For recipes and food reviews that will have your mouth-watering and your stomach rumbling, Omar’s Food blog is the place to go! So we had a chat with him to find out his tricks and tips for making the perfect Ramadan dishes:
1) What is your favourite traditional Ramadan meal to cook?
Ramadan is all about the classic homemade stuff. I must always have some soup, and I definitely love me some rice and molokhia.
2) How do you make your foul more interesting and exciting?
I think cumin is a key ingredient, I usually like it simple with some olive oil, and sometimes with tahini.
3) Do you have any top tips for people to get their Bechamel sauce smooth and not lumpy?
Heat the milk before adding to the butter-flour mixture, also gradually adding it prevents any lumps forming.
4) What is the best way of cooking chicken during Ramadan?
Everyone usually goes for the fried and greasy stuff in Ramadan, but I love rotisserie chicken, or oven baked in a bag with onions, tomatoes, herbs and potatoes. It just perfectly holds up all the mix of flavors, and is quite the healthy option too.
5) What is your number one tip for eating healthily?
I think it’s best to have small meals throughout the day, add as much fruits and vegetables, I’ve always found cucumber and carrots make great snacks at work. As for Ramadan, I think using healthier ingredients helps a lot, like olive oil, stir-fry your proteins with some vegetables, instead of deep-frying everything.
6) What is a good appetizer to make if you are catering for a large group of people?
I think tortilla wraps are my friend in times like that. I like to make fried hotdogs rolls, or salmon rolls with cream cheese, they’re easy, quick and definite crowd-pleasers. But I guess for Ramadan, finger food in general works is a great shareable appetizer, especially fried ones, like sambousek, mombar and kobeiba.
7) Do you prefer making tradition Egyptian Ramadan food, or does your Ramadan include a lot of fusion?
I definitely mix it up during Ramadan, especially as Egyptian food usually takes more time to make. Sometimes I might just make some quesadillas with some soup.
8) Do you ever decide to have a break from homecooking and go out for Iftar, and if so where is your favourite place to go?
I have to give credit for my mom who makes a great effort feeding us great homemade food during Ramadan. I don’t really like going out for iftar.
To find more food Omar check out his page on Instagram @omarsfood and find his blog here.