Zaatar salad (salatet zaatar akhdar)
Zaatar comes in many varieties in Lebanon; heard from a couple of sources that the total count was in excess of 133! The one above is called green (akhdar), and gets foraged and used in salads. The equivalent could be wild savory. It is pungent and good with grilled...
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Roasted wheat berries
Ms. M. Khairallah is a lady in her eighties living alone in her family’s ancestral home in the village of Ghineh in the Lebanese mountains. Her memories of the olden days is crisp and clear; she recounts how back then every family had a small plot and was growing wheat...
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Bulgur pilaf (Shelbato)
This dish caught my eye in Chef Mattar’s latest book Maedat Marlene min Halab in which she reports on dishes she tasted while visiting Aleppo, Syria. How lucky for us. This one she titled traveling jew (Yehudi musafer), with the caption that it was an ancient dish. She adds ground...
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Penne with labneh tomato sauce
This is pasta in a jiffy with only 4 ingredients. The sauce is like the Italian vodka sauce, except I replaced the vodka with arak (Lebanese national drink with a strong taste of licorice); here only a teaspoon was enough. I switched to labneh (drained yogurt) instead of cream. Happy Eid...
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Halvah/chocolate brownies
I picked up a brochure for a restaurant chain running Ramadan specials and quickly ran through it until I stumbled on a familiar image. Golly, that was MY photograph! Taken three or four years ago (of kafta sandwiches); spent the following hour debating whether I should go after the...
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Shrimps with garlic and cilantro
A very simple seasoning, made by frying garlic paste and chopped cilantro for seconds after the shrimps; in Lebanon the best shrimps are imported from Oman and are huge. INGREDIENTS: 1 lb large shrimps, peeled and deveined 1/2 cup olive oil 6 cloves of garlic, peeled, chopped and mashed...
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Zaatar rolls
I made these and promptly ate them in a couple of days; you can use your favorite rolls recipe just add the zaatar paste before baking them. I confess to holding an advantage as zaatar is available in Lebanon from many sources; you get to pick and choose. In...
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Purslane and beet salad
Purslane grows wild all over Lebanon and is a popular choice for a salad; not only is it part of the fattoush salad, but it is also dunked in yogurt, used as a stuffing for turnovers or in various simple salads such as this one. The salad above contains...
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Mulberry drink (Sharab el-toot)
In the mountains, the rules are different; barter, for instance, is still practiced. Our mulberry tree mysteriously refused to give us any fruit for ten years on; our neighbor has the tree that keeps on giving; we help ourselves and she gets our peaches and eggplants (and cucumbers, etc)....
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