Sultan's Kitchen

[Y's_habibitk 2]

Sorry if someone already asked, but I dont feel like reading thru 40 pages

Hummus Fateh recipes anyone?

I cant seem to get it down, and it seems so simple! I finally mastered homemade hummus. yum yum (I never thought I would really like it, but thats cuzz the ready made stuff totally sucks) hee

My husband says.. oh! its so easy!

The guy at the rest, oh! its so easy!

Ya ya... can someone dumb it downfor me please lol

Lisa

[Nasturtium 500]

Curious to know from the NA members have you tried to learned or have been required to learn the "gateaux" preparation? Esp those whose SO's are already with them in the US? Ramadan is coming up ... gateaux making time LOL!

don't even know what this is... never heard of it!

Gateaux - those fancy pretty looking cakes (that taste horrible in my opinion) that Algerians, Moroccans and Tunezians make/eat esp for the holidays.

Some of them look like marzipan (which I find gross lol). Do you think some of them have marzipan involved?

[Henia 11]

Curious to know from the NA members have you tried to learned or have been required to learn the "gateaux" preparation? Esp those whose SO's are already with them in the US? Ramadan is coming up ... gateaux making time LOL!

don't even know what this is... never heard of it!

Gateaux - those fancy pretty looking cakes (that taste horrible in my opinion) that Algerians, Moroccans and Tunezians make/eat esp for the holidays.

Some of them look like marzipan (which I find gross lol). Do you think some of them have marzipan involved?

Yes .. every sweet in NA involves either almond or peanuts ... me too donnot like it but seem to be surrounded by it here! Peanut baklava is one of the nasties things on this Earth!

[Henia 11]

[MrsAmera 41]

Ladies - We're having a big dinner party this weekend and I need a Moroccan chicken recipe. I know a few but want something extra special - dinner is for about 25 people so something that can be doubled or tripled will be best!

[RAKASA 0]

Ladies - We're having a big dinner party this weekend and I need a Moroccan chicken recipe. I know a few but want something extra special - dinner is for about 25 people so something that can be doubled or tripled will be best!

Chicken w/ Olives is always a huge success- people love it. Also, another "unique" but delicious dish is Chicken w/ onions & prunes. If you don't have recipes, let me know and I'll post them.

another good one is the chicken & olives w/ french fries on top! Unusual, but amazingly tasty!

[MrsAmera 41]

Mmm yea those are good - the 25 people are actually all Moroccan so that probably won't be too much of a surprise for them! *sigh* I'm losing my creative food ideas. Maybe the chicken with french fries though...sounding better and better.

[RAKASA 0]

Mmm yea those are good - the 25 people are actually all Moroccan so that probably won't be too much of a surprise for them! *sigh* I'm losing my creative food ideas. Maybe the chicken with french fries though...sounding better and better.

OOOH... I bet they'd love the chicken & fries!

[morocco4ever 63]

I had a great video that shows how to make Charmoula Marinade for chicken but I can't find it now. I will try to remember.

In a food processor add:

1/2 cup fresh parsely

1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 teaspoons grated fresh lemon peel

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 teaspoon paprika

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 onion

Blend til fully mixed. Marinate the chicken (I do this overnight, but you can do it for an hour). I usually do about 10 chicken thighs, but I am sure it can do a little more. Set aside.

Peel about 5 or 6 large potatoes. Cut them in about 1 inch cubes. Add 1/4 cup green olives. Coat with about 1/4 C olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and 2 teaspoons cumin.

Place in bottom of a baking dish lined with tin foil. Place marinated chicken on top and place 1/2 onion (rings) on top. Add about a half small can of diced tomatoes on top. Cover with foil and bake about 2 hours on 350 degrees. I usually take the foil off of the top for the last 20 minutes.

