Chicken Saloona from Qatar

 Saloona is a meat stew typical from Middle East, here I present to you the recipe from Qatar.

Chicken is the most popular ingredient for the Saloona, but lamb meat can also be used and there is also a vegetarian version.

It is said that the dish has a Bedouin origin. It is very often consumed in Ramadan.

Ingredients:

- 3 cinnamon sticks.

- 4 green cardamom seeds.

- 3 dried lemons.

- 6 cloves.

- 2 onions.

- 1 teaspoon garlic.

- 1 kg chicken.

- 2 tomatos.

- 2 teaspoon ground coriander.

- 1 teaspoon turmeric.

- 3 teaspoon Arabian masala.

- Salt.

- Oil.

- 300 g potatoes.

- 300 g zuchinni.

- 2 carrots.

Method:

1- Put some oil in a casserole, add the cinnamon, cardamom, dry lemon and cloves, Heat until you smell the scent of the spices.

2- Cut the onions and sautée until it gets golden.

3- Add the garlic and the chicken (in pieces), cook for 5 or 6 minutes.

4- Cut the tomatos into pieces, add to the casserole and cook for 5 or 6 minutes with the lid on.

5- Add coriander, turmeric, salt and Arabian masala, mix well and cook for some more minutes.

6-  Cut potatoes, zuchinni and carrots into pieces, add them to the casserole , add also two glasses of water and cook for 40 minutes with the lid on.

7- To know if the potato is well done, use a knife as you see in the photo.

8- Use rice as a side dish.

Chicken Saloona

You can also watch the recipe at my Youtube Channel:

Here you have a link to my favourite cooking tools where you can find my spices grinder:  

Favourite cooking tools

Receta en Español

Qatar

Arabian Masala

 Masala means spice, Indian masala is well known but there also exists the arabian masala consumed in the Middle East countries.

Here you have the recipe, this masala will be used for the recipe I will publish next week.

You can use less quantity of each spice but you should keep the proportions.

Ingredients:

- 100 g cumin seeds.

- 50 g coriander seeds.

- 75 g fennel seeds.

- 100 g green cardamon.

- 20 g clove.

- 40 g black pepper.

- 4 chili .

- 5 bay leaves.

- 5 star anise.

- 3 black cardamon seeds.

- 2 dried lemons.

- 100 g turmeric.

Method:

1- Cook all the species but the turmeric in one pan without oil. Put it on a low heat.

2- When you start to smell the scent of the spices turn off the heat and add the turmeric. Mix well.

3- Put the mixture in a spice grinder and grind. That's all!

You can also watch the recipe at my Youtube Channel:

Receta en Español

Here you have a link to my favourite cooking tools where you can find my spices grinder:  

Favourite cooking tools

Fish Bangladesh style

                                                                                Receta en Español

Fish is a staple ingredient in Bangladesh dishes, it is because there are a lot of rivers and km of coast in this country.
I saw this recipe at this Bangladeshi blog:  http://zuranazrecipe.com/rui-mach-fulkopi/

This recipe is made with a fish called Rui or Rohu very common in Bangladesh coasts, it is difficult to find in Spain so I used hake instead given that it has a similar texture.

You must accompany this fish by rice, as in every Bangladeshi dish.

Ingredients (4 people):

-  500 grams fish (Rui or hake).
-  150 grams chopped onion.
-  2 tablespoons chopped onion.
-  1/2 garlic clove.
-  1 teaspoon ground cumin.

-  1 teaspoon ground paprika.

-  1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric.

-  1/2 teaspoon ground coriander.

-  Oil.

-  Salt.

-  200 grams basmati rice.
-  2 tomatoes cut in pieces.
-  150 grams cauliflower.
-  100 grams green beans.
-  40 grams green peas.
- 1 green chilli.

Method:

1- Wash fish , sprinkle some salt and turmeric over both sides.

2- Put some oil in a frying pan, fry the fish.

