Tag Archives: dubai

This time last year I was in Dubai on a media trip (one part of my job that definitely does not suck).

So following on from the Rosewater, Cardamon and Pistachio Bundt Cake I made last week, here is another recipe inspired by my time there. I love the sweet and tart berry flavours of pomegranates but in Australia they’re considered quite exotic. In Dubai pomegranates were so readily available one could buy freshly squeezed pomegranate juice at street food stalls, which I did.

Here are some pomegranates I photographed at the Dubai fruit and vegetable market.

Aren’t they gorgeous?

So when I spotted some pomegranates on sale this week I decided to make a dish I’ve been meaning to make for a while: Lamb with Pomegranates, Mint and Broad Beans on a Bed of Couscous.

One of my old Nigella Lawson cookbooks contains a recipe for shredded lamb with pomegranate and mint. Taking this intriguing combination as a starting point, I added some fresh broad beans, pine nuts and couscous to make a colourful, one-dish meal.

Broad beans are wonderful just now, and they lend such a lovely texture and flavour to this dish. If you’ve never cooked fresh broad beans before, it’s really simple. You just shell the broad beans, place them in boiling water for 3 minutes, refresh them in cold water and then slip the skins off the individual beans.

With striking red and green tones this dish looks so cheerful and festive. Actually, Christmas is only eight weeks away. Yikes! How on earth did that happen?

Lamb with Pomegranate, Mint and Broad Beans on a Bed of Couscous

INGREDIENTS

• 1 kg lamb (I used a 1/2 leg with bone in)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 kg fresh broad beans (unshelled)
• 3 cups water
• 1 cup couscous
• 1 cup water
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 pomegranate
• 30 grams toasted pine nuts
• 6-8 sprigs mint, leaves picked
• 1 tablespoon garlic infused extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
• Juice of 1 lemon

METHOD

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius and line a baking tray with tinfoil.
2. Rub washed and dried lamb with olive oil and then rub in salt and pepper.
3. Roast leg until medium or well-done, depending on preferences. For medium roast for around 1 hour (30 minutes per 500 grams). For well done roast for around 1 hour 10 minutes (35 minutes per 500 grams).
4. Whilst lamb is cooking, prepare the beans. Bring a small saucepan of water (3 cups) to the boil. While this is happening shell the beans and then place them in the boiling water for three minutes.
5. Drain the beans from the boiling water and then refresh them with cold water. Gently remove the skins from the individual beans and set the beans aside.
6. Make the couscous by boiling 1 cup water with 1 tablespoon oil and 2 teaspoons salt in a small saucepan. Once boiling, turn off the heat and drop 1 cup couscous in. Cover and let sit for two minutes. Turn heat back onto low and add one tablespoon butter. Cook, stirring constantly with a fork, for 3 minutes. Once done, set aside to cool.
7. Once lamb is done, remove from over, cover with tinfoil and leave to sit for 10 minutes. Then cut or shred lamb into small pieces, put it in a covered, oven-proof container and keep warm.
8. To make dressing whisk garlic oil with lemon juice.
9. To assemble, on a large plate or platter spread a layer of couscous. Top with lamb (lamb should be warm so reheat if necessary), broad beans and pomegranate seeds (arils) and garnish with pine nuts and mint. Sprinkle over dressing and then toss to combine at the table.

Recipes with Lamb, Pomegranate or Broad Beans

• Blood Orange and Pomegranate Salad
• Broad Beans with Bacon and Onion
• Addictive Mouth Numbing Xinjiang Lamb Skewers

Recipes Inspired by Dubai

• Bruschetta with Quail Egg and Truffle Paste
• Rosewater, Cardamon and Pistachio Bundt Cake

Dubai posts

• Exploring Dubai: Spice Souk, Gold Souk and the Fruit & Vegetable Market
• High Tea at Raffles Dubai and The Pavillion Downtown Dubai
• Dinner Under the Stars: Dubai Desert Safari
• Dubai by Instagram

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Last year I visited Dubai as a guest of Emirates and Dubai Tourism. This is the third post in my continuing Dubai series – you can also check out Dubai by Instagram and Dinner Under the Stars: Dubai Desert Safari.

High Tea at Raffles Hotel, Dubai

When life gets too busy, you need to stop to smell the roses. Luckily, at the Raffles Hotel in Dubai, I’m surrounded by them.

I’m with a group of Australian journalists at Raffles for High Tea, that English tradition of tea, sandwiches and dainty cakes enjoyed mid-late afternoon. It’s not just any High Tea, either; Raffles is currently offering a Fashion High Tea so each of the dishes on offer today have been created to resemble fashion and beauty accessories. It’s a rather brilliant marketing ploy as I’ve yet to meet a woman who didn’t love food or fashion.

Happiness is a triple-tiered dessert platter and a pot of English Breakfast tea.

