Recipe Review! Spicy Linguine with Clams and Mussels by Giada

Salam Ladies,

Sorry for the lengthy absence... I have no "good" excuse I suppose, just life going on as usual. Since I last wrote, my husband has graduated mashaAllah tabarak Allah :-)

Yesterday we stopped by Whole Foods and found mussels for about $5 per pound, so we picked up a pound and I made mussels today! Of the whole pound we lost four mussels (out of around 30) before cooking.

I decided to use a Spicy Linguine with Clams and Mussels recipe from foodnetwork by Giada De Laurentiis. MashaAllah it is a very simple and delicious recipe which I did tweak a bit for myself to make it healthier. You can find the original recipe at the link above and I will include my version below.

There are Shrimp because the dude was worried he wouldn't like the mussels :-P

Spicy Whole Wheat Vermicelli with Mussels
Serves 2
~400-450 Calories per serving

Ingredients
2 servings (4oz) of Whole Wheat Vermicelli or Thin Spaghetti (or your pasta of choice)
2 tsp butter
1/4 c parsley, chopped
salt and pepper

For Sauce
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
salt, pepper to taste
1 tbsp garlic paste (or 2-3 cloves garlic, minced)
2 c vegetable broth
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 small tomato, chopped
1/4 tsp red pepper
24 mussels
2 tsp cream

Method
1. Boil pasta in salted water until al dente, drain, toss in butter, parsley, and salt/pepper to taste. Set aside.
2. For the sauce: Heat oil and saute onion until soft, season with salt/pepper. Add garlic and saute for another 30 seconds. Add 1 cup of broth plus the lemon juice and simmer on medium heat until reduced by half. Add the rest of the broth, plus the red pepper and tomato, simmer 1 minute. Add mussels and cover tightly with a lid. Let simmer for 5-8 minutes until the mussels open (throw away any that don't open).
3. Use tongs to remove mussels from the pot. Whisk the cream into the remaining sauce and simmer 1 minute until slightly thicker.
4. Pour sauce onto reserved pasta and season with salt and pepper to taste.
5. Arrange mussel shells on top of pasta and serve :-)

I love the recipe, it was very quick and easy and looks so rich and fancy when you are done with all the beautiful open shells on top of your pasta. Next time I get my hands on some mollusks I will probably attempt this again inshaAllah!

The Aftermath :-) Alhamdulillah

Y is for...

Yeast:

People have been using yeast for millennia to bake.

One of the things I can remember very vividly from childhood is the fresh baked yeast bread my grandfather's second wife use to make for us when we came to visit. She would cut us thick hot slices and slather soft butter all over the top. Me and my dad would sit in the kitchen and eat half a loaf in 5 minutes between us.

I have always wanted to learn how to bake yeast bread, but always had the image in my mind that it was incredibly hard. I never even tried because I thought I would fail. Failing at cooking always seems extra terrible because I didn't just fail... I also wasted precious food.

Anyway... finally I decided that I just couldn't wait any longer.

When I got married I decided I would try it. You all have already seen the results from that!

So now I feel pretty competent making a loaf of yeast bread alhamdulillah and my husband loves the smell of the house when I bake.

My next project is to learn how to make pastry dough inshaAllah!

T is for:

Tea:

I love tea. I love sitting and enjoying tea. I love all of the snacks and foods that people usually enjoy with tea.

I especially love tea with habeg/habeq. I have never heard any other people using habeg except for Saudis, but it makes tea absolutely delicious!!!

Habeg is sort of minty, but has a kind of dry bite to the end of it. It is really difficult to describe. I don't even think it is actually in the mint family.

Anyway tea is delicious and always comes at a time when things are slow and you can just sit and savor.

source

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Baking Day Two

Salam 3alaikum ya banaat,

I made another round of bread the other day and managed to snap a picture. There I have a regular loaf, a braided loaf and some cinnamon rolls working on their second rise.

