Breakfast and Friday Farmer's Market at Baker & Spice

Yesterday, we abandoned our tradition of a grand Friday breakfast at home in favor of the breakfast at Baker and Spice and the Friday Farmer's Market. And we were NOT disappointed.

I ordered blueberry pancakes and they were divine. These pancakes were just about the fluffiest, lightest pancakes I've ever had! They were more like moist cake! And the best part is that it wasn't that sweet. The blueberry compote and the fresh cream served with it was amazing and added the sweetness to it. We also ordered a French toast with sour apples to share and weren't disappointed either. The bread was thick and crispy and the apples added a lovely contrast to the sweetness of the cake. Both the pancakes and the French toast were dusted with icing sugar- which got all over my clothes! So that wasn't the great part about it.

After breakfast, we walked over to the farmer's market and just at that time the sun was overcast by the clouds and the Dubai Fountain started dancing and spraying water droplets on us! It was perfect!

Although if I'm not mistaken foods grown with fertilizers are supposed to LOOK better and more attractive than organic food- I found this to be quite the opposite! The tomatoes on sale (as you can see in the photograph) look SO much better and riper than the non-organic tomatoes I usually buy at the supermarket- and they're BOTH local.

I wanted to buy a sheep but didn't manage to do that because they hadn't brought any that day. And in case you're wondering, I want the sheep as a pet.

Soft Hands from your Kitchen!

The secret for the softest hands in the world lies not in an amazingly advanced formula from that top Parisian company. Nor does it lie hidden in an old beauty store on the corner of a long forgotten alley. It lies in your kitchen. Well, only if you have olive oil and some sugar.

Anyone who knows me well is fully aware of my obsession with soft hands and nice, neat cuticles. Perhaps because I can never achieve those two for long at a stretch.

So I tried this today after reading about it somewhere a few days ago and absolutely vouch for it! (apologies, can't remember where!). It is better than any of the hundreds of hand creams I've tried or manicures I've gotten.

Take equal amounts of olive oil and sugar (i.e. two tablespoons of each or whatever quantity you wish) and mix them gently. Apply some onto your hands and keep scrubbing. (I suggest doing this over a basin as it can get messy.) Keep scrubbing for as long as you want until you see the oil somewhat soaked into your skin and the sugar crystals... flattened...

Rinse off and then put on some hand cream and wear gloves!

P.S. Try this wherever you want. I had some extra left in the bowl so I put some on my elbows- worked wonders there too!

Tagine @ The One & Only Royal Mirage

So I finally satisfied my craving for a full Moroccan meal... after three years. I hadn't had one ever since I went to Marrakesh in late 2007 and subsequently threw a Moroccan themed party as soon as I was back. But last night, things changed. Last night, I went to the famed Tagine at the Royal Mirage on Al Sufouh Road. After spending fifteen minutes navigating through the bends and curves of the resort (where there is absolutely zero lighting, mind you), I reached "The Palace"- which is the part of the resort that houses Tagine. The stunning decor that awaited me as I opened those huge wooden doors came as a wonderful surprise as the aroma of rosewater and sight of candles and roses petals encapsulated my senses. The restaurant was also quite busy for a weeknight.

I went up to the maitre d' and introduced myself and told her that I had made a reservation about an hour ago. She had written my name down as "Ms. Sad" instead of "Ms. Sid" but never mind that. She asked me to wait while she prepared a table which was kind of odd since we already had a reservation. Seven minutes later, I went up to where she had previously been and she was nowhere to be found. The manager of the restaurant then approached me and I told him that I had a reservation and that I had been waiting for around ten minutes. He called the maitre d' over and started explaining to her that she needed to get a table ready to seat us. She seemed extremely confused for some reason and it was a further five minutes before we got to our table- and we were seated somewhat haphazardly.

The embroidery on the tablecloths and napkins were very ethnic and elegant. They were cross-stitched in various shades of blue and designed in a traditional Islamic pattern. The table also had one candlestick and a rose. The plates were turquoise and wonderfully intricate. We were then handed the menu and began to peruse it.

We decided to settle for two starters and three main courses. We chose the briouat with mince, the Marrakesh salad, the kofta tagine, the lamb tagine, and the vegetarian couscous. The briouats were lovely and warm. You could taste each ingredient in the mince perfectly. The bread that the served was also wonderful, albeit cold. While ordering, I had specifically made sure that it would be served warm but it wasn't. The best thing about the bread though was that it smelled and tasted of cumin- and we all know how aromatic that can be. The Marrakesh salad was served in five little bowls and was made up of carrots, cauliflower, zucchini, lentils, and something else which I can't exactly remember right now. The salad was also flavoured very well and contained many herbs.

