We launched our PantryBee iOS app yesterday and Mark asked me to write about why we made that decision for our business. As a small business with limited cash reserves, it’s always hard to make the decision to invest in a new platform, and it was a year of back and forth before we decided to finally go ahead.

Why did we do it? Well, it’s obvious to everyone that mobile usage is super high in Kuwait, and that a lot of purchases are done through mobile. We knew that, but we also wanted to verify against our own traffic. So after a year of data collection, we did find that most of our users were indeed purchasing PantryBee meal kits from their phone and that the majority of those were iPhone users. Armed with that info we decided to go for it. The biggest hurdle, of course, was cost. We didn’t have thousands of KD to throw on something that might not be useful, so we went about it as economically as we could with the goal of making our customers experience better.

The first step to creating an app is setting up an account with the Apple Developer Program. This honestly wasn’t that difficult of a process, there’s just a bit of waiting time in order to be verified as a legitimate business. The second step for us was finding an appropriate third party to assist with the App creation process. Seeing as we already had an existing e-commerce backend (Shopify), we searched for companies that had an app that would integrate with the Shopify platform. The whole process from A-Z took about 3 months to get to the current app we have out right now.

Though our site is already mobile friendly, our new app allows a more seamless navigation of our offerings, including app-specific promos, notifications and more. It has all the info and products available on our site, just better suited to a mobile experience. So head to the app store and tell us what you think! You can download our app from this [Link]

If you have any specific comments or want to know more about the process for your own business, feel free to email us at info@pantrybee.com and we’ll try and help as much as we can.

Post by Hind
CoFounder of PantryBee where home cooking is made easy.

We do cooking classes and collaborations once in a while at PantryBee because well, they’re fun. It’s a nice way for us to learn from local chefs as well as being a great way to interact with our customers.

With Ramadan coming up we thought it would be fun to put together a Middle East inspired cooking class. So, we teamed up with Ayyame’s head Chef Ali Mahmoud Bitar at their newest AlShaheed Park II location to create a “Flavors of the Middle East” cooking class and dinner.

It’s a 2.5 hour event where you learn how to make green dough for their traditional fried bread, fattet badinjan, borek, lamb chops and more. Class ends with you enjoying your creations at a sit-down dinner accompanied by some of our favorite Ayyame sides and desserts.

If you’re interested in taking part, the event is this coming Tuesday at 6:30PM. For more details and to register, click [Here]

We’ve got limited seats for the event but for those that cant make it, here’s a fun little recipe to try out for yourselves at home that makes for a good appetizer all Ramadan long!

Fattet Hummus
2 chickpea cans- drained
3 Pita breads- cut into small rectangles
Olive oil
1/2 cup Pine nuts
1 cup yogurt
Fresh mint – small bunch
Pinch of Paprika
2 Garlic cloves – minced
3 Tbsp unsalted butter – melted
Pinch sumac

Heat oven to 400°. Toss pita rectangles with olive oil, salt and pepper to taste then lay on a baking sheet evenly and bake till golden around 10 mins. Toss with chickpeas and place in final serving dish. Heat 1 tsp olive oil in a pan on medium-high and brown pine nuts 3-4 mins. Stir yogurt, mint, paprika, garlic, salt, and pepper in a bowl; drizzle over pita mixture. Top with pine nuts and drizzle with butter and finish with sumac.

Post by Hind
CoFounder of PantryBee where home cooking is made easy.

I’m not normally a presents kinda girl but I did ask for one thing last year; the Anova. If you aren’t familiar, the Anova is a home sous vide machine. With sous vide cooking you stick food in a vacuum sealed bag and cook it in a controlled water bath to ensure your meats (typically) come out at optimal juiciness.

The Anova is a great kitchen tool for anyone who loves home cooking. It’s extremely affordable at 100USD and super easy to use. You can control the temperatures from the app on your phone and the cooker itself will easily attach to anything from pots, to big plastic Ikea containers if you’re planning on going to town.

