Beans & Anjeera

We love beans in our house. Not only is the cooking time very appealing for this dish, it became extremely convenient after having my teeth filed this week. Anything that required using my front upper and lower teeth to eat became incredibly painful. So I resorted to anjeera and fuul (beans). I found a can of Heinz Deep-Browned Beans in Tomato Sauce in my cabinet. I had picked it up at the grocery store a few weeks back and only got one can to 'test' it out. I'll add a picture incase someone wants to know how the can looks. I decided we'd have it with it anjeera considering we hadn't had it in a few months. I quickly made the batter and made the anjeera. Then I put the beans on the stove, added a few veggies and some seasonings, and I had the meal ready in about 30 minutes.


My anjeera recipe can be found here.

Ingredients:

1. 1 can 14 oz Heinz Deep-Browned Beans in Tomato Sauce
2. 1/2 an onion, diced
3. 1/2 green pepper, diced
4. 3 garlic cloves, minced
5. 1/2 chicken stock cube
6. 1 cup of water

Steps:

1. Pour the entire can of beans on a skillet.



2. Add 1/2 onion and 1/2 green pepper, diced.
3. Let it simmer for 5 minutes, then add 1/2 cup of water
4. Add 1/2 chicken stock cube, mix well. Let simmer on medium-low for 5 minutes
5. Add the minced garlic. Mix and let sit on medium-low heat for 5-10 minutes.
6. Serve hot with anjeera



Enjoy!

Bariis

I swear we don't eat cake for dinner. My latest baking fascination might've given you the impression that that's all we've been eating :D. I haven't been able to try anything new except with cakes/cookies. I managed to experiment with bariis (rice) and leave my white rice comfort zone. I used the spices that I like (and not necessarily the spices normally used for bariis) and kept trying until I liked it! I've always felt that the normal Somali bariis has too many spices for my liking and usually kick starts one of my tension headaches. So I tried to balance it out by using ingredients that I don't normally use, with my usual favourite.

Here's what I came up with :

Here's what you'll need:

3 cups of basmati rice
1 large tomato, or 2 smaller ones
1 onion, chopped
3 minced garlic cloves
handful of parsley
2 bouillon cubes (chicken stock cube)
5-6 cups of water
1 tablespoon of xawaaji (a Somali spice)
2 cinnamon sticks
1/4 cup of vegetable oil

Steps:

1. Preheat your oven to about 350 degrees. Sautee your diced tomato and onions until golden brown, in 1/4 cup of vegetable oil.
2. When onions are golden brown, add your minced garlic, parsley, and your xawaaji. Mix well... keep heat on medium low to avoid burning your ingredients. Add your 2 cinnamon sticks after this step.
3. Add your bouillon cubes and allow them to melt, stir well.
4. Bring to a boil, and add your 3 cups of basmati rice.
5. Leave heat on medium-high and stir the rice well. Leave on stove for about 5 minutes, then transfer to your preheated oven. It should be ready in about 25 minutes depending on your oven, or until rice tastes ready.

Enjoy :)

Chicken Sukhaar

I've already shared my beef sukhaar recipe here. My chicken sukhaar recipe is exactly the same except I use small bite size chicken pieces. I normally add more spinach but ran out so that's why there isn't too much in the above photo. Follow the recipe here!

Enjoy :)

Ground Beef Spaghetti Sauce

Often times I ask myself why I didn't watch my mom cook more often while I was home! She ran her own restaurant for a little over a year, and yet I still didn't learn from her.

"Why don't you bring your girls in the kitchen?" her friends would ask, baffled at the fact that we were over the age of 15 and still having our mother cook for us.

One of the first things I learned to make was spaghetti sauce. You can't possibly run a Somali household and not make pasta. I thought long and hard trying to remember what ingredients my mom used. Determined to make it without calling her, I experimented until I made it just right.

So, here's my ground beef spaghetti sauce recipe:

You'll need:

- half a pound of ground beef
- 1 jar of Primo's tomato and basil spaghetti sauce (or any spaghetti sauce of your choice)
- one whole onion, chopped
- red and green bell pepper, chopped
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1 Maggi chicken cube
- a handful of chopped parsley
- 1 lemon

Recipe:

1. Boil the ground beef in 3-4 cups of water on medium heat.
2. When there is very little water left, add your jar of spaghetti sauce, and 1 maggi cube
3. Add 2 cups of water
4. Add your chopped onion, and your bell peppers.
5. Leave on medium heat for 25-30 minutes
6. Now mince your garlic cloves and chop your parsley, add them to the pan. (The aroma this creates is fantastic!)
7. Squeeze 1 lemon and add it to your sauce, then leave on medium-low heat for 20 minutes and let it simmer

This is delicious with lasagna. (recipe coming soon!)

