Back in October, I flew on Lufthansa to go to Milan for work-related business.
As soon as we landed in Frankfurt my sense of smell guided me to the smell of freshly baked goodness…. I wanted a pretzel! I could smell it and could already taste it…
And I did…
With beautiful weather, I can’t help but always be in the mood to bake, cook and eat outdoors! Last night (Saturday), we decided to stay in and make dinner.
I just received a copy of Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi and it’s just moutwatering. I decided to use 2 recipes from the book, the sweet potato wedges and the surprise tatin, which is a savory tarte tatin made with potatoes, onions, goat cheese and oven-roasted tomatoes instead of the traditional apples.
We all fell in love with the sweet pumpkin wedges!
I’m on a mission to recreate all dishes that I fell in love with in Milan. This time, it’s pasta with porcini mushroom.
I discovered a coffee drink in Milan. On our last morning there, I ordered it twice because I didn’t want to let go but I had to.
The next morning, back in Kuwait, I recreated this drink. The moracchino. You see I thought I took a picture of it in Milan and whatsapped it to my cousin but I think that was all in my head?
No trip to Milano would be complete without a visit Chocolate….
Spicy chocolate gelato anyone?
So I was syncing my phone with my computer and what do I see?
A picture of a piece of namoura and coffee.. Perfect!
I think I was supposed to post about it back in Ramadan but of course I got lazy and forgot.
I’ll post the recipe later tonight, tomorrow maximum!
Enjoy!
So you must be wondering why the radio silence in Ramadan nonetheless!
Well I’m experimenting with a new kanafa recipe and haven’t perfected it yet so I diverged and made many kanafas!
Also work has been crazy busy!
Kanafa with khashkawan cheese – perfect texture but still on the salty side
Pistachio kanafa bil smeed (my experiment) with ricotta cheese – strange after taste
Pistachio kanafa bil smeed with akawi cheese – something happened to the cheese! I need to rework something there.
Kanafa with creamy ricotta filling (adapted from a book) with honey sugar syrup – loved it and will post its recipe.
So here’s a slideshow of some of the kanafas I made
I wanted to write this post when I got back from my Italy trip but decided to wait because this dish is the perfect Ramadan dish. Pappa la pomodoro is a traditional Tuscan bread and tomato soup.
The first time I saw it was on a food TV show a couple of years ago and I was intrigued. I took my copy of The Silver Spoon and searched for the recipe but I didn’t quite like the method. I kind of remembered how they made it on the show so I picked and chose what ingredients and method of cooking I was more comfortable with and created this recipe.
I have made this dish numerous times and every time it’s a little bit different because I never follow a recipe so it was always a couple of this , a pinch of this, a handful of this but yesterday I measured everything to have a recipe people can actually follow!
Of course when I was in Florence, I had this wonderful soup so let’s make a comparison.
Florence's pappa la pomdoro
Budour's pappa la pomodoro
My first kanafa of the season!
This time with nabulsi cheese. I used the same recipe as here but instead of the akawi cheese, I used nabulsi.
As with akawi cheese, you need to soak the cheese 3-4 hours, changing the water every 30 minutes.
I personally prefer it with akawi or even ricotta cheese but it wasn’t bad. Actually most people liked it.
I got the idea of this simple and easy dessert while my mother was describing another apple dessert she saw on Food Network. My mind completely blocked what she was saying and wandered off.
The night before Ramadan I already knew I was going to experiment with this idea.
With the help of my mother and her suggestions, this is the result…
The Oven Experiments 