Sho Zareef halZareef !

Another loaded Thursday! I always thought Thursdays are supposed to be the lamest work days, everybody is usually mentally and emotionally prepared for the weekend. So by noon time, you'd find everyone wrapping up their pending work matters in an attempt to adjust into the "weekend mood" rather than the "work-holism mood" .

So today I had dinner plans with my friends, celebrating a birthday of one of them . And since we made it a habit to go out and try a new restaurant out each birthday . this birthday pick was the new Iranian/Persian restaurant "Zareef".

The place is located at Abdoun circle, occupying half a building of two stories "I think ! but who would really care about this piece of info. ! Anyway ..." .We arrived there after 8 . it was still empty by then .We climbed the stares to the 2nd floor where the better scene is . Our table was located next to the big windows overlooking the street and the shops across.

The general atmosphere of the place is cozy , and clean . Iranian music plays in the background , slightly dimmed lights , enhancing the coziness effect , not to darkness degree though ,I don't like places with minimal light , it always gives me the feeling that something creepy is going on , besides , eating would be such a hard task , considering the fact that you can barely see what's on your plate !

The menu had Iranian/Persian names with explanation of the content of each dish. We started with appetizers .Shami , which is very close to Koufta balls , along with some Nan Panir Sabzi , which is Iranian cheese , served with hot yummy bread , and some Kashk Badenjan , which is mainly fried eggplant topped with kashk , fried onions , mint & garlic.

Main dishes that we ordered were all about rice, meat and chicken. Rice is done in three different ways, either with saffron, vegetables or with Zereshk (some kind of sweet and sour dried fruit close to raisins). Persian food seemed a bit dry to us, since we are used to have rice with something to gravy/Vigi base to the side, We needed to moist our dishes so , each one of us ordered special Iranian yogurt to go with the dish. The food was good, the amount of rice was huge though.

I liked the place, the service was more than great and the prices are reasonable. Food wise , its okay , may be it lacks variety . but for rice lovers , I think it will be a perfect pick !

Hot chocolate & Gerard ..

So I've been blabbering about Gerard and its amazing hot chocolate with marshmallows for a while now.. and although I admitted in one of my comments, on Tamara's blog that I've been staying away from delicious food and chocolate for a while , trying to control my eating habits , which by the way have been drastically ruined during the past summer , Ramadan and the two weeks after Eid , yet , today the temptation was stronger than what I can handle !

After a long loaded Thursday , having to stay late at work , eating barely half a sandwich , I came back home , to go out within less than half an hour , to pick up my mother and sister. So in our way back , we were close to Abdoun , and that chocolate lover devil started whispering in my ears " Hot Chocolate with Marshmallows ... Hot Chocolate with Marshmallows … Gerard is less than 5 minutes away .. you can do it ..go .. go .. gooooo" so it took me like half a second to convince mom and sister .Actually it was effortless job, they said okay without having me to convince them into it, and we headed there , promised with the pleasures of chocolate taste in a winter cold night .

I thought it would be okay for me to order hot chocolate this time, since I did not had much food during the day, so I needed the sugar and the calories – you know.. In order to survive- and ordered my sweet hot drink. You can see the picture DOWN.

The place was full as usual, so I held my precious drink with both hands, and sat outside. It was a cold night, yet all my sensations were warming up with every sip I take of this heavenly sweet condensed drink, and my heart was dancing and bouncing to the flavor of every marshmallow piece melting on my tongue ... ahhhh .. SUPER!

And since I believe that such pleasures should be shared, I took few pictures while the lovely staff was preparing our orders. Now my favorite is the chocolate fountain they have, I swear to God that first time I saw it , I had that childish desire to stick a finger under the running chocolate "falls" and tasting it ,and went further in my dreams into filling a cup and drinking it right there . Does this sound normal , or do I sound like choc-psycho ?

Another picture for ice cream cones dipped with chocolate and nuts, I've always wanted to have one of those and fill it with 3 scoops of ice cream, but every time I get that thought, I bury it, knowing that I'll probably end up having to work out 3 days in row to burn it! I wish If I can be less freaked out about this calories- burning thing.. ah.. pity.. I envy people with high metabolism rates !

Last picture for ice cream flavors, whether its summer or winter, an ice cream is never too cold to have !

