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Authentic Lebanese Recipes - Page 8
Vegetable Dishes
Green Beans in Olive Oil
LOUBIEH BI ZAYT
This is an Authentic Award-winning Lebanese Recipe
1 Ib. fresh green string beans
1/2 cup chopped onions
3/4 cup olive
oil
2 medium sized tomatoes, chopped
2 whole heads garlic
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
These succulent beans are served tepid or cold and could be prepared a day in advance.
Heat olive oil in pressure cooker. Fry in it the chopped onions and whole garlic. When yellow, add beans, salt and pepper, and fry gently for 10 minutes stirring frequently. Add tomatoes and one cup water (substitute 1 1/2 cups fresh or canned tomato juice if desired). Cook under pressure 10 minutes. Simmer uncovered to allow beans to absorb sauce completely. Season to taste.
Cook without pressure if preferred. After vegetables are sauteed, simmer in tomato juice until tender. Serves 4.
If you use these recipes, please link to this website and help us share the Lebanese heritage with the world. Thank you
Garlic Stuffed Eggplant (Turkish)
IMAM BAYOULDI
Turkish Recipe
20 very small cylindrical eggplants
1 cup olive oil
5 heads of garlic
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1 Tbsp. sour pomegranate paste, or 1 cup sour fresh pomegranate
juice
1 tsp. tomato paste
1 cup water
Wash eggplants and cut off all but half inch of stem. Do not remove hull. Partially peel in lengthwise strips. Pierce each eggplant with a sharply pointed knife in three places and insert a clove of garlic in each incision. Deep fry in hot oil until soft and brown. Lay side by side in the pressure cooker. Add water, pomegranate juice, salt, pepper, cinnamon and water. Cook for 12 minutes underpressure. Open cooker. Adjust seasonings and simmer until sauce is absorbed. Serve cold at a buffet supper.
If you use these recipes, please link to this website and help us share the Lebanese heritage with the world. Thank you
Stuffed Tomatoes (Turkish)
DOMATES DOLMASI
Turkish Recipe
12 tomatoes
1 Ib. ground meat
1 onion, chopped
1/4 cup uncooked rice
1 tsp. chopped mint
1 tsp. chopped fresh dill
Salt and pepper
Prepare these a day ahead and allow flavors to mellow. They are equally good for brunch, lunch or supper.
Remove a slice from the top of medium-sized firm tomatoes. Do not peel but remove pulp and seeds carefully. Stuff three-quarters full of the following mixture:
Saute all ingredients lightly together in one-quarter cup of butter. Stuff tomatoes and replace tops. Place carefully in layers in saucepan. Add several tablespoons of butter and a cup of water. Cover closely and simmer on low fire for half an hour, ot until tomatoes are tender.
If you use these recipes, please link to this website and help us share the Lebanese heritage with the world. Thank you
Eggplant Cooked in Oil
BATINJAAN BI ZAYT
Authentic Award-winning Lebanese Recipe
4 medium-sized round eggplant, or
12 small, long eggplant
12 small white onions
6 ripe tomatoes
6 cloves garlic
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 cup olive oil
1 cup water
This eggplant dish is served cold as an appetizer in Lebanon in summer when eggplant is plentiful in the markets.
Prepare the round eggplant by peeling and slicing in one-inch slices. Partially peel the long type of eggplant lengthwise to give a striped effect. Do not remove hull. Fry eggplant in hot oil until soft. Saute onions in the oil and place them in the bottom of a heavy pan or casserole that can be placed on the direct fire. Peel and slice tomatoes. Arrange alternate layers of fried eggplant and tomato slices on top of onions. Crush garlic with salt and fry gently for a few minutes. Sprinkle over vege¬tables. Add pepper and water. Cook on top of stove over medium fire until boiling well. Lower heat and simmer until sauce is reduced and vegetables are very tender. Thicken sauce with small amount of flour. Invert carefully onto a round serving platter. Serve cold.
If you use these recipes, please link to this website and help us share the Lebanese heritage with the world. Thank you
Stuffed Squash in Cheese Sauce
KOUSA QABLAMA AU GRATIN
Prepare kousa qablama (see recipe). When the squash is cooked, cover with one and a half cups medium white sauce and sprinkle top with toasted bread crumbs and grated cheese. Reheat in the oven until the cheese is melted.
