Creamy Potato Bake with Caramelized Onions

This weekend I made the most amazing potato dish for brunch.  It was completely improvised but turned out to taste fabulous - my husband and I gobbled up the whole dish in minutes.

The best part? This creamy dish contains absolutely no cream.  The method I used for my creamless mushroom sauce worked here as well.  I just thickened the milk by adding some flour to it and it tasted just like the real thing!

So if you are looking for an easy side dish to prepare or for something to make for brunch next weekend you don't have to look any further.  Also, you can make this recipe even more exciting by adding more ingredients to it.  The next time I make it I may add some mushrooms.

Egyptian Felafel

Here in Egypt, we call felafel "ta'ameya" and instead of using chickpeas we use split fava beans... It's made and served in so many different ways, but it is always its best when it is FRESH... I hate going into a grocery store or deli and seeing a felafel sandwich or platter that has been sitting there for hours... Felafel is best when it is served the second it is cooked -- it has such a beautiful aroma that to me just screams BREAKFAST. Felafel is truly the perfect breakfast dish -- we have felafel sandwiches for breakfast here all the time... What a wonderful way to start the day.

With just a few ingredients you can make this Middle Eastern dish with little effort at all. Also the paste can be frozen so you can make a lot of it and just defrost it when you want to fry some up.

A healthier cooking option:

Now I know you are going to read the recipe and come to the "frying" part and say wait, isn't your cooking supposed to be "easy, NUTRITIOUS, delicious"? I reaaaaally tried to avoid the frying -- I baked some of them by just brushing each side with a little bit of vegetable oil -- it turned out okay but it lost the nice crispy outer layer that I love and when you bake it for longer to get the crispy edges it gets too dry... The choice is yours but I prefer frying -- you only have to fry it for 2 minutes or so on each side so it doesn't suck up that much oil and the split beans are a GREAT source of protein

Ingredients:
2 pounds split fava beans, soaked overnight
Large handful of fresh parsley leaves
Large handful of fresh coriander leaves
Large handful of fresh dill
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled
1 egg

There isn't really much preparation to do to this recipe (other than soaking the beans in water overnight). Drain the beans and place them along with ALL the above mentioned ingredients in a food processor. Process until it becomes a fine paste.

In a large frying pan, heat up some vegetable oil and take half a handful of the felafel paste and make it into a small ball in your hand. Flatten the top and bottom and place in the hot oil. Repeat until you have made as much felafel as you desire and freeze the rest of the paste.

Fry until the crust hardens and is brown, for about 2 minutes on each side (more or less depending on how hot the oil is). Keep an eye on these as they will burn quickly!

Remove from the oil and allow them to rest on some kitchen paper to absorb excess oil.

Serve HOT. It goes great with tahini paste, hommos, or baba ghanouj. Serve with some pita bread.

Serves 8

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Healthy Anise Biscuits

My grandmother was a fabulous cook -- seriously, she's a legend. My father always recounts all the wonderful meals she used to make and a few days ago was telling us all about her famous anise biscuits (anise is a licorice-like herb that has many health benefits -- we drink anise tea a lot here which is great for digestion problems).

When going through an old cookbook by the fabled Abla Nazeera, another Egyptian cooking star, I stumbled across the recipe and just had to give it a try.

Now I am sure that these biscuits are nowhere near as good as the ones my grandma used to make, but I reaaaaaally liked them. And imagine, a dessert recipe that doesn't call for using oil OR butter -- this one is definitely a keeper :)


Ingredients:

1.1 lbs flour
1.1 lbs powdered sugar
8 eggs
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bakers ammonia
1 tsp dried and ground anise leaves


Preheat your oven to 320 degrees F. Separate the egg yolks and whites into 2 separate bowls. Add the sugar and the bakers ammonia to the egg yolks. Whisk the egg whites extremely well, for about 10 minutes - they will look very "bubbly". Add the flour, baking powder and anise into a third bowl, mixing the three ingredients together. Add the egg whites and the flour bowl to the egg yolk mixture. Mix well until the batter becomes a uniform consistency.


Add the batter to a well greased brownie pan and bake for about 40 minutes or until cooked through. Turn off your oven.Remove the pan from the oven and once the biscuit completely cools, cut it into rectangles (they can be as small or as large as you prefer). Turn your oven back on (set it on low) and put the cut up biscuits back in for about 30 minutes so that they can become a crunchy, yummy texture.


I hope you enjoy this recipe. If you gave it a try let me know what you think :)

Lemon and Yogurt Cake

I initially wanted to make an orange pound cake only to find that we're out of oranges... whoops! :)

I made this lemon and yogurt cake instead and believe me, I have no regrets... its SO GOOD and SO LIGHT...

This recipe is an alteration of one I saw on the Food Network's website:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/lemon-yogurt-cake-recipe/index.html


Ingredients:


1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 cup yogurt
3 eggs
1 1/4 cup of sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup freshly lemon juice
The zest from 3 lemons


Here goes... preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a pan and set it aside.

Next, mix the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. In a second bowl, mix 1 cup sugar, the yogurt, eggs, lemon zest and vanilla. Combine the ingredients of the 2 bowls together and add the oil. Whisk everything together, pour the batter into the pan and 50 minutes later you will have a deeelicious cake in the oven waiting for you.


We're not done yet though, one last step (sorry)... While the cake is baking and you are drooling over the yummy smell that is filling up your home, heat 1/3 cup of fresh lemon juice and 1/4 cup of sugar over the stove until all the sugar has dissolved. When your cake is cooked and out of the oven, pour the liquid over the cake. Okay, now I'm really done :)


Enjoy!


Serves 6

NOTE: November 15, 2008

I just made this cake again this afternoon but I made it without the liquid syrup (final step in above recipe) and I liked it even more that way. Just wanted to let you know so you give it a try first without it and only add the syrup if you feel like you want a sharper taste. Its good both ways though :)