Thursday, December 4, 2008

Bread Dough for Fatayer

Bread Dough for Fatayer

Ingredients:
3 cups of unbleached flour (you can mix white and wheat)
2 1/2 tsp of yeast
1 tbsp of honey or sugar
1/4 cup of olive oil or vegetable oil
1 tsp of salt1
1/4 cup of Lukewarm water

Preparation:
dissolve the yeast in the water adding the honey. Mix the oil with the flour and salt, rubbing the flour in your hands so all the oil will be distributed in the flour and soaked in, when the yeast riseadd it to the flour and mix well, until you have a nice soft dough (it takes around 10 minutes to turn the flour into a nice dough)cover the dough and let it rise in a draft free place. (Takes between 90 - 120 minutes for the dough to rise completely)

Fatayer - Savoury Vegetarian Pastries

Platter of savoury pastries , which includes Oregano Bread,Cheese and Spinach Fatayer.



I made my dough with 50% whole wheat flour as a healthy alternative, of course you can use white flour .






Mushrooms Galettes and a yummy Pizza.

Home made not delivery!!!!!

using your hands to create holes in the dough creating a base for the stuffing.

uy spreading the stuffing

the bread is resting.







You can make a large bread of small bite size breads

Oregano Bread - Continue

shape the dough into walnut size balls, let them rest before you roll them into small rounds
and stuff them.



Also the same dough can be rolled and stuffed then turned to a bagel.. It was a hit at the
Farmer's Market.


Savoury Pastries as part of Mezza

This is Called Saj - this is the element which we use to bake our lavash bread in Lebanon.
It is a metal round tray sit on another round heating element with leg, the heating element has holes and it works on propane, also if you want you can build yourself a brick fireplace to fit the Saj and bake your bread on it, you need to be a professional to control the fire, and make sure its working properly to get the perfect wood baked bread and pastries, other wise it will not bake properly or you burn the bread.

This is a gas element Saj, my mom puts it on the balcony outside and bread and oregano and cheese bread as a treat during the weekends.

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Phoenician Gourmet Participating in a Christmas Craft Shows

During the month of November I participated in three craft shows in North Bay, as a baker and a caterer. It was my first year participating in something like this; I worked very hard and spent many nights baking till the early hours of the morning, making sure the food looks fabulous and the taste is excellent (you eat with your eyes first right!!!) . The preparation started couple of weeks before; I soaked 20 kg of dry chickpeas, boiled them, then froze them. Boxes of eggplants have been roasted and cleaned and also packaged in the freezer, couple of boxes of big red peppers were roasted cleaned and packaged in the freezer ( oh no…. I don’t have a commercial freezer, I have a big freezer, and thanks to my dear neighbor Linda who was kind enough to offer me a clean empty freezer in her basement, and also my in-law’s freezer, so I barely made it for the first show.

My food was a variety of Lebanese Dips (hummus, Baba Ghanouj, Mhamarah) around 40 jars of pepper jelly, the majority are red pepper jelly, and some with Jalapeno pepper and some a mix between red pepper and jalapeno .
Also I baked several dozens of Lebanese flat bread; also I prepared vegetarian savoury pastries which included Spinach, and Mushroom Galettes.
For dessert I baked a total of 40 pounds of Baklawa with different flavours and designs, also, I made Pecan Butter Tarts, and Homemade Mincemeat Pies, I made around 10 kinds of Christmas Cookies.
Two kinds of Fruit cakes the first with Homemade Marzipan and other is the traditional English Fruit cake which is wrapped with homemade marzipan and covered with royal icing frosting. Also I prepared 4 kinds of truffles, Black Russian truffle, Orange liqueur truffles, almond and brandy truffles and Kahlua truffle
Also double chocolate coffee beans bonbons and pecan caramel bonbons


These are some of the pictures which I took for the stuff I made :


Boxes of Christmas Cookies , Pecan Butter Tarts & Homemade Mincemeat Pies


more baking's


the tables are ready and full of delicious food


More dessert trays


we needed big bins to carry the dessert boxes.


Variety of Christmas Cookies


Traditional English Fruit Cake with homemade marzipan and royal icing on top


Traditional English Fruit Cake


Rich Fruit Cake with homemade marzipan


Truffles Variety including:black Russian,Brandy Truffle, Hazelnut Truffles, Orange Truffles, then Double Chocolate Coffee Balls, Kahlua and Pecan Caramel Truffles


Apricot & pistachios Baklawa


tray of Bird's Nests Baklawa


Coffee Baklawa


Bird's nests Baklawa


Chocolate fingers Baklawa


Blossom Baklawa Tray ready for the oven


Almond Baklawa


Cranberry and Nuts Baklawa


Blossom Baklawa

Traditional Baklawa with walnuts, almonds cashews

Holiday Decorations Stand

Hand Made Crafted wood decorations

Santa Was there too...