Monday, March 21, 2011

Mafroum - fried stuffed veggies in a spicy tomato sauce

Mafroum is a sephardic dish that originated in Tunisia, it is comforting and filling and goes great with couscous. It is traditionally made with potatoes but I did a combination of potatoes, eggplant, zucchini and a few onions. You can use whatever vegetables you like.






Patties:
1-2 pound ground beef
2 eggs
1 bundle of parsley chopped
Large onion, peeled chopped
salt and pepper
Oil for frying
Matzo meal or breadcrumbs or panko

Coating the patties:
Flour
4 eggs (at least)
1 small tomato paste
Salt and pepper

the rest:
5-6 potatoes
1 large eggplant
1 onion
a few zucchinis

Sauce:
can of tomato paste
celery
salt pepper
oil (from fry pan)
jalapeƱo

Wash and dry the veggies and the slice them into a V...you can slice about 3 cm thick then slice them in down the middle leaving the end attached to form little pockets.

Mix everything under the meat ingredients together and stuff into the vegetables as in the picture above, coat them with flour then dip in the egg tomato paste mixture and fry until golden.

In a large pot make the sauce by mixing all of the ingredients together and let boil. Once that is ready, put the fried vegetables in the pot or in a baking dish with the sauce (covered) and place in the oven for about an hour on 350. Uncover it for the last 20 minutes so it can get golden and then garnish with celery leaves or parsley.

Stuffed Peppers




My friend Shirly came over the other day and made me these amazingly delicious and simple stuffed peppers. It is a simple and hearty meal that takes minutes to make.

What you'll need:

You can use any vegetable you want but I love the red peppers, I also added a couple yellow zucchinis I had in the fridge...

8-10 peppers (top sliced off and cleaned inside)
about 1 1/2 cups of rice
1 1/2 lbs of ground beef
salt
pepper
chicken powder
1 can of tomato paste
some boiling water
parsley for garnish

Clean out the peppers and arrange them in a pot like in the picture. In a separate bowl, mix the rice with the meat and season with salt, pepper and chicken powder (about 1 tbsp). Fill each pepper about 3/4 of the way full and then poke your finger in each one to get all the filling down and leave some room for the rice to expand. In a separate bowl, add about 3/4 of a small can of tomato paste, about 2 cups of boiling water and season.
Pour a few spoons of the mixture into each pepper and the rest slowly around the peppers into the pot. Place in med-high heat and bring to a boil for about 30 minutes. Then put it the oven at 350 degrees for an additional 30 minutes or until golden and broiled. Garnish with parsley and enjoy!

Tuna Tartare and Avocado






Last week I went over to my mom's house and my brother had just whipped up this amazing little appetizer. It was freakin' delicious!

Spicy mayo:
· Mayo
· Siracha
· Sugar
· Ponzu
· Rice vinegar
· Sesame oil

Tuna:
· Soy sauce
· Rice wine vinegar
· Lemon juice
· Wasabi paste
· Grated ginger
· Chives or scallions
· Sesame seeds
· Shallots, diced
· Cucumber, diced
· Serrano pepper, diced

Mix everything all ingredients for the mayo together and all the ingredients for the tuna together, you can serve them in separate serving bowls or you can make a stack like above. To do so just take a plastic cup, cut out the bottom and and use it as a mold for the stack, stuff in the avocado, put some cucumber and then the tuna. Garnish with chives, black sesame seeds, and toasted pita chips.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Jute Plant Soup (Molokhia)

 This soup is made of Jute plant leaves and has tons of health and anti-aging benefits. It's an Egyptian soup and was a staple in Cleopatra's diet. I love greens and I love soup so I knew I had to try this! After reading about 20 recipes I came up with this somewhat simplified version using frozen jute plant and it was delicious! I used both chicken and meat since I couldn't decide, but if you prefer one over the other thats fine too... For a vegetarian version, just use veggie broth and potatoes instead of the meat.
1-2 packs of frozen jute plant 
1 lb of chicken ( I used the legs)
1 lb of beef (cubes or for stew or any other meat you like)
1 tbsp cumin
8 cups of chicken or beef broth (I made my own with the chicken and meat or you can use vegetable broth)
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 tsp chicken powder or one cube
1 cup of chopped cilantro
1 cup of chopped parsley
salt and pepper


Heat a little olive oil in a large pot, add the meat and chicken and let it brown a little. Add the broth and bring to a boil. Let it cook on medium for about 1 hr or until meat is tender, if you don't use meat the cooking time will be less (around 30 minutes for chicken). Next add the jute plant and let the melt in (add more water or broth if the soup is too thick), then add everything else and cook on medium for an additional 40 minutes.
Garnish with herbs and olive oil and serve.