We’ve arrived to the point in this article where I explain what I’ve been up to for the past few months. I’ve mentioned before and elsewhere that I’ve started my own Restaurant Consultancy service for anyone who wants to improve their existing establishment or set up a new one. My first contract was with Rosso, a casual dining restaurant in Masaken Sheraton, Heliopolis.  To make a very long story short, I basically built the place: menus, staffing, training, suppliers, marketing – even setting up the Facebook page. Almost a year on, and almost 2 dozen chefs later, they still can’t get the basic tenets of how to make a good burger right. Standards, it would seem, are very low on the list of priorities for many Egyptian cooks. A shame really; my burger is something I am quite proud of. Everything else, mind you, is still excellent. So excellent in fact that I’ve been asked to help develop at least 2 more concepts before the end of the year. Exciting stuff.

Writing a menu with over 50 items is not as easy as it sounds: you have to include exact grammage for each of the recipes, and find reliable suppliers for each component. Then there is the small matter of making sure the menu has no “holes” – that is to say that there are no ingredients featuring in less than 5 dishes. Any less, and you run the risk of stagnant stock, raising overheads and eventually meaning that you have to throw out the smoked imitation crab sitting on your shelf for the past month because no one wants your crab and avocado surprise e (not a real item).

As a restaurant consultant, I am Executive chef, F&B manager, kitchen designer and QA auditor rolled into one. I recall a week long discussion about which plates to choose for the appetizers, a discussion that may seem unnecessary, but in hindsight captures the attention to detail that makes Rosso the great success it is today. Opening a restaurant is not for the faint of heart or shallow of pocket.

Over the course of the contract, I had to experiment and develop a lot of recipes, keeping in mind how it would affect work rate in a restaurant kitchen, suppliers, employee intelligence and reproducibility. By far the most difficult was the burger, since the potato Kaiser Roll I developed required a strict adherence to the recipe and steps; something most cooks in Egypt shy away from. The ground beef also is meant to be ground in a very particular way, without adding any flavors or binding agents other than a bit of salt. Finally, the actual cooking of the burgers was designed in a way to maintain optimal juiciness while cooking the burger to the temperature of Well Done. (Don’t get me started on people who eat well done.)

Funny story: I interviewed a cook who worked at Chili’s for a number of years, and when asked what “Well done” meant in terms of meat cookery he replied “good job”; as in the burger flipper had done a job “well done” by making a perfect burger. I did not hire him.

But the experimentation was loads of fun; and the opportunity was expanded further when a group of friends decided to hold weekly “Dinner Club” events where we’d each cook a dish inspired by a particular cuisine. By far the most difficult was the French night; I had volunteered to provide two dishes; a veal stew “Blanquette de Veau” and a dessert of “Tart au Citron”. The Blanquette was easy enough, and required no practice, but the Tart au Citron was something I’d made before and knew had little room for error. First timers need to be very careful when trying this.  The best advice I can give is to use a thermometer, lots of cling-film, plenty of loose change and to constantly pay attention to what you’re doing.

I had eaten a very Parisian tart au citron before, but I wanted to do something different to it; something that is unexpected but delightful when discovered. Taking cues from the Flavor Thesaurus, Heston Blumenthal and Marco Pierre white; including my own experiences, I’ve come up with the recipe below. The good people over at Buttered Up also just published a great recipe for lemon curd, which will definitely come in handy. When I’m cooking, I never rely on one recipe; instead, I read different recipes and techniques to understand the underlying ratios and proportions. Personally, I like a sharp lemon tart – I used to eat raw lemons as a kid – so you may want to bear that in mind.

Many recipes also call for lemon rind in the short crust, which I’ve found is very confusing for many home cooks. Instead, using cardamom seeds give the same citrusy note without the risk of bitterness from an improperly grated lemon zest. Plus cardamom is a great flavor and is in almost every single Egyptian kitchen: just open up the pods using the flat of the knife and ground up the seeds with the short crust ingredients. Remember that a little goes a long way. To finish the lemon tart, you can either add a meringue or a cheffy Brulee topping. One requires patience, strong forearms and luck, while the other requires a blowtorch. I personally like using an Italian meringue since I don’t have to worry about ingesting uncooked egg whites.

Lemon Curd Tart

Total Time to Ingest: about 3 hours. Totally worth it.

