Mar 4, 2012

Tabboule

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Tabboule is our Lebanese pride, along with hummus. Lebanon is the record holder in the Guinness Book of World Records when 250 of our Lebanese Chef’s made the biggest plate of Tabboule in the whole world. We Lebanese can and will eat tabboule any place, any time: for breakfast, lunch, as a snack or even at dinner. It is THAT Delicious. The best thing about it is that tabboule is made just from vegetables and bulgur, so anybody can enjoy it and it goes well with most anything!

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups of finely  chopped fresh parsley
  •  few leaves of fresh mint chopped with the parsley, or else they will turn black
  • 1 small onion filnely diced
  • 3 red tomatoes, finely chopped
  • 1 tablespoon of bulgur, fine and dark brown color
  • juice of 2 lemons
  • salt, seven spices, olive oil

Preparation:

  • Wash the chopped parsley with mint and put in a strainer
  • Add the chopped tomatoes to the parsley
  • Mix the chopped onion with a dash of salt and a little seven spices and add it to the mixture of parsley, tomatoes and onion
  • Wash the bulgur and drain it, then add one tablespoon of lemon juice to it
  • Now the Tabboule is ready, season it to your taste with salt, allspice, lemon juice and olive oil
  • Mix it well and put it on a serving plate garnish with lettuce or cabbage

ET VOILA..C’EST TOUT:)

Filed Under: Lebanese food, Lent, Main dish, Salad, Side dish · Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Mar 2, 2012

Fun with Zucchini, Part Two: Heart of the Zucchini (Lib el Koussa)

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Today I’m gonna teach you what do you with the zucchini insides that you put aside in yesterday’s post.

During the World War II, people in the Lebanese countryside did their best to use everything they had when cooking and leave nothing to waste because they were running out of ingredients to make food. This is the reason why there is a large variety of vegetarian plates in Lebanese cuisine. When people used to make stuffed zucchini, they kept the removed core and found a way to cook it and make it delicious.

There are various recipes for the zucchini innards, the one I made today among them. This is a favorite of mine and I’m sure it will be one of yours when you try it 🙂

Ingredients:

  • The inner part of the zucchini (about one cup and a half)
  • 1 medium onion
  • 3 cloves of garlic
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon grenadine molasses
  • 1 teaspoon of dried mint

Preparation:

  • Chop the onion and the cloves of garlic finely
  • In a small saucepan, heat the oil and fry the onion with garlic until slightly golden
  • Add the zucchini and fry with the onion and garlic for 2 minutes
  • Cover the casserole and on a very low heat cook for about 5 minutes
  • Add now the grenadine molasses and stir well for few seconds
  • Put the fire off and sprinkle the dried mint
  • Put it on a plate, serve with bread (Lebanese pita is recommended) and enjoy

ET VOILA..C’EST TOUT:)

Filed Under: Lebanese food, Lent, Side dish, Starters · Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,
Feb 28, 2012

Mashed Potato Baked with Chicory

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This is another recipe that is Lent-friendly, as it contains chicory and no meats or fats. I got this recipe from a friend who grew up in a distant village in mountains of South Lebanon. During the 40-day fast, her mother would like to get creative and try to make something new in her cuisine to make the fast more playful. I took the recipe from her and tried it, and it turned out to be delicious!

If you enjoy the taste of chicory, take at a look at this recipe I posted a few days ago 🙂

Ingredients:

  • 1 kg potatoes
  • 1/2 kg chicory
  • 2 onions chopped into long strips
  • 1 teaspoon sumac
  • salt, seven spices
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 tablespoon cooking oil

Preparation:

  • Boil the potatoes in salted water, when they’re cooked mash them properly
  • Boil the chicory in another pot with salted water, drain them after
  • heat the olive oil and fry the strips of onion, then add the boiled chicory and season with salt, seven spices and sumac
  • preheat the oven to 200C
  • Grease an oven tray with cooking oil and place one layer of mashed potatoes
  • Cover the potatoes with the chicory/onion mixture
  • Place the remaining mashed potatoes over the chicory to cover it all
  • Sprinkle a bit of olive oil on the top, and place the tray in the oven for about 30 minutes, until the top becomes slightly golden

Note: this dish is usually served warm, but I secretly enjoy it cold as leftovers at night. Try it and let me know if you do too 🙂

ET VOILA..C’EST TOUT.

