Qatayef with Ricotta Cream Filling and Poached Apricot.

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apricot, arab pancake, homemade qatayef, middle eastern recipes, poached apricot, qatayef, qatayef filling, qatayef recipe, ramadan sweets, ricotta cream ricotta filling, ricotta recipes, sweet filling, sweet ricotta, sweets, قطايف منزليه, كريمة جبنة الريكوتا, حشوات للقطايف, ريكوتا, طريقة عمل عجينة القطايف

Qatayef is a very popular Ramadan related Middle Eastern sweet.

No Ramadam days pass by without making Qatayef, every household must make Qatayef sweets during ramadan.
As we are in the last day of Ramadan, I will end up Ramadan this year with Qatayef recipe. Tomorrow will begin posting some Eid cookies and sweets recipes.
As many blogs shared their recipe of Qatayef, I have my version too.
Qatayef is Arabs’ Ramadan stuffed pancakes. First, the batter stirred together, it’s very close to pancake recipe, then put into a hand – held funnels and pour the batter in spurts onto a hot griddle.

In Middle East, Qatayef selling stands are spreading on the sides of streets and bakery shops once Ramadan begin. Most houses don’t make Qatayef at home, they buy it ready made patties, but they enjoy making the different fillings for it, from nuts to cheese to cream or Qashta (clotted cream).
Qatayef once filled, can be baked or fried unless you are making Asafiri. Qatayef Asafiri known for it’s smaller size than the regular Qatayef patties, which then filled with Qashta (clotted cream) and eaten with some drizzle of honey on top or some sugar syrup.

Today I’ll share a Ricotta Whey Qatayef with Ricotta Cream filling and Poached apricot. It’s not like the traditional recipe for Qatayef Asafiri, as I used the Ricotta whey to make the dough, then added the Ricotta cheese with table cream to make the cream filling instead of the traditional Qashta filling. For a bonus, I topped the Qatayef with poached apricot.

Qatayef Patties

Ingredients:

• 2 cup white Flour
• 1/2 cup semolina flour
• 1 teaspoon Instant Yeast
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1 Tablespoon Sugar
• 1 1/2 Cups Water

Directions:
1- Mix all dry ingredients together.
2- Slowly add the warm water or whey (if using) and continue mixing. Keep adding water to the mix until it reaches a liquid form that is suitable for pouring.
3- Cover and place the mix in a warm place to allow it to ferment. It took about 20 minutes, but depending on the temperature of your kitchen it might take a bit longer.
4- In a hot skillet, pour about 1/4 cup of the batter and cook on one side only until the top forms bubbles that burst and gets dry.
5- Place the cooked cakes on a clean, dry towel and let cool for 10 minutes before you start filling them.

Ricotta Cream Filling

• Use half of the ricotta from this recipe
• 3 tablespoon honey
• 1 tablespoon orange water blossom
• 1 can Nestle table cream or Qashta

1- In a bowl, add the honey and the orange water to the ricotta cheese.
2- With a blinder, smooth the cheese until it’s soft and creamy.
3- Add the whole can of the table cream, mix together very well.

Poashed Apricot

Ingredient:

• 2 cups castor sugar
• 1 1/4 cup water
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 tablespoon orange blossom water
• 1/2 Lb firm apricots

1- First make the syrup. In a pan, bring water and sugar to boil. Add the cinnamon, lemon juice and orange blossom water. Let simmer all together at low heat.
2- Cut the apricots in half and remove their kernels. Place all in the syrup pan and slowly bring to the boil for 1-2 minutes.
3- Remove from the heat and allow the apricots to cool in their syrup.

To assemble the stuffed Qatayef:

1- take the Qatayef patty, with your finger tips close half of the patty, making space on the other side to put the filling.
2- spoon the ricotta cream filling into each Qatayef patty.
3- top with apricot halves, then sprinkle some apricot syrup on top, and then crushed pistachio for decoration.