I – Short crust Pastry  [Ratio: Flour: Butter: Sugar 2:1:1]

300 gm Flour

150 gm Butter

120 gm Sugar

4              Egg Yolks

2.5 gm   salt

15 gm    Ground cardamom seeds (crush pods, and discard shells, grinding the black seeds with a mortar and pestle)

15 gm    Pure vanilla extract / seeds of one vanilla pod – OPTIONAL

• In a food processor, blend together the flour and butter till grainy like sand on a wet beach. Scrape the sides if you need to. If you don’t have a food processor, just go at it with a fork.
• In a separate bowl, blend together the Egg yolks, salt, ground cardamom and vanilla till thick.
• Add the egg mixture to the short crust and bring together into a coherent ball of dough.
• Wrap in Clingfilm and let it chill in the fridge for about an hour.
• Remove chilled dough and roll between two sheets of Clingfilm to a thickness of about .5cm or two one-pound coins stacked on top of each other. Let it chill again in the fridge for another 45 minutes.
• Now, here’s one of the tricky parts: remove Clingfilm from one side of the rolled out dough, and place the dough in a tart shell with the Clingfilm side facing up. This makes it easier for you to fit the pastry into the mould without it breaking up on you. Leave the overhanging bits – those will be cut off later.
• Remove the last piece of Clingfilm and prick the bottom with a fork.
• Take a large piece of parchment paper and crumble a few times to soften it. Place it on top of the tart dough and weigh it down with lots of coins spread over the entire tart surface.
• Place the tart dough in a preheated oven at 190C and bake for about 20 minutes. When it’s done, remove the parchment paper and coins and let it cool while you make the filling.

II – Lemon Curd Filling:

300ml lemon juice (not from concentrate. Fresh yellow Italian lemons are best)

300ml double cream (Juhayna’s whipping cream is best)

300g powdered sugar

9 eggs + 1 egg yolk

• In a blender, mix all ingredients together until smooth.
• Place the mixture in a bowl set over a pot with simmering water. Stir constantly till the mixture reaches 60C or till the mixture has thickened like custard.
• Strain through a sieve to remove any solid particles into a jug. Remove any bubbles or froth that forms with a spoon.

III – Final Stage: Bake the tart

• Place the prebaked pie crust in a preheated oven at 180C. Pour in the lemon curd mixture while the tart is in the oven – this prevents the catastrophe of spilling the tart as you move it from the counter to your oven.
• Bake for about 10-15 minutes or until the center is a little wobbly. The center temperature should be 70C.
• Remove from the oven and let it cool completely. This is essential!
• Trim off the excess overhanging edges with a knife.

IV – To Serve:

Brulee: After cutting out each piece, sift some powdered sugar over the top and lightly glaze with the blowtorch until a dark caramel color.

Pavlova-Style: take 2 egg whites and beat with a hand mixer until frothy. In a medium saucepan, melt 100grams of white sugar with 100ml of water until thick – just before the color turns a caramel brown.

Drizzle hot syrup into the egg whites while beating constantly. Eventually you will have a glossy meringue. Fold in some fresh strawberries and spoon over the individual portions of lemon tart. Place under a broiler for 5 minutes until the meringue has turned a light golden brown. Alternatively, you could have a go at it with your blowtorch. Cool for a few minutes before devouring.

Risotto is commonly seen a starchy replacement for potato puree; Risottos are “sexier” than just regular mashed potatos. To have a risotto as a main course is derided as not being satisfying enough, a claim that I find to be very misinformed. Of my all-time favorites were the mushroom risottos at Eatalian (now defunct) and La Gourmandise (no longer on the menu). Since these are no longer an option, I’ve been searching for a worthy replacement for my mushroom risotto fix.

One example of rice cooked in Alfredo sauce can be had at La Trattoria in Zamalek. What I expected, and what I received, were two very different things. I expected a homogeneous creamy risotto, each rice grain distinct in its texture but not chalky and chunks of hearty flavorsome mushrooms throughout. What I received was the exact opposite, swimming in a Grey pool of heavy cream. Highly un-recommended.

Where good risottos *don't* come from.

Another perpetrator of risotto crimes resides at the Semiramis Intercontinental hotel, at their Italian restaurant, Pane Vino. Their risotto was a dry, cloying heap of overcooked rice, mixed through with raw mushrooms and a heavy handed dose of fresh cilantro. I don’t often send food back, leaving the half eaten portions on the plate speak for themselves, but this time I could not let this aggression stand. The manager was called over, who called over the chef on duty and both listened intently as I schooled them as to how a risotto should be made. Imploringly, they asked me to give their next risotto another try, but the damage was done – I had faith only in their distinct lack of culinary artistry, and that faith is unshakable.

