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Happy New Year 2014

31/12/201306/02/2015 Moya8 Comments

I have definitely ended the year 2013 on a delicious colorful sweet note after signing up for a Fancy Macaroon Class with Chef Fabrice Perrin at Culina Art Bahrain… looking forward to making them at home and will share with you my efforts. Loved all the flavor combinations of the macaroons, especially the coconut mandarin and the date and orange. A few other Bahrain based bloggers have a secret craving for Macaroons as well and our lovely Georgina from Blondie in Bahrain shares her time spent at Culina Bahrain, as does Anita from Slice of my life in her blog post.

While ending the year on a sweet note I would also like to say a big thank you to all those wonderful people (some personally known) who have subscribed to Food and Tools and look forward to another year of food blogging. With so many fabulous food blogs on the web I know it is impossible to keep up with everyone but I really do appreciate when you take the time and leave a comment… I do love your comments… so please don’t be shy. Also, thank you also for all the likes, without you all it would be me and one big empty web space. 🙂

“We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day”. -Edith Lovejoy Pierce

Health, Happiness and Best Wishes for 2014.

Moya xxx 🙂

A Cooking Class at the Kempinski Hotel Bahrain

29/10/201301/07/2014 Moya5 Comments

Recently I was invited to attended a Foie Gras Terrine and Foams Cooking Class at the Kempinski Grand & Ixir Hotel, at the city center Bahrain. Also, I would be taken on a tour around the hotels main kitchen areas. Having never prepared a fresh foie gras before and foams made at home were usually placed on top of a cappuccino, I was excited to learn something new. Although I’ve eaten foie gras on occasions, it’s very much a luxury food and certainly not your typical everyday store cupboard ingredient… maybe in France! Arriving at the Saveur private kitchen and dining area, Chef Mike the hotels Chef de cuisine was ready and waiting along with assistant, Chef Altaf. Continue reading “A Cooking Class at the Kempinski Hotel Bahrain” →

baking · food + drink · posts

Khoubz – Arabic Flatbread

25/03/201313/10/2014 Moya10 Comments

Bahraini and expats love Khoubz and you only need stand outside one of the many Al Khabbaz on the island to see how popular this type of flatbread is. Khoubz literally flies of the shelves or should I say, out of the tabour. Enjoyed throughout the day for breakfast, lunch or dinner, Khobuz is eaten with eggs, chickpeas, cheese and meat dishes (like Thareed) or grills.

Simone from JungleFrog Cooking’s photo challenge is, “to go on location” and try get out of your comfort zone! Most of my photography is usually standing still so I did find this months challenge… well, a bit of a challenge! These bakers work so fast, the bread cooks in seconds and it was hard keeping up with the constant movement when taking photographs and neither of us spoke each others language.

No fancy kitchen tools used here… but the job gets done. Kneading the dough with a large industrial mixer which looks like it has had plenty of use.
Shaping the cut pieces of bread dough into even sized portions… these bakers work so fast!
Giving the Khoubz dough a workout… rolling, flipping, stretching and shaping.The Khoubz dough is slapped onto the side of a very hot tanour while another baker stands by with a long hook, ready to hook out the baked Khoubz moments later.
Fresh baked Khobzu from the tanour…. when you take Khobzu home, a wonderful aroma of baked bread is left in you car!
A well deserved cup of chai after all his hard work… then it’s back to work!