eG Foodblog: arbuclo - Dubai is a long way from Montana, baby!

[arbuclo]

This morning I had a smoothie to use up my last banana/plantain.  I used cows milk and date milk in it as well as some wattleseed.  Have you see wattleseed before?  Australian bush tucker, it is.  It’s got a mocha flavour to it.  I use it in baked goods or ice cream but it can be used in savoury dishes too.  Here's the recipe page from that company I linked to up topic.

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And this is what my smoothie looked like:

I think I shoulda made it thicker so that the wattleseed didn't mostly end up in the bottom.

[arbuclo]

The chicken recipe came from Middle Eastern Home Cooking by Tess Mallos. (Here it is in Amazon.) The picture on the cover is of this dish, called zarda palau! It looks far better than mine, of course.

For the 2 of us I used the following:

1 orange

1 cup water

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons oil (or ghee)

1/4 cup slivered almonds

2 chicken breasts (supposed to cut into quarters but I didn't)

1/2 an onion, sliced

1 cup long grain rice

1/4 cup pistachios toasted and chopped

1/4 teaspoon saffron steeped in 1 tablespoon hot water for 10 minutes.

Shred zest into thin strips and boil in water for 5 minutes. Drain and rinse. Place 1 cup water, the sugar, and zest to a boil, then reduce heat to continue simmering for approx 10 minutes; until syrup is thick.

Fry almonds in half a tablespoon of oil until they are golden. Set aside.

Heat remaining oil in pan and brown the chicken. Remove the chicken and season it. Reduce the heat in the pan and add the onions to the fat. Cook gently until soft and slightly brown, approx 10 minutes. Add 1/2 cup of water to deglaze the pan. Add chicken, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

Boil the rice in salted water for 8 minutes. Drain, put into a bowl and add the orange syrup but not the zest.

Spread half the rice in a baking dish and add half the cooking liquid from the chicken. Arrange onions and chicken atop the rice then sprinkle with half the zest and half the almonds. Top with the rest of the rice and chicken cooking liquid. Cover and bake in a 300F/150C oven for 40 minutes. Remove chicken and onions to a dish, arrange rice around them. Sprinkle the saffron liquid on the rice and sprinkle with the rest of the almonds and the pistachios.

[arbuclo]

For breakfast today I had some fruit. Two of those finger bananas (I seem to be hooked!), a pretty pear and a lovely looking nectarine. Unfortunately the nectarine should be arrested for false advertising. It tasted yuck. Threw it out after a couple bites.

Had a meeting at noon. I arrived early and had a fresh watermelon juice which was served in a very nice glass. This cafe is just outside the building I'll be working in. The cafe's is outdoors under a big tent and filled with big sofas and chairs covered in chintz (is that how you spell it?) fabric. Very comfy. I wonder how many meetings I can arrange to have down there!

[edited to add pictures]

Edited February 23, 2005 by arbuclo (log)

[CaliPoutine]

Excellent!  Thanks for the link to the cheesemaking info.

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Thanks for the link. She says that ricotta isnt a high yeild cheese. Do you know how much Id get from the 2 quarts of milk?

[arbuclo]

Excellent!  Thanks for the link to the cheesemaking info.

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Thanks for the link. She says that ricotta isnt a high yeild cheese. Do you know how much Id get from the 2 quarts of milk?

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Hmmm, when I used 7 litres of milk I got nearly a kilo of cheese. So if I calculate correctly you'll get 250-300g or just over half a pound. Anyone want to "proof" my calculations?

[arbuclo]

Lunch!  Hubby thought he felt good enough to go out for lunch so we headed to a cafe everyone raves about called The Lime Tree Cafe.  Just wait til you see the colour of this place.  If there are limes that colour I'd hate to eat 'em!  It's easy to spot their little vans driving around town.

It was a nice day and the cafe has both an outdoor balcony and a courtyard.  The balcony was full so we sat in their lovely courtyard.  This cafe serves frittatas, paninis, salads, all day breakfasts, and some amazing cakes.

I had a panini with eggplant, tomato and haloumi, since we've been talking about it here.  Husband had a meat and Mediterranean vegetable foccacia roll.  Both were toasted and they were pretty good.  However I thought my panini should have had more haloumi especially since the taste was so wonderful.  Can't wait to use the haloumi I have at home!

I've been in the mood to order fresh fruit juices lately because most places do them so deliciously.  This place had a new one on me: lime and mint soda.  I've had mint lemonade so why not mint limeade?  It came with a little jug of sugar water.  I love that since I like my drinks on the more tart side.  My dining partner had a latte.

This cafe is down near one of the prettiest mosques around.  In fact it's the "open mosque" because non muslims can go in twice a week.  This program is an effort to help people understand Islam.  We haven't gotten there yet but it's something we are really looking forward to doing.

