Failure cake! (06/08/2010 – Friday morning)

Our daughter is generally a very picky fussy eater and not only for main dishes but also for desserts as well. So when we see her eating a food enthusiastically this is a big fulfillment for us. Either for the dish we cook or at a restaurant. The other day I saw her eating a slice of chocolate cake at a tea party. And she wanted more and asked me to make a cake like this at home. We probably mentioned how bad we are at making cakes and like. And this particular cake is the most classic cacao cake where the cacao swirls in the vanilla cake (which my mom used to make for each tea party). I asked my mom for the recipe and I followed exactly what she told me and the result was disaster. The cake was like 3cm at most (I don’t know it should be at least 10?) and the color was light brown no swirls or anything and it tasted nothing! My diplomatic 3.5 years daughter took a little piece and gave it back to me smiling “I’ll eat this after we come back. Ok anne?” (as we were going out). I think I should get the dessert version of ‘Comfort’ book. Or maybe just buy Betty Crocker Super Moist cakes in the box! I know how they are delicious. 

Lebanese Dinner (05/08/2010 – Thursday Night)

And the experimental Lebanese dinner by Tracey & Michelle turned out to be stunning. On the beautifully arranged dinner table there was sis barak, mixed salad with halloumi, meat dolma with wine leaves, mixed grill of marinated lamb chops and chicken, (and our fattoush as well). 

Sis barak is very similar to our traditional Turkish meat ravioli (manti) but with sis barak the meat filled dumplings are cooked in yoghurt (with mint) and it is more like a soup. I think we tried this dish while we were in Lebanon but this one was really delicious. 

But the real charm of the table for me is of course the meat dolma! Thanks to Trace and Mich for this lovely dinner. I think we should definitely continue with these themed dinners. How about a Turkish dinner at us once everyone is back from their holidays?

Lebanese Light Dinner

One of the things we love in Dubai is the abundance of good Lebanese food. In fact Lebanese kitchen is very similar to Turkish one with its variety of mezzes, salads, vegetable dishes and kebabs. Our favorite salad Fattoush is one of the main mezze of a Lebanese restaurant and although it is a simple one, it is not always easy to balance the dressing. One of the key ingredients in the dressing is Pomegranate syrup (that’s what we call in Turkey) which we can’t find everywhere in Dubai (sometimes in Wafi Gourmet) and the other one is sumac. Last night we decided to try this Fattoush with a twist which Alp found from epicurious.com. We added grilled zucchini and bell peppers to usual tomato, cucumbers, spring onions, fresh mint and coriander. We added pitted black olives and feta cheese as well (not always added on fattoush). And of course what makes a fattoush is the grilled pita bread pieces. And finally the dressing (this one doesn’t include Pomegranate syrup but has cumin) and heaps of sumac. It was delicious. Hence this fresh and healthy salad is definitely a candidate for tonight’s experimental Lebanese dinner by Tracey and Michelle. According to the rumors they will cook meat dolma (more known as dolmades – my favorite dish from childhood and still whenever I visit my grandma she always has tiny meat dolma for me. Unfortunately it takes almost a day to prepare and cook and that’s if you can find the suitable wine leaves. Even our fussy eater Asli liked it when she was 2). Ah, and we had cheese quesadillas with home-made guacamole with our Fattoush. And we fell asleep watching interesting life story of Coco Chanel on dvd (not because the movie was boring it’s me who can’t keep her eyes open after 10.30pm these days).


Grilled Zucchini and Bell Pepper Fattoush

A Perfect Dinner

And we’re back at Rhodes Mezzanine! But this time not in the kitchen. We have been to Mezzanine couple of times but before it was Rhodes. And we always liked the food and the atmosphere but last night was something different. We were welcomed into the beautifully decorated white peaceful setting by Natissa and her friendly staff. As soon as we sit at the table, canapé plates were served. Each one filled with different kinds of tiny bites such as salmon cake balls, foie gras on mini crackers, cherry tomato filled with herbs, cheese in millefeuille pastry…Before the starter, the signature complimentary dish from the Chef ‘tomato soup’ arrived in espresso cups. The color was surprising and the taste was amazing. And then we shared the delicious crab lasagna decorated with hazelnut soufflé as starter (which made us actually more hungry!), continued with a surprise dish in between and then we went on to our main dishes, the beef fillet with snail risotto and the best John Dory I’ve ever eaten in my life. And we had a cute treat from the Chef accompanying our espressos. Thank you…again…

Quick German Potato Salad and Frankfurter before the movies (01/08/2010)

Is there anyone who doesn’t love this combination? There is nothing faster and more delicious before the movies. Boiled fresh potatoes, onions softened in olive oil, horseradish, mayo and grainy mustard with some vinegar make great potato salad (it would be perfect if we had bacon as well). And just boil the frankfurters…Eat quickly, rush to movies, get a medium popcorn and go layers down into the dreamland with Leonardo D.C. for another 2.5 hours (as this is the second time we’re watching Inception)… 

Weekend Dining 2

As the end of weekend approaches and we’ll be back in the office the next morning (we’re still like children dreading for Sunday* mornings), what can be better than a casual dinner with our best friends who happens to be our neighbors just around the corner! After a long day in Ikea sorting out the storage cupboards (as you do on a 46 degree hot summer day!), we came home, put one leg of lamb in the oven after dressing it up with anchovies and garlic for an hour,  roast it for another hour. In fact, we’ve been talking about roasting lamb for the last couple of days. In the photo above it looks more like doner/shwarma in the middle of roka garden but the lamb was roasted perfectly, I can say. And when you arrange the lamb slices in your baguette sandwich with some Dijon mustard and roka leaves; and as a salad mixed green leaves with roasted butternut and grilled hallumi, you got your casual dinner with boys preferring beer and girls fancy for red wine. 

The recipe is from Nigel Slater’s ‘Kitchen Diaries’. This book is one of our oldest and favorite recipe books. It is written like a diary and the recipes are arranged according to the seasons (UK seasons). But as we live in Dubai where the seasons are warm spring, hot summer and extremely hot summer, you find almost everything at all times in the supermarkets, with more or less the same tastes. 

* Weekends in Dubai are on Fridays and Saturdays.

the kitchen diaries by Nigel Slater

Weekend Dining 1

After the cooking class on Tuesday and a wonderful dinner in Okku with friends on Wednesday, all we wanted was a simple salad on Thursday and a good movie! We chose warm butternut squash salad with prosciutto and pecorino from Jamie’s website as main dish with home-made pesto pasta on the side. We both love roasted pumpkin or butternut in the salads and this one with very thinly sliced parma ham on the bottom and shaved pecorino cheese on the top of the roka leaves was a perfect combination. And it’s always worth doing your own pesto sauce for the pasta. And as a good movie, we decided to watch ‘Blood Diamond’ again. As we ran out of new movies and series, we are going through all the dvds we liked and worth watching again and again. 

warm salad of roasted squash, prosciutto and pecorino from www.jamieoliver.com