As I’ve mentioned before, my maternal grandparents and my husband’s (paternal & maternal) grandparents were from Yemen. Yemenite people have amazing food- albeit artery clogging.
The Yemenites use a lot of dough and butter (yummmm butterrrrrrrrr).
This dish below is called Melawach and it is STORE BOUGHT (who has time to prepare such a thing? not I my friends, not I)
The packaging- takes 3 minutes to cook
Put the dough in a buttered pan and close lid
Getting crunchy on the outside.. yum
Ready to eat in all it's glistening glory
Oh wait.. hello there, sour cream. Let's hook up
On second thought, let’s leave the sour cream out of it… how insanely fattening is this piece of flat fried dough-bread, you ask?
400 CALORIES & 19 G OF FAT!!!
We do not eat it often (mommy almost never), but when we do- there may or may not be melawach stealing going on:
She took my fried yummy goodness!
Enough said.
Is there a dish that you make or enjoy that may not be considered “main stream”? If so, share!!
mayahanley said
That’s almost identical to Msemen in Morocco. Totally fattening and utterly delicious. Sometimes they add nuts or cheese or sweet stuff to the layers as they fold them. Interesting how food cross borders over time!
geminigirl64 said
You are supposed to eat Melawah with sour cream and a grated tomato. You hsould have it when you go to Israel!
pillarr1 said
I may have to stop reading this blog – this is a bad influence on me!! I am going to get some – just as soon as I get my car out of the shop. My total downfall is sugar cream pie. Now mind you I don’t even like pie. I would not ever buy it in a store or at a restaurant. But when I visit my parents, my mother always has one in the freezer. The only brand I will eat is Wicks Sugar Cream Pie and I can only buy it in Indiana where my parents live. You bake it for 45 minutes. I am sure there are about 50 grams of fat per slice. If we bake a pie at 11 am, by 6 pm it is gone. I can only get them by mail order by I would have to by 6 of them. Oh man, I just can’t do that!
geminigirl64 said
You had me at Sugar Cream Pie
amy d said
That is so funny! Love the pics, especially the one of the stolen “yummy goodness!”
I live in South Louisiana, so lots of things we enjoy here are probably considered barbaric in other places. For instance, I love raw oysters, fried alligator, and of course King Cake during Mardi Gras.
I also love to experience different ethnic foods. That melawach looks yummo:)
geminigirl64 said
I dunno about alligator – but I am now interested in this King Cake you speak of. yumm!
Jess said
mmmm…malawach….
My Ashkenazi father, who wishes he were Mizrachi in kind of a huge way, bakes jachnun (fatty dough, like malawach but baked, not deep fried) on the top of our saturday cholent (chamin).
And because we also live with 6 Filipinos, two of whom are my goddaughters and one my godmother, we have pansit at every birthday or celebration: Long rice noodles (for a long life) and chicken and vegetables chopped and mixed in. Don’t get me started on our tinola (filipino chicken soup, but with scotch bonnet peppers) for shabbat dinner
geminigirl64 said
Did you know that Jachnun is Yemenite as well? I bake it (store bought of course) for my husband every saturday too! Like I said, Yemenites are all about fatty doughs. It may not be fried, but Jachnon actually has MORE fat. The dough is kneaded with butter over and over again (my aunt make them) so there’s more butter and fat for youe buck.
Now I want pansit. Send me a recipe!!
geminigirlblog at aol dot com
Jess said
Done!
Kari said
We have a family tradition of making fried cornmeal mush. Then we all slather it in yummy goodness….butter, syrup, powdered sugar, cocoa powder….you name it, we slater these pieces of fried cornmeal on all of our “family high holy days”. It is such a treat! The recipe is actually on the back of the Quaker Corn Meal canister……and I have no idea what the nutritional information on it is…but when you cover anything fried with butter and powdered sugar….it can’t be healthy!!!
Mel said
I make decent malawah. Lower fat (I think!) than that. Though now that I’m thinking about the butter, I’m not too sure.
geminigirl64 said
Do you actually make it from scratch, or do you buy it already made just use less butter?