Beets with a Beat

When you know beets are delicious because you've had them in a salad, but you bought them and they look so horrid that you lose all hope, don't fear! Growing beets is very methodical, and rhythmic, the harvesting and cooking are as well. So keep up with the beat of the beets, and follow my song!

My friend has bee growing beets in her yard because she thought they would be cool and fun to grow. The problem is, after forgetting about them for 6 months in the ground, we've realized that the leaves were tough and inedible, and the beets themselves were small, and hard.  Hard beets? But they were soft and in much larger chunks in the salad I ate! I guess they were cooked? how? Roasted? boiled? baked? fried? :-/  Darn.

I love growing beets because they actually don't need much space. You can grow them on a patio in a pot that is about 5 inches deep. I love the leaves because they are glossy and green often with beautiful red stems. A great decorative outdoor plant!

So first of all, growing beets is quite easy. You seed them in the ground, pushing the seed about an inch into soft ground. Our soil is very much clay soil, so to prepare the ground, we first need to dig it up and mix our clay soil with some potting soil and fertilizer. After planting your seeds and covering them lightly with dirt, sprinkle them lightly with water every 2 days for the next 4 weeks, and then you'll see some plants coming up. If each plant is closer than 2 inches to the next, you'll want to move them carefully to give each beet root room to thrive.

As the plants grow and you continue to water them every 2 days, the leaves will also start to grow.
The growing follows a 2/4 pattern (every 2 days watering, 4 weeks to get seedlings, 2 inches apart, 2 months total for leaves, and 4 months total for beets)
When they are 2-4 inches long, you can cut them, leaving about 1/2 inch of leaves at the base of your beet so the leaves will regrow. After about 3 months, you are ready to harvest your beets. Dig them out of the ground, brush off the dirt, and lovingly carry your new achievements inside. There they'll be gleefully slaughtered and roasted. :-D

Beets can be cooked in a variety of ways. The easiest for me is roasting them in the oven. Hold this for final note for 2 counts (about 2 hours between cleaning and cooking) and you're done with the song of beets!
To prepare your beets, slice off each end of the beet, and scrub the skin with the rough end of a sponge, or a tooth brush you reserve especially for scrubbing vegetables.  Next, move your shining beets to a casserole dish, toss with a little olive oil, and cover with a lid or aluminum foil. Cook them in the oven covered for an hour to hour and a half depending on their size. Beets also go well with a variety of spices and can be roasted with rosemary, garlic, oregano, sage or thyme, or can be roasted with vegetables like sweet peppers, tomatoes, carrots or artichoke.

You can ignore them during roasting, tuning your house with a fine sweet mood like background music,  while you watch a movie, do some exercise, drink some sangria, blow bubbles with the kids, plant more beet seeds in the ground...

Once you're finished, remove your beets from the oven, peel them, slice them or quarter them. Use them for garnish, flavor in salads, a delicious side-dish, or add them to your carrots and make a lovely juice in the juicer.

The songs involving beets, like songs of love, may be endless... Enjoy the music!

Roasted Beets with Olive oil:
Serves 4
Ingredients:

• 4 medium beets, scrubbed, with both top and bottom trimmed off 
• 1 TB olive oil
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Place your beets and olive oil in a casserole with a well-fitting lid.
3. Toss your beets to coat them in oil. Sprinkle lightly with black pepper 
4. Cover tightly with casserole lid or aluminum foil. Place in your preheated oven and bake for 1 hour and a half. 
5. Remove from oven and cut beets as you prefer. 

Nutrition Facts for one medium-size roasted beet
60 total calories, 9gm total carbohydrate, 4gm fiber, 0gm protein, 0.5gm fat
(0.5 Carbohydrate (0 NET carb), 0 Fat, and 0 protein exchanges)

Moroccan Braised Lamb Shanks

When I get the itch to pamper myself, and a sincere itch to cook, I'll do something with lamb.  Its not easy to find fresh lamb meat, usually its frozen, and not often halal. But when an opportunity arises to get good, grass-fed fresh lamb meat, I definitely suggest you do it quickly. Lamb has a slight game-like flavor, similar to goat and deer meat, but it is a few degrees milder, but also lamb that is farm-raised is degrees less gamey than its grass-fed counterpart. I prefer to use lamb over beef in most dishes, including those with ground meat.

