Best of MCW 1201-1300

Welcome to the 13th Best of MCW installment, gathering the best recipes from a one hundred-recipe range on this blog that are time tested and made over and over again.

Kicking off with a simple pleasure of life, this fragrant sage tea recipe was picked up over a decade ago, when a Palestinian colleague prepared me my first cup in the pantry of our internship program. She used dried sage leaves, which is the norm. Palestinian sage, procured through Jordan, is the best you could get a hold of. 

See also part 1 and part 2, part 3 , part 4 , part 5 , part 6 , part 7 , part 8 , part 9 , part 10, part 11, and part 12 of previous Best Of series.

Geemar and dibs is a traditional Iraqi breakfast in the cold days of winter. It provides so much energy and, served with warm khoubiz or sammoun, warms you right down to your soul. As noted before, geemar is the Iraqi clotted cream, a surreal concoction so creamy you'll find yourself reveling in delight.

This is your weekend breakfast, sorted. The clay pot in this equation is actually optional, but it is an indicator as to the simple origins of this egg dish. A simple saute of tomato, green pepper, and onion is fried up. Eggs are cracked in and scrambled. The lot is then topped with glass jar spread cheese.

Oats/oatmeal is a popular choice for souhour since it is filling and keeps one satisfied well into a fasting day. I present three varieties of fruity oats: mango, berry, and date. The wonderful thing is that frozen fruit works best here, giving us good opportunity to use the underestimated frozen aisle. 

I am usually adverse to recipes calling for unique or out-of-the-way ingredients that will likely be used once and then forgotten. An exception was made here, firstly because of the virtuousness and health benefits of psyllium husk, and secondly because this health bread is so good I plan to make it a staple made on repeat to always be available in the freezer, sliced and ready to go.

Here is the list of breads we make, freeze, and re-make on rotation; crusty artisan bread (a no-brainer, even a toddler can make it), whole wheat loaf bread (so good in my mom's mushroom cream on toast), hobbit wafer bran bread (seriously every morning), and now these whole wheat english muffins. 

Sometimes lightening strikes and a new recipe becomes an instant favorite. These fresh zaatar kaaks might not look like much, but my zaatar plants cannot grow fast enough to accommodate the increased demand generated by them. So jam-packed with goodness, you will quickly forgive the whole cup and a half of olive oil in the recipe list. After all, what's a Palestinian recipe without a tub of olive oil?

This zaatar cookie ring is a traditional Palestinian savoury zaatar cookie, falling under the generic term "kaak". If you are lucky to have easy access to fresh zaatar, go ahead and use it here. Otherwise, the dried zaatar mix works just as well.

This Fresh Zaatar and Feta Mutabbag is quite possibly my favorite Palestinian pastry, made using a vibrant mix of fresh zaatar, onions, sumac and feta cheese for a special touch of added flavor, all folded in a thin dough. I was inspired to serve it on a platter with some lebne, olives, cucumbers, and tomatoes, and it made the most amazing accompaniment to a sweet cup of afternoon tea. 

Turkey, oh Turkey... So much in Turkey reminds me of my dear darling Iraq. Gozleme is a Turkish pastry with a variety of options, filling-wise. Some of the most common are spinach, cheese, or meat.

Save this recipe for your mess-up day. Anti diet and all things calorie inappropriate, these fried pizza pillows are worth looking forward to.

This chicken lentil soup is loaded with goodness and tastes so incredibly good. Combining chicken, lentils, and a myriad of vegetables, it makes for the perfect Ramadan iftar. It is of the chunky variety, so dicing up your chicken and vegetables nice and small is important.

Ok, this Mujaddara Salad is firmly up there in my list of instant classics. Ironically, it is a classic, with a twist, but it's got my vote for new classic. Mujadara is a traditional Lebanese dish consisting of rice, lentils, and an unfathomable amount of fried onion.

This baked rice, without exaggeration, is the best rice I have had in a long time. It's a bit strange that it is baked, but we are no strangers to baked rice here at MCW (hello, mandi). The flavor profile is just beyond. A whole bunch of cherry tomatoes and garlic cloves are confit-ed in another whole bunch of fresh coriander stems and olive oil, before the rice gets added and baked for a while longer.

So this particular Aubergine Mince Meat Fetteh hands over the spot light to aubergines. I don't know who can resist a well-fried aubergine, and this is one more way to maximize on them. Each of the components plays a role in the final outcome, and I think this is the winning ratio combination.

