Bagels bagels and more bagels!!

Ingredients:
2 teaspoons of active dry yeast
1 ½ tablespoons of granulated sugar
1 ¼ cups of warm water (you may need ± ¼ cup more, I know I did)
3 ½ cups (500g) of bread flour or high gluten flour(will need extra for kneading)
1 ½ teaspoons of salt

 

Preparation:
1. In ½ cup of the warm water, pour in the sugar and yeast. Do not stir. Let it sit for five minutes, and then stir the yeast and sugar mixture, until it all dissolves in the water.

2. Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the middle and pour in the yeast and sugar mixture.

3. Pour half of the remaining warm water into the well. Mix and stir in the rest of the water as needed. Depending on where you live, you may need to add anywhere from a couple tablespoons to about ¼ cup of water. You want to result in a moist and firm dough after you have mixed it.

4. On a floured surface, knead the dough for about 10 minutes until it is smooth and elastic. Try working in as much flour as possible to form a firm and stiff dough.

5. Lightly brush a large bowl with oil and turn the dough to coat. Cover the bowl with a damp dish towel. Let rise in a warm place for 1 hour, until the dough has doubled in size. Punch the dough down, and let it rest for another 10 minutes.

6. Carefully divide the dough into 8 pieces (I used a scale to be extra precise, but it’s not necessary). Shape each piece into a round. Now, take a dough ball, and press it gently against the counter top (or whatever work surface you’re using) moving your hand and the ball in a circular motion pulling the dough into itself while reducing the pressure on top of the dough slightly until a perfect dough ball forms (as pictured below). Repeat with 7 other dough rounds.

7. Coat a finger in flour, and gently press your finger into the center of each dough ball to form a ring. Stretch the ring to about ⅓ the diameter of the bagel and place on a lightly oiled cookie sheet. Repeat the same step with the remaining dough.

8. After shaping the dough rounds and placing them on the cookie sheet, cover with a damp kitchen towel and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat broiler……you will broil each side of the bagel for about 20 seconds or until golden color.

9. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Reduce the heat. Use a slotted spoon or skimmer to lower the bagels into the water. Boil as many as you are comfortable with boiling. Once the bagels are in, it shouldn’t take too long for them to float to the top (a couple seconds). Let them sit there for 1 minute, and them flip them over to boil for another minute. Extend the boiling times to 2 minutes each, if you’d prefer a chewier bagel (results will give you a more New York Style bagel with this option).

10. If you want to top your bagels with stuff, do so as you take them out of the water, you may use the “optional toppings” (listed above) to top the bagels and if you’re risky like me, make a combination of the toppings to top the bagels with, but before hand, you will need to use an egg wash to get the toppings to stick before putting the bagels into the oven.

11. Once all the bagels have boiled (and have been topped with your choice of toppings), transfer them to a lightly oiled baking sheet.

12. Bake for 20 minutes, until golden brown.

13. Cool on a wire rack (or if you’re impatient like I am, slice one of these babies open, and spread some softened butter on it.

the bestttttttt recipe i have ever tried!!! enjoy!!

 

 

Kalecha

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This is a food staple in Iraq, the day just does not go on with out these cookies…they happen to be a big time favorite in my home and as you begin to experiment more and more the recipe changes and they just keep getting better. So this recipe, is mine, after years of messing with the dough and the date mix…I have found one I truly love.

The dough

4 c. flour

1 c. granulated sugar

1 c. butter

1 teaspoon cardamom powder

 

The filling

2  13oz packs of Ziyad brand baking dates

1 tbsp cardamom powder

1 tbsp anise seed

1/2 tbsp of coriander

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp rose water

2 tbsp butter

 

Egg wash-which is just a beaten egg and a tiny amount of water

 

Mix up all the ingredients for your dough and set it in the refrigerator

Then preheat your oven to 350F

in a heavy bottom sauce pan, melt the butter and add your dates. You will want to let them cook down a little and then add all your spices. Stir really well, sometimes I add a small amount of water to the mixture and it makes it more spreadable when you are ready to make the cookies. Once the mix is stirred up and all spices are mixed throughout the dates, remove it from the heat and set it aside to cool to room temp.

You are now ready to finish making the best cookie ever lol. So get your dough out, flour your working surface, roll out your dough into long rectangle pieces and spread the date mixture over it and roll it up. Then cut it into desired thickness, set on a cookie sheet, spread the egg wash over the top of each cookie and bake away!!!!!!!!!!! They are done when they are a perfect golden brown! Yummmm

Serve with tea….we do loool. Enjoy!!!!!!

