Help and recipes wanted

[carol_au]

Peace to you all

I need some help

I am hosting a dinner next weekend and the theme is the middle east and living as Muslims in the west. I am trying to talk to various friends about the issues and thoughts of the countries of the Middle East from within the Muslim context both over there, and here in the western countries.

I would love some help from everyone here

1. Some easy recipes to serve at dinner with a middle eastern background.. these must use limited amounts of ingredients as where I live we are quite a way from the shops to go and buy varieties of ingredients

2. Thoughts from anyone about what you would like the west to understand about the Middle East or about the special issues of living as Muslims in the west today.

Thanks for your help.. It is sincerely appreciated.

[hugofuchs]

A Mediterranean feast : the story of the birth of the celebrated cuisines of the Mediterranean, from the Merchants of Venice to the Barbary Corsairs : with more than 500 recipes by Clifford A. Wright

or

A Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden

If you need something quick, let me know and I'll pull something.

[Mary Carol]

Try these Ramadan recipes:


Spotlight On The Skies: Ramadan Meal Ideas

http://ummah.com/forum/showthread.php?t=43265&highlight=ramadan

[carol_au]

Thankyou so much both of you

I will be spending most of Saturday preparing food, so many thanks for both of these suggestions. If you could send me a couple of simple recipes hugofuchs that would be very good.. and I'll spend time looking at the recipes today Mary Carol.

thanks again

[Arsalan]

I cooked chicken thicka masala today. its very easy.


serves 3:

get a kilo of boneless chicken

prep it, cut it bite sized cunks.

next prepare ur masala...

4 table spoons of yougart

4 teaspoons fulls of malt vinegar

1 spoon of salt

1 spoon of pepper

1 spoon of tandorri masala

1 spoon of chillie powder

Mix well.



Fry in pan, till dry, as water disappears add, oil.. takes about 14 minutes usually.


And Holla back at mr abdul when ur done.

[carol_au]

AbdulMajid,

Many thanks.. this sounds yum.. just a quick question though.. what is tandoori marsala? Is it a sauce? It sounds like it?

[Arsalan]

AbdulMajid,

Many thanks.. this sounds yum.. just a quick question though.. what is tandoori marsala? Is it a sauce? It sounds like it?

Yes its like a sause, Basically . The reciepe for it should be on google too

i.e. http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=chicken+tikka+masala+recipe&spell=1

Although the one below, is ever so complicated.

http://www.askachef.com/recipe/recipeDetails.cfm?RecipeID=1052

[hugofuchs]

Recipes PM'd.

[Bent_al-islam]

Salata arabia

serves 4-6
1/2 head romaine lesttuce
1 large cucumber
2 large tomatoes
1 small onion
2 tablespoons lemon juice salt
How to make>>>>>
1:shred lettuce and peel cucumbers, quarter cut lengthwise, and cut inot chunks.Cut tomatoes into small cubes. chop parsley and palce all vegetables in a large bowl.
2:pour salad dressing,mix well, and serve.BELHANA^_*

[Bent_al-islam]

That stick out tounge was not suppose to be there:rubeyes:

[Bent_al-islam]

MUTABAK EL RISHTA (shaaria)

cooked noodels
4-6 servings
4 cups rishta
2-3cups chicken or meat stock
6tablespoons vegtable oil
salt
how to make
wash rice well and soak in cold water for 15 -30 mns
2 heat butter in a large saucepan and add noodels,stirring consistently untel brown.
3 drain rice,add to saucepan,and stir.Add hot water. Ensure that at least 1 inch of hot water is above the rice and noodels. add salt bring to boil,and cook for 5mns
4reduce heat,cover pan,and cook on low heat for 10-15mns.Remove cover and stir rice with fork to prevent sticking.Cover pan cook for 5-10mns or untel cooked.
turn off heat and serve after 10 mns..BeLHANA

[carol_au]

Bent Al-Islam

Many thanks for your recipes as well. I like both those too.. they are simple and I can get most of the ingredients easily.. thankyou

Just a question, what is rishta?

AbdulMajid, thanks for the recipes for masala I will try and get those ingredients together, and thanks to you als hugofuchs.. I have your pm'd recipes

These will all make a great dinner. My thanks

Now does anyone have any sweet dish recipes that are simple?

and also.. please!!! If you were telling people about the issues you have living here in the west, what would they be? What do you want most from the people who live around you?

Thanks for your help

[Bent_al-islam]

well rishta is noodels ..:) ...no thanks 3ala wajeb^_^

[carol_au]

Can anyone explain to me why to eat and drink out of gold and silver utensils is harem and can cause you to be sent to hell fire? I just read it in one forum in this section of Ummah.com and it appears to be a hadith

Many thanks for any help.. this dinner party tomorrow night is proving an interesting way to learn about Islamic practices

BTW.. thanks for the help with recipe ideas.. I have began preparing some of them, and now it's a matter of helping people understand some of the middle eastern/Islamic practices. Most of them i've read make sense (like not eating whilst on your stomach), but this one is a little confusing for me. Does it include knives and forks given in silver as a popular wedding present in the west?

