Nachos Lebanese-style
I have lived in Texas a long, long time; and it is virtually impossible to live in Texas and not to become enamored with Mexican and Tex-Mex cuisine! Nachos are the star of Tex-Mex food! There is no one in Texas that does not love an order of nachos...
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Lebanese salad dressing
I moved to California in the early eighties and back then everybody around me was using bottled salad dressing with names like Ranch, Thousand Islands, French; that was bewildering to me; I did not understand why someone would buy a bottle of these rich concoctions when it was so easy...
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Potato stuffed with peppers and egg (Shakshouka)
All I know about Tunisia I heard from my mother; she visited that country and came back filled with enthusiasm for Tunisia; she showed us pictures of little houses painted white with light blue louvers. She brought back an ornate bird cage, all white and blue; she told us...
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Shredded Phyllo dough and pistachio cookies (taaj al-malek)
HAPPY NOWRUZ!!! I decided it was high time I made these myself, instead of waiting to be in Beirut to enjoy them at a pastry shop or buying them at the middle-eastern grocer in a box, wondering how many months they had been sitting in that box. These pastries are...
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Smoked salmon with dilled labneh on pita chips
An elegant appetizer or part of a brunch. I used homemade labneh, because it is a creamy cheese that is healthy (made from yogurt) and easy to make; just allow time for the yogurt to drain; dill is a must with salmon and pita chips can be toasted and require...
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Mushroom soup
First of all, I did not plan on writing a post on mushroom soup; I simply wanted to use a box of mushrooms that my daughter had bought and thrown in the fridge. So while I was doing ten other things, I cooked the mushrooms and made a soup...
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Chocolate rabbit
This idea came to me after eating some Pocky. You know Pocky? These are cookies from Japan. I buy them at the Vietnamese market. They come in different flavors, strawberries, banana, coffee, chocolate and they even have Men’s Pocky, I guess that one is reserved for men, because it...
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Fats
OOps!!! I made a mistake! After receiving a comment from Maria, I got besieged by doubts on my previous statement –namely that Lebanese cuisine was based on ghee, not olive oil-so I e-mailed Kamal Mouzawak!!! Kamal is Lebanon’s foremost authority on culinary traditions. I interviewed him back in January and...
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Spaghetti with yogurt sauce
This is a homestyle dish combining a little pasta and the dairy always on hand, yogurt! Not the kind of dish likely to figure on the menu of a Lebanese restaurant in Sydney or Washington or Paris, but ours nevertheless and highly ingrained in our culinary habits. To liven...
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