 

Hummus…

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I love this, with almost everything. You can eat it alone, dip meats or bread in it..whatever you want to do with it, you can.  Add to the recipe flavors that you want whether it be to spice it up or give it a spin. The more tahini sauce, for me, the better. I love it. Here is a simple recipe to do it yourself , the canned hummus, or the hummus pre-made is just not as good.

1 clove garlic

1 (19 ounce) can garbanzo beans, half the liquid reserved

4 tablespoons lemon juice

2 tablespoons tahini

1 clove garlic, chopped

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons olive oil

zataar and sumac, if you like, for garnish

In a blender, chop the garlic. Pour garbanzo beans into blender, reserving about a tablespoon for garnish. Place lemon juice, tahini, chopped garlic and salt in blender. Blend until creamy and well mixed.

Transfer the mixture to a medium serving bowl. Sprinkle with zataar, sumac  and pour olive oil over the top. Garnish with reserved garbanzo beans.

Serve it with anything!! Warm flat bread is the best.

Znoud al-Sit (lady’s upper arm) which are cream filled pastry rolls

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Well, let me just say that his was my first time ever making or even eating these, but it will not be my last, insha Allah. Making them took time, of course…but these are amazing. They are a pastry type dough with a custard type, rose water flavored cream filling drenched in a sweet syrup…topped with coconut or ground nuts, even chocolate I suppose. They are perfect for anything. You can change the flavor of the custard too I am sure….but being my first time trying the recipe I decided to do as the recipe said. I am happy with my results. Highly recommend trying it.

the dough:

2 c flour

1tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 eggs beaten

2/3 c water

2 tbsp hot oil

flour for work surface and oil for frying as well

 

to make this dough, combine the flour and salt then stir in the eggs and water to make a medium soft dough…knead lightly

then drizzle the hot oil over the dough and knead lightly again and set aside for 10 mins

divide the dough into 22 walnut sized pieces, depends on preference also

sprinkle the surface with flour and begin rolling out each piece as thin as possible, you want them rectangular to make them into little cigar shapes.

when you fill them, you will roll them a little, tuck in the sides, and finish rolling. similar to grape leaves.

 

the filling

4 heaping tbsps of cornstarch

3 tbsps sugar

2 c whole milk

1 tbsp rosewater….orrrr if you want to change the flavor, use another of your choice

in a small heavy bottom pot, mix cornstarch and flour with sugar slowly stirring in milk until it is completely dissolved

on medium heat, bring to a boil until it becomes thicker but make sure to stir so as not to burn…7-10 mins total cooking time for this.

It should be similar to custard, thicker then pudding. Take it away from the heat and add your choice of flavor and mix it in.

 

syrup

2 cups sugar

1  and 3/4 c water

1/4 c honey

1 tbsp lemon juice

either 2 cardamom pods or 1 tsp rose or orange blossom water

combine all the ingredients in a small pot and let it boil, stirring with a wooden spoon.  set aside when finished

 

so, to put all of this together is easy….take the dough you have rolled and place custard in the middle. Roll them like cigars, tucking on each edge so there will be no leakage, and then finish rolling it until closed.

when you fry them, make sure the seam is facing down.

You can arrange them on a plate and then poor syrup on them or you can dunk them into the syrup like I did….works better for me.

I also garnished them with coconut…although you can garnish them as you like…I know if I put coconut on anything, my husband will eat it. Looool

I loveeeeeeeee this recipe, yes it is time consuming and work…but it is worth it.

Spritz cookies

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So, I went to a local thrift store here in Phoenix Arizona, and to my surprise I found theeeeee coolest thing ever…..a cookie press!!! My mom had one, and I remembered her as soon as I saw it. So, I bought it. I was imagining all the possibilities and things I plan to use it for. 2 bucks!!!! That is all I paid!! Big win!!! So i googled some recipes and this is the one I chose and used. They turned out awesome!!!! I have more to work on with pressing them, but it was fun!! I would recommend this for anyone who loves to “create bake” like me!!.

1 cup (227 grams) unsaltedbutter, room temperature

1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated whitesugar

1 largeegg

1 1/2 teaspoons purevanillaextract

2 1/4 cups (295 grams) all purposeflour

1/4 teaspoon salt

Read more:http://www.joyofbaking.com/SpritzCookies.html#ixzz1rQpYjBT3

Fatoush….my way

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I have fallen in love with this salad. It is so good. There are many spices used, the best vinegar I ever found, and the crunchy tanoor bread…incorporated together…yummmmm….Now here is what I used to make mine.

