Tag Archives: blog

a welcome drink – traditional batrouni lemonade (laymounada batrounye)

Posted on June 4, 2014 | 6 comments

Batroun is a touristic destination in North Lebanon. My home town, a major destination for the beautiful beaches and the vibrant nightlife.

Batroun is known for its fresh lemonade, which is sold by most of the cafés and restaurants in the town. This simple drink made from lemons, sugar and water has many variations in different parts of the world.

This version is the famous batrouni one:

juice of 4 big lemons (1 1/2 cup)
zest of one lemon
1 cup sugar
3 cups cold water

All i can say It’s about the technique:

Wash the lemons and cut in four.
Add the sugar and squeeze the lemon wedges with your hands until they release half of the juice.
Add the zest of one large lemon and let the mix stands in the fridge for 15 minutes
Take it out and totally squeeze the lemons, strain the juice, add the water and mix until the sugar is totally melted. Et voila!

The most refreshing and succulent lemonade.

Some like it more diluted, or more sweet or less sweet… It’s subject to taste. You can add orange blossom water too if you want to take it to another level. As you can add few mint leaves, but the traditional one is the simplest basic one.

If you have people visiting, a pitcher of fresh homemade lemonade is a traditional welcome drink especially on hot summer days!

Daily consumption of 120 ml of lemon juice per day, when mixed with two liters of water, has been shown to reduce the rate of stone formation in people susceptible to kidney stone.

Batroun has the largest cup of lemonade (more than 5000 liters) to break Guinness world record! Enjoy and regards from Lebanon 🙂

6 Comments

Posted in dessert

Tagged batroun, batrouni lemonade, blog, how to do, jaymmy, laymounada, lemon, lemonade, marmite et ponpon, recipe, traditional

dainty orange chocolate cake, you will dream about it!

Posted on May 30, 2014 | 6 comments

Finally I have my own creation cake recipe. I always wanted so. Few trials, and finally i have a successful 100% jay’s recipe: chocolate orange cake.

The challenge was to create an egg, milk and butter free cake recipe:

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp instant coffee
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tbsp white vinegar
1/2 cup water
1 cup orange juice
3 tbsp orange zest

Sieve flour and cocoa powder. Mix with sugar, baking soda, salt, instant coffee and orange zest.

Make a well in the center and add oil, vanilla, white vinegar, water and orange juice. MIx well together and pour in a greased 11¨ pan.

Bake in the middle rack of the oven (180ºC) for 40 mns or until a skewer comes out clean. Start checking from 25 mns onwards.

Cool for 30 mns before inverting onto a wire rack.

Make sure the cake is completely cool before pouring the chocolate ganache over the cake.

Quick reminder of how we make chocolate ganache:

Put 200g of dark chocolate into a large heatproof bowl (must first be chopped into small pieces so that it will melt evenly). Bring 250 ml of cream just to a boil over medium-high heat or put for 3 mns in microwave; pour over chocolate. Let stand 10 minutes.

Stir the mixture very gently, incorporating the cream steadily, without overworking. The mixture should begin to appear glossy.

Let it cool for 20 mns in the fridge before using it.

Choosing to do this fabulous cake today was for a reason. Tomorrow am going to Lebanon for the summer vacation. I wanted to prepare for my hubby his favorite cake, orange chocolate as a compensation gesture for leaving him alone in Doha .

Knowing that It’s my first time to bake this cake and i am so happy and proud to have my own creation recipe.

The chocolate and orange aroma was filling the house! i was cutting the oranges to decorate the top of the cake when Antoun arrived and couldn’t resist the smell.

He was so impatient, he barely gave me 5 minutes to take some pictures before he had the first piece in like 10 seconds!

Sure there will be no remaining till i leave! The cake will be hoovered today!

To not feel so bad for him, he will be following shortly for his sister’s wedding.

It will be a beautiful summer, full of plans and happiness, and we will be surrounded by the family. Stay tuned for beautiful posts from Lebanon, it might not be daily ones but i will do my best.

6 Comments

Posted in dessert

Tagged blog, butter free cake, cake, chocoholic, chocolate, chocolate orange cake, dessert, egg free cake, jaymmy, marmite et ponpon, milk free cake, orange, recipe

popeye was pretty smart after all! healthy spinach with rice (sbenigh w riz)

Posted on May 29, 2014 | Leave a comment

Among the World’s Healthiest vegetables, spinach comes out at the top of the ranking list for nutrient richness; vitamins and minerals. Eat spinach to protect yourself against inflammatory problems, oxidative stress-related problems, cardiovascular problems, bone problems, and cancer.

