Um Ali
Um Ali is true comfort food, flaky buttery pastry in a rich and creamy sauce, embellished with nuts, dried fruit and coconut.
Author: suerady06
Macarona Bechamel
Macarona Bechamel – imagine the best Mac & Cheese crossed with a wonderfully rich lasagne – this is Macarona Bechamel.
Spiced Baked Fish
Spiced Baked Fish
Spiced baked fish makes a delicious meal. The skin is wonderfully crispy whilst the flesh inside is tender and flaky.
The Spice Blend makes all the difference with Spiced Baked Fish
The blended herbs and spices elevate the flavours of the fish in this dish rather than overwhelm it. The fresh coriander forms the base of the mix and lends a real freshness to the dish.
Tahini, which is of course sesame paste, helps bind the mix, whilst at the same time bringing a slight nut flavour.
Cumin has rich warm earthy tones and is used in many curries because it bolsters spices generally and it plays an important role in bringing together the spices for this recipe for Spiced Baked Fish.
Fish has a beautiful, mild sweetness when it’s cooked and the paprika re-inforces this element of the natural flavouring wonderfully.
We mustn’t forget the importance of the salt which not only helps to season the fish evenly, but also allows the flavours to develop.
Black pepper of course offers an element of heat. It provides a slight kick without being too spicy. It also enhances flavours generally as is why it’s used in so many recipes.
Consider how hot you enjoy your food
Of course the real heat is brought by the inclusion of the chillies. It’s important to consider at this point what level of chilli spice you enjoy. If you don’t really like your food too spicy, then I would suggest using mild chillies rather than leaving them out completely. This is because they do bring their own flavour as well as heat. Or maybe try reducing the quantity you use.
Lemons complement just about any fish dish and this dish benefits from its citrus tones. And garlic provides not only great flavour but also amazing aromas.
Seering the fish properly is so important
Olive oil brings with it a certain amount of flavour and when it’s massaged into the skin it promotes the crisping which seers it. This ensures that the flesh inside stays beautifully moist. It must be said just how important it is to pre-heat your oven and make sure that it’s really hot before putting the fish in because this again ensures that the skin seers.
This finishing touch for Spiced Baked Fish is optional – but sooo good
If you choose to add the finishing touch of smoking your Spiced Baked Fish and giving it a smoky barbeque flavour, this will give it yet another layer of taste and its flavours will be taken to yet another level.
*To make life easier for yourself, get your fishmonger to gut and de-scale the fish, ready for you to cook.
Serves 4-6
Ingredients
- 6 whole fish such as Sea Bass weighing about 200g each
- sea salt
- 1 small bunch of fresh coriander – stalks removed and leaves chopped
- 2 tbsp of tahini (sesame paste)
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 2 tsp sweet paprika
- 2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 8 garlic cloves – finely chopped
- 1 tsp chilli flakes
- 2 red chilli sliced ( or as much as you prefer)
- juice of 4 large lemons
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- lemon wedges to garnish
- 1cm sq charcoal if you chose to serve it barbequed flavour – optional
- & kitchen foil
How to make your Spiced Baked Fish
Pre-heat oven to 220 degrees C
Salt and then rinse
Sprinkle sea salt over the fish and rub it well into the skin and the cavity then rinse it off under running water.
Make the herb and spice blend for your Spiced Baked Fish
Put the fresh coriander into a food processor and add the tahini, ground cumin, ground coriander, paprika, black pepper, garlic, chilli flakes and fresh chilli. Add half the lemon juice and half the olive oil, and then process the ingredients until they form a paste.
Fill the cavity
Stuff the cavity of each fish with the coriander and chilli paste. Save 1 tablespoon of the paste and mix the remaining lemon juice and olive oil with it.
Make 3 slits
Cut three diagonal slits into the sides of the fish and lay them on a roasting tray.
Massage the skin
Pour the remaining paste that you have mixed with the lemon juice and olive oil over the fish and rub it into the slits you have cut and into the skin on both sides. This not only marinates the fish infusing flavour, but the olive oil aids the seering process, crisping up the skin and sealing it to protect the tender flesh inside, keeping it perfectly moist.