3- Salt cauliflower, green beans and peas, steam them in a pressure cooker. Put some water on the bottom of the cooker, and place the vegetables in a steel basket. 
Close the pressure cooker , put on a high heat. Once the steam starts to come out,  put on a low heat and cook for 3 minutes.

4- Put a tablespoon of oil, chopped onion,coriander and cumin in a mortar. Pound well until you obtain a paste.

5- In a frying pan with oil, sauté 150 grams of chopped onion. Add the paste of step 4 and tomato cut in pieces, add salt, mix well and cook for 3 minutes at medium heat.

6- Add to the frying pan the fish and vegetables, mix well. Cover and cook for 6 minutes at medium-lower heat.

7- Serve accompanied by basmati rice, sprinkle some ground cumin and chilli over the fish.
You can see how to cook basmati rice in my explanation for this other recipe from Bangladesh: Palong Shak Daal

My comments to this Recipe

It is very easy to prepare, and the result is always good. The mixture of the spices match perfectly the fish. 
Besides, it is a healthy dish that you can consume whether you are on a diet or not.
The following day after the preparation of the dish , it is even taster.

Bangladesh

Palong Shak Daal (Spinach Daal)

                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Recipe in Spanish

Daal o Dal is a word used in Bangladesh or India to name the legumes that have their skin removed. They can be beans, peas or lentils, although the most popular are lentils, it is also a popular dish due to its high nutritional value and low cost.
In India and Bangladesh lentils have different colours; White, green, red, yellow...
We are going to use in this recipe Moong Dal or Mung Dal, which are yellow lentils without skin.

Dishes made with this kind of lentils look like puree and are usually accompanied by white rice.

I found this recipe at this web:

http://zuranazrecipe.com/palong-shak-daaldaal-palongspinach-daal/ Where you can find recipes from Bangladesh, India, Thailand and China.

Ingredients (4 people):

-  200 grams of Moong dal (yellow lentils) or Masoor dal (red lentils).
-  100 grams of spinachs.
-  oil.
-  1 onion.
-  1 dry red chilli.
-  1 teaspoon cumin seeds.

-  1 teaspoon ground ginger.

-  1/2 garlic clove.
-  1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric.

-  1/2 teaspoon ground coriander.

-  1/2 teaspoon ground pepper.

-  Salt.

-  200 grams basmati rice.

Method:

1- Wash and cut into pieces some spinaches. Cook spinachs so that they lose the oxalates that are harmful for our health.
Put some water in a casserole, bring it to a boil , once it reaches boiling point add spinachs, cook them for 2 minutes. After that, take out spinachs from water.

2- These are the lentils I used:

You can cook them in a pressure cooker or in a casserole.
Be careful with the pressure cooker, these lentils produce a lot of foam and this can block the vent pipe.
It is better to cook them in a casserole, besides, you can easily see when the lentils are done.

Put the lentils in a casserole and add 4 cups of water , salt and cook for 20 minutes.

If you cook them in a pressure cooker , use 3 cups of water, salt and
put on a high heat.  Once the steam starts to come out,  put on a low heat and cook for 8 minutes.

3- Now we make garlic and ginger paste. 
Put garlic, ground ginger and some oil in a mortar. Use the pestle to crush and mix everything until you get a paste.

4- Now chop some onion and sauté it in a frying pan together with some chilies.

5- Use the same oil to fry some cumin seeds , then add  the ginger paste and 2 tablespoon of water.
Mix it with coriander and turmeric, sauté for 2 minutes.

6- Add the paste of step 5 to the casserole of the lentils , add spinachs and some water if necessary.
This is how lentils should look like:

7- Cover with a lid and cook for 10 minutes at medium heat, once the mixture has thicken, put the fire off.

8- Serve hot, sprinkle onion and chilies. accompany by basmati rice.

9- To do basmati rice , wash it three times in cold water.

10- Sauté onion and rice some minutes.