I love lamb because it has a heavy, warm flavor, that even after a bite I feel pampered when I need it most. It is rich and delicious.  But be forewarned, lamb is a very fatty type of meat. 

Lamb shanks as they begin to boil with water, browned onions, garlic, and spices. 

With my family's history of a lemon surplus, I even had to preserve a lot of my extra lemons. I adapted a method that I got from the whole foods store, and made my own recipe for preserved lemons here.
Combining my love of lamb with an overabundance of and passion for lemons, I made a beautiful braised lamb shank. This dish involves a lot of time and nursing. You can be passively revisiting your pot every 30 minutes or so, but you should be nearby. After starting my dish, I ran a few errands at the post office, came back to turn my lamb, responded to a couple emails, returned to turn the lamb, cut my vegetables, returned to turn the lamb, etc. If you start at 3pm, you'll have dinner by around 7-7:30. Do this on your days off from work! Otherwise, you'll eat dinner at 10pm and die from exhaustion! I paired the lamb with sauteed fingerling potatoes and my recipe for roasted beets.

This dish pairs well with rice flavored with saffron and turmeric(not pictured) or some pan-fried potatoes seasoned with allspice and roasted beets. 

Hang in there, if you don't like lamb but love lemon, I'll give you other recipes to make with the preserved lemons, like one with chicken & olives, or I'll have more on my post about preserved lemons.

Moroccan Lamb shank with Vegetables and Preserved Lemons
Serves 6

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 2 large onions, peeled and finely chopped
• 3 large cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 1 tsp. sweet paprika
• 1 tsp. ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp saffron threads
• 1 tsp allspice
• 3 lamb shanks
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 Preserved Lemon, thinly sliced
• 2 large carrots, peeled and sliced into coin shape.
• 2 medium zucchini, halved lengthwise and sliced into half-circles

Directions:

1. Use a wide, ideally shallow pot for this dish. Lamb shanks are large and they should ideally sit flat on the bottom of the pot. For this dish I use a wok or large, 4"deep pot or skillet that has a lid.
2. Heat the oil in a large heavy pot over medium heat. Add onions and cook, stirring constantly, until they become soft and slightly clear, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook about 2 minutes longer until garlic has browned slightly.
3. Stir in the four spices and cook for an additional 2 minutes.
4. Add lamb shanks, arranging in a layer on top of the onions. 
5. Add enough water to cover the lamb about halfway, then season with salt and pepper (alternatively, I use beef or lamb stock with black pepper and leave out the salt for a boost of flavor).
6. Bring to a boil, uncovered over high heat. Reduce heat to low, partially cover the pot, and simmer for 3 hours, turning your shanks about every 30 minutes to keep them moist. 
7. Scatter preserved lemon slices over meat and top with vegetables. Cover pot and cook until vegetables are tender, about 30 minutes.
8. Arrange meat and vegetables on a large serving platter. Skim and discard fat from sauce, pour a little sauce over meat and vegetables, and serve remaining sauce on the side. 

Nutrition Facts for 1/2 lamb shank and 1c carrots and zucchini:
460 total calories, 7gm total carbohydrate, 5gm fiber, 27gm protein, 16gm fat
(1 Carbohydrate (1 NET carb), 3 Fat, and 4 protein exchanges

Moroccan Preserved Lemons

A wonderful use of a lemon surplus is to preserve them with salt and spices. This is commonly done in Morocco, and lemons are usually preserved until winter time when their use in flavoring food continues when lemon season does not.

Our Orange-X juicer. It has a long arm that crashes down over the lemons. Great if you have bucketfuls of citrus  to squeeze!

First slice the top and bottom off the lemon, then cut a cross into the lemon vertically, being careful to not go completely through the bottom of the lemon. Stuff the cross with rock salt.

