On top of the mountain, Ras al Khaimah - Jebel Jais

Looking for some fun and natur experience ?
My Jebel Jais guide for you!

Location and Facts:

2 hours from Dubai drive-time. The drive itself is worth it as you get so many impressions. The road towards Jebel Jais is threw deep rocky canyon, really breath-taking and unique. 

The Jebel Jais is 1934m high, its located in the "Hadschar-Mountains". Its a bit cooler when you drive to the top so keep that in mind, around 10 Celcius cooler than on average sea level. 

If you are a motor bike or super car lover, this is the road you need to take on!

What can you do at Jebel Jais?

At Jebel Jais you can ride the "Jais Flight" the worlds longest zipline, you soar across jagged mountain peaks at hair-raising speeds of up to 160kmh. If this is too much adrenalin for you, you might check out the wonderful viewing decks and food trucks or restaurants at Jebel Jais.

They also have Jais Sledder there, which is still adrenalin but more family friendly. You can also check out VisitJebelJais for more experiences to check on.

If you like to do something special you can also reservere a table at the 1484 by Puro. The restaurant ist nestled on the top and you can only go there if you have a reservation. Please make sure to make this reservation about 2 weeks before you go there.

Cheers,

Melaines-Insights

www.instagram.com/melainesinsights for daily updates ! 

Parmigiana di Melanzane - veggie, healthy and yummy Italian! My insight recipe for you!

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Wonderful summer recipe from Italy, my insights for you! 

Parmigiana di Melanzane ! Veggie Lasagne ! 

Ciao tutti,

it is time again to share a recipe with you. Im in love with Italian food and this is one of my many favorites.

Most of the time you find that dish under the name "Parmigiana di Melanzane". I would call it the ultimate veggie lasagne.  The main part of this dish is called "Melanzane" in Italian, or eggplant, it is a Southern Italian recipe as far as I could check on the culinary history.

The culinary history says that the eggplant reached Southern Italy by the 9th century CE. Arabs brought the fruits along and thanks to the fearless foodies in the Calabrian and Sicilian regions of Italy the Italians loved to cook and also planted this funny egg-shaped product.

Random Information. Eggplants were also used as Medicine fighting asthma and dental issues.

Enough about the history lets get started !

Ok, here is the deal. It might take you some more time of preperation  but a happy outcome is worth waiting for, right?

Ingridients for 2 persons:

2 eggplants

500 g Tomatoes 

1-2 table spoons olive oil

1/2 handful of basil

150 g parmesan cheese

2 mozzarella cheese 

1 small onion

1 1/2 garlic (as you like)

Preheat your oven about 180 Degrees. And prepare a baking dish (I place a little bit of olive oil in the baking form to make sure nothing sticks on it).

Lets start to get the eggplants prepared. There are more ways to prepare them, for me this works the best. Slice the eggplants in thin pieces. Salt the eggplant slices from every side and put them all together in a bowl and place something heavy above the slices. Let it rest for 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes you can check and see that the eggplants have lost their water.
If so you can take the slices out of its own water and make sure (really important) to get rid of the salt. Best way to get rid of the saltiness is to put every slice shortly  under running water and tab right after every slice after doing so.

This was the part that take the longest, but as said - you wont regret the prep work when tasting this ultimate yummy Italian dish.

Meanwhile while the eggplant is resting you can prepare the sauce.

Put some olive oil in a cooking pot and roast the garlic and the onions quick - make sure not to heat it up too quick as garlic gets burned really fast.

After that add the tomatoes into the cooking pot and stire everything. You can add some pepper and salt depending on your choice, also a bit of red wine is possible. Make sure if you add wine to heat it up a bit so the alcohol gets cooked away and it doesnt taste intense red wine. Add the basil at the end and let it cook at lower heat for about 15 minutes. 

While the tomatoe sauce is cooking you place in a pan only a sprinkle of olive oil and place the eggplant slices in it. Make sure not to put too much olive oil as the eggplants are tending to suck up the oil too much. Sear the eggplant slices from each side for about 4-5 minutes (medium heat) till they get a nice tan on each side. Put the slices on a plate when finsihed.

When your sauce and eggplants are ready start to layer the ingridients in the baking form.

Start with some tomatoe sauce at the Bottom and put layer above the eggplant slices and Mozzarella cheese slices above.

Finsihing with parmesan the casserole. 

Place the casserole for about 20-25 minutes in the preheated oven (180 degrees). Right after putting it out of the oven let the casserole rest for about 15 minutes. You can serve it warm or even cold. Perfect match for the "Parmigana Melanzane" is red wine and some nice baguette.

ENJOY !

Cheers,

Melaines-Insights

www.melaines-insights.com

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Bruschetta, recipe - my insights for you!

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Bruschetta, the very best Antipasti recipe!

If you guys are into Italian food, check this out - easy to make and ready in only 15 minutes! Say ciao Italia!

Hey guys,

just came back from a wonderful trip to Italy and Im fully inspired by all the great ingredients they use for making such great dishes.

Most of the dishes the Italians serve are really fresh, healthy and with simple but high quality ingredients.

This one is for me the perfect starter or goes perfectly along with a glass of wine on hot summer days. Its really easy to make and you only need 15 minutes of your time to get it done. 

The food is called in Italy "Bruschetta" (pronounced bru-sketta) and is vegetarian, pure veggie recipe. Think of it as the Italian version of the perfect summer toast :-) 

Things you should have around in your kitchen before starting - a contact grill, I use the CaterPro available on Amazon. Of course you can also use your grill to prepare the bread, or your oven. 

Ingredients for Bruschetta (2 Persons):

2-4 fresh tomatoes (suggestions is to use tomatoes with more flesh as they are not that juicy - depends on the size if you have 2 really big ones thats enough, if you have just only middle ones better be on the safe side and buy 4)

Basil (a full hand of Basil leaves)

2 shallots 

2 ciabatta rolls (French or Italian bread)

5-6 spoons of olive oil 

Salt & Pepper

How to make Bruschetta? 

For me its all about the tomatoes you use. As written before I suggest you to use tomatoes with less juice and less seeds and thick flesh. 

1. Preheat the contact grill or grill for the bread.

2. Peel the tomatoes and quarter them, put away the seeds and chop the tomatoes into thinly slices. There are many ways to prepare Bruschetta, but I only use the thick flesh of the tomatoes without the seeds and the skin. 

3. Peel and chop the shallots into small slices. 

4. Thinly slice the basil leaves as well.

5. Put it all together and add the olive oil, pepper and salt. Be aware that tomatoes do need more salt then you would expect normally. 

6. Mix it all together and let it rest for some minutes, as the  flavor will need to develop some minutes.

7. Use a bread knife to slice the bread into two pieces. Then place the bread on your contact oven or grill, depending on the heat the bread needs about 5 minutes (if the contact grill was pre-heated) to get a fine toasted tan. 

8. You can now take the warm bread and place it on a large plate, put the topping on top and if you would like you can add some basil leaves for decoration. Make sure you serve it right away when finished. 

If you would like to bring the topping to a party or event, no problem - you can bring it along and the people just can use it as a dip.

BOUN APPETITO (BOUN APPETIT!) !

Cheers,

Melaines-Insights

www.melaines-insights.com