Mouneh by Barbara Abdeni Massaad
I first got wind of Barbara Abdeni Massaad’s work a few years back on my usual Summer trip to Lebanon. A large coffee table book was prominently displayed on the shelf with the title Man’oushé. I remember feeling elated that someone would actually build an entire book over...
Read More »
Mung beans and potatoes (Mash wbatata)
On a job assignment recently, I met a group of people who all worked for the same company (a mega chain of restaurants and hotels in the Middle-East); they were all native Lebanese, but each one came from a different region. One (the chef) was from Akkar in the...
Read More »
Yogurt soup
If I had to make a sweeping statement about Middle-Eastern culinary taste, I’d say ” You’ve got to love yogurt!”. Yogurt is an intrinsic part of our food. When I was a kid growing up in Beirut, we’d get our weekly supply of yogurt delivered by a man wearing...
Read More »
Sweet rolls with chocolate chips
What is your ideal breakfast? My friend Asma who grew up in Anatolia (Turkey) tells me that her father would always eat lentil soup for breakfast (with a raw onion and a chili pepper). He felt that this food would invigorate him for his day in the field. How...
Read More »
Lamb shanks with roasted green wheat (Freekeh mufalfala)
A simple and hearty dish; you can use chicken or any other type of meat instead of the lamb shanks. The meat is browned then cooked in water and the resulting broth is used to cook the green wheat (aka freekeh). You can make this dish without meat since...
Read More »
Eggplant salad (Treedet al-beitenjane)
If I had been told that eggplant would be my favorite vegetable as a grown-up I would have been in total disbelief; eggplant? That same eggplant I used to hide in my apron so I would not have to eat it? (nun school, we were forced to eat everything). Well,...
Read More »
Chestnut/chocolate cream (Turinois)
This is a no-bake dessert devised by Françoise Bernard, the Goddess of French cooking in the sixties and seventies. My mother who was a die-hard francophile always had her books in the kitchen especially when the family moved to France. Françoise Bernard specialized in easy, practical, recipes for the busy...
Read More »
Zucchini in yogurt sauce (Koossa bel-laban)
This salad is Syrian in origin (from Aleppo) according to Sana Obari Barbeer, author of Al-Tabekh al-halabi (Cuisine of Aleppo, Dar el-ilm Lilmalayin). It is very simple and the combo of zucchini and yogurt is much beloved here in Lebanon as well. The zucchinis one finds in Beirut are...
Read More »
Sprouted fava casserole (Foolyieh)
I had lunch with Kamal Mouzawak at his Tawlet restaurant recently; while we were on the topic of his exquisite cookbook, he let it slip that the foolyieh was his favorite recipe. Fool is fava beans in Arabic. I figured the dish was probably Egyptian since this is where fava...
Read More »
