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)

Simple Summer salad

This summer has been lovely for my family's garden, providing us with some very large quantities of tomatoes, cucumbers.  Our trees are also dropping to the ground with lemons, so wherever possible, I'll add a lemon or two.
Our family grows these crops year after year without hesitation and I feel that they are some of the most important and common ingredients in Lebanese cuisine.
Plus, its hot here and I don't want to cook much... So I'll do very little, make my beautiful vegetables do the hard work of tasting delicious, light, juicy and refreshing, and I'll rest until its dinner time. :-)

Tomato and Herb Salad
Serves 4
Ingredients:

• 4 large tomatoes, chopped to large pieces
• 10-15 leaves of mint, sliced into thin strips (about 1/2 cup)
• 4 cucumbers, lightly peeled
• 1 clove of garlic, finely minced
• Juice from 1 lemon
• 1 TB olive oil

Directions:
Slice the peeled cucumbers into thin rounds and place them in the salad bowl.
Add to these the to the chopped tomatoes with the garlic, lemon and oil.
Chop the mint and add it just before serving to prevent the mint from discoloring.


Nutrition facts for 1 cup of tomato/cucumber salad:
45 total calories, 4gm total carbohydrate, 3 gm fiber, 0 protein, 1 gm fat
(0.25 Carbohydrate (0 NET carb), 0 Fat, and 0 protein exchanges)

A Most Decorated Salad

Tabbouleh is a parsley and tomato salad popular during the summer months. It requires extra time and effort to chop the variety of ingredients, so it is usually done when there is extra time to spare. Tabbouleh differs from kitchen to kitchen, with many people adding their own touches, like allspice instead of seven spice, or additional vegetables such as radishes lettuce or cucumber, or simply different ratios of ingredients, most commonly, more bulghur (cracked wheat).

My tabbouleh I prefer unaltered, moist with vegetables and tomatoes, and plenty of lemon.
This dish is filled with plenty of antioxidants, vitamin A, Vitamin C, iron, calcium, monounsaturated fats, and fiber.

Tabbouleh
Makes enough for 6 people
Ingredients

• 1 cup water 
• 1/2 cup bulghur (cracked wheat), fine or medium ground
• 1/2 medium onion, chopped fine 
• 3 stalks fine green onion, chopped fine
• 2 bunches fresh parsley, chopped with stems removed (approx 3 cups)
• 10 fresh mint leaves, chopped (approx 1/2 cup)
• 3 medium tomatoes, diced fine
• Juice from 1 lemon (approx 1/4 cup)
• 2 TB olive oil
• 1/2 tsp seven spices
• 1/2 tsp salt

Directions

1. start by rinsing the burghul, and soaking it in water for about 30 minutes.
2. While the burghul is being soaked, chop the vegetables and combine them together in a salad bowl, chopping the tomatoes last. 
3. Fold the burghul gently into the vegetables to prevent the tomatoes from being smashed.
4. Garnish with diced tomatoes and sumac or sliced radishes and paprika and serve!

Nutrition facts: 

Nutrition facts for 1 cup of tabbouleh:
60 total calories, 7gm total carbohydrate, 4 gm fiber, 1oz protein, 1gm fat
(0.5 Carbohydrates (0 NET carbs), 0 Fat, and 0 protein exchanges)

Healthy Lebanese Kabsa

Kabsa is a dish made from braising and stewing meat with spices, tomatoes, onions and rice. Some people mix more variety of vegetables to make it more like a spanish paella or a rice-based casserole in a pot.
It is usually cooked until the rice absorbs the water and the Kabsa is dry. That, however is not my style.

First I brown some of the onion, adding a bit of grated garlic towards the end. Meanwhile I rub the meat in plenty of spices and allow it to marinade. The most common meat to use is lamb and traditionally it is made with larger chunks of meat, like whole chicken pieces with skin and bone, or lamb shank or shoulder. My family prefers chicken.  I used boneless, skinless free-range chicken breast that I cut into small cubes to allow for a more dispersed flavor and more equal quantity of meat in every serving.

