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.

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

3+3+6=12 (more or less)

3 eggs
3 dl flour
6 dl milk

optional: a pinch of salt, 1 tbs sugar

makes approximately 12 pancakes.

Mix the batter. Melt some butter or margarine in a frying pan. Take one soup ladle of the batter and pour into the medium hot pan. When the batter has stiffened, flip it over to bake the other side too. And repeat until all the batter is finished.

Serve with sugar and cinnamon, syrup, ice cream, berries and cream, honey, or jam.