Middle Eastern Feast

The traditional chick pea dip.

2 cans of chick peas - drained

2 tsp salt

3 garlic cloves (more if you like it garlicy)

2/3 cup tahini (sesame paste, you can find it in better grocery stores in the middle eastern section)

1/4 cup lemon juice (or more if you like it lemony 1/3 or even 1/2 cup)

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Traditionally this is just all thrown together and mashed like potatoes for a long while, but if you have a cuissinart of food processor just dump all that in and process it until it's smooth. This is how we do it, and how my mother and aunts do it, and how my grandmother did it. I've never actually made it without a food processor.

Spread it on a plate fairly flat, not in bowl, but so that when you swipe it with pita it would hit the bottom of the plate. Dribble olive oil lightly on the surface and then sprinkle on paprika and chopped parsley for color.

Serve with pita bread cut up.

This is actually more of a Turkish thing, but my family makes it.

2 cups navy or white beans, dried

6 cups cold water

salt

1 clove garlic

2 small onions

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 tablespoon white vinegar

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup good salad oil

1/4 cup chopped parlsey

1 teaspoon chopped fresh mint

2 teaspoons chopped dill

1 sweet green pepper

3 hard boiled eggs

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1. Wash beans and then cover with cold water and put on to boil. Once boiling remove from the heat and leave aside until the beans are plump. Or you can soak them overnight in cold water.

2. Bring the beans to a boil in their soaking water, cover, and simmer over low heat until tender but intact. Cooking varies could be up to 2 hours. Add salt after about 1 1/2 hours. Once they're tender drain them into a bowl.

3. crush the garlic with a little salt, half the onions lengthwise and then slice into semicircles. Add to hot beans with lemonjuice, vinegar and oils. Leave until it's cool.

4. Once it's cooled, mix in the chopped herbs and chill for 1-2 hours.

5. Serve in a deep bowl, and on top slice the green pepper and sliced or quartered hard boiled eggs. (not mixed in, on top).

1 cup fine cracked wheat (soak it for about an hour and then drain it)

1 cup chopped mint

1 1/3 cup chopped parsley

1/2 cup lemon juice

2 tomatoes diced

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tsp salt (or less)

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Mix all that together after the cracked wheat is soaked. This one varies by family and region alot. Can be double the mint or parsley in some places. If you like it greener add more parsely and mint or tomatoes to the mix. Ours is heavier on the cracked wheat than some people are used to. Generally chill after it's mixed but you can eat it fresh just mixed up.

Dough for 1 loaf of french bread (you can buy this, or make it from another recipee)

1/2 pound meat (or meat substitute we've done it with veggie crumbles)

1/2 onion chopped fine

handfull of parsley chopped fine

salt, pepper, allspice

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Make the bread doguh, and then freeze after it's first rising. AFter it's frozen, thaw it for 3 hours, or overnight. Then mix in other ingredients so they're dispersed throughout the bread. Then bake like normal bread. Except now it has meat in it. Should be spread sort of flat and come out in pieces that look like pizzas about 1 inch high of bread and meat.

1 cup chick peas (uncooked)

water

1/2 cup fine cracked wheat or burghul wheat

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 cup plain flour

1 teaspon ground coriander

1 teaspond ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon hot chili powder

3 teaspoons lemon juice

2 teaspoons salt

freshly ground black pepper

oil for frying

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wash chick peas and cover with 3 cups cold water, leave and soak for 12-15 hours. (or use presoaked ones in cans and drain them)

soak burghul wheat in 1 cup boiling water for 10 minutes. Drain through fine sieve and press to get rid of excess moisture.

drain chick peas and pass through fine blade of a grinder with the garlic and parsley

add the burghul wheat to the chick peas, combine, and putthrough the grinder again.

blend in other ingredients and mix thouroughly

(if you don't have a grinder just throw everying other than the baking powder and flour into the food processor and chop it till it's fine. Then put in a mixing bowl and add the flour and baking powder)

Shape them into about tablespoonfull sized balls...liek the size of a walnut. keep your hands moist when shaping so they dont' stick.

Leave them for abotu 30 minutes.

heat the oil up then try the balls for about 5 minutes. Don't crowd the fryer. turn them occasionlly to keep them brown evenly. If you have a deep fryer you can do more at once. Otherwise 6-7 at a time.

Cook them till they're a deep golden brown evenly.

Serve hot, or put in pita/flat bread with salad and pickles or yogurt or hummus...ladies choice.

