Dejah

EAST meets WEST... AS mentioned in previous posts, Ben Hong, fellow eGulleteer and one half of a bi-racial relationship, was visiting here in Manitoba for a week mid-Novemebr. Ben is from New Brunswick...but originally from my village in Toisan, China. We had such a wonderful time exchanging family histories, old days in China, etc. Ben finally arrived back home this week. Today, a FedEx parcel arrived... Can you believe this - one dozen live Atlantic lobsters. To think I forgot to send the joongzi home with him, and he still sent me this wonderful treat! Lobster, Lobster, How do I love thee? Let me count the ways....

I tried to post this info' last night, but eGullet was experiencing some difficulties? quote=spaghetttti,Nov 28 2004, 06:17 PM] What about those milky almond flavored agar-agar cubes served with crushed ice and fruit cocktail? I tend to think that it's an American Chinese concoction, would that be correct? Is the dessert that Dejah makes with agar-agar and egg white swirls typically Chinese? ←

For our CANADIAN Thanksgiving in Oct, we had the usual pumpkin, lemon meringue, saskatoon , plus a new one, pumpkin/pecan pie. For our neighbors south of the border, saskatoons are a prairies berry, look like a smaller blueberry, but the falvour is very distinctive. You'd use them the same way as blueberries. At one time, we could go out and pick wild saskatoons. Now, with excessice land clearing , these bushes are harder and harder to find. So now, they have sasktoon farms where you can go and pick'ur'own.

Ahhhhhhhhhh...Yetti! You techie, you! Thanks so much for fixing me up.

behemoth, Wish I could send you a sample right now just so you can tell me if it tastes as it should! As I said, I didn't get any chicken, just the soggy, chewy but wonderfully flavoured pita bread at the bottom of the pan.

This is the first time I've posted pictures since eGullet changed the system. I got as far as copy/paste up the URLs, but how do I embed the images within my post? And, I think I got the descriptions/URLs backwards!

Ok, here are the pictures of the two dishes I made for our international potluck supper: a Middle Eastern ground lamb and onions seasoned with cumin, cinnamon, garlic, parsley and tomato paste served on flatbread. http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/11015138..._1101526298.jpg The musakhan was a success after the search for sumac. http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/11015138..._1101526229.jpg The responses in many of my students' journals, especially that of Turki from Saudi were " I really liked Sue-On's food!" Turki actually wrote those words, which is a major accomplishment from him. He couldn't write a sentence when he arrived in Sept. Guess I'll have to reward that again in the new year.

A nap

What a day!!! and a successful one at that. I got home at 3 with my pita bread, cucumbers, tomatoes and yogurt. Got the 2 lbs of red onions cooking gently for 20 minutes as I fried up the ground lamb, cumin, cinnamon, black pepper, parsley and tomato sauce and chopped onions. This was spread out to cool while I arranged the marinated chicken in the baking pan. Did the onions on top, cover and bake for 20 minutes thingie. While that was in the oven, I made up 2 salads, one of tomatoes/ cucumbers, parsley, black pepper and lemon juice, the other was cucumbers, yogurt, garlic and fresh mint ( no dried available ). Ripped the pita into manageable pieces and lined the bottom of my stainless steel chafer. Flipped the chicken into it. I made sure all the pieces were skin side up. They turned out beautifully. The skins were a little crunchy, but the meat was very flavourful and juicy Because my student requested some lamb, I took behemoth's idea and made an Arabian pizza with the lamb mixture. My daughter said it was very good with the pita. I put the pizza into the oven at 400F until the edges of the flat bread were golder. We took some pictures, but I have to wait for techie hubby to download and upload for me. We got to the potluck at 6:20...supper was to start at 6:30. I hate it when they draw table numbers!! We were seating close to the food so I kept my eyes on my food. It was going pretty fast, so I grabbed a late, put on pieces of chicken and the bread, and 2 slices of my pizza for Turki. I mean, he was my motivation to cook Arabian food! By the time our table was called, there was just a couple pieces or very flavourful, soggy, chewy pita. But it tasted good! As my staff didn't get any, I said I'd make it again, in the new year, after I receive behemoth's most generour offering. Crazy one cooked, but didn't even get to try one mouthful! I will post pics tomorrow. Hubby is away tonight.

chicken shawarma looks like another great recipe to try out. I love anything with cumin. I love food...PERIOD. Hopefully I will have pictures of the musakhan to post later tonight.

Once again, thanks for the information. I am looking forward to this dish. I hope my student will enjoy it. My collegues are certainly excited about it. It's such an adventure for all of us. Most of our students are Chinese, so to have something entirely different from Canadian and Chinese will be so cool! There was a recipe for a cucumber/tomato salad. Does it have to be dried mint? or would fresh mint do? I love fresh mint and eat it tucked in my sandwiches, rolll ups etc.

