So what do you need?

• 4 bananas, frozen for at least 3 hours
• 3 tablespoons natural peanut butter
• ground cinnamon, a couple of sprinkles
• almonds flakes or slivers

In a food processor, pulse all ingredients, except for the flakes until smooth and creamy. Scoop into individual ice cream cups and sprinkles with almond flakes and enjoy!

This is so versatile and easy. I’m already excited about the many possibilities, this frozen treat can be flavored.

Happy experimenting!

Photo courtesy of H

And here’s my version.

The chapatis
First make chapatis.  Mix 1 cup wholewheat flour with 1 cup plain flower.  Stir in 1 teaspoon salt.  Make a well and mix in 1/2 cup of water and 1 tablespoon oil.  Mix and knead.  If you feel it is dry, mix in more water 1 tablespoon at a time.  Knead well and leave to rest. Cut the dough into 8 equal pieces.  Roll them out as thinly as possible.  Cook each chapati on a hot flat pan flipping frequently, every 6-10 seconds, until puffy.  Wrap the stack of chapatis in foil while still warm.  And if you’re not into bread making, simply buy ready made chapati.

The filling
Saute half a large onion thinly sliced in olive oil until soft.  Add in 2 chopped tomatoes and 1/2 a teaspoon ground cumin and cook until saucy.  Add 1 large thinly sliced red pepper. Cook further for a few more minutes.  You don’t want the peppers to soften too much.  Season to taste.  Turn off heat and leave aside.

The chutney
In a food processor process 1 bunch of coriander leaves and 1/2 a bunch of mint leaves with juice of 1 lemon and 1/3 cup shelled pistachios.  If you like heat, throw in 1 chopped green chili.  Add some water, 1 tablespoon at a time to get the right consistency. Season to taste.

The egg
Break 3 eggs into a bowl and whisk with a fork.  Keep aside.

The sour cream
Whisk a tub of sour cream and keep aside.

To assemble the wrap, watch the video.

The Johnny: an Indian street food wrap from The Oven Experiments on Vimeo.

You know when you try something for the first time and you are completely mesmerized by the new and wonderful flavors you are experiencing? That’s how it was for me the first time I had Musakhan. Prepared in the traditional way by a Palestinian woman, every Musakhan I had after that was just not the same. So over two decades after, I finally decided that I had to make it myself.

So I was watching the funny Bobby Chinn on his Middle Eastern food tour, and during his visit to Palestine, he visited a family that prepared him Musakhan. They had baked the special traditional bread, Taboon, for the dish. A quite thick and rustic unleavened bread that was baked directly on hot surface in an open flame oven. And this made perfect sense, this type of bread would soak up all the juicy liquids and still hold its form. So the bread was my first quest. In the old Jabriyah Co-op the traditional bakery sells Iranian bread that I guess would be somewhat similar to the Taboon bread I saw on TV. It’s thicker than the round Tanoor bread and oval in shape. So if you’re planning to make this dish head to the old Jabriyah Co-op and get two of those breads.Next was to find the recipe. Online I found Dima’s Kitchen. She has three versions of the dish, one of which was similar to the one I saw on TV – sandwich style with the chicken pulled. Of course I experimented and modified, so here it is.

Ingredients:

For the chicken:

• 1 chicken
• I onion quartered
• 2 cloves garlic crushed
• 2 bay leaves
• 3 whole cloves
• 3 cardamom pods crushed
• 5 black pepper corns
• juice and peel of one lemon

Chicken method:

Chicken roasting time: 1 1/2 hours

Put all the ingredients in a roasting bag, tie securely and place in a roasting pan. Cover the chicken with aluminum foil (so the chicken doesn’t brown). When done, remove the chicken and drain the broth through a sieve. You will end up with a concentrated and very flavorful broth. Season the broth and keep it warm, not hot, in a pot until ready to use. Pull the chicken into a bowl and mix in 1/2 cup of the seasoned broth to moisten the chicken and cover until ready to use.