Thanks again for any help

[newnida]

MUTABAK EL RISHTA (shaaria)

cooked noodels
4-6 servings
4 cups rishta
2-3cups chicken or meat stock
6tablespoons vegtable oil
salt
how to make
wash rice well and soak in cold water for 15 -30 mns
2 heat butter in a large saucepan and add noodels,stirring consistently untel brown.
3 drain rice,add to saucepan,and stir.Add hot water. Ensure that at least 1 inch of hot water is above the rice and noodels. add salt bring to boil,and cook for 5mns
4reduce heat,cover pan,and cook on low heat for 10-15mns.Remove cover and stir rice with fork to prevent sticking.Cover pan cook for 5-10mns or untel cooked.
turn off heat and serve after 10 mns..BeLHANA
Hey

In this recipe we don’t add any pepper…of any sort …we don’t season it…

Doesn’t it taste 2 bland……:( :afro:

[Aasiya]

Well, Middle Eastern cuisine is a hodgepodge of flavours from Lebanon, Greece, Ethiopia, Morocco, Iran, Turkey, Algeria, Egypt. There is no 'one' type of Middle Eastern cuisine since there are so many sub-cultures within the Middle East that it is really hard to define.

But the basics are pitta bread, honey, yoghurt, dates and black olives which I like to buy organic whenever I can.

Here's a few favourites from Morocco with legumes:

Bidawi Couscous with seven vegetables

Ingredients:

1 kg& 1/ 2 of rather fat meat of sheep (shoulder or saddle) or of veal (collar, chest, shoulder, bend of the knee)
1 headed cabbage (about 800 g)
1 piece of stale bread
1 soup spoonful of juice of lemon
4 cloves
1 kg of onions
250 g of chickpea soaked the day before
150 g of butter
1 pinch of safran
1 coffee spoonful of pepper
salt
6 liters of water
1 kg of couscous
250 g of peeled tomatoes
250 g of little peeled turnips
500 g of peeled carrots and cutin length
3 branches of tied coriander
2 peppers pungent or pimentos
500 g of red gourd
250 g of soft potatoes
100 g of oil of olives
Preparation:

Wash and drain carefully the cut meat in ten equal pieces. Withdraw the the heart of cabbage in him incising deeply with a pointed knife. Whiten it 5 [mn] in boiling water with the juice of lemon and the stale bread.

Put the meat in the pot of couscoussier, the hoary cabbage, two pricked onions each one of 2 cloves, the chickpeas, the safran the pepper, the salt, the water and put on quick fire.

Put the couscous in the high couscoussier and place on the pot in boiling point. The steam must escape only from the couscous, otherwise tie the two parts with a gang of cloth smeared of light dough (flour and water). as soon as the steam escapes, count 1/ 2 hour of cooking.

Withdraw the couscous, put it in a big hollow dish, separate the grains rubbing them in the palms or crushing them witha soup ladle

Water the couscous with 2 to 3 soup ladle of cold water slightly salty, separate the grains and let to rest 15 mn.

Add to the boiling the other minced onions ,tomatoes, turnips, carrots, tied coriander and pimentos.

remove some of the soup and cook seperately red gourd and soft potatoes.

As soon as the soup is again in boiling point, redo the previous operation with the couscous but this time in replacing the water by the oil of olives.

Put back the couscous a third time in the high of couscoussier and 5 mn after exhaust of the steam, shell the couscous again.

Verify the cooking of the meat and some vegetables, rectify the dressing.

Presentation:

Dispose the couscous in cone in a big dish, dig a crater to the center, there place the meat and the vegetables, water of soup and let to absorb. Serving the surplus of soup in some bowls so that every one will be able to serve himself. Foresee some spoons to soup for the guests who don't know how to shape some wads to the hand.

And also:

Fried Chicken with Olives and Preserved Lemon:

Ingredients

2 chickens
3 onions cut into slides
3 crushed cloves of garlic
1 coffee spoonful of ginger
A little bit of safran
1 soup spoonful of lemon juice
salt
1 glass of water
2 preserved lemon cut into slides
10 preserved green olives
Preparation

Clean and drain the chicken, salt it, leave it for 2 hours, then clean and drain it again.

Cook it in a pressure cooker with onions, garlic, safran, ginger, lemon juice, salt and water, mix and cover, then cook on a middle fire, till the chicken is almost cooked, add lemon slides, olives and cook for 5 mn on a little fire.

Present the chicken in complete, watered with sauce and decorated with olives and preserved lemon slides.

And here is the famous national soup which is eaten with honey and dates during Ramadhan in Morocco:

The Harira:

Ingredients for 12 people
It should be prepared in two times :

1_Bouillon(Bubbling)

2_Tédouira.