Rest for 20 minutes
Let your fish rest for about 20 minutes in the marinade to allow the flavours of spice to permeate and give their full benefit.
Make sure the oven has reached its temperature
Ensure the oven’s hot enough to seer your Spiced Baked Fish.
Bake for about 20 minutes
Bake your fish in the oven for about 20 minutes. Remove the foil and pop it back into the oven for 5 minutes to allow the skin to crisp up and become golden.
Rest for 5 minutes
Your Spiced Baked Fish needs to rest for 5 minutes before serving.
Now for your optional Final Touch
Give Smoking a go – it’s so much easier than you think
If you enjoy the flavour of barbequed fish, try smoking it. It’s much easier than you think.
Once the fish is cooked, take some kitchen foil about 20cm x 10cm and fold it in half so it’s double thickness. Lay it in the palm of your hand and press down in the centre to form a bowl.
Pour a few drops of oil into the bowl you’ve just made. Lay the bowl in the baking tray with your cooked fish.
Prepare a piece of kitchen foil big enough to cover your baking tray and tuck over the edges.
A piece of charcoal the size of a bean and 5 minutes is all it takes.
Set a piece of charcoal (about 1cm square) alight, directly on the gas ring. Once it starts to glow red and smoke, blow out the flame and put it into the bowl with the oil, in the roasting tray. Quickly cover the tray with the foil you prepared, ensuring that it’s completely sealed. Keep it somewhere warm and allow it to rest for 5 minutes to allow the fish to absorb the wonderful smoky flavour, before serving. The taste is amazing, it elevate the flavour of the fish to yet another level.
Before you serve your Spiced Baked Fish
Just before serving lay your fish on a large serving plate and pour the pan juices over.
This recipe for spiced baked fish is packed with flavour and a real delight. I hope you love it as much as I do.
Let me know how you get on, and whether you tried smoking.
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Musa’ah
Musa‘ah
So, what is Musa’ah?
Musa’ah is a really good, rich, tomatoey, vegetable dish which can be served as a side-dish or on its own with lots of good, warm, flat bread to scoop it up.
And what does Musa’ah taste like?
The flavours of Musa’ah are deep and strong. You initialy have the rich sweetness of tomatoe. This is complemented by the fresh tang from the green peppers. The cooked aubergine is soft and absorbs the flavours, acting almost like a soft buttery, flavour sponge. The dish is laced with garlic which fills the air as the Musa’ah cooks.
Vinegar is an important ingredient in this recipe, only a small quantity is added but it makes all the difference. It’s frequently used in place of wine in Islamic countries to raise the acidity of a dish and it brings the flavours to life wonderfully.
It’s best to allow your Musa’ah to cool after cooking, to make the most of the flavours.
You can eat musa’ah as soon as it’s finished cooking but it’s much better just warm or at room temperature as you can appreciate the flavours better. If you can leave it until the next day the flavours develop further and it becomes even tastier. It can be served warm or at room temperature.
Here’s the Musa’ah secret
The secret to this dish is to fry each vegetable separately so that the flavours remain separate and distinguishable rather than totally amalgamated.
Ingredients
- 1 red pepper
- 2 green peppers
- 2 large aubergine
- 6 cloves garlic – finely chopped
- 4 large tomatoes finely chopped or a tin of chopped tomatoes
- 1 tsp sugar
- ¼ pint water
- 3 tbsp white vinegar
- a good pinch of chilli flakes (optional)
- a good pinch of both salt and freshly ground black pepper to season
- 1 tsp of ground cumin
- handful of fresh coriander leaves – chopped (optional)
- juice of half a lemon
- olive oil for frying
Method
First cut the vegetables
Wash and de-seed the peppers and remove the stem, then cut them into long strips, the full length of the pepper (top to bottom) and 1cm wide.
Wash and cut the aubergine in half – top to bottom. Cut each half in half again – top to bottom. Now each quarter into slices 1cm thick.
Start by frying the peppers
Drizzle oil into a large frying pan and fry the peppers until they soften. When cooked transfer to a plate.
