Ramadan days 5 and 6 went well. Day 5 was more simple and we had leftover Algerian shorba, chicken pieces baked in the oven with herbs and frozen, ready made french fries. Following the theme of the successful chocolate sundae, dessert was a super delicious and fruity homemade raspberry sundae which comsisted of raspberries in raspberry jelly,  raspberry mousse, white chocolate mousse, whipped cream and grated chocolate.

Day 5 was easy too and I made a lentil soup and we had shop bought quiche, pizza and some borek that were in the fridge prepared a couple of days beforehand.

I have never been a fan of lentil soup and the strong infusion of cummin that they normally have. That was until I tried the following recipe that a sister posted on a web forum. I tweaked the recipe a little and discovered a lentil soup that I love.

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1 clove garlic, grated
• 1 tomato, diced
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 3 tbsp fresh, chopped coriander
• 100g orange lentil
• 1/4 tsp paprika
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tsp ground cummin
• 1.5 litres water

Sautee the onion until soft and then add the garlic and cook for a further minute or two. Add the remaining ingredients and bring to boil then simmer for about 45 minutes.

I like to blend the soup quickly for a smoother consistency.

After a full day of fasting I find I can really get a huge chocolate craving. Need that sugar rush and some oh-so-creamy chocolate. My eldest daughter loves the chocolate sundaes that you can buy in the yogurt aisle of the supermarket and I was craving something rich so I decided to try making my own.

I decided on a layer of chocolate fudge brownie, some raspberries, whipped cream, chocolate mousse and chocolate sauce.

For the chocolate fudge brownie I used my wholemeal brownie recipe with half wholemeal flour and half white.

Chocolate mousse

2 medium eggs
60g chocolate (at least 70% cocoa)
2 tsp sugar (or to taste)

Break the chocolate into pieces and microwave gently until melted.

Whisk the egg whites into soft peaks, add the sugar, and whisk briefly.

Mix the egg yolks quickly into the melted chocolate and then whisk in a third of the egg white. Fold the rest very gently into the mixture until just combined.

Refrigerate until the brownie in the glasses has cooled sufficiently so as not to melt the mousse.

Chocolate sauce

80g dark chocolate
80ml cream

Melt chocolate and cream together and stir until smooth and well combined. Make sure that it cools before drizzling over the cream at the final stage. It doesn’t matter if it’s still warm when you drizzle it over the raspberries and brownie though.

Cream

Whip 1 x 200ml tub of whipping cream

Assembly

Place 1 square of brownie in to each glass (6 glasses)

Add a few frozen raspberries on top of the brownie and a spoonful of the chocolate sauce.

Add a dollop of whipped cream then even divide the chocolate mousse between the 6 glasses. Top with the remaining whipped cream and a drizzle of the chocolate sauce.

Refrigerate for 3-4 hours.

Verdict:  The dessert was absolutely beautiful. All of the kids gave it the thumbs up. The raspberries were wonderful combined with the rich chocolate and mousse was heavenly. Te only thing I would do differently would be to use something else apart from chocolate brownie as this did make it a bit heavy towards the bottom of the glass. The brownie soaked up juices from the raspberries and the sauce and became a little stodgy. I think crumbled digestive at the bottom would make a lighter base.

Felt rather tired today but personally I find keeping busy in the kitchen helps the time to pass quicker so I am happy to stay there making a few things.

Today there was Algerian shorba again, vegetarian as it was last time but this time with tiny Orzo pasta (or Tli-tli as the Algerians call it) instead of burghul or vermicelli. There were some leftovers as well as mini pizzas that came out soft as little pillows, vegetable samosas as I made a double batch yesterday and cheese and potato Borek. A tip for the potato borek that I picked up from my dear sister-in-law is to use instant potato! Yes… the powdered stuff in boxes – remember the adverts for Smash in the 1970′s or early 1980′s??! “For mash get Smash!” So, I used about 120g of Tesco instant potato and about 550ml of boiling water, stirred well with a wooden spoon and then added a knob of butter and about 150g grated cheddar. I used this to fill the spring roll pastry and folded into logs. I slightly over-cooked them as you can see in the photo.

Dessert was Eve’s pudding but made with strawberries and raspberries instead of apples – this was served with rich chocolate ganache. It didn’t turn out quite as planned because I took a shortcut and used a supermarket cake packet mixture which was a bit too runny for this recipe. It was very tasty though with the tart, tanginess of the raspberries and the soft, sweetness of the cake. I didn’t think it really needed the rich chocolate sauce but my 15 yr old and 13 yr old daughters disagreed. Nice to have pleased someone!

Another day, another fast and alhamdu lillah everyone got through the day in one piece! It was a bit of a cooking fest today – I made chicken noodle soup, vegetable samosas and cheese and garlic stuffed chicken breast slices and also cooked up some shop bought tortelloni. In addition of course, there was leftover couscous salad and tuna rolls.

