gingerbread cookies

his is what my dear nephew sand when he saw these crispy spicy gingerbread cookies i  used king arthur flour recipe with little tweak

 Ingredients (  from king arthur flour with little tweak)

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter
• 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice or cloves
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 1/2 cups  All-Purpose Flour

Instructions

• In a saucepan set over low heat, or in the microwave, melt butter, then stir in the brown sugar, molasses, salt, and spices.
• Transfer the mixture to a medium-sized mixing bowl, let it cool to lukewarm, and beat in the egg.
• Whisk the baking powder and soda into the flour, and then stir these dry ingredients into the molasses mixture.
• Divide the dough in half, and wrap well. Refrigerate for 1 hour or longer.
• Preheat your oven to 350°F. Get out several baking sheets; there’s no need to grease them, though lining with parchment saves effort on cleanup.
• Once the dough has chilled, take one piece of dough out of the refrigerator, and flour a clean work surface, and the dough. Roll it out as thin or thick as you like; for slightly less crisp cookies, roll it out more thickly.
• Use flour under and on top of the dough to keep it from sticking to the table or rolling pin. Alternatively, place the dough on parchment, and put a sheet of plastic wrap over it as you roll, pulling the plastic to eliminate wrinkles as necessary when rolling; this will keep dough from sticking without the need for additional flour. For soft dough, or dough to be rolled extra-thin, you may choose to roll right onto the ungreased back of a baking sheet.
• Cut out shapes with a cookie cutter, cutting them as close to one another as possible to minimize waste.
• Transfer the cookies to ungreased cookie sheets (or, if you’ve rolled right onto the parchment, remove the dough scraps between the cookies). Bake the cookies just until they’re slightly brown around the edges 8 to 12 minutes, or until they feel firm. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for several minutes, or until they’re set. Transfer them to a rack to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining dough.
• Decorate the cookies and i used Betty’s ready-made icing 

tuna salad sandwich with walnut and celery

when I’m not in the mood to cook something i usually make tuna salad .. this easy yet delicious recipe adapted from ” the kitchen in foodnetwork”

Ingredients:
1 can tuna, drained
2 tablespoons chopped capers

2 tablespoons chopped onion
2 tablespoons very finely diced celery
2 tablespoons chopped toasted walnuts
olive oil to taste ( i didn’t use it)
1 tablespoon  vinegar
1 tablespoon finely minced black olives
2 tablespoon finely minced fresh parsley ( i used tabbouleh mix w/ bulgur)
juice of 1/2  lemon
Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper
to serve:  crackers, or toasted bread
Directions
Combine the tuna,onion, capers, celery, walnuts, olive oil, vinegar, olives, parsley and lemon juice in a medium bowl and season with salt and pepper. Top the crackers with the tuna mixture and serve.

Recipe adapted from foodnetwork

Jordanian kebab " Kfarat Kebab"

This month recipe for our facebook cooking group " Arabic Flavour"  by Hanan Smadi from Jordan - November  2015th as she described it 

Since it is olive picking season, I've decided to go with a recipe that is famous among the tribes of Kfarat villages of Jordan, an area that is famous for its pure and richly flavoured & colored olive oil.
This easy and quick recipe is considered healthy due to the process of steaming the kbab rather than frying them. It became very popular among the Kfarat villages to the extent of being referred to as the "dynamite" recipe!

Measuring its ingredients is volumetric; meaning that each cup of minced meat needs around 1 cup (or less) of

bulgur, 1 onion and some water and olive oil.

Ingredients: 

- 2 cups(700 gm) minced veal meat (fat free)
- 1 chicken breast , boneless and finely minced
- 2 ½ cups fine bulgur (dry, NOT presoaked)
- 2-3 medium onions, finely minced using a food processor with a little bit of water
- 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup water for mixing the dough, salt & pepper
-2 tsp ground cumin
-5 tsp ground anise
- 1 tsp allspice (I personally add a pinch of ground cardamom and ground ginger only)
- Salted warm water to cook kebabs
Directions:
- Mince onions in food processor with a little bit of water in to guarantee finesse.

- Combine minced meat and minced chicken in a bowl and mix very well, add bulgur then minced onions and continue mixing. You can use a kneading machine for a faster result in this step, but the traditional way is to knead by hand. Add spices, salt and pepper while kneading. 

- Add a little bit of warm of water gradually, one spoon at a time, until you get a well combined dough that can be easily shaped. Stop adding water once you get it.
- Add olive oil (keep some aside till later) and continue mixing. 

- In a deep cooking pot, preferably Tefal or thick based stainless steel, add the remaining olive oil.
- Rub your hands with some oil and start forming the kbabs into thick flat patties, hand palm size, place them at the bottom of the pot. ( i did shape them all as round shape and shallow fry them with oil in both sides)
- Place the pot over medium heat for about 5 minutes, until you hear the sizzling of oil.
- Add salted warm water gently covering the bottom layer only.
- When it starts boiling, lower the heat, cover the pot and let it cook for 30-45 minutes or until water dries out.
- When you hear the sizzling sound and smell the kbab, turn off heat. Make sure to monitor the drying out process.
- Wait a few minutes then flip the pot upside down into a serving plate.

- Serve alongside yogurt and salad
Bon appetite

‪#‎Kfarat_Kbab‬ ‪#‎ArabicFlavour‬