Artichokes in Oil
ARDISHAWKI BI ZAYT
12 artichokes
4 medium sized carrots
1/2 cup freshly shelled peas
12 spring onions
1 cup small broad beans
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar
1 cup lemon juice
1 tsp. flour
2 cups cold water
Highly recommended as something new for a buffet supper. Prepare a day ahead so that the artichokes will be thoroughly chilled and well seasoned with the sauce.
Wash artichokes in running water to remove dirt between leaves. Cut off stems close to heads. Remove tough outside leaves. Separate leaves and push apart slightly to form a cup. Pull out the choke from the center. Rub each artichoke all over with a cut lemon (to prevent discoloration) and place in a bowl of water sprinkled with several tablespoons of flour.
Chop carrots finely. Trim onions, leaving an inch or so of green top. Place peas, beans, carrots and lastly the artichokes in pressure cooker. Add water. Cook under pressure 12 minutes. Reduce pressure. Add scallions and cook another three minutes under pressure. Then simmer, uncovered to reduce sauce. Arrange artichokes on a platter and stuff them with the cooked vegetables. Thicken the sauce with flour and season sharply with lemon juice, salt and sugar, and serve the sauce in a separate dish.
Marrow Squash Stuffed with Meat
KOUSA QABLAMA
30 small marrow squash
2 1/2 cups minced lamb or beef
1 cup minced onion
1/2 cup pine nuts
2 cups fresh tomato juice, or
2 Tbsp. tomato paste in 2 cups water
1 cup samneh (or other shortening)
1 1/2
tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 cup water
Scrub squash well. Hollow from one end with an apple corer. Fry onions in samneh until yellow. Add meat, pine nuts, salt, pepper and cinnamon and fry until meat is browned. Cool and stuff squash with this mixture. Close the open end with a piece of squash pulp. Saute the squash in samneh until brown all over. Place in layers on rack in pressure cooker. Add water and tomato juice. Cook under pressure for 12 minutes. Reduce pressure; open cooker. Simmer uncovered until sauce is reduced and thickened. Season to taste. Serve with oriental rice.
Squash may be cooked in an open pan on top of the stove. Allow to simmer in the tomato sauce for 20 minutes. Serve hot in the same pan in which it was cooked. This dish is considered just as good the second day. Burghul is sometimes cooked in the leftover sauce.
Deep Fried Vegetables
MAQAALI
The Arabs, particularly the Lebanese, prefer fried rather than boiled vegetables. The frying is done in the local sweet olive oil.
Many kinds of vegetables are fried, including some which are not usually prepared in this way, like tomatoes. Eggplant is a favorite. The big round eggplant are peeled and cut into one-inch slices, prinkled with salt and allowed to stand a half-hour before frying. The fried eggplant is eaten either hot or cold, often in combination with lentil dishes such as mujaddarah, or with lahm mashwi or with kibbeh.
Marrow squash is not peeled before frying but is simply sliced about a half inch thick. Cauliflowerets usually are boiled until half-tender before frying although they may be placed raw in the hot fat. Taratour bi taheeni (sesame sauce) is the favorite accompaniment for fried cauliflower.
Fried potatoes are common. Tomatoes are sliced thickly before frying. Small white onions are deep fried, too. They are peeled, but left with the tops on.
Okra in Oil
BAMIEH BI ZAYT
3 cups tender young okra (bamieh)
10 tiny white onions
3 medium sized tomatoes
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 tsp. dried kizbara, or 1/2 cup chopped green kizbara (coriander)
8 cloves garlic
1/2 cup cold water
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp.
salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
A colorful okra dish flavored with garlic and coriander, (called kizbara), it is traditionally served cold start a meal. Crush garlic with salt. Add kizbara and crush all well together. Cut hard top stems from okra. Wash well and dry with clean towel, or in the sun. Fry in deep, hot olive oil until tender but still green. Fry onions in same oil until yellow. Pour off most of the oil and fry the garlic-kizbara mixture. Place rack in pressure cooker. Put in a layer of sliced tomatoes and cover neatly with okra. Make a depression in the center of the okra and fill it with the onions. Sprinkle with lemon juice and the garlic-kizbara salt. Cook under pressure for 12 minutes. Reduce pressure. Simmer uncovered until most of the liquid is absorbed. Season to taste. Turn out onto a round serving dish. Chill.
