Passing Through This Life

Assalamu alaikum  So another year and ramadan is upon us ..but this ramadan is different as we all have to stay home ...no praying in he masjids ... no community iftars .... no family and friends coming together .... but one thing it does have is time ... time to reflect on ourselves ...and a time to get closer to Allah ... we can only hope that by doing this Allah will lift this virus and show us how to become better  As for food and what to cook this year will be the same as most years ... i no longer make large amounts of food ...i like to keep it simple.... i will have some soup also know as chourba .... some days i make boreak and other days i make my version of a sausage roll but with chicken and some salad and thats it  Ramadan isnt about how full we can make our stomachs it about learning and growing ..about feeling how those who are without food feel ..its about the body fixing its self ... its about restraint and will power  ...

Asalamu alikum  I'm back and ready to go ... things have changed and i started to learn some new recipes so i think it is a great time to start posting again  so what have i learned well the first thing is algerian bread called motula Ingredients 3 bowl of flour 1 bowl of seomlina 3 tbsp yeast 6 tbsp of sugar 3 tbsp of salt  and around 2 bowls or warm water ..you may need more  my next post i will take pics of every stage of making the dough  the bread above is made on the tajinn but you call also make it in the oven your oven must be very hot 

Asalamu alikum Well it sure has been a long time since i posted so i thought let me share this Pocasi recipe with you while i remember This soup is made from split green peas first i wash the peas and then add them to my pot (i used a pressure cooker) i added onion ... garlic..... i diced up carrots ...courgettes...and potato into  really small bits and added to the pot i also added black pepper....salt ...cumin...and razel hanut.... fill with water and placed lid on  and allowed to cook about 30 to 40 mins in total ... then let the pressure out and open then  stir.... if you need more water add and allow to cook towards the end add some tomato puree and allow to thicken up a little .... when i make this i do not use oil and i should say that this type of soup will continue to thicken and even the next day you will need to add more water to thin out ... but masha`allah is a really nice soup

Asalam wa alikum So whats for afternoon tea ...well let me tell you .... after 9 years of living here i still dont know the names of a few thing and this is one of them .... what i call it is Algeria`a version of french toast with sugar.... even to say french toast might be wrong but when i was growing up and was doing cooking in school that was one of the things we were taught but not with the sugar so all you need is some stale bread i try not to buy to much bread these days as it doesnt get eaten to much ... my family seems to prefer when i make pitta bread anyway what you needis stale bread (we use french stick) eggs sugar oil to fry it in and thats it ...easy huh!!! just cut the french stick into rounds as big as you like dip it in the eggs that also has a little milk in it then fry once finished ... dip straight into sugar and presto chango!!!! enjoy with what ever takes your fancy

So yes once again another djuezzes .... one of the thing i love about algeria that one name can mean so many things So what djuezzes did i make ... well it`s a mince meat balls in a red sauce with carrots and peas ... the carrots are diced and the spices used are black pepper , cumin, salt . and paprika ... i also use carwia  and garlic then i cut some potatoes in rounds and fried them and that`s it i was first introduced to this by a friend and in her husband family they would put chilli in it to make it hot ... now masha`allah i love it that way ... but my kids aren't too fond of it  In my husband family they make something similar but the carrots are cut in circles and they dont but chilli or paprika in it or even carwia ... but when i make it i do  they also dont use garlic but i do .. this is how it looks

Being on a budget mean i have to think of way to feed my kids and now that they go to public school i now have to start to give them something for break time ... i`m not much of a baker and i hold my hand up to that ... so i try to find things that are simple enough and dont cost too much money to make and the kids will like so broiche is what i thought i would try today .... i have been wanting to try this for a long time and finally i did i got the recipe form my friend  but what i did is join two of them together  so from this one  and this one and this is what i came up with so what do you think ?

