The Best Guacamole

I love guacamole. Love it. Love, love, love, love, love it! The thing is, good store-bought guacamole is hard (and expensive) to come by around these parts. The logical solution: home make guacamole.

My problem when I fist started doing that is that I didn't trust the recipes. They said "1 avocado" and I was all, "Yeah, right." So I'd end up with a guacamole that tasted like avocado and nothing else. So, even though this recipe only calls for one avocado, please trust the recipe. It isn't called "The Best" guacamole for nothing.

You will need the following ingredients for this recipe:

-1 medium to large avocado
-1 medium tomato
-1 small or ½ medium to large onion
-1 clove garlic
-1-2Tbsp chopped jarred banana peppers (mild or hot)
-Approximately 1Tbsp jarred banana pepper juice

Start by cutting up the avocado and smashing it with a fork in a bowl.

Dice up the tomato and onion and add them to the bowl. Next add the garlic.

Next, take your banana pepper rings or chunks and dice them up very, very finely and add them to the mix.

The secret ingredient that makes this the best guacamole ever is the banana pepper juice. It's all to taste, really, but I put a specific amount for those among us who must have a specific amount to go off of, which is fine.

Take a fork and mix all the ingredients together. Eat with tortilla chips, or whatever you prefer.

Enjoy!

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Chocolate Raspberry Ganache Over Chocolate Cake

It has been forever since I've updated, I am aware. Though I do dislike making excuses, I do feel perfectly justified in my absence seeing as I had several exams to study for and I just finished the busiest week of my life!

In any case, to make up for my absence I will present to you with a gem of baking: a chocolate cake topped with chocolate raspberry ganache. If you don't love it then you are crazy.

For the record, I have pulled my inspiration and ideas for this recipe from several different sources, but the final product is uniquely mine (minus the cake, as this recipe calls for boxed cake).

You will need the following ingredients for this recipe:

-1 box chocolate fudge cake mix, plus required ingredients for the mix
-About 18oz bittersweet chocolate - trust me, bittersweet will yield the best results
-2¼ cups heavy whipping cream
-Several tablespoons seedless raspberry jam
-Fresh raspberries
-Powdered sugar

First, bake the cake according to the instructions on the box for a layer cake - not a sheet cake. Carefully remove the cakes from the pans and let cool.

Next you'll want to prepare your chocolate. If you're using chocolate chips then you're all ready to go. If you're using chocolate squares, then chop them up. I started doing this with a Santoku knife, but my husband suggested I use a bread knife (he even chipped in on cutting up the chocolate for a few minutes!) and it was actually a lot easier.

Dump all your cut-up chocolate into a mixing bowl as pictured above right.

Now, as you probably know, melting chocolate can be a tricky business. If you burn it, it's basically wrecked and once it starts to burn it burns quickly. So, here's the method I suggest:

Dump the heavy whipping cream into a sauce pan and bring it to a boil. As soon as it comes to a boil, pour it over the chocolate and stir it up so the chocolate melts.

The perfecting of the ganache (which, by the way, is what you're in the middle of making) is extremely taste-oriented. As such, you should not make this in the middle of the day during Ramadan, just FYI. I added probably about eight heaping tablespoonfuls of the raspberry jam into mine and I got a subtle but distinct taste of raspberry in it. It turned out perfectly. But I encourage you to not go by what I say, but to go by your taste.

Try as best you can to not eat too much of the ganache. It's really rich and delicious, but if you eat too much there won't be enough of the cake, so exercise self-control if at all possible!!

Once you have acquired your desired taste of ganache, put it in the fridge for a half hour to cool. It needs to be cool so it's more easily controllable but it still needs to be somewhat runny, so don't exceed 1 hour in the fridge.

In the mean time, take one of the cooled cakes and place it upside-down on a cake tray. Spread a generous layer of the raspberry jam.

Once the ganache is cooled... well, this is where the tricky part begins. My advice to you is so spread out lots and lots of paper towels because unless you're an expert, it is going to get messy.

Dump, spoon, or somehow spread ganache over the layer of jam. It will spill all over the place, but don't worry about that too much. The ganache is supposed to get on the sides of the cake anyway, and it's easy to clean up the plate for a clean presentation. The only way you will get through this is to embrace the mess.

Once you're done with that, put the other layer on top, upside-down or right side-up. Doesn't matter. Pour the rest of the ganache over, as evenly as possible. Let it drip down the sides, but also try your best to coat the sides with the ganache.

Once you're finished, use the flat side of the knife to even and smooth out the ganache. Top with raspberries and put in the fridge for the ganache to stiffen.

Before you serve (with coffee, of course), sprinkle the cake with powdered sugar (also called superfine sugar or icing sugar).

Again, seriously, serve it with coffee.

Enjoy!

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Cooking Tips, Part 2: Cutting an Avocado

Hey, I'm back with another tip for you!

