Many hearts. Much love--The Routine

I have had more requests than I can count on how do I get it all done?  Well, the truth is, some days I don't.  But most days I do, masha allah.  This is my ordinary weekday rountine:

I am a big fan of "early to bed, early to rise".  I start my days early by American standards, I wake up between 4:30 and 5:15, depending on when I went to sleep the night before.  I pray my morning (fajr) prayer before sunrise and don't go to bed afterwards.  I supervise breakfast, get my children's work and school meals ready, get a load of laundry on, wash my face and apply any creams, my morning exercises (more on those later), nurse the baby, start on lunch (I still feed my kids a hot lunch after school) all before 8:00.  

When the last of the little feet are out the door, I nurse the baby again (though maybe its a thinly veiled excuse to take a short break--I'll never tell!) and do any paper/computer work for a short 15 minute or so period.   Then I start on the heavy stuff.  First things first, I try to work on a priority basis.  I do my morning exercises if things were hectic and I missed them earlier.  I get lunch going.  We rely heavily on soups and stews around here.  Things that I can get simmering early and turn off and on all day, ready to feed at a moment's notice to anyone who is hungry.  Once lunch is going, I turn to the most important daily cleaning tasks: cleaning the kitchen, tidying up, cleaning the bathrooms, and cleaning the floors.  Which I choose to do first may change, depending on any unusual circumstances that let things get behind, but when things are normal around here I do them in the order I mentioned.  When the first load of laundry is finished, I pop another one in.

When my daily work is finished, its usually about about 10:00.  Time for another break, whether you're hungry or not, baby!  Seriously, I shamelessly take short breaks when I need them--though I do try my best to hold out til the baby's next feeding.  If not, I try to do something productive like internet shopping, banking,  menu planning, brainstorming, but if that is more than I can handle I admit I turn to facebook, my favorite forum or my blog.

After my break, I turn to any deep cleaning tasks.  These rotate and I will follow with a post on deep cleaning on how I manage to keep the house truly clean as well as neat.  At 12:30 I stop, (almost) no matter what I'm doing.  I need time to stay fit (and sane)!

I feed the baby and drink a cup of tea.   Then I take about 60 minutes to exercise.  I eat (or drink) some protein and them start serving the kids' lunch so its ready for them when they get home

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My children arrive from school at 1:30 and as they are small, still need reminders and supervision to change their clothes, put away their shoes and unpack their waterbottles and lunchboxes in an orderly manner.   They eat lunch and then we clean up the kitchen.  After lunch, the little ones retire to their room for some R&R and the school boys pray and do their homework.  I take this time to fold clothes, do paperwork, or do seated kitchen work (like popping green beans or stuffing vegetables).

We try to get all of the homework done by 3:00 so the kids can have some good playtime before sunset.  When they are done with their homework, they are responsible for checking their school supplies and packing their own backpacks.  After they make sure they are prepared for school the next day, they can go outside to play.

I use the time when they are outside to do any afternoon housework that needs to be done, add a load of clothes to the washer, take some time for myself (aka "get purdy"), lay out the clothes for after the kid' baths and for school the next day.  If there are any chores that have to be done during daylight hours this is also the time we do them--I bring them in one by one to work and chat with me.  Before sunset (which is about 5:00 nowadays),  I bring everyone inside, feed them their dinner (if we have leftovers from lunch) or a hearty snack (if we have no leftovers) and get them to their baths.

After the baths we pray the sunset prayer and do our evening chores.  When everyone has finished their chores, they can play quietly  in the playroom.  When the house is tidy we pray, read Qur'an and read books and if everyone has finished their responsibilities pleasantly, we might play a game on the computer or watch tv.

I try to get the kids to sleep at about 7:30 or 8:00.  This gives me time to tie up any loose ends, run the dishwasher, spend time with my husband, dance or do some stretching or yoga to unwind, take a shower if I haven't already, and....yup, you guessed it, get a load of laundry on.   I try to get myself in bed between 8:30 and 9:30.

Now, this routine does of course vary a bit from season to season, day to day.  In the summer we go to bed later, but take a nice nap in the afternoon.  After an initial burst of cleaning and cooking on Friday morning (which is our nicest meal of the week), I try to pare cleaning and cooking down to the bare necessities on the weekends so I can enjoy time with my family.  Obviously, life goes on, even on the weekends, so I do little things like save Friday's clean laundry to fold over a leisurely cup of coffee with my husband on Saturday morning.  Additionally, I try to do all of my errands on one day. I don't have a car, so I count pushing the well laden stroller around town as my exercise for that day.  I also don't do any deep cleaning the days I go out and make simple meals to save time.

Bamia (Caramalized Okra Stew)

You!  Stop.  Yes, you.  You, right there staring blankly at the screen, ready to leave this  page at the sight of the word okra.  Or, stew.

Trust me, this one is a show stopper.  You could even serve it to your boss.  Or mother-in-law.  It's that good.

Bamia (Arabic for okra) is an extremely popular vegetable in Shami cooking.  In the summer it is used fresh; in the winter, dried.

Okra stew is served two ways in this region:  as a thick stew over rice or caramalized in the oven and eaten with bread.  When served with rice it is not unlike an Arabic gumbo and I can completely understand why true okra lovers are fond of it.  When served hot from the oven with fresh pita bread it is a showstopper.

Another benefit of the caramalized version is that it is make ahead.  You can make the stew (to be aunthentic, call it the maraqa) earlier in the day or even the day before and put it in the oven just before serving.  If you are serving it as part of a guest meal I suggest individual dishes that you can stick under the broiler, if you are enjoying this as a family it can be broiled in a large shallow pan.  Nowadays, I use the broiler pan that came with my oven; when my family was smaller I used to use a shallow 9"x 9" glass cake pan.

