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Purslane turnovers (Fatayer bel-bakleh)
Fatayer as they are called here belong to the category of savory pastries and can be found at every corner bakery in Beirut and throughout Lebanon. Their taste and quality varies, of course. You can...
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Socca
I am in Nice for a few days visiting my friend Anne-Marie and of course I had to have socca. Socca is this fluffy light savory thin pancake made with chickpea flour, water and olive oil and eaten as...
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Eggplant boats with bulgur salad
This is a recipe I devised for ALO magazine a couple of years ago; not sure if it ever got published, but in any case since it is well past the six months period during which I was supposed to keep it...
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Chard stalks hummus (M’tabbal dulu3 el-selek)
This hummus is made with the stalks of swiss chard and it closely resembles baba ghannouj in taste. It is composed of only stalks, tahini, a touch of garlic and lemon juice. It is made in the...
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Hummus, Iraqi-style
A mere five years ago, you would have suggested I try a different spice or version of hummus and I would have certainly given you a very dirty look. Today, any version that meets my taste buds is...
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Eggplant fritters and dip
Once in a while, it is great to indulge. Eggplant is the one veggie that really gets enhanced by an oil bath. Crunchy crispy on the outside and silky smooth on the inside and dipped in a creamy yogurt...
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French fries, Aleppo-style
To say that Aleppo’s cuisine is famous in the Middle-East would be stating the obvious. In fact, one of Lebanon’s premier chef, Mrs. Marlene Mattar, has recently published a cookbook devoted to the...
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Hummus Beirut
A great recipe from chef Marlene Matar’s latest book Maedat Marlene men Halab, a cookbook devoted to dishes from Aleppo (Syria); she calls this hummus Beiruti which means from Beirut, however she...
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Shawarma in kibbeh (Akrass al-kibbeh bel-shawarma)
Kibbeh is ubiquitous here; not only is it Lebanon’s national dish but it would be unthinkable to lay down a mezze table without having a plate of small appetizer-size kibbeh balls. The idea to split...
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Cauliflower fritters
I found this recipe in a cookbook I bought recently while in Kurdistan (Iraq); the cookbook was in Arabic and featured the recipes of a very popular TV cooking chef personality in the Arab world, Mrs...
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Olive salad (salatet al-zeytun)
Olives are such a fundamental component of the Lebanese diet (olive trees are everywhere), that it is unthinkable to start or finish a meal without gobbling a few. There is even a saying “Bread and...
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Iranian eggplant dip (Kashk-e bademjan)
I had this eggplant dish in Dallas once, made by a Persian friend of my Irish neighbor’s, and loved it; there are a ton of Persian restaurants in So. California, a handful in Dallas, yet I have not...
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Turnovers with red pepper dip (Fatayer mhammara)
A well-known kebab restaurant chain dropped-off at the door of every building in our neighborhood a new menu titled “Holy Season Fasting Menu”; it featured only vegetarian dishes suitable to those...
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Pine cone mezze
There are two worlds in Lebanon: The urban world and the rural world. While Beirut residents would go out for sushi or burgers (American-style), rural folks scavenge nature for food and sustenance....
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Zucchini hummus (M’tabbal koossa)
I can imagine a Lebanese or Near-Eastern reader raising an eyebrow at the title of this post. In Lebanon, only chickpea-based dips (mixed with tahini) are called hummus. The reason is simple: Hummus...
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