Bad Measurer

Salam!

Bismillah

I'm not very good at this "recipe thing" you guys...

When I cook food (especially things with meat... which I pretty much everything I cook) I don't really write down how much spices and stuff I put in. I just dump stuff until it looks/smells right. I have a lot of food with pictures that I have made, but no recipes to go with them... That makes it really hard to do these blog posts sometimes.

Does it bother you guys when I say "add *these spices* however much you want"? I know if I was cooking from a recipe it would bother me but I want to know what you think. Should I try harder to keep track of how much I'm putting in?

This is how I usually tell if I have enough spices on the meat:

1. can i see the spices? are they evenly distributed over the surface of the meat?

2. does it still smell like meat? (I know this sounds weird, but it works for me) Basically I smell it and if it still smells like raw chicken or raw lamb or raw beef, then I add more spices. Usually I add a little vinegar to the meat and a little olive oil, so if it smells like either one of those I add more spices too.

It isn't very scientific, but it works.

When you guys cook, do you usually measure everything out or do you just eyeball it?

How to Fold Triangle Samboosa

سلام! بسم الله

1. Start with a strip of egg roll or spring roll shell that is about 3 inches by 8 or 9 inches (I am demonstrating with paper, lol)

2. Fold a small triangle at the bottom.


The angle it makes with the side of the sheet should be about 45 degrees :-)
3. Apply a paste of flour and water (makes a glue) to the small triangle


4. Fold the triangle from the left to the right and press the small triangle down to stick it together. This makes a triangle shaped pocket. Fill the pocket with whatever you want (I really love spiced ground beef or cheese) Fillings should be precooked.


5. Fold again, this time from right to left, sealing the pocket


6. At this point you should cut the extra shell off at the tip of the triangle for a neater looking samboosa. Apply more *glue* to the small triangle that is left.


7. Fold small triangle over to the middle of the big triangle


8. Press to seal the samboosa

9. At this point you can choose to freeze the samboosa in an airtight container, or fry up a batch. They will look something like this inshaAllah!!


Enjoy and let me know if you give it a try!

The REAL secret to Shawarma

سلام! بسم الله

So a friend and I have been doing a bit more experimentation with shawarma lately. I thought I knew what was up with shawarma before, but my eyes have been truly opened :-P

NEW tips:
1. Invest in one of those pans with holes that you use over the grill. That way you get the smokey taste on the meat (mmm mmm good).
2. Use half beef and half lamb
3. Marinate it with a little vinegar and spices (cumin, lemon, coriander, salt, pepper, etc). You don't need the yogurt if you use the vinegar :-)
4. Cook it with some of the melted lamb fat so that it doesn't get dry
5. Eat it with turnip pickles (the pink things in the picture below). These usually made with some beet juice or pieces for color, vinegar, and salt water (brine).
6. Follow the cutting instructions on THIS post

My First From Scratch Cake

بسم الله


This is the first cake I ever made from scratch, the first icing I ever made from scratch and the first cake I ever carved!! :-D

The cake is this recipe: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Yellow-Cake-Made-from-Scratch/Detail.aspx Just a normal cake, nothing really special or spectacular. I was just looking for something easy :-)

The icing is this recipe: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Creamy-Chocolate-Frosting/Detail.aspx *Note* you will probably need to add a little more liquid for this recipe to get it the texture you want, but the taste is fantastic!

Since I have never made this stuff before, I didn't use my own recipes.

Lol also you can see my ONE baking dish and my lack of hand mixer or stand mixer. I made the whole cake with a whisk and a fork :-P I am such a college student...
alhamdulillah it works for me though!








I wanted to carve it to look like a big chocolate. *Note* the cake is easier to carve when it is completely cooled (even frozen!) Most people suggest wrapping the cake and leaving it in the freezer over night.



*Note* when you carve a cake, you should include two layers of icing. The first is the crumb coat which catches all those crumbs you loosened by carving it and the second coat is your final top coat (or you can cover with fondant).



It is good to pop it in the fridge for a bit between chocolate coats.



Enjoy!

Pancapes!

بسم الله

Here is my favorite pancake recipe. Almost identical to my grandmothers. Hope you all enjoy!



Ingredients:
1 1/2 c Flour
3 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
1 1/4 c Milk (if your batter is too thick, add more milk, but I wouldn't add more than about 1/8 cup unless you want crepes, lol)
1 Egg
3 tbsp Butter, melted

Method:
1. Mix ingredients
2. Heat griddle or pan with small amount of oil
3. Pour onto griddle the desired amount of pancake
4. Brown the first side until you see bubbles form on the top of the pancake
5. Flip and cook until browned
6. Eat!

I know most Americans like really traditional pancakes with butter and maple syrup, but I challenge you to trade your butter for cream cheese spread and/or your syrup for honey and give it a go.

YUM!

Patty Cake: Lower Calorie

بسم الله

I made a patty cake for my mom's birthday, and I even marked it with a B! lol, but really here is the cake I made for my mom's birthday. Her name starts with a "B".

It is just a regular store bought cake mix because I am lazy, but I decided to cut back on the calories and here is how!

1. Get a white cake mix, not yellow: this requires you to use egg-whites only, so no cholesterol and calories from the fatty yellows
2. substitute 1:1 apple sauce for the vegetable oil

This will give you a lower calorie cake and is SO light and fluffy, almost like angelfood cake.



As for the decoration, I used chocolate frosting and tiny multi-colored ball sprinkles. I used a knife to cut a "B" out of wax paper, which I centered and laid on top of the cake, then poured sprinkles over it.

I removed the wax paper and put more sprinkles around the edges to give it a "cohesive" look (aka to make it look less naked, lol).

The Secret to Fantastic Shwarma

بسم الله

Everyone loves a good shwarma. However, making this delicious food at home can be a bit tricky, as traditionally it is made on huge rotisserie things, slow cooked for hours in its own juices, then thinly slice for proper sandwich consumption.

It took a while, but finally a way has been found to get that perfect thin slice in home-made shwarma. I love you guys so much that I am willing to share it. :-D

DRUM ROLL PLEASE!!!







CUT THE MEAT WHEN IT IS FROZEN, THEN MARINATE!!!!

It is so much easier to get a thing slice when the meat isn't rolling around on you, so get your meat half way to three quarters frozen, then slice away!

I would tell you how I spice it and everything, but I do it differently every time so there would be like... a thousand different shwarmas on here. If I ever get a set recipe I will let you guys know inshaAllah.

Other Tips for Shwarma:
1. marinade with yogurt and spices that you like, in my opinion it helps keep the meat tender and gives a really great flavor
2. if working with chicken, add a little vinegar to your marinade to get ride of that *chicken smell* lol
3. marinade for several hours, don't just spice then throw it on the grill
4. try cooking it in the oven at 350 instead of in a pan or on a grill

Do you all have any shwarma tips?