A regular Spaghetti Bolognese

By Za


Hello there! 

Do you feel like speghetti? with something like, no white cream or mixed sauce? 
Okay, let's go for bolognere. Got your tomatoes and minced meat? let's go 


So, we'll need:

• 2 tbsp oil
• 1 + 1/2 tomato. 
• Minced meat of your choice (beef, lamb, mutton..etc) 
• 1 onions 
• 4 Garlic cloves. 
• Origano (optional,) 
• Cloves (optional)
• 1 bay leaf (optional) 
• 1/2 tsp sugar. 
• Salt 
• water 
• Spaghetti. 

• No black/white papper for me, but you can hadd it if you want to. 

Let's go, 

In a cooking pot, heat the oil then add the grated onions and garlic. Let them soften up a bit. 

Put the minced meat and stir (+salt) until cooked. 

Grate your tomatoes (or blend them) and add them in the pot, then stir everything. let it cook for 3 minutes or so, then add water depending on your pot's size (try to fill up half of your pot) 

Add your 1/2 tea spoon of sugar to kill the acidity of tomatoes. 
Add a bay leaf. 
let cook. 

Boil your spaghetti, then drain it.

When the sauce is ready, add your spaghetti to it and let it get homogeneous with the sauce for roughly 5minutes (on low fire) 

Remove you bay leaf. 

Serve in one plate and share it. 

Bsahetkom, Bon appetit, Enjoy 

:) 

Sweet cabbage sheets, lasagna style

By Karima.


Feeling like something similar to Lasagna, lighter and healthier? 
Get your Cabbage, black olives, a portion of rice and minced meat and follow the steps: 

boil your sweet cabbage leaves for 10 mintues. 


Meanwhile, prepare your stuffing: 
In a pot grate and soften an onion in a bit of oil. add the minced meat or chicken pieces. Once cooked add chopped black olives and boiled white rice. and mix well. 

Grease an oven dish and spread the sweet cabbage sheet gently to form a sort of carpet for the stuffing. Then add some of the stuffing on it. spread it evenly before you add another layer of the sweet cabbage sheets. 

Get some Bechamelle sauce and spread it nicely and gently on top of the last layer of cabbage

Wet your wooden spoon with water so that sauce doesn't stick to it

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Voila !! 

Then chuck in the oven, and watch till all is cooked and smells wonderfully. 

ENJOY

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Easy PEAS-y Jwaz (stew)

By Za 

I got this recipe from my auntie Sliyou, God's peace and blessings be on her. 
Hasn't been a while? 

well well, Ramadan table brings us back together! I hope everyone is well!

This Ramadan my table consisted on one main dish, juice and some sweets. That's all :)

So, I thought of sharing with you a dish that took me literally 20 minutes to prepare. 

Do yo have peas? frozen? it's ok, let's get started 

So we'll need 

• Medium diced hicken breast or meatballs 
• half an onion
• 3 to 4 garlic cloves. 
• 2 table spoons of oil (of your choice) 
• 1/2 table spoon of paprika 
• salt, 
• Peas (about 500g) or less if you like. 
• water

In a pot (if you have a pressure cooker, it would be much better), put oil and grated 1/2 onion and garlic and let them soften up a little before you add you chicken cube (if you're adding meatball, don't add them yet)
PS: Careful with the garlic - it burns quickly, you may want to add a spoo of water to help it get soft without burning. 

Stir the chicken with soft onions and garlic until the chicken grilled a little and gives a nice flavour, (if things get dry add a tiny bit of water) 

Add paprika and stir more. 

Add your peas (if they are frozen, it's ok don't wait for them to defrost, just chuck them in the pot)

Then, add water just enough to cover the peas and chicken. ( now you can add you meatballs if you don't want chicken) 

Salt 

Let cook.
If you're using a pressure pot, let it cook for 10 munites. If it's a regular pot, you may want to let them cook longer, and watch and feel the peas until they are soft as you like them. :)
you'll notice the sauce is reduced and thicked a little. 