For the onions:

• 500 grams thinly sliced white onions
• 1/4 cup good quality sumac
• 1/4 cup good quality olive oil

The onion method:

Cooking time: 45 minutes

Heat: Stove top, Medium to low heat

While the chicken is roasting, cook the onions in the olive oil on medium to low heat until softened. Add 1 cup of warm water and continue cooking until the water has almost evaporated and the onions have sweetened and become golden brown and soft, not brown and crispy. Mix in the sumac.

Assembling the sandwich:

• You will need 1/2 cup of pine nuts lightly toasted in olive oil

Cut the very ends of the breads to get somewhat of a rectangular shape. Place the bread in aluminum foil lined baking trays. Spoon equal portions of the broth to cover each bread until completely moistened. Then generously drizzle olive oil over the bread. Prick the bread with a fork so some of the oil and broth soak through the bread.

Spread equal portions of the onions on the breads. Then top the onions with equal portions of the pulled chicken.

Sprinkle the pine nuts on top. Finally drizzly more olive oil on the edges of the bread.

Baking the Musakhan:

Baking time: 15 minutes

Oven temperature: 200 degrees celsius

Eat immediately! Otherwise, prepare the assembled the Musakhan and keep it covered and ready ahead of time. Bake it 15 minutes before you’re ready to eat.

So I went ahead and brought the ice cream machine out and poured the custard in. When the ice cream was almost ready, I grabbed the already opened chocolate chip bag, which I was using for the meringues, and threw in the rest of the chocolate chips in.

And here’s the end result.

Beautifully vanilla seed speckled chocolate chip custard-base ice cream!

Oh and I still have tons of eggs yolks left, we want to give another flavor a try.

I used this recipe for reference and substituted the milk with rice milk and the whipping cream with a vegan whipping cream, both found in Sultan Center and selective Co-Ops. The sponge cake turned out light and airy. The whipping cream does taste a little different from regular dairy whipping cream but it whipped beautifully.

Oh and I didn’t really make a make charlotte cake because I almost never eat the ladyfingers. I opted for a strawberry mousse cake instead, which is exactly the same as the charlotte cake but without the soaked ladyfingers.

I think I want to experiment with other dairy-free cakes so stay tuned!

Since today was my family’s weekly dinner, I decided to put the chestnut cream to good use and be creative with it. One thing led to another and so the chocolate and chestnut tart was created.

To recreate, you will need:

Crust:
100 grams cold butter
170 grams flour
pinch of salt
2 tablespoons salt sugar
2 tablespoons ice water mixed with 1 egg yolk

In a food processor, pulse the flour with cold butter until it resembles fine bread crumbs. Add salt and pulse again. Sprinkle the water mixture and pulse a few times. Continue working with dough on tabletop, sprinkle more water if its too dry. Make sure not to overwork it. Form the dough into a disc and cover with plastic wrap. Place in fridge for 1 hour or until firm.

Remove from fridge and roll pastry to fit a 9 inch buttered tart pan. Line the pan with the pastry dough and fridge for another hour. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

Line the tart crust with parchment paper and baking beans or uncooked rice and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the parchment paper and beans and bake for additional 10 minutes, until light golden brown. Leave the crust to cool. Reduce oven temperature to 170 degrees Celsius.

For the filling:

• 500 grams of chestnut cream
• 200 gram good quality dark chocolate, chopped
• 200 ml whipping cream
• 1 egg
• vanilla extract
• fresh chestnuts
• simple syrup*

Bring to boil the whipping cream and add to the chocolate. Mix until velvety smooth. Cool for 5 minutes and then add the egg and vanilla extract and mix.

Once the crust is cool add half the chestnut cream and half the chocolate mixture, and then add the rest of the chestnut cream and end with the chocolate mixture. Bake for 30-35 minutes until firm around the edges but slightly jiggles in the center.

Leave to cool completely before removing from tart mold. Meanwhile, make the candied chestnuts. Bake the chestnuts until their done in a high oven, for around 30 minutes. Peel and add to a small sauce pan. Add enough simple syrup to cover the chestnuts and cook until the syrup is thickened and the chestnut has absorbed the syrup. Leave to cool completely and then chop roughly.