Then the aubergine
Add a little more oil to the frying pan and fry the aubergine until they become really soft and browned – remember to brown both sides. Add the garlic to the pan and allow to cook for just a minute before putting these on the plate with the peppers.
Now, for the delicious tomato sauce
Next, add a little more oil to your frying pan and fry the tomatoes with the sugar. Add the vinegar, water, chilli (if you are using it) and cumin and season well. Cook this until it reduces slightly to become a good rich sauce, about the same consistency as that most famous cream of tomato soup.
Bring the vegetables back
Add the peppers and aubergine back into the frying pan.
Add a splash of water to the pan to prevent it from becoming too dry. Then cover with a tightly fitting lid.
Simmer for 10 minutes
Reduce the heat down to the lowest setting and simmer gently for 10 minutes. This will allow the flavours to develop and the vegetables soften a little. But they should still have a little bite.
Do a taste test
Adjust the seasoning before serving if necessary.
Before serving your Musa’ah …
Stir in the coriander leaves and squeeze the lemon juice over to boost the flavours just before serving.
Musa’ah’s great to share
Serve on a low, flat, sharing dish, with warm pita bread.
Double up & pop some in the freezer for another day
Musa’ah freezes really well so I tend to make double the quantities and freeze half as it makes a great stand-by for supper or lunch.
Although this is actually a vegan recipe, it’s loved by everyone. I hope you’ll try it.
Let me know how you get on.
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Smoked Chicken with Paprika Stuffing
Smoked Chicken with Paprika Stuffing
Smoked Chicken with Paprika Stuffing is a phenomenal recipe for chicken. (It’s also excellent for duck.)
Smoking is so easy.
If you’re worried that smoking would be really difficult, or needs to be done outside, or needs fancy, expensive equipment, let me reassure you that this none of these are true. All you need is a piece of charcoal the size of a bean and a little aluminium foil – that’s it, it’s that simple. I promise you, you can do this and I’ll show you how.
This is not the regular stuffing you may expect
This isn’t stuffing as you may know it though. The chicken isn’t kept whole and its cavity filled. This filling is stuffed under the skin and so coats the meat. The bird is then marinated over-night so the flavours permeate fully before it’s roasted. Believe me these flavours are simply incredible.
What heat levels do you enjoy?
The recipe does include fresh chillies, so consider what heat levels you enjoy. Either use mild chillies which provide all the flavour but only a little heat or maybe choose ones that have a bit more of a kick if that’s what you enjoy.
The spices in the marinade infuse the meat
The sweet paprika and the slight spiciness of the chilli infuse the meat and gives it such a powerful boost of flavour which compliments the essence of the meat and elevates it rather than overwhelms it.
Like so many other ladies in Egypt, my daughter in law’s mother is a fabulous cook. This is a wonderful dish that she makes on frequent occasions. I remember the first time I had it. It was so unusual, the flavours were amazing and it just blew me away.
Chicken with Paprika Stuffing is a great choice for entertaining
This is a great recipe for when you’re having friends around. All the prepping gets done the day before and then you just need to pop it into the oven for half an hour on the day. Plus, in my experience it’s always a real crowd pleaser and people are blown away by the flavours.
Ingredients
- 1 chicken – cut into quarters
Ingredients for the salt rub
- white vinegar
- juice of a lemon
- liberal sprinkling of salt
Ingredients for the Marinade
- 2 medium onions very, very finely chopped or grated
- 3 beautiful ripe tomatoes – skinned and de-seeded and flesh finely chopped
- 1/2 ripe red pepper – very finely chopped or grated
- 1 red & 1 green chilli finely sliced into rings
- juice of 1½ lemons
- 2 stock cubes – grated
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- 1 tsp sweet paprika
- 1 tsp sugar
- ½ tsp chilli flakes
- ¼ tsp cumin
- ¼ tsp cinnamon
- 2 bay leaves very finely chopped
To make your Smoked Chicken with Paprika Stuffing smokey you need:
- a piece of charcoal the size of a bean
- some aluminium foil
- 1/2 tspn cooking oil
Method
First you need to make your pockets
Take the chicken and make pockets between the skin and the meat where the stuffing will be put. Simply lift the skin and slip your fingers in to make the pocket. There’s a lot of stuffing and it all needs to go in, so, make the pockets as big as you can. You may need to use the tail end of a spoon or something similar to ease the skin up.