Enjoy the pictures..

Feel like having "Homemade chocolate cookies"?

Okay , I felt totally unproductive during this long beautiful "on time" weekend , Its winter , its somehow cold , long nights , and chocolate always seems like a good companion to the previous , besides , my little brother was nagging me into making some , its been a WHILE since the last time . So I decided to make some chocolate chip cookies !

I am not going to write down the recipe, and that's not because it’s a TOP SECRET classified Danah's recipe , no no . Actually, the recipe is written right on the back of Hershey's chocolate chip semi sweet pack. I have made the recipe tens of times , and every time the out come is rich , sweet , chewy , and of course yummy yummy yummy .

I am probably stretching a muscle here :) , that's why I am posting the picture of my cookies creativity ! I wish if smell and taste could be transferred through blogs though , wouldn't this be neat !

One last thing , if you decided making some , don't make it a habit , these cookies are really rich in calories , lots of butter and sugar within , not to forget the chocolate chips .

Enjoy the looks :) , I guess I'll be taking some to my colleagues tomorrow !

Harra2 beosba3o recipe وصفة الحراق باصبعه بالعجين

وصفة الحراق باصبعه بالعجين

وعدت من شي اكثر من اسبوع ان انشر وصفة الحراق باصبعه . هاي الوصفة , اصلها والله اعلم شامي , و اكله شتوية لأنها بتعطي طاقة , مقاديرها بسيطة و تطبيقها سهل كتير

الوصفة بالاجمال مأخوذة من كتاب "ألف بـاء الطبخ" , لكن بتصرف !! لأنو في اجتهادات من ماما ممكن تكون اعطتها شي زيادة . بكل الأحوال , انا بدي اكتب الوصفة , و انتوا برجع لكم تجربوها

مقادير الحراق باصبعه
واحد كوب عدس غير مجروش , يعني حب صحيح
اثنان بصل كبير
اثنان فص ثوم
باقة من الكزبرة الخضراء
فنجان زيت نباتي المعيار هو فنجان قهوة , يعادل تقريبا خمسة و سبعون مل
فنجان من دبس الرمان او ممكن يعرف برب الرمان
فنجان من عصير الليمون , غير المحلى طبعا
رشة بهار ممكن استبدالها برشة فلفل اسود لمن يريد , معيار الرشة تابع للذوق الشخصي
رغيف من خبز الشراك , او اي خبز رقيق متوافر , ممكن تورتيلا

مقادير العجين
واحد كوب طحين
نصف كوب ماء او اكثر بقليل , بحيث لا يلتصق العجين
رشة ملح خفيفة

تحضير العجين
يعجن العجين باضافة الماء و الطحين و الملح تدريجيا , يخلط باطراف الأصابع , و يعجن الى ان يصبح طريا متماسكا لا يلتصق بالأصابع . يرش طحين على السطح الذي سيتم رق العجين عليه , يرق العجين على شكل رغيف كبير و رقيق , ثم طي العجين الى طيات ثم يقطع بالعرض الى حبال عرضها واحد سم, ثم تققطع الحبال الى مربعات.

تحضير الحراق باصبعه

بعد ان ينقى العدس من الأوساخ و يغسل , يتم وضعه على النار مع اضافة حوالي تسعة اكواب من الماء ,طهي البقوليات يستهلك كمية لا بأس بها من الماء. يمكن استخدام طنجرة الضغط لسرعة الطهي. لكن قبل اغلاقها , يتم اأنتظار حتى تغلي الماء او تقارب على الغليان , حيبها يتم اضافة العجين المقطع و فنجان الزيت النباتي. يحكم اغلاق الطنجرة الى ان يستوي العدس بحيث يصبح طريا لكن ليس مهروسا.

في انتظار العدس لكي يستوي , يتم تقطيع البصل الى شرائح رقيقة بعد تقشيره, ثم يحمر في الزيت الحار الى ان يقارب لونه الذهبي , عندها يرفع البصل و يتم الابقاء على الزيت و حيث سيتم استخدامه لاحقا.

