And so we begin...

How do you teach your kid's to cook over long distances? Long phone calls? voice notes? Videos? I have tried it all with some success, but I find myself sending the same recipes over and over again. What I need is a permeant home that is searchable for all our family favorites.
For the last three years I have been trying to use technology to teach my kids how to cook. I started out using Snapchat. This was a big hit at first but the disappearing nature of Snapchat videos made it impractical. We tried WhatsApp, but there is a limit to how long a video you can send, and although WhatsApp is searchable, things tended to get lost in our busy family chats.
Here I'll be writing descriptions of some traditional and some not so traditional food that we have enjoyed together as a family. My hope is that this page becomes a resource for my kids as they navigate cooking in their adult lives. In this blog, I bring together some of my passions: food, cooking, technology, teaching and history (mine and the world around me).

Dawood Basha داوود باشا

All dishes made with spiced ground meat came to the world by way of central Asia. Whether is meatballs or Steak Tartare (conveniently named after central asian tribes) we can thank the Asian Steppes for this wide array of dishes.
Dawood Basha, is a levantine meatball dish made with a tomato sauce. Legend has it, the Dawood was the Ottoman governor of Lebanon, and that this dish was created for him. The legend continues that he liked it so much, he insisted it be served to him everyday. I did some research, but was unable to find a governor of Lebanon named Dawood.  Although the Ottoman influence on the dish is evident in its name, as Basha or Pasha was an Ottoman rank. As well as the fact that turks, being a people of the steppe, were probably masters of kofta.
Another part of the mystery to me is the tomato based sauce. As we know, tomatoes are a new world plant, so their use in so many levantine dishes fascinates me. What makes it even more interesting, is while most Arab countries' word for tomato is tamatem which is based in the Spanish word tamate which in turn comes from the native American word for tomatoes. The levant, however, uses the word بندورة which comes from the Italian word, pomodoro, for tomatoes. It's a historical fact that when a new item is introduced to an area, its name is usually taken from the merchants who introduced it. Most likely, Italian merchants brought tomatoes to the levant and influenced both the name and how it's cooked. So a dish that involves meatballs and tomatoes makes a lot of sense.
Dawood Basha is traditionally served with rice, but some people enjoy it with bread. I imagine that it might even work with pasta.
Again, like all traditional foods, there are many ways to cook this. Some people cook it on the stove top, just dropping the meatballs in the sauce. Other people fry up the meat balls and then drop it into he sauce. There is no wrong way, just a way that works for you.

Some cooking tips:
If you don't have prepared kofta you can  mix in a chopped onion and some parsley into ground lamb (beef works too, but lamb is traditional) add spices to taste.
You can prepare and refrigerate the meat balls up to a day ahead.

Herbed Ramadan Bread خبز رمضان بالأعشاب

Ramadan is a time where traditions play a big role. Every family has its own traditions of what they serve for the Iftar meal. Growing up, my mother always made fresh bread for our iftar. My mother is woman who likes to finish everything early. It used to kill me to see the bread coming out of the oven, smelling so delicious with another three hours to go before sunset so we could eat it. In my own household, I always timed the baking so  the bread would be just coming out of the oven as the call to prayer was heard signaling the end to the fast. Over the month I vary the kind of bread I make depending on what else is on the menu. This particular recipe is something I developed one day when I was in a hurry and I've been making it ever since.

Cooking tips:
I use dried zaatar from the garden for my dried herb but feel free to experiment with deferent herbs and different flavors.
A stand mixture with a dough hook is your best friend when it comes to kneading dough. Invest in one if you can.
Pre heat the oven while you are shaping the bread
This bread is baked at the oven's maximum temperature, you need to keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't burn or over bake. If the bottom of the bread is ready and the top is still white, shift the baking tray to a higher rack in your oven.
Always use aluminum baking sheets for baking. It has the best heat distribution

Freekeh Soup شوربة فريكة

Growing up this was my ultimate comfort food. My mother used to make it for me whenever I wasn't feeling well because she knew it would make me feel better immediately. Freekeh, as I've mentioned in a previous post, is wheat that's harvested when it's fully grown but still green. It has a smokey nutty flavor that is really delicious. In soup it becomes very creamy and rich.
Like all traditional foods, there are many ways to cook this. You can skip the chicken and make it with with ready chicken broth or bullion cubes. You can use the half ground freekeh, like I do in the video or you can use the regular full grains. The half ground or soup freakeh gives a creamier soup but you can get the same result with full freekeh if you use a hand blender once the freekeh is tender and give the freekeh a few pulses with the blender. Do not fully blend this or you will lose the texture that makes freekeh so delicious.

