A Foodie's Thanksgiving!

Happy Thursday!

It’s been a really ideal week for the foodie in me, thanks to Thanksgiving and family shenanigans, so I figured I’d share a bit of my meals with you all, plus a recipe from the Syrian family.

My dining room table!

I had a great time making the American-style Thanksgiving meal this year. This is my fourth time making it without my mother, and this is the first time that I feel like the prep work for the meal went smoothly. I think that partly has to do with my familiarity with the timing of everything. Now, I just know when the turkey and all the sides should go in and out of the oven without having to look it up.

My pretty hilal turkey (and the cranberry sauce to the left)!

I had a few people comment that this was an exceptionally tasty turkey, and asking me what I did to make it so juicy. For me, I think the trick is to brine the turkey for at least two days prior to Thanksgiving. Then, first thing in the morning, I pop the turkey (covered!) into the oven at 300° F and just forget about it. I’ve even put the turkey in at 250° F the night before, and the meat was really falling off the bones by dinnertime, it was that juicy! Americans tend to freak out about whether the turkey will be cooked enough. My logic is that anything in the oven for eight or more hours will most definitely be cooked enough. And, to my knowledge, no one has gotten food poisoning from my turkeys! We got a 12-pound hilal turkey that, surprisingly, was more than enough for eight people! 

Mr. Hilal Turkey taking a brine bath.

I also made sweetpotato casserole, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, and two types of mashed potatoes (the traditional American kind and then the Middle Eastern olive-oil-and-garlic kind for the lactose intolerant at the table). 

For dessert, I made my mummy-in-law her favorite treat: apple pie bites. They're so easy and fun to make, plus they look like pretty, dainty pastries at the end! 

This week's dessert: Apple pie bites!

By the time I got back to school, I was already missing Syrian food, so I made fetty. You can translate fetty from Arabic to “torn up;” the dish gets its name from the pieces of bread you tear up to create the dish’s base. Specifically, I made fettet djaj which is the “torn up” part of the dish topped with chicken.

Fettet Djaj

To make fetty, you first boil the cut-up chicken (I prefer sizes of one inch or less) in either a pressure cooker for thirty minutes or in a regular pot for 2-3 hours. S has our pressure cooker, so at school I use a regular pot and study while the chicken simmers. Anyway, in the boiling water, add salt, cinnamon sticks, bay leaves, and an onion. Then add the chicken. Towards the end of the boil, fry up pieces of thin, white flat bread for about five minutes and then put them into a pie dish. Fry enough bread to cover the bottom of the dish.

Then you make the rice. I usually fry up vermicelli (“shariyya”) with olive oil at the bottom of the rice pot under the vermicelli is a light golden color, then add soaked short-grain white rice with two parts water to every part rice. I also add a teaspoon of salt for every cup of rice. Stir the rice and then wait for the rice to boil, then bring it down to a simmer, cover the pot, and only open the pot to check on the water level. If there is no visually apparent water, I usually tip the pot sideways to see if any excess water is around. If you taste the rice and it is undercooked, just add no more than a fourth of a cup to the pot and let it simmer covered for a few more minutes. Then put your rice on top of the fried pieces of flat bread in the dish.

Then create a yoghurt sauce. For a pie dish-size meal, go with about a cup and a half of plain yoghurt (“kasi wa nus leben”), one or less than one piece of garlick (“toomi o nus toomi”), and a little bit of water (“shwayyat mai”). I know the measurements sound strange, but this is literally the family recipe passed on orally since forever, and measurements of the recipe is all based on the experience of simply making it! Anyway, pour the yoghurt sauce over the rice and make sure it sinks into the rice and reaches the bottom of the dish. Next, garnish with chopped parsley and top with your drained chicken, and then enjoy a super tasty meal!

A quick note on portion size: I find a pie dish size plate is more than enough for three to four people, depending on how many of those people will want seconds just because they love how tasty it is! To double the size, you could easily use a casserole dish to feed 6-8 and just double the amount of everything in the recipe. Like most of my mummy-in-laws food, this is a non-measuring kind of recipe, so the proportions are very flexible and in the end, the amount of parsley, chicken, or yogurt all depends on your preference! But definitely don't go overboard on the garlic, otherwise no one will want to actually eat the fetty (or kiss you!). 

Anyone who tries this recipe, please let me know how it turns out! Cheers!

October Fun

Happy Autumn, everyone! I’ve been pretty busy with TAing two classes, taking two full classes and two seminars, on top of my research stuff and traveling to see S and family (who are all two hours away… sigh). But I’ve also managed to enjoy autumn a bit. Here’s a little bit of what I did:

My bunt cake!

