Best Hearts

If I mention artichoke hearts in Canada, most of you will think of the marinated ones you buy in jars or the small canned hearts.

But in Lebanon (and other parts of the Middle East) artichoke hearts are big, hearty and make lovely meals.

You can buy them frozen at most of the Lebanese or Iranian stores in the city. But you may not know what to do with them.

So read along for some ideas and give it a try - a perfect base for quick, healthy, tasty and unique meal ideas.

One way of cooking them is to lay the hearts in a cooking platter. Fill them with pre-cooked ground beef, top with fried pine nuts and sprinkle with lemon and water sauce. Bake for about 30 minutes in a 350 oven and serve over rice.

Another approach is to fill them with cooked vegetables or cooked chicken, cover them with béchamel sauce, sprinkle with grated gruyere cheese and bake the same way.

And there is no law to say you cannot do a bit of each for the same meal. Enjoy.

A Really Freekeh Great Recipe

A recipe worth sharing. If you cannot find Freekeh, I am happy to barter some.

Step 1: Roast olive oil coated florets of a cauliflower in a 425 degree stove for 30 - 35 minutes. Put aside.

Step 2: In a pot with olive oil, cook 0.25 cups almonds until they turn colour.  Add 1.25 cups freekeh and cook for a couple of minutes. Add 2 garlic cloves minced, 0.5 tsp salt, 0.25 tsp cumin and 0.25 tsp dried coriander. Top with 3 cups plus 3 Tbsp vegetable broth or water. Bring to boil, then simmer until Freekeh is cooked and all liquid evaporated (may take over 30 minutes, but check on it after 20 minutes).

Step 3: Make tahini sauce by adding 0.25 cup lemon juice and 0.5 cup water to 6 Tbsp tahini. Mix and keep on adding water or lemon juice (and salt to taste) until it is the texture of cream.

To Serve: Add the Freekeh to a platter, cover with the roasted cauliflowers, drizzle with tahini suace and garnish (optional) with feta cheese, raisins and/or parsley or green herbs.
 

Lebanon Meets Regina

I'm in love with my latest Regina purchase (and you are probably getting tired of reading Regina stories all week).

The cookbook not only has unique recipes, but as part of the recipes tells a lot of the history of the province.

The first recipe I chose - Chickpeas With Spinach - talked about how homesteaders from Lebanon grew seeds for their traditional food in Saskatchewan. Thanks to them, nowadays, chickpeas and coriander are both grown on a large scale in Saskatchewan.

Cook 1 chopped onion and 4 cloves garlic in 2 Tbsp oil.

Add 4 cups of chopped spinach (in Lebanon they probably used chard).

Add 0.5 cup chopped coriander leaves, 2 cups cooked chickpeas and a large can of tomatoes. Season and simmer for 20 minutes.

Excellent dish. Next is Saskatchewan's Irish decendants' Colcannon - stay tuned.

Cooking Lebanese in Black & White

A weekend day cooking Lebanese food is so relaxing; cooking is fun and cooking something that I do not need to stare at a recipe book to make is even nicer.

The humus will go with everything and it freezes exceptionally well (click HERE for the authentic Lebanese humus recipe).

An eggplant and chick peas stew is extremely healthy, eaten warm or cold and will last at least a week in the fridge (click HERE for recipe). Roasted potatoes go with everything.

And finally my mom's baked omelette recipe that is heavy on eggs and veggies but excludes oil and butter (click HERE for recipe). 

A Recipe from Guest Correspondent

Yes, somerville kitchen loves hearing from the readers about their own food adventures and recipes. Thank you Cake Lady for this delicious recipe and great pictures. All others, feel free to submit your stories to somervillekitchenwindow@gmail.com and you will be published.

Freekeh Soup -  a fantastic recipe that was enjoyed by all.   

It's not an overly complicated recipe but the work involved was worth it!!
 
I love the fact that ordinary ingredients that we use each day are used in this type of cooking but it is the exotic spices that are added that just bring out the magic that makes these dishes so well received!
 