Soon after, the main course arrived in three tagine pots (obviously!) which were decorated with engraved silver. The waiters lifted the tops of the tagine pots simultaneously and we were presented with three steaming dishes that just begged to be eaten. The waiters service was impeccable and they were extremely attentive. The only issues with service though was that the maitre d' and restaurant manager seemed a little flustered. When we were first seated by the maitre d', we asked her for a extra chair in which we could keep our bags (a habit of ours...). She seemed to have forgotten, we then asked the restaurant manager when he came to hand us the menu.. he seemed to have forgotten too. We then asked the waiter who brought us our drinks and be conjured up a chair almost immediately.

Anyways, back to the food. It was wonderful but it could have been a lot better. I personally preferred the flavour of the kofta tagine to the lamb tagine as it was spicier and more intense. Although out of the three dishes, it was the smallest in terms of serving size. The lamb tagine was cooked with the traditional vegetables that Moroccan dishes are often cooked with- carrots and zucchini and eggplant and potato and the like. I found it a little less spicy than ideal- which obviously had an impact on the flavor.

The couscous can be divided into two separate parts to review. The vegetables were extremely warm and spicy and were just out of the pan. It seemed to me though, that it didn't really blend well the couscous as the couscous itself was cold and bland. Couscous obviously made with boiling water but salt, pepper, or lemon juice is often added to the mixture. And the vegetables that are usually added are most often mixed well together with the couscous- but it didn't seem to be that case with this.

There were two fez-adorned musicians playing on traditional Moroccan instruments and singing. It was really nice as it was quite low and blended in perfectly with the background. I loved it since they played "Ya Rayeh"- which is one of my favourite North African songs.

Overall, I would give the experience a 7.5/10.. pretty good... although the food wasn't that amazing. I think what salvaged the place was the decor more than anything. I have a weakness for candles and rose petals.

Foodie Resolutions of 2011

After reading Sally's foodie resolutions for 2011, I was inspired to create my own list and after some thinking, here it is below!

1- To conquer pie-making!

I've had numerous attempts at making pies and tarts but for some reason, they NEVER turn out right. Either it breaks in half when I remove it from the pan or the filling is just not right or something! I remember I made a lemon meringue pie once and forgot to add the milk to the lemon filling.... I only realized once I bit into the pie and cringed because of how sour it was.

2- To experiment in cooking foods from different cultures.

I want to move away from my comfort zone of Italian and stir-fry. I love cooking Moroccan and Indian food, so I'd definitely want to do a lot more of those as well as more regional dishes like Persian, Turkish, and Lebanese.

3- To improve my foodie writing skills.

One thing I need for this is to make time. And I somehow need to get a foodie muse. The imagination is there but just needs to be tapped!

4- To take better photographs!

I share this resolution with Sally. I think it's high time I experiment more with my camera and try different layouts and exposures.

5- To do lots of amazing things with Famished in Arabia!

6- To branch out into using more exotic ingredients and to find little-known-0f ingredients in the GCC.

7- To be able to invent dishes and to minimize my reliance on recipes!

One cooking show I'd love to watch was called "Chef at Home" where this guy would open his pantry and cabinets and pick out whatever ingredients he'd feel like using and he'd just make something amazing right there and then. I've invented a few of dishes of my own but I always think it's a lot easier inventing a savoury or main course dish than it is with inventing something related to baking. So I'd definitely love to make my own cake recipe from scratch. I can imagine very interesting mornings in the kitchen in lieu of this...

8- To go vegetarian. Yes, I'm serious.

Cooking with Raisa!

On Monday morning, my friend Raisa came over to make some tiramisu and lamb and corn quesadillas! We made the tiramisu first as it has to be in the fridge for at least three hours, and then we started making the quesadillas... and our eyes started burning with the cut onion!

Tiramisu is so much fun to make as it's all about layering and dipping the savoiardi biscuits in the coffee.. the best part about it is that - as Raisa said- it doesn't need to go into the oven and nothing has to be cooked on a stove. We sprinkled the top of the tiramisu with grated dark chocolate but the tough thing about grating dark chocolate is having it not melt in your fingers. The grated pieces of chocolate (since they are so small) melt super-fast in your hands!

The challenging part of the quesadillas is the process of heating the tortillas filled with the mixture. You have to make sure that the lamb mixture and the cheese sticks somewhat to the bread so as not to make it slippery or loose. I think adding a lot of cheese (so that it melts and stick to both pieces of bread) is essential to getting a successful quesadilla! You also need to pair up each tortilla piece with another piece of matching size!

