Three-rice and chicken salad, from Ottolenghi’s cookbook
I have a brother in San Fransisco, another brother in Singapore and my parents live in Beirut; we are used to being very far apart from each other, but when something important strikes, we are quick to connect; well, it happened this weekend when my brother Jean, who lives...
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Green Risotto with poblano cream and chicken wings
I love Mexican telenovelas! I mean what could be better than watching Fernando Colunga riding his horse, getting in sword fights and saving his damsel in distress? In Lebanon, they are dubbed in Arabic which spoils the fun, but in the US, you get them in the original...
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Lebanese Tostada
I live in Texas, my kids are Texans and I love Tex-Mex food, OK? However, I am also Lebanese and I want to enjoy one of the best mezzedishes in Lebanese cuisine, hummus with minced lamb and pine nuts. If the table has fifty mezze dishes, this is the first...
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Three minute berry ice-cream
I learned to make this ice-cream from my mother; an ardent Francophile, she lived almost twenty years in France in the seventies and eighties, touring the country forward, backward and sideways; when she cooked, it was French cuisine. I saw her make this ice-cream one day in preparation for...
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Spinach, yogurt and pita croutons casserole (Fatteh sabanegh)
This is yet another version of the fatteh, a very popular dish in Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and Jordan. It is prepared as a way to use up stale pita bread and any type of vegetable or meat you happen to have on hand. According to Clifford Wright, the author...
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Fattoush Salad
As ubiquitous on a Lebanese mezze table as the eternal hummus, this salad signals the beginning of warm weather, days at the beach and tutti quanti. Some essential features of a good fattoush: crisp pita croutons, preferably fried; a copious amount of sumac in the lemon and olive oil dressing;...
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Palestinian chicken wraps
A faster and easier version of the famous Palestinian dish called musakhan (meaning : to be heated in Arabic). Two essential features of this dish: sumac, and lots of it; caramelized onions, lots of them; chicken is presented encased in a thin Arabic bread, all juicy inside and piping...
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Spaghetti with fava bean and yogurt sauce
The Palestinian grocer in my neighborhood has been unloading mountains of fresh fava beans; here is an easy and tasty way to prepare them. INGREDIENTS: 8 ounces of spaghetti, whole-wheat if you wish 1 pound of fava beans, fresh or frozen 4 cloves of garlic, mashed with a dash...
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Apricot and Milk pudding with pistachios and caramel graffiti
You know what happens when you mindlessly grab a box of dried apricots at the market and stare at it once home? A few days later, you make a pudding. At least, that’s my reflex. When in doubt, make a pudding! In the Lebanese kitchen, puddings are thickened with...
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