ZAAKI

07/30/2024

Burrton Farmers' MarketThis Friday we at Burrton Farmers' Market

Will serve again the

1 .Naan soft tacos : garlic Naan bread, topped with Kofta that was cooked in a flavorful sauce, topped with cheese, green onions, cilantro, sour cream and my sweet Chipotle sauce. 😋
2 . Smocked jerk chicken shawarma 😋.
3 . Smoked Kofta shawarma 😋.

They all come with side of a very delicious salad that you will love.

07/05/2024

Thanks for the great turnout today my friends and its truly appreciated ❤️.

Tomorrow I will be at Burrton Farmers' Market , will introduce my newest creation , ZAAKI chicken melt 😋.

Marinated chicken in mix of Arabic spices, olive oil, sweet peppers and red onions that goes on a seeded bread with my sauce and Swiss cheese. Then it gets toasted on each side with butter.

For the beef dinner, we will have the highly requested kofta shawarma 😋.

I should be ready to go around 4,30 -5 pm .

07/01/2024

Hello friends, this Thursday I will be serving some of your favorite dinners during the city of Burrton 4th of July celebration at the flickinger building.

Starting around 5pm the following dishes will be ready to go.

1. Butter chicken on top of basmati rice
2 . The original chicken shawarma: marinated chicken that goes on top of sauce, topped with Lebanese pickles , cheese based on requests.
3 . Steak shawarma that goes on tahini/ yogurt sauce, topped with red onions, parsley, sumac and tomatoes.

All served with hummus and Naan bread.

For dessert we will have caramel topped cheesecake.

Also I will be making fresh mint lemonade and sodas will be available as well .

06/28/2024

Since brisket meat is one of my favorite things to eat, I've been thinking for a long time about making it into shawerma.

So last night I finally made it , and it was sooo delicious 😋.

Marinated for a night in my mix of beef shawarma spices, herbs and yogurt .

After the meat was done, it goes on top of tortilla shell that was covered with special sauce made of tahini and yogurt, then goes on top of the meat parsley, sumac, red onions.

The result was absolutely delicious 😋.

06/22/2024

Hey friends, some of you were disappointed that they missed the Last food event at the farmers market, so tomorrow I will be at Burrton senior center, , right across the city building. .

Will be making the following:

1 .Butter chicken on basmati rice.
2 . Beef kofta shawarma .
3 . Jerk chicken shawarma.

They all come with side of hummus and Naan bread.

Also will have for dessert Cararamel topped cheesecake 😋.

05/27/2024

As someone who likes to experience with food while keeping the authentic Arabian flavors, yesterday I came up with this new recipe.

It's kinda resembles soft tacos .

On top of garlic Naan goes kofta meat that was cooked with indian spices infused creamy sauce . On top of that goes Mexican cheese, pickled red onions, green onions, cilantro, sweet and spicy jalapeños.

Needless to say that it was AMAZING 😋😋😋.

I didn't have sour cream at the time, but it tasted great when I tried it today.

I will call it ZAAKI Naan tacos and will add it to this Friday's menu 😉.

05/26/2024

Good evening my friends, this Friday the 31st I will be at the city of Burrton Farmers' Market around 5 pm .

I will be serving :

1. Beef kofta shawarma.
2. Jerk chicken shawarma.
3. Jerk chicken quesadilla.

All served with side of hummus and Naan bread.
Also I will be serving fresh mint lemonade.

05/03/2024

Hello again friends, been a a long time I know 😄 .

I'm sure many of you are fans of a good salad and probably sick of boring salads that many restaurants serve.

Here are my 3 top salad recipes that I came up with, they share the same components with the difference in the topping, one topped with raspberry , the other topped with strawberry while the last one topped with cranberry pecan.

My favorite dressing to go with them is raspberry vinaigrette.

06/16/2023

Hello friends , here is the schedule of Burrton 4th of July celebration on Saturday the 1st . So make sure to consider stopping by for a day full of fun and delicious food 😋

06/10/2023

Hello my friends , the city of Burrton will celebrate its 150th year anniversary on the 1st of July .

The 4th of July celebration and activities will take place that day , so make sure to consider driving there to enjoy full day of fun and ofcourse some deliciousness 😋.

I will keep you posted on what delicious menu that we will have for that special occasion.

03/04/2023

So last night I made my favorite type of shawarma , typically made with lamb meat, but made it with flatiron steak instead with adding some ewe ghee that my mother made from our sheeps back home for deeper flavor .

The meat goes on top of the sauce inside the tortillashell , then it's topped with red onions, parsley mixed with sumac and finish it with sliced tomatoes , then grilled on each side 😋.

It has different marinate than the kofta shawarma , and the sauce mainly made of tahini and yogurt , so it might not be everyone favorite 😄 .

