Tag Archives: cooking

aubergine salad aka batenjen el rahib (monk aubergine)

Posted on March 27, 2014 | 1 comment

This salad is fantastic, a real celebration to the colors. It’s refreshing and filling.

Usually fried aubergine soak up a lot of oil. In this salad, we will just oven grill them to keep their flavor.

Ingredients:

1/2 kilo aubergine
2 big tomatoes
1 medium onion
1 garlic clove
1/3 cup olive oil
salt to taste

method:

Start by grilling the aubergine in the oven.

Let them cool down before peeling them. Meantime cut the tomatoes medium cubes. the onion a la julienne and mince the garlic.

Aubergines are soft and tender, you can simply cut them apart with your hand (medium to big pieces).

Mix all the ingredients and season them with olive oil and salt to taste.

Do you wonder why they call it batenjen el rahib (monk aubergine)? me too, but I never got a precise convincing answer.

1 Comment

Posted in appetizers & salads, main dish

Tagged aubergine, batenjen, batenjen el raheb, batenjen el rahib, blog, cooking, eggplant, healthy, jaymmy, marmite et ponpon, olive oil, onions, recipe, salads, tomato

sfouf – a lebanese toothsome delicacy (a healthy egg free cake)

Posted on March 26, 2014 | Leave a comment

Sfouf is one of the traditional lebanese sweets. Considered as the eggless cake. Super delicious recipe to be noted:

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups semolina flour
3/4 cup flour
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 cup corn oil
2 tbsp powdered milk
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 1/2 cup water

Method:

Very simple and easy! Combine semolina flour, flour, sugar, powdered milk, baking powder and sieved turmeric. Mix well together and add the oil then water.

Pour batter into greased pan, sprinkle with pine seeds and walnuts.

Bake for 35-40 mns, until the skewer comes out clean.

The best companion of coffee or tea and a healthy homemade dessert for your kids!

General knowledge:

Turmeric comes from the root of the Curcuma longa plant, is a powerful medicine that has long been used in the Chinese and Indian systems of medicine as an anti-inflammatory agent to treat a wide variety of conditions, including flatulence, jaundice, menstrual difficulties, bloody urine, toothache, bruises, chest pain, and colic.

finger – licking lebanese taboule as it should be done

Posted on March 23, 2014 | 6 comments

When you type “taboule” in the search engine, you get endless recipes, some don’t even resemble the original one.

This recipe is the traditional lebanese taboule as it should be done!

Ingredients:

4 medium bunch of parsley
2 medium tomatoes
1 small fine chopped onion
juice of 2 lemons
1/2 cup of olive oil
1 tbsp of chopped mint
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sweet pepper
2 tbsp bulgur (aka burghul)
lemon zest

Method:

Gather the parsley in small bouquets, easier to be chopped. Choose the tomatoes half ripe and cut in medium cubes

These parsley were sent to me overseas from lebanon, thanks to my father, knowing that i love taboule.

Add the mint, onion, salt and pepper to taste, lemon, olive oil and burghul.

Soak the burghul in room temperature water for 5 mns before adding them.

the lemon zest is not a main ingredient but it gives the zing flavor (mom astuce).

Mix all together and taste. You can always add salt or lemon depending on how sour you like it to be. Taboule is the healthiest salad ever. Some have it as an entree and others as a main dish since it’s a complete meal full of nutrients.

I like to eat taboule with lettuce, cabbage, vine leaves and even bread!

Sahtein! wishing you double health, the lebanese way 🙂

6 Comments

Posted in appetizers & salads, main dish

Tagged blog, burghul, burglur, cooking, jaymmy, lebanese food, lemon, marmite et ponpon, mint, olive oil, parsley, salads, tabboule, taboule, tomato, traditional food

how to make quick, easy and delicious coconut balls

Posted on March 18, 2014 | 1 comment

A pleasure to the palate of coconut lovers. Originally comes from Balkan, it’s a traditional dessert in Croatia.

You find so many recipes, but this one is simply the best!

Ingredients:

11/2 cup coconut flour
200g butter
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
1 tbsp vanilla
2 cups powdered milk

Method:

Combine water, butter and sugar and bring to boil. Put it aside and add the powdered milk, vanilla and 1 cup of the coconut. Mix well until they become consistent. Shape into balls, rolling them on the remaining coconut flour. Meanwhile turn on your oven on 175°C. When the balls are ready, place them on parchment paper, and bake on middle shelf for only 10 minutes just to have a light golden color on the surface.

Eat one and you can never stop!

1 Comment

Posted in dessert

Tagged balkan sweet, blog, coconut, coconut ballas, cooking, croatian sweets, dessert, jaymmy, marmite et ponpon, powdered milk, sweets, traditional dessert

mouth watering kousa mehche (stuffed zucchini)

Posted on March 14, 2014 | 2 comments

Who said traditional lebanese dishes can’t be presented in a modern creative way?

Mehche kousa or stuffed zucchini is one of the delicious traditional dishes that all lebanese families cook at least twice a month. Kids as adults love it. So succulent that people never bothered themselves to think of the esthetic presentation on the table .

Personally it’s one of my favourite dishes and i want to take it to the next level, by showing you how the presentation can be equivalent to the taste.

Isn’t mouth watering?

Usually kousa mehche is accompanied with wara’ arich or stuffed vine leaves to make the dish a killer.

Recipe:

1 kg kousa
200g ground beef
1 cup rice
2 medium tomatoes chopped
tomato paste
salt & pepper to taste

First you need to empty out the zucchini pulp with a special corer. Carve it as much as you can but try not to break it 🙂

Mix together the meat, rice, salt and pepper to stuff the zucchini to 3/4 full. The same stuffing is used also for the vine leaves.

Put the zucchini in the pot vertically, open side to the top so the rice will not go in the sauce. Add the chopped tomatoes, the paste and salt to taste then cover with water.

Bring it to boil then reduce to medium low flame and cook for 45 mns approx.

My mom is the queen of kousa mehche, she taught me!