Monthly Archives: February 2011

Laban Ummo (lamb in yogurt sauce)

According to Fayez Aoun, (cookbook author and professor) this dish dates back to the Abbassid empire; it was called madira and was written about by Zaman (967-1007), who featured it in a tale. Laban is milk (or yogurt) in Arabic and ummo is mother; a lamb cooked in his mother’s milk? Or as I understand it, [...]
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Chicken muhammara (Djej muhammara)

Cannot get any more down home than this! I had this dish very often one  summer while  in the mountains  preparing for my Arabic high school diploma exams. It was a welcome respite from studying; and with the tomato sauce, there is no need to add ketchup! A traditional and rural  dish, revisited and spiced [...]
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Cream of Butternut soup

Egyptians are famous throughout the Middle East for their irrepressible sense of humor; during these momentous events of the past few weeks, jokes fused from the Egyptian street, one after the other. Here is one: Mubarak goes to heaven where he meets former Egyptian presidents Gamal Abdel Nasser and Anwar El-Sadat. (The first was killed [...]
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