“Physician, feed thyself”

To embrace this motto, I decided it was up to me to make my own mushroom risotto. I knew what my ingredients would be, but felt I needed to study up on the finer techniques of risotto making. I listened to Raymond Blanc, Carlo Gracco and Heston Blumenthal all explain their own recipes and techniques, and in the end, produced a plate of risotto I can be proud of.

Even though I love porcini mushrooms they tend to bully the other mushrooms and flavors and I’ve decided to leave them out of this risotto. But I do love shiitake mushrooms, which play very nicely with button and forest mushrooms; the trick is to know that the woody stalks must be removed or else you’ll be biting into hard bark in the middle of an unctuous and creamy risotto.

At the restaurant, I decided to make an Egyptian risotto, using Egyptian short grain rice and Egyptian mushrooms only and paired this wonderful risotto with a pan-seared fillet of Egyptian beef, seasoned with salt and nutmeg, and flamed in the pan. This little trick gives the beef a roasted aroma similar to a traditional kebabgy’s. When I taught my chefs at the Cairo Jazz Club this technique, they instantly fell in love with it.

You’re welcome.

Shiitake and Forest Mushroom Risotto

Yield 2 portions

Ingredients

• 75g Arborio rice
• 300 ml chicken stock
• 5 Shiitake mushrooms (dried)
• 10g forest mushrooms (dried)
• 10 button mushrooms, stalks trimmed and cut into quarters
• 20g Worcestershire sauce
• 25g spring onions, finely sliced
• 10g scallions (the green part of the spring onions, sliced finely)
• 35g butter
• 35g Parmesan cheese
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• Salt and pepper to taste

Steps:

1. Bring chicken stock to the boil, and remove from heat
2. Add dried mushrooms to the stock and let them reconstitute for 15-20 minutes
3. In a heavy bottomed sauce-pot over medium-high heat, sautee the mushrooms with salt and pepper and olive oil until dark brown.
4. Add minced garlic, then immediately add rice; stirring constantly for 5 minutes
5. turn up heat to high, and deglaze with Worcestershire sauce, and stir till most liquid has evaporated.
6. add enough stock to barely cover the rice and mushrooms, and turn down the heat to low. Let this simmer for 20 minutes.
7. Turn the heat back up to high, and begin stirring the risotto constantly, adding a little stock at a time. this should not take more than 5 minutes till the rice is properly cooked and the creamy texture of the risotto is achieved.
8. finish by stirring in the Parmesan and butter. season to taste and for an extra flourish, add a few drops of truffle oil right before you serve it.

Cooking time: 45 minutes (including prep)

We all get the beach munchies. Has something to do with the iodine in the sea water that makes us peckish while we tan (or, in my case, burn). So I’ve been tasked with providing you with recipes for foods to eat, as opposed to the regular Soda and Chips combination of your less imaginative friends.

The trick here is to choose seasonal ingredients, prepared very quickly and ones that will keep well in the sun for hours. In addition, the emphasis was on snacks, so it can’t be heavy or cloying; ideally it should replenish your nutrients lost while sweating your socks off, as well as being refreshing. The food also can’t be messy or fussy; so to that end, I’ve come up with 3 little plates that can be eaten only with a fork. Or chopsticks, if you’re Asian. Either way, I’m assuming you’re gonna be with three other friends. So scale up or down as you see fit.

Recipes follow after the jump:

Pickled Tomato Wedges

• 4 large tomatoes cut into ¾ inch wedges.
• 3 Fresh Parsley sprigs, leaves chopped finely.
• 1 TBSP white vinegar
• 1 TBSP olive oil
• 2 TBSP Lemon juice
• ½ TSP Dried mint powder
• Salt and pepper to taste.

A great touch is to put the tomatos in the fridge for a while before making this salad. That way, you maximize the refreshing effect, and bring out the full minty freshness. Combine the dressing in a bowl, and pour over the wedges. Throw in some whole fresh mint leaves for effect.

Summer Fruit cocktail

• 4 peaches cut into ¾ in wedges
• ½ kilo strawberries cleaned and halved.
• ¼ Watermelon, cut into bite sized chunks, preferably seedless (or seeds removed)
• ¼ cup lemon juice
• ¼ cup white grape juice
• 2 cans club soda
• 2 sprigs of fresh mint.
• 2 cloves

Yes, only 2 cloves. Any more, and you’ll overpower the rest of the ingredients.  Dump all the above into a big pitcher. Mix well. Add ice, if needed. When the juice runs out, grab a fork and start eating!

Smoked Salmon on toast

• ¼ kilo smoked salmon, sliced (natch)
• 1 TBSP capers
• 2 sprigs fresh dill, chopped finely
• 1 TBSP lemon juice
• 2 TBSP sour cream
• Slices of toasted bread.
• 1 TSP olive oil.

