The Food in Egypt

I love Arabic food. Well most of them atleast.

Hummus and related dips - yum.



Couscous, rice and roasted meat - yum again.



Shawarma - total YUM.

We had the yummiest chicken shawarma in Ibn Batuta Mall in Dubai. It cost 6dhm and is easily the best shawarma I have tasted!



Weird black olive salad - erm.. not yum.



Surprisingly, we found a lot of good bread and pastry in almost every buffet we had. A welcome breakfast, for sure. Warm rolls with butter melting between them.



Persimmons (the orange fruits in the boxes at the bottom) were everywhere in Cairo. Probably cheap too.



Ah yes, meet my lover - falafel. Vegetarians, get ready to eat tons of this if you every visit Egypt. Probably one of the only options you will have in a local Egyptian restaurant - unless dipping cucumber in hummus and calling it a meal is your thing.



Karkade. Dried hibiscus leaves that are then brewed into tea. I tasted them but they are not my cup of tea (hehe). Taken at Khan-El Khalili Market, a must-visit if you are in Cairo.



Egyptians love their mint. Its everywhere, literally! What a fantastic, simple and aromatic idea for a table arrangement though.



Ah yes, the Egyptian answer to nan - Aish Merahrah. Local bakeries make these in bulk and most households just buy them off the street and serve with meat, vegetables and dips. This lady was making a huge batch and willing posed for pictures (we had to pay her though, you need to pay for everything in Egypt!)



The tandoor actually runs on gas but looked ancient.



Fresh and hot. Has to be served immediately though, otherwise the bread turns hard and rubbery.



Ok don't judge my camera, this was taken in almost no light. An Arabic dessert that I had by the dozens and was present in all dessert counters. I think this is what the Greeks called Melomakarona which has Arabic origins but I could be wrong. If you know the name of this dessert, please leave a comment!

Meet My Oven - The Cheap, Basic Oven from India

My butterscotch blondies recipe is special for two reasons:

1. It was my first step by step recipe
2. I posted pictures of my oven and every other reader of this blog immediately had a gazillion questions about it!

Ok, I tend to exaggerate a bit but in this case, its only a teeny bit. True story.

Considering all the emails I have replied (happily, may I add) on the subject, this post is terribly late. But then, here it is, finally, after a break of 9 days, my longest in a while.

This, is my oven.

And this here, is the list of FAQs. Go crazy folks!

Q. Where did you buy the oven? What's the price?

Amma got this for me from Shah Enterprises in Kottayam, Kerala (that's my hometown). The brand name is OK. I am positive you'd get this in most home appliances stores in Kerala although I am not sure of other places. If anyone has seen or heard of this, please leave a comment.

The price is about Rs. 1200. No, I am not going to convert that into USD for you. Sorry, too lazy.

Q. How big is it?

Hmm.. not that big. Its the size of.. hmm.. ok let me put it this way. An 8x8 tray will fit into it just right. Anything bigger, you will have to maneuver it by tilting the sides, etc. Amma has a bigger one so this is available in various sizes, I am sure.

Q. What's the maximum temperature? Can it bake everything from cakes to bread to cookies?

The max temperature is 220C. Usually, cakes and cookies are backed at 180C. For bread, you need a slightly higher temperature but I have baked plain white bread with very good results. In fact,all the baked good in this site are made in this oven. You can check out the recipe index here.

Q. Does the oven come with a warranty? Is it worth carrying all the way from India to somewhere abroad?

The answer to this really depends on how bad you want that oven. I wanted it real bad because the prices in Singapore for ovens is atrocious. I am used to this since amma has had it for over 20 years. Having said that, this thing works on a filament coil heating system so if the filament gets rusted or broken, it will result in a loose contact which is frustrating, especially while baking. So it depends on your luck on the most part. Some may last only a year but most will go on and on forever.

Good luck and if you have more questions, leave a comment and I will answer them :)

Disclaimer: I am not recommending this oven to anyone. This post is more informational since a lot of you had questions about the oven when I put up pics in the butterscotch blondies step by step recipe page. The oven is very basic, quite small and may not work well for all recipes that need to be baked. However, the ones you see on this blog have all been tried and tested in it so you can safely go ahead!

