Zucchini Soup {Koosa Soup}

ALERT.  This. tastes. so. good!  And Ayla, my 2 year old loved it and we all know how she's a little food snob!  Don't try to feed her something that doesn't taste amazing or any leftovers.  Sigh.

So it's been a little chilly in Southern California, you know 60 degrees haha.  Sorry, everyone living in cold places :) There was light drizzle the other day and its as if I iimmedietly forgot that I was raised in New Jersey and my body is supposed to be able to handle all types of cold weather conditions being that I dealt with rain, snow and freezing weather.  But nope, my body pretended it was the first time experiencing rain and I immediately pulled out my umbrella, winter jacket, boots, forgot how to drive in the rain, and made soup.  It actually felt quite nice and cozy! 

Every time I make another dish from my childhood I am amazed at how healthy and well rounded the dishes are.  The core of every dish is vegetables, vegetables and more vegetables.  And this is no exception.  Zucchini and eggplant might be tied in Middle Eastern cuisine as the most commonly used vegetable.  Let me know if there is another one.  We do so much with zucchini, most famously core it and stuff it with rice and meat and cook it in a tomato broth called Koosa Mahshi which translates to stuffed zucchini, so original right haha.  Among the many things we make with zucchini, this might be one of my favorites even though I'm not really a soup kinda girl.  But the flavor of the zucchini as it caramelizes with the onions and simmers in the chicken stock is just so good!  My mom never made it with chicken but I happened to have some cooked chicken so I threw it in there at the end and it automatically made the dish dinner worthy.  

I didn't intend for the milk drizzle to look like a strange looking Pac Man, but hey, art at its finest :) 

INGREDIENTS

2 Zucchini cut

1 diced onion

1 tablespoon butter

2 cups chicken stock

1/2 cup Milk or Heavy Cream

Flour (Optional as a thickener)

Cooked chicken, ex. rotisserie, grilled chicken etc (Optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

Sautee onions in butter until translusent

Add zucchini and reduce heat

Let them sit for a 5 -7 minutes on low heat until zucchini is tender

Add chicken stock

Bring to a boil

Do not cover because it will change the color of the zucchini

Reduce heat and let it boil for 10 minutes

Add milk and let it boil uncovered on low heat for another 10 minutes

If it is too watery and you like a thicker consistency, mix 1 tablespoon of flour with a few drops of water and mix into a paste like form and add it into the soup and let it boil for another 5 minutes

Use blender to blend it all together into soup like consistency

Optional ** Add cooked chicken

Syrian Cheese pizza

I know I know it's been a long time and I really missed photographing and writing.  I did some photographing actually but not so much the writing.  It's been a rough and tough couple of weeks, maybe I'll go into detail next time.  Side note, my mom came to visit me from New Jersey and I always have lists upon lists of all these dishes I want to make/learn from her, places I want to take her to, and things I'm going to show her and it never fails that somehow we run out of time before I am even able to pull out my list. 

My mom is a funny lady, literally great sense of humor and just one of those moms thats so amazing and always leaves you wondering how she did it all.  She came to the US pregnant with my younger sister, I was not even walking and my older sister was still a toddler too.  In Syria, almost everyone at the time was educated in French not English so she didn't speak much English.  She raised 5 of us, almost all of us are a year or two apart.  We always had breakfast, lunch and a full dinner at the table.  She managed to always be optimistic, upbeat and happy even through the brutal New Jersey winters!  She functioned on little sleep and barely drank coffee.  Tea of course is another story, she drinks that several times a day.  Now that I have my daughter, I think about how my mom did it, almost on a daily basis.  How did she juggle it all.  I'm bringing this up now, because when she came here she of course cooked and baked daily.  Heaven for me of course because I wanted to soak it all up, photograph everything, write things down.  But like a true natural mother, before I even had the chance to grab my laptop or pull out my camera, she already finished the dish and made something extra that she whipped up with some left over ingredients.  There was no way she was going to slow down for me to measure her ingredients.  Day after day, I would leave to drop my daughter off at preschool and I would come back and 3 dishes were made and I couldn't take step by steps or write down recipes. I was upset but amazed at the same time.  Will I ever be that mother that just whips up a few gourmet snacks, dinner, and dessert so effortlessly??   This is starting to sound like a Mothers Day shoutout but I got carried away thinking about the last few weeks.  I'll go into detail next time.  

Back to the food at hand.  Syrian cheese pizza.  This cheese combination can be tossed with pasta like I did HERE , made into rolls, made into pizza, baked into savory pies called fatayir.  On @sweetpillarfood instagram I asked if anyone can guess what I was making and it was so cool to see all the different responses.   People said fatayir, barak, carbonara, cheese rolls, bourek, quiche and so many other things which are essentially the same thing.  It really showed me that all across the world our roots are all the same, we enjoy the same things but add our own little twist to it.  

Fatayir, the Arab word for it, is something that I like to always have at home for those times when my hubby is hangry and I need to give him something quick, or when Ayla is hangry and I need to give her something quick haha.   They are so similar those two.  Or if I don't have time to eat anything and I'm on the go I'll grab a few.  They make them with a variety of fillings, spinach and cheese are my top favorites but there are meat fillings and zaatar and the list goes on.  They're basically the Arab version of empanadas.   I plan on making and photographing a variety of them soon (if you follow me on snapchat @nadiahubbi you would've seen that I made the spinach ones today! )  but in the meantime I used store bough pizza dough and this was so easy to put together as a result.  The combination of parsley and cheese is just so good I can't even handle it.  

INGREDIENTS

Syrian Cheese (or substitute with Queso Fresco)

Mozzarella

Feta

Finely Chopped Parsley

Black Sesame Seeds

1 egg

Pizza dough (I used pillsbury)

INSTRUCTIONS

Mix cheeses together with chopped parsley and black sesame

The egg is optional, traditionally it is used however I didn't notice much of a difference with it or without so it's up to you. It does hold everything together slightly better with the egg but if you don't have an egg then don't worry about it.

Spread on dough

Bake according to package instructions

Eat while hot with a crunchy cucumber for optimal flavor!

Stuffed Onions

Like I mentioned on my instagram (@sweetpillarfood), I'm so excited to have finally tried this after so long!  Growing up I was very accustomed to stuffed grape leaves; 2 kinds, one with meat and one more lemony  (yabraa and yalangee we called them), stuffed zucchini, eggplant, cabbage, artichoke hearts etc.  It always seemed so difficult and time consuming, and it was, time consuming more than difficult.  Especially that the dishes were being made to serve so many people.  There were special coring utensils to use to core the zucchini and a particular way to roll the grape leaves.  It was a full neighborhood affair and it happened frequently.  In fact, I just got off the phone with my mom who said her two friends were over rolling grape leaves together and she's planning on making stuffed grape leaves tonight, hours before she has a flight to catch to come visit me!  I was shocked she was even cooking let alone making grape leaves but she insisted she had fun with her two friends as they talked and caught up, they finished rolling the grape leaves before she knew it. 

Anyway, so here I am, living in my own little stuffed vegetable world, thinking I've tried every vegetable that was to be stuffed when I meet an older Chaldean Iraqi lady that spoke wonders of all these other vegetables she was stuffing.  Chaldeans for those that are not familiar have an extremely rich history that dates back to before Christ.  They are descendants of the Babylonian and Assyrian civilizations and the Aramean legacy or Mesopotamia.  To this day they speak in addition to Arabic, Chaldean which is essentially Aramaic, a slightly different dialect than that spoken by Jesus Christ.  How amazing is that?? To speak the same language Jesus Christ spoke!

