If you’re having a small gathering for New Year’s Eve or Day, I have another tasty suggestion for entertaining with delicious and healthy foods.
Making a table or buffet full of a variety of finger foods, both sweet and savory, is not only delicious but can be so beautiful, too. We do eat with our eyes, after all…
I use the most delicious Halal and healthy deli meats by Deli Halal to form the basis of my platter. The meats are nitrite and nitrite-free, hormone free and come from humanely-raised sources. You can find the meats in stores around the U.S. (see store locator), and online on their website.
The varieties I use for my platter are the Oven-Roasted Turkey Breast, the Beef Pastrami, and the Applewood Smoked Turkey Breast, rolled up or folded because my platter was small. I’ve filled it up so all of the other ingredients are nice and cozy together.
I’ve added pistachios, fresh and creamy mini mozzarella balls, fresh rosemary, pecans, blueberries, naan crackers and tiny blueberries alongside triple cream Cambozola cheese (with microbial rennet and enzymes).
Off to the side, I offer things like olives, basil pesto, tomato pesto, dates, fig jam, and even roasted red peppers and ciabatta bread.
Guests can make their own mini sandwiches or pair crackers with cheese. By the way, cheese + dates are so delicious together, try it some day.
You can purchase the meat packets in bulk and then freeze them. I do this and pull the packet out of the freezer the night or two before I’m’ going to use them.
If you don’t know me by now, one thing you should know is that I love all things Mediterranean. The food, the sunshine, the lifestyle…the FOOD. The food itself exudes sunshine, the sea and the rich volcanic soil of some of my favorite places like Southern Italy. That’s where some of the best tomatoes in the world grow, and for the best basil, you need a constant supply of sunny, dry weather.
Since we lack a lot of that in the Chicago winter, and it’s been really getting to me, I decided to force a little sunshine into my life by making these Mediterranean subs with Deli Halal meats, since they are a wonderful source of healthy, halal protein (read more about their high quality and wholesome way of making their products here).
To make these subs, which are perfect for leisure weekend lunches or weekday school or work lunches also, you only need a few essential, but delicious and fresh ingredients. Most of these are things you could grab on your next trip to the grocery store and a couple of things you might already have in your pantry. Just be sure to find out where the Deli Halal is before you shop because their meats are what really make these sandwiches exceptionally meaty and delicious- and something I haven’t had in over a decade because I’ve never really found a deli meat I could say I would eat on a regular basis due to its great flavor, authenticity and commitment to being as wholesome as possible.
To start out, I use all of the beef varieties of Deli Halal meats. They do offer a delicious, nitrite-free chicken breast but I didn’t include it in this recipe. Instead, I used their Beef Pastrami, Beef Salami, Corned Beef and Roast Beef (which tastes like a homemade roast beef that has just been sliced). And, of course, some deliciously fresh rustic Italian bread, which I sliced in half on the horizontal so that I could add my spreads and toppings easily.
What are those delicious toppings? You can variate when necessary or if there is something you don’t like or don’t have instead, but here’s what I did that just tasted amazing and fresh and very Mediterranean:
Rustic Italian bread- make sure it’s the real stuff and that it’s not so dense that you can’t really cut your teeth into it when you’re eating the sandwich!
Pesto (make or buy your own. If you make your own, be sure you start off with the freshest pine nuts. If you have preserved your basil like I did here, making the pesto from that should be just fine).
Good quality mayonnaise. Again, you can make your own or buy the kind with olive oil or an artisan variety. I particularly love the Lithuanian brands, which are easily found in the Polish aisle of many international grocers in major cities like Chicago. It’s just light and creamy and made with very few ingredients.
Good quality bufala mozzarella cheese. If you don’t have this, sprinkles of grated Parmesan work well, too. If you have neither, try something like a thinly-sliced yogurt cheese.
Fresh basil leaves. There really isn’t any substitute.
Fresh tomatoes, preferably Roma or on-the-vine tomatoes. Again, no real substitute for these.
(Optional) Fresh oregano in olive oil with a tad of sea salt. This is like an added dressing which you don’t really need because the sandwich will already have the pesto which is in olive oil, but it’s just an added touch I really like.
Once the bread is cut, spread one side with pesto and one side with mayonnaise.
On one side, layer with basil leaves, sliced tomatoes, mozzarella or other cheese and the optional oregano oil.
On the other side, layer with the stack of meats: Salami, Corned Beef, Pastrami and Roast Beef. Close them up and either eat them up (as is or warm for a bit in the oven/toaster oven) OR cut the bread into generous portions where the entire loaf can feed a small crowd.
I add toothpicks to each portion to keep it all in place.
Nice and meaty, full of flavors that are fresh and pungent and packed with healthy ingredients you can feel good about eating and serving.
Perfect for a party, perfect for lunches. That’s what good food is all about, right? #SpreadtheHalal
Meaty Mediterranean Subs
Makes 4-6 portions of ‘sandwiches’
INGREDIENTS
1 large loaf rustic Italian bread, sliced in half lengthwise
4-6 tablespoons pesto
4-6 tablespoons mayonnaise
6-8 fresh basil leaves
1/2 pound fresh mozzarella, sliced
2 large tomatoes, sliced
3-4 slices each Deli Halal meats: Beef Salami, Roast Beef, Corned Beef, Beef Pastrami
Once the bread is cut, spread one side with pesto and one side with mayonnaise.