Amma's Garden and How I Miss It

Posts like these make want to curl up on my bed sucking coconut candy. I start thinking in long lines of 'what ifs' and drive TH nuts! And what do I do to make this better? Have one of my own so that I can look at it next time I feel like turning into a recluse and crying my eyes out.

Or something like that.

My mom has a green thumb. She loves plants and plants love her. I remember the days we used to have dinner on the terrace of our old house and her picking out the leeches from the orchid plants with her bare fingers and dropping them into the coconut shell with rock salt in it. Did I mention with her bare fingers? Yeah, my mom is like that.

Now we have very little space around our house in Kottayam but she still manages to squeeze in maximum stuff. The plot is only 8cents (that's how we measure in Kerala) including the area the house is on, half of which is tiled, so there's very little soil area.

Yet, she has green chillies..

There's nothing like the flavour of fresh green chillies. Nothing! Ok, except fresh coriander leaves. But that's the only exception, really.

She has tomatoes. Whenever she makes sambar, she just steps out of the house and comes back with a fresh tomato in her hand to drop it in. Oh man..

Any self-respecting malayali (aka mallu), even pseudo ones like us, has to have a coconut tree. So we have one. Just one, but its more than enough as you can see.

This papaya plant has a story behind it. Long (a bit longer than I'd like) back when I went on a college trip to Ooty, I brought back some seeds from a roadside seller. That's right, papaya seeds. He claimed its for seedless, hydbrid, short papayas that are red inside and I, of course, believed him. Although it turned out nothing like he described, amma swears they taste "different". She loves me, that mother of mine!

Bananas! But of course. This is njaali poovan. And I am too lazy to find out what its called in English.

Bougainvilla. I hear that these days, bougainvilla are no longer considered fancy. But I love them. Amma says if you give them some good chaanakam (dried cow dung), lots of sunlight and enough water, nothing is as low maintenance and they are so pretty. Sadly, she only has about 4-5 pots now and this orange is a rare colour.

Ah. Drumstick leaves. They are painful to prepare before cooking and smell horrible when raw (or is it just me) but you gotta love them drumstick leaves.

Psstt.. this is our neighbour's tree. But they share. In fact they insist we share. True story.

Betel leaves aka vetta. Although we don't have any 'chewers' in the house and we are not very religious back home, amma loves having this around. That's the base of the coconut tree, btw, next to which she also has curry leaves.

These are my doing, these basil shoots. Thanks Deeba! Amma is helping me take care of them because I knew for a fact that without sunlight, I'd kill all the ones I try to grow in Singapore.

Now let me go grab the coconut candies and hit the bed.

Happy weekend y'all ;)

The Unavoidable Recap - Recipes of 2009!

I hadn't intended to do this, but then I am doing some other things tonight that I hadn't intended to do originally anyway. Before you let your imagination go flying, TH and I are going to one of those super crowded NYE parties we very dutifully avoid each year. I hate crowds. He hates crowds. We are so totally made for each other. This year? We don't have enough friends in SG for a house party and we did the "just you and me, first NYE after marriage" thing last year which was okay but not something you want to do two years in a row. So we are going to be brave and face the crowds. Who knows, maybe we would be converts after this.

So 2009. Its been a horrible year for almost everyone I know. Part of it is definitely due to the recession but then some were beyond that. We had a bad year too, but I still can't help feeling blessed for all the good stuff that happened this year.

But this post is about Edible Garden and the incredible year its been. I cooked a lot, baked a lot, clicked a lot, learnt a lot, its been good. Very good. Here are some of the stars of 2009.

Most Visited Recipe - Paneer Butter Masala - Restaurant Style Recipe

Most of you Tried - Ennai Kathirikkai Kozhambu Recipe

Most Commented - Khadi Pakoda Recipe

Most Appreciated - The Food Photography Basics Series

Recipe I Loved the Most - Sweet Corn in Rich Onion Sauce 

Recipe TH Loved the Most - Vegetable Spring Rolls

Most Popular Baking Recipe - Butterscotch Blondies

There are tons more categories I can think of but I think this list, although not exhaustive, does a good job of summing things up which is what's important anyway.

