expanding

Posted under what we eat by rahma

Since there were no comments *ehem* yaay or ney as to me deviated from the original intent of the blog, I am now going to subject ya’ll to cooking posts.

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This has been the year in which I’ve actually cooked.  Thanks to Madhur Jaffrey, I can do Indian, Mediterranean and African vegetarian cooking.  Thanks to my sister who went to a thai cooking school while on her around the world adventure, I can do thai vegetarian.  Thanks to the International Vegetarian Union, I can find recipes from just about anywhere and make a mean strawberry tabouli and watermelon lemonade, perfect summer recipes for when it’s too hot to turn on the stove.  And, thanks to Ahmed Hamdy Eissa, my egyptian cooking has improved to the point where the husband says we no longer need to eat out at middle eastern restaurants, because I cook better than them.

Last night, I ventured into gulf territory, somewhere I haven’t been before.  Arabic Bites is chock full of new recipes just waiting for me to try.  So, I made Maraq al Dajaj.   I don’t know what possessed me to make this recipe, since I had a whole chicken, and this recipe calls for one that’s cut up.  I’ve never cut up a chicken before, and hopefully will never have to go through that again.  Me with a knife hacking away at a chicken that keeps slipping out of my grip is not a pretty picture.  Next time, I’ll just buy boneless skinless chicken breasts to use. 

We don’t have basmati rice at home, so I just nuked some of the shorter grained rice we had.  Yes, I microwave my rice, which drives my rice loving friends nuts.  But really, if I have to chose between nuked rice and rice that turns out horribly every time I attempt it in the pan, I’ll stick with the microwave, thank you very much.  I suppose I could just get a rice cooker but I have like 2 feet by 1 foot of counter space open, and I need that to prepare food.  Until I get a bigger kitchen, that means no more kitchen gadgets for me (ahh, food processor, I’m waiting for you).

Because I’m always second guessing things, I added too much in the way of spices, so I had to add a cup of water and a little can of tomato sauce in an attempt to de-spicify.  I don’t mind overpowering spiciness, but the husband is definately in the bland camp.  He said it was “really good”, with the caviate that next time, don’t make it so spicey.  That’s a rave review from him, considering that he gave it without me asking.  Normally I have to pester him after a meal to see how he liked it, and whether or not I should add it to my repetouire.  This one definatley goes in the “to make again” pile.

   

Notice the tight angle on the pot and bowl, so you can’t tell how messy my kitchen is.