A Week of Recipes (Jan 27-31)

Olive Oil Cookies, Saneyyet Batata (Tray of Potatoes), & Poached Pear

Happy February everyone! I can’t believe we’ve already finished the first month of 2025 and simultaneously feel like that was the longest month of my life…January seems to always be like that. This weeks recipes were weighed more towards the sweet side. It’s been a while since I made desserts so I went for it this week and I couldn’t be happier with how they came out. And to offset the sweets, a very simple Egyptian style of oven baked potatoes.

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I’m going to claim these Olive Oil Cookies as my signature cookie. Sorry if I beat you to it but they’re just that good. I absolutely love big chewy cookies with crispy edges and these have the added bonus of a subtle olive oil flavor and rose water icing. And the orange zest garnish just pulls it all together so perfectly. Now the olive oil you choose to make these with will impact the flavor so I recommend using the best quality oil you can get your hands on. I was lucky enough to have my olive oil be the freshest import from Lebanon but I’d love to try these again with a great Italian or Spanish olive oil. I can’t recommend these cookies enough!

Saneyyet Batata which directly translates to “Tray of Potatoes” is a very hearty and savory dish. It’s a mix of sliced potato, red onion, and green bell pepper cooked in a savory tomato sauce. It’s gorgeous, aromatic, and so tasty. You can keep it as a vegetarian dish and serve it as a side to your main or can you can turn this into one pot dinner by placing Kufta underneath and baking it all together. That’s a very common dish as well and I do plan to make a recipe for that soon.

This Poached Pear is a dish my cousin actually sent me a post of from Huda Brooklyn on IG. I tried to reverse engineer the dish by breaking down what I thought each component was and then how to assemble it all together. So this is my interpretation of a beautiful poached pear with butter fried kataifi dough and ashta. It’s very unique and unlike any dessert I’ve ever had.

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