Jan 29, 2013

First Anniversary With Angel Food Cake

By · 20 Comments

angel food cake

I cannot believe it! A whole year has passed since I started blogging. Time flies by so quickly when you’re having fun. When I first started writing, I wanted to share my recipes with my daughters in a convenient way since they would always ask me for help. Then, my eldest son came up with the idea of blogging so that I could post my recipes online one at a time, and eventually write enough to reach my goal of writing my own cook book 🙂

I wouldn’t have thought that blogging would introduce me to such a nice community of fine people as all of you are. You encouraged me a lot with your comments, awards and even the simple Likes. Thank you all for the kind words and positive attitude 🙂

To celebrate the occasion, I decided to bake this angel food cake and to decorate it with pistachios, fruits and chocolate sticks. I share this dedicate this recipe to all of you. Bake it yourself and have a slice on me 😉

Ingredients:

  • 6 eggs separated
  • 50 grams flour
  • 50 grams corn flour
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
  • 3 tablespoons baking powder
  • a pinch of salt
  • 125 grams sugar
  • about one tablespoon butter

Preparation:

  • Preheat the oven to 180’C and butter a round cake tin and line it with wax paper
  • Whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt and half the sugar until they form a peak
  • In another bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the vanilla and the remaining sugar until yellow pale
  • Add the flour and the baking powder to the egg yolk mix, then fold in the egg whites; do not whisk
  • Place the batter in the cake tin and bake for about 40 minutes, or until a skewer come out clean

Cream for the icing:

  • Mix 200 grams of butter softened with about 2 cups of icing sugar, add a teaspoon of vanilla and mix well

For the decoration:

  • When the cake is done, allow to cool on a wire rack then cut horizontally through the middle
  • Cover the top of the bottom half with cream the cut some strawberries in half and place them over the cream
  • Place the other half on the top then cream the sides and the top of the cake
  • Decorate with strawberries and slices of kiwi, sprinkle on the top some ground pistachios
  • I also placed some chocolate biscuit sticks along the edge to look like candles 🙂

angel food cake 1

ET VOILA.. C’EST TOUT! BON ANNIVERSAIRE 🙂

Filed Under: Dessert · Tagged: , , , , , , , ,
Jan 27, 2013

Fish Cake

By · 6 Comments

fish cake

My mother insisted on feeding us fish once a week when I was little, but my brother didn’t eat fish in any form. Frustrated after trying so many recipes and failing to get him to eat fish, my mother asked our neighbor, one of her best friends, who gave her this recipe to try. My little brother looked at them and decided they looked yummy, and had a few not knowing  that he was eating fish!

My daughter had the same problem with her baby boy, so I followed mother’s trick and made this fish cake and guess what? It worked like a charm; there’s nothing like your parents wisdom sometimes. If you have the same problem, try out this recipe and let me know if it worked out for you too.

Ingredients:

  • 500 grams fillet fish ( I used hammour/grouper; use what you prefer)
  • 2 medium size, boiled potatoes
  • 1 medium size onion, finely chopped
  • 1 red capsicum, finely diced
  • 2 leaves fennel, chopped
  • zest of one lemon
  • 2 eggs, slightly beaten
  • 1 cup breadcrumbs
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  • one cup canola oil for frying

Preparation:

  • Preheat the oven to 180 C
  • Place the fish in a tray with a pinch of salt and a dash of pepper until cooked
  • In the meantime heat the olive oil in a saucepan and fry the onion until slightly colored
  • Mash the potatoes, mix with fennel, capsicum, onion
  • When the fish is grilled, chop it in small pieces and add it to the potato mixture, season with salt and pepper and add the lemon zest
  • Place the beaten eggs in a plate, and the breadcrumbs in another one
  • Make small balls from the fish mixture and flatten it with your hand, dip it in the eggs and then roll it in the breadcrumbs, until all the quantities are finished
  • Heat the canola oil and fry the fish caked until golden for few minutes, then turn them on the other side too

ET VOILA… C’EST TOUT! BON APPETIT 🙂

Filed Under: Lebanese food, Main dish · Tagged: , , , , , , , , , ,
Jan 22, 2013

Cracked Chocolate Cookies

By · 14 Comments

chocoate cracked biscuit 1

Making cookies is something I enjoy a lot because watching my children’s happy faces while eating them is priceless. This recipe especially is something else. During the Christmas vacation, they requested of me to make these cookies, as it had been years since I had made them last… and believe me, as soon as the cookies came out of the oven, half of them were already gone! I also made new fans with my grandkids.

What else can I say? You’re going to love them too.