This recipe is amazingly easy, the lemons being preserved in just salt and their own juices. The beauty of preserved lemons is their acidity is reduced with preservation, and the lemony flavor is amazingly strong. They also add a bit of salt to cooked food, minimizing your need to add salt in cooking, and preserved lemons can be cooked without becoming bitter (fresh lemons are much more bitter when cooked).

Push your salt-stuffed lemons into a jar, packing them tightly. Don't be afraid if you squeeze out some juice. After each layer of lemons, add a layer of whole spices. When you can no longer add more lemons, add the lemon juice until it completely covers the tops of the lemons. Then add a final layer of rock salt, cover, shake, and store it in a cool, dark place, caring for your lemons as directed in the recipe below.


To use your lemons after they had been preserved, simply wash off the excess salt, and take out the seeds. You can use the lemons in stews, also using the sliced rind in salads or even drinks.

I'll provide you with recipes for chicken, and lamb and salad using these preserved lemons.
So try these, you'll love them!


Moroccan Preserved Lemons
Ingredients:

• 2  1-Quart canning jars with lids
• 1c kosher salt
• 16-18 organic eureka lemons, scrubbed clean
• 2 tsp whole cloves
• 2 tsp black peppercorns
• 2 tsp coriander seeds
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 4 bay leaves
• 1c lemon juice

Directions:

1. To prepare your canning jars, first wash them in hot, soapy water. You may boil them or use a high-temperature dishwasher to ensure their cleanliness. Any time you are preparing jars to preserve things in, you must clean the lids and jars as above. This will make sure there is no bacteria in the jars before they are filled and sealed.
2. Next, add 3 TBSP salt to your jars.
3. First slice off the top and bottom tips of your lemons. 
4. Cut a cross in each lemon, making sure your cuts do not go completely through and the bottom of your lemon is still intact.
5. Stuff the insides of your lemon generously with salt.
6. Place the lemons in the jar, and press each layer down, squeezing juice out of them and packing them tightly. 
7. Sprinkle the spices over each layer of lemons. Once the jar is filled with lemons, add more lemon juice, enough to completely cover the lemons.
8. Add 4 tablespoons more salt to the tops of the jars, seal them well, and shake to mix. (Due to the salt, the tops of most canning jars will rust. To prevent this, I put a thin sheet of paraffin or plastic wrap over the mouth of the jar, then put the lid over this to fully seal.)
9. Store your preserved lemons in a cool, dark place. 
10. Make sure to flip the jars of lemons upside down every 2 days for 1 week. Then continue to store them in the refrigerator until use, also turning every 2 days for 2 more weeks. After 3 weeks of waiting and turning, your lemons are now ready to use!

Roasted Chicken with Olives and Preserved Lemons

Moroccan food oftentimes uses warm spices like cinnamon and paprika to flavor dishes, but sometimes fresh fruits and vegetables are difficult to obtain. In this recipe using olives and preserved lemons, I'll showcase two common ingredients that, when preserved, will be usable even up to 2 years later. This use of preserved foods is perfect on a night when you don't feel like going shopping for ingredients, or just want to slap something together that is inexpensive and healthy. This dish cost me 8 dollars, excluding spices. :-)
So for my dish I first sauteed the onions with salt and pepper for about 10 minutes or until they were beginning to caramelize. Then I added the onions and sauteed them more. The smell of these two pungent friends was so powerful that I had to open the windows and turn on two fans.

The strength and flavor of organic onions and garlic is much stronger than the non-organic ones, and if using organic, you may get by with using less. In my opinion, more of these is always better. Open the windows before starting the cooking process. ;-)

After the garlic and onions are slightly browned and overly-fragrant, add your dry spices and continue to sautee for another minute or so. This fragrance will be even more wonderful. I like to make this dish when having guests for dinner. It provides such a wonderful smell to welcome your guests inside and make their mouths water with delight.
Add chicken stock or broth, add the chicken, and the diced skin of 1/2 of a preserved lemon. This is a great dish to make when not many fresh vegetables and lemons are in-season.

Thinly sliced preserved lemon, from a jar that I found in the back of the cupboard (over a year old, but ohh so delicious!)