طريقة عمل عجينة القطايف

 او عرق الجبنه من وصفة الريكوتا الموجوده هنا 1 1/2 كأس ماء
ربع كأس سكر
1/2 كأس سميد
2كأس دقيق
1 ملعقة صغيرة بيكنج باودر
1 ملعقه صغيره

طريقة عمل القطايف العصافيري:

– توضع جميع مقادير العجينة في الخلاط وتخلط جيدا ثم تترك لمدة نصف ساعة.
– يسخن صاج على نار متوسطة ثم تصب العجينة على شكل دوائر صغيرة وتترك
حتى تتحمر ( على وجه واحد من الأسفل ) .
– تحشى القطايف بالقشطة وتغلق بالضغط عليها مع أبقائها مفتوحة من أعلى.
– ترش بالفستق ويصب عليها العسل أو الشيرة وتقدم مع القهوة

لعمل حشوة كريمة الريكوتا
1/2 مقدار جبنة الريكوتا من هذه الوصفه هنا
3 ملاعق كبيره عسل
1 ملعقه كبيره ماء الزهر
علبة واحده من نستله كريم او قشطه
باستعمال الخلاط نطحن الجبنه بعد اضافة العسل والماء الزهر عليها حتى تصبح طريه وكريميه ثم نضيف القشطه ونخلطها جيدا

لعمل كمبوت المشمش
2 كوب سكر
1 كوب ماء
عود قرفه
1 ملعقه كبيره ماء زهر
ملعقه صغيره عصير ليمون
1/2 باوند مشمش
اولا نعمل قطر باضافة السكر والماء ونتركه يغلي زنضيف له القرفه وماء الزهر والليمون
نتركه يغلي على نار هادئه
نقطع المشمش انصاف وضيفها الى القطر نتركه يغلى بهدوء على نار خفيفه لدقيقتين تم نتركه بالقطر حتى يبرد تماما

لعمل القطايف العصافيري المحشيه بكريمة الريكوتا والمشمش المحلى

نقفل نصف القطايف نحشيه بملعقه صغيره من الكريمه ونصف حبه من المشمش على وجهه نزينه بالفستق وبعض القطر من المشمش المحلى

Seafood Rice Pilaf Phyllo Pies

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carrots, crab legs, dill leaves, How to, light lunch, main dish, middle eastern, middle eastern recipes, Oozi, ouzi, peas, Phyllo pastry, phyllo pies, pilaf, puff pastry rice pies, rice dish, rice filled phyllo, seafood, shrimp, vegetarian, اوزي, اوزي بالربيان

How to make individual rice pilaf pies that are tasty, elegant, and very easy to prepare. These also make a perfect light meal, accompanied by a salad or yogurt.

Did you hear about Ouzi?
No!
Not a problem then, I will help you.
It is a term you’ll never hear it except in middle eastern cuisine. This might be called for the mixer of rice, vegetable, and ground meat pilaf, or sometimes for the phyllo pocket or pies that filled with rice pilaf. The traditional recipe using the ground lamb or beef. In this recipe, I tried to go over and change a little by substituting the shrimp and crab instead, you can also prepare it with chicken or turkey too.

Usually rice dishes considered as a side dish, but this one is a whole main dish. My family enjoy it with some chopped fresh salad or yogurt on the side.

I love the ease on this dish, either when preparing or serving, never the less to say about the healthy side. You can make the rice a head of time, you just need to assemble the phyllo pies and bake them a little before serving to better enjoy the crunchy fresh phyllo. Some said it’s ok to put it in the fridge after baking then bake it again before serving but I never tried that.
For extra flavor, I added some chopped fresh dill with the rice pilaf, it goes well with the seafood dishes.

Variations:

– Traditionally, using short grain rice to make the pies, but works good too with long rice grain like basmatti rice.

– You can use vegetables any of your choice or favorite. Usually with this pies, carrots and peas with pine nuts or almond are widely preferred, I added also some chopped bill pepper to add value and color too.