Ingredients:

  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup soft butter+1 tablespoon
  • 6 tablespoons cocoa
  • 1  2/3 cup sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla
  • 2 cups flour
  • dash of salt
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
  • 1 cup icing sugar

Preparation:

  • Melt the better and stir in the cocoa, allow it to cool before adding the sugar, eggs, the vanilla; beat well
  • In another bowl, sift the flour with salt and baking powder then add it to the cocoa mixture and add the walnuts if you’d like.
  • Place in the fridge for 1/2 hour then preheat the oven to 180 C
  • Take a small piece of dough, shape it into a ball, roll it in icing sugar
  • Place on an ungreased tray, bake for about 9 minutes, The center should remain moist
  • Allow to cool and enjoy (or eat them warm)

chocolate cracked biscuit

ET VOILA… C’EST TOUT!  BON APPETIT 🙂

Filed Under: Dessert · Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,
Sep 22, 2012

Glazed Cup Cakes With Nutella

By · 4 Comments

Cupcakes are always happily welcomed by everyone, small children and adults alike. This simple recipe is a success every time I make it, and no one can get enough 🙂

It is a definite must- make recipe.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 cup icing sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 130 gs butter, softened
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 2 tablespoons Nutella

For the icing:

  • 1 egg white
  • 1  1/2 icing sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
  • chocolate vermicelli, for decoration

Preparation:

  • Preheat the oven to 180 C
  • If the Nutella is a little hard, soften in a double boiler over a low heat until soft
  • Mix in a bowl eggs, sugar, flour then add the butter and the baking powder
  • Fold the Nutella to the previous mixture until you have an homogeneous batter
  • Divide this batter into 20 cup cake cases and bake for about 10 to 12 minutes, and let it cool

  • In the meantime prepare the icing by whisking the egg white and the icing sugar until well blended
  • If you desire you can add food coloring for the icing for variety

  • Sprinkle with chocolate vermicelli for decoration

ET VOILA… C’EST TOUT… BON APPETIT.

Filed Under: Dessert · Tagged: , , , , , ,
Jun 18, 2012

Potato Croquette

By · 9 Comments

When I was about ten years old, I spent one summer day with my 2 cousins and my aunt in her house in the mountain. Me and my cousins were playing very loudly and my aunt got annoyed at us. She offered to cook potato croquette, something we loved as kids, on a condition: we help her make them. Very interested to help cooking something we love, we stopped playing noisily and did as she asked.  We had to boil the potatoes, peel them and mash them with a fork since we didn’t had any masher to use. It took us a lot of time to prepare but when the potato croquettes were ready, we enjoyed eating them thinking that it was the best meal we ever had  🙂

Ingredients:

  • 1 kilo potato
  • 1 or 2 eggs slightly beaten
  • 1 cup of bread crumbs
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon pepper
  • 2 cups frying oil

Preparation:

  • Boil the potato, peel them and mash them
  • Place the egg in a shallow plate, mixed with salt and pepper and the bread crumbs in another shallow plate
  • Heat the oil in a frying pan
  • Shape a medium sized ball from the mashed potato and flatten it, dip it in the egg then in the bread crumbs
  • Fry the breaded potatoes in the hot oil until golden brown, then drain it on a kitchen towel to remove the excess oil

ET VOILA..C’EST TOUT.. 🙂

Filed Under: Lebanese food, Side dish · Tagged: , , , , ,
Apr 19, 2012

Sweet And Sour Fish

By · Leave a Comment

Today, my 2 daughters and I went to this lovely “Cafe” in down town Abu Dhabi and shared one of those delicious breakfast they serve, and of course we chose the Lebanese one. It had Labneh, Halloumi cheese, Halawe, Black olives, as well as Man’oushe ( we decided to have it with Kashkawal cheese instead of Za’atar). And we had scrambled eggs as a side order, as well as butter and jam.

So, after this breakfast we decided to have for lunch (for dinner I mean), a light chinese meal. This is why I made the Sweet and Sour Fish.

It will take three steps for cooking: the fish, the vegetables and the sauce:

Ingredients for the fish:

  • 500 grams fish fillet of your choice, cut into bite size
  • 1/2 can beer
  • 1 egg, 1 egg white
  • 4 tablespoon flour
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
  • salt and pepper
  • oil for deep frying
Preparation of the fish:
  • Mix the beer with 2 tablespoons  flour and the whole egg and some salt and pepper and marinate the fish for 20 minutes
  • After the 20 minutes drain the fish
  • Mix the egg white with soy sauce and the remaining flour, dip the fish into this mixture and deep fry until it’s a nice golden color and put aside

Ingredients for the vegetables mixture:

  • 1 can pineapple chunk (360 grams)
  • 1 medium onion
  • 1 green pepper, 1 red capsicum
  • 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil

Preparation of the vegetables:

  • Cut the onion and the green and red pepper into quarters
  • Drain the pineapple, and keep the juice for the sauce
  • Heat the oil and fry the onion and the vegetables for about 5 minutes and remove from the pan and keep aside

Ingredients for the sauce:

  • 1 cup of fish stock
  • the juice of the pineapple can
  • 3 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 4 tablespoons white vinegar
  • 3 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 6 tablespoons ketchup
  • 2 tablespoons flour
  • salt and pepper to taste

Preparation of the sauce:

  • Using the same pan you cooked the vegetables in, mix all the sauce ingredients together except the flour and keep on a medium-high neat until it boils
  • Dissolve the flour in 1/2 cup of cold water and add to the mixture, stirring constantly until it thickens

Add the fish and the vegetables to the sauce and simmer for about 5 minutes on very low heat. Serve with noodles or rice.

ET VOILA..C’EST TOUT.

Filed Under: Arabic, Breakfast, Dessert, Jam, Lebanese food, Lent, Main dish, Side dish, Starters · Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,