Enjoy :)

Beef Sukhaar

Beef sukhaar, or tender beef chunks is a staple Somali dish. It can be eaten for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. It can be sauteed with vegetables of your choice and can be served with anjeero, malawah, or pita bread. I serve it with store bought pita bread or naan when I'm running low on time- like I did today :)

This takes about 1 hr-1hr and 15 min total, I leave it on the low heat longer because the meat and veggies become nice and tender.

What you'll need

- half pound of beef sukhaar (small chunks of beef)
- veggies of your choice (I use red & green bell pepper, one whole onion, chopped parsley, minced garlic, 2 tomatos chopped, 4 potatos chopped, 2-3 cups of fresh baby spinach)
- 1 maggi chicken cube
- 1 teaspoon of xawaaji (A somali spice, if you do not have xawaagi, use spices of your choice)
- 2 teaspoons of olive oil
- 5-6 cups of water



Recipe:

1. Boil a half pound of beef sukhaar in water until desired tenderness is achieved. Use more water if you want more of a stew... otherwise use less.
2. After boiling for 25 minutes on medium-high heat, add your tomatos first (before the rest of the veggies) and 1 cube of maggi chicken
3. 10 minutes later, add your small potato chunks
4. 15 minutes after that, add the rest of your veggies (save the spinach for last)
5. Leave on medium-low heat for at least 15-20 minutes, you can add your spinach 5 minutes before you plan to serve it. (I was told if you cook spinach too long, you lose the nutrients...)

Serve with either anjeero, malawah, or any roti type of your choice :)

Malawah

For those of you have been asking about the malawah recipe, here it is again. It was down temporarily. Enjoy :D

What you'll need

- 3 cups of all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 cups of milk
- 1/2 cup of water
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup of sugar
- 1 tsp of salt

Preparing the batter

Using an electric hand mixer, mix the above ingredients until the batter is smooth and free of chunks.

Preparing Malawah

1. Put a non stick pan on medium-high heat and grease if necessary
2. When the pan is hot, apply 1/4 cup of malawah onto the pan and spread it out in circular motions using a ladle


3. Peek under neath the malawah, when it appears to be golden brown, apply 1 tsp of butter

4. Spread the butter on the malawah and flip


5. When that side is golden brown, you may take it off of the pan and apply a pinch of sugar.
6. Eat :)

Malaysianised Somali Bariis?

I had the wonderful opportunity of watching a Somali make Bariis in her own unique style, which I think will be imprinted in my mind forever. Here in Columbus, OH, Darbo is popular among the Malaysian brothers. Most of them, being single hungry students who most of the time are too lazy/busy/tired to cook, would head out to Darbo and have their lunch and dinner.

I have eaten rice cooked the Yemeni style, Turkish style, Saudi style, Indopak style, Egyptian style, and of course the Somali style. Each style of cooking seems to produce this wonderful fluffed up plump yet long separated rice grains, glistening and individually coated with the mixture of spices. I also realized that the way Basmati rice is cooked by Malaysians for some special rice dishes that I think are originally adapted from international rice dishes is quite different.

I have never managed to master cooking Basmati rice, despite witnessing how these sisters of various ethnicities cook it, that is until, I saw how the Somali Bariis was made. May Allah reward Ruqiya for showing me how to make Somali Bariis, her way (because apparently, other Somalis make their Bariis differently).

After trying to cook Basmati rice in so many different ways before, I truly believe that what makes a big difference in how the rice turns out, is not soaking it first. The Somali Bariis that was demonstrated to me didn't involve any presoaking, and involved intense frying, until all the oil was absorbed by the rice grains, after which hot stock was poured in, producing a whoosh of hot steam that can be dangerous. But I discovered that this makes for really plump and separated rice grains.

I love cooking Basmati rice, and have discovered that it's easier to cook Basmati rice (any style) for a large number of people, and have resorted to doing this whenever we have more than 10 people over. My resulting dilemma then, is, adapting my Malaysian meat or poultry dishes and even vegetables, to marry well with the Basmati rice. In my humble opinion, and I believe maybe most Malaysians would think this too, typical everyday Malaysian meat/poultry/seafood dishes and accompanying vegetables do not pair very well with Basmati rice cooked in oil. They do however, blend in very well with plain white rice cooked with plain water. They are in fact flavored and cooked to be eaten with white rice! So whenever I do cook Basmati rice in oil, I have had to make meat/poultry dishes that are suitable, and it has not been that easy, at least not for me.

