamer

Butter

Mix the dry ingredients and add lukewarm water (1 part hot, two parts cold) little by little to bind the ingredients together. Knead into a firm, but soft dough.

Divide into small balls, set aside and cover for ten minutes.

Roll out to strips on a floured surface. Pass one strip at a time through the pasta maker on 2 mm setting twice, then two settings thinner twice and then another two settings thinner. If the pasta feels sticky, powder it with flour, the more the better. On my pasta maker I had to use setting number 2 first, then number 4 and then number 6, some pasta makers have their settings ranging the opposite direction and so you have to start with number 4, going down to 2 and 1.

After this the pasta is fed through the cutting wheels, with the smallest cut. Catch the noodles as they come out and transfer to a floured surface and divide them. You can let them dry for a little while, but it's not necessary.

Bring some water up to a boil in the couscousier pot and then drop the temperature to a simmer. Coat the upper part of the couscousier with oil. Drizzle some oil over the pasta noodles, mix and immediately lay it in the steamer over the simmering water. Cover and steam for ten minutes. For best results, work in small batches, for beginners that's one tiny ball at a time.

After the ten minutes are up, lift the rishta out of the steamer and place then in a plate or tray. Don't mix different batches until they've cooled down.

At this stage the rishta can be put in a bag and into the freezer for a later date.

Once all is done, take the amount you want and steam another five minutes on low heat without cover. Lift over to a plate, add a knob of butter and mix.

Serve with rishta stew.

For the stew or sauce:

Olive oil

One chopped onion

One whole chicken skinned and cut up

Salt, pepper (I use white) and cinnamon

Boiling water to cover

Chick peas

A couple of potatoes cut into chunks

One large, cut mooli

Three medium sized, cut carrots (optional - I like some colour)

Lightly fry the onion until it's lost colour, add the chicken and spices. Fry until the chicken has taken some colour.

Add hot water and vegetables. Bring to a boil and lower the heat to a simmer. Cook for 40 minutes to an hour or until it is cooked through.

Simple onion soup

2 tbsp olive oil (or preferred frying fat)

6 medium sized onions, peeled and chopped

6 medium sized potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes

1 1/2 litre vegetable stock (2-3 cubes)

Salt to taste

Grated cheddar cheese

Fry the onion until soft or golden. Add potatoes and stock. Bring to the boil, lower the heat and let simmer for approximately 30-40 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked through. Add salt if needed. Serve with grated cheese on top and with some nice bread (eg crisp bread with butter and cheese or grated carrot).

Nikkaluokta soup

Nikkaluokta soup (it's from a Sami village in Northern Sweden of the same name):

350g beef mince (or reindeer mince)

4dl cabbage

2 tbsp mustard

2 tbsp tomato paste/purée

1 bay leaf

1dl water

2 stock cubes (or your own broth/stock/bouillon of course)

2 leeks

1 tbsp soy sauce

2 sweet peppers

Potatoes (optional, makes soup more filling)

Salt & pepper

Fresh parsley

(Mustard and soy sauce can be omitted, leeks substituted with onion)

Fry leeks and mince. Add cabbage, and sweet peppers. Add water/stock (and potatoes) and bring to the boil. Simmer until cooked and add spices to taste. Add chopped parsley and serve.

Algerian Schorbah

Schorbah, the way I do it:

500g meat (optional, I mostly make all my soups vegetarian nowadays)

1-2 diced onion(s)

1-2 stalk(s) celery

Water

2-3 tomatoes (and/or 2 tbsp tomato paste/purée)

1-2 carrots

1 courgette

1 can chick peas

Salt, pepper, cinnamon, paprika, ra's-el-hanout (optional), ground coriander seed (I use eye measurements, so not sure how much I use of the spices, somewhere between 1 tsp and 1 tbsp)

A handful or two of vermicelli

Fresh coriander

Fresh parsley

Fresh mint

Lemon for serving

Fry onion and celery in oil until soft (add meat)

If using fresh tomatoes, skin them and then dice or blend in food processor. Add into the pot. Let cool for awhile, adding spices. Add vegetables (grated or finely cut/chopped) and water to cover. Add chick peas, bring to the boil and simmer for about forty minutes (one hour or more if using meat), or until cooked. Add vermicelli and simmer for ten minutes.

Add the fresh, chopped herbs and serve with lemon.