Some cooking tips:
If you do not have a pressure cooker for the chicken use the same technique, but after you cover the chicken with water and it boils, cover your pot and lower the heat and let the chicken simmer for 45 minutes.
This soup needs to take its time so you can get the creamy texture. Keep checking it while it's cooking and when you're happy with the texture it's done.

Fried Potato with Eggs مفركة بطاطا

This is a traditional Jordanian/Palestinian dish, that can be eaten any time of day but is usually something you would make for dinner or brunch. Growing up, my mother would reserve this for lazy weekend days when she didn't want to cook something with meat or chicken. When my kids were growing up, this was something we made every once in a while for lunch, as a change of pace.
There are many ways of making this: some people like to cut the potatoes bigger, or cook it with out onion. Others will cook it with butter or ghee instead of olive oil. There is no fixed way of making it and like most cooking, a little experimentation with different flavors never hurts.

Some cooking tips:
If you're having people over for brunch, you can cook the potatoes and onions ahead of time and add the eggs once everyone is there, Just make sure you heat the potato and onion mixture through.
In the video I use 5 small potatoes because that's what I had on hand. The quantity is roughly equivalent to 2  medium potatoes or one large one.

Grilled Chicken Breasts

One thing I quickly realized as I was creating videos for my kids to learn how to cook, was sometimes they didn't have the time or equipment to make the most elaborate meals. Sometimes you wanted something home cooked but could also be made in the time it would take you to order fast food and have it be delivered to you. Grilled chicken breasts fits the bill really well here, because it can be prepped and cooked in a very short time. It is also very versatile, you can eat it as a platter with some roasted vegetables, sliced and added to a salad, in a sandwich. Chicken breasts are also easy to come by and easy on the budget, making this the perfect food for college students or young professionals.

In my marinade, I revert to my roots with the Mediterranean flavors of my heritage: yogurt, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, thyme or oregano and cumin. You can experiment with flavors and add different spices until you find what you like. The chicken can marinate for ten minutes or up to 24 hours in the refrigerator. 

Cooking tips:

Find a good quality grill pan. Mine is from Tefal and I love it. It distributes the heat perfectly and is very easy to clean.

Do not overcook the chicken, chicken breast will dry out if you overcook.

Video note. This video was shot a while ago before my son, Abed, gave me some filming tips so the video is shaky sometimes. I apologize for that.

Fukhara or Meat in a Clay Pot فخارة لحمة

This dish is a family favorite. Traditionally in Jordan and Palestine, women would prepare meat or chicken with vegetables in a clay pot, then seal it with dough and send it to neighborhood bakery to cook slowly in a the bakery's wood oven.  They would usually send it in the morning and get it back in time for the midday meal. The slow cooking in the oven ensured tender meat and beautiful flavors. When neighborhood bakeries disappeared, cooking in a clay pot simply moved to the oven in the kitchen, but it lost some of flavors that you can only get in big wood oven.
The beauty of this dish is that is is extremely versatile. You can substitute the meat for chicken or for bigger bone in pieces. You can put whatever vegetables are in season or are family favorites. You can change the spices around or add spices that are more exotic.
Making this video was especially fun because I got to work with my son on it. He had some good ideas about making the videos more clear and I've tried to implement them as I edited.


Cooking tips:
Try to cut the vegetables as uniformly as possible to make sure they cook evenly
Different ovens may have different cooking times, so check chicken after an hour and half and meat after two hours
On a gas oven I like to cook the fukhara on the highest heat for half an hour before lowering the temperature. On an electric oven I've found you need to keep the heat consistent. The heat suggestion in the video is for an electric oven.
200 Celsius is about 400 Fahrenheit