Today’s Chef Ali Abu Tir .. Delicious Palestinian dishes for a delicious Ramadan table

Palestinian chef Ali Abu Tir masters 6 international kitchens: the ancient Shami, Khaleeji, Indian, Iranian, Turkish and Italian.

He is a member of the Palestinian Culinary Association, a certified trainer of culinary arts in many training centers, holds many international and local courses in food safety accredited by the Arab Board, holds a sustainability certificate from the World Chefs Association, and participated in the Bahrain Food Festival for 4 seasons. Read also Today’s Chef Amar Allah Zili … A Turkish Ramadan table with a historical flavor Today’s Chef Roy Hazboun .. innovative Spanish dishes on the Ramadan dinner Today’s chef, Ghada Al-Tali … Ramadan Iftar with rich flavors for a family feast Today’s Chef Jumana Al Zaatari … a Ramadan breakfast table combining the flavors of the Arab East and the American West

He has more than 10 years of experience in the field of eastern and western cooking, where he worked in many restaurants and hotels in Palestine, and he also worked in one of the Arab Gulf countries (Kingdom of Bahrain) for 5 years.

Ali tells Al-Jazeera Net that when he designs dining dishes, he thinks about the harmony between all their ingredients, so that the flavors do not conflict between the appetizers, soup and the main meal. It is also possible to benefit from the same element in several dishes, as well as chicken and onions in his Ramadan table suggested to the readers and readers of Al-Jazeera Net.

Chef Ali, a Palestinian from the Gaza Strip, chooses a Palestinian travel par excellence for a Ramadan Iftar with the flavor of the blessed land biased towards nature, its oil, olives, wheat and almonds. Starting with the refreshing sobia drink known in Gaza, which is based on milk and the spirit of almonds, to freekeh soup (smoked wheat) and chicken sambousak, and cucumber salad with yogurt, which is in perfect harmony with the traditional Palestinian musakhan, to end with the Chinese dessert of the Palestinian arena.

The refreshing sobia drink

Sobia is one of the popular drinks for many people, especially in the blessed month of Ramadan, because it gives it hydration and revitalization of the body, and this drink is popular in Medina and Makkah, there are some families specializing in preparing it and selling it to people, where it is sold in small cabins on public streets.

Ingredients: 3 cups of liquid milk,
1.5 cups of water,
3 quarters of a cup, sugar,
two tablespoons of almond spirit

Preparation: In an electric mixer: put the liquid milk and water.
Mix the ingredients well on medium speed until combined.

Add the sugar and almond essence, then mix the ingredients again until the ingredients are homogeneous.

Put the mixture in a bowl and put it in the refrigerator for at least an hour to cool down.
Then distribute the mixture in serving cups and serve

Sambousek chicken and vegetables

Chicken sambousek on the way of Chef Ali, and the following ingredients:

To prepare the dough: 1 cup flour, 1
teaspoon instant yeast,
1/4 teaspoon salt,
vegetable oil, 3 tablespoons

For frying: vegetable oil 3 cups

To prepare the filling: cleaned chicken breast (300g)

Vegetable oil 3 tablespoons
finely chopped onion,
crushed garlic 3 cloves
fresh ginger, grated 1 teaspoon
turmeric 1 teaspoon
curry 1 teaspoon
white
pepper 1 teaspoon black pepper 1 teaspoon a
cup boiled peas
A cup of canned corn
Salt to taste
A cup of mushrooms cut in a
quarter cup grated carrots

How to prepare the dough: Sift the flour, yeast and salt into a bowl.
Open a gap in the middle of the flour and add vegetable oil and enough water.
Rub the ingredients to get a cohesive dough. Add water as needed to get a medium-soft paste.
Cover the bowl and set aside until the dough is swollen and doubled in size.

How to prepare the filling: Put the chicken in a saucepan, immerse it in water, and flavor it with salt and black pepper.

Close the saucepan and leave the mixture on high heat.

When the steam is rising, reduce the heat and cook the chicken 15 minutes until it’s done.
Drain the chicken from the liquid and slice it.
Heat the oil in a saucepan and fry the onions until they wilt.
Add garlic and ginger and stir.
Season with salt, turmeric, curry, and white and black pepper.
Put the chicken pieces and stir them for two minutes.
Add the corn, mushrooms, carrots and peas and keep stirring until the mixture is completely done.
Turn off the heat and leave the filling aside to cool slightly.

How to prepare the samosa pastry : Lay the dough on a flour-sprinkled surface with a thickness of one centimeter.
Cut the dough into circles by a medium-sized cup.
Put two tablespoons of the filling on one end of the dough circles.
Fold the other blank end over the filling and layer the ends of the samosa, then press it with a fork.
In a saucepan, heat the oil well and fry the chicken samosas until golden in color, then serve hot.

Palestinian Freekeh soup with chicken

Ingredients: A quarter cup of oil, a
cup of freekeh, a
teaspoon of ground cardamom

Quarter kilo small cubes chicken breast (250 grams)

Two onions, finely chopped

5-6 cups chicken broth (you can use sambousek chicken boiled broth)

Salt and black pepper to taste

Preparation: We wash the freekeh until it is completely clean, then soak it in water for 3 hours.