3 tomatoes diced up

1 big onion diced up

2 cucumbers peeled and diced up

1 bunch of fresh parsley

1 1/2 pieces of tanoor bread of some cut up pita

parmesan cheese

sumac

olive oil

vinegar

butnig-(iraqi dried wild mint)

zataar-(thyme sesame blend)

The first thing to do would be to prepare your bread by cutting it up into squares and mixing some sumac and parmesan with it and then adding olive oil….blend well

lay it out on a cookie sheet and let it turn crunchy

chop up your tomatoes, onion, and cucumbers and put into your salad bowl

chop up your parsley and add it to the salad

add butnig and zataar, about 2 tsps of each, depending on your desire mix it all up into the salad

then add vinegar and oil according to your taste….we do equal parts in our salads.

by this time the bread should be done and you can remove it, let it cool down and add it into your salad and mix all together.

Serve this with anything….It truly is an awesome salad!!!

Datley or Qaimat…

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Now these little things…good luck eating just one or two. I make them a lot. We have a family friend who loves them I think more then my husband, and when they are coming over, I make a double batch. They are like a small donut style sweet, soft and delicate inside with a hint of cardamom, and outside is…a little crunch, I guess you could say, smothered in a rosewater hinted syrup…..go ahead…drool. That is what tissues are made for. But seriously, these are good anytime. Awesome with tea or coffee…alone or not. LOL.

2 cups Flour

1 cup Plain Yogurt

1/4 teasp Yeast

1/4 teasp Salt

2 tsps of ground cardamom

Oil for deep frying

Syrup:

1 1/2 cup of white sugar–this depends on how think you want your syrup…more sugar for thicker (my person fav)

1 cup water

1 teasp lemon juice

2 tsp rosewater

make your dough, and I use a piping bag, like cake decorators use, with a tip that looks like it could be used for a big flower and squeeze about a 1/4 inch of dough over the oil and cut it Please be careful not to splash the oil onto yourself!!!….and I make sure my syrup is done and set aside before I cook these because they cook fast and I make sure to dunk each one in the syrup as soon as they come out of the oil.

Some history to read while you are sipping your tea

 

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I think one of the absolute coolest parts of Iraq is of course, the marshes. I love how the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers “marry” as my husband says…yet the do not combine. One is salt water and the other is fresh. Truly an amazing miracle from Allah/God. It also amazes me how Iraq Marsh Arabs build those houses that literally float around the marshes the way they do and they love like that!!! I mean yes, there are house boats and yachts….but not there. They are so natural and “earthy” it keeps me in awe when I look at the pictures. Can you imagine that? What if the house floated super far away?? It would terrify me….ahahahaaha! Random thoughts yes, but this is my blog so I am allowed for sure. 

So my in-laws are from the marshes as well, however not “in” the marshes. They have farms, which is very interesting to me because if I or we could live totally off the land, I so would. I really admire his family and everything that they do even with all the technology and “new” ways of life, they are still pretty much old school, so to say. Which is awesome.  So, I wanted to give some of the history of Al-Qurnah, Basrah…….which is exactly where my husband is from. It will not be boring…come and take a journey with me. 

Al-Qurnah, Iraq litterally means “the corner” so it says on wikipedia, and  is a pleasant little place 74 km north west of Basra at the very tip of the point named Shatt El-Arab where the two great rivers Tigris and Euphrates meet; a strategic position that has been the scene of conflicts for centuries. As legends have it, Qurna is the reputed site of the Gardens of Eden. It has been said, it was once a city built by Seleucus Nicator I in honor of his wife Apamea, the general who succeeded Alexander the Great on the latter’s death on the Tigris. From the pictures I have seen, the tree of Adam is still there, and they have built a park around it as well. I can not wait to go and see it. 

The contrast of the lush south of Iraq with the rest of a country which is often too bare can be seen very well, and even better on side-trips up the rivers. Each river has a strongly defined character: the banks of the Euphrates are the more wooded and picturesque, and the Tigris is the busier.

The backwaters, creeks and side channels of both are exceedingly beautiful, and here one can get a glimpse of the fertility that must have belonged to Mesopotamia when it was a network of streams and when the forests abounded.

The region of Basra, the city of Sinbad the Sailorand the starting point of his famous adventurous voyages to the World, is, some would say, the most beautiful part of Iraq, outshining both the Persian miniature scenery of the central Euphrates and the cool, majestic north.

