Tag Archives: easy

Guacamole tostitos scoops

Posted on December 22, 2018 | Leave a comment

The most joyful and blessed time of the year has arrived.

Hello Christmas! My favorite and special holiday that still play magic on me. . . May you never stop searching the skies on Christmas eve!

Food is a big part of the festivities, and why not deck the table with some relish hors d’oeuvres to wow everyone. Go beyond regular and add let your food presentation as well say it’s Christmas time.

At this time of the year, red and green are not just regular colors!

Guacamole tostitos scoops, are a beautiful and festive amuse bouche, to be on your christmas table. It’s always good to have an easy-to-pick-up food that requires no fork or spoon.

You will need:

20 tostitos scoops (tortilla chips)
1 big ripe avocado
1 tsp garlic salt
lemon juice (as per your taste)
diced capsicum for garnish
sour cream optional

A very easy and last minute preparation, no efforts or time needed. All you have to do is to layer the ingredients in the tostitos scoops. Starting with the sour cream, (if you decided to put), then guacamole and finally garnish with the finely diced red capsicum. To make the guacamole, puree the avocado, roughly with a fork, (when it’s really ripe, you don’t need more than a fork to mash it) and mix it with garlic salt and lemon juice. Adjust the ingredients as per your taste, condiments are always subjective.

You will love these bites, and trust me they will disappear in seconds!

I wish you an extraordinary “reveillon” full of delicious food, warmth, blessings, lots of gifts, memories, laughter and love. Chocolate doesn’t come as a wish, i am sure it’s for granted 😉

If you like this post give it some likes and shares to spread the joy. Don’t forget to like marmite et ponpon facebook page and follow on twitter. More posts yet to come, stay tuned!

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Posted in appetizers & salads, special occasions

Tagged appetizers, avocado, beirut, capsicum, christmas, christmas food, easy, food, food blog, food blogger, food photography, food porn, guacamole, jaymmy, lebanon, marmite et ponpon, qatar, quick, recipe, tortilla, tostitos scoops

Shrimp basil linguine

Posted on February 4, 2018 | Leave a comment

Shrimp basil linguine is an ultimate comfort food packed with a symphony of flavors. Whether you like to cook or no, i must say it’s a foolproof recipe, so inviting to hit the kitchen and give it a try. Easy and quick, trust me!

Serving 4, you will need:

800g shrimps cooked and deveined
one medium onion finely diced
2 garlic cloves minced or 1 tsp garlic salt
2 tbsp butter
10-15 cherry tomato
a bunch of fresh basil
500 ml heavy cream
salt to taste
linguine cooked as per pack instructions (enough quantity to serve 4)

Cook the shrimp (boil or oven bake), devein and put it aside.

Cook linguine pasta as per pack instructions, drain and put aside.

In a sauce pan, cook onion and garlic in butter until translucent and fragrant. Add tomato and keep sauteeing for 5 mns, then the basil to cook for another 5 mns. Salt is added as per taste. Finally pour the cream and simmer for 10 mns over low heat.

Serve it on a bed of linguine and enjoy an absolute yummy dish!

For garnish, as you see in the pictures i sprinkled a bit of chives. if you are not a fan of, you can skip this step and it won’t affect the outcome. Isn’t it easy and quick? Try it and give me your suggestions. Bon appetit!

If you like this post give it some likes and shares to spread the joy. Don’t forget to like marmite et ponpon facebook page and follow on twitter. More interesting posts are yet to come.

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Posted in main dish

Tagged basil, cherry tomato, cooking, easy, food blog, food blogger, food photography, food porn, garlic, jaymmy, lebanon, linguine, marmite et ponpon, onion, pasta, qatar, quick, recipe, shrimp

Basil, shrimp, avocado and mango fresh rolls

Posted on November 1, 2017 | Leave a comment

These colorful rolls bring sweet memories for me, they remind me of my favorite asian restaurant when i used to live in Bahrain, These rolls were on my to cook list for so long. Usually they are called Vietnamese fresh rolls, but since it’s not the classic recipe, i didn’t dare call them so! This is my own version of fresh rolls using a symphony of ingredients that i found going heavenly together.

These effortless rolls are the freshest, nutrient packed, crunchy and sweet while looking fabulously colorful! Finally, having them ready on my plate, these happy rolls added some brightness to my day!

Usually they are served with a Vietnamese peanut sauce made of peanut butter and hoisin sauce which is thinned out with either milk or water, vinegar for a bit of tang, garlic and a touch of chilli. Personally, i prefer the Thai sweet sauce! It’s all up to your taste at the end.

To prepare 15 rolls (one pack) you will need:

1 pack of rice paper (about 15 papers)
500g shrimps cooked and deveined (you can also broil in the oven)
1 medium mango cut a la julienne
1 avocado sliced
4-5 iceberg leaves
a bunch of fresh mint leaves
a bunch of fresh basil leaves
2 medium carrots finely julienned

Take 1 rice paper and place in a shallow plate filled with warm water. Allow rice paper to soften for about 10 seconds. Remove and lay flat on working table – be gentle so you don’t rip the delicate paper. If this is your first time to use this type of paper, you will rip some in the beginning until u get used to 🙂

Start layering all veggies and fruits in the center of rice paper, Start with the lettuce so it holds the other ingredients. On the top part of the rice paper, place 3 shrimps with a mint leaf in between, or avocado to have the final look as per the photo below. Your rice paper rolls should look pretty with the shrimps and mint leaves or avocado on the smooth side of the roll and the seam on the underside of the roll.