Combine the capers, dill lemon juice and sour cream. Spread over the toast. Layer over the slices of smoked salmon.

Devour.

The menu is hugely diverse, and experience has taught my Mom how to be efficient: the Beef is minced all at once, seasoned with the same spices, and used for the lasagna sauce, stuffed potatoes, Macaroni with Béchamel Casserole and the Goulash. The Red tomato sauce made for the Kofta is the same red sauce used for the Koshary and the Molokheyya. The 3 types of pasta –Lasagna, Penne and short macaroni – are all prepared in quick succession using the same pot of boiling water. All the components are prepared together according to their method; the frying is done once and everything that needs to go into the oven will go in at the same time.

That’s a lot of food, and takes a lot of time to make. And I’m always fascinated by how she keeps the kitchen so clean throughout. When I cook, I need a specialized dishwasher on call the whole time I’m in the kitchen. Everything else I can handle.

The homemade feast is definitely my favorite meal of all time; but it has less to do with the food on offer than the actual gathering of loved ones. The table, covered end to end with our favorite childhood dishes, almost feels like a long lost member of the family. Every bite is not salty or spicy; they are mini time capsules taking me back 10, 15 or 20 years to when I thought that the Blue Whale was the best animal on earth because it was so big. Between heaping spoonfuls of food and sips of Pepsi, we share our latest stories, and recount old ones. Sometimes we’ll even find out something new about an old mystery. We never eat in silence. We don’t leave the table unless all the food is eaten, and even then, we find ourselves lounging in our dining chairs clutching our enormous bellies. Smiles all around.

To try and critique a meal like that is pointless. I would not remark upon the seasonality of the ingredients because a family meal is always in season. I couldn’t tell you if the chicken pane was overcooked or not because, frankly, I don’t care. Nostalgia is a big part of this meal, and I like the rose-tinted glasses. That is why I’ve been trying to learn my mother’s recipe for these things. They are all deceptively simple, and it never turns out quite the way my Mom makes it. The taste is good, but not quite “there”. And not through lack of seasoning, mind you.

It’s because my Mom did not cook it. That’s the missing ingredient, the rarest ingredient of all. Non-replenishable, unpurchaseable, irreplaceable.

Happy Mother’s Day.

Everyone is aware of the four basic taste families – Sweet, Salty, Sour and Bitter. There also happens to be a fifth, called “Umami”. This is a Japanese term which describes the “meatiness” that you taste when eating a steak or grilled mushrooms. A great tasting dish typically has at least 3 of these different taste profiles.

Egyptian food hasn’t got the most glamorous reputation, but the flavor profiles can be astounding; let’s take a look at two of them:

Molokheyya:

Also known as Jew’s Mallow; this dish transforms the raw bitterness of the Molokheyya leaves into a sumptuous and complex broth, which is naturally thickened by the compounds in the leaves itself. The addition of cilantro and garlic gives a further depth of flavor, and adds saltiness which serves to whet the appetite. Common additions to Molokheyya include dem3a; which is a particularly salty tomato sauce to further enhance the broth. Molokheyya is typically served with some sort of protein: duck breast, roast chicken or braised beef. The end result is a wonderfully satisfying dish that only your mother has perfected.

Koshary:

The staple of many an all-nighter for students on a budget; this dish brings together a lot of seemingly bland components, but transforms them into something decidedly unique. Texturally, it’s a grab bag of cooked pasta, rice, lentils, chick peas, fried onions, tomato sauce and garlic vinaigrette. Even though there is no meat involved, this is the one vegetarian dish that packs one hell of an Umami wallop. Couple that with the tangy sourness of the garlic vinaigrette, the subtle sweetness of the fried onions and the saltiness of the tomato sauce; and you get a perfect storm of texture and flavor. Be sure to try eating it out of a plastic bag.

Recipe – Umami packed Caramelized onions

[Prep time 5 minutes, Cooking time approx  60 minutes]

1. 5 large white onions – finely sliced
2. Very Large pot
3. 2 TBSP Olive oil
4. 1 TBSP Worcestershire sauce
5. 1 beef Bouillon cube
6. 2 TBSP Brown sugar
7. 1 TSP White sugar
8. 2 TSP Salt
9. 3 TSP Pepper

