STUFFED ARTICHOKE HEARTS

Usually eaten with rice to make a very nutricious meal.

Ingredients

10 artichoke hearts

400gm of minced chicken/meat/fish

2 medium grated onions

6 cloves of garlic

pinch of ginger

pinch of salt/black pepper

chicken stock

2 tablespoons of lemon juice

pinch of sugar

Method

Add the grated onions to the mince, together with all the ingredients and mix well. Stuff the mixture into the artichoke. Dip the artichoke, stuffing side down, into a mixture of flour, egg and breadcrumbs, and fry only the latter part of the artichoke until brown.

Place in a saucepan, add water, garlic, chicken stock, salt and black pepper to taste and cook for around 45 minutes. Add lemon juice and sugar and cook for a further 5 minutes.

TCHATERNY

Something a little different, the onions take a little while to fry, but it is very worth it. You will see!

Ingredients

2 Kilos chopped onions

2 or 3 tablespoons of curry powder (if too much use teaspoons)

100g of tomato puree

1/4 teaspoon of ginger

1/2 teaspoon of coriander

1/2 half teaspoon of 'all spice'

3 tablespoons of lemon juice or white vinegar

pinch salt /black pepper

pinch sugar

Chicken/meat/fish pieces to suit

Method

Fry the onions until brown, but be patient and enjoy. Add the meat/chicken/fish together with the spices, mix together and cook until done. Add the tomato puree, lemon juice, sugar, and cook for another 10 minutes or so.

Add to a bed of rice or potatoes, add vegetables to taste, and bingo!

FISH AND VEGETABLE CUTLETS

Similar to the Arook but very tasty in its own right

Ingredients

2 finely chopped red peppers (or orange or yellow or..)

4 chopped tomatoes

Chopped bunch of spring onions

Pinch of salt/black pepper

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon of cumin

minced fish to choice

flour and water

Method

Add all the ingredients together and mix well. Add flour and water to firm the mixture, just enough to shape into cutlets which you should then fry on both sides until brown.

This can then be served with rice or potatoes or vegetables to suit your taste.

AROOK - Fish and Rice Cutlets

This is such a lovely tasty dish, my mouth waters when I think about it. The only problem with it is the tendency to eat too much. This is just a simple dish, but ......

Ingredients

1 kilo of minced, fatty white fish eg cod

2 cups of rice

3 chopped spring onions

1 teaspoon of dried coriander

1 and 1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice

pinch of salt and black pepper

pinch of sugar

Method

Soak the rice in water for an hour. Mix the other ingredients together, and then add the rice when ready and mix everything together well. Leave in the fridge for 1 to 2 hours.

Boil water with a little salt. Make flat pancakes from the rice/fish mixture (or round ones or whatever shape you choose), add to the boiled water, and cook for around 20 minutes or so until the rice is cooked.

Remove the cutlets and place on a kitchen towel or towels to allow the water to drain away. Then fry the cutlets on high heat until brown on both sides, and then you can fight over who gets the first one

KEBAB

This is a very simple dish but this is how we make it:

Ingredients

half kilo of mincemeat or chicken

2 medium onions

1 bunch of coriander

1 teaspoon of cumin or zeera

pinch of salt and pepper

pinch of turmeric

Grate the onions, and add the remaining ingredients. Mix well until pliable and form the mixture into shapes of say 3 inches by 1 inch, like little fingers. Place under grill until browned and then serve with whatever else you have prepared.

KOOBA GEZER - Cutlets and Carrots

This is a complicated dish to describe, perhaps longer than it takes to cook, but it is really tasty and so worthwhile. There are three parts to the recipe namely the cutlet, the stuffing for the cutlet, and then the carrots

Part 1 The Cutlet

Ingredients

2 cups of semolina

2 tablespoons of oil

1 tablespoon of chicken stock

quarter teaspoon black pepper

water as needed

Mix all the ingredients together and add water until the dough is not 'sticky'. Leave for half an hour and if the mixture is hard add a little water and oil. Make small balls from the dough mixture and leave for 5 minutes.

Part 2 The Stuffing

Ingredients

three quarter of a kilo of mince meat or chicken

2 medium onions

1 bunch of coriander

half teaspoon of black pepper

half teaspoon of turmeric

quarter teaspoon of 'all spice'

Chop or grate the onions, and add together all the remaining ingredients. Mix well until the stuffing is pliable. Take the balls of dough and insert the stuffing into the middle of the balls, sealing the balls so that the stuffing is covered by the dough. If the dough or pastry is sticky then just wet your fingers.