The bubbling(tka_tàa)is about1 & half hour of cooking.

250 g of beef or muton meat cut into little pieces
4 or 5 little fleshy bones
500 g of whole litthe onions.
A half coffee spoonful of safran(half natural and half artificial)
1 coffee spoonful of pepper
1 butter walnut
250 g of lentil
salt
1 & half litter of water for the bubbling.
Preparation

Cook the lentil in salted water, darin the juice of 1 citron .Put it apart. Cook the other ingredients in an under cover saucepan on a little fire, after boiling, remove the onions when they are cooked to keep them complete.

1 hour past, verify that meat is cooked then remove it fron fire, put the lentil and the onions in the same container.

2_Tédouira : 1 hour cooking

1 bouquet of coriander
1 bouquet of parsley
1 kg and a half of moulded tomatoes or 1 box of concentrated and mixed tomatoes in 1 litre and a half of water
2 litres and a half of water
1 ¾ filled cup tea of lemon juice
1 butterwalnut
200 g of flour
salt
Preparation

Boil water with the moulded or concentrated tomatoes,add butter, then boil for quarter an hour, add the bubbling juice over the meat, lentil , onions,ect…in the saucepan.

Out of fire, pour the mixed flour in 1 litre of water, while shaking it fast to avoid having clots .Put it back on fire, then shake the mixture till boiling.

Add the parsley and corrainder cut to little pieces or crushed with mortar with the necessary quantity of salt for condiment.

Dilute with 1 liter of water, and pour into the marmite, keep shaking(We can also crush them in a mixer full of water).Verify the condiment and remove it from fire when the soup is very hot.

The harira should be velvety ,not thick.

N.B We can replace meat with the fellings of chicken.

[Aasiya]

I cooked chicken thicka masala today. its very easy.


serves 3:

get a kilo of boneless chicken

prep it, cut it bite sized cunks.

next prepare ur masala...

4 table spoons of yougart

4 teaspoons fulls of malt vinegar

1 spoon of salt

1 spoon of pepper

1 spoon of tandorri masala

1 spoon of chillie powder

Mix well.

Fry in pan, till dry, as water disappears add, oil.. takes about 14 minutes usually.

And Holla back at mr abdul when ur done.

Nice. I made this today. But I baked my chicken in an oven and the way I made it was slightly different :

>A few scoops of low-fat natural organic yoghurt

>1-2 tablespoons of freshly minced ginger

>1-2 tablespoons of freshly minced garlic

>1-1 and a half teaspoon of red chilli powder

>1 tablespoon of turmeric powder

>1-2 tablespoon of coriander powder

>1 tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon

>1 tablespoon of salt

>Fresh grounded cracked Brazilian pepper

All mixed in a bowl. Added some chicken wings. Marinated for a few hours in the fridge. Then whacked it into the oven with sliced lemons, sliced tomatoes and a few fresh sprigs of rosemary, thyme and basil.

Took about 45 minutes to cook but because I wrapped the oven tray in foil, the flavours couldn't evaporate and therefore the chicken was so much more tender than a fry.

[carol_au]

To everyone who helped with recipes I thank you

The dinner went well and we spent a very interesting evening trying to read and understand the etiquettes of Islam as discussed in some of the threads here.. it was a respectful look and the meal was appreciated by all who attended. They were particularly interested when I said that the recipes had come from posters here.

I do have a little smile for you .. one little boy, hearing the hadith about "not insulting the food" ate some of his food, then said to his mum. "I know i"m not supposed to insult the food... but I really don't like it." :-)

The evening was all about a respectful and positive look inside Muslim lifestyles as distinct from the sometimes negative things we hear in our culture.

I pray it will go someway to building more respectful understanding between those who live in our town.

again thankyou for your help.

[Arsalan]

Salam i might try your reciepe as opposed to my one which iz getten boren now, seems tastier too.! jazakAllah khair.

Anyway your welcome carol-au , hope it all went well. :8)


Nice. I made this today. But I baked my chicken in an oven and the way I made it was slightly different :

>A few scoops of low-fat natural organic yoghurt

>1-2 tablespoons of freshly minced ginger

>1-2 tablespoons of freshly minced garlic

>1-1 and a half teaspoon of red chilli powder

>1 tablespoon of turmeric powder

>1-2 tablespoon of coriander powder

>1 tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon

>1 tablespoon of salt

>Fresh grounded cracked Brazilian pepper

All mixed in a bowl. Added some chicken wings. Marinated for a few hours in the fridge. Then whacked it into the oven with sliced lemons, sliced tomatoes and a few fresh sprigs of rosemary, thyme and basil.

Took about 45 minutes to cook but because I wrapped the oven tray in foil, the flavours couldn't evaporate and therefore the chicken was so much more tender than a fry.