Filed Under: Lebanese food, Lent, Main dish, Side dish · Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , ,
Feb 26, 2012

Hindba in Oil (Chicory in Oil)

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In this time of the year, chicory (or hindba as it’s known in Arabic)  is always available in Lebanon. Chicory is well known for the wealth of minerals and nutrients that it contains, just like spinach. Today I prepared it in the old-fashioned Lebanese way. It is very popular during lent because it is cooked without any meat or fat. I hope you will like it.

Ingredients:

  • 1 kilo of chicory
  • 1 onion finely diced
  • 3 garlic clove crushed
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • salt, seven spices
  • 2 tablespoon olive oil
  • 2 large onions chopped into long strips
  • frying oil

Preparation:

  • Cut the chicory in small pieces and wash thoroughly
  • Boil in salted water until the chicory is nearly, but not fully, cooked. It should feel softer than before, but not limp. Drain the water
  • Heat the olive oil and fry the finely diced onion until softened then add the crushed garlic
  • Place the chicory over the onion, mix all the ingredients and season with salt and seven spices
  • Put the fire on its lowest setting, cover the pot and let it boil gently until the chicory is fully cooked. Now it should feel super soft
  • Add lemon juice
  • Place the chicory in a serving plate
  • Fry the long onion strips until brown and put it on the top of chicory plate for decoration and taste

ET VOILA.. C’EST TOUT:)

Filed Under: Lent, Main dish, Side dish · Tagged: , , , , , , ,
Feb 21, 2012

Fattoush (Lebanese Salad)

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“Fattoush” is a traditional Lebanese salad, made of mixed vegetables, bread and special seasoning and since this dish is made out of vegetables it is suitable for people fasting during lent.

My grandfather used to tell me the story of how the Lebanese started to make this salad. In some village in Lebanon, after a group of people finished their food and salad, if they were still hungry and there was remaining dressing in the salad, they would dip bread in the dressing and eat it. Eventually toasted bread found its way into the salad regularly, until finally they added more kinds of vegetables and adjusted the dressing to have what we know today as the traditional Fattoush.

And here is the recipe. I’ve left out the quantities because you can tailor it to your own taste.

Ingredients:

  • lettuce
  • tomato
  • cucumber
  • green onion
  • radish
  • purslane (baqle in arabic)
  • parsley
  • salt, olive oil, summak, olive oil, frying oil, arabic bread(pita)

Preparation:

  • Wash the lettuce, tomatoes and cut them
  • Peel the cucumber and cut it in dices
  • Peel the radish and slice them
  • Cut the green onion in slices
  • Peel the leaves of the purslane and wash properly
  • Chop few leaves of parsley
  • Cut the arabic bread and fry in the oil for few minutes until it becomes light brown color
  • Put all the vegetables in a serving bowl and mix together
  • Add the salt, summak and the olive oil
  • At the end put the fried bread and mix with the vegetables
  • You can decorate with few cherry tomatoes if desired.

ET VOILA.. C’EST TOUT.. BON APPETIT

Filed Under: Lent, Salad, Side dish · Tagged: , , , , , , , , ,
Feb 18, 2012

Potato Salad with Eggs

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Vegetables, potatoes and eggs. All children need their greens, but they never eat them! Because they’re stubborn and don’t know what’s good for them. But momma knows best 🙂

Use this for a side dish with steak or chicken.Personally I just have it as a light dinner, like I did tonight. You’re probably going to have these ingredients lying around in your kitchen so there’s no complication, and it won’t take you any longer than twenty minutes to prepare. Great for a lazy night in front of the TV.

Ingredients:

  • 3 potatoes
  • 3 eggs
  • some leaves of lettuce and Iceberg
  • 1 large tomato
  • 1 green pepper

Preparation:

  • Peel the potatoes, cut them in medium size cubes and boil with salted water
  • Boil the eggs
  • In the meantime wash the vegetables and cut them and put in a big serving bowl
  • Prepare the dressing for the salad by mixing one teaspoon of salt, a tbsp of mayonnaise, juice of one lemon and three tbsp of olive oil
  • When the potatoes and the boiled eggs  are cooked add them to the vegetables
  • Put the dressing and mix well.