The chicken rolls are very simple and require only a few ingredients.

Ingredients

• 2 large chicken breasts, thinly sliced
• 75g medium strength Cheddar cheese
• 1 cloves minced garlic
• 1 egg, beaten
• breadcrumbs

A bit later in the day I had a sudden urge to try making a chocolate sundae, all from scratch. Needless to say, it was a hit. Recipe to follow another day but it consisted of chocolate fudge brownie, raspberries, homemade chocolate mousse, homemade chocolate sauce and whipped cream. Chocolate heaven!

I have to add that making brownies AND mousse when fasting is torturous as you can’t lick the bowl out afterwards!

Samosas, samboosa, samboosak, spring rolls, borek, borega as they are variously called in different countries are all a variation on a similar theme. They generally consist of a paper thin pastry filled with meat or vegetables, rolled into triangles or logs and deep fried. They feature on iftar tables during Ramadan worldwide in some form or other.

I have no set recipe for these and will generally fill them with whatever ingredients I have on hand, favourites include spiced mixed vegetables (as below), minced meat, onions and scrambled egg (Algerian style) and mashed potato/ Cheddar cheese. I have also tried filling them with Pakistani chicken kebab mixture and they were a hit.

One thing I love to do, whatever the filling, is to quickly dip each rolled samosa into egg wash and then in breadcrumbs before frying.

The prepared, uncooked samosas can be kept in the fridge for a couple of days or they can be frozen and thawed as needed.

Today’s recipes consisted of:

• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 potato, diced
• 1 carrot, diced
• 1/2 cup sweetcorn
• 1/2 cup petits pois
• 1/2 tsp cumin powder
• 1/2 tsp coriander powder
• salt and chilli to taste
• a squeeze of fresh lemon juice

Day 2 of Ramadan went well alhamdu Lillah with four of my children fasting: 15, 13, 10 and 7 year olds. My 4 year old decided at 11:30 to fast and she held out for two whole hours!  I opted for a finger foods theme today.  There was shorba already prepared that just needed to be reheated and to accompany, there were shop bought veggie samosas and shop bought onion bhajis (wasn’t able to buy samosa pastry to make my own samosa and borek until this afternoon), tuna rolls and cheese rolls, chicken nuggets and cous cous salad. No dessert today but there is always plenty of ice cream in the freezer for whoever has a sweet tooth!

For the cous cous salad, I cooked 1 cup of cous cous according to the microwave method mentioned here but omiting the final stage of adding ghee or butter.  I left to cool and then added a good glug of Hellman’s French salad dressing then added chopped cherry tomatoes, olives, diced cucumber and 1 package of  Apetina feta with garlic and green olives. (I normally add chopped sundried tomatoes too but have run out.) I mixed well and refrigerated.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup dry cous cous
• 2 tbsp salad dressing
• 2 inches cucumber, diced
• 1 small tomato, diced or a few cherry tomatoes, quartered
• sundried tomatoes if you have them
• a few olives, sliced
• 1 package Apetina feta cubes or similar

For the little tuna rolls and cheese rolls – I drained 1 can of tuna in brine and set aside; beat 2 eggs with a splash of milk and set aside.

Next I took 10 slices of white bread, removed the crusts and rolled out flat with a rolling pin. I sprinkled the tuna over the bread, rolled up tightly and then dipped in the egg. The egg dipped rolls were then shallow fried in a few spoons of hot oil until crispy and golden. I made a further 4 slices of bread filled with cubed cheddar.

Ingredients:

• 10 slices white bread, crusts removed
• 1 tin tuna chunks
• 2 eggs
• 3 tbsp milk

Day 1 of Ramadan went smoothly alhamdu Lillah and I had minimal cooking to do since I had prepared nearly everything the night before. My 13, 10 and 7 year old children were fasting so I had to make something they would enjoy breaking their fast on on and I also kept it simple. Nothing greasy that would upset tummies on the very first day!

I made Algerian Shorba but I didn’t use any meat and instead of burghul (cracked wheat) I used a handful of broken vermicelli.

For main course I marinaded some chicken drumsticks in Nando’s garlic Peri-Peri sauce overnight and then grilled them for about 40 minutes just before iftar. These were served with shop bought coleslaw and potato salad and potato wedges with their skins left on and rubbed with olive oil, minced garlic, Italian seasoning and sea salt – they were baked in the oven on 190C for about 45 minutes.

All I managed to prepare for dessert was orange Jello! Hopefully, I will make some better desserts as the month progresses!

Alhamdu Lillah, Ramadan is upon us once again and so the month of fasting commences.

I haven’t  blogged for sometime so this seems the perfect opportunity to try to start up again. I can’t guarantee any new or exciting recipes since I am mainly catering to the palette of my children this year but, nevertheless I’ll try to blog what’s for dinner (or rather iftaar) or breakfast (suhoor) each day.

