In the late nineties, Andrea Bocelli came to Lebanon to perform in Beit Eddine, a historic palace in the Shouf mountains. My dad, who never missed a concert with opera in it, invited us to join him.  I was stunned to hear the audience, composed mainly of twenty  year-olds, singing along  in Italian, at the top of their lungs, all of Bocelli’s opera songs!

Here is a simple fish soup to which I added some pizzazz with lobster and shrimp. I just get excited about these two and not so much about plain fish, not you? It is easy too, the fishmonger will graciously kill the lobster for you and  split its carcass in half. So what is left? make the stock!

This soup has tahini in it. So if you hate the taste of tahini, sorry, this is not for you. Tahini in Lebanese cuisine is what crème fraîche represents to the French; it is fundamental! Used both for savory and sweet things.

INGREDIENTS: 6 servings

• 1 lobster (about 2 pounds in weight)
• 1 pound of shrimp (large)
• 1 pound of tomatoes
• 1 cup of diced carrots
• 1 cup of diced celery
• 1 cup of chopped onion
• 1 tablespoon of mashed garlic
• olive oil

Spice mix: 1/2 teaspoon of each of: saffron, cardamom, paprika or cayenne, black pepper; salt, to taste.

• peel of an orange
• tahini, 2 or 3 tablespoons
• 1/2 cup of fresh Seville orange juice (or lemon)
• chopped parsley, for garnish

METHOD:

1. Ask the fishmonger to steam the lobster and separate the flesh from the carcass and cut the carcass in half lengthwise. You want the head to be opened up because it is where the flavor is.
2. Dice carrot, celery and onion. Mash the garlic in a mortar with a dash of salt.
3. Assemble all the dry spices. Juice the oranges or lemons. Boil the tomatoes for 15 seconds and peel and dice them or use a can of diced tomatoes.
4. Peel the shrimps: keep the peels aside to use for the stock and leave the shrimps in a bowl of cold water in the fridge.
5. Peel the orange and set the peel aside.
6. Heat a bit of olive oil in a large pan. Add the carrots, onion and celery and cook gently for about 10 minutes. Add the lobster carcass, making sure the head is facing the oil and vegetable mixture. Fry the lobster carcass for a few minutes until the fragrance is wafting out of the pan. Add the shrimp peels and about 8 cups of water. Bring to a simmer and let it bubble up gently for about 30 minutes.

Take a break!

NOTE: Don’t forget to stir the tahini before pouring, to  mix the oil and the paste thoroughly.

1. Strain the stock through a sieve into a bowl. Heat the pan with a tablespoon of olive oil and add the diced tomatoes and all the  dry spices. Fry for 3 minutes until fragrant. Cover with the lobster and shrimp stock, add the orange peel, garlic and cover. Simmer gently for 15 minutes.
2. Uncover the pan. Add the orange juice and tahini (you can also mix the two well beforehand). Then, use an immersion blender (or a regular blender) to puree the sauce until it looks smooth and creamy.
3. Add the raw shrimps to the stock and let them cook in it for about 5 minutes till they turn pink.
4. Add the cooked lobster, previously cut in smaller pieces.
5. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.

Source: The Arab Table, by May S. Bsisu; her recipe is for an actual fish soup (snapper or cod); she does not make a fish stock, uses boiling water and spices and cooks the fish in it.

This soup is easy to make and a time-saver on busy nights.

INGREDIENTS: 4 servings

• 1 1/2 pounds of tomatoes or a can of good Italian  tomatoes
• 1 onion, 1 large carrot, 2 sticks of celery
• 1 tablespoon of dried mint
• 1 quart of chicken stock (or any stock)
• a handful of medium-grained rice (optional)
• butter as needed (or olive oil)
• salt, white pepper
• 3 or more garlic cloves, mashed in a mortar
• 1/2 cup of cream or a few pieces of  creamy cheese like Vache qui rit (optional)
• chives or fresh herbs for garnish

For the meringue: (if using)

• 2 large egg whites
• a pinch of salt
• a tablespoon of sugar

METHOD:

1. Heat the oil or butter in a pan. Add the onion, carrot and celery and fry slowly till soft, about 20 minutes.
2. Add the tomatoes, peeled and cut up or a can of tomatoes. Add the chicken stock and rice if using.. Simmer 30 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning.
3. Puree in a blender; add the crumbled mint at the end.

To make the meringue:

1. Whip the egg whites in a mixer till almost stiff with a pinch of salt. Add the sugar while beating to stiff and shiny peaks.
2. Stop the mixer. Place the egg whites in a pastry bag fitted with a large round tip (optional), or it can be done with a small spoon.
3. Take a piece of parchment paper, cut it into a 8 inch round and grease it with shortening. Place a heart-shaped cookie cutter on the paper. Squeeze the meringue with the pastry bag or using a spoon place some meringue to fill the cookie cutter shape. Remove the cookie cutter. Place as many meringue shapes as needed.
4. Take a saucepan and fill it with water (about 4 inches), bring the water to a simmer.
5. Place the paper with the meringues over the surface of the water and slide the meringues into the simmering water. Poach the meringues for 45 seconds. Remove with a slotted spoon. Either place directly on the soup or on a paper towel and keep in the fridge for up to one day till needed. You can use leftover meringue to garnish puddings or custards as well.

