Ramadan at Crowne Plaza

EVERY person who eats at the Crowne Plaza Bahrain during Ramadan will be giving something back in the spirit of the Holy Month.

For each Iftar diner the hotel will donate 500 fils to the Bahrain Orphanage.

At dusk every evening guests will be able to enjoy a spectacular Iftar buffet in La Mosaique restaurant with traditional hot and cold dishes including lamb ouzi, shawarma and mixed grill.

Larger groups or families can also have shisha outside in the Ghagba tent while listening to the traditional oud player. The tent will also serve as a venue for private iftar dining.

The buffet will be placed inside, with live cooking outside the tent (optional depending on the menu), and games such as dominoes, chess, cards and carrom.

Mohammed Jihad Abou Jbara, originally from Syria, is the specialist Oriental Chef at Crowne Plaza Bahrain creating tasty, traditional dishes for the buffet in La Mosaique restaurant.

Born in 1976, Mohammad has a wealth of experience behind him. He learnt his trade in college where he specialised in Jordanian dishes.

In 1996, he arrived in Bahrain and took a position in Al Rabiah as Assistant Lebanese Chef.

In 2000, he joined Holiday Inn, as it then was, as Assistant Oriental Chef in charge of hot and cold Arabic food specialising in Lebanese, Egyptian, Moroccan and Bahraini dishes.

Since Holiday Inn became Crowne Plaza in 2003, he has held the position of Oriental Chef.

Mohammad says he was inspired by his father, who was also a chef, and he really just loves being in the Kitchen - it's his passion! Working alongside Executive Chef Rainer Mueller has also been a learning experience for him and he is very much enjoying being part of the enthusiastic and talented food and beverage team at Crowne Plaza Bahrain.

Mohammad also loves to cook for his family and it would be his wish to be able to cook for his future wife! As an Oriental Chef, Mohammad stressed that the most important ingredients are herbs and spices. It is very important to have the right balance and flavours in every dish.

One of the very special dishes Mohammad will be preparing for the Ramadan feasts is a Filipino recipe Mansaf.

Filipino Mansaf

Ingredients:

1kg Arabic rice

2kg lamb with bone

200gm mixed nuts

1 bunch parsely

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

1 cup olive oil

1/2 kg dried 'Jammed' yoghurt (to be placed in water overnight)

100gm cinnamon stick

3 pieces Shrak bread

Procedure:

1) Cook the Arabic rice as normal

2) Boil the lamb and cinnamon stick in a three litres of water for maximum-one-and-a-half hours

3) Drain the lamb and leave the water boiling on a low heat

Sauce

1) Take the dried yoghurt, put in the blending machine with a little water and make it juicy.

2) Add the yoghurt sauce slowly to the boiling water in which you boiled the lamb.

3) Let the sauce boil for 15 minutes.

Note: Once the sauce is ready, place the Shrak bread on a tray, add cooked Arabic rice and the boiled lamb and pour over four cups of the sauce. Add mixed nuts and parsley as a garnish.

Ready to serve - Sahtten wa afiya.

A classic peach melba

IF you're not going out for Iftar you can still enjoy a special summer evening classic such as a soothing fruit sundae or a cool, classic peach melba.

An ice cream sundae is the epitome of summer eating. The sundae is a gorgeous concoction of fruit and ice cream that can be as elegant or over the top as we want it to be.

The peach melba, probably the most famous sundae of all, is a sound marriage of poached peaches, vanilla ice and raspberry sauce.

Ingredients

(Serves 4)

For the peaches:

4 large peaches, halved and stoned

90gm sugar

500ml water

A vanilla pod

8 scoops vanilla ice cream

For the raspberry sauce:

150gm raspberries

1 heaped tbsp icing sugar

A little lemon juice.

To make the syrup, put the sugar, water and vanilla pod in a saucepan and bring to the boil, turn the heat down to a light simmer then add the peaches. Let the peaches simmer till tender to the point of a knife. Switch off the heat and let them cool.

Put the raspberries in a food processor and blitz till smooth. Stir in the icing sugar. Sharpen to taste with lemon juice.

Divide the scoops of ice cream among four dishes. Add the peaches and a spoonful of their cooking liquor, then spoon over the raspberry sauce.