Kung Pao Chicken

Ingredients

For the chicken

• 1 lb chicken breast
• 1 tablespoon wine
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon corn starch

For the Sauce

• 1 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 5 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon constarch

For cooking

• Oil
• 5-6 cloves garlic
• 5-6 green onions
• 1 red pepper
• 1 green pepper
• 2-3 celery sticks
• 1/2 cup roasted cashews
• 1 tsp ginger (fresh or dried)
• salt

Preparation

Cut chicken breast into cubes and marinate in wine, soy sauce, baking soda and corn starch. Cover and keep in the refregirator about 15 minutes.

In the meantime prepare the sauce with all the ingredients

Chop celery, peppers and onions. In a wok or frying pan stirfry all the vegetables about 5 minutes and take them into a bowl.

    Add some more oil to the wok and stirfry chickens in parts couple of minutes. Take all the chicken from the wok, add more oil and stirfty crushed garlic, ginger and add all the chicken and cook another 30 seconds. Add vegetables and sauce to the wok and cook until the sauce is thickened. Enjoy!

Koshari

Koshari is Egypt's national dish. It is an interesting recipe as it includes both pasta and rice. But I enjoyed it very much.

I want to thank my Egyptian friend Hadeer for cooking Koshari for me and sharing her recipe. 

Note: This recipe is for 4 people

 Ingredients

For the rice pilaf

• 3 cups of rice
• 2 cups of green lentil
• 1 tablespoon noodle
• Salt

For the hot Sauce

• 4 tomatoes (preferably soft)
• 1 tablespoon hot pepper paste
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 5-6 cloves of garlic
• Coriander
• Salt
• Black Pepper
• Red pepper
• Cumin

For the Oil

• 1 cup of sunflower oil
• 1 big onion
• 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon starch

Extras

• 1 cup of boiled chickpeas
• 1 pack of Macaroni or any kind of pasta
• 2 tbsp vinegar
• 2 tbsp water
• 5-6 cloves of garlic
• Coriander
• Salt
• Cumin

Preparation

Slice onions very thinly then suck the extra water with a paper towel, add flour and starch and mix them well.

In the mean time put lentils in water for 10 minutes and wash the rice.

Fry onions until they become golden and take out the onions, as you will use this oil for the whole meal.

Put aside the fried oil. Take a big pan to make the rice pilaf. Add some oil from the pan and fry noodles, after they turn into golden add washed rice and lentils. After coking them couple of minutes, add warm water and salt, close the lid and cook in low heat, until it sucks all the water.

In the meantime, boil macaroni and leave it to drain. Also boil chickpeas couple of minutes, so that they get warm.

To prepare the sauce take a small pan and add oil and some crushed garlic and all the spices except salt.

Add tomato and pepper paste and cook couple of more minutes. Peel tomatoes and put them in the food processer. It should be in the liquid form. Add liquid tomatoes to the sauce.

Lastly add some salt and cook the sauce on low heat until it gets thick.

To prepare some extra sauce; mix crushed garlic, salt, coriander, cumin, water and vinegar.

To serve the dish, first put the rice pilaf, then macaroni, hot sauce, chickpeas and fried onions. Serve the extra sauce on the side. Enjoy!

Mutancana

Ingredients

• 200 gr lamb or beef
• 50 gr shallots
• 20 gr almonds
• 20 gr raisins
• 20 gr dried figs
• 20 gr dried apricots
• 20 gr prunes
• 1 tbs butter
• 1 dessert spoon honey
• 2 tbs vinegar
• Water
• Salt
• Oregano
• Sumac to decorate

Preparation

Take a large pan or pot, put the butter into it and heat, then add chopped lamb or beef (the original recipe requires lamb, but I prefer beef), stir fry until the meat changes colour. Then add shallots and cook couple of minutes more. Add lukewarm water and vinegar, cook on low heat about 45 minutes if you use lamb and 1.5 to 2 hours if you use beef.

In the mean time  chop dried fruits and boil almonds. 

Add raisins, prunes, honey and salt to the meat and cook 5 more minutes. 

In a seperate pan stir-fry peeled almonds, dried figs and apricots with some butter couple of minutes. 

Lastly add the almond mix to the meat and sprinkle some oragano and cook 5 more minutes. 

You can serve with rice pilaf. Enjoy!

