Nicolai

My peasant breakfast yesterday consisted of Egyptian aged Roumy Cheese with Black Peppercorns - Baladi Egyptian Bread- Tomatoes - Olives and Spring Onions.

Syrup should be hot on hot or cold on cold. Like when you wear your diving suit: Dry on dry or wet on wet..........that's until you put on weight and you need a larger size wetsuit

Me think a visit to the tailor is in the offings as not able to handle all the pre Xmas season. Here are some Kourabiedes loaded with butter and almonds.........with a nice Greek coffee.

Shakshuka has indeed many variants and the addition of a particular spice, herb or ingredient adapts the flavour to the taste of the country. The Tahineh recipe you are mentioning is our go-to recipe to dress fish (fried - grilled - bbq - hot - cold) As such, our taste buds are Pavlov associated with Tahineh and fish. I guess you have such Pavlov reaction to other spices or ingredients as well. We call this recipe Tarator. The short of it is that I am very reluctant to change the taste structure of Shakshuka. As for Caraway which we call Karawya, It is mainly a spice used for sweets in the Levant originally and all over the area as of late. Using Caraway in casseroles is not common in our area and is more of an Eastern Europe kind of food. The main sweet with Karawya is called Meghli while it is called Karawya in Jordan and Palestine. It is a pudding type of sweet laden with nuts and delectable. Meghli is associated with a new birth. Each family getting a baby will prepare Meghli for all well-wishers and distribute to family and friends. A lesser known sweet is an Aleppo type of sweet which is sinking to oblivion. It combines several spices and has a olfactory hallucinating effect when fresh from the oven. It is simply irresistible. The recipe cannot be found on the net or in books. Yupps, it is one of those to remain nameless

Dunno about caraway, we use it for sweet stuff. Dunno about Tahina with Shakshuka but is it not an overload of flavours? Dunno about making a spice paste when you can do the whole spicing in the same pan. and where are the onions, tons of onions. This is my Shakshuka with three eggs for a single serving for myself and I

Aya baby girl is now 7 days old and is a beautiful baby daughter to our friends. Another lady friend who is a Pastry Chef made these mini almonds Baby Birth Cakes to be offered to family and friends. Do you bake your own Baby Birth Cakes?

Lazy Sunday spiced up Kerala style piping hot. A freshly caught grouper laden with a Kerala spicy marinate and deep fried in very hot oil where the skin is cracker crisp and the flesh white and moist. Golden kissed fried shrimps in a similar marinade. Few Paratas to tear and dip in the Fish curry sauce laced with coconut milk. It is Sunday after all..........

Now that Thanks Giving is behind us. Xmas is on the doors, it is now time to put back the lost fat made obligatory for the summer swimming bodies. This used to be a one way simple cookies and sweets and now this is degenerating into an international gluttony. So, you need to prepare and/or purchase all these: - Germany: Stollen - Italy: Panettone - France: Buche de Noel - England: Xma's Pudding and Cognac Butter - Xma's cookies (approx few trillions), Mince Pies We have now placed an order for the Stollen and the Xmas Pudding. The Buche de Noel will be made in house same with the German cookies and the Mince Pies. For the pure sake of testing the tasting and in the Xmas spirit of being told off by my better half. Here are some pics of the Motta Panettone that we had this morning for Breakfast with German coffee.......as a dry run for Xmas As a foot note: - The Bauli Panettone was kept away for Xmas morning. - The German Dinkel Stollen is for Xmas coffee time with the German Cookies - The Buche de Noel is for Xmas lunch - The Xmas Pudding is for a flambee whenever we remember Here is today's Motta Panettone, soft and fluffy and laden with raisins, candied fruits.......

After being told off by the powers that be for my desserts indulgence......I was allowed only cheese. I went for a nice Manchego with Bavarian bread and Beurre D'Isigny (D'Isigny Butter) with a nice Sancerre. Moral of the story, you will get told off by the powers that be in each and every which way you turn. My resolution for the New Year is the practical answer: Yes Dear!

The epitome of gluttony.........well, I was kind of hungry and practicing for Thanks Giving and Xmas......kind of ....and the portions were so small..........

Ohhh. No Berliner available, I had to make do with these filled with Vanilla cream......poor me!

Brilliant and glad that not only you managed to follow through the recipe but you added your own twist with the split lentils. .......and indeed, some mix cooked pasta and fried pasta......so kudos for you. Most importantly, you enjoyed the dish.

Yeah, forgot about the Shakshuka.....here is one I made earlier in the year. (Did I post it before?)

- You do not use Garlic in your Humos? - You are seriously not only asking for a recipe but a specific recipe for long shelf life.........I mean seriously......this would be a licensed and paid commercial information. Finally, there are as many Humos recipes as types of Honey worldwide. There is no universal recipe for quantities or color or texture or taste or smell.