Part 3 the Carrots

Ingredients

2 kilos of peeled and sliced carrots

Oil

pinch black pepper and salt

1 tablespoon of chicken stock

Fry the carrots in the oil for 5 minutes, then add water to cover and also the remaining ingredients. Cook on low heat until the carrots are fully cooked. Take out half the carrots and place in a dish for a moment, add the cutlets to the pan over the remaining carrots, and then put back the remaining carrots to cover the cutlets. Add a little water, lemon juice and 1 teaspoon of sugar and cook on a low heat for half an hour until the cutlets are cooked.

This is a really tasty dish and I hope you enjoy it.

TSHORBA - Thick Rice Soup

Tshorba is an easy light meal which can be eaten as described or with other vegetables or as part of a wider menu.

Ingredients

1 cup rice

chicken wing or neck or similar

100 grams tomato puree

pinch salt and pepper

1 teaspoon of 'all spice'

half teaspoon turmeric

1 or 2 courgettes

1 large onion

3 tablespoons of chicken stock

Procedure

Cut/slice onions and fry in a medium saucepan. Grate the courgettes with a wide grater, and add to the onions together with all the remaining ingredients. Add say 3 cups of water and bring to boil. Simmer on a low heat for say 2 hours. Add water if necessary to create the right texture for you. Some like it thick and others might prefer a more fluid 'soup'.

Add other vegetables to your taste, but it is quickly made, and requires little of your time.

Try it!

Chicken Soup

Chicken soup is a traditional Jewish soup, very often served on Sabbath evenings, but any time a nourishing or restorative food is required. If you are feeling a bit tired, a little below par, have a cold or flu, then chicken soup is invariably the solution.

Ingredients are as follows, and as always you will find the quantities that suit you best:

Cleaned chicken wing, or giblet, or simply a carcass left over from a previous meal

1 sliced medium sized onion

2/3 chopped carrots

1/2 chopped leaks

Celery leaves

Salt and pepper to suit

Method, couldn't be simpler:

Place the chicken well covered in a saucepan with cold water, add salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Add the vegetables and allow to simmer for an hour or so, skimming the white residue off the surface of the soup every now and then, to ensure the soup remains clear.

Remove the chicken from the pan, leaving in the soup pieces of the cooked meat if preferred, and allow to simmer. Add salt and pepper to taste if necessary and simmer until the vegetables are fully cooked.

Traditionally people will also have 'lockshen' with the soup, usually vermicelli. This is not eaten like spaghetti in volume, so select less to cook, but cook in the same way. When the 'lockshen' is ready, sieve to remove the water and serve small amounts in soup plates. Add the wonderful and richly flavoured chicken soup and enjoy. Seconds are always permitted and always available!

Felafel

The one recipe that I myself have inherited from my mother, who in turn learned from her mother, Flora, is felafel, Middle Eastern fast food. Now it turns out that there are many kinds of felafel, so don't tell me if you know felafel in a different form. And, as always, the measures are a little bit arbitrary. As my grandmother always used to say when asked how much of an ingredient was needed, "as much as it requires!"

Chick peas (1 lb of dry chick peas for 100 felafel)
Bread (5 slices per 1lb of chick peas)
Salt
Garlic
Cumin (lots and lots)

Soak the chick peas overnight, and mince together with the bread. Add some water if needed to ensure the mixture has a doughy consistency, but not too dry. Add some salt, garlic and cumin (lots and lots, as above), and mix. You can keep this in the fridge for up to a day, but you'll always need to add more spices before cooking.

Heat the oil (vegetable or sunflower) until it's hot enough, form little balls out of the mixture, and then fry. Ideally, the balls should be about an inch in diameter, so that they cook well.  The temperature of the oil also needs to be monitored by the time taken to cook - too long and they soak up oil, too short and they go crispy or burnt without cooking the inside.

When the felafel turns golden brown, take out of the oil, drain, and serve immediately with good pitta, salad (finely diced cucumbers and tomatoes), cucumbers pickled in brine (in the Middle Eastern style; I cut into spears so they can be easily inserted down the sides of the pitta) and, most importantly, tahina (or tahini as typically labelled here in the UK).

And Bob's your uncle.

This is just to get things going. Hopefully, my mother will take over from now, and correct any mistakes in this.
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15 February 2011
Carme tried this with her new felafel maker and got this. Wonderful!