253. Mushroom Risotto

Flipping through my (very) old Jamie Oliver The Naked Chef  cookbook, I was inspired to make the mushroom risotto. The wonderful thing about Jamie Oliver's recipes is that he gives you so many options to vary the same recipe.
In this mushroom risotto recipe, you may use any kind of mushroom you come across or have on hand.
But that's not all: you can even use dried mushroom (which you re-hydrate)!
Isn't that wonderful?

252. Pear and Blue Cheese Crostini

I could live on appetizers and side dishes.
And dessert.
Don't you find the best part of a meal are the apps and the sides?
And dessert.
Appetizers can easily contain all the food groups, rendering the main dish moot in my opinion.

251. Vanilla Tea Cake

Unpretentious cakes are cosy, homey, and so welcoming!
This plain vanilla cake is a slightly lesser sister to my cardamom cake and orange cake, but homey none the less. Light, fluffy, mild, and it's basically a hug in a cake.

250. Lablabi: Iraqi Chickpea Soup

Lablabi is a popular Iraqi chickpea broth that is commonly sold even in the streets.
All it is, is boiled re-hydrated chickpeas. Literally.
The consumer then can add flavorings as they like: lemon juice, hot sauce, a good grinding of pepper, or simply consume it as it is.

249. Sea Salt-Crusted Whole Fish

This is a strange but amazingly delicious method to cook a whole fish, and does not taste overly salty at all.
It is very easy to make, and fun and sociable to eat.
The meat just magically separates itself from the bones, and almost presents itself as a fillet because it's so easy to separate.

248. Baked Breaded Mushrooms

Don't all breaded and fried foods taste delicious??
In an attempt to slightly healthify (?) breaded mushrooms, I opted for baking them instead.
So this isn't really a recipe. It's more of a technique which you may apply to alot of different food: mushroom, aubergines, chicken, fish... you name it.

247. Peanut Butter Cornflake Balls

These peanut butter cornflake bites are a must for all peanut butter lovers.
The combinations of texture and taste are incredible.
Chewey, crunchy, a little bit sweet, a little bit salty, and a whole lot of deliciousness!

246. Tabboula

Tabboula (aka tabouleh, tabouli) deserves its very own fan club. It is so popular, so delicious, so unique!
Tabboula is a Levantine Arab salad consisting of bulghul (cracked wheat), tomato, green onion, and parsley. The main ingredient is the parsley.
I have come across some salads labeled tabboula which are almost entirely made of couscous, with just a garnish of parsley.
That's not tabboula, that's a joke. Avoid them. This is the real deal.

245. Pumpkin Soup

Spicy roasted pumpkin and roasted pumpkin seeds lead to pumpkin soup!
'Tis the season of pumpkin, after all...
This pumpkin soup heralds so many memories for me, and really is timeless.
It is one of the first things I learned to cook, and is still, in my opinion, one of the tastiest.

244. Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

The spicy pumpkin roast left me with some beautiful pearly white pumpkin seeds, perfect for roasting and nibbling on for a snack or salty fix.

243. Spicy Pumpkin Roast

Pumpkin has sort of always been foreign to me except in soups.
Roasted in this manner however, is my new favorite way to eat it.
I used mini pumpkins, but this can be adapted using regular pumpkin or even butternut squash.
Although my beautiful sage plant gives me fresh sage leaves all year long, I mostly associate sage with Autumn.

242. Date Molasses and Cardamom Cake

This delicious cake is eggless, and apart from a quarter cup of brown sugar, it completely replaces sugar with date molasses. Date molasses is common in Arab countries, and is the liquid reduction of dates.
I picked this recipe up from the fantastic blog Arabic Bites.

241. Spanish Tomato Bruschetta

Crostini and bruschetta are often used interchangeably. Both consist of toasted bread sliced topped with anything that appeals to the imagination. The main difference between the two is that bruschetta is rubbed with garlic and olive oil before grilling or toasting, whereas crostini forgo the garlic step.

240. Paprika Roasted Baby Chicken Stuffed with Rice

This rice-stuffed roasted baby chicken is hearty, earthy, and highly satisfying.
If you want it to be festive, it can certainly be that too!
There are quite a few spices utilized for the basting and for the rice stuffing, but the star is the paprika.

239. Chickpea Rice Pilaf

I invented this rice pilaf as I was cooking it, adding ingredients which I thought were complimentary to one another as I went along.
I'm fairly certain if I search thoroughly enough I will discover that it is has already been invented before, thereby nullifying my invention... but still.

