Kishk n. a Lebanese flour made by grinding a sun-dried mixture of yogurt and bulgur (referred to as green kishk). It is a rural breakfast staple, made into a hearty soup typically flavored with onions and garlic, and sometimes by adding a homemade lamb confit. It’s typically served with toasted pita bread crumbled into it or soft pita to scoop …
Kibbe in Minted Yogurt Sauce
I can’t go on any further without including a Kibbe dish, afterall, this is a Lebanese food blog. It’s a welcome interruption from the sugar/butter/flour party I’ve been having in the kitchen. Kibbe is in fact the quintessential Levantine dish, essentially a paste of burgul, lamb and spices stuffed with nuts and more meat and shaped into torpedos or layered …
Lebanese-Style Apple Turnovers
Phyllo dough is a great invention. It has been claimed by many ethnic groups, so the origin is somewhat of a mystery – most likely goes back to the Ottomans. In Lebanon, a lot of desserts revolve around the use of Phyllo. Some are stuffed with ashta, some with sweet cheese, and a lot of it with nuts like all …
Spiced Snowflake Cookie
I think I overdosed on sugar this week again. I’ve been in a baking mode, trying different recipes for cookies, tarts and cakes. Having fun and boy do I need someone to wash the dishes!. I was searching through the pages of some of my cookbooks and I stumbled upon this recipe. A fairly simple one, with four ingredients …
Roasted Spaghetti Squash and Chanterelle Confit
December. Absolutely my favorite month of the year (well that and June, my birthday month). Love everything about it and the cold weather too. Just more reasons to bake and cook, as if I needed anymore. And that brings me to: confit n. a piece of meat cooked in its own fat. The Levantine version of confit is made with …
Apple Jam with Walnuts and Mastic
I woke up one day recently and realized that I had turned into my mother. Staring at a 50lb box of apples, scratching my head as to what to do with them. I clearly remember our kitchen as a child being covered with boxes of fruits at the end of the season, and seeing my mother chop, peel and preserve …
A Childhood Snack – Pomegranate Salad
I have never met a pomegranate I didn’t love, then eat. It’s the fruit that I wait for from year to year. I even wonder why it’s not available other times during the year like all the other fruits. For me, it feels like home. There was a pomegranate tree just outside my bedroom window in my parents’ house …
A warming Lentil Squash Soup
Phew! I’m back. It’s been a busy two weeks with lots of birthday cakes, cupcakes, cookies and much more. We just celebrated my husband and two kids’ birthdays all within seven days. Now I really need a warm bowl of soup to relax with. The weather is colder, the air is crisper and I can’t get enough of squash/pumpkin flavors. …
Roasted Cauliflower and Tomato Salad
Cauliflower has to be the most under-appreciated of vegetables. Its bland flavor doesn’t appeal to many people, although it has a very high nutritional density = a very healthy food. Aside from cooking the florets in a stew or boiling them (which I am not a fan of), frying them turns them golden brown and delicious. I’m not afraid of …
Pumpkin Apple Smoothie
I have realized one thing over the years. The closer I get to the source of the food, the closer I want to be. We are blessed in Raleigh, NC to have a year-round-seven-day state farmer’s market. It’s gigantic and dynamic. The bounty changes with the season, farmers rotate based on specialties and we love all of it. It’s been …