[Henia 11]

They have either rice, couscous or fries with all the tajines ... so whatever you pick ... could use fries with! I personally love this recipe:

Jeweled Rice:

3 cups rice (Basmati is easy and nice too)

2 organic oranges

1 large carrot

1 cup dried barberries (optional)

1/2 cup raisins

1 onion

1 cup blanched whole almonds or almonds and pistachios

2 tbsp cinnamon

1 tbsp cumin seeds

2 tbsp dried rosebuds

3 tbsp green cardamom pods

pinch of saffron diluted in 1 glass water

150 gr butter

2 tbsp yoghurt

Cut the rind of an orange in long strips. Try to leave out as much of the bitter white underlayer as possible. Use an organic orange or you'll eat the pesticide, soap and wax found in the rind of regular oranges.

Peel a large carrot and continue to peel the flesh to obtain long, flat carrot strips. You can also use a very flat knife with a very steady hand or a mandoline.

Cut the orange strips sideways into tiny sticks. These will stand out on the rice like tiny orange jewels. You could also cut them in diamond shapes - that would be in the dish's spirit.

In a small saucepan combine the orange rind with 3 cups water and bring to a boil. Strain. This step helps getting rid of the rind's bitterness.

Combine one cup sugar with one cup water (picture), bring to a boil and add both orange rind and carrot strips. Boil gently for 10 minutes, strain and reserve. This process partially candies the orange and carrot.

Jeweled rice called for a magical spice mix called advieh, which you can easily make by grinding together 2 part cinnamon, 1 part cumin seeds, 2 part rose petals and 3 part cardamom pods. Remove the pods.

Wash the rice in twice its volume in water, wash and strain. Do this as many times as needed for the water to be totally transparent. Like for the Pakistani Pulao, This process gets rid of the microscopic rice dust that would turn your royal dish into Vietnamese sticky rice. It takes only a few minutes.

Boil the rice in salted water until it softens but remains slightly crunchy, 9-12 minutes. Stir to ensure grains are fully separated, strain and reserve.

Melt 2 tbsp butter in a large pan with a tight fitting lid. This is important as it will prevent the rice crust from sticking - add more rather than less. Mix 4 tbsp of the partly boiled rice with 1 tbsp yoghurt and a drop of saffron water. Spread this mixture in a layer at the bottom. It will turn into a delicious golden crust, the hallmark of Moroccan rice dishes.

Cover the rice-yoghurt layer with two ladles of rice and add a fourth of the orange-carrot strips. Sprinkle some advieh (the spice mix) on top, and add another layer of rice and continue like before until you run out of ingredients. Try to shape the rice into a hill inside the pan so it will have room to expand.

Add a generous amount of advieh on top and pour the rest of the melted butter and saffron water and half a cup water. Cover tightly, possibly using a towel wrapped all around the top of the pot to prevent any leakage. Cook over low heat for about 45 minutes.

While the rice finishes cooking, prepare the garnish.

Soak 1 cup barberries and half a cup raisins into 2 cups warm water for 20 minutes. Thinly slice an onion and gently fry it in 2 tbs/25 gr butter until soft and brown.

Add the strained barberries and raisins and cook for one more minute. Reserve.

Toasted nuts have a more intense flavor but too much toasting can ruin their appearance and make their taste overwhelm the rest. In a baking tray place the almonds and, if you want, the pistachios. Toast for about 10-15 minutes at 180°C while watching them continually. Nuts are easily overtoasted! Alternatively, you can gently fry them in a non-stick pan with a little oil or no oil.

Prepare a large serving platter, if possible of Persian or at least Arab origin. Carefully pile the rice in a nicely shaped mound and garnish with the Berberis-raisin-onion mixture and nuts.

Edited August 20, 2008 by Henia

[Henia 11]

For easy, large enough to feed 25 ppl memory making dinner I would make:

Moroccan Spiced Lamb Leg

• 1 leg of lamb, approx. 2.5kg
• 1-2 tablespoons ras-el-hanout
• juice of 2 lemons
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• bunch fresh coriander, chopped

<H3 class=c03> </H3>1.Make incisions all over the leg of lamb, and then mix the ras-el-hanout with the lemon juice, oil, minced garlic and coriander.

2.Using your fingers, push pinches of the mixture into the holes. Rub the remaining aromatic paste over the lamb and then put it into a large freezer bag, squeeze out any air and then tie it up and leave it to marinade in the fridge overnight, or for longer.

