Author Archives: Razan Masri

About Razan Masri

I love exploring, researching, finding and sharing. I love to learn and to teach, I love to live and to laugh, I wish to speak to the world as an Arab Woman using the most beautiful language through photographs and writing.

Levantine Okra Stew

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Bamieh is the Arabic word for Okra, and this is what we refer to this dish.

It is a very popular homemade dish in the Levant. Almost everyone in Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria are familiar with it. It can be made vegetarian or with beef cubes. I love it. It is such a comforting dish. We usually eat it with rice.

You can also find a different recipe on my blog for the okra cooked in olive oil. This one is usually eaten with pita bread and is also delicious.

For the full recipe, please visit the following page and let me know if you do give it a go. I am sure you will love it. It is one of my very favorite.

Blueberry Cheesecake

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This recipe is heavenly guys!

Truly it is epic. I got it off a great instagram blogger who I follow and love all the recipes I have tried from her page; Sandy’s Kitchen. I did few amendments to fit my taste on the recipe I am sharing with here. I love it and I am sure you will too.

You can find a step by step video on my instagram stories.

Here is what you will need:

Ingredients

400g digestive biscuit

150g melted butter

500g philadelphia cheese

3/4 sugar

3/4 cup sour cream

160g nestle cream

3 eggs

1ts vanilla

1ts vinegar

1tb flour

For the blueberry compote

1 pack fresh blueberries (170g)

1 tb maple syrup

A squeeze of lemon

1 tb water

1/2 a can of the blueberry ready made compote or double the above to make enough for the topping

For the full recipe, click here.

baked blueberry cheesecake

Levantine Recipe: Yogurt Stew (Shakriyeh)

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Shakriyeh, is what we call this dish.

It is truly very easy to make, and very soothing to eat.

All you need is beef cubes, yogurt, labaneh (which you must find available in your Arab supermarket), and some spice.

rice and yogurt, shakrieh, levantine dish, shakriyeh, laban immo

The pine nuts are just optional. I love them, so I add them. But you can have this dish without them. It is a dish served with rice. Many Arabs love to cook their rice with vermicelli, but I like to keep my dishes light during the week so I cook it using long grain rice.

shakiyeh, laban immo, yogurt and rice, cooked yogurt, levantine dish

I took the recipe from my mother, but also have used some additions from other food bloggers so it is a mix, but since the dish is not complex it is not very different from one person to another. Some people prefer to use lamb, but I always go for beef if I can.

shakriyeh, laban immo, yogurt, cooked yogurt

You can find the recipe in this link: Shakriyeh, or browse my instagram stories to find it in video.

Enjoy, and let me know if you do give it a go.

Kofta with Tomatoes and Potatoes

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A while back, I shared my mother’s recipe of Kofta soaked in tomatoes. Last week I added a new recipe from a friend of mine that includes potatoes and tomatoes. It is a very easy dish and is usually my go-to when I want a quick dish full of protein.

To make this, you need to go to an Arab butcher (if you are living outside the Middle East) and ask for the kofta ready mix. If you do not have an Arab butcher around you, then you can find the step by step to make a kofta at home from my precious Kofta with tomatoes recipe which you will also find in the same post.

You will need: Kofta, Potatoes, Tomatoes, Spice, Tomato Paste, Lemon, Ketchup, Sugar, and Stock.

You will find the full recipe in the following link Kofta.

I hope you do give it a try and let me know how it turns out.

Bon Appétit!

Transforming Into A New You

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Because writing on the wall can be some kind of an affirmation… and if we write our affirmations large enough to believe that they are no longer just affirmations but a standard, then our new standard will raise the bar for us… and suddenly we find our self between A and B… and who knows what B has to offer, but it sure does offer differently than what A had to offer. And maybe if we were comfortable enough in A, why do we leave it? But this is exactly where we find our differences. Human beings are born different. Am different from my own sister and my brother, how can I not be different from you? And wanting to be like you will never be the way to try and be who I can be. And I can be great. Greater than me wanting to be like you. Greater than me wanting to stay in A. And ‘me’ greater than the great ‘me’ I would ever imagine. And the secret here is…. letting the process lead you to transform to great, and being open to what yet comes after great… the transformation is our most difficult challenge. But if we learn to have this under control as well, then we must know that we have succeeded in making our selves feel happy in any state we are put in. Content. Accepting. Open. Transformative. And Trusting the Unknown. 💛 Be you, completely who you are, the strange you, the fun you, the high you and the low. Be all of you, it is what makes you who you are. And it is what will make you great.

What Are We Afraid Of ?

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Do we struggle to find the things we want? And why do we, when we have experienced receiving when we have least expected? Why do we position ourselves in the struggling mode when we can just let go when things don’t want to click? Why do we not learn that if it is bound to happen eventually it will… but we linger, once or twice or three times. Unsatisfied but what do we know then about satisfaction?

Life is perfect as it is today and tomorrow if we just accept ourselves in the now and we work as hard as we can (without struggling) for tomorrow. And not (a better tomorrow) for how do we know what is better anyway?

A small secret about life…

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There is something about being cozy. Being surrounded by warmth, friends, loved ones, happy faces, there is something joyous about color, cleanness, space, good weather, music, scent, and there is something about good company, positive, ambiance, freedom, share, happy thoughts, present moment. It is not about where you are, as much as it is about who you are with, even when you are with yourself. Living the moment is not about waiting for the right moment to live it, but about living each moment as it comes without trying to force change or dwell in the expectations.

Fez

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Old Market, Nazareth, Palestine.

I captured this man during my first visit to Nazareth, walking between the authentic Arab Market.

His red tarboush (fez) is what caught my attention.

To me, it resembles unity.

Not a very long time ago, many men from this region wore the fez on top of their heads.

Today, we are a region more segregated than ever.

Our accents are now what differentiate us.

This is how divided we have become.

But this man, who currently lives in the occupied areas of Palestine (Israel) chose to keep his tarboush on top of his head.

Sunset Diaries

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And to every end a journey, and to every journey an end.

Our Mother, Amman

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By The amphitheater, downtown, Amman, Jordan.

A grass design that says ‘Our Mother, Amman’ with the Jordanian flag on the back left corner, and a street swiper, swiping the dust at the front right corner.

This photograph speaks to me a thousand words.

Without him, what will this image look like? Does he know the worth of his contribution? Or does he see this side of his image in my photograph? How much contribution do we need to do for his self-realization?