Chicken Pot Pie

It is an easy recipe that allows you to pick and choose your favorite vegetables to add and/or the sauce that you prefer with the dough that suits you.img_5842

Ingredients:

One Pound of Shredded Chicken Breast

2 Cups of Diced Pepper

One cup of Tomato Sauce

One Small Diced Onion

Pizza Crust

Salt

Pepper

One Tbsp of Ground Thyme

Shredded Cheese (I used Mozzarella)

One Tbsp of Butter

Egg Yolk to Brush

How to Prepare:

Prepare the pizza dough.

Pre-heat oven to 300F/180C.

Boil the chicken breast until cooked, skimming the froth as it appears.

Shred the chicken breast when it cools down.

Peel the tomatoes and crush to make a sauce.

In a deep pan, sauté the onion with the butter until soft and then add the shredded chicken, salt, pepper, and ground thyme.

Add the diced pepper to the pan and mix. Let it cook for a few minutes until soft.

Add the tomato sauce and cook on low heat until the sauce thickens.

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Roll half of the dough and place in the bottom of the pie sheet.

Add the mixture on top and spread evenly.

Add the shredded cheese on top.

Roll the remaining pizza dough and place on top, folding the edges to close well.

Brush the egg yolk (or Milk) on the top layer and bake for 30 minutes or until dough is golden brown.

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Baked Kibbeh

Kibbeh is a very famous Levantine dish made of bulgur, minced onion and finely ground meat with sautéed pine nuts. There are many types of Kibbeh from fried shaped balls or patties, baked, cooked in yogurt sauce, grilled or served raw.

Today, I will share my recipe of baked Kibbeh. It is definitely one of my favorite dishes.

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Ingredients:

4 Cups of Bulgur- Soaked in water for a couple of hours

One Pound of Chicken Breast

One Piece of Onion – Minced

One Pound of Ground Beef (or your choice of meat)

2 tbsp of Pine Nuts

2 tbsp of Butter – cut into small cubes

Salt and Pepper

Saffron

How to Prepare:

In a saucepan, sauté the minced onion in butter and cook the meat with salt and pepper until browned then add the pine nuts and cook for a few minutes until all the water dries.

Grind the bulgur with some onion slices in a meat grinder then grind the chicken breast (save one teaspoon of the chicken breast on the side after grinding).

Mix the bulgur, chicken breast, salt and pepper and kneed with hands until it shapes into a dough.

kibbeh-1Pre-heat the oven to 300F/180C.

Grease a deep oven tray and spread half of the bulgur dough in the bottom evenly.

Add the meat mixture on top and spread evenly.

Spread the rest of the dough mixture on top by making circles on your hands and laying them on top of the meat. Fill in between with the rest of the dough. Wet your hands with some water to spread it easily and make the dough stick together.

Mix one teaspoon of the chicken breast that you saved earlier with some saffron and spread evenly on top of the last layer.

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Using the back of the fork, roll it over the dough to give it a design vertically and horisontally (optional).

Using a knife, cut it into even squares.

Place the butter cubes on top the kibbeh evenly.

Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown.kibbeh-3

 

 

 

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Introducing Scarlett Mai

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After being away from the blogging world due to a busy life, I finally have the time now to get back and share more recipes and adventures but first I would like to introduce our princess.

Twenty-three months ago, a baby girl was born and gave our life an incredible joy. After the arrival of Scarlett, life got a bit busy with two kids running around but i definitely didn’t stop trying new recipes and traveling around.

Here are some photos of our baby girl.

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Baghreer – Moroccan Pancakes

Moroccan Pancake, Crepe or Baghreer is a very tasty home-made pancake and easy to prepare. If you get the right ingredients and the right consistency, you will have the perfect outcome. Baghreer are cooked on only one side. Here is the recipe


Ingredients:

1 1/2 Cups of Fine Semolina سميد
3/4 Cup of All Purpose Flour
1 tbsp of Yeast
1 tbsp of Sugar
1 tsp of Baking Powder
1 tsp of Salt
1 Egg
Warm Water

How to Prepare:

In a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together (Semolina, Flour, Yeast, Sugar, Baking Powder and Salt).

