Q is for Qatar

Where we're going this evening - Qatar

Now given that it was only a couple of weeks ago that we were in the Middle East when we visited Oman, you may be wondering why we're back in the area so soon.  And the answer to that, is how many countries can you think of beginning with Q?  This is it, folks.  Of course, I could have anticipated this and had a different 'O', but I think that we all know by now my ability to plan ahead.  Or not.

I think that it also goes without saying that I know about the same about Qatar as I did about Oman (i.e. not much) just that it's in the Middle East, it's not likely to be overly democratic, and it's probably very rich indeed - let's see if I'm right...

...firstly, Qatar is a small sovereign state sticking into the Persian Gulf with just one border to the south with Saudi Arabia.  It has a ruling family which accounts for all the top posts (Emir, Crown Prince, Prime Minister etc etc) and until 1971 was considered rather poor - until they developed the vast oil and natural gas  reserves, and so they are now very rich.

Looks like my assumptions were all pretty spot on then.

The Qatar peninsular is flat and consists of mainly desert. The average daytime temperature is a sweltering 32 degrees, and there is less than 3" rainfall per year.  The capital, Doha, is sensibly on the east coast, and before the oil became the major source of income, pearl hunting and fishing were the two big industries.

The native population is only 250,000, but the country's wealth has resulted in a huge explosion in building and development, the labour of which has been supplied by huge numbers of immigrant workers - bringing the total population up to just less than 2 million.  A regular melting pot!

So let's say salam wa aleikum to the people of Qatar and see what's on the menu for tonight...

Tonight's Menu...

Machbouse (spiced lamb with rice) Pitta Bread

As you might imagine, with a tradition of fishing, seafood is quite a big deal in Qatar.  Also the many varieties of dates (which you can stick, as far as I am concerned, I'm afraid) and hummus too is part of the national cuisine.

With so many migrant workers, the food is influenced accordingly - by those from Iran, India and north Africa.  Qatar is a Muslim country, so all meat is halal (prepared according Islamic practise), and you aren't going to get pork scratchings round here any time soon.

The most important traditional Qatari dish is machbous, a stew of richly spiced rice with either seafood or meat, so we'll give that a whirl, and I'm going to team that up with pitta bread.



Machbous (Spiced lamb with rice) - recipe from food.com
Saute diced lamb with chopped onion, then add chopped tomatoes, parsley, baharat spice, grouund limes, turmeric and stock and simmer for half an hour.  Add rice and simmer for a futher 20minutes.

Pitta bread - recipe from allrecipes.co.uk
Add plain flour, salt, a little olive oil, a little sgar and yeast in the bread maker pan with water and set to 'dough' (yes, what a cheat I am!).Split the resulting dough into pieces then roll each ball of dough out into a 6" circle.  Cover and leave to rise for half an hour or so.

Sprinkle with sesame and onion seeds then cook in a hot over for 5 minutes until they start to brown.  Revmove from oven and cover immediately with a damp cloth until they go soft.  Split & eat (with lots of butter too, if you are me)

The Result

And what have we learnt?

• Changing the spices makes for a total change of flavour - this lamb stew was transformed by adding baharat spices and turmeric.
• In culinary terms, nigella, love-in-a-mist and black onion seeds are all the same thing.  In gardening terms they most certainly are not - I wonder what would come up if I sowed some of them?
• Pitta bread is easy if you have a breadmaker to take that tedious kneading business out of the process.
• Like the ensaymada (sweet bread rolls) last week, the pittas really didn't make it further than the cooling rack once I'd got the butter out of the fridge.  Must work on that will power thing.

And out of 10?

• for the machbous - a tasty 7/10 - this really was jolly good, and being an all in one recipe, for once the dishwasher wasn't left groaning with overuse.
• for the pitta bread - a delicious 8/10 - the sesame and black onion seeds really made these very tasty indeed.  I am a fiend for white bread - always have been.

O is for Oman

Where we're going this evening - Oman

A trip to the middle east tonight, to the sultanate of Oman.

My knowledge of all the countries that make up the Arab world in the Middle East is a bit on the hazy side, and I tend to lump them together as being all extremely dry, extremely rich, and extremely un-democratic - let's see if I'm right here.

First up, Oman is pretty sparsely populated - the sultanate is a bit bigger than the UK, but only has about 5% of the population, a quarter of which lives in the capital Muscat on the north east coast.  And why are so many people living in the capital?  Because the landscape is pretty inhospitable.  In fact, with temperatures averaging nearly 29 degrees C, and the annual rainfall only 4", I'd be living in the city with air conditioning as standard too.