We sear the meat with the onions and then add peeled tomato, some tomato paste and more spices. We then add the water of meat broth and cook until the rice is ready and has soaked up the juices. I usually add carrots and extra water (sometimes also yellow squash if I have it) to keep my kabsa soft and juicy. From start to finish, it takes around 1 hour. I use brown rice, making the cooking time almost double, and very lean chicken. I also use fresh lemon for flavor in the end instead of adding salt to the dish. If fresh lemons are not available, I may use half of a preserved lemon instead. The recipe is below.

Chicken Kabsa

serves 6

Ingredients: 

• 1 onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, grated
• 1 TB olive oil
• 2lb chicken
• 2 tsp ground cardamom
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 2 tsp allspice
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp cumin
• 3 medium tomatoes, peeled and chopped
• 2 TB tomato paste
• 1c carrots, peeled and diced
• 2 cups brown rice
• 2.5 cups chicken broth or water
• 1 TB hot chili paste
• juice from 2 lemons
• 1 green onion chopped for garnish

Directions

1. Rub the chicken with the dry spices (cardamom, cinnamon, black pepper, allspice, paprika, cumin) and set aside. 
2. Sautee 3/4 of the diced onion with oil on medium heat in a large pot until slightly caramelized, about 20 minutes. 
3. Add 3 of the grated garlic cloves and sautee for another 5 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent burning.  
4. Remove the onions and garlic from the pot. 
5. To the same oil and pot as the onions were in, add the spiced chicken and sear it for about 3 minutes on each side. 
6. Return the onion/garlic to the pot, adding also the chopped tomatoes and tomato paste. Mix these well with the chicken and onions. 
7. Add to this the carrots, brown rice and chicken broth and stir to combine. Boil on medium heat for 20 minutes with the lid on the pot.
8. Add the remaining 1/4 onion, and 1 clove of grated garlic. Reduce heat to medium-low and continue to cook for 1 hour. Remove lid and continue to simmer uncovered for the remaining 15 minutes on low if the recipe seems more watery than you prefer.
9. Dish out approximately 1-1.5 cup servings for adults, squeezing lemon over the plate and garnish with green onions to serve.

Nutrition facts for 1 cup of kabsa:
255 total calories, 30gm total carbohydrate, 6 gm fiber, 20 oz protein, 6gm fat
(2 Carbohydrates (1.5 NET carbs), 1 Fat, and 3 protein exchanges)

Cucumber and Yogurt Salad

Cucumber and Yogurt Salad
Serves 6
Ingredients:

• 1 Pint plain, fat free greek yogurt, or homemade yogurt (get my yogurt-making guide here)
• 10 leaves of mint, sliced into thin strips (about 1/2 cup), may use 2TB dried mint instead.
• 4 cucumbers, lightly peeled
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely minced
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 leaves of mint unsliced for garnish

Directions:
Mix the yogurt, salt and garlic in a salad bowl.
Dice the peeled cucumbers into very fine cubes and mix them with the yogurt.
Chop the mint and add it to the yogurt mixture just before serving to prevent the mint from discoloring.
Mix well and serve



Nutrition facts for 1 cup of cucumber/yogurt salad:
90 total calories, 12gm total carbohydrate, 2 gm fiber, 8oz protein, 0gm fat
(1 Carbohydrate (1 NET carb), 0 Fat, and 1 protein exchanges)

Its a Lemon River!

Lemons!

Now is the time in our Californian suburb where the weather is warming up and the lemons are falling from all the heat. The results? Liquid gold! A fridge full of lemons, a kitchen smelling of lemons, the neighbors and friends responding, 'thanks, but please! no more lemons'. I'm being drowned by my river of lemons!

So many lemons that when I step outside, I slip and make lemon puree! So many lemons that my patio is more yellow than the sunlit Californian sky!

What can I do with so many lemons? Some options are: lemonade, lemon juice ice cubes for winter, lemon bars, lemon meringue, lemon tarts, Moroccan preserved lemons... But what about the rest? My last idea? Lemon sorbet! YUM!