• On a medium low heat, add the onions to the pot – do not overcrowd the pot, the layer at the bottom should be no more than a couple of centimeters deep. If necessary, cook in batches.
• Add oil, and coat the onions.  Give it a couple of tosses to coat the onions.
• Add salt and pepper, cover and let it cook over a low heat for 20 minutes. Check on it every now and then to give it a quick stir, to prevent the onions from “catching” on the bottom of the pot. After this point, they should start to become soft and transparent.
• Add the sugars, Worcestershire sauce and the bouillon cube; stirring to evenly distribute it among the cooking onions. Cover again, and let it cook over a medium-low heat for another 30 minutes. Once again, check on it often to make sure it doesn’t catch. If the onions look like they’re beginning to fry, then turn down the heat a little and stir.
• At this point, the onions should have turned a brown color’ give it a taste and season accordingly. You can finish it off with another splash of Worcestershire sauce or even a little bit of barbecue sauce.
• This mixture keeps for upto 2 weeks in the fridge. Enjoy it with anything your heart desires – scrambled eggs, meat, or even potatoes.

I was working loosely off of this recipe for the crust, and this recipe for the filling. The difference with the crust recipe is that I used the crumbs from ginger snaps and Digestive biscuits.. The crust was prebaked and left to cool, then I went to work on the lemon curd. I’ve had alot of experience with heating eggs to make a rich custard – I’ve promised to post my Egg Nog recipe for ages – so I knew what to expect. Double Boiler, stir constantly, path in a wooden spoon. After paintakingly making the lemon curd, I poured it into the crust and pushed it into the oven for a second bake. 15 minutes later, it was done. I topped it with a few fresh Thyme leaves, and stared at it for half an hour, hoping that my “coolness” would be infectious, and speed up the cooling process.

It didn’t. I must be having an off day.

The result? FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC! Excuse my profanity, but this is a HUGE thing for me. To get a tart-au-citron right on the first try is wonderful. If you like lemons, I highly recommend making this at home – but make sure you’re very careful; this is not a recipe to be trifled with, so pay attention to every detail and never ignore it.

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 30 minutes total.

As an aside; food writing, I find, tends to be a mishmash of commonly used quips and quotes; much like cooking, I suppose. What separates a great food writer from a good one is the ability to take the formulaic and reimagine it. If you recognize phrases from a cooking show or a food article, I apologize; but instead of picking apart the writing, I suggest you focus on the whole article; like a great stock, it should be more than the sum of its parts.

Back to my stock: I reserved the rendered fat that formed on top of the stock as it cooled, and since I can’t get any other type of flavor imparting animal fat, I planned to use it to give an extra edge to whatever it is that I was making. It’s the gift that keeps on giving! Warmed to room temperature, it has the texture of a soft butter, and is an off white milky color. Instead of a dense fat odor that sticks to your nostrils, it gives off the aroma of everything that went into the stock – thyme, rosemary, celery and bay leaf – in addition to a great, almost smoky, beef flavor.

And this brings me to the present day. I was watching the 4th season of the Great British Menu, and loved what Danny Millar pulled out of his rear end as a serious contender for the Main Dish: a Roasted Rib of Beef, served with Potato Rosti. Now, I’ve made a Roasted rib of beef before, following Georges Laurier’s recipe, and I’ve gotten rave reviews. But I’ve never made a Potato Rosti before. After reading the recipe, I found it was almost identical to making home fries, with just minor ingredient changes and one extra step at the end for presentation. Now, I have made home fries before, and for a long time, it was my thing; but I went off it when I got sick of its flavor profile. There was a meatiness and robustness I could not achieve without using cured smoked bacon.

But I think I found a solution for that.

Read the recipe for yourself, and if rendered beef fat is not available (it probably isn’t), use butter instead. The flavor will not be as meaty and hearty, but will still be one of the best things you’ll eat this year. Mr. Millar may have served it alongside a honking chunk of cooked flesh, but I chose to make a poached egg to go with it, thereby tying it in with a breakfast vibe. A poached egg is better, in my opinion, because there’s nothing else messing with the flavor – it’s all egg. Soft whites and a creamy yolk are wonderful to eat on its own, and paired up with the Rosti bad boy it becomes a better way to be. After experimenting with a bunch of techniques, I found the best one neutralizes the fact that all our eggs here in Cairo are at least a few days old. My forefathers may come from a small farming village 80Km outside of Cairo, but I don’t have chickens in my balcony, and I’m guessing you don’t either.

So, don’t make yourself crazy by trying to poach an egg like all those cooking shows tell you. Instead, get a piece of Clingfilm wrap and wipe it down with a couple of drops of oil. Line the inside of a small cup with the Clingfilm, oil side facing inward, and crack your egg into it. Gather the ends into a nice little egg parcel, and tie it off. Drop it in simmering water for 3-4 minutes, and you (and your egg yolks) are golden.