A moderate bunch, the Omanis (relative to the rest of the region) - despite being an absolute monarchy (a one man, one vote system - the Sultan is the man, he has the vote), there is a parliament which does have at least some legislative powers.

Actually, despite all those unfriendly mountainous gravel-desert baking hot regions, Oman does have a decent bit of coastline, so fishing does provide a proportion of income along with tourism, and of course, the oil.

For once, it was not the Brits who had a crack at planting a flag half way around the world when stumbling across someone else's land, but the Portuguese, who occupied Muscat for some 150 years, building an impressive fortress, still standing today, 500-odd years later.

Despite the unrest in the region which has affected so many middle eastern countries in the past twelve months or so with greater democracy demanded (and in this case rather squashed by the authorities, albeit with a few concessions to people power), Oman is rated as quite stable within the region, and well developed.

I can't do you much in the way of famous Omanis, but fact of the day just has to be that according to the Times Online, Oman is home to the world's only camel-backed bagpipe military band.  Goodness!

So whilst we are all boggling over that little gem, let's say marhaba to the good people of Oman...

Tonight's Menu...

Macaroni Bechamel Luqaymaat (Fried donut balls dipped in syrup)

The main religion in Oman is Islam, so we aren't expecting much in the way of pork going on here.

The cuisine is varied, but with rice and meat (often marinated) usually served.  I plumped for a pasta based dish, though - with mince and tomatoes, oddly similar to a bolognase sauce but with cinnamon giving the dish a twist.

Desserts are on the sticky persuasion with dates and honey big favourites - dates not so much with me, however (yuk!), so I've gone for a doughnut based recipe, fried in oil and served dipped in honey.



Macaroni Bechamel - recipe from desitwist.com

Cook a good portion of macaroni and set aside.  Brown the same amount of mince & add chopped onion & garlic; tomato sauce, parsley, oregano, salt, cinnamon, cayenne pepper and some water. Simmer for 10 mins or so.  Meanwhile make a bechamel sauce with butter, flour, milk and a stock cube, stirring until thick, smooth and creamy.

Mix two thirds of the sauce with the macaroni, then pour half the macaroni/sauce into the bottom of a deep dish. Layer the meat, then the rest of hte macarni/sauce.  Top with the remaining sauce and sprinkle with ground cinnamon.  Bake in a high over for half an hour.



Luqaymaat  - recipe from desitwist.com

Beat together flour, milk, sugar, melted butter and egg, yeast and a little salt and ground cardamon.  Cover and leave to rest for an hour.  Stir, then scoop tablespoonfuls of batter into hot oil and fry the little balls until lightly golden.  Drain well on kitchen paper, then drizzle with honey and serve.

The Result

And what have we learnt?

• Amazing how the addition of a couple of spices take this distinctly lasagne style of meat and pasta from Italy to the Middle East.
• If it looks rather like lasagne, I expect it to taste like lasagne, and it's a bit odd when it doesn't - so much of the taste of food is via the eyes.
• Reading the recipe ahead means that you can go some way to avoiding an unholy mess in the kitchen as well as personal injury.  The doughnut batter was very sloppy - I was supposed to 'dampen fingers and scoop a tablespoon of batter with four fingers together then use your thumb to slide the batter in the hot oil'.  I used a tablespoon - rather a lot of potential for disaster on many fronts there.
• Previous comment with regard to oil holding on to the last thing that was cooked in it still stands.  The oil still has a fishy niff, as did the resulting doughnuts. 

And out of 10?

• for the macaroni bechemal - a lukewarm 5/10 - if I had been expecting more of a sweet cinnamon taste to the dish and less of a lasagne taste, I may have enjoyed it more.  As is it was, I kept wondering why I couldn't taste more cheese with the mince and pasta (answer: there was none in the dish. D'oh!)
• For the luqaymaat - a so-so 4/10 - they were ok (if a bit on the fishy side when they came out of the pan, but they really do not lend themselves to hanging around to eat later, an experience akin to eating a fish flavoured cotton wool ball.

E is for Egypt

Where we're going this evening - Egypt

For our first visit to the Middle East, we travel across to Egypt, home of the camel, fez, pyramids and the river Nile.