Even though I want to hit the desserts straight away I start with the savoury dishes. Above we have Mushroom, Caramelized Onion Puff Purse with Salt Crystals, Beetroot Cured Salmon Rain Hat on Rye Bread with Horseradish, Cream & Asparagus Roll Sandwich with Truffle and Quail Egg and a Beetroot & Goats Cheese Sandwich Roll Ring Holder with Poached Pear.

The Mushroom Puff is buttery and flaky and embellished with salt crystals that dance on my tongue while the delicately flavoured smoked salmon is so good I have seconds. I’m not entirely convinced by the Beetroot, Goats Cheese & Pear, however – the flavour combination feel a bit confused.

However, the Chicken and Apricot Sandwich Jewellery Box hits the sweet and savoury notes perfectly while the cream & asparagus sandwich is so good when I return to Australia I make up my own Asparagus, Truffle & Quail Egg Bruschetta as a sincere homage.

Then it’s straight onto the sweets. Hurrah!

On the bottom rung we have the Raspberry Vanilla Club MakeUp Sponge Sandwich, the Winter Honey Praline Stiletto Encrusted with Pearls and the Truffle Log Hat Box. The sponge is fairly innocuous in taste but has an intriguing plastic sponge texture while the stiletto cleverly combines two of my favourite things — shoes and chocolate — with a stylish result. Amidst all this fashion finery, the truffle log hat box seems a little, well, last season, but I still manage two of them.

Next up is the Pistachio Red Fruit Square Corsage, the Walnut Pistachio Caramel Bucket Bag and the Amarena Cherry Lollypop Blusher. Neither of these nut morsels were that appealing to me so I was happy to let others at my table snaffle them up.

From a taste point of view, white chocolate on an already sweet cherry flavoured macaron is probably a step too far. However this macaron, sorry, Amarena Cherry Lollypop Blusher, is just too cute, isn’t it?

For me, the highlight of the Fashion High Tea are the various different types of scones and jam, served with Cornish clotted cream that you dispense yourself from a toothpaste-like metal tube. It is a gimmick but it totally works. In fact, I’m only going to eat cream (on scones with jam) like this from now on.

So it appears my travel bills are going to be rather astronomical in the future. Raffles Dubai, you have a lot to answer for.

Fashion High Tea at Raffles Salon
Sheikh Rashid Road, Wafi
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Tel: +971 4324 8888
Email: dining.dubai@raffles.com

__________________________________________________________

Lunch at The Pavilion Downtown Dubai

Do you believe in love at first sight?

When it comes to relationships, I don’t. Lust at first sight – definitely. Love at first sight – no.

But when it comes to restaurants, clothes and places, I happily fall head over heels.

The Pavilion Downtown Dubai is like all my favourite things combined together – food, art, books/magazines, computers, and interior design. Everything is gorgeous, as befitting a dual gallery/cafe space, and everyone is beautiful.

The Pavilion Downton Dubai is a not-for-profit contemporary art space showcasing works by local and international artists. The multi-purpose space is designed as a drop in space where people can meet, enjoy some art, grab a bite to eat and hang out.

Check this installation out. Who wouldn’t want a whole room to play remote controlled cars in?

The staff are relaxed and friendly and they encourage you to borrow the gallery’s art, design, fashion and food magazines and periodicals. In other circumstances I could happily spend hours reading and working here. But today we are here to lunch.

What to eat, what to eat…

First up, I try a date and honey milkshake. Why have I never thought of making this gorgeous drink before? You can make this at home by blending some dried dates with yoghurt, milk (or soy, rice or almond milk), honey and perhaps just a teensy sprinkle of cinnamon. Remember to taste your drink before adding any honey as the dates are very sweet already.

One of the journalists in my group orders the cold meze platter, which includes hommous, babaganoush, tabouli and fatoush salad.

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Spice Souk

“You want spice?”

“Where you from?”

“Ni hao!” (‘Hello’ in Chinese lol.)

I’m in the Spice Souk in Dubai and smiling stallholders are trying to persuade me to check out their wares.

As if I needed any encouragement. I’m mesmerised by the exoticness of the spices surrounding me. I marvel at the colours and shapes while dozens of unknown fragrances waft up gently in the warm air.

I’m visiting Dubai with a group of Australian journalists but they’re walking through the Spice Souk too quickly for me; I keep stopping to take photographs. I lose sight of my group and eventually, Lara my patient tour leader returns to find me and tells me that they’ll meet me at the entrance in half an hour.

I’m glad of this time alone; I’m a woman on a mission to explore.

Dubai’s famous Spice Souk is surprisingly small, comprising two main alleyways of shops selling spices, incense, sheeshas (otherwise known as hookas, a water pipe used to smoke flavoured tobacco), kids’ toys and souvenirs.

Some spices, like cinnamon sticks, are immediately recognisable. I love using cinnamon in recipes like Chai rice pudding and roasted Chai flavoured almonds.

These delightful rose buds can be used in tea although I can picture them perched daintily atop some vanilla cupcakes iced with Swiss meringue buttercream.

Do you like herbal tea? The Spice Souk sells all kinds of dried flowers that can be used for brewing tea including chrysanthemum, lavender and hibiscus.