Ice cream, has a thicker, more viscous texture made from higher fat content, allowing the incorporation of more air when it is mixed, and better holding of the air bubbles, making the ice cream softer when frozen and easier to scoop. Sorbet, however, is basically frozen, flavored sugar water. It usually has an icy, less smooth feel. Plus, sugar generally helps the ice cream from freezing solid into ice, so even 1/4 cup of many sorbets can be much more than a diabetic carbohydrate serving depending on the manufacturer. Many manufacturers add thickeners like egg yolks, corn starch, protein powders, gelatin, or pectin. The problem with many of these is their starchiness, also some have allergies to eggs, soy or dairy proteins, and Muslims and Jews cannot have the majority of gelatin due to its sources being mainly from pigs.Other manufacturers add an alcohol-base to the sorbet mixture to increase its freezing temperature (also not religiously appropriate).

To my sorbet, I want to reduce the amount of sugar I add (keeping my family healthy) and make sure the consistency is thick and creamy enough that it won't turn completely to ice upon freezing but will still provide a nice smooth mouth feel. Plus I want to stay away from allergens starches and gelatin.

The variety of lemon I use for desserts is called the Meyer lemon because of its sweeter, less tart flavor. This, along with adding a little distilled orange blossom water and the juice from an orange allows for the addition of less sugar. Then the question arises of what type of sugar? Well, naturally, I'll aim to make a simple syrup to impart a slight thickness to my sorbet and remove the graininess of natural sugar. Not exactly diabetic friendly, but that will depend on portion size as well.

To improve viscosity of the sorbet, I'll gradually incorporate a powdered gum base, so the addition of starches or other thickeners became unnecessary.

LEMON ORANGE SORBET

Ingredients

• Juice from 5 lemons (approx 3/4 cup)
• Juice of 1 large orange
• 1 tsp orange blossom water
• 1/2c water
• 3/4c simple syrup (recipe here)
• 2TB powdered gum mastic (also known as gum arabic or gum acacia)

Directions

1. Place all ingredients in a pot on low heat, and allow mixture to simmer until combined, but not boil.
2. Add to this powdered gum mastic and blend well, until any percieved lumps of gum powder have been dissolved. Remove from the heat and refrigerate until cold, about 2 hours. 
3. Place the cooled sorbet mixture in the ice cream maker bowl and blend for 30 minutes or until thick.

So, I've made another batch with orange-blossom honey instead of simple syrup, and the taste is phenomenal. Albeit not exactly my taste preference, but still imparting a wonderfully natural flavor to the sorbet. The texture of the sorbet is still not perfect: it remains a bit icy and doesn't maintain a ball shape when you freeze it. Regardless of perfect presentation, it tasted delicious!

Another option is for the addition of Agave nectar to the sorbet for a reduced sugar option. Instead of using simple syrup, I added 1/2c agave nectar. The results slightly darker yellow color sorbet (negligible), and no noticeable change in taste. Still the texture was the same: soft and fluffy, bot not a cohesive creamy texture.

 I'll post the third trial aimed at improving texture shortly. One goal is for an ice cream that doesn't crumble during my scooping, another is for the ice cream doesn't freeze solid. To this end, I intend to try one batch with added egg yolk, one with rice or corn starch, and one with the addition of orange-flavored liqueur (such as grand marnier), in addition to coconut milk for added smoothness.  Keep checking back!

Oranges and Dark chocolate

Do you want a low sugar, low fat dessert that is healthy for a diabetic as well as someone with heart disease? Do you want more antioxidants? Are you wishing there were healthier desserts and snacks out there?
I peeled a few oranges removing the white rag with the peel, and sliced them horizontally into rounds, arranging them nicely on a plate. After which I simply took a bar of dark chocolate with orange flavoring and grated it over the orange slices using a micro-planer. Ohhh, I love this little tool for grating parmesan, or for micro-grating/zesting orange or lemon peels. It is also handy in making little chocolate and white chocolate shavings over coffee or as a topping for cakes.

I decided to add a bit of color, also because I was overambitious ran out of oranges! So I used some grapes that a farmer from my work gave me as a centerpiece.  Because my dad was watching his sugar intake, I made him this instead of an extravagant cake, and we shared it family-style with appetizer forks.

My saving graces: by using high quality chocolate, freshly picked fruits, and having a pleasing presentation, this light dessert satisfied our sweet tooth, gave us antioxidants in the form of dark chocolate and vitamin C, and was very well loved.

