Mantu, Za'atar pies, Perogies

Mantu, Manti, Mintu... However you say it or spell it, I made it and it was delicious! I also made za'atar pies filled with cheese and... perogies (not remotely arab cusine, but we like them!) I'm going to tell you the recipes I used for all three.
In Canada we call a meal like this a hodgepodge! Ha!


For the Mantu:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
cold water
chicken mince
parsley
onions
peppers
cumin
coriander
salt and pepper
ginger
clove
chili

In a frying pan saute onions, chili, pepper until soft. Add chicken and cook until just browned. Add 2 tbs of water to the meat mixture and add your spices, use as much or as little spice as you want. Chop a handful of parsley and mix into the meat mixture.
In a bowl combine flour and salt, add water until your flour comes together- not a lot. The dough should NOT be sticky, wet, or soft. It's rather stiff. Knead for 5 minutes and let sit for 10 minutes before proceeding with the dough.
Cut the dough into half. Cut each half into half and keep cutting until you have divided your dough into even 2 inch pieces. Roll the dough into circles and fill with the meat mixture, sealing well.
Steam for 25 minutes, serve hot.

Za'atar pies:
1 1/2 cups water
2 cups flour + extra
Salt
3 tbs yeast
3 tbs oil
Za'atar spice (or you can just use sesame seeds)
Mozerella
One egg beaten

Preheat oven to 375. Mix oil, flour and salt together until the mixture is crumbly. Add yeast to warm water and let sit until frothy. Mix the yeast water into the flour and keep adding flour until it creates a soft springy dough. Let sit 5 minutes and then roll out, fill it with cheese. Beat an egg and wash the top of the bread, add your Za'atar and bake until golden brown.

Perogies:
2 Potatoes mashed
1 cup cheese, grated
salt and pepper
1 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp salt
Remaining Mantu dough
(same dough recipe)

Roll the dough similarly as you did for the Mantu and cut into circles, mix mashed potatoes with cheese and season the mixture well. You can add any spices you'd like. Fill the circles of dough and seal very well. Put a pot on the boil and slowly ass your perogies. The perogies are cooked when they rise to the top of the water. If you wish you can fry them with onions after, as I did.

Coconut Caramel Pound Cake

The recipe for this cake is incredibly easy to remember. Not only do most people have all of the ingredients on hand but it costs a mere fraction of the usual price (doesn't use butter or an insane amount of sugar) for a traditional pound cake- without sacrificing thickness, richness, or flavour.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Coconut Caramel Pound Cake with Custard and Tea!

The recipe:
1/2 cup coconut
1 cup yogurt
1 cup oil
2 cups sugar
3 cups all purpose flour
3 eggs
vanilla to taste
1 tsp salt
1/2 tbs baking powder
2 tbs brown sugar

Caramel:
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup milk
4 tbs butter or margarine

(We had it with caramel custard)
2 cups milk
3 eggs= 2 yolks and one whole
4 tbs all purpose flour
2 tbs sugar
vanilla

For the cake: add yogurt, oil, eggs, and sugar into a bowl. Mix until it becomes a very thick and yellow. Reserve 2 tbs of coconut and put the rest in a blender, blend coconut until it become a fine flour. Add vanilla, salt, baking powder, coconut, and flour and mix until incorporated. Do not over mix.

Find a dish to fit the batter and grease it well, put the batter in and spread it evenly on top. Place in the oven. We cooked the cake for 40 minutes and that was perfect, the middle should be risen and not moist- the cake should be fluffy and uniform. You will find the cake is quite brown, that's typical of pound cakes and cakes with yogurt. The cake will be very dense.

Separate 2 of the eggs and leave one whole, mix sugar, vanilla, and flour into a bowl and set aside. Heat up the milk until it's scaling and add a cup of it to your egg and flour mixture (hot)- whisk until it's smooth and the eggs are tempered. Add this mixture to your milk and continuously stir until thick and creamy.

Wash the pot and add your sugar and fat, cook until the sugar dissolves and starts to bubble. Add milk slowly and cook until bubbly. It will become only slightly thicker.

Pour half of the caramel on top of the cooled cake and sprinkle coconut and brown sugar on top, add the rest to the custard and whisk in.

This cake freezes very, very well for up to 3 months.

Pound cake should be served with custard on top and some tea.
Enjoy!

Quick Enchiladas!

This recipe is dedicated to my sister who never, ever has time to cook. I miss texmex with you!

These are something new I tried tonight, and let me tell you- they were easy, delicious, and filling.

You'll need a bit of preparation, but on a night where you have the ingredients on hand it's amazingly effortless.

Corn tortillas, frozen.