Boil the chicken in a saucepan of water with a pinch of salt and cardamom, drain and set it aside.

Heat the oil in a deep saucepan, then add the onion and stir until it becomes soft.

Drain the freekeh, add it to the saucepan, and stir for 5 minutes, then add the chicken broth, cardamom, salt and black pepper, stir and leave the broth over a high heat until it boils.

After boiling, cover the pot and leave the freekeh on a low heat until it becomes soft.

Add the boiled chicken pieces and stir then let the ingredients boil for 5 minutes, so that the chicken frike soup is ready to be served.

Cucumber salad with yogurt

Ingredients: 3 cucumber grains (medium size) A
pack of yogurt or as needed
Garlic tooth (finely crushed)
Half a tablespoon of dry mint (dry, dried)
green dill “green locust” One tablespoon (finely chopped) a
teaspoon of salt

Preparation: Peel the cucumber and finely chop or grate with a grater.
Add yogurt, crushed garlic, salt and dill and mix with cucumber.

Add dry mint when serving.

The traditional Palestinian heater

Ingredients: Tamis bread, tanoor, or the baladi bread that is used for the makhan (taboon or saj bread).

Ingredients to prepare chicken: two chickens,
half a large cup, olive oil,
onion, chopped

Two tablespoons of salt, a
teaspoon of ground black pepper, a
teaspoon of ground cumin, two
tablespoons of sumac,
half a lemon juice

Ingredients of the al-musakhan onion mixture: 8 large onions, chopped
a large cup of olive oil,
two tablespoons of salt, a
teaspoon of ground black pepper, a
teaspoon of ground cumin,
half a cup of sumac or more, as desired

A cup of fried pine nuts or peeled and fried almonds

How to prepare:

Chicken preparation: 4 pieces each chicken. Rub it well with flour, salt or lemon to get rid of the smell and wash it off.

Put them in an oven tray and add onions, salt, pepper, sumac, lemon juice and olive oil mentioned in the first paragraph. Leave it on for about half an hour or more.
Put the chicken in the oven until it’s soft. Then the liquid is removed and browned.

Preparing the fried onion : Chop the onions roughly, add a cup of olive oil to it and cook it over a hot heat at the beginning, then reduce the heat until it is cooked with stirring from time to time so that it does not burn.

Add salt, pepper and cumin when it is close to maturity and stir well. Continue cooking until cooked onions.

Preparing the musakhan: The liquid resulting from grilling the chicken is added to the cooked onions to acquire the chicken flavor and stir well, taking into account that the quantity is not large, because the bread will crumble in this case.

If the amount is large, boil the liquid until the excess evaporates and there is a dense amount to add to the onions.
Put on the serving tray an amount of oil present on the onions. Place a loaf of bread on it, then put an amount of the onion mixture on the loaf of bread and sprinkle with the amount of sumac and a little toasted pine nuts / almonds. Repeat the process until the quantity is finished.
Put the tray in a hot oven for about 5 minutes to soak the bread with oil.
Put the fried chicken on the bread and serve hot.

How to prepare bread: Since bread is the basis for the success of the musakhan, this is how to make baladi bread in case you want to make it at home, and the first step:

Mix well a large cup of wheat flour, 3 large cups white flour, 1 tablespoon of salt, 2 teaspoons of yeast dissolved in warm water and a little sugar, enough warm water to get a soft, cohesive dough. And leave it until it’s brewed.
Cut the dough into balls according to your desire, the size of the loaf and according to the area of ​​the sheet (a circular piece of metal) on which you will bake.

Use flour so that the dough does not stick to the surface you are applying it to. Leave it for a little, until it becomes easier to thin.
Put the saj on the side of the oven until it gets hot well.
Raise the ball of dough with a rolling pin on a floured surface to make it round in shape, raise it with your hand and place it on the sheet.

Raise it on it immediately to take a circular shape in the area you want, and leave it for about two minutes or until it becomes cooked under the loaf.
Remove the loaf and place it on a tray. Put the tray directly under the grill to brown the surface of the loaf.

Remove and repeat the process until the amount of dough is over, taking into account removing the remnants of flour from the sheet before placing a new loaf on it

The Palestinian Ring

Ingredients: Half a cup of flour, a cup of fine
semolina, the
proceeds of a cup of corn oil

Tablespoon yeast
tablespoon sugar
pinch of salt
3 tablespoons toasted fenugreek

Shira (Qatar)

Preparation method: Add the fenugreek seeds to the water and leave it to boil, then filter the fenugreek water to use for the dough.
In another bowl.
We put all the components of the dough and half the amount of the fenugreek seeds and knead well with the addition of fenugreek water gradually to get a cohesive dough.
We heat the oven, and grease the oven tray with the tahini so that the dough does not stick, and spread it to a thickness of 1 cm.

We put it in the oven for 45 minutes at 200 degrees Fahrenheit, or until it becomes golden in color, then take it out of the oven and spread it with the syrup.

How the towing works

Ingredients of syrup:
a cup of water sugar, a cup of
blossom water, a tablespoon of a
tablespoon of lemon juice,
preparation of the syrup: Put the sugar and water in a saucepan over a medium heat.

When the mixture comes to a boil, remove the pot from the heat and add the lemon juice, then the blossom water, and leave the syrup until it cools.