Just for a Change :)

Sometimes life can be very fruitful and colorful !

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Recently cooked meals !!!

 Morellatos !!!

 RED AND GREEN PEPPERS 
FOUL MEDAMAS :D 


The rice with bazela, corn and carrots
side dish of cabbage salad and yogurt ! 

Busyyyy Bee

Hello my darlings,
I just recently realized that I am not exactly capable of being completely up to date with this blog and this is simply because I am a full time student taking care of an apartment all by myself. Having said that , not much has been going on over the past few days but words, letters, highlighters and RAIN. On a brighter note, I made a couple of good meals over the past 3 days... Oh yes! I forgot, that recycled pasta mixed with atritma was absolutely DELICIOUS !!! Honestly, definately something I would try again. The pasta absorbed the taste of the thick tomato sauce, aubergine , green peppers and mince meat ! Yum !!!Also I left a little of plain pasta on the side and I cooked it with olive oil garlic and coriander and a bit of lemon juice ! ( Yes , I was hungry and fasting)
Just a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese voila !!! Two excellent pasta meals . The secret is a lot of olive oil and a good amount of garlic !
Next day, after my belly dancing class, I decided to come home and make myself some foul medamas. It is the easiest and fastest meal you can prepare and off course DELISH ! So you obviously boil the foul medamas, drain 90 % of the juice then squeeze one full lemon, crush 1 and 1/2 cloves of garlic , salt, pepper, spice ( if u like it spicy ) and finally chop up half an onion and one tomato and place over and there you go, meals in minutes. I personally eat every bite with spicy pickles. You can also add, olives, cumin powder, and tahina for a different taste ! I dont mind either way as long as its lemony and garlicy. 
Funny story happened that day, I went to a beautiful grocery store called MORELATTOS to buy tomatoes and onions, and it is simply beautiful because of the lay out of the fruits and vegetables and the rainbow colours of delicacy as soon as you enter. Obviously ended up leaving with much more than what I came in to get. I also left a very important thing to me behind and only realized AFTER walking in the ugly rainy streets carrying heavy groceries bags. I felt it on the way back home that something is missing ... checked my bag for my keys and MY PHONE IS NOT THERE !!! Now this phone is extra imp because I made a promise to my father to not lose it ( cuz I apparently have a habit of losing that ... and other things ) . Anyway ran up quickly to place the bags and offcourse when your in a rush like that , life has to play games with you, TWICE the elevator decided to take me upstairs instead of downstairs. Finally made it downstairs, ran like a crazy woman waiting for a disappointing answer that no one has seen it and the usual , use someone's phone to call it and its off. It was different this time :) She had it ! The lady at the counter had it and life was good again. I HAVE TO BE MORE CAREFUL , I was honestly really, really hungry and I couldn't wait to get home and start cooking .
The night after this incident, I sat on skype with me madre and made spring rolls and cheese rolls :) I had taken the pastry sheets ( dont remember the name) down from the freezer 2 days before that so it was essential for me to make them that night even if it was 12 am and I had a 8 am class the next morning. So , I started, I fried onions with garlic with soy sauce, added chopped cabbage and grated carrots, with soy sauce and added spices like a bit of pepper, granulated garlic ( garlic is key to this recipe) , spicy spices and even chopped up those mini spicy red and green peppers. mixed it all together , with more soy sauce and also some ginger powder. You don't want to cook it too much cuz you still want them to be semi- crunchy. After I finished with that stuffing, I made a cheese mix consisting of mozzarella, akawi, Philadelphia cheese and parmesan and just a tiniii winiii bit of this oil herb that I have. Rolled that in, separated the rolls, covered them and straight into the freezer . Haven't tasted them yet but I will soon enough, trust me. The day after that I made an imitation of riz b bazela but its actually with carrots, corn and peas. It comes already frozen, so cooked the rice with lots of mince meat and mixed spices. Made a yogurt and bit of garlic on the side with a cabbage , tomato salad with olive oil, garlic, lemon and chopped spicy green peppers. All I can say, honestly is that it was absolutely delicious. One of the best times that I have ever made it . I enjoyed every bite , YUM!
Today, my friends, I am fasting , if it wasnt for my fasting, hungry stomach, I would not have described every meal into detail but I guess you can all see how starving I am . I will eat that rice again , and ejoy it again :) Can't wait, BUT this is after my Zumba dance class, cant wait for that too !!! I will break my fast 1 min after class starts so I will make sure to take a banana and a bottle of water with me :) Ill be fine, I prefer not to shock my stomach anyway .. when I can. 
Well, this is quite a big post, for any recipe inquiries , pls comment or let me know, I know my food is basic but its simple and great for student life :D 
And just wanted to mention that meals I have spoken about have offcourse been inspired by my beautiful mother and also my cousin Sima ! LOVE YOU FAMILY xxx Till next time ! Food Glorious Food :)