Add the warm water slowly while mixing with hands until you reach a liquid consistency, not too runny not too creamy.

 

Pour the batter in a food processor, add the egg and blend for 30 seconds.


Cover the mixture and let is sit for 30 minutes.


Heat a non-stick pancake pan, poor a spoon of the batter in a circle and cook on one side until you see holes forming on top of the pancake.

Repeat the last step until you finish all you batter.


Serve with melted butter and honey.

Sending you Good Cooking wishes!

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Chocolate Chip Muffins

For my son’s birthday I made these chocolate chip muffins and not only they were a hit for the kids but also the parents :).

 Ingredients:

2 Cups of Flour

1 Tbsp of Baking Powder

½ Tsp of Salt

1/8 Tsp of Ground Cinnamon

A Bag of Chocolate Chips

2/3 Cup of Milk

½ Cup of Melted Unsalted Butter

2 Tbsp of Sour Cream (or in my case Creme Fraiche)

2 Eggs

½ Tsp of Vanilla Extract

1/3 Cup of Granulated Sugar

1/3 Cup of Brown Sugar

How to Prepare:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

 Mix the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon together.

In another bowl, add the chocolate chips and half a cup of the previous mixture and mix so each chocolate cup is coated in the flour mixture.

In a large bowl mix together the milk, melted butter, sour cream, eggs, vanilla extract, granulated sugar and brown sugar.

Add the flour mixture to the previous mixture and mix using a spatula not to over mix.

Add the chocolate chips to the mixture and mix making sure they are evenly spread out through out the batter.

Pour the batter evenly in the muffin pan.

Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the muffin comes out clean.

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Berry Pie

Here’s a recipe for a great summer pie. Very easy and tasty.

Ingredients:

Pie Crust Link

6 Cups of Mixed Berries (I used Blackberry and Raspberry)

3/4 Cup of Sugar

1/4 Cup of Corn Starch

One tbsp of Lemon Juice

Lemon Zest

1/2 tsp of Cinnamon

1/2 tsp of Salt

How to Prepare:

Pre-heat the oven to 425F.

In a bowl, mix the berries, with sugar, corn starch, lemon juice, lemon zest, cinnamon and salt.

Roll out the pie crust, place in the pie sheet and put the filling in it.

Decorate as desired.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes and serve cold.

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Anything My Boy Asks For…

Talk about how time flies! My boy turned 3 years old last week. All he wanted for his birthday was a Lightning McQueen Car cake, the lead character in the Disney Cars Movies”. This was probably the hardest thing I had to ever make especially that in Morocco the weather is heating up. Again working with the fondant is so much fun but super hard especially when it melts fast :). I had to work fast and cool it down in the fridge after every step.

Here are some photos of the making of it.

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Chefchaouen – Morocco

Chefchaouen, Chaouen or the Blue City is a gorgeous mountain city in northeastern Morocco. A few weeks ago we took a road trip to the northern part of Morocco. The ride was breathtaking, full of beautiful mountains/coast views. The only hard part was the mountain curves to reach it especially if you get car sick :).

Chefchaouen is a cute city to relax, chill and enjoy the nature. We enjoyed staying at a Riad which is an old renovated Moroccan house that is owned by a Moroccan family and turned into a small hotel. It gives you a real Moroccan experience from the decoration, hammam, mineral pool, spa to the food menu. My favorite part about staying at a Riad is relaxing and enjoying the beautiful view of the whole city from the top terrace every morning and sunset.

Here are some photos of our visit to Chefchaouen.

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Marrakech – Morocco

We decided last Christmas to go to Marrakech, the most exciting city in Morocco. Marrakech is so much fun. You see people from all around the world there. Moroccans call Marrakech the red city since all the buildings, hotels, city walls, and houses are red.