So she told me they stuff carrots, onions and potatoes to name a few.  I was so intrigued that I looked more into it and found a recipe floating around the internet that I unfortunately couldn't find again of a Syrian Jewish recipe of stuffed onions with dried apricots.   Syrian Jewish cuisine is slightly different then traditional Syrian cuisine mainly because of religious dietary restrictions.  For example, in Jewish cuisine, dairy and meat are not to be combined so that eliminates some dishes that are common amongst other Syrians. 

I finally decided to give it a go and mixed together my knowledge of stuffed grape leaves and just started creating.  It turned out to be much easier then stuffing any of the other vegetables because the onions were so easy to peel.   In Damascus, it is not common to mix dried fruit in savory dishes so the result of this dish did not taste like any of my mom or grandmothers dishes.  But in other parts of the Middle East, including other parts of Syria like Aleppo for example, mixing dried fruit is very common.  I happen to be a big fan of sweet and savory so I thought it tasted amazing.  The sauce thickened and became a glaze like sauce.  The onion was so soft and tender full of flavor.  I urge you to try this and please let me know how it turns out!!

Make an incision before boiling them so they're easy to separate

INGREDIENTS

2 large onions

1/2 cup Basmati rice

1 Tomato diced

1/2 tablespoon dry mint

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Pinch of red pepper flakes or chilli powder

2 tablespoons tomato paste (1 for filling 1 for sauce)

1/2 tablespoon pomegranate molasses

2 tablespoon chopped parsley

2 tablespoon lemon juice (1 for filling 1 for sauce)

salt

2 cups vegetable broth

3 dates chopped

2 garlic sliced

INSTRUCTIONS

Make a one inch incision in the onion and place into boiling water for 8-10 minutes

Remove from boiling water and once they are cooled separate the layers and set aside

You're only going to be stuffing the first 4-6 larger layers

Chop the remaining onion

Heat oil over medium heat

Add onion stir for few minutes

Lower heat to low, add rice and stir for few minutes

Add tomato paste, dry mint, cinnamon, salt and pepper, pinch of red pepper or chilli, pomegranate molasses, diced tomatoes, parsley and lemon juice

Mix everything together over low heat for 3-5 minutes

Scoop roughly 1 tablespoon of filling into each onion

Wrap around and assemble neatly in pot

Top the onions with dates (any dried fruit you like) and garlic

In separate bowl, mix vegetable broth, tomato paste and lemon juice. Salt to taste

Place a heat proof plate on top of the onions in the pot (this will help keep them in tact)

Pour the sauce over them

Cook on low heat for 60 minutes

Green beans in a tomato onion stew

This dish is pronounced fasuleeyay in Arabic.  And it's yet another dish that I make quite often because it tastes amazing and is so simple to make.  In fact when I make it, everyone eats it so quickly that I end up making more as everyone is finishing the last few bites, its that easy.  

My brother recently argued with me saying Middle Eastern cuisine is mainly vegetarian and the meat is just an accessory.  I disagreed at first because any Middle Eastern person will tell you, Arabs love their meat.  If you're having guests over, more meat means you're more generous and hospitable.  Every occasion is marked by the amount of meat that was served.  So of course I disagreed with him.  But then the more I thought about it the more I agreed.  Most middle eastern dishes can stand alone as completely satisfying vegetarian dishes and the meat is just an accessory added at the end.  This is one of those dishes.  I tend to eat it with no meat and it tastes amazing but my mom sometimes adds tender meat chunks and it also tastes amazing.  On a Middle Eastern table, if there is meat on it it can be served as an entree, but without the meat its a side dish.  However you decide to serve this make sure you have warm pita bread to eat it with! 

INGREDIENTS

1 medium onion diced

1 lb fresh green beans

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium tomato diced

salt

1/4 cup chicken stock (optional)

1/4 cup tomato sauce

1 tablespoon tomato paste

4 garlic cloves crushed

INSTRUCTIONS

Add onions to olive oil in pan while olive oil is still cold

Sautee for a few minutes on low med heat

Add green beans

Cover on med heat for a few minutes

Add tomato and salt

Cover until green beans are semi soft

Add chicken stock, tomato sauce and tomato paste

Cover for another 7-8 minutes on low heat

Add garlic at the end and cover for a few more minutes

Sumac Cumin Crusted Salmon

Ok so confession, I didn't necessarily love salmon until recently.  Anyone else feel this way? Anyone?  It used to always taste kinda bland to me.  For a while the only way I would make it, (and the only reason I only did make it is because I knew of the health benefits), was with a touch of olive oil, lemon juice, and rosemary baked in the oven.  It was good but I needed more.  I then did a little Asian switch it up and started adding vegetables and soy sauce and some other flavors and that was good.  Salmon was on its way up for me. BUT then my husbands cousin, who happens to be a male foodie that loves to cook and experiment in the kitchen (lucky wife) told me about this recipe and this has been my go to salmon recipe ever since!  The combination of sumac, cumin and yellow mustard seeds creates this super flavorful crust that is the perfect crunch texture contrast to the melt in your mouth salmon.  It's so good, and it's so easy.  Seriously.

Sautee the kale in the same sumac, cumin, honey mustard rub for a few minutes

Today was a particularly long day for me.  I'm in the middle of production for one of the Sweet Pillar products (can't tell you which one yet :) and there is just so much that goes into producing a product that it's so non stop.  It's like conducting an orchestra, every piece has to be played correctly at the correct time in order for it all to work smoothly and successfully together.  But I digress.  I can talk about this stuff all day I worry I bore people with this food production talk haha. 

I was almost going to pick up take out as it was such a long day AND it was drizzling in Orange County, which means everyone was panicking and it was extra chaotic and busy.  I'm so glad I didn't order take out and made this instead.  I always get my salmon from Whole Foods and it tastes amazing and dinner in its entirety ends up taking 10 minutes from start to finish.

This particular dish is not a Middle Eastern classic that I grew up with although the sumac and cumin are very much staple spices in any middle eastern spice cabinet.  If you're feeling fancy but don't have the time, this is what you should make. 

Yellow mustard seeds

Ground up yellow mustard seeds

Sumac

Sautee in a tablespoon of olive oil

INGREDIENTS

5 pieces of Salmon

1 Tablespoon yellow mustard seeds ground up (important to get them in seeds and ground them up yourself)

1 Tablespoon sumac

1/2 Tablespoon ground cumin

Salt & Pepper as desired

1 Tablespoon olive oil

INSTRUCTIONS

Ground up yellow mustard seeds

Mix yellow mustard, sumac, cumin, salt and pepper together

Rub onto salmon

Heat olive oil in pan

Place salmon and sautee until inside is not raw (5-6 minutes)

Flip salmon on other side for another few minutes

Serve over sauteed kale or with rice

**After I removed the salmon from the skillet I immediately added the kale, mixing it for a few minutes with a wooden spoon and they tasted amazing

Muhammara pull apart wreath

This dish looks so impressive and looks so difficult to make but it's actually super easy!  I did semi cheat though (didn't make my own dough and used already made muhamamra) BUTT the idea is that the technique is what looks impressive and that part is not difficult at all.  You can make your own dough or use store bought, it's up to you.  You can also spread anything you want inside, it doesn't have to be Muhammara obviously.  I've made it with olive oil and zaatar, a variety of cheese, and also pizza sauce and mozzarella.  You can get as creative as you want!