Boil these together until the chicken is cooked, then strain the chicken, onion, and lemons out of the broth. Using the remaining broth, boil some diced potatoes for 20 minutes, then strain these and put them beside the chicken. In the remaining broth, boil lemon juice and chopped, pitted green olives until the mixture becomes slightly thickened. To serve, just pour the olive-lemon sauce over the chicken.

To make this meal perfectly balanced, you may place in half the plate a piece of chicken and some potatoes, and fill the remaining half of the plate with vegetables (adding some red tomatoes or orange carrots will surely entice your taste buds with a colorful display). The chicken will be so delicious you may want to go for seconds. Practice self-restraint by eating more vegetables instead. This will ensure your meal is well balanced, and not excessive carbohydrate or protein.

The recipe:

Braised Moroccan Chicken with Olives and Potatoes
Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 large onion, halved, thinly sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, pressed
• 2 teaspoons paprika
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 2 cups low-salt chicken broth
• One 5lb chicken, cut into 8 pieces, skin removed
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• Rind of half of a preserved lemon (recipe for preserved lemons here)
• 1 cup new potatoes (the lower starch ones), chopped into approx 1/2 inch cubes
• 1/2 cup green olives

Directions:

1. Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and sprinkle with pepper; sauté until golden brown, about 10 minutes.
2. Add garlic, and sauté for another 3-5 minutes. Add paprika, allspice, cinnamon, and cumin; stir 1 minute. Add broth; bring to boil. Sprinkle chicken with salt and seven spices; add to skillet.
3. Rinse one preserved lemon, discarding the pulp. Dice the lemon rind into fine pieces and add this to the chicken.
4. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer until chicken is cooked through, turning occasionally, 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer chicken to platter, straining the onions and sprinkling them over the chicken.
5. In remaining broth place your diced potatoes over medium heat. Allow this to return to boiling. Boil for 15 minutes or until potatoes are cooked through. Strain these and plate them alongside your chicken. In the remaining broth, add olives and 2 tablespoons lemon juice. Increase heat to high; boil uncovered to thicken slightly, about 5 minutes.
6. Pour over chicken.

Nutrition facts for 1 piece of chicken and 1/2c potatoes:
390 total calories, 15gm total carbohydrate, 1 gm fiber, 19 gm protein, 13gm fat
(1 Carbohydrate (1 NET carb), 2.5 Fat, and 3 protein exchanges)

Shishbarak (meat dumplings in cooked yogurt sauce)

Shishbarak is originally a Turkish dish. It was named after the meat dumplings which looked like the large dresses of traditional Turkish female dancers when they twirl and sit down, allowing their dress to puff up behind them. Oh how pretty!
But to make these little dumplings is such a headache. I start cursing that the dough becomes too dry because I'm so slow, screaming if my dough breaks as I'm trying to stretch it over the filling, and playing loud music to drown out my sorrows of the yogurt beginning to separate because I stopped stirring it for just a moment. As I walk out of the house, scissors in hand, to go pick some cilantro from the front yard, the neighbors all give me shifty glances-- 'there goes that insane neighbor again, thrashing at her herbs.' (This just shows you how much they really know about making shishbarak)

Women usualy gather together to make this, creating a large amount of shishbarak dumplings quickly, making enough for 3 families. To make it by oneself is surely a task! A woman may devote an entire day to making it, preparing enough to have leftovers for her family for a few days because its so delicious but so time consuming. When its gone, its gone. The family may not get another batch for 6 or 12 more months because of its laborious process.

The meat is usually ground lamb, but a leaner meet like 97% fat free beef, ground turkey, or ground bison can also be used. Vegetarians may also use dried soy 'meat' for the filling, I find this dried in clear bags from the Mexican market nearby (they call it 'carne de soya'). The filling is made by browning pine nuts, sauteeing onions and meat together, then mixing the pine nuts with the meat mixture.