  

In Marrakech, one can visit the historic wealth of the city which manifests itself in palaces, mansions and other lavish residences and be mesmerized by the beautiful tiles and colors they have.

 

Enjoy the many different beautiful gardens there which include at one time the home of the landscape painter Jacques Majorelle which was bought by the designer Yves Saint Laurent. It also has his memorial.

 

Shop at the markets, Marrakech has the largest traditional Berber Market in Morocco.

 

Visit the cultural sites, checking out all the different museums and the educational part by visiting Ben Youssef Madrasa which was one of the largest theological colleges in North Africa. Housing as many as 900 students at one point.

 

Visit the Koutoubia Mosque and of course end your day at Jemaa el-Fnaa square, the center of city activity and trade. In the square you can enjoy all the different activities from snake charmers, dancers, monkey trainers and of course the famous food stalls.

It is my favorite city in Morocco so far and will definitely go back :).

 

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Moroccan Couscous

This is the recipe for a delicious, classic moroccan couscous with seven vegetables. You can choose the vegetables that are preferred by your family. Moroccans cook this meal with a coucousier, which is a special deep pot that has a basket on top to steam the couscous while cooking the meat and vegetables.

I used the pressure cooker to prepare it quicker but if you use a normal pot or the couscousier you need to double the time for it to cook.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 Cups of Dry Couscous (Not instant)

2 lbs of Beef or lamb cut into big pieces leaving it on the bone.

2 Onions (cut into big pieces)

2 Tomatoes (peeled and cut into big pieces)

One Cup of Chickpeas Soaked overnight in cold water

4 Carrots (Peeled and cut)

Potatoes (Peeled and cut in half)

Zucchini (Remove the top and bottoms and Clean and cut in half)

Turnip (Peeled and cut)

Squash (Or a side of a pumpkin Cut and peeled)

1 or 2 Jalapeño peppers

One tbsp of diced Cilantro

1/2 Cup of Olive Oil

1/4 Cup of Vegetable Oil

2 tsp of Butter

2 tsp of Ground Ginger

1 tsp of Turmeric ( Moroccan Yellow Coloring)

Salt, Pepper and Black Pepper

One Cube of Beef Stock

How to Prepare:

Prepare the Vegetables.   

Using a pressure cooker, add the meat, onion, ground ginger, olive oil, vegetable oil, butter, turmeric, salt, pepper and black pepper stirring every now and then until the meat is browned and the water dries.  Add the tomatoes, chickpeas and half cup of hot water to the meat, cover the pot and cook for 20 minutes, stirring every now and then.

After 20 minutes, add 5 cups of boiling water, and then cover the pressure cooker.  Once it starts to whistle, cook for 15 minutes.
Add turnip and carrots, cover the pot and cook for 7 minutes.
Add Potatoes, zucchini, pumpkin pieces, beef stock cube, one cup of hot water, then cover the pot and cook for 14 minutes. 

Remove the pot cover, then add the jalapeño peppers and cilantro and cook for 5 more minutes.

Steaming the Couscous (using couscoussier):

For a cup and a half of dry couscous, add one tbsp of olive oil and 3/4 cup of water mixing it all using your hand to prevent it from clumping together and put in the basket over boiling water on a high heat and let it steam for about 10 to 15 minutes.

 

Take out the couscous, let is cool down then add 1 tsp of salt and 1/2 cup of boiling water stirring it using your hands and then add back to the basket until the steam rises from the couscous.

For the third time take out the couscous, let it cool down and add to it 1/4 cup of boiling water stir using your hands so the couscous won’t clump together and put it to steam for one last time.


Serving the Couscous:

Put the couscous in a large bowl spreading it evenly. Add the meat pieces in the middle and decorate the vegetables around it. Add the jalapeño peppers on top of the meat (if someone wants a spicy taste) and serve the sauce in a bowl next to it.

  

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