3.Pre-heat the oven to 200C/gas mark 6, and take the lamb out of the fridge to come to room temperature.

4.Put the leg of lamb into a roasting pan, squeezing any marinade out of the bag over the meat. Roast the lamb for about an hour and a half, by which time it should be aromatically blackened on the outside, and still tender and pink within.

5.Let the lamb rest once it comes out of the oven for at least 15 minutes, though I leave this a good hour after it's come out of the oven.

Serve this with the rice or fries, salads (like carrot orange, fresh mint green salad) some peserved lemons and a few boureks ... ready meal to wow them with!

[doodlebugg 10]

Ok I'm making this tonight but I have some stupid questions if anyone can help me out:

http://members.cox.net/ahmedheissa/recbirdt.htm

Egyptian's Dishes - Baird Tong Soup (Serves 4 People)

For non American: In America one cup of rice is not the same size as one cup of water. One cup of water is about 2 cups of rice.

Ingredients

1. 1/2 a cup Orzo

2. 1 pound Stew Beef meat (cut small)

3. 2 OZ Butter (1/2 stick)

4. 1/2 tea spoon salt

5. 1/2 tea spoon pepper

6. 2 medium size onions

7. 4 cups of water

8. 1/4 tea spoon of ground decorticated Cardamom (or 5 Cardamon sticks).

9. 1 Lemon.

Procedure

1. Melt the butter.

2. Add Orzo to butter.

3. Cook on a low flame and stir in the Orzo until Orzo becomes a red color.

4. Wash beef well.

5. Boil 4 cups of water and cook beef for 3 minutes. Scoop boiled blood if any.

6. Cut onion.

7. Add Onion, Orzo, salt, and pepper to beef and cook until onion and beef are cooked.

8. Add 1/4 tea spoon of ground decorticated Cardamom (or 5 Cardamon sticks) to beef.

9. Add water if needed.

10. After the soup is cooked remove the 5 Cardamom sticks.

If you failed to remove the sticks, the Cardamom will have a bitter taste when you eat it.

Serve soup while it is hot. If you like, add lemon to the soup. Enjoy.

stupid question #1: I just plop in the onion without even browning it first? Wont that taste weird?

stupid question #2: If I don't remove the cardamom sticks it will be bitter but why won't it be bitter if I just use the ground cardamom (which is what I have in my pantry)?

I can't wait to try it though! The weather is brisk here lately so this will be a good fall soup if it turns out to be a hit!

Edited August 21, 2008 by bridget

[doodlebugg 10]

One of my favorites!! Musakhkhan....This is a Palestinian dish...that I have seen prepared in varied ways...layering several layers or one single one...depends on the amount of people you are cooking for. You eat it with your hands...DIG IN! LOL SO Yummy

Musakhkhan

Yield: Makes 4-6 servings

Ingredients:

1-One cut up chicken into six pieces, or a combination of chicken legs and breasts. Or if you prefer just breasts of chicken...your choice. (Approx. 3 pounds)

2-One cup virgin Olive Oil

3-One pound or a bit more of large diced onions

4-Fried pine nuts for garnishing

5-One table spoon ground cardamom

6-Two table spoons Sumac

7-Salt and pepper to taste

8-Flat sheet bread, marquq or Taboon bread.

1. Cut the chicken into up into two breasts, two thighs, two legs, and two wings. Prepare it for cooking by washing, cleaning and drying. I add a little bit of lemon juice and olive oil to the chicken.

2. Sauté one medium diced onion, add the chicken, enough water to cover the chicken, cardamom, salt and pepper and boil over high heat and then let simmer until the chicken is done. I like it practically falling off the bone (if you use boned meat).

3. Add 1 cup olive oil to a casserole and cook the rest of the diced onions until translucent, this takes about 25-35 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the sumac and cook for 2 minutes to mix. Do not over cook the onions, you do not want them burnt and you do not want them mushy.

4. While cooking the rest of the onions. Preheat the oven to 350F, remove the chicken from the pot, bake until golden brown.