– Use any kind of meat you like, I used fresh large shrimp and king crab legs. The traditional Ouzi pies prepared with ground meat, beef or lamp. Chicken also makes a good choice.

– The pies can be prepared using puff pastry too.

– If you want the pilaf alone but not to bother with the pastry crust, press the pilaf in a ring or dome-shaped mold and heat it through in the oven, turn it out and surround it with the meat and vegetables.

To make Seafood Rice Pilaf:

2 cups white basmatti rice, washed
1 cube chicken bouillon broth
1 lb fresh shrimp, any size available
1/2 lb chopped fresh crab legs
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 cup peas
1 cup carrots, chopped
1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
Salt and pepper
Olive oil & sunflower oil
1/2 teaspoon ground of each: all spice, cardamom, coriander
1 cube frozen chopped dill greens

In a large pot, add 2 tablespoon sunflower oil, add the washed rice, season with salt and cardamom, toast a little on medium heat for 1-2 min, stir occasionally. Add water (for every cup of rice you need 1 1/4 cup water or stock, notice that this will vary from brand to brand so read the directions). Let the water boil, cover and simmer on low heat until all the water absorbed and the rice cooked evenly, about 10-15 min, fluff the rice with fork and put a side covered.

Meanwhile, in saute pan, add some olive oil, cleaned and chopped shrimp (you have the choice to use any size, if it large chop into smaller pieces). Clean the crab legs, take out the meat, chop into smaller pieces, add it with minced garlic to the pan, season with salt and pepper, add the other spices, stir and cook all together on medium heat for 5-10 min. Leave it a side.

In a pot, add 1 tablespoon olive oil, sauté the carrots and peas then add chopped red pepper and cook for 5-10 min on medium heat, you may add a couple of tablespoon of water to help the veggies cook without burning.

Add together, the rice, the shrimp and crab, the peas and carrots. for extra flavor add some frozen dill leaves. Stir gently all together and be careful not to break the rice grains.

To make the individual pies:

1 package frozen phyllo pastry
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 tablespoon sunflower oil

Assemble the pies not too long before the serving. Roll out the phyllo pastry, follow the directions on how to thaw and handle. Cut into squares about 6-7 inches, it depends on how big or small you prefers the pies. Take two sheets, brush with a mixer of butter and oil, take another two and brush with butter and oil too, overlap each ones’ angle, use a small bowl dish as a mold to assemble your pies, fill with the rice pilaf mixer. Fold the edges of phyllo over the rice to close the pies. Arrange the pies into oven baking sheet, brush the top with oil butter mixer, bake 5-10 min on 400 degree.

Easy and Nutritious Homemade Yogurt

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authentic recipes, breakfast, Dairy products, Homemade yogurt, How to, laban recipes, middle eastern recipes, step by step, Yoghurt, Yogurt, yogurt recipes, Yogurt starter, اللبن, عمل اللبن بالمنزل

Yogurt or Yoghurt, or Laban (arabic name mostly known in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine), or may be Zabadi (Egyptian version) is all refers to what is called the “Wonder Food”.

Yogurt, for long time ago, has formed an essential part in the diet of most middle eastern household. Making yogurt from scratch is regular activity and tradition, and until todays, even if it is easy to find at stores.

Yogurt simply is fermented milk which varies in taste, texture, and appearance depending on the specific bacterial culture used in fermenting, and the type of milk used. That’s why it considered naturally sour.

Making Yogurt

Making yogurt from scratch is easy and economic, only two ingredients are needed to make yogurt: milk and starter (yogurt culture)

Starter –Yogurt from previous homemade batch can be used as starter, it must have the active bacteria known as Lactobacillus acidophilus (some store type yogurt doesn’t have the active culture, it made by adding gelatin and starch as thickening agent, so try to avoid these type when choosing the starter to make yogurt).

Milk–Yogurt can be made with any animal milk (cow, goat, sheep), and nowadays there is the none dairy product milk that is using the soy milk to make the yogurt.