I also learnt a lot. I learnt that:

- you guys love step by step recipes
- and also the food photography basics series
- everyone likes reciprocation and being answered when they have a question. Its very easy to be rude in the blogosphere.
- not everyone comes to my site for the recipes; some come for the pictures, some come to see what's up, most come because they like me. That's immensely sweet :)
- making friends is easy, making real friends is hard.
- passion for food is a wide concept and involves so many different things.
- I am an above average cook but I learn quickly. Next year, I think I will move to the "good" region.
- I have a very high bar when it comes to cooking.
- support and appreciation from family and you all is the number one thing that keeps me going.

Yeah, that was a bit mushy but then recaps are supposed to be like that.

Hope all of you have a wonderful new year.

PS: I haven't been visiting many of you over the past few days. It has to do a bit with the losing of the mojo I spoke about earlier. I should be back soon, don't be alarmed.

Cooking Class - Palate Sensations Singapore

One of the managers in my team at work won an award because she is a pretty awesome manager. What does this have to do with cooking classes? Well, she is a food-lover, in addition to being totally hilarious, and decided to treat her team to an afternoon of cooking as a group. Again, where do I fit in? Well, she had some available slots in the group and guess who jumped at the chance?! Me! There you go, now I fit into the picture totally, don't I?

And that's where it began.

Joann had filled me in on how nice their kitchen is but even then I was all *gasp* and *double gasp*. I mean, take a look..

Every surface either squeeks or is filled with food and/or kitchen gadgets. No complaints!

There's one entire wall full of Le Creuset stuff. Saucepans, bowls, pans, stock pots, and the list goes on and on.

The opposite wall was dedicated to Scan Pan. I hadn't heard of the brand before this but now, I am down. I go to their website every other day and just ogle.

This is probably my favourite section though. This shelf takes up so little space yet houses so many (important!) heavy things. Imagine how helpful this would be in a tiny kitchen. A food-lover's kitchen cuz otherwise, you don't even need so many kitchen gadgets!

The last shelf, dedicated to Kitchenaids. Not one, not two, but four of them. Four. FOUR!

They also had four ovens. *Dreamy sigh*

We made pizza from scratch, chicken tacos with avocado, fritatta with tomato salsa, and pear and cherry cake with a spiked glaze.

The ingredients were measured and laid out neatly before we got there.

So we cracked open a bottle of girly bubbly and got started!

I spent some quality time with the Kitchenaid as it kneaded the dough for the pizza. He even told me I will soon acquire his cousin. I hope he's right. Then again, a Kitchenaid is always right. Right?

The dough was super soft and very easy to work with after left alone to rise for a while. There was a lot of poking and touching to get acquainted.

The cake came along really well too. The batter was entirely whipped up in a Kitchenaid too. He was yellow but we didn't get a chance to chat. By the way, I made this cake the next weekend and will post soon.

The fritatta was super easy to whip up. It was partly cooked on a stove and then baked (Scan Pan is oven proof too, how cool is that?).

By the way, I am very proud of the smoke in this pic. This has never happened before and I have no clue how I achieved this.

When the cake was done, the chef did this for two reasons. 1) To loosen it gently from the ramekin and 2) So that it stays warm when we are ready to attack them!

These were for the tacos. Fresh vegetables.

The tacos themselves, with sour cream dip, shaved parmesan and the avocado dip.
Ah the pizzas. Each one was unique because we all got a blob of dough and could pick and choose our filling.

This is the chef's version. Minimalistic with two variations - simple tomato and cheese on one side, and thinly sliced potatoes on the other.

Then we got started. There were hearts..

And half moons..

And tons of different shapes, colours, textures, fillings..

Mine? Well very simple. Tomato base, fresh rosemary, and oodles of cheese. Pizza = cheese to me :D

PS: I got quite pally with the Silpat too. We may meet again in the near future for a cookie or two.

If you are ever looking for cooking classes in Singapore, Palate Sensations is a definite must-try. Its pricey but totally worth it!