Cooking Local

Previously, I had talked about wanting to learn how to cook up some Middle Eastern dishes due to the ease of obtaining the necessary ingredients here and also to learn more about the local culture.

After some Googling, I have found a collection of online recipes from Celia Ann Brock-Al Ansari. Her book, “The Complete United Arab Emirates Cookbook,” is unfortunately, no longer in print. I understand that she is an Amercan lady who married an Emirati and she produced the cookbook with the help of her husbands family and friends.

Bezar (Arabic Spice Mix)

I don’t know if I will be able to make it through every single recipe, but I will certainly try and will post each attempt here on Sundays.

Besides Arabic cooking, I’d also like to make more of an effort to cook Indian dishes. Not just the stuff that’s in the restaurants (ie. Chicken Tikka Masala, Lamb Vindaloo) but lesser known recipes.

On that note, a colleague of my husband’s lent me her copy of “Khazana of Indian Recipes” by Sanjeev Kapoor’s. I have skimmed through the list of recipes and almost all of them sound foreign to me (well, they are foreign) but I will give them a try – that is the whole point of this experiment – To try different things and learn about other cultures through cooking.

I will not be printing the recipes on here because they are copyrighted but will link to the relevant sites if possible and you can purchase Sanjeev Kapoor’s book via Amazon.

First up for next Sunday is an Arabic dish called Chicken with Rice in the Bottom or De-jaj ta-ha-tah.

And I’m recruiting volunteer eaters so if I know you, come over on Saturdays to be food guinea pigs .

And finally, if you have any great Arabic or Indian recipes to share, please send me an email – I’d love to hear from you!