It is essentially the same recipe as last time but with only one egg and a spoon of butter instead of a whole stick lol. You can find the original recipe HERE inshaAllah.

Baking Day!

Salam 3alaikum ya banaat!

When I started feeling better I felt terrible that I had (unwillingly) neglected my cooking duty. I felt the need to do some serious up-to-your-elbows-in-food-stuff kind of work so I decided to make a huuuuge batch of bread.

I had no recipe. I just decided to wing it so I started making the dough, kneaded for a while and then left the dough for the first rise while I made dinner. I can't remember what I made for dinner (LOL) but after we ate I split the dough to shape it for the next rise.

Out of the one batch of dough I made:

• 1 loaf of sandwich style bread
• 13 cinnamon rolls
• 8 crescent shaped rolls, 4 with cheese 4 plain
• 1 braided loaf with mozzarella on top
• 1 loaf filled with strawberry jelly and cream cheese
• 2 bagels
• 2 soft pretzels
• 4 dinner rolls

I wanted to eat everything as soon as it came out of the oven!!! However I ignored my baser instincts and put most of it away to eat fresh or in the freezer for later.

My husband started showing signs of getting a cold as well so I felt so proud to be able to give him soup and fresh made bread to feel better or tea with cheesy rolls alhamdulillah. 

This was the first time I ever made a real loaf of bread and I have to tell you... there is no feeling like pulling that loaf out of the oven and realizing it looks just like the one from the grocery store but tastes a million times better! 

Also I was so surprised that every bread was made from the same dough but subhanAllah they all came out with a different flavor! Some had obviously different cooking methods like shorter cook times, boiling the bagels, dipping the pretzels in baking soda water, filling, topping, etc.

The Dough Recipe

1 1/2 tbsp yeast (2 packets)

1 cup warm water

1 tbsp honey 

5 c all-purpose flour

2 c stone ground whole wheat flour

1- 12 oz can evaporated milk

1 stick butter

2 eggs lightly beaten

Salt to taste, I think I put like a tablespoon or something

enough warm water to form a slightly sticky dough

1. combine yeast, cup water and honey, leave until yeast bubbles up

2. combine dry ingredients together in a bowl

3. melt butter and warm milk in a pan, but don't let it get hot (no boiling/steaming)

4. make a hole in the dry ingredients and add the milk/butter mix and being stirring

5. continue adding yeast mixture and finally eggs

6. add enough warm water (not hot) to create a slightly sticky dough

7. turn out on a floured surface and knead, continuing to add flour as needed to hands and surface until you have a dough that is soft and slightly sticky but doesn't stay stuck to your bare hand.

8. let rise for 30 min to an hour, punch down, shape and let rise for another 30 min to an hour then bake at 400 F. If you have small shapes, bake about 8 to 12 min, for larger loaves bake 20- 30 min but keep checking to make sure it isn't overdone. 

*obviously this isn't the most healthy bread... I think you could easily leave out the butter and/or eggs and have a less dense bread with a lot less calories. Just substitute in more warm water to form the dough.

Do you have a bread recipe that you use for everything?? I really want to try some more recipes and see how they come out inshaAllah :-)

First Things First

When I was a kid, my parents expected us kids to clean our plates during meal time and I ended up creating a process to help myself do that.

The first thing I eat from a plate of food is the thing I want the least. I eat all of it. Then I go in order down until I get to the thing I like the best and I always finish my meal with a bite of the thing I like the most. If there are two things I like the most, then I alternate between those two until it's all gone.

I still keep this practice up to this day, though I don't always realize I'm doing it. It has even spread to the way I eat candies and desserts...

I really started noticing it once I got married because my husband and I generally eat from a shared plate of food. However, he eats the stuff that he likes first, and it is usually the same as the stuff that I like, so he ends up eating all the good stuff before I get there lol.

I don't think this is something I do obsessively, but I do find it comforting and it is the habit that I almost always fall into.

Do you have any odd habits that surfaced after marriage?