What you will need:

-Meat (Beef, Lamb, or Sheep).  I personally use a little less than a pound per 1.5 pounds of okra.  If your taste runs less or more, that's fine; but, if you use less you will need to use a richer stock or substitute stock for some of the water.
-Onions.  I use one large one for my 1.5 pounds of okra
-Garlic- divided in two (I use about 2-3 full teaspoons of chopped garlic.  This is about 2-3 cloves)
-Okra (as small as possible, left whole, with just the top trimmed off)
-4 or 5 very ripe tomatoes, peeled or not, chopped
-salt and black pepper to taste
- maggi, knorr, boullion powder, or fresh or canned stock (beef stock is best, but I've used Knorr chicken powder in a pinch)
-Baharat Makhloot (7 spice blend available in all middle eastern stores) and/or a scant handful of Allspice berries (or ground allspice)--I prefer just a scant teaspoon of Baharat and a small handfull of Allspice berries as they let the complex flavors of the dish shine through.  If you don't like picking whole spices out of your food, use a cheesecloth bundle or 2 heaping teaspoons of ground Baharat.
-fresh or whole dried hot pepper or ground dried hot pepper (or both fresh and dried) (I use a single one of the light green, elongated, mildly hot variety or about 1/2 teaspoon of ground red hot pepper)
- one or two bay leaves
-carob syrup (in Middle Eastern stores as Dibs Kharoub) or tamarind "dibis"/syrup (Also Middle Eastern Stores as "Tamar Hindi").  You can also use frozen tamarind puree (available in the frozen Latin section) and honey (I've even used honey alone in a pinch).   When I'm in the US I use tamarind as it's more readily available at regular supermarkets.
-coriander (cilantro) leaves, chopped finely (about a small bunch or half a large bunch, or to taste)

It is nice to fry/ saute the okra before adding them, but I often skip this when I am pressed for time.  In order to save a pan, I do this before anything else, then remove and reserve them.

Saute the onions in plenty of olive oil (you want to at least comfortably coat the bottom of your pot, if any of your ingredients start to stick, add more!).  When the onions have started to soften, add any fresh peppers.  Saute until peppers are soft then add half of the garlic and saute for a bit, until the aroma rises.  Add the meat, tossing to brown all sides.  When the meat is browned, add any ground spices that your using and the chopped tomatoes.  Add pepper and dried red pepper to taste.  Add some salt, but not all, you want to take into account the saltiness of your stock as well as "save" some to saute with the garlic and coriander at the end.  Some salt is necessary to draw out the flavors of the meat and vegetables at this point, however.

When the tomatoes have cooked down into a sauce and the meat is tender, add the okra and just a little stock (or water and powder) as nessasary (just enough so the okra doesn't burn).  You want to braise the okra more than boil it at this point.  As the okra cooks, keep adding a bit more stock each time you check.  The more it cooks, the more you'll want to add more and more stock so that you make a sauce.  If you run out of stock, don't worry about it--just use water or your powdered stock.  Add whole spices and bay leaves, adjust seasoning to your tastes.  When the seasoning is good add a generous tablespoon of tamarind syrup or frozen puree (i use about a fifth of the frozen packet and 2 teaspoons of honey).  You can add more honey/ syrup if you like.  It should not taste noticeably sweet, but rather the honey or dibs will contribute to a depth of flavor.

When the stew is done, saute the reserved garlic in some salted olive oil until the aroma rises, but it is not quite golden yet.  Add the cilantro and saute for a second, remove from the heat, and pour into the stew.

You can do this all as far ahead of time as you like.  I do it early (even the evening before if I have a busy day ahead of me) and clean the kitchen.

When you are ready to serve, pour it into a pan that a) you can put under the broiler and b) you can eat from.  Broil until the stew is bubbly and starting to caramalize and serve in the same pan with pita bread (or moroccan bread or ciabatta any other bread that you can use to scoop out stew--much like the way you scoop dip with a chip).  I'll serve my kids from a plate, but trust me this one is nicer (and prettier) right out of the dish you broiled it in.

Cooking in the Sham Region

Many of the recipes I will be posting have their origins in the Sham region of the Middle East.  To Westerners, the Sham region in variously known as the Near East and the Levant.  Shami cooking is comprised of the dishes traditionally made in Syrian, Palestinian, Jordanian, and Lebanese homes and restaurants.

Shami cooking can be intricate and time consuming, but it can also be simple and quick.  There is a great emphasis on the importance of nutrition in the culture and children are still fed a hot meal upon arriving home from school.  "Citified" versions of dishes, like those made in Beirut and Damascus, are more delicate and refined.  A Palestinian version is often hearty and rustic--designed to fill the bellies of the farmers arriving home after a day working their famous farmlands in one of the most fertile areas of the Middle East.   Like Boston's famous baked beans or Maryland's crab cakes there are some specialties belong to a more specific area in this region, but even those have now been adopted by neighbors.

The cooking of this region is typified by a few ingredients that are considered exotic to the average Westerner.  Other ingredients, such as yogurt, are ubiquitous in the West but used in different ways.

I will keep an ongoing glossary page where I describe or define ingredients and non-English terms.

If you are truly interested in learning to make Shami foods, I suggest you find a good Middle Eastern or Greek market where you can find fresh spices and other ingredients.

For my Middle Eastern and especially my Shami readers, bear with me--I think you may be pleasantly surprised.  As I am neither Shami nor Arab, I have been freed from many of the constraints you are bound by.   I can take tips from my closest Syrian friends, temper with American ingenuity, and apply them to the Palestinian dish that is the staple at my mother in law's house.  Sometimes this results in disaster, but on other occasions I have produced a meal that is guaranteed to knock your socks off!