Schorbat Freek

This recipe is for 8-10 ppl:

2 diced/chopped onions

1 can of chick peas

3-4 tomatoes

2 diced celery stalks

1-2 courgettes

Spices: salt, pepper, cinnamon, paprika, ground coriander seed, ground cumin (optional)

1dl freek

Fresh chopped coriander, parsley and mint

Fry onions and celery in oil. (Add meat if you wish here)

Add chopped, skinned tomatoes (and/or tomato paste), freek and spices. Add water to cover, grated courgette and chick peas. Bring to the boil and simmer until cooked. Add fresh herbs and serve with lemon.

Cheese not curdling?

Experimenting with how much (or little) vinegar that can be used in making soft cheese, I realised that it's not so much a matter of the amount of acid, but rather the heat of the milk.

If the cheese won't curdle, don't add more acid, but increase the heat by turning it on again, just make sure it doesn't boil, and "voila!" it'll curdle just fine :)

Super easy soft cheese (Farmer's cheese)

Super easy soft cheese. Lovely with a little salt on bread. Yum!

http://www.hookandson.co.uk/page20/customer%20recipes.html

Faye and Paulo's Fresh Cheese

I made it with one litre of milk, brought it to a simmer (not a rolling boil as in the recipe) and my tiny lemons were not enough to separate the curds and whey, so had to take one and a half (the first one was 2.5 tbs, so say maybe 3.5 tbs lemon juice for a litre of milk).

Home made yogurt

My first (successful attempt - my second attempt in total) home made yogurt! :) and it's yum, mashaa Allah!

The pictures show the preparation work (warming the milk, cooling and mixing in the yogurt) and the end result.

I tried to keep the temperature (should be constantly kept at 37°C or lukewarm for seven hours or more) with the oven method first, figuring S on a gas oven would be cool enough, what a mistake! It got too hot and was really difficult to keep at a constant temperature when I turned it off.

This time I kept it in a warm bath in a big pot. When cooking it was easy to keep the temperature right, leaving the pot next to the cooking food. After that I had to add some boiling water now and then from the kettle to the water in the pot, and it worked really well, mashaa Allah.

Gnewiyah - Tunisian Okra Stew

Ingredients:
1 medium sized onion, 1/2 kg meat for stewing (I used veal here), olive oil,
2-3 garlic, salt & black pepper, 1/4 tsp cayenne, 3 tbs paprika, 2 tbs 1/ ground coriander,
tomato paste, water
red bell pepper, 1-2 handfuls of pearl onions, 3 cups okra

Brown the onions and meat in olive oil. Add pressed garlic (I grate it, 'cause I haven't found a proper garlic press since I moved here! Only plastic rubbish) and spices. Fry for a few more minutes, then add tomato paste and water to cover.
Cook for an hour or two, until the meat is nearly tender (less in a pressure cooker, which is what I use - I've grown to love it, saves me a lot of time).
Add the pepper, cut in strips, and pearl onions. Cook some more, then add the okra the last twenty minutes (be careful not to over-cook). Serve with bread.

Lablaabi - Chick pea soup

 

 Ingredients, 4 servings:

2 cans of chick peas (or 1 1/2 cup dried chick peas, soaked overnight and boiled), 5 cups of water, 1 stock cube,

6 garlic cloves, peeled, 1 bay leaf, 4 tsp cumin (freshly toasted and ground), 1 tbs harissa, 4 eggs, 3 tbs olive oil, juice of 1/2 a lemon, chopped parsley

Cook the chick peas in the stock, together with garlic and bay leaf (if using dry chick peas, cook for 45 minutes, add salt and cook another 15 minutes). Add spices and harissa and cook for 25 minutes whilst preparing the garnish (see below for ideas).

Add olive oil and lemon juice. Bring to a fierce boil and crack the eggs into the soup, bring the heat down and poach the eggs, without stirring for approximately five minutes or until the egg whites have hardened.

Garnish with parsley and serve or garnish with some of the suggestions below.

I was really surprised at how lovely this dish actually turned out to be, mashaa Allah! I'm not particularly fond of chick peas, cumin or garlic, but this is an absolute winner!

Egg-free Lablaabi

Lablaabi with poached egg

Garnish:

Tear some old, stale bread into soup bowls to pour the soup over (I won't do this again, the kids gave me minus points for the soggy bread!)

You can serve Lablaabi with, for example, olive oil, harissa, cumin, capers, tuna, olives, garlic, vinegar, lemon or lime juice, cilantro or parsley, and/or spring onions.

Lablaabi served with olive oil, olives, cumin, lemon and tuna.

 PS. there are variants of this soup in other parts of the world too.