Source for the meringue instructions: Roland Mesnier, Dessert University.

One of my pet peeves is this: I go out to eat at a “nice” restaurant, I order soup, I taste the soup, it tastes CANNED. AAAAh!!!! Am I nuts or do other people feel as annoyed as I do?

Soup is so important! I mean, anybody can throw a piece of meat on a grill and serve it with some veggies! Big deal! The other day, I was invited at a seafood place. O.K. I order lobster bisque and not only did it taste canned but it had so much cream in it, I could barely swallow it.

My point is this: A good soup takes times. The broth needs to be homemade. That’s why when I take the time to make this homey Lebanese soup, it is consumed within the hour; yet it takes me 2 days to make it.

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 nice lamb shanks
• 4 onions
• 1 large can of Italian tomatoes or Pomi or 1 1/2 pounds of tomatoes
• 3 or 4 large carrots, peeled and sliced thick
• 3 or 4 garlic cloves
• spices for the broth: thyme, sprig of parsley, a few cloves of garlic, some cloves, some peppercorns, a bay leaf.
• 1 1/2 cups of white beans or any type of bean that you like.

METHOD:

1. Make the lamb stock: Brown the shanks in a little oil on all sides. Add at least 6 cups of water to the pot and one onion and all the spices.
2. Bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for at least one hour. Cook until the lamb falls off the bone. Cool and when it has been refrigerated for a while, take off any fat that has congealed on the surface.
3. Chop the onions; in a skillet, heat a few tablespoons of olive oil; add the onions, fry till golden; add the tomatoes and cook for 20 minutes. Cool and puree in a blender. Set aside.
4. Reheat the lamb stock, remove the shanks and set aside. Add the beans to the stock and simmer, adding more water; add the carrots and garlic cloves,  simmer  till the beans are cooked. Add the tomato sauce, cook 20 minutes longer.
5. Remove all the fat and membranes from the shanks, keeping the meat pieces which will fall off the bone easily. Add to the soup.
6. Serve hot, garnish with some parsley.

I got this recipe from my cousin Nicole who lives in Paris; I saw her in Beirut for Christmas lunch but on the spur of the moment gave her gift  to my aunt Claire instead, so my aunt got two gifts and Nicole got none from me. So I feel bad;  I will send her something from Texas, maybe a belt buckle or some Pecan Pralines

This recipe is quick and easy. Nicole is a nurse and does not have time to cook.  For each zucchini you need one wedge of cheese. Cook the zucchini in some chicken bouillon, add the cheese wedges and whirl in the blender. It will take 5 minutes of your time and the soup tastes like a million dollars.

Get some small zucchini;  in Texas, they are found at Mexican groceries. These resemble the Lebanese ones, if not in taste at least in looks. Get some Vache qui rit, or any processed cheese sold in wedges in a cardboard box.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 quart of chicken stock
• 6 zucchini
• 6 wedges of cheese
• 1/2 cup of chopped leeks (optional)
• 2 tablespoons of butter or olive oil

METHOD:

1. Clean and slice the zucchinis
2. Heat the butter or oil and add the zucchinis; if using leeks, add them too. Fry for a few minutes.
3. Heat the stock, add the vegetables and cook for 10 minutes.
4. Pour the mixture in a blender, add the cheese wedges and puree for a minute.
5. Serve hot.

The above are zucchini (called koossa) from our orchard in Deir el-Kamar; in the summer, we eat them every day, lunch and dinner, just barely boiled; they are so  sweet!  Wonderful. I wish I could send you all a basket!

Chicken soup in Lebanese cuisine could not be simpler. It is simply a chicken cooked in water, to which some cinnamon and a squeeze of lemon is added, along with a handful of vermicelli the last 3 minutes of cooking. I usually wait to have a bunch of chicken parts leftover, throw the bunch in the pot and cook the mixture for a couple of hours on low heat. Wonderful to have on hand for those grey days when the weather makes you want to crawl back into bed watching reruns of The Rockford Files.

INGREDIENTS: 6 servings

• 1 chicken or chicken parts, neck, wings,  for a total of 3 pounds.
• 1 onion, 1 carrot, a bay leaf, a few sprigs of parsley, a few cloves of garlic, a stick of cinnamon
• 2 lemons, quartered
• 1/2 cup of vermicelli noodles (can be substituted for medium-grain rice)
• Salt, pepper, cinnamon, to taste

METHOD:

1. Place the chicken in a pot and brown gently on medium heat until brown all over (this step is optional)
2. Add the cold water and the spices as well as the onion, carrot and celery stick. Cover and bring to a boil.
3. Simmer gently for at least one hour. Cool and strain the broth. Place the broth in the fridge so that the fat will congeal on the surface and can be removed easily a few hours later or the next day.
4. Take the chicken and break the meat in little pieces. Place in a bowl and cover.
5. When ready to serve, heat the broth, add the vermicelli and bring to a boil and boil gently 3 minutes.
6. Add the chicken pieces and heat for a couple of minutes. Sprinkle the soup with some parsley and serve with quartered lemons (to be squeezed in the soup) and some cinnamon (to be sprinkled on the soup).