Cutting an avocado can be tricky, but if you can get this method down, it's really simple.

I learned this from my sister's boyfriend's mom, who, by the way, is one of the sweetest women I've ever met.

So, you start with your sharp knife and your avocado. Cut length-wise all the way around the pit, then twist the two halves to separate them, like this:

Being very careful, strike the pit hard with the knife. Don't carve into it - strike it.
Grip the avocado firmly and twist the knife so the pit comes out.
Cut the avocado into quarters and just peel the skin off. This is a zillion times easier than trying to cut the avocado while it's still in its skin.
Hope this helped!

Iftar Ideas: Greek Pizza

I love this recipe, but it can take a while because there's really no multitasking between these different components.

I first made this with my cousin Alexandra for a small family party a few years ago. It seems like it's going to be plain, but it's actually super-tasty and it makes a perfect iftar. It's filling enough for after a long day of fasting, but light enough so it doesn't make you feel sick.

This is an incredibly approximate recipe. Amounts are not very important at all. It's pizza - it's flexible!

You will need the following ingredients for this recipe:

-Several Tablespoons melted butter
-Crushed rosemary
-1 box phyllo dough sheets
-2 tomatoes, sliced
-About 1½ cups croutons, crushed up
-1 onion, chopped
-Olive oil
-2 cloves crushed garlic
-1 bag spinach
-Juice of one lime
-Goat cheese (feta or chèvre style - whichever you prefer)

Mix together the rosemary and melted butter. Once again, amounts are not important, so the amount of rosemary you put in is completely up to you. This is what mine looked like:












Start by laying out the phyllo dough, one layer at a time. Between each layer, paint on butter mixture, trying to get the whole thing covered in butter, but not soaked.












To crush the croutons, put them in a plastic zip-lock bag and crush them by hand. Then add the tomato slices to the bag and toss them around until they're coated with crouton crumbs.












Place tomato slices and diced onions on the dough.

Next, sauté the garlic cloves for just a few minutes. Don't let them get brown because they'll continue to cook for a while and if you burn the garlic, you'll have to start over.












Once the garlic has been cooking for a couple of minutes, add a large handful of spinach. Stir it around. The spinach will wilt and once there is sufficient space in the pan, add another handful. Continue until half the spinach is used up. Squeeze the juice of half a lime onto the spinach and stir it up well, then continue adding handfuls until all the spinach is in the pan. Then add the juice of the other half of the lime.












Make sure you keep stirring the spinach as it cooks. You don't want it to burn and even more importantly, you don't want the garlic to burn.

Once the spinach is all wilted, add it to the pizza.

Crumble up the goat cheese and spread it over the pizza.












Cook at 400°F for 15-20 minutes.

Enjoy!

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Iftar Dessert Ideas: Banana Cake

This recipe holds a special place in my heart because when I was little my mom used to make this cake every year for my dad's birthday. When I was pregnant I made two or three of these cakes and I hadn't made one since... until now!

You will need the following ingredients for this recipe:

-½ cup shortening
-2 large eggs
-¼tsp baking powder
-1tsp salt
-1 cup mashed banana (~3 bananas)
-1½ cup sugar
-2¼ cup cake flour
-¾tsp baking soda
-¼ cup buttermilk
-1 can chocolate frosting
-1-2 bananas extra

Remember, baking is a science. Precise measurements are more important than in most savory foods. Don't worry if you're a little off, but where most of my recipes are pretty fluid in proportion, this is not.

Start by mashing up the bananas (not the extras) - they don't need to me really smooth yet, so I usually just do it with a fork. Stir in buttermilk and combine well. Set aside.

Next combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set that aside, as well.

Then, cream together the shortening and sugar until it's nice and fluffy. Then beat in the eggs, very thoroughly.

Then add the flour mixture and bananas and buttermilk. Add each mixture a little at a time, alternately. Beat until pretty smooth, but if there are a few banana chunks left, it's not a big deal.

Grease the bottom of two 9-inch cake pans and pour the batter in.

Bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Carefully remove the cakes and let them cool. Once they're cool, set out the bottom layer and frost the top of it with the chocolate frosting. Slice up the extra bananas and put the slices on top of the frosting.

Put the second layer on top and finish frosting.

Please, people. Eat this with a cup of coffee. It's just too perfect.

Enjoy!

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Iftar Ideas: Lebanese Kafta

This post is dedicated to my dear friend Aby, who just had a baby on August 6th! Congratulations, habibti, and here is your long-awaited kafta recipe!

I don't know what it is about kafta, but pretty much every culture has their own version of it! I actually found the Wikipedia article about kafta very interesting. Call me crazy, but...

Anyhow, so here is my recipe for the Lebanese version of kafta. One of my favourite things to eat!