Sunday, September 26, 2010

I WILL TRY THIS !!!!!!!!!

Taleen says:
 its thing steaks...that you slice in strips...you put red pepper black pepper and put peices of garlic in it,,,then you wrap it with the garlic and put tooth picks in it to hold
 then you fry it in butter
Dana- says:
 wow
taleen says:
 then you make a sauce with water tomatoe sauce tomatoe paste black pepper salt onion an put the steak in
 my moms is so good man, try it and tell me if it comes out tasty
 your missing the armenian pepper paste though...is a killer ;)

Atritma

Ingredients : 1 Tomato, 1/2 green pepper, tomato puree, mince meat, black pepper, salt, spicy paste, 1 aubergine 1 and 1/2 onion and 2 cloves of garlic.

Method : 
-Fry onion very well ( until golden ) with a bit of olive oil and a teaspoon of butter ( for taste) .
- once 3/4 cooked, add chopped garlic ( garlic burns fast) 
-once down add a whole bunch of tomato puree , black pepper , salt ( as salty as u like it ), you can even add in a bit of ketchup for taste ( add a bittt of water). 
- in a separate pan, fry aubergine ( unfortunately requires good amount of oil, make sure oil is very hot before frying and add just a BIT of salt on aubergine, it absorbs alot ) 
-fry mince meat as usually done with alot of black pepper and mixed spices and a bit of salt 
- in a pyrex add the cooked onions with tomato sauce, the fried aubergine ( drain oil as much as possible), add mince meat on top, sliced green peppers and slices of tomatoes and THERE YOU GO ! 

MAKE SURE YOU DONT PUT TOO MUCH SALT, AUBERGINE ABSORBS ALOT!!!! 
 

STARTERS

So, my good friend gave me an idea today to start a blog and not necessarily because I have some crazy passion and obsession with something, but simply because I enjoy it and it makes me happy. FOOD. I love everything about food, the smell, the texture, the look of it, the colors!
How did the discussion about blogs come up? Today is Sunday in Montreal, which is usually a very dull and quiet day for most of us. I decided to fast today since its considered to be the white days after the month of Ramadan ! Having said that, me and my beautiful friend were discussing the meal she was eating. When a person is fasting , anything, absolutely any kind of food that is mentioned to them becomes a necessity to have for iftar. Mine today, pretty random but delicious, a combination of garlic and olive oil. It can be cooked, raw, with bread or with pasta but that combination is absolutely delicious. Yesterday I made myself an Arabic dish ( which my mom perfects) called Atritma. It is a mix of onions, garlic, aubergine, green peppers, mince meat , tomato puree, and tomatoes. They work together so perfectly . It can be eaten with rice, bread or even with a fork , cold or hot. To me, taste delicious either way. Today, I have some left overs from yesterday's atritma, so I am thinking of recycling it and mixing it with pasta, maybe penne and making a penne con aubergine and tomatoes. To my imagination, it should work lovely together. I will let you know.