ET VOILA C’EST TOUT…:)

BON APPETIT

Filed Under: Main dish, Salad, Side dish · Tagged: , , , , , ,
Feb 9, 2012

Lebanese Omelette

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Today, I did not have enough time to make a lunch that takes a lot of preparation. So I decided to make spinach and rice (my son loves it, tune in for the recipe tomorrow!) and lebanese omelette.  My grand mother told me that during the second World War, people in Lebanon suffered from starvation, especially in the mountains because it was difficult to get many ingredients they needed for cooking. Since most people in the countryside had their own farm, this recipe came to be a main dish at that time.

Today, I like to make the omelette as a side dish with a green salad accompanying it.

It is simple and easy….. And delicious, of course.

Ingredients:

  • 3 eggs
  • 1/2 cup of chopped parsley
  • 1 medium onion chopped finely
  • 3 tablespoons of all purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup of water
  • salt, pepper and a pinch of ground cinnamon

Preparation:

  • Mix all the ingredients together very well in a bowl until it becomes like pancake batter, then put the bowl in the fridge for about one hour
  • Afterwards, heat about one liter of cooking oil in a large frying pan
  • Drop about a half cup of batter into the cooking oil fry on both sides until golden brown
  • When done, remove them onto a plate with a large paper napkin to absorb the excess oil

ET VOILA.. C’EST TOUT.

Filed Under: Side dish · Tagged: , , , , ,
Feb 8, 2012

Tuna salad with pasta

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I consider salad a free dish. I mean, you can put all kinds of vegetables you like, you can add some fruits to have an exotic salad and you can even put any kind of meat, poultry or fish and have a complete meal. As for the dressing, use your imagination and your “taste” to create all kinds of dressings..

Today I made tuna salad with pasta, which reminds me of the good old times when me and my friends used to play scrabble at night; we would decide to make a salad instead of having a heavy dinner while taking a break from the game. This way, its easier to prepare for the host, and less calories for us at dinner time.

This tuna salad is one of my favourites, because you can prepare it within 20 minutes maximum.

Try it, you will see…

Ingredients:

  • 250 gs of pasta
  • one tomato
  • one green pepper
  • one red capsicum
  • lettuce ( any kind you like )
  • one can of sweet corn
  • one can of tuna

For the dressing:

  • juice of one lemon
  • one tablespoon of mayonnaise
  • salt, pepper
  • a pinch of black pepper
  • olive oil

Preparation:

  • Fill a pot with water, put a tablespoon of salt, and 2 tablespoons of cooking oil and bring the water to boil
  • Add the pasta and respect the cooking time you find on the box
  • In the meantime, wash the vegetables and cut them into very small pieces
  • When the pasta is cooked, drain it from the water, put it in a serving bowl, add the vegetables, and the tuna
  • Mix the ingredients of the dressing together very well and pour it over the salad

ET VOILA.. C’EST TOUT.

Filed Under: Salad, Side dish · Tagged: , ,
Feb 3, 2012

Lebanese moussaka

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Moussaka means “cold” in English. However, it is also well known in Greece using different ingredients, where it is also served hot as a main dish. Here I show my version of the Lebanese Moussaka as a side dish to accompany meats or chicken, or whatever you think is appropriate for your meal.

lebanese moussaka

Ingredients:

  • 1 kg of large aubergine (eggplant)
  • 1 large onion
  • 3 cloves of garlic
  • 2 red tomatoes
  • 1 cup of soaked chick peas
  • 1 tablespoon tomato paste
  • salt and pepper
  • 2 cups of frying oil
  • 3 tablespoons of olive oil

Preparation:

  • Peel the aubergine and cut into big and thick pieces
  • Fry the aubergine in deep frying oil until light brown and then drain
  • chop the onion finely and fry it in a pot with the olive oil
  • peel the garlic and chop them and add to the onion
  • when the onion and garlic starts to become golden, add the finely chopped tomatoes and cover the pot, let all the ingredients simmer on very low heat
  • in the mean time peel the chick peas and add them in the pot over the onion tomatoes mixture
  • add the aubergine in the pot, mix the tomato paste with one cup of water with salt and pepper and put it in the pot
  • stir very slowly and be careful not to squeeze the aubergine
  • cover the pot again and let it boil on a very low heat for about 10 to 15 minutes

ET VOILA.. C’EST TOUT

SAHTEIN!

Filed Under: Side dish, Vegetarian · Tagged: , , ,
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