Food Monster on Location: Ramadan in Palestine

It's not you, it's me.



Walking the streets of Al-Bireh at 7pm on July 25th was not the smartest idea I have ever had. I'm hungry, dehydrated and sad that I'm leaving soon, but this is the best way I can preserve my memories. It's startling quiet--not one car, person or empty potato chip bag in the street. The only thing you hear once in awhile is the scurrying of hurried feet in the kitchens trying to get Aftoor (breaking fast) ready. Banging dishes and muffled orders to bring this or that, too.



But why am I walking by myself like a crazy American Palestinian girl? One reason and one reason only. The smells wafting from each kitchen. House on the corner is obviously cooking Msakkhan (bread, chicken and sumac onions) because of the strong onion smell, bakery on the right is making Cross Sabanicc3 (spinach pies) and the next door neighbor is making Kabsa (spicy rice dish) because my eyes are slightly burning from the extra peppers she uses. I am working my amygdala overtime to keep these olfactory memories forever. Recently, I have noticed certain smells take me right back to a moment in Palestine and they are so specific that I even have the same emotional reaction that I was feeling at the time of the original memory. They are so strong that they cannot be ignored.



This is precisely why I am walking alone in the streets right before breaking fast. I'm collecting memories for later. It would be very nice of me to apologize to my 11 or so blog subscribers, but I wouldn't mean it at all. I took off 3 months to focus on Palestine, me and food. Now I'm back and ready to start all over again with a different perspective and a wider appreciation for food.

Breaking fast Day 1 (Bread, tea, dates, lentil soup, salad, stuffed cabbage, stuffed falafel, pickled eggplant, olives)

Foodie Night In: Cereal Clusters

I'll be the first to admit it. I fall for the buy one get one deal all the time. I usually find myself in the supermarket with my very innocent list of only things I need. Equipped with my coupon organizer (Yes, I have one and I'm only 23!), I always end up seeing something that I have a coupon for AND it's buy one get one free. How can I say no? Well, I don't and this is how I ended up with two huge boxes of Multi-Grain Cheerios. I finished the first one for breakfast about a month ago, but the other box kept looking at me from atop the fridge just asking to be opened. So, I accepted the challenge and decided to make cereal clusters. Now there are a million different ways to go about this. First off, you need a binder to keep the cereal together, honey, peanut butter, chocolate are perfect for this.

I wanted something semi-healthy, so I chose honey. Then I added in some chopped almonds and some cinnamon and sugar in a large metal mixing bowl and added in the cheerios at the end. Here is a rough estimate of the ingredients, since there is no baking you can take out or add in anything you want really:

3 Cups of Cheerios

1/3 of Organic Honey

1 Teaspoon of Cinnamon

1/2 Cup of Chopped Almonds

1/3 Cup of Sugar (this can be omitted, since the honey is sweet enough)

 

Once everything is mixed all you have to do is line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and spoon the amount of mixture you want into clusters. Put in the fridge for at least an hour. Mine didn't really hold well together, I think I will add in some corn syrup next time :) Remember, you are not bind to any of these ingredients. Switch out the cereal, add different nuts/dried fruits, or combine more spices together. There are endless possibilities! Take a look at this recipe that was just a little more successful:

3 Cups of Wheat Bran Cereal

1/2 Cup of Crunchy Peanut Butter

1 Bag of Semi Sweet Chocolate (what's that? About 10 ounces, probably?)

Process was pretty much the same, except I melted the chocolate and peanut butter together in a double boiler. Then I added the cereal to it, spooned it out on parchment paper, and refrigerated for half an hour. Took these to work and none were left!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Quick Irish Soda Bread Recipe!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I awoke this morning with an urge to try out my new recipe for a quick and simple Irish Soda Bread! Check out the ingredients that I am more than sure you have in your pantry right now!