238. Everyday Tiramisú

Tiramisú is an Italian spoon dessert, consisting of ladyfinger sponge cake biscuits dipped in coffee in between unctuous layers of whipped mascarpone cheese. A wide range of variations have been made of this dessert, using the same layered concept.
There are three major substitutions in this recipe that render it an "everyday" dessert.
Regular cream cheese is used instead of mascarpone.

237. Chicken Tashreeb

Chicken teshreeb (تشريب دجاج) is very similar to habeet, only that it is made with chicken instead of meat and the broth is much lighter.
Like quite a few "traditional" recipes, this is a very simple recipe with major flavor.
It is basically a chicken stew in curried broth.

236. Twix Mix Pudding

I love spoon desserts. And I love an easy home-made dish using staple convenience foods.
So, admittedly this dessert is not made from scratch, with the twix and the creme caramel and all, but that doesn't make it any less delicious.
This twix mix recipe is gifted to me by another of my favorite people, and is very useful to have on hand either for either entertaining guests or family.

235. Sumac Roast Chicken

Roasted chicken can be as simple or as elaborate as you want it to be.
To speed up cooking and even the cooking process, the chicken is cut into parts before baking.
The flavorings of this chicken is as simple as it is surprising: sumac with a tinge of turmeric.

234. Iraqi Carrot Rice

This hearty rice recipe is very common in Iraq, and is also fairly known throughout the Arab world.
It is simply known as carrot rice (تمن جزر).

233. Potato Tray Bake

Potatoes are such a versatile tuber.
These tray-baked potatoes rival the best packaged crisps or frozen fries.
I flavored them simply with salt, freshly ground pepper, and powdered garlic.

232. Nutella Swirl Muffins

Originally named self-frosting Nutella cupcakes, I decided to change it to Nutella swirl muffins, for two reasons. First, there is a satisfying amount of nutella, but not enough to count as a frosting, hence the "swirl." Secondly, the cakes are more dense than a traditional cupcake, hence the "muffin."

231. Chicken Fetteh

Fatteh (or fetta, or fetté) is a tasty Shami dish created to use up stale bread on which various ingredients are piled on top or mixed with it. The Shami region consistes of Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, and Jordan.
Some people consider Iraq to be a Shami country, others say it is an Arabian Gulf country.
Obviously, "various ingredients" means that there are almost infinite variations of this dish, some made popular, others created out of need to use up existing ingredients.

230. Cheese Zaatar Finger Sandwiches

These little sandwiches are one of her lesser concoctions, which she would probably oppose its being featured as a recipe. But I loved it so much that I wanted to share it.

229. Rice Mohalabi

There is a reason why rice puddings are so popular world-wide.
Contrary to the Spanish rice pudding which uses whole short-grain rice, this recipe uses ground rice.
Any rice will do.

228. Chinese Soy Chicken

Quite a bit of the ingredients that make up this wonderful dish made me raise an eyebrow, and seemed, quite frankly, weird. Ketchup? Sugar? Vinegar?
Well, yes.
Once tasted, all doubts dissolve and a certain joy of good food takes over.

227. Chinese Egg Fried Rice

Strictly speaking, fried rice is not specific to China, but is a staple throughout Asia.
China being the biggest country in Asia, one may understand the common misconception.
Fried rice is the Asian version of the Spanish paella. Paella is known to use up any leftover ingredients, and same goes with fried rice.

226. Vegetable Spring Rolls

Spring rolls are an Asian appetizer consisting of a paper-thin pastry sheet filled with a choice of ingredients, rolled into a cylindrical rod, and fried to a golden crisp finishing.
I think Americans call them egg rolls, versus spring rolls. Potato potahto.
The filling is where you can really exercise your creativity.

225. Fried Iroog

The combination of minced meat, parsley, onion, tomato, and curry is a winning one in Iraqi cuisine.
Having already introduced you to Iraqi Iroog Bread, it was simply a matter of time before delving into some other iroog variations.

224. Broccoli Stromboli

La bella Italia! What wonderful gifts to the world are pizzas. calzones, and strombolis!
This is a broccoli cheese stromboli, which is basically a pizza rolled up before baking.
If you have a well-stocked fridge and freezer, this is the simplest thing to do: roll our pre-made pizza dough, spread some store bought ricotta, broccoli,cheese, roll up, bake!