Rub in the salt mix & pop in the fridge
Rub the salt rub deep into the skin and flesh of the chicken and put it into the fridge for about ½ hour whilst you prepare the stuffing.
Let’s make the stuffing for your Smoked Chicken with Paprika Stuffing
To skin the tomatoes cut a cross slit into the skin, put them into a heat-proof bowl and cover them with boiling water. Leave them for about 5 minutes, then remove them from the water and their skins should just slip off. If they don’t come off easily simply repeat the process.
Once skinned cut the tomatoes in half and scoop out the seeds. Then chop very finely.
Slice and chop all the ingredients for the stuffing as required and then put them into a large bowl. Bring them all together by really squeezing them between your fingers and do this for several minutes. This will amalgamate all the ingredients and produce finely chopped ingredients within a lot of liquid.
* PLEASE make sure you wash your hands thoroughly after handling the chillis and even then don’t touch your eyes for the rest of the day or even your face (or other parts) as it will make them burn and tingle beyond belief.
*You could alternatively do this in a food processor and blitz everything until it’s very fine.
Rinse off all the salt
Take the salted chicken out of the fridge and rinse it under cold running water, rubbing it with your hands as you do so, to remove all the salt rub. Remember to rinse out the pockets you made to make sure that salt hasn’t got stuck in there. Squeeze the portions to remove as much water as possible and allow them to drain for a couple of minutes before moving on to the next stage.
Now to fill those pockets for your glorious Smoked Chicken with Paprika Stuffing
Now you are ready to begin stuffing.
Take one portion at a time and resting it above the bowl of stuffing, open up each pocket and scoop up the solid part of the stuffing and push in as much of it, under the skin, as you possibly can. It may seem like there is far too much stuffing but as it cooks down it will reduce down and actually become quite a thin, but very tasty, layer.
Marinade your Chicken with Paprika Stuffing over-night if you can
When you’ve used all the stuffing to fill the pockets, put the duck portions into the bowl and pour the liquid from the stuffing over the top. Cover the bowl with cling film and leave in the fridge for a couple of hours or preferably over-night to marinade.
Pre-heat your oven
20 minutes before cooking, Pre-heat your oven to 170 degrees C.
Bake in the oven
Remove the chicken portions from the marinade and place on a baking tray.
Rub a ltlle oil onto the skin of the chicken pieces, this will help it to crisp up and brown.
Roast in your pre-heated oven for about 25 minutes until the skin becomes beautifully golden and crispy.
Remove from the oven, cover with kitchen foil and allow your chicken to rest for 10 minutes before serving. During this time the final layer of flavour is added with the smoking.
Time to get smoking
Take a piece of aluminium foil about 30cm square and fold it in half and then in half again to form a square. Then lay it in the palm of your hand. Make your hand into a bowl shape and with your other hand push the foil to also make it into a bowl.
Put the piece of charcoal over a flame on the stove and allow it to catch alight. Blow out the flame and at this point it will blow red.
Put half a teaspoon of oil into the foil bowl that you’ve just made and lay it in the roasting tray with the cooked chicken under the foil.
The foil covering the roasting tray needs to be airtight so check that first. Then lift it quickly to allow access to the foil bowl.
Using tongs or a spoon pick up the glowing charcoal and put it into the foil bowl, quickly putting the foil back over the roasting tray, ensuring that it’s airtight again. This is important, because otherwise you’ll end up with a smoke filled kitchen.
Allow the chicken to smoke for 10 minutes. Then remove the charcoal and drop it in water to stop the smoking.
Your glorious Smoked Chicken with Paprika Stuffing is now ready
As Smoked Chicken with Paprika Stuffing has so much flavour, it’s good to serve it with something simple like Egyptian Rice and maybe a a Herb Salad. This allows the chicken to take centre stage and for all the wonderful flavours to shine through.
I do hope you’ll try this recipe for Smoked Chicken with Paprika Stuffing, I’m sure you won’t be disappointed, as I said the flavours are incredible.
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