The cow’s milk is the most commonly used to make yogurt, it’s considered medium in thickness and flavor according to the other types of milk, also cows milk yogurt can be made with any level of fat content–whole, 2%, 1% or skim. Whole milk will always yield a better overall taste (richer) and texture (thicker) than lower fat versions.

In middle east, the sheep milk is widely used, it’s considered more sweet than cow’s milk, it is more thicker because the fat content is higher and more nutritious as Vitamins A, E, D, and K are found in milk fat.

The goat milk is the less in thickness and flavor than cows milk, more soar too, it has more water content compared to fat and protein.

temperature – The process of making yogurt require a suitable certain temp between 110-120 f for the milk to activate the bacteria and set it to work, also maintain the same warm temp for the whole incubation period to help ferment the milk.

Incubation Methods – Yogurt need between 8-10 hours to ferment in warm temp, this process called incubation. There are many methods that can be used to achieve the constant warm incubation temp that insure a thick yogurt:

I normally use the oven to incubate my yogurt, after adding the starter wrap the bowl with clean cloth and put it in the oven, preheat the oven to 5 min and then turned it off and let the starter do the magic. To keep the yogurt in constant warm temp I turn the light of the oven on and preheat the oven every 3-4 hours and turn it off.

It is very important too to keep the yogurt from any disturbing during the process.

Sometimes I use a cooler filled with warm water to incubate the yogurt especially if making the yogurt over night, the cooler will keep the water temp suitable enough to keep the yogurt warm to ferment.

Other methods found over the net is by using:
A food dehydrator
A crock pot
A heating pad

Health and Nutrition:

Yogurt is more nutritious than milk, a cup of yogurt a day keeps the digestive system healthy as it is utilized by the body as twice as fast as milk. No wonder it is called a natural antibiotic.

Yogurt is an excellent source of:
Probiotics (great for digestion and immunity)
Protein (content varies from batch to batch)
Calcium, phosphorus, potassium, and magnesium (great for bone and teeth strength and overall health)
vitamins A, B, D, and E (for skin health)

Uses  

In middle eastern cuisine, yogurt is used in everything from appetizers to salads to drinks. It’s customary to place on the table a bowl of fresh yogurt. It’s eaten on it’s own or spoon it over salads  like Roasted Eggplant with Pomegranate and Yogurt or dishes of cooked vegetables or grains, mixed with herbs to make thick sauces like Mint and Cucumber Yogurt Dip.
Cooked yogurt is very well known as many dishes use it as cooking liquid or sauce like Cauliflower and Beef stew with Yogurt Sauce.
It’s also used to make the yogurt cheese, a middle eastern well known thickened yogurt dip, and yogurt cheese balls (the recipe comming later).

I love the way my yogurt always turned out! Nice thick and creamy, smooth, sweet and tangy. It’s really magic.

I used whole milk, and add some cream for more fat content, heated it and brought it to about 115 f, added my starter yogurt (usually Dannon-plain) wraped it with towel and put it in preheated oven then turned it off with the light turned on. Every 2-3 hours reheated the oven for 5 min and turned it off.

Let the yogurt set and incubate from 8-10 hours depends how sour you like the yogurt, also long incubation make yogurt more thick texture and more sour. Then put in refregerator to cool and set.

Always save some yogurt as it can be used as the starter for your next batch.

Homemade Yogurt:

1/2 gallon whole milk
1/4 cup fresh cream (liquid whipping cream)
1/3 cup yogurt starter
Dash of salt

Place milk in heavy saucepan (not aluminum) over medium heat. Bring to about 120 f, being careful not to let milk scorch (no need to stir).

Remove from heat and let cool until lukewarm. Milk is ready if you can count to ten comfortably when you immerse your little finger into the milk, about 110-115 f.

If milk is too cool return to heat and warm slightly, if too hot leave aside for a while longer to cool down. Blend yogurt starter with some warm milk, add it to the rest of warm milk, stir well.

Yogurt mixer may be left in the same pot to set. Cover with lid and a blanket. Place in a spot where mixture will not be disturbed for 8-10 hours, or until set.