تغسل وتفرم الكزبرة ناعما , ثم يدق الثوم مع رشة ملح خفيفة , تلوح الكزبرة و الثوم في الزيت , ثم تطفأ النار عنها

بعد ان يستوي العدس,بحيث يصبح طريا لكن ليس مهروسا , تفتح الطنجرة , و يضاف دبس الرمان , و الليمون و رشة البهار و الملح , الأخيران حسب التفضيل و الذوق , يحرك الحراق قليلا ثم يترك لكي يتسبّك , يمكن اضافة الماء حسب الحاجة اذا كان جامدا. يكوون قامه متماسك ليس مرقا جدا ولا جامدا.
في هذه الأثناء . يتم اضافة مصفى زيت قلي البصل بدون شرائح البصل , و مصفى زيت الكزبرة و الثوم بدونها ايضأ , لذا عند القلي , يمن تزويد كمية الزيت , لهذا الاستخدام السابق. هذه الاضافة لاعطاء نكهة مميزة . و يتم التحريك , و يكون بهذا قد استوى.
يتم تقطيع الخبز بمقص الخبز الى مربعات صغيرة , و قليها

يسكب الحراق باصبعه في وعاء زجاجي او فخاري , يتم تزيين الوجه بالبصل المقلي و الكزبرة و الثوم المقليين , ثم ينثر الخبز القلي على الوجه . ممكن ابقاء مواد التزيين في اوعية اخرى و عدم نثرها على سطح الحراق , حسب ما بتفضلو
وصحتين و عافية
كلمة اخيرة , هاي اول مرة بطبع بالعربي هالقد!!! و انهلكت !!!! بس حبيت اشارككم بهاي الأكلة :) و ان شاء الله تحبوها

Random Ramadani craving : Tarabolsieyh

Today is slow , very slow ! The past two days were running without a leash, obviously, because my hands were full with ASAP-must–be-done tasks .However today is moving like a turtle ! It could be because I do not have lots of work to do, actually I have few things that need to be done, you know those little scattered tasks that you know you should finish and if anyone asks about it , you'll shove your hand and say "Uh , piece of cake! I'll be done with it in no time " and then you realize its accumulating into a group of small irritating tasks that you need to be done with , your subconscious is telling you are being silly putting them away and you should be done with them ,but you are simply stalling, because you don't feel like it today ! How unprofessional!

Anyway, that's not where I was intending to go with this post. Actually, I wanted to talk about a food craving that I had. Yesterday, I had the most consuming craving for an Arabic sweet called Tarabolsieyh** I was sitting on my desk doing some work , everyone was talking about food and sweets "the main chatter in Ramadan , next to religious issues ,family visits , TV shows and everybody's lack of proper sleep " and of course Atayef had to be mentioned , Atayef with cheese ,Atayef with walnuts and some new revolutionary Atayef with apples and raisins ( right !!! With apples and raisins. it made me wonder about its taste! Sounds like a good combination with cinnamon and melted sugar, but as an atayef ! hmm , I should try it and see ) and in the middle of everybody's talk I was haunted with the thought of Tarabolsieyh , I suddenly was able to smell , taste and chew it in my mind ! The smell , the memorized taste of sweetened pistachios under my teeth and whipped cream , all over made my mouth water , and I kept seeing pieces of Tarabolsieyh flying around me at work ! The case were food flies around me happened before, it could get as bad as seeing people with food heads!

Its funny how our bodies respond to cravings, like for example, whenever someone mentions lemons and salt, my mouth wont stop watering! But you know what is even funnier, is how mind ties some foods to specific occasions or people. In the case of Tarabolsieyh , I only had this kind of sweet at one of my friends house , when she used to invite me over for Iftar each Ramadan , Tarabolsieyh was the first sweet we start with after finishing Iftar and starting the tea and coffee session . My friend got married and moved out of Jordan, and the memory of me and her having Tarabolsieyh remained with me in every Ramadan. A part of my craving might be well explained by the fact; I miss her ever since she has traveled away.


Of course, after work I went straight to the only bakery that prepares it in Amman, grabbed some to have after Iftar , you can see below the single remaining piece !

**( It is a sweet , I am guessing Lebanese from the town of Tripoli , as you can see from the name. It consists of two parts the lower is smellier to ma3omoul be fosto2 7alabi and the upper is a type of whipped cream called Natef , however, these days they are using the ordinary whipped cream )

(Tarabolsieyh)