Sweet heaven: Al Samadi Sweets

I must share this little heavenly gem that I found out about a great little on this great little blog, called Little Majlis the other day. It’s called Al Samadi Sweets. And it’s a great place to go if you want to buy some delectable arabian pastries.

Living in Umm Suqeim, I have access to a lot of little sweet shops but most of them sell chocolates (hum…being half-Belgian, I don’t go near local chocolate), dates and nuts. When I left for summer holiday I went throughout all of the Jumeirah/Umm Suqeim area and the best pastries I found were at Abshar, the iranian restaurant. Granted, being half-Iranian, that suited me fine as I consider Persian pastries absolutely divine.

However, when I heard about Al Samadi, I asked my sweet-loving Indian colleague about it, and he told me it was worth a visit – at least once and on an empty stomach.

So off I went and I was not disappointed – the guys there even insisted I taste a few with some cardamom coffee, which I adore. 200 aed and 2 kilos of sweets later, I can’t say enough good things about this place.

The below pistachio cookie pan covered with nougat and dripping with honey tastes even better (and richer) than it looks.

Al Samadi Sweets
Opposite Coral Deira Hotel, Al Muraqqabat Street, Al Rigga, Dubai

(Me being me and Dubai being Dubai, I of course got lost going there, but you’ll find it, it’s right after al Makhtoum bridge if that helps)

The Deira Fish Market

Last weekend, we headed on over to the Deira Fish Market for the first time. Actually, it wasn’t the first time – I had gone previously by accident when I got lost looking for the spice souk but that’s another story. 

Months ago, I had heard that they were going to close this Dubai landmark down, so I decided that it was the right time to go and visit. I was not disappointed. 

(tip) Should you decide to go there, make sure you arrive early – when we went at around 11am, finding a place to park was quite the hassle.

On your way in, there are many men who come and offer to carry a shopping cart around – I hear tourists never use them but many locals tend to – maybe next time, we’ll do that, because you can potentially come out with a lot of stuff.

Before getting inside the fish market, there are several fruit and vegetable stalls and a really really nice date counter. I had never seen such a big variety of dates before – even the kids, who are insensitive to any kind of fruit or veg – were amazed! We opted for some nice Iranian dates (of course), which are really sweet and had a nice smooth texture. Next time I go back to Europe or America I am definitely coming here to get some good dates instead of getting the supermarket ones which pale in comparison. They’re also considerably cheaper…

 

The fruits and vegetables are, by the way, a lot cheaper and fresher than what you would find anywhere else. One day, I will have to do some research on all the different squash people buy here in this part of the world – there about 10 different kinds I see regularly and although I suspect they are mostly used in Indian/Sri Lankan cuisine, I’m really not sure. There were loads of them at the market. 

Now comes the exciting part: the fish.
First of all, the place is huge – in Europe, the fish stall at the outside market is a just that: a stall. Here, we are talking big proportions: there must be 20-30 of them. Check it out:

And that’s just one aisle – there are quite a few of them. The fish seemed extremely fresh and the shellfish looked to die for. We ended up not being too adventurous and got some large prawns and some shari and another local fish. Now, there is one thing that I find extremely annoying :  bargaining. We were negotiating the price for 10 minutes, it was a little ridiculous – and guess what: we still got jipped! When I told my nanny how much we paid for the prawns she said she usually gets it for half the price…oh well, it’s part of the experience I suppose. (tip) When you buy the fish, go next door and get it scaled and cleaned – it costs you a fraction of what it will cost you if the guy who sold it to you does it. Again, not a huge deal, but I felt a bit ripped off. 

When we got home, we threw the prawns on the barbecue and the result was delight. Can’t wait to go back!

 

 

 

Cream of spinach and broccoli soup with seared scallops

I don’t know if it’s because we spent Christmas in France, where it was windy and cold (or at least colder than here in Dubai), but lately, I’ve been in soup-making mood. My latest test was this creamy soup…the scallops add a little bit of elegance to the whole thing, but If you want a simpler affair, you can skip them altogether. 

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Serves 2 people as a main and 4 as a starter

Ingredients:

– 1 head of broccoli

– 3 bunches of spinach

– 1 bunch of scallions

– 1 potatoe

– half a baguette

– 1 or 2 cloves of garlic

– 6 scallops (if starter course, use 8 so that each person gets two)

– a few slices of bacon (I’m referring to american-style can, but you can also use long slices of pancetta)

– salt and pepper to taste

– 2 tbsp of olive oil

– optional : 1-2 bouillon cubes, 1/2 cup heavy or light cream

 

Instructions:

1. Cut up the potatoe in small cubes.

2. Cut up the broccoli and saute with scallions for about 2 minutes with a dash of olive oil in a large pot. 

3. Add spinach to the broccoli mixture for 10 seconds, the potatoe and then cover the whole thing with water (I added 2 bouillon cubes too – but you can just put salt and pepper if you prefer). Let simmer about 15 minutes. 

4. Once you feel the broccoli and potatoe cubes are cooked, take off the stove and let it cool for about 15 minutes.

5. Blend the soup in a blender until it is really creamy. If you want, you can add 1/2 cup of cream at this point. Add salt and pepper if necessary. Set aside.

6. Take a small baguette and cut it lengthwise. Toast it in the oven (or in your toaster if it fits). Once toasted, rub a clove of garlic all over the cut sides. Cut into soldiers so they look like long rectangles. Set aside.