The results are amazing but it does take time, so don’t expect to be using your Anova daily. Though I have made sous vide eggs, which were spectacular, I’ve only done it twice in the past year. Why? Because it’s a 45 min process and lets be honest, eggs are eggs, and ain’t nobody got time for that.

The Anova is amazing though for proteins, your steaks will always come out picture perfect and your chicken breasts juicy as ever. I have a bunch of friends that have gotten Anova’s recently and they all seem to enjoy it too, it’s a tool that really makes you feel like a pro-chef in the kitchen at a fraction of the cost of most other kitchen gadgets. [Amazon Link]

Post by Hind
CoFounder of PantryBee where home cooking is made easy.

I cook a lot but there are some cuisines that always seemed a bit too out of reach, and that list sadly used to include Kuwaiti cuisine.

I always believed that Machboos would be way too difficult and too long to make to fit into my weekday cooking lifestyle. But I wanted to learn, so I tasked my Chef CoFounder Yousef Al Munayes to have a stab at making Machboos accessible to the average Jo. He being the whiz that he is, succeeded and I finally made my very first Kuwaiti dish at the ripe old age of 32.

When you break it down you can cook a whole Machboos in just one pot and in under an hour if the ratios are right. A small whole chicken for two can easily cook through in this time period just follow this simple recipe below and enjoy!

Ingredients:
800 gram Whole Chicken (split in half with spine removed)
1.5 Cups Basmati Rice (soaked in cold water for 15-20mins)
2 Cloves Garlic Minced
1 Small Red Onion Chopped
3 Tbsp Machboos Spice Mix (found in any grocery)
Rice Topping (1 Tbsp Rose Water, 2 Tsp Ground Cardamon, Few strands of Saffron)
1 Tbsp Vegetable stock
550ml Boiling water

1. Cook the chicken
Season the chicken with 3/4ths of the spice mix. Heat a deep sautee pan over medium-high heat and add 1 Tbsp of vegetable oil. When hot add the chicken skin side down. Cook for 6-8 mins or until the chicken is well browned. Flip and cook for 4-5 more mins. Set aside.

2. Cook the aromatics
In the same sautee pan used for searing the chicken, add the chopped onion, cook stirring occasionally for 3-4 mins or until the onion is translucent. Add the garlic and remaining spice mix, continue stirring for 1 minute.

3. Put it all together
Strain your rice and add to the pan along with 1 Tbsp of vegetable oil. Gently stir for 1-2 mins, add the boiling water, season with vegetable stock, salt and black pepper to taste. Stir to combine. Top with the seared chicken pieces and cover. Set the heat to the lowest setting. Cook for 30 minutes then take off heat. Open the lid, add the rice topping. Cover and let sit for 10 mins. Serve with your favorite sides and enjoy!

Post by Hind
CoFounder of PantryBee where home cooking is made easy.

One of our favorite recurring cuisines on the PantryBee site is Mexican. We love your typical Mexican fare, burritos, tacos, etc. and we love to put our own special twist on things. That’s why we’ve joined up with our new fave Shuwaikh hotspot Barba to bring one of our favorite things to a greater number of people; Taco Tuesday! We’ve had fun working with the Barba boys to create two specialty pizzas for the event, including an elote inspired pizza and a chicken enchilada pizza with our secret PantryBee roasted tomato sauce. We’re also bringing back some of our greatest hits including our best selling jerk chicken tacos and Korean kimchi steak tacos. We’re going to be running 6pm to sell out so come by say hi and grab a bite!

Date: Tuesday October 10, 2017
Time: 6PM
Location: Barba [Google Maps]

Post by Hind
CoFounder of PantryBee where home cooking is made easy.

As we’ve been going manaeesh crazy over in the PantryBee kitchen we thought we’d share a super simple manaeesh dough recipe that you can make to enjoy at home. For those who don’t know manaeesh, or manaakish, or the singular manoushe, it’s a popular levantine dish consisting of flattened dough topped with a variety of toppings ranging from za’atar to minced meat, cheese and more.

This recipe yields enough dough to make 8 manaeesh and is from our Chef friend Khaled AlBaker chief manaeesh maker over at Meem Cafe.