For the Muhammara, you can make some and keep it stored in the fridge to use as a dip, spread on sandwiches or as a sauce.  That's what made this so simple, I had some already made and ready to go.  I posted the recipe for the Muhammara here. 

Since it only takes 10 minutes in the oven, I assembled it at home and wrapped it.  Once I got to my guests house I popped it in the oven for 10 minutes and it was fresh, warm and yummy!

INGREDIENTS

1 Pillsbury Pizza Dough

3/4 cup of Muhammara

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat the oven according to package instructions

Roll out the pizza dough

Spread Muhammara sauce evenly

Roll like seen in image above

Cut into 1 inch pieces

Place in a pan with ciricular part facing up as seen in image above

The easiest sugar cookies for 2

How cute are these cookies!! I've been wanting to do this for a while but couldn't find the proper letter stamps anywhere except online and they finally came in the mail! Just in time for Valentines Day.  I had all these ideas of what to make and what to write but I thought I'd keep it simple and give you a recipe for a super small batch of sugar cookies.  It's the worst when you make cookies and the recipe makes such a large quantity that most of them go stale because your body can only handle so much sugar.  So this solves that problem. 

The hardest part about this whole process was cutting those little letters and making sure I placed them in a way that didn't imprint them backwards.  I bought the stamp from amazon by a company called "Blinkeen" and so far I'm pleased.  I noticed that there are a bunch of different options and the biggest issue is making sure the company includes enough double letters so you can write things like "Hubbi" and have two B's.

So everyone by now knows "Hubbi" my last name means "my love" so of course I had to include that haha.  From my experience, Habibi which also means "my love" but directed to a male is probably the most commonly recognized Arabic word amongst non Arabs.  "Albi" means my heart is also a very commonly used word in everyday language, similar to how babe or honey is used in the US.  Remember Middle Easterners are very passionate people and it seems like they speak poetry in common everyday language. 

I was almost going to not include "Ro7i" which means my soul because my mom and I kept debating over how it would be spelled in English.  There is a sound in Arabic language that sounds like a deep H and the sound projects from the depth of ones throat.  That letter does not exist in the English language.  The letter in the Arabic language looks like the number 7 so nowadays there are a lot of people that write "Araglish" which is Arabic using the English letters and 7 is always what is used for that particular letter.  I wanted to write "Rohee" but my mom said I was butchering it so "Ro7i" is what we agreed on.

Ayla caught redhanded.  And when she ate it she said "mm deeeelicious" and proceeded to bounce off the walls because of the sugar intake

The evidence

I had so much fun with this, I already have a bunch of ideas that I want to implement using these letters. Happy Valentines Day!  Let me know if you end up making these cookies and what message you wrote on them!

INGREDIENTS

6 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/4 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 400

Mix all ingredients

Roll to desired thickness (keep in mind too thin will make it crunchier)

Place on parchment paper and place in oven for 6 minutes

The key is to NOT brown them or else they will dry out quickly

Enjoy!

MIDDLE EASTERN INSPIRED VALENTINES DAY

Here it is!  My Middle Eastern inspired Valentines day spread for a little get together or a party of 2:)   Another excuse to celebrate and get together and make heart shaped sandwiches!  The heart sandwiches are a must for me every Valentines day, but this year I added Muhammara as a spread with mint, basil, smoked Turkey and muenster cheese on Dave's Killer Sliced Bread.  It's the only sliced bread I get because it has 21 whole grains and you can literally see the seeds and grains plus they have a great mission for change.  I haven't been able to get any other sliced bread since I discovered this one. (btw, this is not an ad lol)

I think the key to a successful spread is to have a variety of color because people feast with their eyes.   Add raspberries or strawberries for an easy instant pop of Valentines day colors.  In addition to making your spread colorful, another trick is to make sure your table has dimension.  Laying every plate just flat on the table tends to look unappealing to the eye.  Using height by either using cake platters or using wrapped boxes and placing the plates on top of them is an easy and inexpensive way to add dimension.  

Buttery popcorn with sumac seasoning elevates regular popcorn to a middle eastern gourmet item.  The tartness of the sumac and the savory butter are a perfect combination.  They can be served in cute small batches or in one big bowl to watch with a movie after dinner.

I remember in Damascus we would have limononana (lemon and mint) drink every.single.day.  Maybe multiple times a day.  It's the most refreshing drink ever and for this Valentines Day spread I added raspberries and sparkling water to it for a little addition of pink.   {The recipe is posted in my archives just substitute sparkling water for regular water and add raspberries at the end)

Instead of tea or coffee, I served Arabic coffee which I just brought back with me from my recent trip to the Middle East.  It's so aromatic and filled with flavors of cardamon and cinnamon.  I have to do a separate post on Arabic coffee and Turkish coffee because it's so interesting and so different.  Turkish coffee is actually the preferred coffee in the Levant region (Syria, Lebanon, etc) while Arabic coffee is consumed in the Gulf states (Dubai, Kuwait etc)  But back to Valentines Day.

I actually spent 2 or 3 Valentines Day in Damascus as a teenager and I remember how big of a deal it was.  Literally the entire country would become pink and red and hearts galore.  I even remember they used to sell little baby chicks at the farmers markets and actually spray painted all the chicks pink and red.  Keep in mind Damascus is a city, not country, so people don't have backyards.  But every home had a balcony and thats where the pink and red chicks would be raised. 

The amount of love and romance that is in the Middle East, and I speak specifically of Damascus and Beruit only because I know those two the most.  Arabic songs are sooo romantic and oozing love.  They're such passionate people and you can feel it.  In Damascus its a city so everyone lives in buildings and like I mentioned they all have balconys.  It is verrryy common for people to fall in love with the neighbor and have a "balcony love affair".  If a girl is on the balcony watering the flowers and the neighbor in the adjacent building catches a glimpse of her and they exchange a smile, that's the beginning of a love relationship.  I remember my cousin was in love with the neighbor for years, constantly peeking out the window just to catch a glimpse of him.  They exchanged numbers by putting their fingers up and would then signal to eachother when it was a good to call.  I remember she would listen to Arabic songs and would blast a song whose words delivered a message that she wanted him to know so he could hear it.  Songs with messages like "i'm thinking of you" and "you're on my mind" It was a thrilling time for the both of them, all the hiding and sneaking around.   They eventually married and have 3 beautiful children.

Times have changed now but I remember a decade ago having a boyfriend in the less conservative areas of Damascus was present but not "allowed".  The fathers were protective of their little girls and the brothers the same.  If a guy wanted to have a relationship with a girl he would have to talk to the family and ask permission to get to know her.  They would talk and have chaperoned dates.   Every boy was a Romeo and every girl was a Juliet.  They loved love and passion and Valentines Day was the perfect way for everyone to express that. 

I found heart shaped pasta at a little Italian shop and thought it would be perfect.  Unfortunately, after I boiled it the colors faded and the pasta lost its shape.  It still tasted amazing tossed in a garlicky cream with basil, mint, parsley, and arabic cheese. 

The tulip flowers is another item that I made in the past that's easy and always a fun hit.  Cherry tomatoes stuffed with any kind of cheese, I used Nabulsi cheese this time, but usually I use goat cheese.  I used chives for the stem and used a toothpick to create a hole in the tomato so it was easy to insert the chive.  It's so easy you can put your 2 year old to work.  #toughboss #mylittlehelperJust kidding, she was a great helper but none of the ones she attempted to make turned out presentable lol but still edible. 