Ingredients:

• 4 oranges peeled with white outer rag peeled off
• 1/4 bar of Lindt 'Intense Orange' dark chocolate
• Garnish as desired. I would prefer mint leaves or halved green grapes

Arrange orange slices on a plate in whatever pattern you desire. Grate chocolate directly over the slices, making sure chocolate stays cool and is grated quickly.
Yum!


Nutrition facts for 3 orange slices:
40 total calories, 10gm total carbohydrate, 1 gm fiber, 0.25gm fat  (0.5 Diabetic carbohydrate exchange)

And here's version 2, adding chunks of chocolate and brighter fruits provide more contrast and a beautifully delicious display. Add a mint leaf to the center strawberry for added color and appeal.

A tribute to Chocolate and Peanut butter

So just to provide some foreclosure: most, not everything on my blog will be healthy, nor middle eastern. After all, I love food, be it raw, cooked, natural, processed, eastern, western, healthful, or sinful. I love food so much that I had to become a dietitian and fitness enthusiast to keep myself in check. :-D

My brother's favorite candies growing up have always been Reese's peanut butter cups. So to give him the caloric indulgence he so deserves, I decided to make him a giant one!

Bwaahahaha... No. Bigger! Much bigger!

So with all my concentration, I set out to defy my principles of health and fitness for the most luxuriously fattening creation that my kitchen and my conscience could muster...

Taking notes from many different websites, I created 2 layers of chocolate cake, making the cake less fluffy and more like fudge, and adding a layer of peanut butter fudge in between. Later covering the cake in a shell of chocolate I made especially to be soft-solid at room temperature, and covering the cake in crumbled Reese's peanut butter cups. The neighbor's little girls came over just as I was decorating and insisted to wash their hands, get aprons and help. Those are 8-year-old hands, decorating and stealing extra bites of candy every time my back was turned.

 For the chocolate fudge cake, I adapted a recipe from a recipe on the Whole Foods website for Chocolate Mint Fudge Cake (the recipe is here). I modified it by using 1.5 cups of whole wheat flour instead of 2.25 cups of white flour, double the amount of chocolate and butter, using bittersweet chocolate instead of the unsweetened, and adding less sugar, and of course no mint, to create a more rich fudge-like consistency (plus adding antioxidants and fiber, if you really stretch your mind) for fudgey centers of the cakes, I decided to use metal pans only for baking. This helped the surfaces of the cake to cook a bit better than previous attempts using glass. A nonstick pie plate may also work just as well.

For the Peanut butter fudge, I adapted this recipe to be more fudge-like also, adding double the amount of peanut butter and a little less of the sugars. The original recipe tastes actually way too sugary to tolerate eating with such a rich and dense chocolate cake. I also used a natural peanut butter from whole foods containing only peanuts and flaxseed. Hooray for omega-3 fatty acids! Overall, being less sugary, and more healthy fat content than the original recipe.

The funniest thing happened. I miscalculated the amount of fudge I would need and made a half-batch extra. So I just added more peanut butter and more butter, chilled the remaining mixture until it was thick, then rolled them into 1/2-teaspoonful balls and froze them as little peanut-butter candies.  The result of my leftover meanderings was also a huge hit!

For the chocolatey fudge I melted semi-sweet chocolate chips with a little added coconut oil (solid at room temp, but never as solid as butter it seems) to my melting chocolate. It makes the chocolate shell of the cake softer so its easier to cut after being in the fridge, and won't chip off in huge chunks. Plus, it adds a slightly different aroma and mouth-feel to the chocolate, assisting its transformation into a more Reese's-like chocolate coating.

So for the sake of keeping this post short, the recipe is attached HERE...

Meanwhile, Happy 35th bday, Blub! Please enjoy, and not all at once! (The poor guy has a dietitian as a sister, but also another Dietitian in his life as an even more influential girlfriend. Sorry buddy, but you'll be stuck eating healthfully for a very long time!)

PS. If you think I'd be so self-loathing to count the calories in this, you'd be insane. I'll just eat it little by little while it taunts me in the refrigerator... A piece a day, every day, until it magically disappears.

Perhaps if I eat it while hanging upside down it counts as negative calories? lol.

Enjoy! :-)