I’m not a big cool weather person, but there are a few things about the fall season that I love, including PUMPKINS! My mother knows how much I love pumpkins and baking, but as a grad student she knows I don’t have much time to bake these days, so she sent me an amazing care package…

Thanks Mom!

 

… That included spice cake mix and cans of pumpkin puree! I’m so into this recipe: add a can of pumpkin puree to cake mix and, ta-da, you have pumpkin spice cake. I made a bunt cake out of one batch, and I can’t wait to make some cupcakes soon.

I’ve also been doing a bit of shopping. I noticed that vests have been really popular up here in New England since forever, and so I finally caved and got one:

Along the CT coastline!

There was a great sale at Gap last weekend ($20 for vests that usually cost $50), so I splurged and I’m so happy did. I’m love how my vest keep my core warm! It makes romping around in the leaves, or hanging out by the wind-chilled coastline, so much more pleasant.

Climbing up Long Mountain!

 I’m also very lucky to TA a geologic mapping class. It’s so much fun to have my job be adventuring around the Pioneer Valley’s mountains, especially with the foliage being so colorful these past few weeks.

Me with my pumpkin spice latte!

And, of course, I had my first pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks this weekend while I graded homework. And I was so snug and content in my sparkly scarf from Damascus. I can’t believe it’s been over six years since my trip to Syria. I wish I could go back so much.

Well, it’s been a whirlwind adventure learning how to be a grad student. More news on that to follow, I promise. Meanwhile, enjoy autumn where ever you are! Even if the air isn’t cool and crisp, maybe you can sip a pumpkin spice latte!

Using the Market Skills I Learned in Jordan to get Groceries on a Grad School Budget

My latest trip to Boston's Haymarket.

Hope you guys had a lovely weekend! I had a really good time this weekend chilling with S, plus some family and friends. I also did a bit of prep work for grad school living, including going grocery shopping, and I figured I would talk a bit about how I've used my market shopping skills that I learned in Jordan to get healthy and tasty groceries on a budget. 

As an amateur foodie, I decided to kick the students-only-eat-ramen trope to the side (though do I love Korean ramen)! I decided instead to focus on cooking all my food at home and getting healthy ingredients to fuel my grad school days. It's tough to get by on a grad school budget, but I'm finding that with a little effort and planning I can eat well on less than $50 a week. 

A big part of such thrifty eating comes from going to the most cost effective food sources, including surplus produce markets like Haymarket in downtown Boston. 

If you've ever been to Haymarket or any market like it, you might feel like you're stepping into a different country, where vendors are calling out specials, customers are haggling over prices, and a few special carts will give you a good deal if they like you. It's this relationship-first mentality to shopping that I learned to love in Jordan. 

In Jordan, there were more little grocery shops where the veggie guy would personally get to me, ask how my studies were going, and give me an extra banana as a treat. I missed these interactions a lot when I returned to the U.S., where all I got was seemingly overpriced food that I paid an often bored and unhappy cashier for. 

So, at Haymarket, I get to prioritize people over capitalism, even though the market is an example of capitalism at its finest. It's also conveniently the cheapest way to get all my fruits and vegetables! I pay less than $20 for all the fresh produce I need to make two weeks worth of meals. It may take a bit more time than going to the grocery store and getting all the groceries I need in one place, but for the maybe half hour of extra time I'm essentially paying myself in all the savings I'm keeping. 

I'm talking about a gritty, no-frills surplus food market, not an organic farmers market, as much as I love those too. While farmers market are equally as pleasant and often reasonably priced, you will probably not get the overall discount that you're looking for. 

So here are a few tips for going to the market:

1.) Bring cash. Probably few people will have debit card machines.

2.) Don't be afraid to ask for a lower price. The worst thing they could do is say no. But remember to ask with a smile.

3.) Return regularly to build relationships - and maybe even get a few "preferred customer" discounts!

4.) Walk around the whole market before you buy anything. A lot of vendors sell similar products, so taking a quick walk around will give you a better idea of what produce is the best quality for the best price. 

5.) Keep a record of the prices to get an understanding of how they fluctuate through the season. I'm not good at mental notes, so I have a little note on my phone where I write the lowest price I've paid for each fruit or veggie. It's really helpful to get an idea of whether something is getting a little too pricey and I maybe need to change my eating habits slightly, if only for a few months!

Good luck and enjoy!