I hope this Middle Eastern inspired Valentines Day spread inspires you to have fun this holiday.  Don't get caught up in the "rules" of Valentines Day, you don't need to have a boyfriend or husband.  You just need love in your life, and that comes in a lot of forms.  Celebrate the love of friends, family, neighbors, life, or love. 

xoxo

Valentines Day Semolina sponge cake aka Namoura || Basbousa || Hareesay

What is everyone doing for Valentines Day??? I have such a love hate relationship with this holiday and let me explain why.  Despite the fact that my last name means love in Arabic, so I believe everything love and hearts and pink and frills is in my blood because c'mon obviously my name is indicative that either my great grandfather was cupid himself or worked very closely with him.  So I love love.  But I hate feeling forced to celebrate something just because I'm a consumer, and I am very much a sucker consumer.   I buy something just because they're giving out samples (to be fair, I usually like it and  I like supporting small business and usually they are small businesses), or the packaging is pretty (again, to be fair, I'm a huge packaging fan).  I love the holiday itself, I love celebrating love.  I also love an excuse to throw a themed party, and make everyone wear red or pink.  But I don't want to be told to.  I don't want to go out to a restaurant on Valentines Day with my husband just because its Valentines Day.  I much prefer to go out the day before or after Valentines Day just to be rebellious.  On Valentines Day I prefer to stay home or have friends over and make a home cooked meal, something special and celebrate love the way I want to, on my own terms.  

Use a Turkish/Arabic coffee "dolay" {coffee pot} as a decorative piece

This year I wanted to make a middle eastern style Valentines Day get together and reinvent fun middle eastern dishes and desserts.   I'm going to post them in stages because it takes so much time to write up a post and I don't want to keep you waiting as I get it all together!   

Semolina yogurt sponge cake is known as Hareesay in Syria, Namoora among Palestinians and Lebanese and Basboosa in Egypt and North Africa.  It's the equivalent of brownies and is commonly consumed with tea or coffee.  But then again, in the Middle East they drink tea and coffee all day everyday so pretty much everything is consumed with coffee haha. 

This is yet another thing my mom used to make that I always thought was sooo impossible to make and again I'm surprised that it's so easy! The only downfall is I found out how much sugar is in it and that was a little scary.  But there is yogurt in it so that's good, right?

Moving on.

The way to make this dessert is by mixing all the ingredients and then letting it sit for a little while it all rises.  Then incisions are made, usually in the shape of diamonds so it bakes into the shape of diamonds and its easily cut off.  Almond halves or pistachios are usually used to top each diamond for a nice little crunch but mainly decoration.  To make this Valentines Day appropriate, I thought to make heart incisions instead of the diamonds but that seemed wasteful because there would be so much extra cake.  So, I purchased little candy lips from the supermarket and topped each one off with that instead of the almond or pistachio. 

My daughter Ayla is in the phase of wanting to "help mommy" So everything is "I help mommy" "mommy I do it" " Ayla help".  So she threw these cookie cutters on top as I was taking pictures and I actually liked it.  She was so proud of herself too haha.

INGREDIENTS

2 cups semolina course

1 cup sugar

1 cup full fat yogurt

1 tablespoon table baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 tablespoon ghee (clarified butter)

FOR SYRUP

2 cups sugar

1 cup water

3 drops lemon juice

3 drops vanilla extract

1 tablespoon butter

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Mix sugar and yogurt until sugar is dissolved

2. Add semolina, baking powder, and baking soda

3. Last, add melted clarified butter or ghee

4. Spread tahini on bottom of pyrex and around the corners (if you don't have tahini use butter or flour)

5. Add mixture to pyrex 9x9

6. Let it sit for a few hours covered on side so baking powder does its job and semolina soaks up the yogurt

7. After a few hours use a knife to make incisions

8. Put in oven 350 30-35 minutes uncovered

9. While its in the oven make syrup

10. Mix 2 cups sugar & 1 cup water over medium heat

11. Let it boil for exactly 9 minutes

12. Add 3 drops of lemon juice, 3 drops of vanilla extract, and 1 tablespoon of butter AFTER the 9 minutes of boiling

13. As soon as the semolina cake is out of the oven pour the room temperture syrup on top. The more syrup the better because the cake will soak it all up so it might seem like a lot of syrup but it wont be

Kofta Tahini

THERES MORE TO DO WITH TAHINI THEN MAKE HUMMUS!  I feel like with all the hummus recipes out there I even forget that we use tahini for so much more then just hummus!  And this is one of those things, kthanksbye. 

But seriously, tahini is one of those things that makes me laugh because my mom would have to climb mountains and cross rivers to go to a little ethnic store over a half hour away (thank God my local supermarket carries it now haha) that would import this and we were the only kids in the entire neighborhood that even knew what it was.  She would always do her ethnic grocery shopping on Saturdays because that was when the pita bread was fresh but also because my dad wanted to go too, he's a secret foodie.  It was like a family field trip and we would stock up on fresh pita bread, tahini, all kinds of fresh produce, different cuts of meats, an assortment of middle eastern cheeses and olives.  We would come back home with bags of groceries and I remember my siblings and I not even waiting until the groceries have been put away to stuff our faces with fresh pita sandwiches my mom would make on the fly.   It would be happy chaos in the kitchen as everyone is rummaging through bags trying to figure out what they want to eat.  My mom, the savior that she is, would somehow make this tahini sauce in minutes without anyone even noticing and hand everyone a fresh falafel sandwich using the crispy cucumber and fresh tomatoes we just got drizzled with the tahini sauce, or a Nabulsi cheese with crunchy green pepper and fresh tarragon wrapped in warm pita.  

Now, it's like the world has discovered our little kitchen gem and it makes me smile like ya, I knew about that before I was even born, welcome to the club :)  In the Middle East, they use tahini to make hummus, sauce, breakfast, cookies, cakes, the list goes on.   I tend to make a lot of tomato and eggplant based dishes I'm realizing and when I want to change it up I usually go Asian or this dish.

The sauce is this amazing yogurt based tahini lemony based sauce that like I mention already, we use for falafel sandwiches, shawerma meat sandwiches (we always use a garlic sauce for the chicken shawerma sandwich), fava bean breakfast dish called foul mddamas or on a potato dish.  Usually everytime I make this I'll end up with extra sauce (intentionally) which I store in tuber ware and I'll make falafel the next day and use the leftover sauce.  Done and Done.  But no joke, it might be one of my all time favorite sauces because its so full of flavor yet feels light and smooth.

In fact, I posted and raved about the amazing sauce right here http://www.sweetpillar.com/blog/2015/10/7/zaatar-crusted-shrimp-with-lemon-tahini-drizzle

This dish is kofta skewers baked with a yogurt tahini sauce and then topped with potatoes.  Some people opt to not spend the extra time making little kofta skewers and instead just pressing it onto the pyrex so its one giant kofta pizza basically and then topped with the sauce and potatoes.

I like the addition of the potatoes because it gives the dish an additional texture.  If you notice I leave the skin on the potatoes because most of the nutrients of the potatoes is actually in the skin so I just scrub them really well and leave them on but you can remove the skin or remove the entire potato addition from the dish if you don't like potatoes.  