I love hibiscus tea – it’s full of Vitamin C and anti-oxidants.

Could this be cassia bark? It’s a spice similar to cinnamon which I use to make pho (Vietnamese beef noodle soup).

These dried lemons are used for flavouring stews and tagines. I popped one in a Middle Eastern inspired chicken dish I made the other day and it was lovely. The lemon was rock hard so I pierced its skin with a knife so that the cooking stock could easily enter it.

In Australia whole vanilla pods are usually sold individually in neat cellophane pickets – they’re around $AUD3.50 each so I buy them only on special occasions. In Dubai I’m presented with a container full of gorgeously sticky whole vanilla pods. I want to take them all home but restrain myself to just a few – they work out about $AUD2 each.

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Whenever I mentioned I was going to Dubai at the end of October the response was always the same.

“Dubai? Wow. Hey, you can do Sex and the City 2. Camels! Caftans!”

I’m happy to report I managed to experience two out of three during Arabian Adventures Sundowner Desert Safari – I rode on a camel and stylish Paula Joye, who was part of my media group, wore not one but two gorgeous caftans to our dinner under the stars.

I had fantasised about riding a camel in a caftan or long flowing dress in the desert but on the day practicality ruled and I wore jeans. And that’s why I’m a food blogger, not a fashion blogger.

So here’s how it went.

We were picked up from our hotel — Media One — at 3pm and driven out to the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve, in the heart of the desert.

First up, a falconry demonstration.

Trained falcons have been used for hunting in the Middle East for around 18 centuries; ancient Bedouin tribes used them to provide meat for their families during the winter months. They would trap a young bird in the autumn, hunt with them throughout winter and then release them at the end of the hunting season so that the bird could migrate to cooler climates. Nowadays, thanks to air-conditioning, falcons can be kept all year around.

The bird above has a helmet covering its eyes and ears. According to the falcon’s handler this sensory deprivation was designed to help the bird remain relaxed — off-line, if you like — before a flight. Once the helmet was removed the bird went into attack — or online mode — with all its senses at their most acute.

While the handler explained some of the bird’s hunting habits he played out a long rope that he’d attached some raw meat to, swinging it higher and higher in the air. The falcon circled and then swooped, time and time again, with the handler deftly swinging it just out of reach.

At the end of the demonstration, he let the bird catch the bait and then further rewarded him with some extra meat.

See that antenna on the falcon’s back? No, it’s not a remote control device but a GPS tracker. So if the falcon decides to make an unscheduled flight over the border to “visit his girlfriend”, as his handler put it, his handler knows where to find him.

It was then onto the dune bashing.

We’d previously been warned to let the guides know if we had bad backs or were pregnant as dune bashing can be quite a bumpy experience. Now I hate any kind of turbulence but I found dune bashing mostly fine, with just a few hairy moments. So I think most people should be OK with it.

I tried to take photos/video using my DSLR but quickly realised I was in danger of breaking my new camera. So here’s a photo and video taken on my Iphone.

This video was taken during the relatively flat part of the drive. During the bumpy parts I was too busy hanging on for dear life to worry about filming!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMRXNPkojdI

We stopped for a break just in time to catch the sunset.

The obligatory ‘here I am in the desert’ shot.

After that we drove straight onto the Bedouin-style camp. Upon arrival, we had the option to enjoy a short camel ride. This was my camel and my rather glum looking guide. I was hoping for a line like, “Madam, your camel awaits” but all I got was,”hold on tight” lol.

After the short ride, it was really quite dark so I headed straight into the camp to explore. At the entrance was this lovely display of herbs and spices – it smelled so wonderfully exotic.

Usually, the camp hosts around 300 people each trip and a belly dancer provides the entertainment after dinner. The evening we visited alcohol was not allowed due to Eid being the next day so there was less than 100 of us and no bellydancer, which was a shame.

Still, we had a great time. Before dinner we went to get henna tattoos done.

It’s funny how different men and women are. Men go for fierce and/or tough tattoos.

While women go for pretty tattoos.

Then it was time for dinner. Seated under the stars we enjoyed a feast of Middle Eastern grilled meats, breads, rices and fresh salads, including hummous, tabouli, and bean salad.

After dinner we chatted and wandered around the camp. You could buy some sand art — see below — or enjoy a shisa (waterpipe).

Then it was time for dessert: fresh fruit, and a flaky pistachio and honey dessert, very similar to baklava.

Being in the desert was a novel experience, and one that I’ll remember for many years to come.

On the way home, one of my travel companions remarked that she’d wished we’d been able to camp overnight. I agreed. Arabian Adventures offer overnight stays at very reasonable prices, and I’ll definitely do this next time I visit.

Arabian Adventures ‘Sundownder’ Desert Safari
AED 360 per adult / AED 300 dirhams per child
Book here. 

You might also be interested in my previous post — Dubai by Instagram.

Christina Soong-Kroeger travelled to Dubai as a guest of Emirates and Dubai Tourism. All flights, meals, accomodation, tours and transfers were courtesy of the hosts.