The recipe for the Rosti is pretty simple:

 Dice a medium sized Potato. Put in a pot of cold water, add a TSP of salt, and bring to the boil for about 10 minutes.

 Meanwhile, thinly slice 2 green onions. Separate it into two piles: All the white onion slices will be used for the initial sauté, and the chopped green scallions will be added in at the very end.

 Roughly chop 6 slices of Air Dried Grison Beef (available from Swiss Chef). Or you can use Bresaola from Petro Market in Mohandessin (Tel# 02-3345-0073).

 In a non-stick pan, melt 2TBSP rendered beef stock fat (or butter, if you don’t have it) over a medium heat. Add onions. After 2 minutes, add the chopped cured beef. Mix it all well, tossing and stirring constantly.  Drain the potatoes of all the water, but keep it in its pot – we want the residual heat of the pot to dry out the rest of the moisture that’s on the potatoes. Give it a good shake, enough to break up some of the potato pieces and rough up the surfaces. Tip this into your sauté pan.

 Turn the heat up, and incorporate the potato with the sautéed beef and onions. Add a dash of pepper, and more butter if it’s drying out. After about 3 or 4 minutes, the potatoes will have turned a really nice golden brown color, but the onions and beef bits will not be burnt, so you’’ see deep red bits of beef mixed in with golden brown potato.

 Add the remaining green onions, and stir for 30 seconds. Turn off the heat, and spoon the potato mixture into moulds, lightly pressing down so it keeps it shape.

 Top off with some chopped chives, and your poached egg. Devour. Cooking Time 10 Minutes

As ever, new ideas and meals started coming to me while making the beef stock; at home, I had some fresh button mushrooms, strawberries, dark chocolate, Frozen Jumbo shrimp, and an Avocado. Right off the bat, I remembered a recipe I saw in Gordon Ramsay’s “A Chef for all seasons”; but more on that later.

The plan was simple: I’d Slow roast the shinbones and brisket chunks in the oven for a couple of hours, then add chopped celery, carrots and onions, and roast for another hour until everything was nicely roasted and caramelized. I deglazed with water, and tipped everything into the biggest pot I could find, and covered with some more water. A bouquet garni of Rosemary, thyme, Bay Leaf and Green Peppercorns went in, and the entire cauldron was left to simmer over a medium heat for another couple of hours. I checked on it periodically, both to smell the wonderful aroma, and to skim off the impurities and scum that formed on the surface. This makes sure the stock doesn’t get cloudy.

All in all, it was a good 3 hours of prepping, roasting and waiting. The waiting was killing me, but in the end, it was worth it. I picked out and discarded the larger solids from the stock, then ran it through a coarse sieve lined with muslin to remove some of the smaller bits. As the stock cooled, a thick layer of rendered beef and bone marrow fat formed on the top. Then it hit me: this fat has as much flavor as the stock beneath it, so I removed it, and kept it in the fridge; destined to be used for divinely roasted potatos and for a confit of Mushrooms (adapted from the recipe I found in Gordon Ramsay’s Book).

The confit of the mushrooms was easy; after cleaning the mushrooms, they were briefly sautéed with thinly sliced spring onions in a little salt and butter, then put in a small pot of the heated rendered stock fat on low heat for half an hour. The mushrooms were then removed from the fat, and put in a sealed jar until I need them.

Inspired by the ingredients I had in my kitchen, a three course meal had formed in my mind:

Appetizer: Shrimp and Avocado Salad, with Thai Chili Tomatoes, and a lemon and sour cream dressing, finished with truffle oil.

Main: Contre-Filet topped with a Roasted Red Pepper, Sour Cream and Chive Pomme Puree, and Sautéed Carrot Sticks and Mushrooms, served with dark beef gravy.

Dessert: Strawberry and Dark Chocolate in a lemon short crust tart, topped with toasted meringue.

The recipes for these will come in separate posts; but the verdict was that they were all a resounding success, with a few self-criticisms:

-          The Avocado I bought was not ripe, so the texture of the diced avocado was a bit hard, and had a bitter taste to it that threatened to ruin everything else. Other than that, the salad was light and cool, and set up the next course beautifully by whetting my appetite.

-          As I was reducing the gravy I tipped the sautéed mushrooms and carrots into the jus. This overcooked the carrot, so I didn’t get any texture from it, and the flavor of the carrot was markedly diminished. The Mushrooms, too, suffered from this mistake, and while they didn’t taste bad at all; they sponged up a lot of the gravy, and their mushroom flavor was lost.