So, this evening the shorba has been prepared already for tomorrow and I have some chicken pieces in the fridge to overnight. This way, hopefully I will have minimal work in the kitchen tomorrow which will be our first day of fasting.

I was trying to think of a way of sprucing up the plain pancakes we often eat and noticed the peanut butter jar left on the counter top… it’s been a long time since I saw peanut butter chips in the supermarket so I thought I would try freezing blobs of peanut butter and making my own ‘peanut butter chips’! They pretty much melted when the pancakes were cooked but there were bits of peanut butter oozing from the pancakes as we bit into them. Delicious!

Ingredients:

1 cup self-raising flour
1/4 cup caster sugar
1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon white vinegar
10g melted butter
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
50g smooth peanut butter

• I started off by placing tiny lumps of the peanut butter onto a freezable surface and then placing the peanut butter in the freezer to firm.

• Next, sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and sugar into a bowl. Beat in the egg and milk and then add the vinegar and melted butter.

• Heat a non-stick pan (medium heat) with a tiny amount of oil and just before you start to cook the pancakes, empty the chocolate chips and peanut butter lumps into the batter and give it all a quick mix.

• Drop tablespoons of the batter into the frying pan and heat until the top starts to become dry and the bubbles pop. Carefully turn over and cook for another minute or so. I made around 15 pancakes with this batter.

• I served the pancakes with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce.

The best fatayer I ever had were in England years and years ago and they were baked by a Saudi lady. The bread was very soft and light with a delicious, slightly sour spinach filling.

Since then, I have had them many times here in Saudi Arabia with various fillings but often the bread is a little dry or just ordinary. I have been wanting to try making ftayer myself but needed just the right dough recipe. It was when I found Ree Drummond’s Cinnamon Rolls recipe recently that I thought I might be onto something.

For these savoury pastries, I used a quarter of her stated amounts and also reduced the sugar content from 1/4 cup to 1 teaspoon.

Ingredients:

• 280 ml semi-skimmed milk
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
• 2 cups (plus 1/4 cup extra, separated) all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon (heaping) baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon (scant) baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Heat the milk, oil and sugar in the microwave until lukewarm.

Sprinkle the yeast over this mixture and leave for a few minutes.

Sift 2 cups of flour into the milk/oil mix and stir until well combined. Leave in a warm place for 1 hour.

Add the extra 1/4 cup of flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and mix well. If the dough seems too wet you may need to add another 1/4 cup of flour. What you should have is a very soft dough which remains a little sticky. You will need to flour the worktop well when working with this dough.

With this dough I was able to make 11 spinach fatayir, 7 feta cheese fatayir and 3 mini pizzas. I used a small ball of the dough weighing 25-30g  for each one.

For 11 spinach fatayir I used:

• 1 small onion grated
• 150g cooked and chopped spinach
• 1/2-1 teaspoon sumac (depending on your taste)
• 1/4 tsp salt (again, to your taste)
• 1/2 tsp pomegranate molasses

NB: If you can’t get sumac or pomegrante molasses (you can use one or the other if you only have one of them) use lemon juice instead. Squeeze lemon juice over the cooked spinach and onion, mix well and stop when the taste is sour to your liking.

Fry the onion in a tbsp of oil until soft and then add the cooked spinach, salt, sumac and pomegranate molasses and combine well. My spinach was cooked and cooled straight from the fridge so I was able to use it to fill the pastries immediately. If you have just cooked the spinach you will need to cool the mixture before using it.

Take a 25-30g ball of the dough and place onto a well floured worktop. Using your fingers push it out to form a circle about 3 inches in diameter.

Place a teaspoonful of the spinach filling in the middle.

Bring two edges of the dough together to form the top of a triangle and then bring the lower portion of the dough up, squeeze gently with your fingers to seal. Since the dough is a little sticky you shouldn’t need any egg to seal the edges.

Place on a greased baking sheet and bake at 400F until golden

For the feta fatayir:

Take a 25-30g piece of the dough and gently flatten into an oblong about 2″x4″, use a well floured rolling pin if necessary.

Take a teaspoon of feta and roll it into a small log and place in the middle of the dough.

Bring the top portion of the dough forward, keeping the filling revealed, bring up the lower portion and pinch at the edges to make a kind of boat shape.

Still pinching the edges, lift and place on the greased baking sheet.

Bake at 400F until golden.

For the mini pizzas:

Take a 25-30g ball of the dough, flatten into a small disc and spread with a little pizza sauce and some grated cheddar. You could also add chopped olives.

Bake as above.

Variation:

For jubna (cheese) fatayir, take a 25-30g ball of dough, flatten into a disc of around 3″ diameter. Place a teaspoon of grated cheddar into the centre and fold into a semi-circle.

Bake as above.