This tuna baguette is my favorite way to eat a tuna sandwich. It might not look like much, but some of the best things in life might not meet the artificial beauty scale of nowadays. It is quite simple, starting with a can of brined tuna, but the combination makes for a staple recipe.

Shrimp boil is one of the easiest and most delicious recipes you can make on rotation for your family. There are countless recipes combining corn and shrimp, and what makes this one unique is the oven bag cooking method.

Whole roasted fish inevitably reminds me of The Hobbit, when Bilbo just settled for his dinner before the intrusion of the dwarves. Surely that's an indicator of not only how easy it is to prepare, but also of how long people have been preparing it?

There is nothing special per se about this banana leaf wrapped salmon recipe: your standard lemon-garlic-dill stuffing in the cavity. But wrapping the fish in banana tree leaves lends the flesh a succulent tenderness without prior marination or manipulation.

What an instant hit! So easy and delicious, there's no way any one can complain that fish is difficult to cook. In this Greek roast fish, whole sea bass is roasted on a bed of mixed vegetables (potatoes, carrots, cherry tomatoes, onions and garlic), which in themselves are caramelized almost to being a confit, making a great side dish as well.

This cooling drink was my constant morning companion all summer long. The knowledge that nutella is addictive due to its hazelnut component more that its chocolate makes the appeal for hazelnut paste all the more prominent. Hazelnut coffee is not a novelty, but the simple replacement of the artificial flavoring for the real-deal paste is a game-changer.

These should be renamed to Ultimate Pistachio Petit Four Cakes. It is so concentrated in pistachio flavor, yet has such a delicate crumb, that although one biteful should theoretically suffice, you will find yourself popping one after the other. The secret? A do-it-yourself pistachio butter base.

Traditionally, maamoul is stuffed with date paste. I decided to play around and fill these maamoul cookies with nutella chocolate spread. The actual dough comprises of only four ingredients, and for certain can encompass any filling under the sun. To make stuffing manageable, dollops of nutella are frozen solid before covering them with the dough and shaping them with the mold.

This is a recipe about the icing, but I have included a simple sturdy cookie recipe ideal to use the icing on. The thing that's special about this royal icing is that it is ideal to paint decorations on a cookie. It needs a couple of hours to set, and barring experience, it usually yields great results.

This is not a recipe you would expect to make in your lifetime. In fact, just how popular is the croissant brittle? It was complete news to me for sure. A random food article introduced it as an obscure menu option in a tiny pastry shop somewhere in the United States. I'm not sure what made me give it a go (the seductive deep golden color?), but how I am glad I did.

This strawberry pie tasted more like anything strawberry I had had in years. You need a kilo of fresh strawberries, most of which will remain fresh. A quarter of the fruit will be cooked down in sugar and cornstarch to form a sticky and thick Turkish delight-like binder to glue all the other fruit into the pie as it cools.

Of all the wonderful pies that have taken off on MCW, I just might be bold enough to label this raspberry custard crumble pie my favorite. While the tang from the raspberry delights me, the sharpness is mellowed out by the custard mixture poured over the fruit.

Another pie request from little humans, this time for a "milk pie". The fact that milk got swapped out from cream and sugar was close enough to the initial request, and generated no objections from young nor old. I am increasingly impressed by the wonderful yield resulting from cream + sugar + heat. Good things coming up using this magical combo.

An instant hit, this blueberry cheesecake is a fruity take on the Spanish San Sebastian of yester-fad. The base is actually thinly rolled puff pastry, and every imperfection is strived for here. The cake is supposed to be brown; it is supposed to be cracked, the ink from the berries is supposed to leak, the crust is supposed to be shaggy, the cake is supposed to taste great.

Rangina is an ancient Arabian Gulf dessert featuring mainly toasted flour, dates, and a hefty quantity of ghee. MCW holds three variations of the dessert: classic, cups, and balls. We now add to the repertoire this rangina cheesecake, which creatively harmonizes the fundamental ingredients into a modernized new take.

A lightly spiced cake, made with fruit and vegetable to placate the virtuous side of us, and laden with cream cheese frosting for the not-so-virtuous side makes for a great addition to a brunch, afternoon tea, or potluck.

This was another instant hit which I know will be made over and over. Arab cotton candy differs in texture from the carnival cotton candy we all know and hate/love. The strands are somewhat thicker, overall texture slightly more dense, and it has an elasticity unique to it. But all this is literally just the topping. Under this highly attractive surface lays a delicious Arabian-flavored milk pudding that marries so well with the topping you'd think it was created for the sole purpose of being together.

صحة و عافية