Decorate the cooled tart with the chopped candied chestnut and icing sugar. Slice and enjoy!

* To make simple syrup bring to boil equal quantity water and sugar for 15 minutes and then remove from heat to cool completely.

On my first day of unemployed life, I woke up early in the morning and went to Sultan to grab a fresh salmon fillet. Look how beautiful it looks!

I wanted to bake the salmon with fresh herbs and lemons.

What you need:

• 1 salmon fillet
• half a bunch (the bunch you get from the supermarket) of mint leaves, dill and parsley, chopped
• 4 lemons
• olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preheat an oven to 220 degrees Celcius.
Get a large baking tray and line with wet newspapers or sandwich paper, then line it with parchment paper. Place the salmon fillet on the parchment paper, add the chopped herbs, drizzle olive oil and squeeze 4 lemons and throw them in. Generously season with salt and pepper.

Add another layer of parchment paper on top of the salmon and then again another layer of wet newspaper or sandwich paper.
Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and leave to steam for another 15 minutes. Transfer carefully to your favorite serving plate and enjoy!

Suggestion: Serve with a potato dill salad with sour cream dressing.
To make: Boil potatoes and cool. Cut into cubes and season with salt and pepper. Mix  one tub of sour cream (250 ml) with some olive oil and a squeeze of lemon. Dress the potatoes and serve with the salmon.

Last Friday for my uncle’s futoor gathering, I created a kanafa with a creamy semolina filling.

This is the easiest kanafa with the shortest prep time.

All you need is:

• 1 shredded kanafa packet (500 grams), defrosted
• 1.5 sticks butter (150 grams), melted
• 1/2 cup fine semolina
• 2 cups milk
• 1/2 cup thick cream

I always thought they looked weird and very unappetizing. The first time I tried figs was this summer in the cutest bakery in Toronto. We had a savory fig tart and it was amazing. I fell in love and gave myself such a hard time for not giving them a chance earlier in my life!

When I returned to Kuwait, I grabbed  a container of fresh figs and had no idea what to do with. They stayed in the fridge for two weeks until they rotted and had to be thrown away. I was determined the other day to make something with figs so I bought another container.

And this is what I came up with:

a maple fig tart

Rye Pastry recipe taken from Good to the Grain (only my favorite baking book ever)

• 1 cup rye flour
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1.5 sticks butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 tablespoon apple vinegar

In a food processor, pulse the the flours, salt and sugar together. Add pieces of the butter, one at a time, pulsing between each addition. Add the apple vinegar and 8 tablespoons of ice cold water until the dough comes together. Form the dough into a round disc and put in the fridge for an hour.

Remove the pastry dough from the fridge and roll to an 8 by 11 inch rectangular shape on a lightly floured surface. Fold the dough three times like a letter. Roll again until you get an 8 by 11 inch shape and fold again like a letter. Repeat this one more time. Place in the fridge for at least an hour.

When you’re ready to bake the tart, remove the dough from the fridge and divide the dough in half. You will only need half of the dough, the rest save it for another tart.

Roll the dough to fit a 9-inch buttered round or square tart pan. Place in freezer until your oven preheats to 175 degrees.

Meanwhile, prepare the filling.

• figs, as many as you can fit the pan, quartered
• zest of 1 orange
• maple syrup
• half stick of butter, cut into small pieces
• a handful of walnuts, chopped

The maple syrup

I still have a lot of whole grains and alternative flours stored in my fridge so I wanted to use them before they go bad. The only thing I can think of that was quick and used both flour and maple syrup is to make pancakes! 

I also found a bowl of dates in the kitchen so I decided I should experiment with date pancakes and chose the four grains flour to complement the flavor. I used a basic pancake recipe to work with and substituted the flour, the sugar and of course added dates.

You will need this:

• 2 eggs
• 1.5 cup milk
• 5 tablepoons melted butter
• 1 1/4 cups four grains flour (which you can buy fresh from AlRaha Stone Mill)
• a pinch of salt
• 1 tablespoon mascobado/muscovado sugar
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 5 dates, chopped