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

[andiesenji]

One of my friends is a "natural" soap maker and also makes vegetable dyes for several weavers.

She uses safflower petals in her soaps. It actually turns out as a crimson color rather than orange, which you would expect.

Vegetable fibers will not pick up the yellow or orange in the safflower, it tints cotton pink and linen red. Silk will pick up the yellow/orange as will wool but a particular mordant needs to be used.

The safflower is also used in ayurvedic and chinese medicine.

It has been used in the past to color margarine and cheeses in the place of annato.

It has also been used, and still is, in cosmetics. The stuff is easy to grow, in fact in some areas becomes a persistent and invasive weed.

[arbuclo]

Thanks for the info on asfar. I bought it as a substitute for saffron but then went out and bought some saffron today anyway!

I'll buy some of those superseeds next time. I think I'd probably like 'em!

[arbuclo]

andiesenji, that info on the asfar is really interesting! Thank you!

[daniellewiley]

The Miramiya looks like dried sage used for tea - we bought some when we visited Istanbul a few years ago.

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Really, miramiya is sage? It kinda looks like it, I guess. Would you use it for more than just tea? Does it taste like regular sage?

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I'm just guessing - it really does look like what we bought. We only used it for tea, though I'd guess you can use it in any preparation that calls for sage. Maybe you could go smell some? Then you'd know for sure!!

OK, just did some creative Googling,and it IS sage!!

Here is some information.

Miramiya

[M. Lucia]

M. Lucia mentioned dates earlier and what kind we can get here.  I really don’t know the answer but decided I should go to one of the best date shops in town today (Sunday).  I headed there this afternoon.  Found the small shop and had a great chat with the guy that works there (I guess he’s the manager).  Filipino boy who worked in the shop in Saudi and a year ago came to open the shop in Dubai.  The shop sells only dates from the holy land (ie Saudi).  And he told me all about the assortments they had and had me taste nearly every type of date and mamoul (date filled pastries) in the shop!  M. Lucia, after that I didn’t know whether to hate you or love you for the suggestion since I was so hopped up on sugar and feeling rather ill!    (Don’t worry I don’t hate you.  I actually had a smashing time!  )

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I hope your stomach doesn't hate me!

Oh, I am in date heaven! I've never seen a store just for dates. I love the really dark colored, soft, sweet ones. Are the sukery dates dry and chewy? And all those mamoul and date products...

The sweets you got are regular baklava, finger-shaped baklava, and king's crown (taj al-mailk) baklava.

I actually have some of that saffron/safflower in my cabinet. It behaves a bit differently than regular saffron, but I have found some things to do with it. You can make an infused oil by heating some oil in a pan and adding the asfar, let steep while you go do something else, then strain it. Keep in the fridge.

You can also steep it in some water (make sure to strain the leaves out) and then use the water for cooking rice or couscous.

Your kibbe looks lovely, and I think your little football shapes are great. The yogurt tempering takes a gentle hand, but the sauce is usually thick and flowing. I hope you enjoyed them.

Nice banana bars. Have you had trouble finding dry ingredients (oats, flour, etc)? I remmeber having to figure out the different labels because they were often different names/translations.

Is chile paste with labne a usual thing? I love my labne with a swirl of honey.

Thanks for all the great pictures, too.

[chefzadi]

Yep. Sorry to disagree with Chefzadi, but Muslims use the right hand for eating and the left hand for "sanitary ablutions," as I think I saw it put somewhere.

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Oops. You're correct. Can you tell I'm out of practice?

[Milagai]

Yep. Sorry to disagree with Chefzadi, but Muslims use the right hand for eating and the left hand for "sanitary ablutions," as I think I saw it put somewhere.

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Oops. You're correct. Can you tell I'm out of practice?

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i almost pointed out the same thing, but many

others had already done so.

also: i know this is a hindu thing (for the same

reasons), and perhaps maybe also

a jewish thing too? can anyone give me the facts on the latter?

is this also the practice anywhere else in asia?

e.g. SE or E asia?

milagai

[chefzadi]

I've heard of some Muslims who take the hand thing even further. They will cook only with the right hand. I think that Pan's guidelines are safe to follow in general when dining with Muslims from most parts of the world.

Dubai is such an International city though. I would think that the attitude is more like that of the North African Muslims in France. Fairly relaxed.

