Tag Archives: pomegranate molasses

Drumsticks with pomegranate-cilantro sauce

If you are interested in saving some time and still having flavorful meals, why not make some cilantro pesto and freezing it? It will keep very well, for months, and if you make a bunch and fill up an ice-cube plastic tray with it, you can pull it out of the freezer and scoop out [...]
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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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Spring rolls

My first years living in the US as a Lebanese immigrant would get people curious about my origin and the country I was from; I would explain that I was from Asia. This would immediately elicit a puzzled look: “Asia? “Yes”, I would continue, “Lebanon is in Asia”. Finally I stopped saying I was from [...]
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The Monk’s salad (Salata el-raheb)

This salad is named after a monk who will remain nameless; presumably he lived in one of the monasteries that pepper the Lebanese mountains and like all monks, lived a frugal life eating whatever vegetables his plot of land produced (which was the case for most Lebanese villagers and not just monks!). In any case, [...]
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Fattet al-betenjane (eggplant casserole)

I am surprised that this dish (and its many variations) is not more popular in the US and abroad; I consider it the signature dish of all Middle-Eastern cooking. It apparently goes back centuries to the Abbassid period. Well, never mind, today I am presenting fatteh, in the eggplant and minced lamb version. Fatteh is [...]
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