Eggplant Cream (Turkish)
HUNKAR BEGENDI
3 medium sized eggplant (batinjaan)
6 Tbsp. flour
4 Tbsp. butter
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
Grated cheese
Salt and pepper
In Turkey this unusual eggplant dish is called Sultan's Pleasure, for reasons which are obvious as soon as one samples it. Particularly delicious with chicken. Grilling the eggplants gives the vegetables an agreeable smokey flavor.
Grill eggplants whole without peeling them by holding over a flame and turning slowly, or prick skin in several places and set in hot oven. When the skin begins to break and the inside pulp feels soft, slip off the skin and scoop the pulp into a saucepan. Mix lemon juice with pulp and simmer until very soft, stirring often (10-15 minutes). Meanwhile, melt butter, add flour to it and allow flour to brown. Beat the butter and flour mixture into the eggplant. Slowly add several tablespoons of hot milk and continue beating until mixture resembles mashed potatoes. Lastly add several tablespoons of grated Parmesan or Cheddar cheese and cook several minutes more. Serve immediately.
The Darweesh Rosary
MASBAHT EL DARWEESH
Authentic Award-winning Lebanese Recipe
2 cups cubed meat
1/2 cup samneh (or other shortening)
1 cup batinjaan, cubed {eggplant)
1 cup potatoes, cubed
1 cup marrow squash, sliced
1 cup onions, chopped
5 medium sized tomatoes, chopped
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
Water
This is one of the old Lebanese dishes which used to be prepared at home and sent to the town oven for baking. Even today when most people have ovens in their own kitchens there is a preference for the flavor achieved in this dish by baking it in the larger, hotter commercial oven. One often sees a small boy making his way carefully along the village street balancing the round tinned copper tray of Masbaht el Darweesh on his head.
Heat samneh well and fry onions in it until they are yellow. Add chopped meat and vegetables, salt and pepper. Add water to cover. Pour into shallow baking pan. Bake in moderate oven until tender throughout, stirring several times during the baking. If vegetables and meat are done before the sauce is absorbed, remove to top of stove and simmer uncovered until sauce is practically gone. Salt to taste. Serve hot. Approximately six servings.
Truffles
KAMA or KAMAIEH
Many of the truffles consumed in the Arab world are found in the Syrian desert near the ancient site of Palmyra. Legend claims that the wild storms of the desert, particularly the thunder and lightening of the Palmyra discrict, account for the presence in quantity of this delicacy. Two kinds of truffles are marketed, the black and the white. The dark kama are considered the best.
Kama are usually full of sand and must be diligently cleaned. First soak in cold water for two hours. Then scrub with a hard bristled brush, rinse, and remove the thin layer of outside peeling with a sharp knife. Go over them carefully, prying out any sand remaining in the cracks with the tip of a knife. Wash in several waters. Now the truffles are ready for cooking. See below for two recipes.
Truffles Stew
YAKHNIT EL KAMA
2 cups cubed meat
2 cups cubed Kama (truffles)
1/2 cup minced onions
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. flour
2 tsp. lemon juice
2 cups water
Fry meat in samneh until browned. Add onions and cook until yellow. Add kama, water, salt and pepper. Cook under pressure for 20 minutes. Open cooker. If kama are not entirely tender, simmer until they are done. Thicken sauce with flour mixed with a little water. Add lemon juice. Serve hot with rice.
Broiled Truffles
KAMA MASHWIEH
Clean truffles well and prepare for cooking. Cut into one-inch cubes. Rub well with salt and pepper. Marinate in equal parts of olive oil and lemon juice for two hours. Thread onto skewers and broil over charcoal or in a very hot oven.
Skewers
More Authentic Lebanese Recipes - several pages. Click here for
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Thank
you to everyone who contributed recipes and photos in the past
years to help us share Lebanon's
beauty with the world and to help
perpetuate the Lebanese culture
across the globe.
Thank you especially to Aunt Maheeba's friend (sorry I forgot her name) who was originally from Saghbine (Lebanon) but who lived in Brooklyn and gave
me many of these authentic recipes
that she had saved from the old
country. She shared them with
all the young Lebanese wives
who grew up here in the United
States and did not have access
to authnetic Lebanese recipes
or training in Lebanese cooking
"the right way". May she rest in peace.
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