This was my all-time favorite dish growing up. I absolutely loved the creamy yogurt sauce flavored with streaks of garlic and fresh cilantro, the hollow kibbe balls that I would break open with my spoon in order to dip them in more sauce and stretch the pleasure. I consider kibbe labnyeh one of the masterpieces of Lebanese cuisine. Actually, it encapsulates what our cuisine is about: light, healthy and with a subtle use of spices and flavors. One reader from Turkey  requested the recipe and I placed  it on top of the pile. This is the method my teta (grandma) used when making it and I am sticking with it!

As they say, Rome did not get built in one day, and Kibbe Labnyeh does take a little time.  However, and this is one of the enormous advantages of Lebanese cuisine, you can prepare it  in several stages and over several days or even weeks. The first step involves making the hollow kibbe balls, that you can at this point freeze or keep in the refrigerator till later or the next day. The next step is to prepare the yogurt sauce. The final step is to prepare the cilantro pesto which will give the sauce a wonderful aroma and this step can be done in advance, even frozen and the pesto reheated at the last minute to swirl in the sauce.

INGREDIENTS: Quantity will yield 28-30 kibbes. I used 20 for this recipe and froze the rest. 6 Servings.

KIBBE:

1 lb  (1/2 kilo) of twice ground lamb or beef or veal, extra lean

1 3/4  cup (300g. ) of bulghur or cracked wheat, very fine or #1, preferably whole-grain (don’t buy bleached bulghur), soaked in cold water for a few minutes and drained very well to remove all moisture.

Spices such as salt (1 teaspoon or to taste), black pepper (1/2 teaspoon), cinnamon (1/2 teaspoon), allspice (1/2 teaspoon)

LABAN or YOGURT:

1 32 oz container of organic plain yogurt (1 kilo)

1 Large egg

1/4 cup (2 oz, 75g.) of cornstarch, diluted in 1/2 cup (4 oz) of water

1/4 cup of medium-grain or sushi or Turkish or Egyptian rice

CILANTRO PESTO:

1 bunch of cilantro, washed and dried, stems discarded and leaves chopped fine

10 cloves of garlic or a heaping tablespoon of already made toom (garlic paste)

2 Tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil

METHOD:

• Prepare the kibbe ‘raass (balls). Take the ground meat and place into a food processor and run the machine for a few minutes until the meat is pasty. Add the spices and the bulghur. Processor for a few minutes more until the mixture is uniform. Set aside in the fridge until you are ready.
• Prepare a small bowl of water to which you will add a tablespoon of cornstarch. Mix. Add a handful of ice cubes.
• Forming the kibbe balls: Measure balls no more than 2 ounces (I use a Starbucks coffee  measuring spoon!), even smaller if you can wing it. Then form the ball into a sausage shape. With the index finger, dig a deep hole in it. If the kibbe is too sticky, dip your finger in the bowl of icy water. Now start turning the hand that is holding the kibbe balls counterclockwise until the walls of the kibbe ball become as thin as possible. Then pinch the opened end of the ball by clenching your fist and close it up! This will get easier with practice, as it truly is an art form.
• Now you can freeze a portion of the kibbes,one third, for another day.
• Prepare the rice. Put the rice in a pyrex 2-cup measuring cup or any microwavable bowl, add to it 4 oz of water (1/2 cup) and cook in the microwave for 4 minutes. Another way is to cook the rice in a small pan for about 10 minutes until the rice is halfway cooked. Set aside.
• Start preparing the laban (yoghurt). Whisk the egg in a small bowl. In another small bowl, whisk 1/4 cup of cornstarch (3 Tablespoons) and 1/2 cup of water. Drop the container of yoghurt in a pan and put it on medium heat. Mix the egg with a wooden spoon and start stirring the yoghurt in the same direction (clockwise) for 5 minutes. Then add the cornstarch mixture and keep stirring for another 5 minutes. Add the rice and keep stirring to cook the rice completely and keep the grains separate in the sauce. The yoghurt should start to  steam . Keep stirring another 5 minutes until the yoghurt is thick and creamy . Remove from the heat.
• Take a big pot and fill it with 1 1/2 quarts of water (about 6 cups) and bring to a boil. Drop the kibbe balls, a few at a time, in the boiling water and boil for 7 minutes. Remove from the pot with a sloted spoon and drop them gently and one by one in the yoghurt. Add gradually up to 2 cups of the poaching liquid to the yoghurt while   stirring again gently for 10 minutes over low heat.

• Final operation is the swirling of cilantro pesto or alyyeh at the end before presenting the kibbe labnyeh to the table.  Heat 2 Tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil in a small skillet for 2 minutes. Add the mashed garlic and chopped cilantro and with a wooden spoon mix it very well. Keep it on low to medium heat another 2 minutes and then remove from the heat. Swirl it into the soup gently. Another option is to use pesto already made and frozen . Reheat in the microwave, add a teaspoon or more of olive oil and proceed.
• Serve the kibbe labnyeh. Sahteyn!