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Pictures! See what I mean about the colour of this place? It's even more garish than the photo shows. You can also see the balcony dining area.

The courtyard is a great setting too:

Our drinks. Actually I just noticed that my drink is nearly the colour of the outside of this cafe! Perhaps I shouldn't have made fun...

And our sandwiches (haloumi on the left, meat/Mediterranean on the right) which were quickly devoured.

The beautiful Jumeirah mosque with a sand storm of a day!

[arbuclo]

And this is what my orange chicken dish looked like using the recipe above.

[Abra]

I keep loving your pictures - hope you're not getting tired of hearing that yet! The orange chicken looks like my kind of dish - can't wait to try it. When you make wattleseed ice cream, do you just infuse the cream, then strain? I have lots of wattleseed left from making pavlova, and am always looking for new uses for it.

[M. Lucia]

One of the things I miss most in the U.S. is the fresh juices. And the fresh fruit coktails with ashta or ice cream. Blackberry juice on the streets of Damascus (though you better have an iron stomach).

Is water quality ever a problem there?

Apple and nectarine was a favorite combination, especially with thick chunks of nectarine to make it smoothie-like.

And kiwi. Kiwi juice is just wonderful.

[arbuclo]

I keep loving your pictures - hope you're not getting tired of hearing that yet!  The orange chicken looks like my kind of dish - can't wait to try it.  When you make wattleseed ice cream, do you just infuse the cream, then strain?  I have lots of wattleseed left from making pavlova, and am always looking for new uses for it.

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So glad you enjoy the pictures! I definitely like taking and sharing them. With the wattleseed, I'm sure it'd be a great idea to infuse the cream but, you know, I just toss in a tablespoon or less into a batch of icecream. I also find that wattleseed goes well in muffins that have sultanas/raisins, dates, bananas, chocolate or any other baked good with those flavours.

When you used the wattleseed in pav, did you mix it into the cream or the meringue?

[arbuclo]

One of the things I miss most in the U.S. is the fresh juices. And the fresh fruit coktails with ashta or ice cream. Blackberry juice on the streets of Damascus (though you better have an iron stomach).

Is water quality ever a problem there?

Apple and nectarine was a favorite combination, especially with thick chunks of nectarine to make it smoothie-like.

And kiwi. Kiwi juice is just wonderful.

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I can see why you'd miss the juices. The range is pretty extensive in most restaurants/cafes and they're just delicious! As far as I can tell, water quality is always the same, ie it doesn't vary. That's not to say it's good! I don't drink it from the tap because it still tastes salty and a bit odd after desalinisation. It's not horrible but I don't particularly care for the tap water here. It's the only place I've actually only drunk bottled water.

[ludja]

Excellent!  Thanks for the link to the cheesemaking info.

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Thanks for the link. She says that ricotta isnt a high yeild cheese. Do you know how much Id get from the 2 quarts of milk?

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Hmmm, when I used 7 litres of milk I got nearly a kilo of cheese. So if I calculate correctly you'll get 250-300g or just over half a pound. Anyone want to "proof" my calculations?

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Calculation looks fine.

It's also close to the yield of a recipe that I have (but haven't made) that says the yield from 3 quarts of milk is close a pound.

[arbuclo]

After my meeting I felt I should have something to eat. I had to go to the Safestway Supermarket (yes, Safestway!) centre for an errand. I thought I'd try out their Lebanese restaurant for ya. I decided to have one of their lunch specials, a kofta (baked lamb mince). The special consisted of soup (lentil), salad (lettuce with cucumber and green pepper/capsicum), rice, kofta, drink and sheesha. Since I don’t smoke I just took a picture of the sheesha menu so you could see what “flavours” you can get.

The soup was very tasty, salad was basic. The kofta looked like it was gonna be a horrible dry disgusting thing (yes this definitely is the blog of ugly food!) but was pretty good but nuttin’ special. Rice was perfectly cooked.

Oh, and I ordered a mango juice. The lunch was a whole 25 dirhams but the mango juice cost me 10 dirhams, outrageous! (Not that I'd go back; food wasn't that great but for the experience it was fine!)

I also saw on their menu "arabic champagne" which, of course is a non alcoholic drink consisting of: apple juice, perrier, 7up and honey.

I went into Safestway supermarket just so I could buy Cabots Habanero cheese which I got to try for the first time a few weeks ago. Yum!