11- Add three times the quantity of rice of water, cover with a lid and put on a high heat until it boils.
Let boil for 5 minutes.
Put on a low heat and cook for 10 more minutes.

Where to buy the Ingredients

I bought these lentils in Madrid, at 'Sabores del Mundo' 

 Dr. Gómez Ulla, metro Manuel Becerra.

There you can find a lot of spices.

* This is a Vegan recipe

Bangladesh

Bahrani Prawn Balls (Chebeh Rubyan)

                                                                               Receta en Español

This dish is widely eaten in Bahrain when celebrating, usually accompanied by Muhammar (sweet rice Bahrain) it is a dish where we can notice the influence of Middle Eastern and Indian cuisines in the gastronomy of Bahrein .

Ingredients:

For the Balls:

•   650 grams raw or frozen shrimps .
•   4 tablespoons fresh coriander leaves.
•   1/2 teaspoon turmeric.
•   1/2 teaspoon grounded black lemon (loomi).
•   90 grams rice flour.
•   Salt.

For the filling:

• 1 large onion cut into small pieces.
• 25 grams of butter or  ghee.
• 1 teaspoon of Baharat (Bahreini blend of spices).
• 1/2 teaspoon grounded black lemon (loomi).

For the tamarind sauce:

• 1 teaspoon of tamarind concentrate.
• 1 small onion finely chopped.
• 470 ml of water.
• 1 tablespoon ghee  or 40 grams butter.
• 1 large tomato.
• 1 teaspoon of Baharat (Bahreini blend of spices)
• 1/4 teaspoon hot chili pepper.
• Salt.
• 2 teaspoon sugar.

Method:

1-   Peel and wash raw shrimps. I used raw prawns, peeled and frozen, this way I just had to thaw them.

2-   Mix shrimps and coriander leaves in a bowl , use a blender to obtain a paste.

 3-   Add turmeric, black lemon, rice flour and salt , mix well and cover with transparent film. Put it in the fridge. While it cools we prepare the rest of the ingredients.

4-   Pour ghee or butter into a frying pan.
It is easier to use butter , in case you want to use ghee, you can read how to prepare ghee in this post ,section number 3: ghee.
Heat butter or ghee and add the large onion cut into pieces,Baharat and grounded black lemon (loomi), stir well and fry at medium heat until onion gets golden.

5-   Dilute tamarind concéntrate in a cup of wáter, let stand 10 minutes and stir well so that it is well diluted.

6-   Put butter in a large saucepan, heat and fry small onion cut into small pieces.

7-   Peel the tomato, the easiest way to do that is to put the tomate during five minutes in boiling water.

After peeled ,cut the tomato into small pieces.

8-   Add to the saucepan diluted tamarind, water , tomato, Baharat, pepper salt and sugar. Cover and boil during 15 minutes.

9 - While preparing the sauce we can start making the balls. Wet your hands to prevent the dough sticking in your hands, take a spoonful of dough , flatten it in your palm.
Put in the center a Little quantity of the fried onion with spices and wrap the dough until you get a ball.
Repeat until you finish all the dough.

10 - Put the balls into the saucepan where we have the sauce, cover and cook at médium-low heat during 40 minutes.

This is the result:

 Serve with Muhammar (sweet rice Bahrain).

My comments to the Recipe

These are tasty balls with a great taste to shrimps, when cooked, they increase considerably its size. It was amazing!!.
The tamarind sauce was the best of the dish, you cannot miss it!

Where to by the ingredients in Madrid

Rice flour can be bought at a lot of asian products stores.
I particularly bought it in Madrid in a supermarket at José María Fernández Lanseros 1 (Super Ventas) , they sell a great variety  of asian and latino products.

In the next links you can see where to by the rest of ingredients.

 black lemon (loomi)
 Tamarind

Here you have a link to my favourite cooking tools where you can find my spices grinder:  

Favourite cooking tools



Bahréin