I first put parsley and onions in the processor so all the juices come out and can be absorbed by the meat.  I then add the spices and parsley onion mixture.  Usually I add this amazing Turkish spice blend that I purchased at the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul a few years ago but that has since finished and I don't even know the name of it to purchase more.   When I bought it they put it in a little plastic bag which I transferred to a mason jar and that was it.  No name, no label.  I've tried to hunt it down but haven't found anything comparable.  So if anyone can help, let me know!  But anyway since I've departed ways with my Turkish blend I use a middle eastern all spice which is a mix of cumin, coriander, paprika, etc.

INGREDIENTS

1 lb Ground beef (or lamb - if using lamb combine it with beef otherwise it's too heavy)

1 Small onion

2 Garlic clove

1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley

1 tablespoon All Spice (if you cannot find middle eastern all spice you can mix 1/2 teaspoon of each ground cinnamon, paprika, cumin, ground cloves, nutmeg & coriander)

Salt

Pepper

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 350

Combine all the ingredients for the yogurt tahini sauce in a food processor and set aside (see link for previous post with ingredients for sauce)

If frying potatoes, heat up vegetable oil and fry at this point and set aside

If baking potatoes, put potatoes on baking sheet and drizzle with oil and put in the oven for 10-12 minutes

In food processor pulse onion, parsley, and garlic

Add onion mixture to ground beef along with spices, salt and pepper

Mix with your hands long enough for all the flavors to really mix together (1-2 minutes)

Using your hands make round balls then press them so they elong and are fingerlike length and form kabob shape

Using either vegetable oil or sunflower oil sautee the kabobs in a frying pan. Sautee them about 5-6 minutes so they are brown on the outside but still slightly rare on the inside (we're going to put them back in the oven so you don't want them to overcook but instead finish cooking in the oven)

Place the kabobs on a pyrex

Pour the tahini yogurt sauce over the kabobs and top with potatoes and put in the oven for 5-7 minutes

Garnish with parsley, paprika, and/or pine nuts

Serve with rice or pita bread

Zaatar Crusted Lemon Chicken

First of all, let me clarify how it's pronounced.  It's not zaatar like some sort of Zoro Spaniard sword fighter, it's actually pronounced za'tar.  The apostrophe is a slight pause and a sound that is only found in the Arabic language.  Its a sound released from the depth of your throat, almost like you're about to gag but you decide not to and then continue the rest of the word.

But you know what, zaatar, za'tar, tomato, tomatoe, potato, potatoes.  Pronounce it as you please, I'm not judging.

Zaatar is one of those things that I grew up with and was as common to me as hummus and pizza were.  At home we ate it one of two ways and that was either mezze style right next to olive oil or like an open faced pizza with olive oil called "mana -eesh".  Olive oil and Zaatar go hand in hand like.... peanut butter jelly time.  

So the way its done is as follows;  there is always a slightly shallow bowl of zaatar and another slightly shallow bowl of olive oil.  You take your fresh warm pita bread and dip it in olive oil, then quickly in the zaatar; the olive oil helps the zaatar stick to the bread and then you eat it.  It doesn't end there.  While the bite is still in your mouth you either crunch on a fresh cucumber or drink a sip of hot tea, or both.  And thats how its done, as simple as that.  Obviously the steps to do this become so second nature and it just becomes a dip, dip, crunch, sip and repeat situation.

That's how it's done in Damascus at least, next to your bowl of olives, your plate of lebne, hummus, eggs, jams, cheeses and whatever else you're having for breakfast.  I specify Damascus because in even the close neighboring countries, (literally an hour drives away from Damscus is Beruit, Lebanon), zaatar is consumed in so many different ways.  In fact the zaatar from Syria and Lebanon is slightly different then the zaatar from the Jordan and Palestine region and extremely different then anything I've seen in the US. 

The zaatar that is not from the Middle East will never taste the same because it uses wild thyme specific to the Levant region (Syria, Lebanon, Palestine etc) Zaatar is prepared using this dried wild thyme, toasted sesame seeds, oregano, and sometimes sumac all ground up. In fact, the main difference between the Palestinian version and the Syrian/Lebanease version is the sumac berries and sometimes pomegranate molasses which gives it a shade of red versus the Palestinian/Jordanian version which is the commonly seen green zaatar.  The Palestinian version is pretty famous throughout the entire region and everyone everywhere is always trying to find someone that is coming from there to bring a bag of authentic Palestinian za'tar.  

I learned as I got older that some people don't only serve the olive oil and zaatar in separate shallow bowls but instead they just mix it together and you just dip once (gasp and super shock)  I also learned that some people (my husband taught me this one) make a lebne sandwich with olive oil and zaatar in a pita bread wrap and call it lunch.  Some people make an entire chicken dinner with zaatar and lemons.  I mean the possibilities are endless.  It has a slightly sweet but mainly tart taste which makes it so unique and full of flavor.  

There is so much to say about zaatar, I could go on all day.  Literally!  For now, I'll leave it at this.   ** If you follow me on snapchat (@nadiahubbi)  I said I was going to make an announcement today BUT i'm actually not ready SO I'll save it for next week :):)

I wanted to take make a chicken dish using zaatar and I remember following a recipe years ago pre Pinterest days so of course I had no idea where to find it again.  I perfected this recipe so its easy and the chicken is moist on the inside.  I used bone in skin on chicken thighs but you can easily substitute chicken breast but just make sure its bone in otherwise it will be on the dry side. 

INGREDIENTS

6 chicken thighs bone in skin on

2 Tablespoons zaatar

3 Tablespoons olive oil

2 Tablespoons lemon juice

1/2 cup chicken stock

1/2 cup diced potatoes

Salt & Pepper

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 400

Clean chicken

Rub chicken, zaatar, lemon, potatoes, salt and pepper together

Place in 9x9 pyrex

Evenly distribute chicken stock over chicken

Cover and put in the oven for 45 minutes

Uncover for 5 minutes to brown the top

Serve with couscous, rice, or on its own!

Baked Eggplant in tomato meat stew [ Sayniya’it baitinjan a.ka. Tray of Eggplant]

******** When I typed this post I was in the Middle East BUT the internet connection was so poor that I literally couldn't post this!  I had all these plans of posting so much and writing as I learn but that clearly didn't happen.  BUT I'm back in California now and I had enough time with the lack of internet to get lost in my head and swim in ideas that I want to implement in 2016 so get ready for tuesday posts!  Hope everyone had an amazing holiday season and a happy new years.  =)=) *********

The title of this dish literally translates to tray of eggplant, so simple and straight to the point.  I never really paid particular attention to what is consumed in traditional middle eastern cuisine until I started writing down recipes and saving them.  I’ve since noticed that eggplants are maybe the number consumed vegetable, at least in my family.  Does anyone else see this trend too?? We stuff them, ferment them, bake them, fry them, the list goes on.  I have yet to meet a Middle eastern that says they don't like eggplants.  If you’re out there, come forth at once.