7. In a pan, fry the bacon and set aside on scott towel to absorb all the fat. Empty the pan of its oil (only leave a film of it to saute the scallops in).

8. Dust the scallops with flour. Add salt and pepper to taste.

9. Cook each scallop about 2-3 minutes per side. The cooking time really depends on the size of the scallop. A minute before it is done, if you want, you can add a splash of white wine and let it evaporate. It will give the scallops a nice taste.

10. Take a few of the scallops and roll them in a slice of bacon, making it hold with a toothpick. Leave the other scallops as is.

11. Laddle soup into some nice bowls, plop a few scallops on there and on the side, put your toasted garlic rubbed soldiers.

My favorite salad of the moment

There is nothing I like more than what the French call a “salade composee”, or in other words a salad you could have for dinner without leaving the table hungry. Over the years, my husband and I have been quite fond of eating salad for dinner and depending on the country or region or season, we have our favorites.
In France, we were big fans of “salade perigourdine” that we discovered in the many bistros of Paris. In Nice, we loved having tomatoes, mozzarella and parma ham salad platters. In Canada, I used to love eating a good chicken Ceasar salad. Here in Dubai, we have actually made one up using some of our favorite local ingredients.

For 2-3 people
Ingredients:

A bunch of rocca leaves (resembles arugula), cleaned
1-2 bunches of your favorite lettuce/leaves, cleaned
(I often take mesclun and add a bit of raddichio or some shredded red cabbage)
2-3 small lebanese cucumbers in thin slice
1 cup of cherry tomatoes
1 avocado cubed or sliced
3/4 cup of feta, crumbled (try to get a creamy variety, in Dubai, I ask for the Danish one, which I suspect is not Danish…)
1 red bell pepper, cut up in bite size pieces
Croutons (try frying some pita chips…)

Dressing
1/3 cup of olive oil
3 tbsp of balsamic or cider vinegar
salt + pepper
3-4 tbsp of FRESH herbs: parsley, wild thyme, basil. mint

2-3 Chicken breasts (I usually marinate chicken with olive oil, lemon, thyme/rosemary, salt & pepper for a few hours and grill on bbq – I suggest you do the same)

1 cup of hummous (in Dubai, I get this at the store, because they make it better than I could)

Make the dressing and let it sit for 30 minutes or so.
Grill chicken on the bbq if possible. Slice and set aside. You can actually do this part way ahead of time and just warm it up before using.
Toss all the salad ingredients except the croutons and toss in the dressing until everything is well coated.
Arrange the salad on each plate, add the sliced grilled chicken and croutons or pita chips.

Accompany this with pita and a bowl of hummous that you can dollop on the side of your plate….

My food story in Dubai…

I followed my husband to Dubai 5 months ago with our kids. I am of Belgian/Iranian origin, grew up in Canada and lived in France for almost ten years. While living in France, one of my biggest challenges with the kids was to give them exposure to all these nationalities and one of the tools I used to transmit some of that culture was through food. But that wasn’t always easy in France (try finding Skippy peanut butter or good iranian saffron in a French supermarket…).  In Dubai however, this has proven to be really simple. Foodwise, I feel like a lot of things are familiar to me here because there is a lot of American influence, as well as Iranian products and there is Carrefour, the French hypermarket, where you can find all the great stuff we got used to in France. Of course, given the strong presence of Indians and Sri Lankans, one also has access to all the wonderful eddible things that these cultures have to offer. I actually learned to make byriani here thanks to my Sri Lankan maid, Shanti (see later post).

I can easily make the kids discover all the foods that remind me of my childhood. From Betty Crocker golden cake with chocolate icing to Rice Crispies without neglecting a few basic Iranian staples like chellow kabab and persian-style rice with mastorhiar, the kids are able to sample all the  things that I loved as a little girl. Because there are so many Iranians here, persian food can be found anywhere, from mall food courts to fancy restaurants.  There is a spice market here with stalls and stalls of Iranian shops where you can find all the great ingredients of Persian cuisine : saffron, cardamom, white mulberries, zereshk (little dried berries that are often used in rice dishes), dried lemons, not to mention all the types of pistachios under the sun. The local supermarket here also has all the green vegetables and herbs that are common in Iran (fresh fenugreek, eg.) and that are very difficult to find in North America or Europe.

Coming back to the North American side of me, one of my fondest memories of childhood is some of the very American stuff you could find in Canada. Some of these include : McCain Deep and Delicious cake, Betty Crocker anything, Kraft Dinner, barbecues where all you have are burgers (they don’t do that in France – barbecues in France include mostly sausages, chicken and various cuts of beef and lamb, but never actual burgers), grilled cheese sandwiches made with Kraft singles. Well you can find all of that and more in Dubai. Basically, you find all the foods that were in TV commercials when I was a kid : Cinnamon toast crunch, jel-lo, pop tarts, Moutain Dew, Tang, Kraft Mayonnaise, etc. It’s as if they took a snap shot of food in the 80s in the US and reproduced it here. I know I am probably making everyone cringe because all the things I have just mentioned are part of a category we call junk food, and I agree….Others might be thinking “she lived in France, where everything is just delicious, why in the world would she want to expose her kids to junk food?” Rest assured, my kids don’t only eat junk and quite frankly, I often taste these things now and am disappointed because I remembered them being better back then. Yet, I do get nostalgic at times and love the idea of being able to relive childhood memories through food…