Enjoy the photographs taken and edited by Raisa! I love the tone! (And be prepared for some edited pictures by me soon! Raisa taught me how to work some of the tools on Photoshop!)

When Things Go Awry in the Kitchen

So this little post is dedicated to all the times when you're completely excited about making something but then..... somehow, it just DOESN'T work out. I've had a few of those experiences myself lately. Three, actually. And this is me chronicling those experiences and how I (in some way) managed to salvage what I was making!

Gone Awry #1: Cake

So I decided to make two butter cakes and cut each in half so that I'd end up with four layers. I wanted to pile them up and fill them with chocolate ganache in between each layer. And then I wanted to spread frosting around the outside of the cake and then arrange some pretty fruits on it. The vanilla frosting recipe that I read seemed a little too complicated for the two hours I had devoted to making and completing this cake, so I decided to skip it. Instead, I chose to fill the entire cake with chocolate frosting. Sounds good till now, doesn't it? So the cakes came out of the oven, oddly dark and (if I dare to say so) over-cooked! I decided to wait until they cool down before I sliced each in half. Of course, I got caught up with university work and couldn't do anything more with the cake until the next day. So the next day rolled around. I sliced the cake in half (albeit in a very funny manner). I read somewhere that the best way to slice a cake in half is to measure the diameter and find the midpoint of the length and then to poke toothpicks around the cake in equal intervals. I did just that and it worked perfectly.

Then I made the chocolate.. let's call it TOPPING. The recipe said that if you want a chocolate sauce, use it immediately. If you want a ganache, let it cool down, and if you want a FROSTING, then wait for it to cool down and then REFRIGERATE it for an hour. And so I patiently waited for it to cool down and subsequently refrigerated it. According to the recipe, we needn't worry if the frosting is rock solid. All we need to do is beat it a little. I left it in the fridge for half an hour, it was hard as STONE, and I beat it till it turned to a normal consistency (which I then realized lasted only for about ONE minute!). Anyways, I hurriedly spread the frosting over the cake to layer it. (I decided to demote my dreams of a lovely cake from a four layer one to a two layer one.) Then I spread the frosting all around the outside. Then I placed the fruits over it. The frosting was just horrible. Really cold and hard and I love dark chocolate but this was just too freaking bitter for a frosting.. I think I should use milk chocolate from now on instead of Lindt 70% cocoa. SIGH. Anyways, how did I salvage it? I don't know.. I TRIED to make it look pretty and I took the frosting out after half an hour instead of one. I didn't try the cake but those who did apparently liked it. (And I'm pretty sure they weren't saying it just to please me because until today they have no idea who I am).

Gone Awry #2: Fresh Fruit Cupcakes

Friday afternoon and I was way too lazy to drive two minutes to the supermarket. But I wanted to bake. And so what did I do? I chose a recipe where I was PRETTY SURE I had ALL the ingredients. So I chose fresh fruit cupcakes. All I needed was some cream, plain flour, eggs, and sugar. Literally, that's IT! Oh, and some vanilla essence and berries. But, anyways, point was that was what I knew I had in the fridge. And so I go down to the kitchen only to find that the only flour there (apart from self raising) was something called "plain flour for diabetics". I figured that's would be the same thing.. just low in sugar and carbohydrates like the packaging said. Easier said than made. For some reason the flour didn't have the same consistency as normal plain flour and so the batter only managed to yield about six cupcakes. (All the better actually considering what happens next!). So I opened the oven door, placed a kebab skewer into the cupcakes to see whether they were done and... *dramatic music* when I lifted the skewer out the batter, the cupcake came up with it! It was stuck to the skewer because the flour had made it REALLY dry. Anyways, I let the "cupcakes" cool down and then whipped some of the cream and put it on the cakes with the fruits and dusted some icing sugar on it. It looked AMAZING but the taste was kind of... off. Anyways. That was kitchen disaster number 2.. onto the grand finale.. number 3.

Gone Awry #3: Caramel Sponge Cake

Actually, I think this was the BEST "kitchen-thingy-gone wrong". The cake (made out of rich dark brown sugar)

turned out PERFECT. I think my oven has a problem- it cooks everything super-fast. This cake was supposed to be in

for 40 minutes but was perfectly baked after 15..... Anyways, the frosting on top of the cake was supposed to be a golden

syrup frosting made out of golden syrup, butter, and eggs. This is where things started going wrong.

I was supposed to stir all the ingredients for the frosting in a pan over low heat. I did that. The egg ended up

SCRAMBLING (and so I ended up with scrambled egg as a frosting) and the butter melted but didn't mix properly.