I’m actually in the Middle East as I type this.  I’m in Kuwait doing culinary research and getting inspiration, and eating tons of amazing food.  Kuwait is part of the Gulf region and very different than the Levantine countries which includes Syria, where my parents are from and really all I knew until I was exposed to people from other Arab countries.  The Kuwaiti Arabic dialect is so different than Syrian dialect Arabic that at my moderate level of Arabic comprehension I actually don’t understand it very easily.  Kuwait itself is a lot more Western developed so walking into a mall here (and there are a ton of large extravagent malls here) you’ll see all the shops you would find in a high end mall in the United States or Europe.   If it wasn't for some of the women dressed in all black you could easily mistake yourself for being in the US.  On the contrary, you won’t find any of that in the Syria.  You will find a lot of authentic shops that have been there for centuries.  I have such a warm spot for Damascus in my heart because I spent quite some time there as a child.   The people are so warm, friendly with a unique sense of humor.  The type of humor that cuts through the awkwardness of meeting someone new and makes you feel like you've known each other forever.  Some of the best food i've ever had was in Damascus.  There is a street lined with shawarma shops in an area of Damascus called the Meedan that have been there for decades and people drive from all over for late night shawarma cravings.  I'm going to try to dig up some pictures of Damascus but in the meantime, tray of eggplant it is!  There are a few variations of this recipe but this is my go to one that I make pretty often.  My mother in law makes a real amazing one where she includes jalapeños for a great kick at the end, i'll get that recipe up soon. 

INGREDIENTS:

2 large eggplants (peeled and cut into 1 inch slices)

Olive oil to brush on eggplants if baking

Vegetable oil to fry eggplants if frying

1 tablespoon vegetable oil to sauté onions

ground beef

1/2 medium size onion

1 can diced tomato

1/2 cup chicken stock

1 tablespoon tomato paste

salt

Pita bread or white rice to serve with

INSTRUCTIONS

Peel and cut the eggplant in 1 inch slices

Place eggplant on paper towel and sprinkle salt on them for 20 mins

*This step is very important because it will drain the eggplant of excess water. If you skip this step the dish will lack flavor because the excess water will dilute the taste. *

Wash eggplants after 20 minutes and pat dry with paper towel

Either fry them in heated vegetable oil or bake them for 25 minutes at 350

Place the baked or fried eggplants onto a pyrex so they are completely pressed against each other

*The more you squish in the better because they will thin out during cooking.

On a stovetop sauté onions in oil for 1-2 minutes until they are soft and then add beef and brown the meat with salt and pepper to liking

Add 15 oz can of petite diced tomato, chicken stock and tomato paste and let it simmer together so flavors mesh together for 10-12 minutes.

Top the tomato mixture onto the eggplants. Cover and put in the oven for 25 minutes at 350

I like to broil it uncovered for a few minutes at the end to give it a nice overall finish.

Garlic infused Medjool Date Creamy Brie with Zaatar Crusted Crostini

Ok I am obsessed with cheese.  Like Cheese > Chocolate any day of the week.  I don't even discriminate, I am equally obsessed; Brie, Blue, Chedder, Halloumi, Havarti, Nabulsi, Gouda, the list goes on.   This super super super easy and amazingly tasting appetizer is so perfect for entertaining.  It literally takes almost zero effort but looks impressive and taste amazing.

So Brie is not a commonly consumed cheese in the Middle East so for this interpretation of the dish I made it a bridge between modern and middle eastern ingredients.  During the holidays cheese related appetizers float all over the internet but I was inspired to make this from a post Gaby did on her site Whats Gaby Cooking.  

I first made slight incisions on top of the brie and inserted thinly sliced garlic into the incisions.  This will give a nice slight garlic taste in the cheese which taste oh my God so friggin amazing.  Okay moving on.

In order to make a perfect cut splitting the Brie into two I use this little trick that makes a very clean cut through this otherwise creamy and sticky cheese.  

I first make a slight incision all along the outside of the Brie and then I use dental floss and wrap it around and inside the incision and just pull through, and thats it. Once I have the two pieces I bottom side with chopped up Medjool Date but feel free to use any kind of jam or fruit.  I then put the two halves together and this is very important, put it BACK into the little wooden case it came in.  I tried making this once with the cheese NOT in the case because I was so paranoid about it catching fire in the oven and naturally the cheese melted and looked like a big blob.  If you want it to look presentable and in tact it must be in the oven in the wood case.  

Feel free to top it with any other fruit or jam

In order to make the crostinis I used fresh sourdough baguette from the local bakery.  Make sure to cut them into thin slices and top with olive oil and zaatar and bake in the oven.  It's literally as easy as that! 

Dip the crunchy crostini right into the brie and ENJOY! It's so good I literally can't even take it.  

INGREDIENTS

1 round brie wheel

2 garlic thinly sliced

Medjool Dates

Thyme for garnish

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 350

Make small incisions and insert thin garlic

Make small incision around the edge of Brie and use dental floss to cut in half (see post for details)

Add Medjool dates or any other fruit or jam on bottom half

Top the Brie and return back to wood case it came in

Place on parchment paper on tray and bake for 15-20 minutes

INGREDIENTS

Sourdough baguette

Olive oil

Zaatar

INSTRUCTIONS for ZAATAR CROSTINI

Slice sourdough baguette into thin slices

Place on parchment paper

Drizzle with olive oil

Top with zaatar

Bake for 5-7 minutes

the BEST Nutella Cookies

Okay so I know my last post was a little rebellious in that it wasn't a modern middle eastern recipe necessarily and now I'm posting a Nutella cookie recipe and everyone knows Nutella is very much an Italian spread.  Let me just take a moment and explain my train of thought and why I felt this post was not only acceptable to post on my "modern middle eastern" blog but necessary.  If anyone has ever been to Syria or Lebanon and I'm sure any of the other Middle Eastern countries then you know Nutella is as much part of the culture as falafel and hummus are.  To describe the modern middle eastern culinary world as I know it and to not include Nutella would not be a fair account of the cuisine of this region.   

Pita bread with Nutella spread and bananas is a very normal breakfast in Damascus.  I've had this recipe hand written for over 10 years and I'm not sure where I originally got it from but I can almost very confidently say I got it from one of my cousins in Damascus.   "Almost" and "confidently" in the same sentence seems like a contradiction haha.  Without further delay I give you my most favorite Nutella cookies ever.  Plus these stack so perfectly on top of each other that they make the perfect little gift for the holidays or just because.

INGREDIENTS

1 3/4 Flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup Nutella

1/2 cup butter softened (1 stick)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt

INSTRUCTIONS

ONE Preheat oven at 350

TWO Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in bowl

THREE In separate bowl, mix Nutella, butter, and both sugars

FOUR Use hand mixer to cream ingredients together (3 minutes)

FIVE Add egg & vanilla and mix until incorporated

SIX Stir in dry ingredients

SEVEN Place walnut size on sheet

EIGHT Bake 9 minutes

NINE cool on cooling rack but cover immediately after so they stay moist on the inside

Middle Eastern-esqe Gold and White Gender Reveal party`

Gender reveals have become more popular recently.  Personally, my gender reveal was so much more special and fun than my actual baby shower, although I wholeheartedly loved that as well.  I think sharing the surprise of finding out the gender with family and friends is so exciting and meaningful.  If you do want to have a gender reveal party but don't have the time to throw a big party, the cool thing is, you don't have to.  A small get together with family and friends will be just as fun.  The best part of the entire affair is the surprise of finding out the gender.  Important items are how you're going to share the surprise (a box of balloons with gender specific balloons, a cake with a gender revealing color on the inside, cupcakes, string spray, and so much more), a way to get guests involved in the fun (wearing pins with gender specific colors, mustache or lip cutouts, bows or ties, ask guests to wear specific color clothes depending on their guess.  You get the idea ) 

I was lucky enough to throw this party with a group of creatively talented friends.  The flowers were out of this world beautiful, the cake looked and tasted amazing, the favors were perfect, the dessert tasted amazing, and the location was so charming.  This is my first non recipe post but the pictures were too pretty not to share!  I hope you enjoy them and they're able to give you inspiration!  

