Tag Archives: pine nuts

Eggplant casserole (Fattet betenjan)

Hardly any dish in the Middle-East is more finger-licking or easier to prepare. Layer a food with fried pita croutons and a  yogurt sauce flavored with tahini and a touch of garlic; oh, and a sprinkling of butter-fried nuts to top it off. Above is a diet version of the eggplant fatteh which is poor [...]
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Pasta with yogurt sauce

  A classic of Lebanese home cooking, this sauce can be prepared with or without meat; it is ideal for warm days because the yogurt sauce is not cooked;  it is a perfect meal for any day of the week when cooking elaborate meals is the last thing on the agenda. INGREDIENTS: 6 servings 8 [...]
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Eggplant with yogurt sauce (Fattet al-Makdoos)

In what city in the world can you get this meal delivered to your door? That is what happened today when I called my caterer/friend/neighbor, Rima @RimRam Gourmet and asked her to help me out.  Rima, whose is a true Beiruti, specializes in many traditional dishes and cooks herself once a month at Tawlet, Kamal [...]
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Swiss chard and tahini beoreg

The Armenian community in Lebanon has always fascinated me; I had Armenian friends in school, an Armenian dentist, knew Armenian musicians, carpenters, artists; we lived side by side, yet they spoke their own language and wrote in Armenian, a language that seemed mysterious, with letters that could not be deciphered even for someone fluent in [...]
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Meat pies, Lebanese-style (Sfeeha)

  If there is one pastry item that deserves a standing ovation from the Lebanese kitchen, it is sfeeha (pronounced s-f-ee-ha with the “a” like apple). What is sfeeha? A little meat pie; made extraordinary by the folks in Baalbeck (the number one tourist destination in Lebanon, site of incredible Roman temples). Why extraordinary? The [...]
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