So now with the kids back to school i have to try to make extra things so as to fill their tums and one of those things is Msmem now i have made these a few time but always had a little problem with them ... so i started to research them and found a youtube video on them and masha`allah was a difference it is measurement are totally up to each person for what i made today ... i used 1 bowl of semolina fine and 1 bowl of flour and salt and mixed with water but i followed some of the ways of this video  http://youtu.be/d9yC9Nf1FHs ‫

So this is oe of the cakes i made for eid .... now i`ll let you in a secret this is the second time i made them The first time they didnt have the fullness like these one do ... but according to my dh and kids they tasted great The problem the first time was i added to much egg white to the nut mixture and they to help firm it i kept adding sugar well that was all wrong so this time around masha`allah i`m so pleased that it worked out ... and even better their my dh favorite type of cake ... so i can see him come home every so often with almonds for making them The recipe for this was given to me by my neighbour Nut Mixture 3 bowls of almonds (this works out about 1/2 kilo of almonds) and these were place in machine to powder them down 1 bowl of icing sugar vanilla/lemon egg whites .( it will depend on the mixture as to how much you use ... i ended up using a little over two) Pastry 3 bowls of flour 1 bowl of melted butter/margarine vanilla/lemon mazhar ...

So i thought that i should every so often do a review on something that i have tried form other blogs and their recipes .... i think it`s a great way to let other know that it does work and tastes great so here`s one for you .... this recipe come form a very good friend of mine and her blog Being Kate Masha`allah we always make this type of food in out house but never thought to do it the way kate makes it so i thought lets try it and see Well masha`allah it was excellent  and looks so much better than the way most algerians do it ...which is by mixing in the eggg and keep mixing which by the end doesnt look very appealing here`s how it turned out for me I would defiantly recommend this  recipe and tell you to pop by kates blog and let her know weither you liked it too

So here`s another one for you it`s an algerian dish called k`babh  this dish can be made with either chicken or meat balls so today i went with mince balls .... it is a very simple dish and very tasty ... to tell the truth it had been a while since i made it as alot of time i leave out the parsley and egg  but this time i went to whole way to getting this dish right  you must be careful that their isnt too much sauce or too little sauce  and as long as you can get that then the dish speaks for it`s self ... believe me it took me a long time to get  it right ... that now my dh nephew  says i cook better than his mum and he love to eat what i make TO MAKE THE MINCE BALLS mince meat (as much or as little as you like) a handful of rice ( this also depends on the amount of mince ) breadcrumbs (optional ) 1 egg black pepper salt cumin TO MAKE THE SAUCE 1 onion handful of chick peas black pepper salt cumin chips(fried potatoes) METHOD ...

we are one for pizza and this ramdan you can believe that alot of pizza was made  and eaten .... but last year i remember my dh coming home and saying i will teach you a new one ...so i said go ahead masha`allah it was delicious ....the amazing thing was their is no cheese on this pizza ...(what i hear you say).... yes no cheese so basically  i use the same pizza dough as here then i spread just tomato puree and not the sauce i usually use all over the dough ... then i cut fresh tomatoes in circles and for my dh we take the seeds out as he believes their not good for the stomach ...and i place these around the dough and into the middle .... now what make this pizza it i place sardines that have been salted and the salt remains on it  this i open and take the bones out and tear it  into little pieces and place aound the pizza when finished place in oven till dough is cooked then take out and brush some oil normal oil over the top and cut and eat ... believe you...

So sometimes when watching t.v. you can come across many cooking programs and sometime i wonder do ppl really cook that and eat it ...... well the other day i was watch algerian t.v. with dh  and everyday their is a cooking program as i watched the woman i thought oh that looks good ... now i have to say that i have watched this program last year too and did make one of her dishes and masha`allah it was good and we all loved it so as i sat their dh also said thats look nice give it a try ...so i wrote down what she did and yesterday i tried it .... now what i will say is that it needed something else but it was nice so next time i will change it a little to suit ourselves anyway this is what we used mince meat (i used minced chicken) onion garlic tomatoes (2) tomato puree courgettes (2) potatoes (2) peppers (4) black pepper salt cumin carwia coriandor 5 eggs take your mince and mix all spices into it as well as a little garlic and 1 egg then  roll into b...

when i first read the name flan on a box i thought no way as my dad use to make flans all the time ... but it was a sponge lite thing with a filling in the middle with cream and fruit nut here i algeria it`s not ... it`s  dessert  that is made from a powder and milk and then once cooled down placed in the fridge to set like a jelly (jello) and become cold ... their are all different flavors ... last night we did strawberry

so now summer is here it`s time for sardines .... every morning you will here the local men going around with their carts filled with sardines and all you will here is ya sardine... ya sardine ...... today was one of those day and most of the time it can be expensive to buy but at this time of the year masha`allah the price has come down ...... so today was sardines every home has it`s way of cooking and making sardines ...... it can be made in a red sauce with garlic ... or cleaned and spice thrown over it and then coated in semolina or flour ...... i personally prefer flour and so does my dh .... so in my house today we  pu black pepper ... cumin.... and rasel hanout ( which is a mixture of spice ) ... salt .... and garlic ....   and tomato puree .....quantities  all depends on how much sardine you are using now even with all that their is no such thing as waste ... in my dh family they dont like to throw away the flour that they coated the sardines in so ...

