Mega Chocolate Chip Cookies

This Recipe was developed from the Basic Cookie Recipe I put up earlier. I love this recipe as you can do so many things with it, and each is tastier than the next. 

Preheat your oven to 190 C or Gas 5. Prepare and line your tray.

What you will need is:

·         225g/8oz softened butter

·         140g/5oz caster sugar

·         1 egg yolk lightly beaten

·         2tsp vanilla essence

·         225g/8oz plain flour

·         55g/2oz coco powder

·         85g milk chocolate chips

·         85g white chocolate chips

·         115g dark chocolate coarsely chopped

·         salt

Mix your butter and sugar in a bowl with a wooden spoon.
Beat in your egg yolk and vanilla.
Sift in your flour and coco powder along with the pinch of salt

Mix in your chocolate chips and your coarsely chopped dar chocolate.

Roll the dough into a round ball, then wrap in cling film.

Chill in the fridge for about 30-60 minutes.

When you remove the dough from your fridge, roll it out and cut out your desired shape with a cookie cutter.

Bake for 10- 12 minutes then leave to cook for about 10 minutes. And there you have it, another cookie developed from the Basic cookie Recipe. 

Sticky Toffee Pudding / Date cake

After the end of Ramadan, the amount of dates that had accumulated in my apartment was ridiculous. So it was either throw them out (bad idea) or live a guilt free life, and do something creative with them. So I decided to make a nice Sticky Toffee Pudding which proved a hit with the people at work. Naturally I had requests for more :)

what you will need:

225g fresh dates (stones removed)

1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda85g butter (room temperature)170g caster sugar2 large eggs170g self raising flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons Ovaltine OR (coco powder)
2 tablespoons natural yogurt
For the toffee sauce
115g unsalted butter
115g light muscovado sugar
140ml double cream / nestle thick cream (Qishta)
While the cake is cooking, make the toffee sauce by putting the butter, sugar and cream in a pan over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved and the sauce has thickened and darkened in colour.
While the cake is cooking, make the toffee sauce by putting the butter, sugar and cream in a pan over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved and the sauce has thickened and darkened in colour.

Preheat your oven to 180ºC/Gas 4.

Put the dates in a bowl with the bicarbonate of soda and cover with 200ml of boiling water for 5 minutes to allow them to soften, then drain. 

Blotz the dates in a food processor to make a date paste. 

Cream together your butter and sugar, then add and mix in the eggs, flour,  cinnamon and Ovaltine/ coco powder. Then fold in the yogurt and your date paste.

Pour into a prepared ovenproof dish and bake in the preheated oven for approximately 35 minutes.

To serve, spoon out the pudding at the table and pour over the toffee sauce. Ooooh Mama ;)

Jam Squares

This recipe was given to me by a colleague in work. He made surprisingly good Jam squares. Perfect with a nice cup of tea..yummy in my tummy :)

What you will need

275g  cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
125 g butter or margarine at room temperature
25 ml cooking oil
80 g sugar
1 large egg

Apricot Jam

Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together.
Cream butter, oil, sugar and egg together. Add flour mixture to egg mixture and mix to a dough.
Roll two thirds of the dough thinly into a greased pie dish. Spread apricot jam over the dough.
Grate the remaining dough roughly over the top.
Bake till top dough starts to brown on the middle rack of the oven at 180C (350F) .
Remove from oven, cut in squares and cool.

Mbatin / libyan stuffed potatoes

Mbatin is a really tasty libyan dish that I picked up in my time there.. Although it is my own twist to the recipe, it is delish.. 

What you will need:

Potatoes

Mincemeat
1 Onion
1 small bunch fresh coriander
2 Garlic cloves
1 teaspoon of Coriander powder
1 teaspoon of Paprika
Touch of Cinnamon
1 teaspoon of Black pepper
1 teaspoon of Salt

2 eggs
Flour for dipping

Tomatoe Sauce:
One can chopped tomatoes 
a small bunch of fresh coriander
3 garlic cloves
salt to taste, 
pepper to taste 
1 teaspoon coriander powder, 
half a cup of water


For the potatoes:
Slice potato lengthwise into thin slices -about 3mm thick, but keeping
each two slices joined together at the base, to form a sandwich, which
will be stuffed with minced meat and herbs and then fried (as per picture).

The Stuffing: 
In a chopper chop put the fresh
coriander, 1 onion, 2 cloves of garlic, teaspoon of salt, teaspoon of chili powder or paprika, teaspoon of coriander, teaspoon of black
pepper, and a touch of cinnamon). Add this to the mince meat.

Stuff the potatoes with the mincemeat mixture.

Dip it into egg, then into the flour. Throw into a deep fat fryer (or in frying pan with lots of
oil), and fry until golden brown. The oil needs to be really hot.