Shakshoukah

 This is an old picture of Shakshouka, the way I used to make it before.
Below are pictures of today's Shakshouka, that I looked up for my current "Tunisian inspired cooking" week. It tastes the same as the above Shakshouka.

Shakshouka is a kind of vegetarian ragout, similar to ratatouille. A tomato stew with poached eggs on top. There are variants of it in many countries (have a look in Wikipedia)

 It's still cooking here :)

Recipe:

Ingredients:
Olive oil
1 large onion
2-3 sweet peppers
8 cloves garlic
2 tbs tomato paste
3 cups water
2 tomatoes
2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp cumin
1 tbs paprika
Salt to taste
1 egg per person (as we have some with egg allergy in the family, I just took some of the sauce and put aside before adding the eggs, the taste is a bit strong without them but okey)
Parsley

Instructions:
1. Cut onion and press garlic cloves and saute them in a deep frying pan or pot until golden.
2. Add thinly cut peppers.
3. Add the spices and mix.
4. Chop the tomatoes (I like to peel them as well) and add to the pan.
5. Add tomato paste and water, then bring to a simmer.
6. Add salt to taste.
7. Crack eggs directly into the hot tomato sauce, without breaking the yolks. Put the eggs in evenly spaced. After the eggs have been added, there shouldn't be any more stirring or mixing.
8. Leave it to cook on low heat for about 2-5 minutes more, until the egg whites have cooked through.
9. Sprinkle fresh parsley over the Shakshouka and serve with bread.

Five minute chocolate cake

 

• 4 tablespoons flour
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
• 2 tablespoons whisked egg - can be omitted, but line the mug/bowl with fat or else it'll stick!
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 3 tablespoons oil
• some kind of flavouring - vanilla or cinnamon for example

"Bake" for five minutes in the microwave and top with whipped cream and fruit.

Egg-free Treacle Cake or Sweet Brown Bread

• 450 ml milk
• 100 g sugar
• 165 g treacle
• 170 g wholemeal flour
• 200 g plain/bread flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt

1. Butter a big bread tin and line with breadcrumbs. preheat oven to 180C, gas mark 4.
   
2. Combine dry ingredients and wet together with sugar separately. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix well.
3. Pour mixture into the pans and bake for 45 minutes.

I converted the measurements like this:

• 4 1/2 dl milk
• 1 dl sugar (could do with some more)
• 4 tbs treacle
• 3 dl wholemeal flour
• 4 dl plain flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
  

Taken from Allrecipes.co.uk

Jeffels - baked beans with tomato sauce in toast

Two buttered slices with a spoonful of baked beans in tomato sauce in-between, grilled in a panini iron or special Jeffels-iron. Yum!

And to benefit extra from the iron in the beans, serve with some salad cress and fresh orange juice for vitamin C.

Ängasoppa

Ängasoppa is a spring and summer soup, preferably made with the first, tender vegetables of spring.

4 portions

1 small cauliflower head
2-3 carrots
1 small leek
a handful of spinach or mangold
2 dl peas
5 dl water
1 vegetable stock cube
2 1/2 tbs flour
4 dl milk
1 dl parsley
salt & pepper to taste

Try to find as fresh vegetables as possible, the above mentioned are just a suggestion. I substitute leek with an onion, if I don't have any leeks and I don't recall using parsley...

Clean and prepare the vegetables. Cut or dice everything into the same size. Starting with the carrots and cabbage, cover with water and bring to the boil, adding the rest of the vegetables after a few minutes. Cook them until the vegetables have become "al dente" (done, but with some bite, like good spaghetti).

Mix the flour with some of the milk and add to the soup. Keep on low heat for about five more minutes.

You can also add yolk from an egg and half a decilitre of cream, mixed with a decilitre of the soup, but make sure the soup has only been simmering, not boiling or else the yolk will make it all grainy.

Burek

Bureks are spring rolls, also called samosa/sambosa/sambusek. Thin pastry sheets filled with a tasty filling, most commonly minced meat (when filled with cheese they're called fatayer - it's pretty much the same, though). You can make the paper thin sheets yourself (Tammy of Tammy's Somali Home shows how on her blog) or buy them at any supermarket (spring roll pastry suits perfectly).
Different variants of burek/samosa are eaten all over the world. They seem to have merged somewhat over the years with the spring rolls, summer rolls, egg rolls, börek, et al.

The most used filling in our house is;

Minced meat filling

2 tsp olive oil
1 onion
500 g mince meat
olives cut in rings
salt, pepper and harissa to taste
eggs and chopped parsley
soft cheese

Fry the onions soft in the oil, add the mince and fry until all the redness is gone. Add olives and seasoning and let it cook for awhile. In the end add eggs and parsley, but don't let it cook dry!