The dumpling dough is made from semolina flour (a type of grain used in pasta dough). We usually use the opening of a turkish coffee cup to cut circles from the dough that are correctly sized and uniform for our dumplings. I usually pre-cook the dumplings in dry heat like the oven so they don't become mushy jelly when I put them in the yogurt sauce.

This dough recipe can be used for making ravioli, cut into thin strips for pasta, or wide strips for lasagna. 

The glory of making one's own pasta is seriously unparalleled. But once I realized I could do it, the novelty of making non-unique forms of pasta wore off, and I continued to buy my spaghetti and lasagna in a box. From the store.  The specialty items like ravioli and dumplings I prefer to still make myself. I really don't like all the salt and fat and preservatives from the purchased ones. Plus, after baking them lightly to make the dough firm, you can always freeze the extra for another time.


You can also easily use fat free yogurt, though I use my 2% fat homemade yogurt, instead. I really don't think there's a comparable taste to the amazing cool, sourness of homemade yogurt.  The yogurt is cooked with corn starch to thicken, the dumplings are added, then sauteed cilantro and garlic are added to flavor the dish before serving it hot.

The recipe, as expected: 

Shishbarak: 

Makes 8 servings

The dough: 

• 2c semolina flour
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1/2c water

1. Mix the flour together in a bowl with some salt. Gradually add the water and knead together to form a soft dough. Cover with plastic wrap and let set for 30 minutes. 
2. Prepare your dough-rolling surface by dusting it with semolina flour. 
3. Roll out dough into a large, 1/8-inch thick sheet. 
4. Cut out small circles using a 1.25-inch diameter circle (I used the opening of a turkish coffee cup).

The filling: 

• 1/2c pine nuts
• 1/4tsp olive oil
• 1lb ground meat
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 tsp seven spices
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp salt

1. Brown the pine nuts first in olive oil, stirring constantly over medium heat. This takes about 3-5 minutes. Be careful, they can burn in the blink of an eye!
2. Remove them from the pan, and in the same pan sautee the meat. 
3. Then add onions and spices and continue cooking until the onions become translucent. 
4. Remove from the heat and add the browned pine nuts, stirring to combine.
5. Place half a teaspoon of filling into each round circle of dough, making sure that the filling stays in the center of the dough. 
6. Fold the dough in half, making a half-circle around the filling, and pinch the edges to seal the half-circle.
7. Bring the endpoints of the half circle around to touch each other and pinch them together. 
8. Repeat this until you run out of dough and filling.
9. Dust a baking sheet lightly with semolina flour, and place the dumplings here. 
10. Bake the dumplings in the oven at 250 degrees F for about 20 minutes, or until they are firmer and slightly dry to the touch.

The yogurt sauce:

• 2 quarts fat free yogurt, or homemade yogurt, recipe here
• 2 TB corn starch
• 1 tsp butter
• 1c finely chopped cilantro
• 3 cloves garlic

1. Sautee the cilantro with the butter and garlic for about 10 minutes on medium heat until the garlic browns slightly. Remove from the heat and set aside.
2. Mix the corn starch into the yogurt, beating with a whisk or an electric mixer. Heat this in a large sauce pot until it thickens, stirring constantly so the yogurt won't separate.
3. Once the yogurt begins to bubble, add the slightly dried dumplings. Continue stirring constantly for about 5 minutes more. 
4. Add the cooked cilantro/garlic and continue to stir on low heat for about 5 minutes more, then remove from the heat.
5. Serve in bowls, garnished with a sprig of fresh cilantro or mint.

Nutrition facts for 1.5 cups of shishbarak containing ~6 dumplings:
370 total calories, 45gm total carbohydrate, 4 gm fiber, 28 gm protein, 8gm fat
(3 Carbohydrates (3 NET carbs), 2 Fat, and 4 protein exchanges)

Meat pies (lahme bi ajeen)/ spinach pies (Fatayer)

Whenever I'm feeling sad, I like to think about growing up, the smell of freshly baked bread, the weighted smell of cooking meat and sweetness of frying onions. These things comfort me. My mom used to make homemade pita bread when we were growing up, and oftentimes she would make double the amount of dough because its very laborious work to repeat multiple times in a week. Of course, she may not have used all the dough at once, but usually would stuff the dough with different things and freeze them to have something quick to offer us during the next week. So using the same dough, she may have produced meat triangles, mini spinach pies, or pita bread with a leavened pocket of air between. So, in honor of my mommy...