I picked up the sumac, bought chicken thighs instead of whole chicken to cut into quarters, mixed up the marinate and the thighs are "soaking" in the fridge for the next 24 hours or so. The recipe asks for Syrian bread, to line the bottom of the serving dish for the final stage of baking. Can I substitue PITA for this bread? What is the purpose of this bread on the bottom? Is it to use as "eating utensil" or to sop up any juices? Has anyone ever made or tasted musakhan? What does it taste like? I am assuming it will have a lemony tangy flavour because of the sumac and lemon juice? BTW, I love the smell of the sumac! Glad I took Pan's advice. It reminds me of the Chinese snack, salted plums. Smelling it made my mouth water, just like the plums did.

This morning, I was pleasantly surprised with 5 offers of SUMAC from within our university community! Thank you to all of you for your generous offers of sumac and advice. I will have to thank my student for getting me interested in another culture and forum! eGullet is a wonderful community. I am so happy to be here!

I've never heard of any restrictions as far as seafood, pots or dishes, Pan. I am familiar only with arab muslim behavior, maybe east asian muslims do things differently(?) ← I don't think pots, dishes, etc are a problem for Turki (my student's name) as he eats at the university cafeteria for every meal. It is difficult to find out much about him or how he fares in following restrictions of his faith as he has so little English! He did observe Ramadan and celebrated the end of fasting with fellow Muslims mainly from Pakistan.

Looking forward to hearing all about the food. Hope you have pictures to prove you were really there!

I found recipes for musakhan. They all list sumac as an ingredient. I have never seen this spice in any stores here in our small city. Is there anything that can be used as a substitue?

I noticed in the Arabian recipes that shrimp is allowed. What about crab or lobster? My friend who is Jewish said only seafood with scales and fins are allowed. Does that apply also to those of the Muslim faith? Speaking of crab...we are ready to tie into 4 steamed dungenese, along with green beans, portebello mushrooms and seasoned potato wedges. For dipping, we have garlic butter, dill/lemon peper butter, and red vinegar/seasme oil. YUMMY!

I noticed in the Arabian recipes that shrimp is allowed. What about crab or lobster? My friend who is Jewish said only seafood with scales and fins are allowed. Does that apply also to those of the Muslim faith?

Thanks for the info'. Glad you reminded me about "halal" which is available in one of our supermarkets. I guess with the Saudi recipe sites, they just assumed everyone would know that meats other than pork are allowed, but didn't think to remind us about the "halal" requirement.

Oh Chris, I know of what you speak!!! In Mecca, they have those spectacular rotisserie chickens, so juicy and tender. Sometimes when our fellow hajjs get together, we longingly reminisce of our pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, and inevitably those gorgeous chickens will be paid their due homage! Thank you so much for reminding me again. ← Ok, Chris, Yetti, Quit tantalizing and give me some more information! I am sitting here salivating! Lamb is one of MY favourite meats...I am soooooo undecided.

The chicken recipes in http://members.aol.com/JAlmansur/saudi_recipes.htm look promising. The only ingredient I didn't know was "black lemon". I guess I may have to do the Zirbeyan chicken. The Arabian shortbread looks good, so I may try my hand on those. They could be a nice change from my usual Xmas shortbread. Thanks for the suggestions, but you don't have to stop yet. My s-i-l and her family have been living in Saudi for the last 12 years. I can't get any response from them, but I can maybe surprise them when they come for a visit in the future.

Our international ESL students are having their potluck windup supper on Wednesday. For the first time ever, we have a student from Saudi Arabia. I would like to make him feel included as all we have ever had are Asian and Spanish food because of the student body composition. The student doesn't cook at all. What can you suggest for a main course meat dish that I can make easily, and with ingredients that are readily available, even on the Canadian prairies? I'm not sure on food restrictions, so please advise. Suggestions with recipes would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for the article about gingko poisoning. I love them but fortunately for me, I have never tried to eat 30-50. Here in Manitoba, we can buy them in Asian grocery stores in the shell or shelled and cryovac packed. I think they are about 1.98 for a package of around 30 shelled ones. I vaguely remember eating them roasted. Haven't tried for years because of the same problem melonpan posted about. Pan or johnder, could you post a picture of a gingko tree? I have never seen one. They smell that bad, huh?

Thanks Shiewie. That's exactly how I cooked them tonight. I sliced them, added a few slices of coloured sweet peppers, couple cloves of garlic and sliced ginger. I liked the texture, reminds me a bit of kolhrabi. I will buy them again.