Power Bars

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup of walnuts
• 1/4 cup of almonds
• 1/4 cup of hazelnuts
• 1/4 cup of raisins
• 1/4 cup of dried mulberries
• 9-10 dried figs
• 9-10 dates
• 1 tblsp chia seeds
• 1 tbsp flax seeds
• 1 tbsp sesamme seeds
• Sea salt (optional)

Preparation

Firstly, put nuts in a blender and crush. Be careful not to make nut butter, couple of minutes is sufficient. Cut fruits in small pieces and add to the blender, blend until you have a dough texture.You can use any type of nuts, fruits and seeds,  I just used what I have at home. Put the dough in a bowl, add seeds and salt and knead. Wrap the dough in a plastic film and roll. You can use prchement paper as well. If you do not cover the dough, it will stick to the roller. 

Bake it in 200 F around 3 hours. You can cut into pieces after or before you bake them.

Enjoy!

Quince with Olive Oil

 Ingredients

• 2 Quinces
• 5-6 small or 1 big potato
• 6-8 shallots
• 2 carrots
• 1 cup of frozen peas
• 3-5 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• lemon juice
• Salt
• Sugar (optional)
• Water
• Dill to decorate

Preparation

Cut quinces in half and keep them in lemon water about 30 minutes. Then boil water, some sugar and the seeds of the quinces in a pot. After it boils put quinces in it and cook until they get soft and change colour. In a pan roast garlic and shallots with olive oil, then add chopped carrots and stir fry couple of minutes. If you have small potatoes, put them whole, if not chop them and add to the pan, lastly add peas and stir fry couple of more minutes. Add salt, lemon juice and 1/2 cup of water. Cook until vegetables get soft. 

Take quinces in a wide pot and add vegetable mix on top of them, add remaining water, cover, and cook about about 10 minutes. Serve with fresh dill. Enjoy!

Buckwheat Soup

Ingredients

For the Soup

• 1 small cauliflower
• 1 small onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1/4 cup any kind of wine (I used Shaoxing)
• 1 tsp thyme (fresh or dry)
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tbsp peanuts (you can also use cashews)
• 1 tsp cayene pepper
• 1/4 cup sour cream (optional)
• 2 cups of any kind of stock
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Black pepper

For the Topping

• 1/4 cup buckwheat
• 1/2 cup finely chopped cauliflower 
• 1/4 cup crushed peanuts
• Lemon juice
• 1 tsp paprika

Preparation

Take a large pan and heat some olive oil in it. Add sliced onions (you can also use shallots) and garlic, bay leaves and thyme. Stir fry until onions get brownish. Then add wine, and bring it to boil.I used rice wine, but you can use any dry white wine. After couple of minutes, add cauliflower (set aside 1/2 cup of it), peanuts, sour cream (you can skip this if you are vegan), cayenne and salt. Close the lid and simmer it until cauliflowers become tender.

Add stock and black pepper, close the lid and simmer it another 20-25 minutes.

 

Then take out bay leaves and blend the soup until it becomes creamy. If it is too thick add more stock and cook it couple of minutes more.

Meanwhile to prepare the topping, take a pan and add some olive oil. Add finely choped cauliflower, buckwheat and crushed walnuts and stir fry it until it gets brown. Add lemon juice and paprika and take from the heat. Serve soup with this topping.Enjoy!

Eggplant Parmesan

Ingredients

For the eggplant

• 4/5 small or 2 big eggplants
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup kadaif or Panko bread crumbs
• 1/3 cup bread crumbs
• 1/3 cup parmesan cheese
• 150 gram grated mozzerella
• 1 ball of fresh mozzerella
• Olive oil

For the sauce

• 3 tomatoes or 1 can of diced tomatoes
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 small onion
• 1 clove of minced garlic
• Fresh basil
• Olive oil
• salt/pepper/cumin/oregano

Preparation

Mix bread crumbs, kadaif and parmesan cheese. Beat eggs and dip sliced eggplants into egg first and then bread crumb mix and layer them on a baking pan and drizzle some olive oil on top. If you do not like the bitter taste of eggplant, you can sprinkle some salt on them and wait couple of hours beforehand.

Bake eggplants around 20 minutes in 400F (200C) preheated oven. I have fried eggplants beforehand, so I only baked them around 10 minutes. 

In the mean time to prepare the sauce; chop onions, tomatoes and fresh basil. In a frying pan stir-fry onions and garlic with olive oil, then add tomatoes and tomato paste with some water and simmer around 15 minutes. Lastly add basil and spices, and cook couple of more minutes. 

Take a glass baking pan and spread some sauce on the bottom, put eggplants on the sauce and put mozzerella slices and sprinkle grated mozzerella. You can use either fresh mozzerella or grated one. I have used both. 

Then put two more layers of eggplant, sauce and cheese depending on the size of your baking pan. Mine was a little bigger, so I did not fill it all to obtain more layers.

Bake in 350 F (175C) preheated oven around 30 minutes. Serve hot. 

Enjoy!