For the dough: 

4c whole wheat flour

1.5c warm water

2 TB yeast

1 TB sugar

1 tsp salt

1/4c olive oil (to coat the bowl)

mix the sugar to the warm water (water should be about 100F). Add the yeast culture to the water and mix well. Let this set for about 7-10 minutes, allowing the yeast to consume some of the sugar mixture. This is called proofing the yeast.

On the side, Mix the salt in with the flour well in a large bowl.

In the center of the flour mixture, create a large valley by pushing flour from the center of the bowl up the sides.

 Add the yeast/water to the flour valley slowly, 1/4 cup at a time.

Mix by folding the flour into the center of the water and pushing it back slowly and repeatedly until all water is added and dough feels firm and elastic. You may add more water to elasticize it more, but continue adding by teaspoonfuls only until it is the consistency you desire. 

When the dough forms a cohesive, elastic and non-sticky ball, lightly oil the bowl and dough ball with olive oil, cover in a cloth, and leave in a warm location away from draft, like the oven. Give your dough approximately 1.5 hours to rise.

And wait... Oh the waiting is annoying... You can watch a movie, clean up some of your kitchen disasters, run some errands, or make the stuffing for the dough.

Continue the dough by separating your risen dough into small balls, and covering these with a cloth to allow them to continue to rise, about 30 minutes. 

Browned pine nuts, essential to everything!

Roll the dough balls out into flat discs, about the size of a CD/DVD, and about 1/8 inch (1/3 cm) thick. 

Cut each disc into pie-shaped thirds for the meat filling, or leave as discs for the spinach stuffing.

For the meat mixture: 

• 1lb ground lamb, goat, beef or turkey
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 1 medium tomato, finely chopped
• 1 TB pomegranate paste or molasses
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp Seven Spices
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (or to taste)
• 1/2c toasted pine nuts for garnish

1. Mix all the ingredients for the meat filling together. 
2. Place the meat filling into the pie-shaped third of dough that you'd cut from your disc. 
3. Moisten the edges of your dough with water using the tip of your finger. 
4. Pinch the corners of your dough together so they form a triangular boat shape as in the picture. 
5. Press the meat down into the corners of your boat, using the meat to help stabilize the walls of the dough. 
6. Be sure the bottom of your dough is slightly dry and floured.
7. Garnish each pie with 3-5 toasted pine nuts, making sure to stay consistant.
8. Bake on a tray in the oven at 350 degrees F until the bottom of your dough is slightly browned (about 10 minutes), and remove while dough remains slightly soft. 

For the Spinach Filling: 

• 4c packed fresh spinach leaves, coarsely chopped
• 2 onions, finely chopped
• 2 TB olive oil.
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp sumac
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4c pine nuts 

1. Brown the pine nuts in a sautee pan over medium heat, stirring constantly for about 5 minutes, with 1/2tsp olive oil. Remove from pan and set aside.
2. In the same pan, sautee onions in remaining olive oil for about 15 minutes on medium-high heat, stirring frequently until they are lightly browned. Add the garlic, sauteeing for another 2 minutes. 
3. Add the spinach, and continue cooking on medium heat until the spinach has slightly wilted and softened and there is no liquid in the pan, about 7 minutes. Remove any excess liquid from your spinach mixture if there is any.
4. Remove from heat and mix in the spices. 
5. Place 2 TB spinach filling in each disc, placing 3-5 pine nuts on top of each mound of filling. This will ensure that each fatayer has enough nuts.
6. Gently dampen the edges of the disc with water. 

There are a few different ways to make your pocket, as I have in a shape of a half-circle, or as a 3-sided pyramid form, and THIS is where I always get indecisive and begin cursing. The spinach contains a lot of water, making it difficult to get a dry-enough filling. This can be frustrating when you are closing, pinching and stretching the dough and it becomes weaker and weaker until it breaks and you begin really cursing. 

