Turkey Shawerma Nuggets

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Okay okay, I know what you're thinking.  Shawarma by its nature means sliced so a shawarma nugget is basically an oxymoron.  But, luckily for us, the culinary world is a creative space and there are no food police so technically I can do what I want.  

This of course goes against everything my mom believes in.  I think I mentioned in the past that my mom, a culinary genius, but when it comes to Middle Eastern dishes she is absolutely by the book.  She grew up eating shawarma in a pita wrap, with garlic sauce and pickles and you absolutely cannot convince her to eat shawarma in nugget form.  She'll eat the nugget, she just won't call it shawarma.  It's unorthodox and she doesn't want to be a part of it. But with any other cuisine she will explore, create and run free. 

And just to be clear, these nuggets are not going to replace your shawarma wrap craving but they do taste amazing and they're perfect for your kids or for entertaining and thats what matters.  Anything and everything in mini form right?

Shawerma is one of those things that you have to have in the Middle East.  I have yet to find a place in the US that makes a shawarma sandwich like the way they make them in Damascus.  Don't get me wrong, I've had a ton of great tasting shawarma sandwiches but none that are similar to the ones from the street vendors or shawarma cafes in Damascus.  They are made different in various parts of the Middle East and Turkey but in Damascus they are made small and simple.  Fresh warm bread, juicy flavorful chicken shawarma, garlic sauce and green middle eastern pickles.  Thats it.  Simple but perfect.  

But back to the recipe at hand.  I have been trying hard to think of different ways to feed my child.  She sure likes to challenge me.  These were perfect because she approved of their shape (she decides what to eat based on the shape and color of the dish)  and they tasted amazing.  I actually had to "taste test" about 4 of these as I was taking pictures!

INGREDIENTS

1 lb Ground turkey (or chicken)

1/4 cup oats

1 tablespoon shawerma spice

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 cup panko crumbs

1/2 cup breadcrumbs

olive oil spray

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 375

2. Mix ground turkey (or chicken), oats, shawarma spice, salt, pepper and garlic powder in a bowl and mix thoroughly

3. Form into whatever shape you like (get creative for the kiddos!)

4. Place nuggets on parchment paper, spray with olive oil and put in the oven for 12-14 minutes turning once. (Even if they are not browned does not mean they are not done! Do not overcook them)

5. Serve with garlic sauce or yogurt tahini sauce

Syrian Cheese pizza

I know I know it's been a long time and I really missed photographing and writing.  I did some photographing actually but not so much the writing.  It's been a rough and tough couple of weeks, maybe I'll go into detail next time.  Side note, my mom came to visit me from New Jersey and I always have lists upon lists of all these dishes I want to make/learn from her, places I want to take her to, and things I'm going to show her and it never fails that somehow we run out of time before I am even able to pull out my list. 

My mom is a funny lady, literally great sense of humor and just one of those moms thats so amazing and always leaves you wondering how she did it all.  She came to the US pregnant with my younger sister, I was not even walking and my older sister was still a toddler too.  In Syria, almost everyone at the time was educated in French not English so she didn't speak much English.  She raised 5 of us, almost all of us are a year or two apart.  We always had breakfast, lunch and a full dinner at the table.  She managed to always be optimistic, upbeat and happy even through the brutal New Jersey winters!  She functioned on little sleep and barely drank coffee.  Tea of course is another story, she drinks that several times a day.  Now that I have my daughter, I think about how my mom did it, almost on a daily basis.  How did she juggle it all.  I'm bringing this up now, because when she came here she of course cooked and baked daily.  Heaven for me of course because I wanted to soak it all up, photograph everything, write things down.  But like a true natural mother, before I even had the chance to grab my laptop or pull out my camera, she already finished the dish and made something extra that she whipped up with some left over ingredients.  There was no way she was going to slow down for me to measure her ingredients.  Day after day, I would leave to drop my daughter off at preschool and I would come back and 3 dishes were made and I couldn't take step by steps or write down recipes. I was upset but amazed at the same time.  Will I ever be that mother that just whips up a few gourmet snacks, dinner, and dessert so effortlessly??   This is starting to sound like a Mothers Day shoutout but I got carried away thinking about the last few weeks.  I'll go into detail next time.  

Back to the food at hand.  Syrian cheese pizza.  This cheese combination can be tossed with pasta like I did HERE , made into rolls, made into pizza, baked into savory pies called fatayir.  On @sweetpillarfood instagram I asked if anyone can guess what I was making and it was so cool to see all the different responses.   People said fatayir, barak, carbonara, cheese rolls, bourek, quiche and so many other things which are essentially the same thing.  It really showed me that all across the world our roots are all the same, we enjoy the same things but add our own little twist to it.  

Fatayir, the Arab word for it, is something that I like to always have at home for those times when my hubby is hangry and I need to give him something quick, or when Ayla is hangry and I need to give her something quick haha.   They are so similar those two.  Or if I don't have time to eat anything and I'm on the go I'll grab a few.  They make them with a variety of fillings, spinach and cheese are my top favorites but there are meat fillings and zaatar and the list goes on.  They're basically the Arab version of empanadas.   I plan on making and photographing a variety of them soon (if you follow me on snapchat @nadiahubbi you would've seen that I made the spinach ones today! )  but in the meantime I used store bough pizza dough and this was so easy to put together as a result.  The combination of parsley and cheese is just so good I can't even handle it.  

INGREDIENTS

Syrian Cheese (or substitute with Queso Fresco)

Mozzarella

Feta

Finely Chopped Parsley

Black Sesame Seeds

1 egg

Pizza dough (I used pillsbury)

INSTRUCTIONS

Mix cheeses together with chopped parsley and black sesame

The egg is optional, traditionally it is used however I didn't notice much of a difference with it or without so it's up to you. It does hold everything together slightly better with the egg but if you don't have an egg then don't worry about it.

Spread on dough

Bake according to package instructions

Eat while hot with a crunchy cucumber for optimal flavor!

Muhammara pull apart wreath

This dish looks so impressive and looks so difficult to make but it's actually super easy!  I did semi cheat though (didn't make my own dough and used already made muhamamra) BUTT the idea is that the technique is what looks impressive and that part is not difficult at all.  You can make your own dough or use store bought, it's up to you.  You can also spread anything you want inside, it doesn't have to be Muhammara obviously.  I've made it with olive oil and zaatar, a variety of cheese, and also pizza sauce and mozzarella.  You can get as creative as you want!

For the Muhammara, you can make some and keep it stored in the fridge to use as a dip, spread on sandwiches or as a sauce.  That's what made this so simple, I had some already made and ready to go.  I posted the recipe for the Muhammara here. 

Since it only takes 10 minutes in the oven, I assembled it at home and wrapped it.  Once I got to my guests house I popped it in the oven for 10 minutes and it was fresh, warm and yummy!

INGREDIENTS

1 Pillsbury Pizza Dough

3/4 cup of Muhammara

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat the oven according to package instructions

Roll out the pizza dough

Spread Muhammara sauce evenly

Roll like seen in image above

Cut into 1 inch pieces

Place in a pan with ciricular part facing up as seen in image above