Yes. You are right about the Pine kernels. As you know, all fresh produce direct from the tree or the soil has a unique taste. The way we used to eat he Pine Kernels is to pick up the Pine Cones from the Pine tree and throw them as is in a fire made of the same branches or wood or whatever is around the tree. Then you pick up the cone and while burning your fingers. you shake out the pine kernels and smash the kernel shells with a stone on any rock and eat while warm....the smoke scent is out of this world..........and this will never ever be served at any 100 star restaurant.

Hey. Glad you like the Lamb and Cheese Koftas. I doubt you will find the recipe online. But let me know if you do out of curiosity and the Internet like to distort stuff.

Hi there It is a pretty straight forward recipe without the bells and whistles of the Internet.......so you are right with your comment. It seems that to be a real foodie, one has to over-complicate any simple peasant dish to make it more noble or just to prove that they know something the others do not. Lightly fry the onions and then add the galic (golden color frying, do not carbonize the stuff). Just cook the lentils with the onions and garlic till semi soft with S&P and then add the Tamarind juice.......to taste and go easy not to overpower the lentils taste. There lies the rub. Do not use the usual Tamarind paste or juice or powder....etc. Get some real Tamarind and boil gently to extract the liquid (squeeze and sieve for impurities). When you have the Tamarind juice, add to the lentils and simmer until the lentils are fully cooked. (acidic liquid will lengthen the coking time). You can add some grains of rice to thicken the stuff to be paste like. It should not be runny. Separately, fry in a little oil some diced Arabic flat bread. Either do your own pasta and dice up or get any diced up pasta and cook al dente. Add Pomegranate kernels. The idea is that the lentils and bread and pasta and Pomegranate kernels should be of similar size........and you are done. Now that I wrote this, I am salivating again Scoop and eat.

- A common question is what is the difference between Lebanese food and Syrian food. The answer is Lebanese food is more skewed towards vegetables dishes and Syrian Food towards meat (mainly Lamb) dishes. - The second question is what is the difference between Aleppo food and Damascus food. The short answer is Aleppo food is miles more sophisticated. In this instance, this is a Damascus food type table away from the standard fair you get in restaurants being them Lebanese - Syrian or Levantine. We start with the ubiquitous pickles and olives: Pickled garlic - cucumbers - green olives - Turnips - green peppers - black olives - cabbage leaves. - A famous Damascus appetizer is called Harak Esbaoh which means burned fingers. Lentils cooked in Tamarind sauce and mixed with Pomegranate seeds - Fried onions and garlic and flat Arabic bread and dressed with EVOO. It looks a bit messy as someone could not wait and mixed it up before I had the chance to take a pic. - Mutabal special edition or whatever you wish to call it. It is the basic Aubergine dip with Tahineh - garlic - EVOO and dressed with a spicy tomato sauce using Aleppo pepper and fried pine nuts. A variant is to add fried Lamb meat to the mix. - Chicken Liver with Pomegranate Molasses (common dish to the Levant) - Sharhat Mutafaeyh Grilled Lamb steak fillet with garlic - lemon juice and tomato + Aleppo pepper paste. - Izmirl Kabab which is Lamb mince with Arabic spices mixed with white unsalted cheese....deliciousness. - Grilled Kibbeh balls on a skewer (de-skewered)......just luv it

Fusilli with Onion and Garlic warmed in EVOO - a splash of Balsamic vinegar - Blanched and diced fresh tomatoes - White unsalted cheese - Baby Rocket and piled Walnuts.......Chablis.... Life is good....

Just received this double layered box of Mixed Arabic Sweets ......all the way from Damascus no less. There is no particular country which can perfect all types of Arabic Sweets. My preference goes to Lebanon and Syria. All other countries are mere copies. You need to taste the ones from Lebanon and Syria to appreciate the difference. There is a tendency to call a mix of Arabic Sweets as Baklawa and this is wrong. Baklawa origin and name seems to be in dispute. Nevertheless, Baklawa is in fact a sweet made with layered dough or filo pastry with a syrup and nuts. We consider Baklawa any sweet made with layered dough/filo and frankly it is the least tasty among the assortment of Arabic sweets. In this box starting from the left: Mabroumeh pistachio cubes - Sawabeh or Assabeeh pine nuts - Kol wa Shkor pistachio - Mabroumeh pistachio - Baklawa pistachio - Baklawa pine nuts - Ballorieh pistachio........enjoy.

My Breakfast (American) at The Breakfast Club - Soho

My Breakfast at The Breakfast Club - Soho

I just checked and it is a bit confusing. Monty's Deli does not have any branches anywhere and is only located in London Druid Street. It seems the name is common to other places as well. You better check out their website: http://www.montys-deli.com/

- It needs lot of dedication and a good Laundry! - It is not Birmingham but London

Best Rueben this side of the waters........at Monty's Deli ........and of course Latkes.......