If I have a more dry mixture, I'll use the pyramid form, because this requires more stretching of the dough. If the mixture is more moist, I'll make a pocket-- the less stretching, the less breaking!

For the half-circle shape: 

1. Fold the disc in half to close it around the filling. 
2. To seal your pocket, pinch the edge of your half-circle, rotating it up as you pinch (like a mini twist). 
3. Continue this all along the edge of the half-circle to seal completely. 

To make my pockets, I used the little gadget you see in the pictures, which I found online in a pack of 4 different sizes. Yep. Here, laziness totally wins! You can also buy it on my website.

For the triangular pyramid shape: 

1. As with the other shape, start with your filling in a disc and the edges of the disc slightly moistened.
2. Bring the sides of the dough together over the center of the filling, pinching together to form a triangle.  I often use 3 fingers to pinch the 3 sides closed. 
3. Close the dough with firm pinches.

Place the pockets you've made on a tray, making sure their bottoms are lightly floured or otherwise non-moist. Baked at 375 degrees F for 15 minutes. 

This amount of dough and filling I've used makes enough for about 50-60 meat pies and 18-20 spinach pies. Otherwise, you may double the batch of meat or spinach filling and make an entire batch of dough using either filling for double the output.  

Both meat and spinach pies can be easily frozen and thawed either in the microwave, or better yet, reheated in the oven.


Nutrition facts for 3 meat pies (lahme bi ajeen):
205 total calories, 25gm total carbohydrate, 5 gm fiber, 16gm protein, 6gm fat
(2 Carbohydrates (1 NET carbs), 1 Fat, and 2 protein exchanges)

Nutrition facts for 3 spinach pies:
185 total calories, 30gm total carbohydrate, 7 gm fiber, 2gm protein, 8gm fat
(2 Carbohydrates (1 NET carb), 1.5 Fat, and 0 protein exchanges)

Muhallabiyeh ( Middle Eastern milk pudding)

Muhallabiyeh is a milk pudding made from thickening cow's milk with corn starch. Seems simple? It is!
At first thought it sounds like child's play, taking only 10-15 minutes to prepare... But it is a dessert that is popular throughout the Middle East, and quite delicious depending on with what it accompanies.

Some variations for vegans would be to use coconut milk (I prefer half coconut milk mixed with water), or to use rice milk. Sadly, the recipe does not work as well with soy due to the complexity of its amino acid ratio.
Alternatively, you may use fat free or 1% milk for a nearly fat free option.

For serving, I sometimes cool my finished pudding in a slightly oiled mold or bowl, then invert it onto a platter and decorate. I've also made it in individual serving clear cups, layering the hot thickened milk with a thickened fruit purée, to present the dessert chilled, in parfait form.
Toppings can either be fruits, edible flowers, condensed fruit puree, toasted coconut or ground nuts.
As usual, I'll top my dessert with  atayr (a simple syrup flavored with orange blossom or rose water, recipe here)

See my recipe below!

MUHALLABIYEH
Ingredients:

• 4 1/2 cups milk
• 1/3c corn starch
• 2 tb granulated sugar
• 1 tsp orange blossom or rose water
• 1 simple syrup recipe

Directions:

1. Mix 1/2 c milk with the corn starch and beat until smooth and without lumps.
2. Warm the remaining 4 cups milk to a simmer, approx 5-7 minutes over medium heat, stirring frequently.
3. Add the corn starch mixture and continue stirring about 5 minutes more until thick.
4. Remove from heat and pour into desired jello mold or serve-wear.
5. When chilled, garnish as desired and top with simple syrup.

Example of garnish:
5 sliced strawberries
1/4c ground pistachio
Orange blossom or jasmine flowers

Nutrition Facts Information:

Serving size 1 c including syrup and fruits

Total calories:220, Total Fat: 2g, Total Carbohydrate: 35g, Sugar: 27g, Protein: 10g

(2 Carb, 1 Protein Diabetic Exchanges, or 1 Carb, 1 protein Exchange without syrup)