Fold the left and right edges of the rice paper in, then starting from the bottom, roll up to cover the lettuce bundle, keep rolling firmly to reach the shrimps. The rice paper is sticky, it will seal itself.

Serve immediately with the dipping sauce. These rolls are to be eaten fresh and on the spot, with time the rice paper gets dry and chewy.

If you’ve tried this or any other recipe on the blog please let me know the result, I love hearing from you!

And if you like this post give it some likes and shares to spread the joy. Don’t forget to like marmite et ponpon facebook page and follow on twitter. More interesting posts are yet to come.

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Posted in appetizers & salads

Tagged avocado, basil, carrots, easy, food blog, food blogger, food photography, fresh rolls, hoisin sauce, homemade, iceberg lettuce, jaymmy, lebanon, mango, marmite et ponpon, mint leaves, peanut sauce, qatar, quick, recipe, rice paper, shrimp, spring rolls, step by step, thai spring rolls sauce, vietnamese rolls

Fatteh batenjen – chickpeas, aubergine, yogurt and pita

Posted on October 19, 2017 | Leave a comment

In a previous post i mentioned that Fatteh, that levantine dish, varies from one country to other; could be vegetarian or featuring meat, could also have potato or eggplant, but the main ingredients are chickpeas, yogurt and crushed toasted pita.

The arabic word “Fatteh”means “crushed”, so fatteh or fattet hummos has its name after the crushed toasted pita and so other middle eastern dishes with crushed toasted pita like “Fattoush”.

For this version of fatteh with aubergine you will need: (yield two portions)

2 medium aubergine cut in big cubes
3 pitas toasted and crushed in medium pieces
500g yogurt (or two cups)
2 tbsp tahina
1tsp salt
2 cups chickpeas boiled (could be canned)
1 tsp garlic powder or 2 cloves crushed

to top with:

50g butter
1/3 cup pine nuts
chopped parsley or mint for garnish

For a healthy option of this dish we will grill the aubergine in the oven after drizzling on top 2 tbsp of olive oil. and set aside

Same goes for the pitas, instead of frying them i will toast in the oven. When ready, put one layer of the toasted bread in a deep dish.

After boiling the chickpeas, or if you are using canned ones, add the garlic (cloves or powder) while it’s still hot, of course after removing its water, put on top of the pitas layer. Now distribute the aubergine evenly on the chickpeas.

To prepare the yogurt sauce, mix it with tahina and salt then pour it on the chickpeas and aubergine.

Fry the pine nuts with butter and drizzle over the yogurt and garnish with finely chopped parsley or mint.

It’s one of my favorite dishes, and as mentioned before, it is a versatile one. You can enjoy it vegetarian or you can add ground beef or chicken. Very easy and quick, using simple available ingredients and hold so much flavors!

If you’ve tried this or any other recipe on the blog please let me know the result, I love hearing from you!

And if you like this post give it some likes and shares to spread the joy. Don’t forget to like marmite et ponpon facebook page and follow on twitter. More interesting posts are yet to come.

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Posted in main dish

Tagged aubergine, batenjen, chickpeas, easy, fatteh, food blog, food blogger, food photography, hommus, lebanese cuisine, lebanese food, lebanon, marmite et ponpon, pine seeds, pitas, qatar, quick, recipe, vegetarian, yogurt

Spinach lasagna roll ups

Posted on October 11, 2017 | 1 comment

If you never tried these delicious lasagna roll ups, put this meal on top of your must make list! You will fall in love with it, as much as i did. The combination of flavors are soooo good you will be tempted to eat right out of the baking dish.

This irresistible meatless dish is worth a try. You will need to make it:

8 lasagna noodles, cooked as per box instructions

for the tomato sauce:

1 medium onion finely diced
1 tbsp olive oil
500 ml crushed tomato
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tbsp dried basil
salt to taste

Heat the olive oil over medium heat, add the onions and saute until translucent. Stir in the crushed tomatoes, garlic salt, dried basil and salt. Cover and allow the sauce to simmer for at least 20 minutes over low heat.

For the filling:

2 cups spinach, i used fresh but you can use thawed frozen too
1 cup mozzarella cheese shredded and 3/4 cup slices for garnish
1/2 cup emmental cheese shredded
1 egg
1 cup greek yogurt
salt to taste

to be all mixed in a bowl.

Once the noodles have cooled to touch, lay them down on a working surface, spread ¼ cup of the cheese filling evenly along length of the noodles. Roll the noodles to the opposite end. Pour 1 cup of tomato sauce into the bottom of a baking dish. Place the lasagna roll ups into the baking dish, seam side down. Add remaining tomato sauce on and place the mozzarella slices on top.

Loose cover with foil, make sure it doesn’t touch the cheese or it will stick. Bake for 30 minutes in preheated oven to 200ºC.

One great thing about making these roll up style instead of layered lasagna is that they don’t seem like too much of a splurge because they can help with portion control.

If you’ve tried this or any other recipe on the blog please let me know the result, I love hearing from you!

And if you like this post give it some likes and shares to spread the joy. Don’t forget to like marmite et ponpon facebook page and follow on twitter. More interesting posts are yet to come.