Credits:

• Calligraphy: Eighth and Autumn.com
• Location: Sherman Library and Gardens in Corona Del Mar, CA
• Cake: JF Cake Gram
• Cake Topper & Banner : Shiki Co
• Photography: Me

And in case you're wondering, its a boy! 

"Eggplant Upside down" Rice, Eggplant, & Tomato dish called "Ma'loubay Betinjan"

Upside Down aka Ma’loubay

The name of this dish, ma’loubay literally translates to “upside down” because of the way it is served by first flipping it upside down like a beautiful cake with layers of rice, meat and vegetables.  

Think about it, isn’t everything better upside down.  I actually can’t think of anything else thats better upside down.  Maybe headstands.  But is that really better?  Okay moving on.

I DO know that a rice, meat and vegetable dish IS better upside down because the flavors all marry each other and the best of the flavors fall to the bottom and when flipped upside down it brings the best of the bottom to the top.  #started from the bottom now we’re here haha

There are many variations across the Levantine (Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, parts of Turkey) which include mainly a variety of vegetables usually eggplants, cauliflower, potatoes, and carrots.    I’ve seen tons of images, but of course I can’t find a single one to post now, of 2-3 women and men all holding a ginormous pot trying to carefully flip it over.  They’re usually served with yogurt or a simple Middle Eastern salad which includes tomatoes and cucumber.  

I had to experiment with a few pots I own and found one that works perfect for my measurements and I just stick with it.  Usually, every Middle Eastern home has a special straight edged pot that makes it easier for flipping.

This dish could be time consuming because of the prep work required but it is NOT difficult.  Once everything is prepped, its just a matter of layering them together.  Do not be intimidated by how pretty it looks!  And even if your ma'loubay flops when you flip it over it will still be an amazingly tasting and aromatic dish!

Feeds 3-4 people (or just the three of us with just a little bit of leftovers haha)

INGREDIENTS

1. 1 large eggplant sliced
2. .3 pounds ground beef
3. 1/4 diced tomato
4. 2 tablespoon pine nuts (or substitute almonds)
5. 1 1/2 cup jasmine rice
6. 1 1/2 cup chicken stock
7. 3 tblspoon tomato paste
8. oil for frying or for brushing eggplants for broil
9. salt & pepper to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

1. peel and slice the eggplants 

Lay them on a paper towel and salt them.  

Let them sit for 30 minutes

2. Put the jasmine rice in a bowl and cover with water

Let it sit for 30 minutes

3. Meanwhile, brown the meat with salt and pepper

Sauté the pine nuts with 1 tbl vegetable oil

Combine with meat and set aside

4. On low heat add chicken stock, tomato paste and salt and pepper to taste 

Whisk it all together until paste completely dissolves

5. When the eggplants are done straining wash them off with water and pat dry

Heat up oil and fry eggplants (OR the healthier version is to skip the initial part about straining them and just brush the eggplants with oil. sprinkle with salt and put in a preheated broiler until they are brown on each side).  

6. When the 30 minutes is over for the rice, sauté for 1-2 minutes in 1 tablespoon vegetable oil and mix in 1 tablespoon tomato paste (this is optional but I feel it gives the rice a little more flavor and makes the rice more moldable and easier when flipping upside down).

Now that everything is prepped all we have to do is assemble.

• Start by placing the diced tomatoes at the bottom
• Add the meat and pine nuts
• Layer the eggplants (see image)
• Add the rice inside the eggplants and carefully pour the tomato stock on the rice
• Bring to a quick boil then lower heat and cover for 15 minutes.  
• Keep it covered for an additional 5 minutes
• Uncover, place plate on top of pot, say a prayer and flip that bad boy

This picture was taken right after I flipped it and a lot of the tomato and meat were still stuck to the bottom of the pot.  I fixed that problem by just scraping the pot and putting them back on top.

Dried Lebne Balls

Dried Lebne Balls are SO EASY TO MAKE I'm still shocked and excited at the same time.  Gearing up to eat lebne balls for breakfast, lunch and dinner. 

Lebne is basically strained yogurt also known as Greek yogurt or greek style yogurt in the US.  In Damascus and other parts of the Middle East, it is served meze style the same way hummus, baba ghanoush, and muhammara are served.  It's spread on a small plate, drizzled with olive oil with warm fresh pita bread handy.  The type of yogurt used; sheep or cow and the type of olive oil used will affect the taste.  I heard in the Gulf countries they even use camels milk, but I personally have never tried camel anything. 

These dried lebne balls, sometimes simply called lebne in olive oil are basically strained even longer than traditional lebne, formed into balls and then stored in jars filled with olive oil.  I remember in my grandmothers kitchen in Damascus she would store jars and jars of these in her kitchen attic which is called "s'eefay".  Her "s'eefay" was just above her kitchen and wasn't like the east coast attics that required you to pull down a ladder.  It was just 6 or 7 steps that led to a pantry type space where you had to duck the entire time because of the low ceiling.  That's where she stored all her dried items like lentils, various types of rice, dried mint, dried apricots etc and jars of lebne in olive oil, jam, makdoos ( eggplant stuffed with walnuts in olive oil, more of that later) among other items.   

One of my earliest memories as a child visiting Syria from New Jersey was of the kitchen attic.  I remember my mother telling us all about our cousins our age that lived in the same building as my grandmother.  Damascus is a city so none of the homes in the city are stand alone individual homes like they would have in the suburbs.   Very common like what my grandparents arrangement is, my grandparents own the building and they live on one floor and my uncle lived on another floor and my other uncle lived above him on another floor.   The homes are not small either.  My grandparents home was a full 3,500- 4,000 sq ft home, 4 bedrooms with a separate formal guest room, large dining room and living room and wrap around balconies and kitchen attic =).    

I remember our flight arrived late at night and everyone was asleep but we were so excited to meet our cousins for the first time.  The first thing we asked our grandmother was where our cousins are and she said upstairs sleeping, implying upstairs in their own home which was completly separate.  But we happened to be having this conversation in the kitchen with our eyes locked on the stairs leading to the attic. 

We waited for everyone to sleep and then we snuck into the kitchen in search of our cousins.  It was dark so I remember starting to get creeped out.  When we got upstairs and found all the food and jars we were so confused.  We decided to go back to bed and wait for the morning.  It still had not occurred to us that our cousins did not sleep in a pantry next to rice and lebne balls in olive oil.  For a day or two, I remember feeling so bad that our cousins slept in such conditions and thinking how different and weird the Syrian culture is haha.  It wasn’t until we went to play with our cousins dolls in their room that we had realized what happened. 

My mom called me the other day and said she made lebne balls and for the first time I asked her how to make them.  I made sure I was sitting down ready to write down a long complicated step by step.  She said get yogurt, salt and a cheese cloth and strain the yogurt and salt.  That was it.  And she was right, that literally was it.  The only “difficult” part is that you have to wait for a few days for it to be fully strained.  Before I went to bed a few days ago, I poured the yogurt in the cheese cloth in a colander on top of tuberware and went to sleep.  Literally took two seconds.  The next day a ton of water was in the tuber ware (see picture above).  I threw that out, put it back in the fridge and waited another day.  It actually tasted amazing after day 1 but I waited for the full 2 days.  I formed them into balls and laid them out on a paper towel and waited another day.  AND THAT WAS IT.