You'll need corn tortillas, but if you can't find them you can use tortilla bread (made with flour). I could find recipes for both the corn and flour tortillas online, it's so basic and simple I'll leave it to you. You will also need a can of salsa, but if you cannot find salsa, use onions, tomatoes, and chilis and make a sauce that way. You'll also need to preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

The recipe:
1 can of tomatoes or 2 tomatoes chopped
1 green onion
1 small white onion chopped
2 spoons texmex spice (I made my own)
1-2 chicken breasts (I used one)
2 tsp chopped garlic
salt and pepper
2 red and yellow peppers
1/4 a cabbage
1/2 cup black beans
1/2 cup corn
1 cup cheese, shredded
7-10 corn tortillas

(We also made refried beans)
1 can of pinto beans or fava beans pureed
1/2 of the white onion from above
1 tsp of the garlic above
3 tbs the tomatoes above
a small amount of the spice mixture
some cheese, shredded

Sautee 1/2 onion chopped, 1 tsp garlic until brown. Add 3 tbs tomatoes and fry for 5 minutes. Mix in spice mixture and add to your beans. Place the beans in a dish and spread evenly, sprinkle a few black beans on top for texture.

Saute 1/2 onion, peppers, garlic, cabbage, 2 tbs of tomatoes, spices, and chicken. When all is cooked, add beans and corn and cook an additional 5 minutes.

In the remaining oil in the pan lightly fry your tortillas (if using flour, skip this step).

Roll the mixture in the tortillas and place into  shallow ovenproof dish. The seam needs to be facing downwards to keep the shape. You then need to add your tomatoes to a bit of salsa and make a sauce, spread that on top. Add as much sauce as you want, we only like a bit.

Lastly, sprinkle both the enchiladas and the refried beans with cheese.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until browned an the cheese is melted.

Diet week 1

Not a good start in terms of a blog update, I said Sunday and here I am updating on Wednesday. The diet itself is going very well, week one was about food discovery. I didn't count calories as much as I looked at how many were in each food, at the end of the day I didn't tally, but by doing that I was able to cut down and still eat what I want in good proportion. I think that's why this week was so successful  aside from having a lovely and encouraging husband by my side!

The favourite recipe this week is a toss up, essentially the meals are the same but different flavors  I truly don't know what one I enjoyed, my two favourite meals were adapted so it was hard to decide. I love duck, especially duck in mandarin pancakes, so one lettuce wrap was asian flavoured. The next was lettuce tacos, crispy iceburg lettuce was used as a shell and provided the same crunch with less of the fullness you get from taco shells. I really enjoyed eating what I love and making it healthy, it was a delicious guilt free week.

I knew I was going to love the Lettuce Tacos but the Asian Wraps were a huge surprise and went way above my expectations. I ate a ton and only ate roughly 300 cal. These things are a huge deal right now, most asian joints will have them- though homemade is always better!

Asian Lettuce Wraps

1 head iceburg lettuce, pulled apart with leaves intact
2 cups shredded cabbage
1/2 cup carrot shredded
5 green onions 2 chopped and 3 sliced long
2 lbs ground chicken or turkey
1/2 cup peanuts chopped
1/2 cup chow mein noodles, uncooked
1/2 hoisin sauce
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup sesame oil

Brown off your meat until its cooked through and add cabbage, add 1/4 cup of your carrot, green onions chopped. Let cook for 3-5 minutes. In a bowl add 3 tbs hoisin, half the soy sauce, 1/4 cup water, and half the sesame oil- add this mixture to your meat and let simmer on low until dinner. Arrange peanuts, carrot, onions, chow mein, and leaves on a plate. In a bowl add hoisin, soy, and sesame oil and use as a dressing for the wraps. Assemble and eat. Enjoy.

The Bakewell Tart!

I love this tart, it's sweet and nutty, perfect for fall.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and make a simple pie crust (or buy one), I found and use several from google, I don't use just one (mainly because I'm trying to find the best one). You need to blind bake this crust and let it cool before putting the frangipan inside, blind bake for 10 minutes.

Don't ask me the definition of frangipan because all I really know is how to make it! I love it because the texture is so nice, not something creamy or fruity like you'd usually find in a pie. Reminds me of marzipan for obvious reasons.

The recipe:
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup almonds- ground
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup jam, traditionally raspberry (optional)- we used nutella once!
2 eggs
2 tbs flour
2 tbs brown sugar
powdered sugar for sprinkling
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp almond extract
a handful of flaked almonds for the top

Cream butter, sugar, vanilla and almond extract in a bowl. Mix in the eggs one at a time and then add your flour and almonds ground. Whip it well. Spread jam on the bottom of the baked pie shell, fill with frangipan. Bake 25 minutes and then add almonds and brown sugar- making sure the brown sugar is evenly and finely covering the top. Bake an additional 10 minutes, check, additional 5- 10 minutes if necessary. When cooled sprinkle powdered sugar on top.