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.

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A Brief Look at Stillwater Farmers Market and The Luffa Stew

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eggplant, farmers market, healthy, kabsa, luffa, middle eastern, rice dish, seafood, stew, Vegetables, vegetarian, zucchini

My favourite things to do while visiting our friends in Oklahoma, is to come around their local farmers market with my friend Raeda.
Located in a small town of Stillwater; ” OSU Home Town “.Hey, Where’s the fans…? Stillwater, where my husband spent about 12 years of his college life, also I have plenty of happy memories every time I visited this charming, beautiful, and quiet little town.

The Sunflowers, part of the market, bread and cheese section.

I admit it, I’m madly in love with their farmers market, as much as it reminded me with our middle eastern markets and streets venders.
Well, actually, we have plenty of farmer markets in Wichita, but they don’t have that variety of produces like the Stillwater’ farmers have.
A lot of farmers bring their produce and goodies to share it with the locals, all with tremendous variety of vegetables I always adore to look for and actually not available in grocery stores near us, those kinds were used to find it all the yearlong in Middle eastern ‘ markets.

The bakery section in the market have the fresh bread loaf, the cheese woman makes the cheese fresh and yummy.

Different kinds of winter and summer zucchini and squash.

I’m always looking for the Ishtar Squash, it’s similar to Zucchini Squash, only sweeter. Plenty of vegetable you can see in the market; the small eggplants, small Okra, Jews Mallow (Molokhia), the small fresh cucumber, the Fava beans, the long beans (Lubia), even sometime figs which is hard to find it here with the cold weather in kansas.

The snaky snake gourd, the long beans, the luffa, and the bottle gourd

Plus you can find some strange vegetables like the snake gourd (it’s an asian vegetables, it’s really seems like a snake shape, used also in crafting and it’s the same one that used for scrubing in bath, or the one they making sandals but this when the plant get too much big), it’s my first time I see like this vegetable or even know a bout it. The bottle gourd, or even some shapes of bowl zucchini squash, the luffa (also known as okra squash, it looks like the okra but in bigger shape)and plenty of winter squash and summer squash.
the indian section also have the Naan bread and Gollab Jamon and different kinds of chutney and stews.

The herb section, some kinds of pepper, the indian section, the luffa and the stew.

My friend ‘ daughter. Don’t you think the Bumpkin looks bigger…???
Well, it’s for $36. I mean the bumpkin.
Our lovely farmer;Rita and her husband, she always know what kind of vege we like and grow them, she even knows the sizes we wants.

Among the various kinds of produces, there was always a chance to try some of the farmers adorable recipes from their fresh produce and some cooking tips.

For my today recipe, some winter vegetable stew where the luffa is the star and the rice added to complete the meal, the recipe (not completely) from the farmer we met in the market, she offered to me and my friend a plate to try the luffa stew, and mentioned some of the ingredients and tips on how to cook it, with promises that the complete recipe will be on Stillwater newspaper in a couple of weeks may be, but who wants to wait, not me…

so I took some luffa to try it at home, I added the flavors according to my taste bud, that was almost nearly to the one I tasted at the market, but I didn’t add rice to it, the one we tasted at the market, there was a delicious after taste, we figured that it might be the soya sauce so I add some plus some teriyaki sauce which adds a depth to the final taste, I could not imagine how good and delicious that was. Plus don’t forgot how healthy it is with these fresh vegetables and plenty of fibers, that make it a very good vegetarian dish.

Luffa and Winter Vegetable Stew

1\2 cup chopped onions finely chopped
2-3 gloves of garlic minced
1 small green zucchini
1 small eggplants chopped
1 snake gourd
3 luffa squash, trimed, cleaned, and chopped
1 yellow or orange sweet bell pepper
1 cup chopped fresh mushroom, shiitake is preferable
3 Roma tomatoes chopped fine
1\2 cup chicken or vegetable stock
salt and pepper
2 tablespoon soya sauce
1 tablespoon teriyaki sauce

Start with chopping the vegetables, peel the edges that apear on the side of luffa.
In a small sauce pan, add 3 tablespoon oil, the chopped onion and the garlic, sauté and stir in the vegetables one by one, stir after each add, add the salt and pepper, the stock and the soya and teriyaki sauce, stir and cover the pan and let the vegetable cook on medium low heat until tender and cooked.

Serve it either with rice on the side or some your favourite bread.

________________________________________________________

As for a bonus recipe, I asked my friend Raeda to share her delicious recipe of seafood kabsa, (the one she cooked for us while visiting her), and she was very welcome. Wishing her God’ blessings and her family. By the way she’s a good cooker, I really feel my self eating from five-star chef.Thank sister for the good times we always spent in your home.

Seafood kabsa with Herbed Baked Fish

It’s a well-known middle eastern rice dish, where the spices is the star in it.
sauté a 1\2 cup chopped onion with 2-3 tablespoon olive oil.