2 Cups All Purpose Flour

1/2 Tablespoon Sugar

1 Teaspoon Baking Soda

1/2 Teaspoon Salt

2 Teaspoons Caraway Seeds

1/3 Cup Rolled Oats

1 Cup Water

1 Tablespoon White Vinegar

Mix all the dry ingredients first and then add the water and vinegar to the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Mix, by hand, for about 1 to 2 minutes (it won't look pretty, but it will be done) place in a greased cake pan, score the top and pop into a 400 Degree Farenheit oven for 25 minutes. So easy and quick!

Right out the oven, cooling on cutting board

First Slice

Foodie Night In: Chocolate Soufflés!

Sometimes you just can't get a recipe out of your mind. It simmers there, in that dark OCD recess of

your mind, until you finally say to yourself, "That's it! I've had it with you! I'm going to once and for all get rid of you!"--by actually making it. So, I came home from work with one word on my mind: Soufflé. But what kind? Savory or Sweet? I had many choices, but I rummaged around my kitchen a bit and decided to make a sweet one. I had all the promising essentials to the beginning of a great dessert. Lots of eggs, sugar, chocolate chips and vanilla. This was going to be easy, right? But wait! What was I thinking? Aren't soufflés probably the number one dessert bakers mess up all the time? Sometimes they don't rise, ending up in a disastrous and embarrassing crater of a cake.

Ah, but who cares? If I pull this off, I will have all the culinary glory among my friends and family. Plus, I can just hide/delete all the pictures I took with my I Phone. It was a win-win situation. I put all fear aside (because soufflés can sense that, you know) and started out by printing out a recipe and modifying it slightly. Blasphemy in the baking world, I am aware of that. I wanted more chocolate, more vanilla (I can never get enough!) and less sugar and eggs. This is what I ended up doing:

3 Extra Large Egg land's Best Egg Yolks
6 Extra Large Egg land's Best Whites
3 Tablespoons of water
1 teaspoon of Vanilla
1/2 Cup of Sugar, more for sprinkling ramekins
1/2 of Unsalted Butter
The juice of half a small lemon
10 ounces of Semisweet Chocolate

First I used a pad of butter to coat the ramekins (Duh, you don't want any of that soufflé sticking to the sides). Then I sprinkled each ramekin with some sugar until it was completely coated. Put some
sugar in the bottom and swirl the oven safe dish around and around, so it covers the sides too. I set all of them in the freezer and then pre-heated the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Make sure to have your oven rack on the lowest shelf possible, giving your soufflés room to puff up.

Now on to the actually baking part. Bring an inch of water to a boil in a small sauce pan. Put your chocolate and butter together in another bowl and put that on top of the sauce pan, once it boils. Stir occasionally until all has melted. Then in another bowl or mixer (have you hired a dishwasher yet?)
put the water and egg yolks together and beat for about 5 minutes. The chocolate should be done melting, so add your vanilla in there now once you take it off the heat. The egg yolks should be a little frothy and then add the lemon juice to that. Now you are going to add the egg yolk mixture to the chocolate. Fold it in gently because, after all, we want this concoction to be light and airy. Once that is done, you have got to get started with the egg whites. This is fun!!! Put the 6 egg whites in a bowl and beat until they have soft peaks. Then fold half of it into the chocolate and yolk mixture and then add the rest until it's all fully incorporated.

Everything folded in!

Take the ramekins out of the freezer and quickly ladle or spoon out the mixture. It makes about 7-8 servings. Make sure you leave some room for the soufflé to puff up, so don't fill them up all the way. Put the ramekins on a tray (easier to deal with) and put them in the oven for 20 minutes. Once you take them out serve them immediately! They fall flat quickly. Not kidding. Dust with powdered sugar if your clogged artery heart desires! Then sit back and revel in all your glory :)