Place in refrigerator to cool, taste will vary according to age of starter.

Roasted Chicken with Vegetable & Jeweled Rice

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Chicken, jeweled rice, middle eastern recipes, oven recipes, oven roasted chicken, Raisin, rice, roasted chicken, spice rub

For festive dinners I like to roast a whole chicken, with little trouble they become an impressive entree.

There are many recipes for the roasted chicken that is so good as this recipe. What makes this recipe unique is the middle eastern way on roasting the bird. Using a blend of spice seasoning mix that is massaged on the outside of the chicken, makes even the most finicky eaters being enthusiastic about the chicken’s intense, appetizing aroma, succulent meat, and beautifully browned skin.

A whole meal in one dish, with the addition of the vegetables that surrounds the chicken and has the whole flavors. Plus, to make it an easy to make recipe, by using the oven bag, just you need to wipe the inside of the bag with oil then flour to make sure the chicken skin will not stick with the bag.

The rice pilaf is one of the classics that you find in all middle east countries, it goes particularly well as an accompaniment with roasted chicken and it also often forms a stuffing for the bird.

Roast Chicken

2 whole game hen (1 1/2- 2 pounds), rinsed and patted dry
Salt and ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon of each of cardamom, dried coriander, turmeric, whole spice, cumin, and paprika
fresh thyme leaves
2 medium onions, cut quarters or smaller
3 medium carrots, cut into 3-inch lengths
3 medium red potatoes, cut quarters
1 table spoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Clean the chicken then pat dry with kitchen wipes.

Mix the salt and pepper with the other spices. Season chicken inside and out with spice mix, pour some olive oil and massage the chicken. make sure to reach under the skin so the chicken will absorb and have all the flavor and aroma of the spices.

Place the chicken in the oven bag in a roasting pan.

In a large bowl, toss onions, carrots, and potatoes with oil; season with salt and pepper.

Scatter vegetables around chicken, arranging it at the edge and underneath. close the bag and tuck the knot underneath, make a small slut in the bag.

Put the pan in the oven with 450 degree for 20 minutes then lower the temperature to 400 for another 40 minutes until chicken is golden brown and juices run clear when pierced between breast and leg (an instant-read thermometer inserted in thickest part of a thigh, avoiding bone, should read 165 degrees).

Jeweled Rice

2 cups basmati rice, rinsed
Cinnamon stick, bay leaves
1/3 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/3 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
Salt & pepper
about 2 3/4 cup hot water
4 tablespoon canola oil
1 medium onion, peeled, thinly sliced
1/2 teaspoon sumac, for the onion
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1/2 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup dried of each black cherries, cranberries
Olive oil

In a bowl, soak the raisins, cranberries, and black cherried in hot boiling water. set aside while you make the rice.

In a large pot, heat 2 tablespoon canola oil, add the bay leafs, cinnamon, and the washed and drained rice.

Add the ground cardamom, the coriander, the turmeric, salt and pepper. Toast for 1 min under low heat with stirring occasionally.

Add the boiling water and magi chicken broth cubes. Bring it to boil. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Lower the heat, cover, and simmer for about 10-15 minutes or until the rice grains expand in length. Don’t open the lid before the rice is done cooking.

Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet, sauté onions until golden brown, add turmeric and sumac, stir and put on a seive or kitchen papper to get rid of the eccess oil.

In the same skillet, add raisins, cranberries and black cherries, toast a little until the raisins puffed, transfer immediatly to kitchen papper to soak the eccess oil.

Finally, with the same skillet, add the pine nuts and toast until gold in color, add some oil if it needed.

Add 3/4 of the amount of onions, raisins, cherries, and nuts to the rice. Save the rest to add it to the top while serving. Stir gently with large spatula, make sure not to break the rice grains.

To serve, mound rice on a serving platter. Garnish with the browned onion, toasted raisins, cherries, cranberries, and pine nuts. Serve warm. Jeweled rice may be served with salad and yogurt.