Olive and zaatar bread
This bread is a treat and combines the taste of olives, zaatar and olive oil in the moist stuffing. The bread is prepared the day before and left to rise slowly overnight in the fridge to ensure a fluffy and soft texture after baking. It is at best served warm...
Read More »
Lasagne Verdi
This is my favorite pasta dish, as I remember it from being served this way in Beirut in the seventies in the cafés lining-up bustling Hamra street. It was always made with fresh spinach pasta, some bolognese sauce and creamy béchamel sauce. A pure delight! Making this dish will be...
Read More »
Pumpkin kibbeh pie
This pumpkin kibbeh pie is the quintessential village pie, where folks make do with what they have and what their traditions dictate. It appears around Fall when all the farmers display their various pumpkins on the side of the roads, and is also made when fasting is in order. Growing-up...
Read More »
Chocolate crispy bars
I made these one evening to use-up the chocolate bars I had stashed in the pantry. I did not have a recipe, so I just improvised based on an old recipe I had done using tahini. This one is straightforward, just chocolate bars+butter+vanilla+puffed rice.
Lamb shanks in yogurt sauce
This dish is called laban emmo. The literal translation is: “his mother’s milk”; it is traditional to make it for New Year, when everything is supposed to be white, to symbolize the new beginning. It is one of my favorite stews. I love yogurt sauce, creamy and a bit sour, flavored...
Read More »
Liver spread
If you are like me, and don’t really care for the taste of liver, this spread will be the ticket for you. By adding cream cheese (or thick labneh, but cream cheese is best), pomegranate molasses and spices, you completely get rid of that “liver” taste. This spread lasts...
Read More »
Turnip greens salad
This is a cooked salad, made in Lebanon with dandelion greens (wild or farm-grown) called hindbeh. I decided to make it with turnip greens instead, because dandelion greens in the US are not comparable to the ones in Lebanon (in the US, their stem is tougher and the leaves are narrower);...
Read More »
Kibbeh Saj
This kibbeh is called sajeeyeh, because it looks like a saj, that ubiquitous propane-powered oven seen on every street corner in Beirut on which bakers make the famous manooshe. It is made-up of the same dough as a regular kibbeh pie, but with the addition of some red pepper paste and...
Read More »
Stuffed pumpkin (Ghapama)
Often prepared around Christmastime, ghapama is a stuffed pumpkin dish from the Armenian community in Lebanon. The guts of the pumpkin are removed, and then it is stuffed with boiled rice and dried fruits like apple, apricot, dates, plums, and raisins together with nuts. The pumpkin is baked until it...
Read More »