I`ve never been one for frugal ...... well at least i thought i wasnt ... but as of lately i have had to really watch the pennies .... which is a hard job and i take my hat of to those who have done it or are doing it after living with my dh family for 2 years i did manage to pick up a few tricks of the trade and one of those was a chuchkuka  with veg ...such a simple dish and tasty for this one the ingerdients are 3 peppers 1 big onion 3 tomatoes 1 aubergine 4 big potatoes black pepper and salt slice all veg in long strips then place onion on bottom then tomatoes then peppers the aubergine the slice potaoes like you would if make chips (fries) sprinkle a pinch of black pepper and salt and place a lid of top of saucepan (non stick would be better) leave on a low heat ... their is no need for water unless you find it sticking a little on the bottom ... then just add a few drops it takes about 20/30 mins to cook spinach is also a very frugal dish and...

so here in algeria their are many types of dolma  the one i make the most is with potato and courgettes and when i make it i know for sure my kids will eat it it can be made with chickpeas or with green peas  it`s really up to you so for a family of 6 i use  1 courgette to 2 potatoes Ingredients 12 small potatoes 6 courgette handful of chick peas or peas 1 small onion black pepper cumin salt   Filling to stuff mince meat a handful of rice parsley onion black pepper cumin salt egg Method first prepare courgettes and potato by hollowing out the insides .... the courgettes the hole goes right through so you can see form both ends and the potato just half way down  then  taking the filling that you have mixed together and place a little in each of the courgettes and potatoes dice  onion finely place in saucepan  with a little oil and soften them then add some of the inside bits of  the veg with it and continue to...

so it`s the season for betingel (aubergines) .... at first i really didnt like them but as time went on i became fond of  it .... their are may ways to cook them but here it`s either just fried as this my dh like ... or i like the in a chukkuka  with tomato and garlic and spices and cheese and eggs and finished off in the oven ..... so go on give it a try .... we sure ate it all .....

so summer holidays are here soon and the kids are just preparing for their exams and once thats done schools out ... so it will be back to cooking lunches and dinners every day ...... while their in school i dont need to do lunches as they stay in school all day and get feed their .... but with them being at home it means having to cook ... but the best thing about summer it is easy cooking .... all light lunches which will make me happy and one of those lunches is this potato and spinach mix such a simple dish fry some chips and place them in bottom of oven dish at the same time chop up spinach (i prefer them chop small ) and place in a  little water and boil ... you can use baby spinach here just place a little butter in a pan and add spinach and allow to wilt then when spinach is cooked drain out water and allow to cool down ... then you need to take the spinach into your hands and squeeze the remainder of water out and place the spinach over your chips the d...

naughty me hasn`t really being posting .... sorry for that ... but as you know life gets busy from time to time espically when my dh is here so today as usual i`m always think what to cook and i get fed up by it .... but my kids decided for me they all wanted matoum which is an algerian dish so as always too i have to make something along side with this as my dh like choice so i also made chlitha matoum is made with chick peas garlic lot of garlic black pepper, salt, cumin, and carwia ,this is for the sauce the mince is mixed with the same spices and an egg and made into ball and added and when everything is nearly cook you add some tomato puree the chlitha is made from blacken peppers and placing in a bag to sweat it out then you chop up tomatoes and garlic and black pepper and salt and plack into a frying pan ... then cook til tomato is soft .... while this is cooking remove the skin from the peppers and slice in long strips and then add to the tomatoes ... now some ppl...

so it`s that time of the year again and the peas are in season and so are broad beans ..... so all you will smell coming from ppl`s homes is misfoof ....... to those who dont know this it is cous cous with peas and broad beans steamed and mixed into cous cous with either butter or ghee or olive oil   in my house i end up doing three different ways  ... 1 is with olive oil as dh loves that ... the other is with butter as i cant stand olive oil and third is with butter and no steamed veg as two of my kids wont eat it that way .... and all of this is washed down with leban (butter milk) but once summer comes in then it`s made with grapes