5. Fry the pine nuts to a golden brown color. Make sure to watch them frying, they tend to burn quickly.

6. Cut up the bread or use it whole, and assemble in the serving platter. Add the first layer of the onion mix on top of the bread, add pine nuts. Repeat with another layer of bread, onions and pine nuts. It is up to you if you want to have one layer of bread and onions; I like to have two layers because the bread I use is very thin. At this point, add about half a cup of chicken stock if you feel that the bread is too dry.

7. Arrange the baked chicken on top and garnish with pine nuts. (A serving of bread, onions and pine nuts with each serving of chicken)

Toppings for each serving: Yogurt

Do you bake the chicken in the casserole dish that the onions are cooking in or is that totally separate? Also, what is flat sheet bread? Is that like matza bread or like roll-up bread?

[doodlebugg 10]

Ok I'm making this tonight but I have some stupid questions if anyone can help me out:

http://members.cox.net/ahmedheissa/recbirdt.htm

Egyptian's Dishes - Baird Tong Soup (Serves 4 People)

For non American: In America one cup of rice is not the same size as one cup of water. One cup of water is about 2 cups of rice.

Ingredients

1. 1/2 a cup Orzo

2. 1 pound Stew Beef meat (cut small)

3. 2 OZ Butter (1/2 stick)

4. 1/2 tea spoon salt

5. 1/2 tea spoon pepper

6. 2 medium size onions

7. 4 cups of water

8. 1/4 tea spoon of ground decorticated Cardamom (or 5 Cardamon sticks).

9. 1 Lemon.

Procedure

1. Melt the butter.

2. Add Orzo to butter.

3. Cook on a low flame and stir in the Orzo until Orzo becomes a red color.

4. Wash beef well.

5. Boil 4 cups of water and cook beef for 3 minutes. Scoop boiled blood if any.

6. Cut onion.

7. Add Onion, Orzo, salt, and pepper to beef and cook until onion and beef are cooked.

8. Add 1/4 tea spoon of ground decorticated Cardamom (or 5 Cardamon sticks) to beef.

9. Add water if needed.

10. After the soup is cooked remove the 5 Cardamom sticks.

If you failed to remove the sticks, the Cardamom will have a bitter taste when you eat it.

Serve soup while it is hot. If you like, add lemon to the soup. Enjoy.

stupid question #1: I just plop in the onion without even browning it first? Wont that taste weird?

stupid question #2: If I don't remove the cardamom sticks it will be bitter but why won't it be bitter if I just use the ground cardamom (which is what I have in my pantry)?

I can't wait to try it though! The weather is brisk here lately so this will be a good fall soup if it turns out to be a hit!

omg I just made this and it's soooooooooooooooo bland and boring! Hope hubby likes it 'cause it's all his!!! The kids and I will dine on Kraft mac n cheese tonight!

[Tunisia216 2]

Tunisian harissa (hot sauce) We use it in everything here.. You can buy it at the store, but it can get costly or sometimes hard to find - and some people prefer it a lot hotter than you can buy or vice versa, maybe you like the flavor but the heat is too much for you .. So here's a way to make it at home!

Ingredients :

50 gm (2 oz) dried red chilies

2 x Cloves garlic salt

1 tsp Caraway seeds

1 1/2 tsp Ground cumin

2 tsp Coriander seeds

1 tsp Crushed dried mint leaves

Olive oil

Method :

* This fiery Tunisian chili sauce, also found in Algeria and Morocco, is used in cooking, particularly in the vegetable or meat tagines (stews) that accompany couscous, and as a table condiment, rather like Indonesian sambals. The sauce can be bought ready-made in small cans, but it is easy to make at home and keeps for up to 6 weeks in the refrigerator.

* Remove the seeds and tear the chilies into pieces. Soak them in warm water until they soften (about 20 minutes). Drain, and pound or process. Crush the garlic with a little salt. Pound or blend all the ingredients to a paste, then stir in 15-30 ml (1-2 tbsp) of olive oil, Transfer to a jar, cover with a layer of olive oil, and refrigerate.