Here is my version of (I say mine because I have probably fiddled with it so much that it would not do Ruqi's Bariis much justice) the Somali Bariis:

Juli's version of Ruqi's Somali Bariis

5 cups of Basmati rice
1 medium onion, minced
1 Tbs curry powder
1/2 Tbs ground coriander
1/4 Tbs ground cumin
1/4 Tbs turmeric powder
1 tsp chilli powder/paprika
dash of salt
1 cinnamon stick roughly crushed
2-3 cardamom pods
2-3 cloves
7 1/2 cups hot beef/chicken stock
1/4 - 1/3 cup oil

1. Heat oil and toss in the minced onions until fragrant, then add the whole spices (cardamom, cinnamon stick, cloves)
2. Add rice and stir frequently, coating each grain with oil
3. Add the ground spices
4. Continue stirring until the oil is absorbed by the rice grains

5. Pour in the hot stock, but be prepared to move away very quickly from the pot because it will truly hiss and smoke!
6. Wait until it comes to a boil (since the stock is hot, this will happen pretty quickly)
7. Turn the heat down to low and cover the pot
8. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 Fahrenheit
9. When the rice looks almost done (not submerged in water but if you poke all the way to the bottom of the pot, there will still be water), transfer it to the oven until it's done (it's done when all the water has been absorbed and the rice looks fluffy)


Cook's notes:

• I use a big Mexican caldero to cook this in. A bigger wider pot is more effective than a taller pot (like a stock pot) because it helps distribute the water evenly among the rice grains


• Make sure the pot is also oven safe to make for easier transfer from stove top to the oven


• You can also finish cooking the rice on the stove top, but I believe that finishing the rice off in the oven makes it fluffier


• Did you know that uncooked rice in Malay is called 'beras' (pronounced buh-russ)? So I understand Bariss. :) Cooked rice is called 'Nasi' in Malay by the way. I can foresee future Malaysian 'Nasi' recipes coming up inshaallah, though maybe not in the near future.
  

I'm sure my version of Somali Bariss may not be up to par with the true Somali Bariss, but at least, when I no longer have my Somali sistahs around to cook the Bariss for me, I can still whip up my own version and keep that taste of Somali (as how I remember it) with me. And I'm sure the Malaysian brothers who adore Darbo appreciates my version, which is free too.

Bariis & Sukhaar

We eat different variations of bariis (rice) and sukhaar (small pieces of beef or chicken) about once a week in my home and what I love most about it is that you can cook it differently each time- no meal will taste the same. Here's one I made last week:

The rice

What you'll need:

- 4 cups of rice
- 1 tomato chopped
- 2 maggi chicken cubes
- handful of chopped parsley
- minced garlic
- 1/2 of an onion chopped
-

Steps

1. sautee the onions over a medium-high heat until they are golden brown.
2. add your chopped tomato, minced garlic, and parsley
3. add your maggi cubes and mix
4. add 4 cups of rice and mix
5. add 3 cups of water
6. put rice on low-medium heat and leave it for 20 minutes
7. pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees
8. after twenty minutes, put the rice in the oven to finish cooking
9. take rice out of the oven after 10 minutes and leave to cool

Chicken Sukhaar

What you'll need

- yogurt
- 1 tablespoon of butter
- 1/2 of an onion, chopped
- minced garlic
- chopped parsley
- xawaaji (a Somali spice)
- curry
- paprika
- chilli powder
- salt
- pepper
- garlic powder

Steps

1. marinate 1/4 pound of chicken sukhaar (chicken breast cut into small pieces)
2. mix sukhaar with 4 tablespoons of yogurt, and all of the above mentioned spices
3. mix it well and refrigerate for at least 3 hours
3. 3 hours later, grease a frying pan on medium-high with butter
4. add your marinated chicken to fry
5. 10 minutes later, add your chopped onions, parsely, and minced garlic
6. put on medium-low for 10-15 minutes
7. done

Serve your rice and sukhaar :)

Enjoy!

Somali Shaah (Tea)

I love tea :D Need I say more?


What you'll need

- water
- milk
- sugar
- tea bags
- cardamom
- cloves
- cinnamon

Steps

1. Boil 4 cups of water
2. Add one cup of sugar
3. add your tea bags (I use 2)
4. crush 5-8 cardamom pods and throw them in the kettle
5. crush 1 cinnamon stick and throw it in the kettle
6. crush 3-5 cloves and throw them in the kettle (I add a little extra)
7. Boil for 5 minutes.
8. Serve black or with milk/cream.

Enjoy.

Chapati

I normally stay away from making Chapati (a kind of bread) because it sets the smoke detectors off but when I do make them, I make enough for a few meals.

Here's the recipe:

What you'll need
- 3 cups of flour
- 2 cups of water
- 1/4 tsp of salt

What to do

1. Mix the flour and the salt
2. Slowly add in the water
3. Keep mixing it with your hands until you make a dough like ball

4. Divide the dough into small palm size pieces and flatten it out


5. Place one Chapati on your pan, when it starts to puff up with small circles, pour droplets of olive oil and flip over

6. Repeat the flipping process until the Chapati is as dark and crispy as you want it to be



Enjoy!