1 tsp salt
1 tsp yeast
2 tbsp olive oil
3 tsp sugar
3 cups flour
1 cup water

Mix together the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add wet ingredients and knead for 15-20 mins continuously (work them arms out!). Roll into a ball and cover to rest for 1 hour at room temperature. Use it straight after resting or leave it overnight in the fridge for later use.

Note: If you use dry yeast 1/2 tsp will do. To activate the yeast add it to the sugar and water and stir. Wait approximately 10 mins until the mixture starts to bubble then it will be ready to use.

Post by Hind
CoFounder of PantryBee where home cooking is made easy.

Cookbooks are a pleasure to have, use, and gift to others, and recently our team has been obsessed with “Palestine on a Plate – Memories from my Mother’s Kitchen by Joudie Kalla”. It’s our September PantryBee Bookclub of the month choice for millions of reasons, all of them delicious.

Palestinian-Briti Joudie Kalla is a caterer and a restaurateur in London with a Middle Eastern restaurant in Chelsea named Baity. Her cookbook is filled with classic Palestinian recipes that have been passed down to her from her grandmother and family, and like all great Arabic cooking it caters to carnivores and plant based eaters alike. Our favorite picks include: Sayadeyeh, Salatet jaj wa freekeh, kubbeh bil sanniyeh, Teta Huda’s mussaka and last but not least mejdool date scones.

If you want to hear a bit more, watch the quick interview with Joudie above.

You can order the book [Here]
Or get the Palestine on a Plate app for your phone from [Here]

Post by Hind
CoFounder of PantryBee where home cooking is made easy.

At PantryBee we like to think that we know a thing or two about food, sourcing it, cooking it, and more importantly eating it. Mark has given us this platform to share some of our favorite food things, be it restaurant recommendations, general know how, our favorite recipes, books and more. For our first post we thought to start with a cuisine we love. If you’ve seen any of our past Korean dishes on site you’d know that we are hardcore Kimchi lovers at the PantryBee kitchen. Kimchi is a traditional Korean staple made with seasoned fermented vegetables and salt that Koreans have with pretty much every meal. The word “kimchi” evolved from the Korean word ‘shimchae’ which means ‘salting of vegetables’.

Kimchi is one of our favorite superfoods out there. Because of fermentation it’s rich in gut healthy bacteria, vitamin A, vitamin C, as well as being low calorie, high fiber, and jam-packed with antioxidants. Though it takes a long time, making kimchi is pretty straightforward and simple and we really recommend everyone give it a go once.

Kimchi can be prepared in a multitude of ways, with different spice levels and using a variety of vegetables. The most classic version is made with cabbage and is super easy to recreate at home. The recipe below is a classic and highly recommended for your first go. If you don’t feel like making your own head over to Singarea to get your fix as they usually have a couple of varieties to choose from.

Easy Kimchi – Yields 3 cups
1 large head Chinese/Napa cabbage approx 500grams (available at lulu, sultan, and Saveco)
1/2 cup salt
1/3 cup rice vinegar
3 Tbsp gochujang (this is a korean red chili pepper paste available at Singarea)
2 cloves garlic minced
2 Tbsp red chili flakes
Cold water
1 inch piece of ginger finely minced
3 spring onions cut into 2 inch pieces
1 daikon radish cut into matchsticks

Directions
1- Cut cabbage lengthwise into quarters removing the core then chop into bite sized pieces.

2- In a bowl add cold water and soak cabbage throughly before draining and transferring to another bowl. sprinkle well with salt turning every 30 mins for 1.5 hrs to make sure cabbage is salted evenly.

3- After 1.5 hrs Rinse well with water making sure to get between the leaves we recommend rinsing at least 3 times .then drain and set aside

4- Mix together the vinegar, gochujang, garlic, ginger in a bowl.

5- Add the cabbage in handfuls to the bowl, squeezing them of any excess water before adding them to the mixture. Add the spring onion and daikon and mix well.

6- Pack into a jar with a tight cover and let sit at room temperature for 2 days then chill in fridge for 4 days before serving.

Post by Hind
CoFounder of PantryBee where home cooking is made easy.