The Right Opinion: All Food is Necessary

There are many people in this world that I just cannot stand. DMV workers, people who lie and cheat, attention whores with Mohawks and fans of Dave Matthews Band...just to name a few. But the cake has to go to people who disrespect food. Of any type. I know there are some foods out there that are strange and so foreign to us that we cannot even imagine how we would ever want to eat {insert atypical food here} to sustain our health. Pig Rectum, stinky tofu, larvae--these don't sound appealing to some, but you must remember something, these foods have a) kept a civilization alive, b) have been fed to hungry children when parents had no idea where their next meal would come from, or c) have been ingrained and passed down in family traditions. So who are you to turn your noise at a food just because you didn't have to eat it or did not grow up with it? I suggest the next time you want to obnoxiously exclaim, "Ew! That's gross!" take a step back, put yourself in that person's shoes and maybe try the food before you say it's disgusting. Now, of course, there are exceptions. If you do not eat a certain food due to dietary or religious reasons then you have a legit excuse to turn down the food--POLITELY.

In some parts of the word, this food is weird!

Foodie Night In: Simple Rosemary Foccacia Recipe

For the longest time, I have been promising myself to start to bake and cook more. Not only does
this save money and time, but it's also fun and rewarding! Fun to share the recipes with friends and
have them try something they wouldn't necessarily have a chance to get from any ordinary restaurant. There is nothing better than having a table full of random ingredients and when you're done, and
the aromas are filling the house, you end up with a masterpiece created with your own two hands! And you can eat it!

In the past few months, I have been addicted to The Food Channel ( Food Network Who?) It keeps me up late and never ceases to amaze me with all the different shows. I have become obsessed with "Simply Baking" because it's just that. Simple. You don't need crazy ingredients and 10 different techniques to get a boring cupcake. Plus, I am forever obsessed with Lorraine Pascale now (possibly more than the witty Nigella....ummmm, I think not!). She is so happy and non-threatening, you can't help, but think--"if she can do it, so can I!" So, sometime last week I decided to try her Rosemary Foccacia. Seriously delicious. I mean I was completely transported to Italy scrumptious. Check out the crazy easy ingredients:

3 1/3 Cups of Flour
2 Teaspoons of salt
1/3 Cup of Good Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Cup of Warm Water
1 Packet of Yeast
Rosemary, Olive Oil and Salt for topping (to taste)

Right out of the oven--piping hot!

If you don't have half of these ingredients already, you should be ashamed of yourself. OK, ok, too harsh? What about seriously disappointed with yourself? Better? Literally, all you have to do is mix the flour, salt, oil and water in a mixing bowl and knead it for 10 minutes for it all to come together. Too dry? Just add more water. Sticking like crazy everywhere? Sprinkle flour on the dough. Then roll out the dough to a circle or square (more common, but harder to do), cover with cling wrap on the baking sheet and then let it rise for an hour. It should double in size. Then take off the cling wrap, poke holes in dough (c'mon have a little fun with it!) and drizzle your extra virgin olive oil (because why would you use anything else?) and sprinkle your rosemary and salt to taste. Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 25 to 30 minutes and your done. Best part? You don't have to wait for it to cool off. Eat it warm!!!

Cross section view of Foccacia

New & Improved: BK Fries

Sometime last week, all Burger Kings decided to give away value sized fries. This was primarily done because they were promoting their newly improved spuds and BK even boasts that they are seasoned with less salt and are wider cut. I was skeptical at first, but they turned out to be great. I have always said that Mickey D's has the best fries, but Ronald McDonald has something to worry about now.

New Burger King Fries

The fries were definitely more crispy and hotter than usual. I mean they were piping hot, I actually had
to wait a few minutes until I tried one (and you know how difficult that can be with the wafting smell of fast food in the car). The better than usual fries could have been just due to BK holding this special promotion, but if they keep this up they can get some new loyal customers stopping by. I hope you picked up yours and (For the love of all the food gods, I posted about it everywhere...haha!) tried it.  And the best part of my drive thru experience is that I had an onion ring straggler!!! It made my day! So, go ahead and "Have it your way" and stop by a BK today!