Category Archives: sauces

Muhammara with chips

Muhammara is one of the main condiments in the  Lebanese culinary repertoire;  served as a mezze item (to dip into) and as a side sauce with kebabs, it can be used in dozens of  dishes. Simple to make, with the assertive and warm flavor of red peppers made a tad fruity by the addition of [...]
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Garlic Mayo (Toom)

This is a close replica of the garlic mayo found at just about every Lebanese café, restaurant, hole-in-the-wall or kebab joint. I got the method  from Fouad’s awesome blog. Fouad is a (brilliant) Lebanese man who lives and blogs from Australia; his razor-sharp wit is worth the detour, so do check him out. The only [...]
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Lebanese salad dressing, in 56 seconds

I  moved to  California  in the early eighties  and back then  everybody around me was using bottled salad dressing with names like Ranch, Thousand Islands, French; that  was  bewildering to me; I did not understand why someone would buy a bottle of these rich  concoctions when it was so easy to whip up a salad [...]
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Pico de Gallo

Living in Texas I have grown quite fond of Mexican and so-called Tex-Mex cuisine. I love it. So, as I was preparing this mujaddara it occurred to me that a fresh pico de gallo to eat it with  would be the most compatible pairing. I mean, mujaddara is supposed to be eaten with a salad [...]
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Pine nut and garlic sauce (tarator bel-snoobar)

Brought back a stash  of pine nuts with me in my luggage, dutifully declared at customs. Pine nuts in Lebanon are so good! They always bring back fond memories of entire summers spent in Ain Zhalta (Shoof area) treasure-hunting these delightful snoobar. We’d grab a pine cone that seemed promising and feverishly  dislodge the little [...]
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