-          When I make pomme puree, I boil the potato in chicken stock, then use the remaining thickened liquid as a base for the gravy. The starch in the stock acts as a natural thickening agent for the gravy, and saves me from adding cornstarch or flour, and keeps it light. But, since I was using Bouillon cubes, the stock is on the salty side, and this saltiness was transferred to my gravy. Next time I’ll have to make my own unsalted stock. A nifty trick to cure salty sauces is to add a slice of raw potato, and let it soak up all the excess salt in the liquid by osmosis. This would throw my timing off considerably, though, and doesn’t seem like a viable option for the future.

I wish I had taken pictures, but sadly, I did not. If I do make it soon, I’ll update this post with images of my handiwork.

Preparation time 3 hours

Cooking time 2 hours

On the left - Om Ali! On the right - Bread and Butter Pudding!

Ramadan – or as I like to call it: “Radamaddacanman” – is on its way (don’t worry, it takes some time to pronounce correctly). We all know that Ramadan is more about feasting than fasting; and no feast is complete without a rich dessert that sticks to your thighs.

Om Ali is synonymous with richness and a staple of many a Ramadan Fitar table – even though it is readily available at other times of the year. It’s simplest incarnation is toasted Filo pastry pieces, buttered and covered in a spiced milk mixture and baked in a ramekin. Typical toppings include raisins, walnuts and coconut, and some recipes call for cloves or cinnamon in the milk mixture.

The origins of Om Ali have been attributed, in most legends, to Ezz El Din Aybak, the first Mamluk Sultan of Egypt in the mid 13th century. One legend describes how Om Ali was a dish created to celebrate the brutal assassination of Ezz El Din Aybak’s second wife by his first wife. Another legend claims that the Sultan was on a hunting trip, and a peasant woman named Om Ali made him a dessert of leftover bread, sugar and milk as an offering. The sultan liked it, and had the dish permanently named after her.
On the other hand, Food historians have reliably traced back the original bread pudding to the 12th century, as a way for peasants to salvage stale bread. The current incarnation, bread and butter pudding, was developed much later. In the 1845, a cookbook listed one of the earliest known recipes for bread and butter pudding. It was an evolution of the Bread Pudding as the formerly expensive ingredients for the pudding became more affordable and available. Later on, it became a staple of British Christmas dinners.
But the Om Ali Legend I prefer – and the one that makes the most sense – is the one that attributes the creation of the dish to Miss O’Malley, one of Khedive Ismail’s mistresses during the mid 19th Century. She was an Irish woman, and perhaps when she felt amorous, would use stale bread to make her lover a traditional English bread pudding. More likely, however, was that Miss O’Malley cooked a Christmas dinner and served bread and butter pudding during the feast. What’s even more interesting is that Ramadan and Christmas coincided from 1868 till 1870. During this time, Khedive Ismail was in power as Ruler of Egypt, and would have definitely appreciated the introduction of a British Dessert at the Ramadan Fitar Table, in a gesture combining both religious events.
Thankfully, Egyptians back then chose to arabicize her name to “Om Ali” rather than call the dish “Brid Buddin”.
Whatever; both are insanely tasty and rich. The main difference between them is that the Bread and Butter pudding soaks the stale bread in custard; while Om Ali simply uses a spiced milk mixture. The result is that the Om Ali has a thinner consistency than the bread and butter pudding. Whichever you decide to make I can guarantee it will be the perfect denouement to a Protein rich meal.

Om Ali:

You can get prepackaged Om Ali Kits, but you get the best results if you construct this from scratch; the entire preparation time takes less than 10 minutes. For added dimension, I use Sahlab mix to give a rich thick sauce. This particular recipe serves 2 to 3 people.
Dry Ingredients:
•    500gms thawed puff pastry sheets
•    ½ cup chopped pecans
•    ½ cup chopped hazelnuts
•    ½ cup chopped walnuts
•    ¼ Cup white Sugar
•     ½ cup raisins
•     ½ cup flaked coconut

Wet Ingredients:
•    ½ cup Sahlab mix
•    ½ cup Sugar
•    3 cups Milk
•    1 tsp cinnamon

Topping
•    1 TBSP cold butter, cut into small cubes.

Method
1.    Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter a large clay ramekin.
2.    Toast the pastry sheets in the ramekin in the oven until crunchy and golden.
3.    In a bowl, combine walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, raisins, coconut and sugar. Break toasted pastry into pieces and stir into nut mixture. Place at the bottom of the Ramekin.
4.    In a saucepan, prepare the Sahlab mix with the milk and cinnamon, and bring to a boil.
5.    Pour the Sahlab over the dry ingredients. It should just cover the dry ingredients.
6.    Sprinkle the cold butter cubes over the surface of the mixture.
7.    Place dessert in the oven until top is golden brown, about 10 minutes.
8.    Serve hot. Devour.