I decided to deconstruct the meze platter and instead of serving the lebne balls and zaatar and olives separate I thought why not put them in one jar.  I realized as I was doing this why they make them into balls and not just just a spread.  My guess is that more liquid is drained out when they are separated.  But anyway, I decided none the less to put them in a jar because the lebne tasted amazing at this point even without the extra straining.  So I put zaatar at the bottom, lebne in the middle, and olive oil, lemon and fresh tarragon at the top.  It was so cute!  Everyone I know is going to get a jar from me for the holidays!  You. Are. Welcome!

INGREDIENTS

• yogurt
• salt

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Pour yogurt and salt in cheese cloth and colander

2.  Wait for 2 days for it to drain all the liquid

3. Form into balls on kitchen paper towel

4. Put in a jar with olive oil

Mjaddara {Rice & Lentils with Carmalized Onions}

The onions are everything! 

I'm not going to lie, this is not the first dish that comes to my mind when I think of what to make for dinner.  I usually only make it when my husband requests it, which happens to be pretty often.  Buttttt, whenever I do make it, I love it so much and end up eating most of it lol.

This is also the only dish (correct me if i'm wrong) that is Middle Eastern, Vegetarian, and acceptable to eat as a main dish lol.  Usually, at least in my family, if there is no meat, then it's just an appetizer or side dish.  So bring it on meatless Mondays, Mjaddara is ready! 

Growing up my mom always made this with bulgar (#3) and lentils with tons of onions and a tomato salad on the side.  My husband grew up eating it with rice and lentils with a tomato sauce not he side so I tend to make it that way (also because I always have rice handy but don't always have bulgar).  For me, the onions make the entire dish.  The way they melt in your mouth and compliment the lentils is just so good.  

INGREDIENTS

FOR THE MJADDARA 

• 2 onions sliced
• 1/2 onion diced
• 1 cup rice
• 1/2 cup lentils
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 1 tbl ground cumin
• 3 tbl olive oil
• 1 tbl vegetable oil
• salt & pepper

INSTRUCTIONS

• Add the oils to a saucepan and immediately add sliced onions before oil heats
• Leave on low heat until onion begins to brown (15-20 mins)
• In separate medium pan lightly sauté lentils with diced onion (1-2 minutes)
• Add 1 cup chicken stock
• Cover and lower heat to medium for 10-15 minutes until lentils are soft
• Add rice
• Add remaining chicken stock
• Add reserved oil from the caramelized onion
• Add cumin, salt and pepper
• Bring chicken stock to boil
• Reduce heat to low and cover for 15 minutes
• Let it sit for 5 additional minutes covered off heat
• Top with onions and serve with tomato sauce

INGREDIENTS

FOR THE TOMATO SAUCE

• 1/4 chopped onion
• 2 minced garlic
• 5 tomato chopped
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 1 tbl tomato paste
• 1 tbl olive oil

INSTRUCTIONS

• Sautee onions and garlic in oil over medium heat
• Add tomatoes and sauté for a few more minutes
• Add chicken stock and bring to a boil
• Cover and lower heat to medium for 5-10 minutes (until tomato is soft)
• Add tomato paste and stir
• Cover and continue to let the flavors immerse in each other 5-7 minutes
• Use a handmixer to mix if you prefer it to be smoother
• Serve with Mujaddara

Eggplant Salad

My maternal grandfather had 12 children, yea that's correct, thats not a typo.   All 12 were with my grandmother, so yea.  (My dad is also 1 of 10! Needless to say I have a ton of cousins lol) So there were tons of kids and grandkids which made him the ultimate Godfather of the household.  It was so fun beyond words to visit Damascus because of my parents huge families.  

In the dining room which connected to the living room there was a long table that seated over 20 people which is where everyone hung out, mainly because everyone was always eating! My grandfather, who they called Abu Sayeh (which literally translates to Father of Sayeh, his oldest sons name) would sit not at the head of the table but instead on the corner seat so he can have a better view of the living room and still be kept in the loop of what everyone is doing.  He had major FOMO (fear of missing out) haha, but seriously he did lol.  

Although my grandmother (Umm Sayeh, mother of Sayeh haha) would make so many amazing meals every. single. day. literally. my grandfather would prefer to sit on the corner of the 20 person table and eat this simple eggplant salad, which basically consisted of fried eggplant, parsley, tomato, cucumber, and tons of garlic and salt with pita bread.   Problem was, everyone loved this salad too, but I guess good thing he was the Godfather.   The way the eggplant melts in your mouth, the crunchy cucumber, the combination of parsley and garlic, just wow.  

Baby Eggplant Salad

Usually, this dish is made using the bigger eggplants.  But I find these so cute because I'm a dork and love everything mini.  They're so cute for entertaining.  These particular eggplants are called Indian Eggplants and the striped purple and white ones are called Japanese eggplants.  I found them to be the perfect bite size.  I thought it would be so cute to add them to pre cut pita bread and serve them like a little taco. (seems I'm craving tacos, I keep talking about them haha) SEE BELOW.

How cute are these????? I can't even

So I'm not going to claim that these are healthy because they are fried.  I'm actually even hesitant to post the picture of them being fried.  They can most definitely be made in the oven, but it just takes more time and I didn't have the time at the time when I made them lol say time five times real fast.  However, I will post a "healthy" version of this in the future because its so friggin good! 

INGREDIENTS:

• 12 Indian eggplants (really any eggplant works)
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley
• 1/4 cup chopped tomato (I know, I didn't use tomato but honestly its because Ayla, my 2 year old, ate my last tomato as I was making them!)
• 1 tbl minced garlic
• 1/4 cup cucumber
• pomegranate for garnish, optional
• vegetable oil for frying

INSTRUCTIONS

• Cut eggplant and sprinkle with salt, set aside
• After 20 minutes wash eggplant and pat dry with paper towel
• Heat oil
• Fry eggplant and place on a paper towel when done to absorb the excess oil
• Toss with remaining ingredients
• Garnish with pomegranate arils, optional
• Serve with warm pita bread

Fried Okra with Garlic Cilantro

Hi! I feel like i've been slacking on posting recipes, I'm sorry! I've been so busy with the manufacturing of our Muhammara product.  So many bumps along the way, but I'm just trucking along because I see the light at the end of this manufacturing tunnel! I CANNOT wait to have you all taste the Muhammara, its SOOO amazing I literally can't even explain.  

Butttttt, we're talking about Fried Okra with Garlic, Cilantro and Tomato.  It's that simple actually and I make it almost every single time I have guests over because they request it!  It can be eaten warm or cold with warm pita bread.  You must like garlic and cilantro though.  I just read an article and the writer was complaining about too much cilantro in her sandwich and I thought wow, I didn't know there was such a thing.  

Chop up all your ingredients (Okra, Tomato, Garlic, Cilantro)

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 Cups cut Fresh Okra
• 1/2 cup diced tomato
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 tbl chopped garlic
• 1 tbl olive oil
• Salt

INSTRUCTIONS:

• Sauté cut Okra in olive oil until slightly browned (few minutes)
• Remove Okra from skillet
• Toss with remaining ingredients (cilantro, garlic, tomato, salt)
• Serve with pita bread
• Cannot believe how easy it is