But Basra retains a romantic aura. So does the whole area of the south from Shatt El-Arab (the meeting point of Tigris and Euphrates rivers) up to Amara on the Tigris and Suq Eshiukh on the Euphrates: it is lush, watered, full of trees and gardens and canoes gliding on the mirror-surfaces of calm lagoons. It is an area of countless birds and a variety of animals. You feel that lions, possibly dragons or the Great Roc of A Thousand and One Nights may appear.

Basra is Iraq’s 3rd largest city and main seaport, situated 67 km to the north of the Arabian Gulf and 549 km south east of Baghdad. When you see it today, you will be reminded of the commercial importance it has enjoyed for centuries; endless ships shuttle back and forth on Shatt El-Arab.

Ashar is the heart of the city and the old commercial center; its covered bazaar and mosque mark the end of the creek that links it and the river to Old Basra. Upstream is Margil, the garden suburb fanning out from the forest of cranes at the wharves of the Old Basra port and the railway station; and a little further you cross to the island that faces the Shatt El-Arab Hotel, where Basra’s airport was sited until the 1960s when it was moved to Shuaiba. Here are flowers and palms and that blessed water that is the glory of all Iraq, but particularly of the south

Basra was founded in 637 AD by Utba bin Ghazwan on order from Caliph Omar ibn Al-Khattab (634-644 AD), as soon as the Sassanian capital at Ctesiphon fell to the Muslim armies. It was made into a military base, and a mosque was built there of mud and reeds. Of that and of the original palace nothing can be seen today. 

Basra looms into history once again with the raising there by Zubeir ibn Al-Awwam and Talha bin Ubaidullah of a force to resist the claim of Ali, the Prophet Mohammad’s cousin, to the Caliphate after the murders of Caliphs Omar and Othman. A battle took place outside Basra to the west and it resulted in the deaths of both Zubeir and Talha. Zubeir was buried on the battle-site and that is why the small town that has grown up there is called Azzubeir to this day.

Today the older parts of Ashar are still attractive. The covered bazaars is full of beautiful old-style houses with balconies leaning over into the narrow streets and beautiful wooden facades in the style of old Arab architecture (called Shanasheel). They have character and are worth wandering through. They are quite extensive; the shops are well-stocked; they smell of spice and herbs and coffee; there is an old-world atmosphere there.

Now, to me, I love the old buildings and the history. I like to search in them, and if they allow me to, when we get to Iraq, Insha Allah, I will!!! History by reading can get boring to me, honestly. But actually walking and touching things that are ancient……that is amazing. I can not wait.

For the Love of Spices!!!

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Spices and presentation are what give each and every single dish in any cooking, it’s personality. This is my opinion. There are indeed many dishes around the world that are similar to one another, from each country, and this is for sure. One of the biggest differences, to me, are the spices. I love them. I hoard them ahahahaha….some women have a love of shoes and clothes, not this one…Mine is spices. I have the messiest spice cabinet ever but I think I have every single spice from here to Iraq and back. I just can not get enough. If a spice becomes missing from over use, I can tell it is not there and it does not feel right. So, these are some of the spices used in Iraqi cooking.

The Iraqi Kebob….no one does it like Iraq

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There honestly isn’t a kabob I have ever had with as much heart and soul as the Iraqi Kabob. It honestly requires a great deal of skill and patience, although it looks easy and fast, it is not. The men, either my husband or our family friend Ahmed, make the kabob. Here where we live, my husband has a life time friend who owns the “halal” (slaughtered accourding to Islamic rules) store ad prepares the special ground mix of meat and fat used to form these mouth watering perfect ground meat rolls that go from the fire to your plate and into your stomach within 5 minutes flat…..only because they are amazing. So, a typical recipe for them would be something like this:

 

3 lbs of an equal mix of ground lamb and ground beef…the fattier the better for kebob

1 onion grated up

1/4 c of bread crumbs

1 tsp or more depending on taste, of salt and black pepper

some people add some allspice, but we do not. the fire gives it the flavor

if you want to be all traditional, get a whole onion and like 3 whole tomatoes to barbecue as well

you will need the long kebob sticks and form the meat around each one making sure your hands stay wet while doing so

and place them on the fire with a fan pointed at the flames to keep a good temp and fire going

line a large plate with a piece of the tanoor bread or parsley (my fav)

each kebob that is done after flipping and cooking, gently set on the bed of bread or parsley and sprinkle with sumac

cover with another layer of bread to keep the heat and flavor.

continue until all the meat is used up

we sever ours with pickle mixes and breads……this is truly an awesome meal.