Sheesha menu (and before you ask, I don't know what the first 2 items are (but they must be good judging from the price) nor the last 4, nor shamam ):

lunch specials menu (I love when they translate to English and spell things differently. The other day I saw "cream of green peace" soup! LOL! Oh, and Hammour/hammur is the local fish here.):

soup and salad:

mango juice, rice and kofta:

[fou de Bassan]

As I was reading your blog I couldn't help but wonder about water. In America we have a pretty plentiful supply but you are now in a dry place and you were previously in Australia. Has the way you use water, especially for cooking and food prep., changed at all?

[zeitoun]

What a great thread this has become thanks!!

I have never been to Dubai, (went to Abu Dhabi though for a few days), but I have spent many (boring) vacations "next door" in Saudi Arabia by virtue of my father's professional activities there.

Dubai is somewhat the "Vegas" of the arabian peninsula and very appreciated amongst Saudis who wish to "loosen up", have fun, spend money (and drink..shhhh) for a few days. Your pictures remind me of the one great thing Saudi Arabia had (remember it doesn't have much, no bars, no movie theaters, no places to "socialize"...), it had great food from literaly the world over!! Because of its close proximity to the persian and red sea, the fish especially was absolutely amazing. I assume the same goes for Dubai. Any pix of fish markets?????

The one thing that always made me laugh was the fact that Saudi supermarkets had aisles and aisles of sausage and ham products that looked like pork but was made out of beef (it really looked like the real thing). I always wondered if pork is banned in the country, why do they work so hard at trying to make their beef look like it? Anyway...

While in Saudi, I recall that on several occasions my father and I had went outside of Ryadh to visit date farms which there is plenty of. It is i think Saudi Arabia's main crop. Is it the same in Dubai? Do they grow a lot of dates there?

[CaliPoutine]

I just did the exchange rate. You're lunch cost 6.80 USD and your mango juice cost 2.72. What a bargain!!

[arbuclo]

As I was reading your blog I couldn't help but wonder about water.  In America we have a pretty plentiful supply but you are now in a dry place and you were previously in Australia.  Has the way you use water, especially for cooking and food prep., changed at all?

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Excellent question. Yes I'm far more conscious of using water. In Melbourne we had water restrictions and lots of adverts telling you to be careful with water. Yesterday on the radio here I heard one here for the first time. I now cringe if I even see water running for a long time from a tap on TV!

What I've changed in regard to the kitchen water use that I can think of is that when I rinse things off (ie getting all that sand off of the bunches herbs I buy!) I tend to put some water in the sink and swirl the herbs around in it instead of running a lot of water over them. And I turn the tap off immediately after I'm done using it even if I still have things in my hands!

[arbuclo]

What a great thread this has become thanks!!

I have never been to Dubai, (went to Abu Dhabi though for a few days), but I have spent many (boring) vacations "next door" in Saudi Arabia by virtue of my father's professional activities there. 

Dubai is somewhat the "Vegas" of the arabian peninsula and very appreciated amongst Saudis who wish to "loosen up", have fun, spend money (and drink..shhhh) for a few days. Your pictures remind me of the one great thing Saudi Arabia had (remember it doesn't have much, no bars, no movie theaters, no places to "socialize"...), it had great food from literaly the world over!! Because of its close proximity to the persian and red sea, the fish especially was absolutely amazing. I assume the same goes for Dubai. Any pix of fish markets?????

The one thing that always made me laugh was the fact that Saudi supermarkets had aisles and aisles of sausage and ham products that looked like pork but was made out of beef (it really looked like the real thing). I always wondered if pork is banned in the country, why do they work so hard at trying to make their beef look like it? Anyway...

While in Saudi, I recall that on several occasions my father and I had went outside of Ryadh to visit date farms which there is plenty of.  It is i think Saudi Arabia's main crop.  Is it the same in Dubai? Do they grow a lot of dates there?

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I agree with your "Vegas" of the area comment. Definitely!

While I haven't taken a picture of the fish market (and won't get the chance to get one this week) I do have one of the fish selection just at Carrefour. It's great! I'll post it later.

Very funny about the beef made to look like pork! I haven't really noticed much of that here but maybe I haven't been paying attention!

I had to go searching for the answer to your date question. I can't seem to find much mention of Dubai and date farming and I haven't really seen any Dubai dates at the supermarket (Saudi, Jordan and Oman, I think I've seen), though I wasn't looking. I did find this date company website that seems to indicate that the dates are mostly grown in the Emirates of Al Ain and Ras Al Khaimah.

[arbuclo]

I just did the exchange rate.  You're lunch cost 6.80 USD and your mango juice cost 2.72.  What a bargain!!

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I know, amazing! And it was far too much for me to eat. I could have shared it with someone.