On one side, layer with basil leaves, sliced tomatoes, mozzarella or other cheese and the optional oregano oil.
On the other side, layer with the stack of meats: Salami, Corned Beef, Pastrami and Roast Beef. Close them up and either eat them up (as is or warm for a bit in the oven/toaster oven) OR cut the bread into generous portions where the entire loaf can feed a small crowd.
Serve as-is or after warming in an oven. Add toothpicks to each portion to keep it all in place.
Sign up here to receive more updates about Deli Halal, including when and where they are in stores near you or to be subscribed to their newsletter.
Deli Halal will also be participating in the upcoming I Heart Halal Festival in Chicago from April 13-15 at Navy Pier. Be sure to come out and visit so you can talk to them directly!
A photo posted by Yvonne Maffei (@myhalalkitchen) on
I didn’t intend to add the recipe for this breakfast dish today but since there were a lot of requests for it, I’ll add it below. It’s hearty and super delicious and I have a very similar recipe that yields a larger dish in my cookbook, Summer Ramadan Cooking, which can be purchased here.
I made this one just for myself because I often have eggs at breakfast and if it’s more than just me at the table, I repeat this recipe so that it makes one nicely-rounded egg dish and pours easily onto the plate because the whole dish starts off with butter.
A few notes:
-Fresh herbs make everything better, so try to avoid the dried ones.
-To find the sucuk, or Turkish-style spiced sausage, is a great substitute for chorizo and goes so well with eggs. If you don’t want to actually cook with it, just cut a few pieces up and keep it on the side of the eggs when serving.
-This was part of a Turkish-style breakfast that I was craving, also known as kahvalti. I didn’t go the full course because I didn’t have all the fixings on hand, but if you want to go all out, add fresh cheese like feta, some wonderful Mediterranean olives, fresh jams, make borek (it’s easier than you think), and of course do not forget the tea…
Recently I’ve been cooking with a lot of Angus beef products from Crescent Foods, which is a game changer for the halal food market here in the United States. It’s not easy to get beef from a grass-fed halal source, but Crescent has done an amazing job of sourcing it from New Zealand and providing it to us in a variety of stores throughout the country. Being in Chicago, I’m fortunate that it is available in some stores, but not everywhere yet- us halal consumers have to ask for it so that more stores will consider carrying it.
For this super easy and quick recipe, I used the Angus Ribeye Steak that Crescent carries. They also have beef cubes, ground beef, beef burgers and more. I also used a grill pan with ridges so you can get those really great grill marks in the dead of winter when you can’t go outside and grill!
I start out by salting the pan (add pepper, too, if you like) and a nice big pat of butter so that when it melts, it will cover the underside of the steak. I like to let it cook long enough that it gets a nice dark brown color and not move it until it easily moves itself with a little nudge of a spatula (silicone here, nothing metal or it will scratch the cast iron pan), around 5-7 minutes.
That gives me just enough time to prepare the no-cook creamy sauce that will go on top of the finished steak. All you need is some sour cream, mayonnaise, parsley and salt. Put it all in a small bowl and mix, then set aside until the steak is done.
Once the first side is cooked to your liking, turn it over gently and let it cook on the other side. Don’t do too much of that flipping, otherwise you’ll ruin the nice and neat grill marks. I like to do another 5-7 minutes, then find something to cover the pan for a couple minutes, just to be sure it’s well done, as I’m not keen on rare or medium rare meats.
Once it comes off the pan, you can salt again just a bit and even add a small pat of butter on top of the sizzling meat- it’s really delicious that way; otherwise just let it cool for a few minutes and add the cream sauce directly on top. If you’d rather not, you can simply serve it as a dipping sauce.
I absolutely loved this recipe, which is simply the product of starting with a high quality ingredient and not doing too much to it in the process of cooking to interfere with it. It came out juicy and tender and with just the right amount of cream on top, I felt like it was something you might order from a gourmet restaurant. Serve with some sort of potato dish, home-baked fries or even rice. Who needs to go out to eat?
Do you ever wonder if what you’re eating at local restaurants or the unmarked meat at a butcher shop is truly halal and how you can ask to find out where things are really coming from? Check out my latest video update where I address this issue and hopefully answer those questions with tips on how you can find out everything you need to know. I’d love your comments at the end of this post.
On one side, layer with basil leaves, sliced tomatoes, mozzarella or other cheese and the optional oregano oil.
On the other side, layer with the stack of meats: Salami, Corned Beef, Pastrami and Roast Beef. Close them up and either eat them up (as is or warm for a bit in the oven/toaster oven) OR cut the bread into generous portions where the entire loaf can feed a small crowd. 
I add toothpicks to each portion to keep it all in place.
Nice and meaty, full of flavors that are fresh and pungent and packed with healthy ingredients you can feel good about eating and serving. 
Perfect for a party, perfect for lunches. That’s what good food is all about, right? #SpreadtheHalal
Meaty Mediterranean Subs