In the food processor, chop 6-7 garlic cloves and 1 cup fresh cilantro leaves,add it to the onion keep stirring. Add about 4-5 chopped fresh Roma tomato, stir, then add a small pieces of tilapia fish (cubes cutted), shrimp, crab legs, or any kind of fish you like.

Add all the spices that you could imagine( that’s what she’s doing, and dam, it’s so delicious) salt and pepper, cardamom,cumin and coriander, special kabsa spices (you can find it at any Pakistani or Middle Eastern grocery store), dried basil and oregano. Stir in the rice (she used uncle pins, but you can use also basmatti rice or any long grain rice), soak some saffron thread in water and add it, add water or chicken stock, cover and let it cook on low heat until the rice fluffy tender and cooked.

Sprinkle some toasted pine nuts or slices silvered almond and fresh chopped parsely on top.

Serve with fresh middle eastern vegetable salad.

For the fish, season with lemon and spices, cumin, dried coriander, pepper,and salt, fresh chopped cillantro and garlic paste, let soak for at least an hour, put in the preheated oven for 1\2 an hour at 400 f.

Roasted Tomato with Pepper & Garlic

Tags

Appetizer & Sides, barbecued tomato sauce, middle eastern, side dish, tomato, vegetarian

One of the famous middle eastern barbecue dip. A side dish served usually with meat, chicken or fish barbecue, kebab and kofta, it can be served hot or cold.
Very delicious, especially with plenty of olive oil, it combines the sweet taste from barbecuing the tomato and the sour taste, with the distinguished flavour of herbs like parsley and garlic. Serve with pita bread.
Can be cooked in the oven or stove top, but on the grill it give it very rich flavour.

Roasted Tomato with Pepper & Garlic

4 large fresh tomatoes
1 green pepper slightly hot
4-5 garlic cloves
1\2 cup minced parsley
salt black pepper
dash of cinnamon
olive oil

Clean the tomato cut it into big pieces, along with some garlic cloves minced, and the chopped parsley and cutted green pepper. if you like the heat you can use any kind of hot pepper, dash of black pepper, salt.

Cover with aluminum foil and put it on the grill, make sure the pot is heat resistant and high sided, put the grill  and cook it on medium low heat for a bout 20-30 min, check for it, add olive oil , more salt if needed, press the tomato with the fork to break it into small pieces, mix  and serve with plenty of pita ships.

Mujadara is all about: Lentil, Rice and Onion

Tags

easy dish, fast prepared dish, legumes, lentil, main dish, middle eastern, mujadara, rice dish, vegetarian

At first, I have some picture of our last vacation trip to Colorado, it’s my pleasure to share with you for now, until I write the whole trip report in a separate post later, here is some to enjoy the scenes.

The scene of the suspended bridge from the highest point in the region.

Rated as the world’s scariest ride ever near the edge of the mountains at royal gorge region in Colorado spring, Colorado.

The bridge and the cable car while riding The Royal Gorge Railway.

This is our second time to Colorado, this time we spend it in Colorado spring region most of the time, the fascinating canyon city (where the highest suspended bridge, along the Arkansas river) Colorado spring is a place that’s more than just another destination; it’s the experience of a lifetime.

Here is me, my beloved husband and my three little cowboys at Garden of Gods.
Hope you enjoyed those pictures, and be ready for the rest.

But for now, let’s talk about my very favourite dish ever.

Mujadara is a very popular middle eastern dish. Will known in levant countries of Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and egypt as a poor man’s dish,  but it’s also a very nutritious vegetarian meal especially if served with fresh vegetable salad.

Very light, easy and fast preparing, for me, it’s the rescuer dish, since I sometimes have no interest in preparing anything, then think of mujadara as it’s the fast and all of my family love it. My husband’s work mates first time tried it, they asked for the recipe, my husband told them it’s the famous Palestinian’s noodles version.

Mujadara

1 cup brown lentil
1 1\4  cup basmati rice
2 onions sliced
olive oil
1\2 teaspoon cumin
1\4 teaspoon ground all spice
1\2 teaspoon sumac
1\4 teaspoon ground coriander
1\4 teaspoon Turmeric (for the yelow color)
salt and pepper

wash the lentils thins cover it with water and bring it to boil, let it cook covered on medium low heat until nearly tender, about 10 min.
At this time, in another pot sauté the onions with 3-4 tablespoon olive oil, add dash of each of the spice, sizzle the onions until nearly brownish but still crispy.
To the cooked lentils, add the washed rice, 2 tablespoon of the sautéed onion, 2 tablespoon olive oil, all the spices, 1&2\3 cup hot water or stock (I used chicken stock), bring it to boil, cover and continue to cook in very low heat until the rice fully cooked about 10 min.
Serve it with the sautéed onions on top, with a side of fresh vegetable salad, or cucumber and yogurt dip
Enjoy.