And what a better side to go with it than fresh fattoush salad , with so many ingredients such as tomatoes, cucumber, radishes, parsley, cilantro, green onions, dried mint, romaine lettuce and more . Topped with fried pita bread and finished with homemade dressing 🤤🤤 .

Needless to say it was a very delicious meal that I had to make a nother wrap after midnight 😄😄😄😄 .

02/28/2023

So I made this dinner last night , as you can see that there are 2 types of Arabic salads , first one made of tomato, parsley, green onions, mint , cilantro, cucumber, lemon juice , the second one is my favorite type of salad wich is basically the same as the first one in addition to tahini , they both very refreshing and aromatic due to the fresh ingredients.

In the middle east its very common to mix salads or plain yogurt with different types of rice meals 😋 , needless to say that that these kinds of meals remind me of our family dinners back home

01/24/2023

Last night I tried to make one of my all times favorite dishes , cabbage rolls 😋 . Although it was a very challenging process due to the difficulty of finding large size cabbage head , the result was better than I thought .

These cabbage rolls are stuffed with rice, ground beef, herbs and spices , I made fattoush salad to go with it as well 😋 .

01/23/2023

Good morning friends , as I'm sure you all noticed that English isn't my mother language , since I've been in the US for 7 years .

today a memory popped up on my page about an incident that happened with me in my first week of my first job while in the US years ago , so I thought about sharing it with you 😄 .

Back then I was an assistant manager in a retail store , one day while I was working in that store , a lady walked up to me , she asked me if I can show her where are the dishes located, or at least that what I thought she said.

I walked with her to the picnic area, she was nice and very friendly and was curious about my accent and where I'm from , when we got to the picnic area,
I asked her whether she wanted paper or foam dishes? She looked very confused 😕 and said in an angry tune ,what did you say ? I said the paper dishes are more sturdier while the foam ones are cheaper, all the sudden she went from being that nice friendly lady to an angry one while screaming " are you f....ing kidding me 🤬 " 😳 I was very confused about her response , I told her that this is my first year in the US and I might misunderstood you, let me call one of my female associates , I went and asked for help and went to the furthest corner of the store so she can't see me , but I still could hear her angry voice.

When she left I went to my coworker , l told her that even if she wanted regular dishes , there was no need for that behavior , my associat laughed and told me to follow her , we walked by the home section where the glass plates located , I thought inside my self " that can't be good" , we reached to the feminine products aisle, then i got nervous and thought that this really doesn't look good, my associate pulled something from the shelf, she told me while laughing " that's what she was looking for " and started hysterically laughing with the other coworkers.

That was the first time that I heard about DO**HE 😶😵 .

that was one terrifying memory to say the least 😄 .

01/21/2023

Good morning friends , so yesterday I made one of my favorite dishes . It's a traditional Palestinian dish called musakhan , it consists of boneless chicken thighs, lots of red onions, generous amount of olive oil, garlic , lemon juice, and the main spice wich is sumac.

Since I don't have the traditional bread that it's usually made with, I made it with tortilla shells .

The chicken and onions mix made into 5 layers , between each layer I put some almond and pine nuts and then broil it, then add the next layer of the mix 😋 .

This dish is very unique and it's almost impossible to find in any middle eastern restaurant , but one of my favorite nonetheless .

12/31/2022

So kofta shawarma is one of the most popular and requested things that I ever made . the meat is very flavourful with all the spices, herbs and peppers . In addition to our homemade sauce.

Yesterday and out of the blue I thought about this new creation , I was like ,l wonder how the kofta will taste if they got incorporated into croissants and cheese? in addition to ZAAKI sauce. So today we tried it for dinner , and oh my God it's sooooo delicious 😋 .

The light and sweet croissants , combined with the cheese and topped with the sauce were so delicious and very unique 😋 .

12/28/2022

Hello friends , so last night I tried this recipe for meatballs sub / sandwich that I've been thinking about for a while .

The meatballs made of beef , herbs, peppers, onions and Arabic spices along other ingredients , baked in the oven and then cooked slowly with creamy sauce that consists of Indian spices , topped with provolone cheese and some cilantro. .

I didn't find the brioche Bunns that I wanted to use originally , so I tried it with Italian bread , it wasn't ideal but the flavor was great.

So if you are a fan of meatballs subs , how does this recipe sounds to you?

11/21/2022

Landed in Chicago few hours ago and getting ready to fly to wichita after spending couple of weeks in Jordan with family .

Had almost all of my favorite dishes that kinda hard to make here, due to different of ingredients tastes , specially lamb meat , due to the more natural diet they have , but mostly to their breed and fat distribution through the meat.

We raise back home around 50 sheep and goats ,
And there is vast difference in taste between the meat flavor that the native sheep's back in Jordan have , and all kinds of lamb meat that i tried here in the US, they are also much bigger in size , some can reach 250lb .