We all know that Popeye made himself super strong by eating spinach.

I remember when we were kids, we used to call it popeye food, we never even called it spinach! We loved this dish and we were convinced whenever we had it for lunch we get super powers!

So while spinach probably won’t make you super strong the minute you eat it, as it did for Popeye, it will promote your health and vitality in many other ways. It seems like Popeye was pretty smart after all.

Spinach with rice is one of the traditional lebanese food. To prepare this super dish you need: (serving 4 persons)

1 kg spinach chopped
250g minced beef
1 big onion chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp salt
juice of 2 lemons
handful pine nuts (about 30g)
1 cup of water

Bring olive oil to heat and cook the onions until tender and fragrant. Add the minced beef and cook until brown then add the pine nuts and cook until it’s all well done.

Stir in the chopped spinach, you can use them fresh or frozen, with one cup of water. When they start boiling, bring the heat to low, cover the pot and simmer for 20-25 minutes. Put the heat off and add the salt and lemon and serve it with rice.

There’s a compound in spinach called oxalic acid, which blocks the absorption of calcium and iron. An easy way to solve this problem is to pair spinach with a food high in vitamin C, that’s why lemon is a necessity to benefit from this recipe.

Cook it for your loved ones and enjoy its wondrous benefits.

Ignite the world cup fire! a cup of beer and a tropical pico de gallo with mango

Posted on May 28, 2014 | 2 comments

World cup starts in 15 days! the fever hots up and pretty soon it will be upon us! Am sure many of you are getting ready to honk their horns to their favourite team!

We are so ready! Our house is almost all green and yellow, I guess now you know which team we cheer 😉 Is ordem e progressi.

Brace yourselves! the sixth is coming!

The celebration isn’t complete unless you have a cup of beer and something to nibble on!

Pico de gallo or salsa fresca is an authentic mexican salsa, means litteraly rooster’s beak.

Originally made from chopped ripe tomato, white onion and chillis. But there are endless variations, stirring in cilantro, avocado, lime, cucumber or mango…

If you love the traditional pico de gallo, you will find it hard to resist this tropical variation using fresh mango.

To make it you need:

3 medium ripe tomato diced
1 small mango diced (about one cup)
1 medium onion diced
1/2 cup cilantro (corriander) chopped
1 jalapeño seaded and minced
2 tbsp fresh lime juice
1/2 tsp salt

All you have to do is just mix these ingredients in a bowl et voila!

The versatility of this Mexican salsa is limitless! Put it on grilled chicken or steak, add it to eggs, or serve with tortilla chips.

Personally i enjoy this irresistible refreshing salsa with tortilla chips and a cup of beer. Prepare your pico de gallo and store it in a sealed container in the refrigerator, it will last approximately 1 week.

Note if you prefer smooth salsa as opposed to chunky just put all this good stuff in the blender.

2 Comments

Posted in appetizers & salads

Tagged blog, cooking, jaymmy, marmite et ponpon, mexican salad, mexican salsa, pico de gallo, recipe, salsa fresca, tortilla chips

thai stir-fried chicken with cashew nuts

Posted on May 27, 2014 | Leave a comment

My second favorite cuisine, places the emphasis on bold aromatic tastes. Thai cuisine is very rich and healthy. I love the perfect balance between salty, sweet, bitter and sour.

Me and thai food, love at first sight! Who doesn’t fall for these colorful flavorful dishes!

To prepare the thai stir-fried chicken with cashew nuts (for 4 peopel) we need:

500g chicken breast cut in medium cubes
2 medium carrots sliced
3 small onions cut in half
1 green bell pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1/4 cup chilli oil
1/4 cup olive oil
3 scallions
1/2 cup sweet soya sauce
2 tbsp soya sauce
2 tbsp water
100g roasted cashew nuts
salt to taste

Heat up the oil then add onion, carrots, garlic powder and bell pepper. Stir-fry until fragrant then add cashew and chicken. Stir-fry the chicken until the surface turns opaque. Add the sweet soya sauce, soya sauce and water and simmer until the chicken is cooked. Stir-in the scallion, dish out and serve immediately with steamed rice.

You can never find two identical recipes for this dish. Everyone makes it with a little twist. You can add 1 tsp of white vinegar, or fish sauce, or brown sugar… infinite add-ons, am sure each one takes it to another different dimension!