PS: For the meatballs. once everything is cooked, I usually take them out and put them in a pan with a little oil and butter and let them brown and grill, to give a better taste (cover the pan) 

Place in a dish and decorate with chopped parsley and lemon slices (some people love to squeeze some lemon juice on the Jwas while eating) 

Bsahetkom - Bon appetit  Enjoy. 

Sfiriya

By Za, 

  This is a "food recycling" traditional Algerian dish that's made basically from stale bread. 

When you have lots of leftover bread which's gone stale, here's a suggestion to recycle it into a very delicious dish. Kids love too. My brother used to call it 'Khoffash' - Bats. They enjoy eating the crispy bread "cookies" dry. It's very tasty and healthy for them (esp. if you're using brown/whole meal bread like I did today) 

So, here we go: 

Ingredients: 

For Sfiriya: (bread cookies) 

• A big bowl of shredded stale bread (white or brown) 
• A British mug of Milk
• Soft cheese (i.e la vache qui rit, or any soft cheese of your liking) 
• 1/2 tea spoon of cinnamon
• 1 tbsp of Orange flower water. 
• 1 egg. 

The sauce and meat: 

• Minced meat
• 1 Onion 
• 4 Garlic cloves 
• spices of your liking. (I like cumin, cinnamon and mix spices) 
• 1 egg 
• 2 tbsp of breadcrumbs. 
• Chopped coriander 
• Salt and water 
• (Lemon = optional) 

Method - Preparation: 

                 For the Sfiriya (bread fried cookies): 

Shred the stale bread in a big bowl and add warm milk gradually while kneading and mixing with your hand. 

Mixed it and knead it untill all lumps soften and melt. You should have a lump-less paste. 

PS: if the paste is too runny, add a few table spoons of bread crumbs until it gets an assembled viscous consistency.

Shred the stale bread in a big bowl and add warm milk gradually while kneading and mixing with your hand. 

Mixed it and knead it untill all lumps soften and melt. You should have a lump-less paste. 

PS: if the paste is too runny, add a few table spoons of bread crumbs until it gets an assembled viscous consistency.

Make medium sized balls from the paste and flatten them with your fingers gently to form a cookie-like round shape. (use water or oil in your hands if the past if too sticky) 

Fry the bread cookies until they gain a mahogany-golden-brown-ish color. (see picture).

remove, sieve and let the Sfiriya rest aside while you get to your sauce. 

              The meatballs: 

Grab the minced meat and add salt, a grated small onion + 2 cloves of garlic + 1 egg + spices + chopped coriander + 1 tea spoon of olive oil. and mixed everything untill you get this (see picture).

Wet your hands with water, (it helps meat not stick to them when you're rolling the paste in your hand to form a small ball). 

I decided to have a different shape today for a change. So, I opted for the oval one. ( see picture) 

                For the sauce: 

Grate or chop the onion and garlic before you chuck them to stir fry in a pot. (2 to 3 table spoons of oil) 

Once onion+garlic are soft add spices of your liking for a white sauce. (I add cinnamon and a teeny bit of cumin + some mixed herbs and spices) and stir well. 

pour in 2 to 3 glasses of water and bring it to a boil before you start chucking the meat balls in the sauce. 

Add chopped coriander (that's the cherry on the cake) 

Add the chick peas (They shouldn't be dry! if you get them dry, let them stay dipped in water over night. They'll double in size) 

let cook between 20 to 40 mins. ( if you're using a pressure pot then you might only needs about 15mins of cooking time). 

Serving: 

In a plate, put the number of bread crisps you'd like to have and pour the sauce (+meatballs) over them. Drizzle some lemon juice for a better taste. ( but that's optional)

et voila! 

Bsahatkom - Enjoy - Bon appetit. 

Boorak from Algiers (Spring rolls)

By Za, 

Fried and Grilled Boorak! Recipe coming up soon. Stay tuned.