A Week of Recipes (3/23 - 3/30)
A HUGE announcement, Batata Mahshi (Stuffed Potato), Qidra, & Ma'amoul
Happy Sunday and Eid Mubarak to all those celebrating! This Ramadan flew by so quickly and you enjoyed all these special Levantine dishes as much as I did making them. It really is a month of super unique foods so I’m grateful to be able to share them with you!
I have a pretty big announcement to share! This weekend I officially launched my very own brand of spices - ZAWI Spices. I launched with three different blends: Arabic 7 spice, Mama’s Chicken Spice, and a Salad Blend. These are the most highly used spice blends in my cabinet. Whether I’m using them in a video or just cooking to get a quick bite, I find myself constantly refilling my jars. These blends are also not commonly available throughout the US. Most Middle Eastern markets will carry the Arabic 7 spice with their twist to it but the chicken and salad blends are home made inspired from my mothers cooking. If you’d like to get some more details on them or even grab a set of your own, check out zawispices.com.
Now back to the recipes! This week I shared Batata Mahshi, Qidra, and Ma’amoul. All three of these are some of the most loved dishes in the Levant. They do take a bit of time but nothing difficult at all. If you enjoy cooking or being in the kitchen, these are three recipes I couldn’t recommend more.
Batata Mahshi translates to stuffed potato. It’s essentially a white potato cored out, deep fried, and filled with ground beef seasoned with Arabic 7 spice then oven roasted along with the potato scraps that were cored out. It’s a dish that takes a decent amount of elbow grease unless you have some cool coring tool special for potatoes then please send me the link, my hands were numb after this one.
Qidra is a Palestinian lamb and rice dish that’s usually cooked in a clay pot but I did mine in an enameled cast iron pot. The rice is cooked with chickpeas, whole garlic, and a few warm spices that give this dish a really wonderful aroma. The lamb is slow roasted with the rice so all that fatty goodness doesn’t go to waste. Then topped with some toasted pine nuts, cilantro, and Aleppo pepper. I love to eat this with a cucumber yogurt and a super lemony salad.
Ma’amoul is a celebratory cookie in the Levant that you typically see during Eid al Fitr or Easter for the Christian Arabs in the region. They are buttery semolina cookies stuffed with either dates, pistachios, or walnuts then placed in a mold to create a beautiful design that helps tell each cookie apart after baking. Then covered in powdered sugar for some extra sweetness. These are typically made in phases as they do take some time to create so fair warning it’s not a cookie you can whip up in a single evening. It’s a dessert that takes time to put together which is why you typically only see them for big celebrations. Nonetheless, they’re a lot of fun to make, a great way to bond with a loved one, and taste so so good.
Batata Mahshi (Stuffed Potato)
This is not a dish for the faint of heart. I mean anyone can eat it but to put it together took the most amount of elbow grease I’ve ever had to put in my life. Now that I’ve scared and deterred you away from trying to make this lol I have to say it is one of the most wonderfully tasting stuffed vegetable dish I’ve ever had. Meat and Potatoes just go to…
Qidra
This is another jaw dropping dish to come right out of Palestine. You have your slow roasted fall apart meat paired with a warm spiced rice and chickpea with toasted nuts. It’s beautiful to present and has the flavors to back it up. I like to eat this with a side of cucumber yogurt and either fattoush or tabbouleh. It’s another dish that doesn’t require any hard labor, just a bit of time and patience and you’ll have the feast of your life.
Ma'amoul
These are the most delicate, sophisticated, and beautiful cookies to ever come into existence. Ma’amoul are the Levants celebratory cookie. You see these for Eid at the end of Ramadan with the Muslim community and you also see them at Easter with the Christian community. They are soft, buttery, melt in your mouth cookies filled with either dates, pistachios, or walnuts. This recipe shares the date and pistachio versions and I hope to soon learn and share the walnut version. They’re perfect with a cup of tea or coffee or if you like to live on the edge, a cup of milk. They’re usually made in big batches and each step is done on separate days but here I did everything within 24 hours.