Back to Dubai. I'm really enjoying this blog, especially the photos. The food is so different from Algerian cuisine, except for alot of the sweets.

[arbuclo]

Brilliant Googling, daniellewiley! Thanx!

[arbuclo]

I hope your stomach doesn't hate me!

Oh, I am in date heaven! I've never seen a store just for dates.... Are the sukery dates dry and chewy?

Actually a couple hours later I was ready to eat them again! The sukery ones are dry but not too chewy and also not overly sweet. I like 'em because they're quite different to other dates I've tried. I got to try some nice fresh dates there too, though I didn't buy any because I have some at home. And when I was there I noticed that they stored the fresh dates in a small freezer. They don't freeze solid, presumably because of the high amount of sugar? Hadn't realised that I was a supposed to be storing mine under refrigeration.

The sweets you got are regular baklava, finger-shaped baklava, and king's crown (taj al-mailk) baklava.

I actually have some of that saffron/safflower in my cabinet. It behaves a bit differently than regular saffron, but I have found some things to do with it. You can make an infused oil by heating some oil in a pan and adding the asfar, let steep while you go do something else, then strain it. Keep in the fridge.

You can also steep it in some water (make sure to strain the leaves out) and then use the water for cooking rice or couscous.

I imagine the asfar adds a pretty colour to things. What sort of taste, if any, do you think it has?

Your kibbe looks lovely, and I think your little football shapes are great. The yogurt tempering takes a gentle hand, but the sauce is usually thick and flowing. I hope you enjoyed them.

Nice banana bars. Have you had trouble finding dry ingredients (oats, flour, etc)? I remmeber having to figure out the different labels because they were often different names/translations.

Is chile paste with labne a usual thing? I love my labne with a swirl of honey.

I loved the kibbe, thanks for asking!

Yes, a time trying to figure out flours; there are so many I haven't heard of before. I'll be posting some more "what is" and including flours.

As for labna, I've seen it in a lot of variations. I always have labna savoury but I'm sure many people go the sweet option. I'll give that a try when I have some plain labna next. The flavours I've seen in the shops, that I can think of: chile, zaatar, and mint. I'm certain I saw about 4 more flavours the other day but the types slip my mind!

[arbuclo]

I've heard of some Muslims who take the hand thing even further. They will cook only with the right hand.

Holy cow! I can't imagine!

[arbuclo]

The "bananas" look like plantains to me.  The flesh of plantains can range from white to orange and remains firm even when the skin is totally black - only when it begins to shrink and wrinkle do they soften a bit.  Many varieties are not very sweet and can be used as a vegetable side dish.

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I wondered if they were plantains. The plantains I've seen before seem less "delicate" than these, somehow. They weren't overly sweet but I wouldn't have called them savoury. Well, perhaps I've just invented a new recipe, plantain breakfast bars!

[arbuclo]

Here's the picture of part of my breakfast. Nasty lookin' ain't it?

[arbuclo]

Here’s a picture of the dairy items that I bought on Saturday. The bottle on the left is, yes, obviously, camel’s milk. You can buy it everywhere here and it’s supposed to be extra good for you. Middle in the pic is the mango shake I had for brekkie. And on the right is milk with dates squooshed in it. It’s very sweet but we’ve discovered it’s excellent in coffee when you want a dash of sweetness. When I drink it straight I have to cut it with regular milk.

I thought I should do a milk taste test for you using regular cow milk and camel milk. Here’s a pic of them poured into glasses. Not sure if you can see it but the cow’s milk, on the left, is more yellow than the camel’s milk. The camel milk is very very white.

I’m unsure how to describe the taste of the camel’s milk other than it’s more savoury to my palate. It definitely tastes different when compared side by side with cow milk but not unpleasantly. We buy camel milk now and then just to feel like we’re happenin’ and healthier!

Oh, and I thought one of the cats should do a taste test for you too. She went straight to the camel’s milk but she didn’t check them both out before she dived in. I think we can disregard the results of the Great Cat-Tastes-Milk Experiment!

Another thing I've really noticed here is that meat and milk have very soon to be reached use by dates. The use by for milk is normally about 3 days from when you purchase it and meat is 2 or 3 days.