Cooking with the Freekeh was marvelous. A simple ingredient but added so much to the final product.

Its consistency reminded me of barley which I love!!  It was a perfect recipe and has inspired me to try more of the recipes in the Jerusalem cookbook.

Spicy Freekeh Soup with Meatballs.  (Jerusalem Cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi) 

Meatballs
400g ground beef, lamb, or a combination of both  (I did the combination of both and used ½ pound of each)
1 small onion finely diced
2 TBSP finely chopped flat-leafed parsley
½ tsp Allspice
¼ tsp Cinnamon
3 TBSP All Purpose Flour
2 TBSP olive oil
Salt and Pepper 

 Soup
2 TBSP olive oil
1 large onion chopped
3 cloves garlic crushed
2 carrots peeled and cut into 1 cm cubes
2 celery stalks cut into 1 cm cubes
3 large tomatoes chopped
2 ½ TBSP Tomato Paste
1 TBSP Baharat Spice ( I was told at Jasmine Halal that 7 spice is the same thing as Baharat)
1 TBSP Ground Coriander
1 Cinnamon Stick
1 TBSP Sugar
1 Cup Freekeh
2 Cups Beef Stock
2 Cups Chicken Stock
3 ¼ cups hot water
Cilantro chopped
Lemon cut into wedges to serve with the soup

Mix meat, onion, parsley and spices and form into ping pong sized balls and roll them in flour. You will get around 15. Heat the olive oil and fry the meatballs in a large Dutch oven until golden brown on all sides. Set aside.

Wipe out the pot and add the olive oil for the soup. Over medium heat fry the onions and garlic for 5 minutes. Stir in carrots and celery and cook for another 2 minutes. Add  tomatoes, tomato paste, spices, sugar, 2 tsp salt and ½ tsp pepper. Stir in Freekeh. Cook for 2-3 minutes.  Add stocks, hot water and meatballs and bring to a boil. Lower the heat simmering gently for 35-45 minutes, stirring occasionally.


Ladle the hot soup into serving bowls and sprinkle with cilantro and serve with a wedge of lemon.

Vegetarian Feast - Spinach with Rice Recipe (Ruz bi Sabanigh)

(Story Begins at Vegetarian Feast)

Chop one onion and cook in 0.5 cup vegetable oil until golden.

Chop 1 bunch fresh spinach into small pieces and add to the onions. Cover and simmer until the spinach wilts.

Add 2.5 cups water and 1 cup rice, season with salt. Do not stir (don't ask me why, I am passing on a recipe).

Bring to boil then simmer for 25 minutes or until rice is cooked.

Serve warm or at room temperature. Enjoy with yogurt or a lettuce salad.

Vegetarian Feast - Eggplant Chick Pea Stew Recipe (Bitinjan mah Humus)

(Story Begins at Vegetarian Feast)

Chop one onion coarsely and cook in 0.5 cup olive oil until golden. Add 0.5 cup cooked chick peas and one large eggplant cut into 1" cubes (I used the tiny eggplants you find this season in many Indian produce stores and just cut them in half without even peeling them).

Add salt, pepper, cinnamon, 4 large diced tomatoes and 0.25 cup tomato paste.

Cover and cook on medium heat for 25 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.  Enjoy with some green Lebanese olives, radishes and pita bread.

Vegetarian Feast - Zucchini Casserole Recipe (Koosa Matboukh)

(Story Begins at Vegetarian Feast)

Wash four Lebanese Zucchinis (those are light green coloured and can be found in Iranian or Indian produce stores in Vancouver).

Cut zucchinis into 0.5 inch slices and place in a casserole dish.

Combine 3 cloves crushed garlic, 2 Tbsp fresh chopped mint, 0.25 cup vegetable oil, 0.5 cup water, salt and pepper and pour over the zucchinis.

Bake in a 375 oven for 40 minutes. Enjoy with yogurt, hot or room temperature. 