Drain off oil on kitchen paper. Then place potatoes in an oven dish (dont stack them on top of each other).

For the tomatoe sauce - mix one can chopped tomatoes, a small bunch of fresh coriander, 3 garlic cloves, salt, pepper, 1 teaspoon coriander powder, half a cup of water. blend together in a chopper.
Pour it over the potatoes. And stick in a moderate oven for about 45 minutes.

It is perfectly perfect served with a nice fresh salad. 

Basic Cookies

Basic cookies

Living in Ireland my whole life, we needed to make our own fun and enjoy our Eid. Eid usually involves lots and lots of food, cakes and cookies. Guests come around and usually tea and usually a selection of home made Eid biscuits are served. unlike the middle East, where once can buy all the cakes and biscuits they want, we had to make them ourselves. Nonetheless, it was always very enjoyable.

I use this recipe as the base for most of my cookie recipes, and add or subtract a few ingredients depending on what sort of cookie I would like (eg. chocolate chips, coco powder, etc)

Preheat your oven to 190 C or Gas 5. Prepare and line your tray.

What you will need is:

225g  / 8oz softened butter

140g / 5oz caster sugar
1 egg yolk lightly beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
280g / 10oz plain flour
pinch of salt

Mix your butter and sugar in a bowl with a wooden spoon.
Beat in your egg yolk and vanilla.
Sift in your flour along with the pinch of salt
Roll the dough into a round ball, then wrap in cling film.
Chill in the fridge for about 30-60 minutes.

When you remove the dough from your fridge, roll it out and cut out your desired shape with a cookie cutter.

Bake for 10- 12 minutes then leave to cook for about 10 minutes.

A very easy yet tasty recipe. Try it.

Arabic seven spice mix

Arabic seven spice Mix

• 1/2 cup ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup ground cumin
• 1/2 cup paprika
• 1/4 cup ground coriander
• 1/4 cup ground cloves
• 4 teaspoons nutmeg
• 4 teaspoons ground cinamon
• 2 teaspoons ground cardamon

Mix all these together. Put in a spice jar. And this can be used as often as needed :) 

Oozy

Oozy

On my recent visit to Jordan, I was invited out to quite a number of family and friends and what stood out to me as the main dishes of choice there was the Oozy and Mansaf. I have to say, it is not the first time I've tasted these, but reminded my how much I had missed it.  The beauty of these dishes is that they are so easy, yet so full of flavour. 

Ingredients: 

• 1 chicken, cut up

• chicken stock, enough to cover the chicken

• 1 large chopped onion

• 1 tablespoon Arabic seven spice

• 1 tablespoon cumin

• 1 teaspoon cardamom powder

• 1 tablespoon turmeric powder

• 1 1/4 cups frozen peas

• 1 1/4 cups carrots (frozen or fresh, diced small)

• 1 1/2 lbs ground beef

• 2 cups long grain rice

• 1/4 cup almonds

• 1/4 cup pine nuts (optional)

• parsley or coriander for garnish

• seasoned salt

• 1/2 of a lemon

• salt

• 1 teaspoon Arabic seven spice

Place the cut up chicken in a pot along with enough chicken stock to cover the chicken. Add just a dash of salt. Skim the top of the stock and remove the froth as it forms. Once all the froth is gone, add the diced onion and let boil for about ten minutes. Add the Arabic seven spice to the stock, along with the cumin and turmeric powder. Let boil for another 5 minutes, then add the peas and carrots. Let boil for another 15-20 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked.

Remove the chicken and place on a baking pan, and place aside. Brown the ground beef in a frying pan, and add just a dash of salt and 1 tsp arabic seven spice.Brown almonds, and add to the ground beef.In a pot big enough to hold the ingredients, place the minced beef on the bottom of the pot. The strain the peas, carrots, and onions out of the chicken stock and place on top of the ground beef, making a second layer (do not mix them in the pot). Then add the rice on top of the peas and carrots. Add enough of the chicken stock from the first pot to cover the rice, peas and carrots, and ground beef (add slowly, trying not to mix everything up).Cover and let cook until the stock is gone and the rice is cooked.
Brown the pine nuts and almonds
Take a serving tray bigger than the pot used to cook the rice in and place it on top of the pot. With one hand on top of the tray and one on the bottom of the pot, flip the pot upside down on top of the tray. Tap the bottom of the pot making sure all the ingredients came down. Remove the pot and shake the tray a little making everything spread out nicely.
Arrange the chicken on top of the rice, then sprinkle the pine nuts, almonds and chopped fresh parsley or coriander for garnish. 

Squeeze the half of lemon on top of the chicken, just adding a hint of flavour and sprinkle seasoned salt over the chicken. Place under the broiler just until it is golden brown.

Serve with a nice fresh salad and some plain yogurt.

voila.... the Oozy