In addition of the meat , my mother makes many products out of sheep's and goats milk , such as ghee , butter, cheese, labnah " cross between yogurt and cream cheese " , yogurt and liquid yogurt 😋 , and she insists on sending some of those goodies back whenever me or my sisters go to visit 😄 .

I'm hoping one day that we can import few heads of that breed here , because I'm positive once people will try it , they will change their opinion about lambs meat.

11/15/2022

Good morning friends , here are some pictures I took earlier when I visited Petra. it's an ancient city that was built around 300BC by the Arabic Nabatean in the southern mountains of Jordan . It's one of the world New 7 wonders that was completely carved in the mountains .

I guarantee you that you will be left speechless and it will be one in a lifetime experience.

11/14/2022

One of my favorite things to eat while I'm in Jordan is fish , you can find many types of frsh fish that it's very hard to find back in Wichita .

Yesterday I went to this , Small fish market , they get fresh shipments of fish every 2 days coming from the gulf of Oman, I picked 2 d different types and my mother prepared them the Arabic way , stuffed with a mix of different herbs and spices and of course garlic , then lightly fried or baked . honestly it was the best fish dinner that I had in the last 10 years , the 2 types of fish were very light and buttery without any fishy taste , it's literally melted in my mouth with that delicious marinate and herbs flavors 😋, we also had 4 different kinds of fresh salad that I couldn't stop eating , and ofcourse fresh out of the bakery Arabic bread .

11/13/2022

Good morning my friends .
So this is a desert camp located in south of Jordan that I Visited earlier , it's very isolated yet very unique , you don't get cellphone reception or internet or even TV, but in return you get to experience different type of luxury and one in a lifetime experience 😉.

11/10/2022

So my mother prepared a list of favorite meals that she knows that I love . Today's dinner was one of my all time favorite and a very unique one as well .

Our dinner was the delicious Arabic cabbage rolls 😋 , made from fresh cabbage that got steamed until its soft , then stuffed with mix of rice, spices, herbs and ground lamb meat , rolled and cooked for hours 😋 , served with squeeze of lemon that elevate the flavor to different level .

After that we had one of the most deleted Arabic desserts , Konafah wich is a Palestinian dessert made from certain kind of cheese that exists in few Arabic countries ، konafah dough , topped pistachios and cashews , then soaked with a very flavourful syrup 😋.

Needless to say that everything was absolutely delicious.

11/08/2022

Good morning friends , so this is our typical family breakfast for the last few days . Most of its components are homemade by my mother, such as the stuffed pickled mini eggplants ، pickled Olives from our garden , homemade labnah " wich is in the middle between cream cheese and yogurt" , and of course hummus and falafel . Also you will notice the use of olive oil that was made from our Olive trees last week in different dishes . All that served with fresh baked Arabic bread that was made using brick oven .

We always drink hot tea with sage in the cooler weather , while we drink hot tea with mint in the summer.

It's definitely brings back childhood memories for me , when my mother used to prepare this type of breakfast before we head to school.

Also worth mentioning that this breakfast is 90% vegan and 100% vegetarian 😋.

11/02/2022

Hello friends , I'm heading back to Jordan for few weeks , on the positive side I will bring some high quality spices as well as the most delicious Arabic desserts that you can taste 😋.

Also I will make few posts about places that I will visit and i think you will enjoy them as well for their unique beauty and historical roots , and of course I have to share my mother cooking with you guys 😄 .

See you in few weeks my friends.

10/17/2022

This is probably my favorite Arabian meal .

It's called maqlubah , wich translate to "upside down" in English , for obvious reason that you will see 🙂 .

It consists of lamb meat that pressured cooked with spices and herbs , then it goes in the bottom of the pot , along side fried cauliflower and fried eggplant , then goes the rice on top in addition to its special spices mix .

Once it's done we flip the pot upside down , and then that delicious aroma will hit you in the face and makes you fight with your siblings for the leftover rice that got stuck in the bottom of the pot " wich is very common event whenever we made it 😄😄" , finish it up with roasted almond and roasted golden raisins on top .

It served with fresh Arabian salad that you mix with the rice , or plain yogurt .

In my case, I came up with a creamy sauce that tastes yummy with that 😋.

10/03/2022

So today we tried to create couple of new recipes.

I wouldn't call it pizza , but it's very close to that concept . instead of the pizza dough , we used flat pita bread .

The first one is the ZAAKI kofta pizza, it consists of flat pita bread , topped with our homemade made ZAAKI sauce that we use in the shawarma , on top of that is the marinated and seasoned beef kofta meat, topped with Mexican blend cheese , then finished with green onions, cilantro and pickled red onions .

The second one is the butter chicken pizza wich consists of flat pita bread again , layered with butter chicken sauce and marinated butter chicken , topped with mozzarella cheese and finished with green onions, cilantro and pickled red onions.

Here are the pictures , let me know what do you think about these new ideas and whether it sounds interesting to you 😉.

08/24/2022