Take a spring roll sheet, put about a spoonful of the filling in one corner together with some soft cheese and roll it, tucking in the sides as you go.

Deep fry or cook under the grill with some oil brushed over them. If you put the opening down first, you don't need anything to stick the ends to the rolls with.


According to Wikipedia: Swedes eat 1,2 spring rolls per person per year, the Danish 7 spring rolls per year, and Norway 1,4. lol

Swedish toffee

Knäck is a traditional Swedish toffee. The name translates into "break" and refers to its hard consistency (reminding of Daim or Skor bars). Some prefer their knäck to be soft and chewy, which is easily attainable by simmering the mix for a shorter time.

~Recipe~

Heavy cream (any kind of cream that can be cooked will work just fine - such as double or whipping cream)
Golden syrup
Sugar

Measure up equal parts (e.g. 150 ml) of the cream, syrup and sugar in a heavy based saucepan or pot (preferably a large pan for quicker results).
Melt it while stirring and bring to the boil. Lower the heat to a simmer, the heat should be high enough to keep the mix boiling without burning to the bottom of the pan.
Keep boiling, while stirring, until the mix becomes a bit gluey. Pour a drop of the mix into a glass of cold water. If you can roll it to a hard or chewy ball, it’s done.
(You can add chopped almonds to the mix at this stage)

Pour into mini paper cups and leave to cool. Delicious!

Hareera

A very traditional Ramadan soup in the North-Western areas of Africa (mainly Morocco, but also some parts of Algeria). It's good and filling after a long day of fasting, and of course soups are ideal to restore fluids and hide those greens (if you have picky eaters).
It is eaten every day at iftar, until someone has had enough!

1 lb (450 g) lamb and/or 1/2 lb (225 g) chicken (optional - can be vegetarian as well)
1 big onion, chopped
4 oz (100 g) brown lentils
turmeric, ground cinnamon, paprika (the recipe calls for 1/2 - 1 tsp, I generally use more)
4 pints (2.3 litre) water
1 lb (450 g) ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped or mixed (I sometimes omit the fresh tomatoes, or use less)
2 tsp tomato paste
4 oz (100 g) chick peas ( if dried and softened in water over-night, put them in with the water)
a few handfuls of vermicelli
3 tbs fresh, chopped coriander
3 tbs fresh, chopped parsley
1 tbs chopped celery (use the leaves, or if you use the stalks, put them in with the onions)
1 egg
salt & black pepper
Serve with lemon wedges to taste

1. Soften the onion (and celery) in the oil on a low heat, add meat and brown.
2. Add water, spices and tomato (if the lentils take long to cook, add them as well - some don't take longer than 30 or 40 minutes though, so it's better to add them later).
3. Bring to the boil, lower the heat to a simmering and leave to cook for about one and a half hour (30 minutes if you make it vegetarian).
4. Add vermicelli, stir and cook for another 10 minutes until the vermicelli is cooked.
5. Whisk an egg and pop it into the soup and stir.
6. Add salt and pepper to taste and turn off the heat. Add the herbs.

Serve with lemon on the side. Moroccans like to have their Hareera with shabbakiyah.

My first jam

My very first jam :) Gooseberry jam. And it was so simple!

gooseberries, topped and tailed
water, just enough to cover -boil up and then leave to simmer for about half an hour
sugar, same amount in weight as berries

Let the sugar dissolve, and then heat it up to boiling point and leave to boil for approximately 15 minutes or until it passes the jam test: take some of the jam and put on a cold plate. Let it cool and push it with your finger, if it wrinkles it's ready.

Mine took a lot longer than 15 minutes to set, no idea why. Perhaps because I left the skins intact (I didn't want a smooth jam), or maybe I should have cooked it for longer before I added the sugar.

Doesn't matter, the end result was delicious! :)

Mdardrah - Lentils with Rice

2 tbs olive oil
1 medium sized onion, sliced
3 dl green lentils
4 dl rice
vegetable stock to cover
salt and pepper to taste

In a deep pot, fry the onion in the olive oil for about five minutes. Add the lentils and rice together with the salt and pepper and stir well.

Add the vegetable stock and stir one last time. There should be enough liquid to reach one centimetre above the rice line.

Leave to simmer until the rice is cooked through and you can hear that the water has disappeared.

This dish is absolutely delicious served with yoghurt, green salad and brown-fried onions and mushrooms (onions and sliced mushrooms stir-fried until browned with salt and pepper).