Egypt is four times the size of the UK with half as many again in terms of population and the biggest city is the capital Cairo, known as the city of a thousand minarets. Egypt is a country of great geographical contrasts - the lush and fertile lands around the river Nile contrasting with the uncompromising Sahara Desert to the west of the Country

There's enough politics going on to last anyone a lifetime in this neck of the woods - Egypt is the Arab capital, right next door to Israel, and it's fair to say that there have been one or two dust ups between the two in modern history. The Suez canal, built in 1869 nearly bankrupted the country and led indirectly to British rule (honestly, in Victorian days we did get about a bit) from 1882 to 1922 at which point Egypt was declared independent. More recently, democratic reforms have been implemented following general civic unrest last year.

Egypt has far more that its fair share of culture - from the wonderful Pyramids of the Ancient civilisations to the 101 tales of the Arabian Nights - honestly, its enough to make you want to put on a veil and a pair of curly slippers and learn to belly dance.

Famous Egyptians - apart from Tutankhamen, Cleopatra and Nefertiti - include Mohamed Al Fayed (former owner of Harrods) and Omar Sharif (actor and bridge supremo)

Before I looked into Egyptian cuisine, I was rather worried that it would be all sheep's eyballs and locusts covered in honey due to the country being the home to some many tribes (including the nomadic Bedouin and Nubians), however with the exception of 'halawa' which is made of sesame seed paste and is billed as 'one of the few foods that can tolerate the hot Egyptian weather without going bad' which doesn't do anything for me at all, it all sounds rather good. Not much in the way of pork & beef, of course, but plenty to go at despite that.

So come with me across the desert and say 'salam wa aleikum' to the Egytians...

Tonight's Menu...

Kushari Roz Bel Laban

Tonight's menu has been a tricky one - Middle Eastern cuisine rather all blends in together, with influences from Africa , Europe and further East.  Ful medames (a sort of broad bean pate) and falafel (chickpeas mashed & fried) are both very popular, but I wanted to cook something more substantial than dips with pitta bread, however delicious they sound.

I nearly plumped for koftit roz - rice meatballs - but having cooked Danish meatballs last week, I wanted a change, so kushari it is.

Roz Bel Laban is known as rice pudding to you and me, but it has a couple of twists compared to how I would make it UK stylee, so lets see how it goes.


Kushari - meatball recipe is from the whats4eats website


Cook rice, lentils & macaroni and mix in a bowl.  Fry onions, garlic, chopped tomatoes, and chili flakes gently until sweet.  Season & pour over the mixed rice/lentil/macaroni and top with crispy fried onion slices (note: that is crispy, and not burnt).

Roz Bel Laban - lots of variation on this one, but I went for this recipe.

Simmer short grain rice with water then add milk, stirring until it begins to thicken (note: I used skimmed milk throughout rather than water, then full fat milk, figuring it would all come out in the wash).  

Add sugar, orange blossom water, cinnamon, nutmeg and raisins, stir constantly until rice is soft (note: using a non-stick/milk pan for this means you aren't tied to the hob quite as much)

When creamy, serve hot.

The Result

  

And what have we learnt? 

• Egyptians must have a MASSIVE appetite - I know that I've been converting cups to grammes & reducing the numbers catered for, but even so - blimey - the rice/lentil/macaroni mix would feed a bus load!
• As it is, a lentil/rice/pasta base is pretty damn bland - but not unpleasant.  
• Using three pans to provide a base for a meal makes me mighty glad that the new kitchen contains a dishwasher (which is not me).  My dear Godmother throws her hands up at the washing-up generated from my mother's home-cooked dishes when she comes to stay with her - she'd have had a conniption fit at tonight's utensil extravaganza 
• Spicing up a sauce to suit what ya got (it's called the 'Hazel's fridge' school of cookery - i.e 'here's the base, what's in the fridge to give it a bit of zing') works well.  Love the tomato/onion/chili mix from the recipe with onion topping, but give me a pepper or two, spring onions & a bit of sweetcorn & we really will be walking like an Egyptian!
• surprisingly, this hob cooked rice pudding is just as good and quicker to produce than my family oven cooked jobbie
• and this week's 'well, damn me!' moment - the Egyptian version of rice pudding doesn't need a full fat/jersey milk to make, my pallid skimmed milk version tastes exactly the same.  Dieter's dream dish, I suspect.

And out of 10?

• for the Kushari - a reasonable 6/10 - tasty, but unless you're catering for a busload, the faff of preparing three base dishes on top of a sauce is disproportionate to the tasty (but not extraordinary) end product.
• for the Roz Bel Laban - a tasty 8/10 - I love a rice pudding, but having to remember to buy special full fat milk in order to make the oven-baked version passed to me by my mother, generally puts me off.  I could not tell the difference with this hob prepared version , bar the fact that I had to keep more of an eye on this hob-made version. A success.