Category Archives: Experiments

Summer guiltless treats: Frozen bananas with almonds, peanut butter and cinnamon

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Inspired by the Food Network and much recently the Food Revolution Day event at Chef Boutique, I made this fresh and fun frozen treat yesterday with friends and family.

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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

The Johnny: an Indian street food wrap

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So I was watching a food show about Indian street food, which featured this very inspiring versatile chapati wrap.  What makes it unique is the beaten egg cooked with a chapati on top.  The result is a chapati with a velvety thin omelette stuck to one side.  The chapati is then filled egg side in with a cooked thick tomato, onion and cut up chicken mixture and rolled.  I asked an Indian friend about the wrap and she said that it was called a Johnny.  She didn’t know why.

And here’s my version. Continue reading →

Open-face Musakhan sandwich

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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.

Continue reading →

Vanilla seed speckled chocolate chip ice cream anyone?

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I received a special order for jars of meringues this week so I had tons of egg yolks leftover. My mother ingeniously thought of using the egg yolks to make custard. She used seeds from vanilla beans she got from a trip to Sri Lanka. When it cooled, the custard was still a little runny and I assumed she didn’t cook it long enough to thicken. I asked her if she minded I make ice cream out of it.

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.

Dairy-free strawberry mousse cake

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Someone special’s favorite cake is the strawberry charlotte cake but since that person can’t have any dairy products,  I had to substitute the dairy product ingredients with non-dairy options.

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!

Experiment: chocolate and chestnut tart

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I still have around 2 tins of chestnut cream back when I was baking for Life with Cacao’s highlight dish.

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: Continue reading →

Salmon, fresh herbs and lemons

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So I quit my job!
And what have I been up to lately? Baking and cooking of course!

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: Continue reading →

Crunchy kanafa with creamy semolina filling

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So I know I haven’t been posting about too many Ramadan-esque recipes but it’s only because I’m experimenting with different fillings and crusts.

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: Continue reading →

Maple fig tart

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I have always been the type of person that would give every type of food a chance, except for figs.

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 Continue reading →

Experiment: Date four grains pancakes

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As soon as I returned from my trip to the US and Canada, I wanted to use the typically Canadian souvenir that I lugged everywhere with me…

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!  Continue reading →