Chicken and rice (Tibeat)
A dish in Nawal Nasrallah’s Delights from the Garden of Eden listed as an Iraqi-Jewish traditional meal served on the Sabbath in Baghdad and cooked in a tannour. The tannour was a wood-fired communal oven; it is still being used in some rural areas in Lebanon today to...
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Mosul kibbeh
Iraq is the birthplace of Middle-Eastern culture and civilization and it is in Iraq that one finds all the sources to what is now known as “Middle-Eastern food”. The kibbeh famous is Iraq comes from the ancient city of Mosul, and it is not only delicious but also very challenging to...
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Milk cream (Hariré)
This is a simple milk “cream” that is prepared over the stove in 5 minutes with milk, starch and flavoring. It is similar to the muhallabieh, except here rose water is used (and starch instead of rice flour). It was traditionally consumed for breakfast according to Fayez Aoun, author...
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Maftoul and cranberry beans
Food historians have found that combining legumes and a starch is one of the most ancient dishes to come out of the Middle-East in one form or another. Nutritionists have found that this combination is excellent for one’s health as each component works to facilitate the digestion of the...
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Maftoul
In Lebanon and the rest of the Levant, couscous is not a staple food, it is considered a food from the Maghreb (the Western side); in the Mashrek (name given to the Levant meaning the Eastern side of the Arab world), there is what can be considered a...
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Iraqi sweet rolls (Shubbak el-habayeb)
Another recipe dug up from Nawal Nasrallah’s Delights from the Garden of Eden. The name of these rolls is chureck, a Persian name meaning wheel. These rolls can be served plain or stuffed (with cheese or date paste). This particular one is called lover’s windows (shubbak el-habayeb). I adapted Mrs. Nasrallah’s...
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Crêpes-pizza
Got this idea from a tiny cookbook by Florence Arzel Les crêpes salées et sucrées. Neighbor Mary had her monthly Book Club gathering , so we decided on this since it is fun (guests pick what they want to top their pizza with) and can be prepared ahead. INGREDIENTS:...
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Sablés with fresh pomegranate jelly
Happy Eid el-Adha to all those celebrating! These sablés cookies are in remembrance of my grandmother, Nabeeha, who used to make them from scratch and fill them with her own homemade apricot jelly. These are filled with a fresh pomegranate jelly made with seasonal pomegranates, some sugar and...
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Stuffed carrots
Some of us who grew up in Beirut may not have had this dish (we did not) and I am not exactly sure when it made its appearance or which community makes it. The fact is that it is really flavorful with a natural sweetness imparted by the carrots...
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