We visited a cultural museum in Muscat. During our lunch break I walked in the coffee shop.
The first thing that caught my eye was a sponge cake in bright yellow. I asked the waiter: Omani special saffron cake.
I had to get a slice. Paired with a good cafe latte it was a treat for lunch.
Since I bought Afganian saffron spice this morning in the souk, this cake will be one of the next things to bake.
The glaze was a mixture of bitter orange and saffron.
Very tasty!
After a quiet day at the pool soaking up the sun our group met for dinner. Sitting outside in the darkness, just some strings of colored lights overhead, was awesome.
The food was versatile. Lots of vegetable dishes. Very good seasoned. There was even a pasta station where you had the choice of 4 different sauces and 2 precooked kinds of pasta.
As always I looked for traditional kinds of food. Chicken and seasoned yellow rice. Chickenbreast, potatoes and mixed vegetables in curry sauce, a great pie with leek, cauliflower and mushrooms in a very flakey crust.
Later I went inside to check the dessert table. Lots of cakes, cream desserts and ice cream.
After a very short night due to red eye flight and a long wait at Immigration, I had my first breakfast in the Falaj Hotel in Muscat.
It is great to sit outside in the sun to enjoy breakfast. At home icy roads and lots od snow made the way here difficult, but worth it.
A huge line of tables with heated serving containers started after the juice and coffee section. That got me curious and I grabbed a warmed plate and started my forage.
Deep fried cauliflower, Okras in chickpea tomato sauce, an onion and brown bean dish and small fried chicken pieces.
Then there were potatoes, chicken sausages and the usual egg dishes.
I stayed away from them, but went for Hummus and some other creamy concoction. The parsley salad was like the one I prepare from my Jordan recipe.
Some fruits and watermelon juice together with coffee were a great start to this holiday
I found a new spiceblend when I was looking for a soup recipe. I ordered some refills for existing spices and looked for the new one in the onlineshop. I got lucky.
I am not making soup today, but a cucumber salad. Dried herbs together with some fresh parsley are a good combination in a dressing.
Chmeli Suneli comes from Georgia. Not the US state, but the country in the Caucasus. It is often used for stews and lamb meat.
The spiceblend contains coriander, dill, basil, tumeric, fenugreek, parsley, majoram, chili, tarragon, savoury, bay leaves, marigold leaves.
To have a creamy dressing I used curd, some olive oil and one of my Advent calender vinegars - the tomato blend, salt and pepper.
To prevent the cucumber from becoming soggy fast, I cut it in blocks instead of slices. They were salted and rested for 5 min, before the salt was washed off. The salad kept over a long time and was crunch still after hours.
I wanted to make a Sandwich. But it was too much fish and it had lots of thin fishbones in it. Better to see what I was eating, I kept it open faced.
This was the last dish I wanted to use the frying oil for. When it is cold now, I bag it and throw it in the trash. I rarely deep fry stuff. It is too expensive to use the oil just once. When there is a chance to prepare the dish in the Air fryer, I switch to it. Even when it is not sooo good as deep fried food.
At lunchtime I used the oil in the frying pan for the double coated Mini Mozzarella Balls. There was egg/cream mixture still there and I had enough Indian snack mix/cornflakes breading left. Waste not, want not. The pollock got the same breading as the Mozzarella.
That went very well with Remoulade sauce on toast.
Ingredients:
275 g pollock
2 slices of toast
Fish seasoning
1 egg, 25 ml double cream, 50 ml milk
1 cup cornflakes, 1 /4 cup Indian hot snack mix
Remoulade
Oil for frying at 180 C for 4 min.
I saw that on an Insta Reel. But as always, I made it my own way.
I still have some Indian Snackfood from Bahrain. Mixing it with cornflakes gives the Mozzarella a nice spicy outer crust.
It is important to coat them twice. Otherwise the cheese will leek out. I did not freeze the coated balls. They were very cold from the fridge and it worked very good.
I put some Balsamic cream on the plate. That worked well with the fried cheese.
Ingredients:
20 mini Mozzarella balls
2 eggs
50 ml double cream, 100 ml milk
1 1/2 cup cornflakes, 1/2 cup Indian hot snack mix
Toothpicks
Balsamic vinegar and oil for frying.
I saw this soup so many times on different Internet platforms and was seldom excited.
They often looked less appetizing. Today I wanted soup and pasta and remembered the deconstructed lasagne in soup form. The only ingredient to buy was the ground pork/beef. All other ingredients were at home.
The unopened box of lasagne sheets was sitting on top of my kitchen cupboard for a very long time. I wanted some fresh veggies in the soup. Not only canned tomatoes.
Recipe for 2:
250 g ground pork/beef
1 tbsp olive oil
5 garlic cloves, 1 large yellow onion
2 medium carrots, 1 red long pepper
1 can crushed tomatoes
650 ml beef/ veg stock
Oregano, majoram, thyme, Toscana seasoning blend, Arrabita seasoning blend, pepper
7 lasagne sheets
50 g grated Gouda/Mozzarella
30 g parsley
2 tbsp creme fraiche
Heat up the oil and toss in the meat and brown it. Add chopped onion and garlic and the seasoning.
Next comes the carrots and the red pepper. Add the stock and the canned tomatoes.
Let it come up to boil and cover and reduce the heat and cook for 12 min.
Break the lasagne sheets in pieces and put them in the soup. I used some that did not need precooking. They were done in the soup in 6 minutes. Check your box of lasagne for cooking advice.
Put a hand full of cheese and the chopped parsley in the soup and serve with a bit of creme fraiche.