So the frosting effectively ended up as scrambled egg and melted butter. What happened to the 100g

of golden syrup, I DO NOT KNOW. There was not a trace of it in my taste buds. And what I oh-so-smartly

decided to do was place the frosting over the cake. Then I came to my senses and realized that, "ohhh, my lovely

caramel cake has SCRAMBLED egg on it!" I quickly scraped it off and then made the caramel. This was the best part.

I had tried making caramel once before with caster sugar but it didn't work. This time, it was heaven.

Nothing happened for about ten minutes but the minute I swirled a spoon in the sugar everything started melting.

The smell was just... indescribable. And then the caramel was made in two minutes flat. The thing I didn't realize was

that the caramel hardens IMMEDIATELY. And so it hardened and then I cut into pieces and placed it on top of the cake

which I had spread with golden syrup after removing the scrambled egg frosting.

Featuring: Famished in Arabia!

So while I was at #BakeFestDXB in September participating by selling my baked items, I met Arva. Arva mentioned that she was a food blogger and I excitedly said that I was one too (I had only been seriously blogging about food for a month then). She then told me that she and a group of food bloggers had recently set up a group and were going to do something foodie-related each month. I jumped at the opportunity to join. So here I am, almost four months later, blogging about our wonderful group of food bloggers based in Dubai.

The first event that I attended was a Thai cooking class at ICCA , the second event that I attended was Christmas baking at Sally's. Eventually our group got the name of "Famished in Arabia" and here they are:

Sally Prosser: Custard Pie - Welcome to my kitchen in Dubai and my view of life through food-tinted sunglasses.http://www.mycustardpie.com/

Reading about, shopping for, planning, and dreaming about food makes up a huge part of my day and I find the urge to feed people I love almost overwhelming.
Join me as I discover lovely places to buy food, try out new recipes, share favourite tastes and experiences and continue the journey of honing my skills in my Dubai-based kitchen.

Dubai has been my home for over a decade; a stint in Saudi Arabia before that and holiday jaunts to various parts of the Middle East have culminated in a love of the region, a warm regard for its inhabitants and a fascination with its varied cuisine (so much more than hummous)
Despite living temperatures of over 40 C at times, my British origins dominate my culinary preferences e.g. lashings of custard!

Edwina Cottino: Mezzaluna, Welcome to my food and photography blog. Here you will find stories about food, life and photography. Born and raised in South Africa, now living in Dubai, I am proudly down to earth. I love all things natural and strive for my photographs to show life and food as it really is, no frills attached! http://www.edwinacottino.com/Mezzaluna/Mezzaluna_Blog/Mezzaluna_Blog.html

Elaine Gan Maclaine-Cross: Welcome to Scribblelicious!
I started off as a shy blogger and months later, to a slightly more adventurous writer. Posts that lean towards 'Eat & Review' experiences and bits of home cooking recipes.
Oh, not forgetting my mini offshore episodes in this current bling-bling city i'm in, Dubai!)
www.scribblelicious.com

Arva Ahmed: A family of extraordinary chefs. A dinner takeout business from my college dorm. Three years of living in New York and traveling to some of the best fed cities in the US. And nourished by the food fanatics who I ironically find myself studying with, rooming with, working with – and even randomly, dancing bhangra at an Indian wedding in Malaysia with. I’m not trying to find excuses for being a glutton, but these come pretty close.

Just as I was on the verge of exploding with the stream of food obsessed consciousness that’s constantly pumping through me, some wise person suggested I spew it all out on a blog. So wise person, here it is – my unadulterated passion for food, and all the dainty, daring and downright disastrous ways in which I ‘live' food in Dubai every day – all up on my blog, I Live in a Frying Pan.
www.iliveinafryingpan.com

Rajani Mani: 36 years old, UAE based based writer, filmmaker, and puppeteer. I live in Dubai with my husband, and 4 year old daughter. I started blogging in 2008, that was around the time that I had almost stopped working outside of home. I needed something that was special, precious, something that would keep me sane with all the madness in my life at that point. My blog is now a medium for sharing my real passion for food, the right kind of food. Food that tells you stories, food that’s handed down by generations of grandmothers, happy food that revolves around conversations and laughter.

Last year I shifted my rickety blog to a new sitewww.eatwritethink.com because I wanted it to grow into something that is beyond recipes. My blog is unique in its content, its probably the ONLY vegetarian blog from the emirates, and its not just about food and recipes, but I also often share my space with professionals from various fields, who are also food enthusiasts, who like to share their world with me.