Simple Lentil Soup

My mother and I went into the kitchen together today.

My mom cooked, I watched and took pictures. I like this kind of vacation.

But rather than just sharing the pictures, I will also share the recipe for a simple lentil soup.

Start with one cup of red split lentils. Rinse them well.

Mother's kitchen gadgets include this lentil colander (it is kind of practical and I wonder why it may not work for rice as well? I should ask before I leave).

Add the lentils to a pot, along with half cup of rice (Egyptian or Italian), cover with water and an onion.

Bring to a boil and then let simmer until all is cooked.

When almost cooked, add a quarter cup olive oil, let is simmer a bit more and it is ready to serve.

Two things to serve with this soup.

First, lemon juice; even though this lemon, picked up a day or two earlier off a tree close by, is too juicy and large to waste as a juicing lemon.

The other thing you eat with this soup is grilled pita bread.

You can eat it or crunch it into it. Either way, the end result is a really tasty, healthy simple lunch.

Give it a try.

Vegan Tailor's Scraps

Many moons ago, my thirteenth article on the blog was about Tailor's Scraps.

Given my no meat lent,  I have to start dreaming up recipes. So here's one for all my vegan friends to make; a vegan version of Tailor's Scraps.

You start with a big pot.

You layer the pot with sliced onions.

Or you can be inventive and use leeks instead.

You then add layers of vegetables with the hardiest at the bottom.

This is what I used.

 

You top it all with sliced tomatoes, salt and pepper.


Turn on the heat to low and leave it to cook, on low heat, for about two hours.

And it is ready to eat.

And you throw away the leftovers scraps! Enjoy.

Potato Kebbeh

I have heard of potato kebbeh all my life, but barely recall eating it let alone cooking it.

So I ventured on this experiment supported by Lebanese cookbooks and calls to family and friends. I took the best (or most practical) advice of all to give you a simple Potato Kebbeh Recipe.

Boil, unpeeled, 8 small-medium potatoes until fully cooked. Let cool only until easy enough to peel them.

Add 1 cup fine bulgur wheat and 2 Tbsp flour and process until it resembles a very fine mashed potatoes (with bulgur wheat in it).

Now prepare the stuffing - In a bit of oil, fry a small chopped onion, 0.5 lb ground beef, some chopped parsley, salt and all spice until cooked. If you want to be more experimental, add some sumac and fried pine nuts. If you want to be really experimental, replace pine nuts with fried walnuts.

Rub the bottom of a baking dish with cooking oil. Using wet hands, spread a layer of the potato dough mixture. Top with the cooked stuffing then cover with another layer of potatoes. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs and a drizzle of oil and bake for 45 minutes in 375 oven.

If you want to get really fancy, you can use the same recipe and make potato patties stuffed with meat and deep fry them. Risk of patties collapsing is high.

If you try it, let me know how it comes out. Enjoy!

Healthy Labneh and Decadent Arishé

If you are looking for Healthy Labneh, click Here. Today is all about Arishé.

I have heard the term since I was a kid, but never tasted it until last month at the Mounsif Brunch. 

Not only did I love it, but walked out with the recipe. It is difficult to describe what it is, so read on.

First, how to make it:

In a pot, bring a homogenized milk slowly to a boil.

As soon as it boils, turn the heat off.

Add something sour. 

I used a combination of drained liquid from the yogurt as it turns into Labneh (go ahead, put it all in the milk) and juice of half a lemon.

Let it sit and see it start to curd.

In 15 minutes or so, pour everything in the pot into a thin hole sieve.

The liquid will go through and what you are left with is Arishé.

It is white, creamy, and turned into dessert. 

How to Eat It:

Leave it in the fridge to cool (and thickens further). Then simply pour in a bowl and mix with something sweet.

The authentic way is to mix it with honey (don't go cheap on quality or amount of honey you add to Arishé). I also tried it with rose petal jam which was heavenly.