Bread and Butter Pudding

This is a bit more labor intensive than the Om Ali, but the results are still fantastic. It is typically served with some sort of fruit compote, and in the spirit of Ramadan, I’ve included a recipe for cherry-apricot compote. This serves 4 hungry diners.
For the Bread and Butter pudding.
•    300ml Milk
•    600ml whipping cream
•    1 packet vanilla
•    5 Eggs
•    190g caster/powdered sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
•    4 tbsp raisins
•    12 slices of lightly toasted bread, cut into cubes.
•    250g Butter, melted.

Method
1.    Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Warm the milk and cream with the vanilla in a pan until lukewarm. Whisk the eggs and sugar together in a bowl.
2.    Add the warm milk and cream to the egg and sugar mixture, whisking well. This is very important, because you do not want the eggs to scramble. Set aside until lukewarm.
3.    Put a tablespoon of raisins each into a casserole dish. Then dip the slices of bread into the melted butter and add to the casserole dish.
4.    Pour the cream mixture over the bread; it must be lukewarm not cold when poured to prevent the butter from hardening.
5.    Leave the bread to soak up the cream mixture for about 15 minutes, then add more mixture until the bread is very soft and gooey. Sprinkle over some caster sugar.
6.    Place the casserole dish in a deep roasting tray, pour hot water into the tray around the casserole dish and bake until set, around 25-30 minutes. You can tell the pudding has set by gently shaking the casserole dish – it should “jiggle” like a jelly, but not be too runny. The top should also be golden brown.

Cherry-Apricot compote

This is a great addition to any Ramadan dessert, especially since cherries happen to be in season at the moment. Use this with either of the two desserts, or with cereal for a fantastic sohour option. It can be made a day in advance, and keeps well in the fridge for upto a week.

•    1 1/4 cups sugar
•    1 cup water
•    1 cup unsweetened orange juice
•    2 teaspoons grated orange peel
•    500gms dried apricots, chopped
•    500gms fresh cherries; pitted and halved.

Method
1.    Combine first 4 ingredients in heavy large saucepan.
2.    Stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Bring to boil.
3.    Add apricots and cherries; simmer until fruit is tender, about 5 minutes.
4.    Transfer to bowl. Chill until cold, about 2 hours.
5.    Serve over dessert or get a spoon and enjoy!

Cooking Time – 35 minutes

Add all the Wet mix ingredients into a saucepan over high heat, and bring to a boil.

Remove it from the stove and let it cool down and infuse for about 20 minutes.

Next, in a sauce pan, melt the butter over medium heat and add the flour, whisking it constantly to prevent the flour from clumping.

Crush the Stock cube into the flour and butter mixture, and keep stirring it in. if it starts getting too “dry” add a little bit more butter.

Keep stirring till the color of the dry mix begins to turn a light caramel color, about 5-10 minutes.

Add the wet mix slowly, stirring the whole time.

Keep stirring the sauce over medium heat until it just coats the back of a spoon. Don’t worry if It seems too thin – it thickens as it stands.

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Step Two: Put the Pasta On.

A simple rule of thumb is 1 liter of boiling water and 10 grams of salt (about ¾ TSP) for every 100 grams of pasta. Remember to add the pasta only once the water has come to a boil. Cook it for 7-10 minutes to get “al dente”.

Don’t be shy and test it while it’s cooking to make sure it’s cooked right. Instead of the boring Penne pasta, try mixing it up with some shells or farfelle; it’ll be a very nice surprise for your guests.

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Step Three: Stir and Fry the Garlic Chicken Thigh

Heat your skillet over a high heat. Add olive oil and sliced onions.

Cook the onions until they start turning color, about 2-3 minutes.

Season the chicken with salt and pepper, and add it to the skillet along with the garlic and soy sauce. Stir constantly!

Cook for another 5-7 minutes, until the chicken just start to develop some color on their surface.

Add the chicken stock and turn down the heat to medium-low, and let it simmer until the liquid has reduced by two thirds.

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Step Four: Bring it all together, and bake.

1/3 cup of crushed Bake Rolls.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Add the chicken to the cooked pasta, and mix it well. Add a little of the béchamel sauce as well.

Layer that on the bottom of a casserole dish.

Pour over the remaining Bechamel sauce and sprinkle the crushed bake rolls on top.

Place in the oven for about 10-15 minutes, or until the top is golden brown.

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Devour.