My blog is a work in progress of the sum total of my life's experiences, both inside and outside the kitchen door. On eatwritethink you will undoubtedly find delicious vegetarian recipes, vintage family recipes, outstanding photoblogs on food, as well as opinions and views on food safety, and food politics.

http://www.eatwritethink.com/

Chirag N Desai: http://www.naihar.com/: The naihar food blog started as a small peek into our family passion for cooking, tasting, eating and sharing food. Today it has proudly grown into a collaborative effort among authors passionate about their food, and everything that goes with it. So far, naihar has covered places to eat in Dubai, the US, UK, and India, as well as home-made delicacies. Our goal is a rather simple one: to make you salivate, in addition to giving you some good options for varying food choices.

Debz Ng: The musings of a Singapore Foodie that revolves round her meals and her life in UAE.

I am no chef or professional food critic just a girl on the right side of her twenties who is always on the lookout for good food in her new city. I am staunch believer in good food and truly believes that not all good food is expensive. As much as I love the meal experiences in fine dining restaurants, I also have a passion for street food and hole in the wall diners.

Always on the lookout for fellow lovers of good food. http://sgfoodieinuae.wordpress.com/

Bon Appetit: Bon Appetit (www.bonappetitreview.blogspot.com) started as a pure restaurant review site but soon branched out to include articles on my travels (where to visit, where to avoid and the food encountered along the way), recipes from the rare occasions I am really blown away by something I’ve made and health-related articles on the impact food can have on chronic conditions such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Ankylosing Spondylitis (a type of arthritis). Writing about food has given me a whole new appreciation and interest in the art of cooking as well as forcing me out of my comfort zone to try new restaurants and menu items for the sake of Bon Appetit!

Anja Schwerin: http://www.anjasfood4thought.com/

For personal health reasons and as a responsible mum of two small kids I started taking a serious interest in healthy foods and cooking. I looked for sugar alternatives, switched from refined grains to wholegrains, refined flours to whole meal flours. I started experimenting with spices. In fact I started enjoying cooking. I basically took over the kitchen department completely in our house.

When my husband started his blog in March 2009, it was just a matter of time until I started mine too, so I could be near him.....back to back in our tiny study, both of us hacking away on our computer keyboards :-)

Now here we are: welcome to my little but ever expanding personal food journal and cookbook. Join me exploring new ways of healthy eating, "healthy" being based on mostly natural ingredients. I take a special interest in exploring vegetarian, vegan and raw foods as I find them incredibly inventive and tasty. And I have a special weakness for quirky ingredients.

And last, but ehm definitely not least, my own blog- which I'm pretty sure you know about considering you're reading this. My blog is a space for me to share my little adventures in the world of food and entertaining be it, cooking, baking, eating, or throwing dinner parties. I love the complexities of setting the perfect table and I love the sublimity of getting the caramel melted just right.

Here's a little directory for everyone in our little group:

Sally Prosser @ My Custard Pie (http://www.mycustardpie.com/) Twitter: @sally2hats

Elaine @ Scribblelicious (www.scribblelicious.com)

Chirag, Devina and Nikita @ The Naihar Food Blog (www.naihar.com)

Tala Soubra @ http://forkitoverdubai.wordpress.com/

Debbie @ Singapore Foodie in UAE (sgfoodieinuae.wordpress.com)

Ruth @ Bon Appetit (www.bonappetitreview.blogspot.com)

Anja Schwerin @ Anja’s Food 4 Thought (http://anjasfood4thought.blogspot.com/ )

Salman @ www.dubaimoves.com

Dalia @ www.dalia’skitchen.com

Sidiqa @ http://spontaneous-euphoria.blogspot.com/

Lin (prefers to be called by her twitter ID, @boozychef) @ http://www.ballparkit.blogspot.com/

Mary-Kei @ http://camerasandcucumbers.com/

Rajani @ http://www.eatwritethink.com/

Edwina @ http://www.edwinacottino.com/

Sukaina @ lick-my-spoon.blogspot.com

Arva Ahmed @ www.iliveinafryingpan.com

Raspberry Crumble Muffins

I love how these photographs have turned out!

My friend Raisa (twitter: @raisa_z) edited them. We are now going to collaborate on the photographs where I take them and she edits them!

These were some raspberry crumble muffins I made for a picnic in the park. The occasion was a staff gathering for all of us who work at the Writing Center at AUS. The weather was fabulous and the company was great. I hadn't had a picnic in the park in so long and this was definitely fun.

Enjoy the pictures! :)

The Cupcake and Biscuit Making Process