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).

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.

Gratin de poisson, Fish Bake

Approximately 730 g Coley or other white fish
2 tbs butter
2 tbs flour
500 ml milk
salt and pepper
parsley, chives or preferred herbs (I did it with parsley today - the recipe called for salad cream and gherkins, and on top of the béchamel, sliced tomatoes)
5 ml lemon juice
1 kg potatoes, peeled and cooked
fresh milk for the mashed potatoes
grated cheddar cheese

Cook the potatoes, and make the béchamel sauce in another small pan: melt the butter and add the flour, while stirring (it's a good idea to sift the flour into the melted butter). Add the milk little by little, while stirring. Don't let it burn, and keep it smooth. Season with salt and pepper and your chosen flavouring.
In a greased oven proof dish, put the fish, cover with the béchamel (here goes the tomatoes, if you want that) and top of with mashed potatoes (mixed with some milk, and maybe a pinch of salt) and grated cheese.
Bake in the oven at 190˚C, mark 5 for 30 minutes, or until the cheese has become golden.
Serve with a green sallad.

Chicken & Carrot Tagine

1 baby chicken
2 medium sized onions
2 cloves garlic
0,5 kg carrots
1 succhini

salt, pepper
Ras-el-Hanoot
paprika
turmeric
saffron
a couple of bay leaves
juice of one small lemon
fresh chopped parsley
fresh chopped coriander

Cut the chicken in small pieces and brown it in the tagine. Slice the onions and add to the chicken. Peel and slice the carrots. Add to the tagine together with the spices. Mix it all gently. Slice the succhini and blend it into the tagine. Leave to cook for an hour on low heat, or until the chicken is well cooked. Add the parsley and coriander. Serve with bread.

Lemon and Tarragon Chicken

Chicken breasts
juice and peel of 1 lemon
salt to taste
tarragon

Cut the chicken breasts in the middle, to make a pocket, and put some fresh tarragon inside. Salt and marinate in the lemon juice and peel for a couple of hours or longer.
Grill in the oven and serve with spinach or sallad. We made french fries with it.