Omani Cuisine

An exotice Arabic dish we cooked earlier this month, takes about an hour to make, and is recommended for larger gatherings.

Ingredients

Kofta

• 1 Kg minced beef
• 2 tbs finely chopped parsley
• 2 tbs finely chopped scallions
• 1 small minced red onion
• 1 tbs of cinnamon
• Salt/pepper

Zucchini Sauce

• 4 medium zucchinis
• 2 cans of chopped tomatoes
• 6 chopped cloves of garlic
• ½ tbs of crushed red chili
• 2 tbs chopped parsley
• ½ tbs chopped mint
• 2 tbs of balsamic vinegar
• 2 bay leaves
• Salt/pepper

Method

1. Mix well all the ingredients of the Kofta. Create finger shaped (or balls) of the mix. Put a little bit of oil on a non-stick frying pan and start frying the kofta until it is well done. (It is also possible to grill the kofta instead of frying it if you would rather do that instead).
2. For the zucchini sauce, add some olive oil to a saucepot and sauté the garlic and the red chili for 3 minutes. Add the balsamic vinegar and after a minute add all the chopped tomatoes with the bay leaves. Wait until the sauce starts to boil then cover the saucepot and put it on the lowest flame for 10 minutes.
3. Cut the zucchini to small pieces and sauté it in the same pan you used for frying the kofta . Keep sautéing the zucchini for 5 minutes.
4. Add the zucchini, parsely and mint to the tomatoe sauce in the saucepot. Add some salt and peper as desired to the sauce. Cover the sauce pot and leave it on a low flame until the zucchini is well cooked.
5. Place the kofta on the serving plate and pour the sauce on top of it.

This was an experiment for making something different this week, the original idea was to make a club sandwich, but we ended up with the result you see above. The boring chicken sandwich was saved by the creamy sauce we added to it. This is a simple snack that you can make, check out the ingredients and method below.

Ingredients (4 sandwitches)

• 400g of chicken breasts sliced into small strips
• 1 medium sized onion minced finely
• 1 red capsicum sliced into thin strips
• 2 garlic clovers
• 2 green chillies
• Nandos crushed spices mix
• butter 1.5 tbsp
• half a mug of milk
• 1.5 tbsp of flour
• salt and pepper
• brown toasted bread

Method

1. In a small pot over low heat melt the butter.
2. Add the flour immediatly after all the butter melts – make sure to stir the mix while adding.
3. Add the milk gradually while stirring to ensure that the mix blends properly.
4. Add half a mug of water to mix and keep on stirring.
5. Add salt and pepper and stir.
6. keep stirring. (Now you understand why this is boring) Stir from time to time for a period of 10 minutes. You should get a thick white cream. You can adjust the viscosity of the cream by adding more water. Once done leave covered on the side.
7. Crush the garlic clovers with the chillies and the Nandos spices mix.
8. Melt some butter on a fraying pan.
9. Fry the minced onion and capsicum slices on the pan for four minutes.
10. Add the chicken to the mix and fry while stirring until the chicken turns white.
11. Add the crushed spices mix with one tbsp of vinegar to the chicken mix on the pan.
12. Add half a mug of water, cover the pan and leave for 5 minutes.
13. Remove the cover and wait for all the water to evaporate before adding the cream we made at the beginning.
14. Stir the mix until cream is absorbed by the chicken and the mix is creamy.
15. Take out and serve with toast as sandwitches.