Fatoush - Arabic salad #1

I finally getting close to discovering favorite fatoush recipe. This is how close i could get till now.

Ingredients:

1 large tomato

2 medium cucumbers

5 small radishes

Salad leaves

Fresh Mint

Fresh thyme

Toasted arabic bread

Dressing:

Olive Oil

Juice from 1 lemon

Salt

Sumac

Pomegranate Molasses

Method:

1. Cut all vegetables medium to small chunks.

2. Toss salad with olive oil, salt, sumac and lemon juice.

3. Drain and arrange on the serving plate.

4. Toast some pieces of arabic flat bread in the over sprinkled with olive oil.

5. Arrange arabic bread pieces on top of the salad.

6. Best part is - generously sprinkle on top with pomegranate molasses.

Sahtein!

Miso Udon

Japanese week still on going. After visiting so many of japanese groceries and finally collected all needed ingredients around Dubai - just can get enough of cooking japanese dishes. Does not look on the picture as good as it tasted! This recipe is combination of many recipes i read and i think can be even more variable than this. Main thing is the tasty stock!

Ingredients:

(serves 2)

Stock:

750 ml. of water

6 shiitake mushrooms steams

1 Tbsp. of instant dashi

2 Tbsp. of red miso paste

1 Tsp. of dark soy sauce

Topping:

3 slices of slightly fried or deep-fried tofu (auberage)

1 small bunch of bok choy

6 Jambo Shrimps

6 shiitake mushrooms heads

1 bunch of enoki mushrooms

2-4 pieces of japanese fish cake

For Garnish:

2 pkg. of boiled udon noodles

dried cut laver or scallions

Method:

1. Bring water to boil with mushroom steams.

2. Add miso paste, dashi and soy sauce.

3. Stir for 3 minutes, while boiling and then remove mushroom steams.

4. Add to stock tofu, all mushrooms, bok choy and shrimps.

5. Simmer for 10 minutes, or until all ingredients are cooked through.

6. Switch off the heat and cover with a lid.

7. Udon noodles put into a boiling water for 2 min and drain well.

8. To assemble: place udon into the serving bowls. Arrange the topping, carefully picking up each piece from the stock (the most comfortable way to do it is to use chopsticks). Add stock to noodles as per your liking. Sprinkle some cut laver on top.

Japanese Chicken Hot Pot (with udon)

After our European vocation i got a felling that i am in need of asian flavored light dish. Chicken Bawl is perfect light dish from japanese home cooking. Easy and quick to cook, can be served over rice, or as is did over Udon Noodles.

Ingredients:

(serves 2 persons)

1 big skinless chicken breast

5 cups of water

1 Tbsp of kombu dashi granules

6 leaves of bok choy

4 slices of firm tofu

6 dried mushrooms (shitake, portobello are the best, but is used some white mushrooms from japanese grocery)

1 bunch of enoki mushrooms separated into small bunches

A couple of straws of scallions

Bean sprouts

2 packs of frozen udon noodles

Some soy sauce for garnish

Method:

1. Heat water in a pan with 1 Tbsp of dashi stock.

2. Carefully fry tofu slices in 2 Tbsp of canola or olive oil. Tofu is very soft, while it is raw, so try not to move it on the pan. Place it in hot oil on one side and then tern in to the other side only after making sure, that it is nicely browned.

3. Add dried mushrooms, enoki, mushrooms and tofu into the boiling stock.

4. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for few minutes, add chicken (cut into bite size pieces) and bok choy.

5. Keep simmering until all ingredients are fully cooked.

6. In meanwhile cook udon, as prescribed on the pack (for cooked frozen udon it is 3 min in boiling water).

7. Assembling the dish: put udon into serving plates. Arrange all ingredients from the pot over it, carefully picking them up from the stock with chopsticks. Pour some stock over the dish enough to your liking. Garnish on top some bean sprouts (slightly simmered in the same stock) and scallions.

Enjoy light and healthy dish! And happy dieting :-))

Short gateway or Bonjour Genève!

Last week i joined Khaled in his business trip to Geneva. Nice climate change for the difference, you know. From steaming heat of Dubai (it was +35C when we were leaving) to chilly and cloudy Geneva - 0 C increased to +10C by the end of out stay there).

We had some meeting to attends and plenty of free time for walking, sightseeings and little snacks.

We had eaten churros filled with chocolate, bought on the street, pretzels, hot chestnuts - great warm up for a chilly weather!

And streets are full of chocolate shops:

And some delicious macaroons (not for Daring Bakers ;-):

And of course in line with chocolate shops - are the shops of finest jewelry and complicated watches!

We visited few manufactures of watches such as F.PJourne (amazing spirit and top complication watch maker), Vacheron Constantin and the biggest one - Piaget (most woman would love it the most, hence they do a great jewelry there)!

For example, this is how a finest jewelry comes to life:

Watchmakers at work:

In our last evening there we went to Grand Prix d'Horological (Watches). This International Grand Prix rewards each year the best watchmaking creations. Its mission is to encourage creativity and to participate in the discovery of new talent. During the evening, eleven awards were attributed, with the prestigious “Aiguille d’Or” award going to the Lange Zeitwerk watch of A. Lange & Söhne.