[arbuclo]

I’ve decided to make my own ricotta because I couldn’t find anything other than small tubs of it and it was rather expensive. I took a cheese making course in October where we made fresh goats cheeses (a couple types of fetta, ricotta, fromage frais) so that got me interested. I had to make it a different way than we did in class because in class we made it from the fresh fetta whey. You can also make it by heating milk and then adding vinegar to coagulate it, so I tried that last week since I was making some lasagne for a couple of families. (Incidentally, this is extremely close if not identical to the process for making paneer in my Hare Krishna cookbook!)

I think last week the liquid actually cleared instead of staying milky. Regardless, this is what the curds looked like before scooping them into a colander to drain. I drained it for about 10 minutes then squeezed a little more whey out and put it in the fridge to cool down.

I want to find some raw milk or unhomogenised milk here so that I can try some rennet based cheeses (which I believe don't work as well if milk is homogenised). As yet I'm not sure where to find something like that. Certainly not in any supermarket I've been to. I was also surprised that I can't find goats milk; I'd really like to use that to make cheese. I'll give the camel milk a try, though I've heard that it doesn't curd up very well.

My ciabatta didn’t turn out the way it was supposed to. Gonna have to give it another try. It wasn’t a wet enough dough, I’m certain, after reading about it in another eGullet topic today. Also I don’t think my oven was hot enough. At least I know what to correct for next time! So, I’m embarrassingly posting these pics.

Dough straight from mixer (this dough felt so light and fluffy after the first raising; it was amazing. Oh, that rhymed!):

Just before going into oven:

And this was dinner with the ricotta and bread, white radishes, rocket/arugula, tomato and two olive salads I got from Goodies on Saturday. The one at the bottom of the picture is with pomegranate seeds (semi dried?), I think, and the other is with mushrooms.

[therese]

Looks absolutely great, arbuclo. I hope the tomatoes were as great as they appear.

[jackal10]

Ciabbata dough is so wet that it is practically a batter. You can't really handle it like ordinary dough. Thats what gives it the slumped slipper shape and the open structure.

[arbuclo]

Thank you, therese! They were pretty good but not great, the tomatoes.

[arbuclo]

You know, in doing a bit more research, I think that it was barberries instead of dried pomegranate seeds in that salad. How would I tell? I was thinking that pomegranate seeds have hard pips in the middle but the stuff in the salad did not. You reckon that points to barberries?

[arbuclo]

Ciabbata dough is so wet that it is practically a batter. You can't really handle it like ordinary dough. Thats what gives it the slumped slipper shape and the open structure.

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Ah, well, then mine wasn't even close, then! [mental note for next time, wet wet dough!]

[jackal10]

ciabatta is in the range 70% to 80% hydration (bakers percentages, by weight relative to weight of flour). Thus a typical recipe would be

1Kg flour

750ml water

20g salt

20g yeast

Team US recipe 92% hydration

Edited February 21, 2005 by jackal10 (log)

[arbuclo]

I used the recipe from the Bread Bible. Perhaps I mismeasured. I'll take another look to see if the recipe has those sorts of proportions.

[edited to fix title of tome]

Edited February 21, 2005 by arbuclo (log)

[Lone Star]

Arbulco - loving your blog! The array of shops and goods are amazing.

Have you tried Halluomi cheese yet? I spent a good portion of my "growing up" years in Kuwait and it was a favorite treat.

Halloumi is a traditional cheese of Cyprus, usually made of a mixture of goat and sheeps milk, though sometimes it may have some cow milk.

The wonderful thing about the cheese, is that it is best eaten fried in a skillet til browned, or grilled. It does not melt like most cheeses, and the taste is fantastic. It has a texture similar to mozzarella and a salty taste.

Fry some up and have with some olives, dates and melon. Delicious.

[arbuclo]

Lone Star, have you been reading my mind and peeking into my fridge? I've been wanting to try haloumi for quite some time so I bought some a week ago. I figured I might be able to have it for a meal some time this week, but if not, it has the shelf life perfect for (refrigerated) bomb shelters! You'll see pictures if I get to it this week!

[andiesenji]

Barberries are zereshk. I make tea with them - good for the eyes.

They should be stored in the fridge. Here the price varies with the season.

I just bought some last week $10.99 a pound.

I make a chicken and rice dish with barberries which is very good. I will try to find the web site and post it later. It is on one of the Persian/Iranian sites that one of our patients told me about.