[arbuclo]

Well, in contrast to the bargain lunch of yesterday, last night we went to a pricey place. I chose it mostly because of it's location (hadn't been there before and I'm still interested in trying new places rather than going back to ones I've been to already). I wanted to take you all to the Burj Al Arab's Sky Bar on Friday night but I couldn't get in (you have to make a reservation!), so I wanted to work my fave building into this somehow. I did that by going to a restaurant where we could see it!

We went to a restaurant called Al Hambra which serves "Spanish/Moorish" food. It's at one of my other favourite buildings here that consists of 2 hotels and some shopping. The Madinat Jumeirah has been created to look like an old Arabian village complete with wind towers (an old non mechanical way of air conditioning, and quite brilliant too). This place could be tacky but it's not, well except for the dozens of giant gold horses that line the drive to the hotel.

When we arrived, 7:30pm, there was hardly anyone there, as usual. People seem to generally go out to dinner here rather late. The place looked busy at about 10pm! I'd asked for a place on the veranda so I was disappointed when we were taken to an inside table. They'd expected some bad weather or something. I asked if we could sit outside and they set up a place for us. (Service was excellent the entire night.) In fact we started a trend. They then started to seat other diners out there as the night went on, but for a while we had our own private dining area!

There are canals running throughout the Madinat and you can take rides on abras (small boats) around the canals. We sat overlooking a part of the canal so we got to see the boats motor by all evening. I just think that the Madinat at night is pure magic:

The Burj Al Arab changes colours throughout the night. As soon as we sat down with that view, hubby commented on having to hear me mention the Burj all night long. I was thinkin, "naa, I'm not THAT bad". Sadly he was right! Could help it, the building is so amazing to me!

Oh, and this is a smidge of a snap of the inside of the restaurant. Very moody.

Right...onto the food. When we sat down we got this nice plate of bread, with great olive oil, aoili and a couple of tasty olives.

We decided to order some tapas. From left, fried peppers stuffed with brandada (ie peppers stuffed with a salt cod mix), calamari, and a sampler plate of Spanish meats (with the triangular dish of garlic smashed in olive oil, chopped tomatoes and pickled onions, plus a plate of crisped bread). Oh, and hubby had a glass of Spanish Tempranillo wine.

Take a look at their massive salt and pepper grinders. The pepper one (the tall one) is about foot high!

Before our main course they provided a break with sweet melon sorbet:

I had San Sebastian cod with white asparagus, prawns and clams.

Hubby had their interpretation of a tagine. All the bits were served separately. The lamb just fell off of the bone and that's a pile of couscous there.

Couldn't fit in dessert so we just had coffee (medium Turkish for him and latte for me). They arrived with little cake creations with a dollop of apricot jam in them middle and a sprinkle of pistachio.

We thought that the main courses needed a bit of pizzazz added to the taste. The tapas were very good and unexpectedly generous. If we went back we'd probably just graze on tapas. And, you just can't beat the setting.

[arbuclo]

Found a picture of what a small portion of the fish selection at Carrefour's looks like:

They will, of course, fillet the fish or whatever you want (ie they cleaned some prawns and some squid for me not long ago).

The fish market looks like this times about 100. Every few feet is a new display with a different vendor!

[PCL]

Ahhh, arbuclo, so proud of you!!

Now you can be the official Dubai Guide.

If you're craving a good steak, the grill room at the Emirates Towers Hotel does a good job. But be sure to stick the dinner on the expense account!

[arbuclo]

Ahhh, arbuclo, so proud of you!!

Now you can be the official Dubai Guide.

If you're craving a good steak, the grill room at the Emirates Towers Hotel does a good job. But be sure to stick the dinner on the expense account!

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Hey, there, PCL, thanks! I've been to that restaurant and it's wonderful, I agree. Looking forward to you doing a Melbourne blog some day.

[arbuclo]

Aaah, Thursday, the weekend. (Forgot to mention the working week is Saturday through Wednesday here) I call Thursday "the new Saturday"! I'll probably be grazing throughout the day but for starters I had some toasted fake ciabatta with French butter. (no picture since I didn't want to embarass the ciabatta any further) Last week in therese's blog there was some comment about cultured butter. I think I picked some up at Carrefour the other day. My butter is made with lactic culture, does that mean it's cultured butter? Whatever...it's divine! Also had some toast with labna again.

[arbuclo]

Oooh, just doing some research on the web to learn more about some flours I bought. Found out that Chapati Atta, which is sold here all over the place because it's used in Indian flat breads, for instance, is a low gluten flour. Excellent to know for future bread making reference.

I also bought some bajra flour atta and ragi flour atta (spelled bajira and raggi, respectively, on the packets, no wonder I had trouble finding out what they were! ). Those of you that do Indain cooking apparently will already know about them. Millet, flour, huh? Guess I should make some Indian breads with the flours.

Since we've been talking about dates, I thought you might like this story from the Gulf News.