You will need the following ingredients for this recipe:

-1kg (approximately 2¼lbs) ground beef and/or lamb
-2 medium onions
-1 bunch parsley
-salt and pepper
-pinch ground cloves

We're going to start by talking about your ground beef. I used beef for this recipe because I don't generally care for the taste of ground lamb. So.

If you want this to work well, it's going to have to be minced. So, lay out your beef on a cutting board, take your trusty santoku knife (or something similar, but a santoku knife is the best), and mince up that meat. It will take a good few minutes, but it's worth it in the end.

Next step is to clean your santoku knife. Why? Because it is definitely the best knife to use to mince your onions and garlic. Maybe it's because I'm a slight person without much strength, or maybe it's because it's actually hard, but I worked up a sweat mincing the onions and parsley! Mince it up as small as you can without turning it into a mush.

Season the beef with your salt, pepper and pinch of cloves and then dump it onto the beef. Remember, this is an entire kilo of meet, so be generous!

Next, take your minced onion and parsley and dump it onto the seasoned mean and mix it up. Sorry to the squeemish - this has to be done by hand.

Perfectly minced and mixed ball of meat!

Okay, next you'll need some shish kebab sticks. This recipe will not be cooked over an open flame, so there's no need to soak them.

Take a large handful of the meat and roll it into a ball and skewer it with the shish kebab stick.
Then take it and roll it out into a large sausage shape. Once you have rolled all the meat into this shape, cook them a few at a time on a barbecue plate or a tawa.
Turn them regularly. You may need the help of a spatula so they don't fall apart. Don't overcook - they should be cooked through, but still moist on the inside. This goes great with thoom (Arab garlic sauce - recipe coming soon!).

My husband and I had leftovers the day after we ate this. We had a kafta rolled up in pita bread with thoom, hummus and tomatoes.

The night we ate this, however, we just served it with a salad, thoom and tomatoes. Very, very good, either way.

Enjoy!

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Iftar Ideas: Spring Rolls!

Ramadan Mubarak, everyone! Insha'Allah, my blog can be of use to some of you if you are strapped for ideas for the after-maghreb meal.

Today's idea is vegetarian spring rolls! They're super-tasty, though they do require some preparation.
You will need the following ingredients for this recipe:

-½ lb carrots (approximately two medium to large carrots)
-1 red bell pepper
-1 cup beansprouts
-1Tbsp vegetable oil
-1 red chili, seeded and finely chopped
-Zest and juice of one lime
-1Tbsp soy sauce
-½tsp cornstarch
-2Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
-Egg roll wrappers
-Peanut oil, for frying


Cut carrots and red pepper into thin slices. This took me forever so give yourself time.

Heat the vegetable oil in a wok and then add in the carrots, bell pepper and beansprouts to the wok. Stir fry for about two minutes, then remove the wok from the heat .

Take the lime zest and juice as well as the red chili and stir it into the contents of the wok.

Combine the soy sauce and cornstarch. In the original recipe from this cookbook, it calls for arrowroot, but cornstarch accomplishes the same thing. The difference is that cornstarch usually makes the substance cloudy as it solidified, whereas arrowroot doesn't. I used cornstarch because it is more readily available and I don't really care how cloudy the soy sauce gets.

So, mix the soy sauce and arrowroot as best you can, then add it to the wok and return the wok to the heat. Stir-fry until the veggies are well-covered with soy sauce (at least two minutes!). Stir in cilantro

Here comes the tricky part: folding up the rolls.

Start by making a thick, but not pasty mixture of flour and water.

Take a large spoonful of the stir-fry and put it in the middle of the egg roll wrapper. It should be facing you diagonally so it looks like a diamond. Take the flour mixture and spread around the edges of the wrapper.Next, fold in the two side corners to the center and dab the four corners with more flour mixture, as you see in the below picture.
Take the bottom end and fold it up. Pinch and fold in the corners at the bottom so the flour mixture will seal it up.
Finally, roll it up, starting from the bottom, folding in the sides so they're as sealed up as they can be.Voilà! Obviously, repeat this process until all the stir-fry is used up.

Okay, now you need to heat up your peanut oil for frying. Once it gets hot, drop in a few spring rolls and deep fry until crispy brown. It should take about 6-8 minutes.

I suggest serving this with white rice or even a fried rice dish would be nice. Also, serve with a sauce for dipping - whatever kind you like.

Enjoy!

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Slice carrots and bell pepper thinly. Add those and beansprouts to wok with 1Tbsp veg oil. Stir-fry two minutes remove wok from heat. Stir lime zest and juice and chili pepper into wok. Combine soy sauce and cornstarch. Return wok to heat. Add soy sauce mixture and stir-fry at least two minutes more. Stir in cilantro. Remove wok from heat. Add spoonful of stir-fry to the center of an egg roll wrapper. Roll up, using a mixture of water and flour to seal. Repeat until all stir-fry mixture is used up. Heat peanut oil. Deep-fry spring rolls until golden-brown.