Ok this one isn't easy...I should probably post pics next time I make it...It's almost an art to do it right....

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Various vegetables. We use Onions, Green Peppers, Squash, Eggplants, Zuchini's as well as Grape Leaves. Gotta have the Grape Leaves and Onions. The rest depend on what you like.

2 cups medium grain rice, uncooked

2 cans tomatoes, chopped up

1 pound ground beef (or veggie crumbles)

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cut the tops off the eggplants or thin squash or zuchinis or green peppers, and hollow them out, keep 'caps' for the tops of the vegetables. Put them on a tray or baking sheet to keep them straight.

Wash the rice. put into a bowl (don't dry it off, keep it moist) and add the meat and season it with salt, pepper, 2 tbsp chopped parsley, 1 tsp mint, and a good amount of sumac. Maybe even a full 1/4 cup of sumac, or more. Mix it all up. Also a tbsp of dill.

Fill the vegtables a little over halfway with the meat, and then cap them off. Load them into a big pot, your biggest one. fit them tightly. in there.

Once all the vegetables are done, get the grape leaves. Take them and lay them out on say a cutting board so you can see the whole leaf. Cut the stem off if it has one, close to the leaf. Then put a thumbs worth of the mixture in the middle and roll it up. I could describe how to roll it 'correctly' but the goal is just to do it so they don't fall apart. If youv'e rolled a burrito befor eyou can do this.

make a ton of those and use the rest of your mixuture up, or until the pot is 2/3 full. Fill it with water and 4 tablespoons of lemon juice and then bring it to a boil The water should be up to the top of the dolma covering everything. If you need to put a plate on top of the dolma to help weight it down under the water. Bring it to a boil and boil fo ra half hour. Then leave on a low simmer for another half hour.

Once that's done, carefully. CAREFULLY drain out the remaining liquid. We've use da turkey baster before to get liquid out. then drain the rest carefully without it leaving the pot. Once you feel you've gotten all the \liquid out, get a large platter, large enough to put the pot on, and then put iton top of the pot, and turn it all upside down, and slowly life the pot off, and hopefully it all comesout and stays fairly well together.

voila. Dolma. The centerpiece of a good middle eastern feast.

I don't think I have to add this but why not...

Buy a hunk of Beef Round.

Chop it into 1/2 inch to 1 inch cubes. Marinate in Olive Oil, salt, pepper, and a little worcester sauce (no way in hell you'll get the authentic spices right, this is easiest and still tastes right)

Skewer with 1 inch squares of onions, green peppers, and if you like them throw a cherry tomatoe on the end.

cook 5 minutes on a side, or whatever your grill desires.

Serve either on skewers or put it all on a plate off the skewers.

Kafta Kabobs are... well they litterally look liked fried shit. But they're good. I swear. And a great way to gross out people when you bring food into lunch...

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1 pound of ground beef. If you CAN, get it at the butcher section and ask them to run it through a second time and make it extremely fine. It's not a requirement, but if the dude is standing there, ask them.

About a quarter cup of finely chopped parsley

2 cloves of garlic crushed and chopped

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon ground sumac if you have it.

1 small onion, finely chopped. Very finelly chopped. Put it in a food processor if you need to.

Salt and Pepper.

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Mince everything other than the meat. Get everything but the meat (and salt and pepper) and mince the hell out of it. Then mix it with the meat, and add dashes of salt and pepper.

Ok so now you have everything in a big mixture, mix it all together really well.

Now make balls that are about 3 inches in diameter, and put them on skewers. Once they're on the skewer, squish the meat so it flattens into a cylinder shape along the skewer. If you can put more than one on a skewer go for it.

Grill till it's well done. There is no 'rare' kafta kabobs. Cook em all the way through. 20 minutes or so should do it.

Generally should serve it with rice or salad or pita, or some combination. I prefer a nice salad.

ok Fattoush is a Lebanese salad. Love it though. Here's my families version. They key to this being Fattoush, at least as I know it, is basically adding the toasted pita to the salad, as well as the sumac. It's taking a salad, adding toasted pitas to it in pieces, and sumac basically to a basic lemon dressing.

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2 large pita breads, toasted until they're hard, then broken into pieces 1/2 to 1 inch across.

2 tomatoes, dice them

1 cucumber, dice it

1/4 cup parsley, chop it

2-3 bunches of scallions, chopped

Half a head of lettuce (romaine or iceberg)

Some dill, not a ton. dried spice dill is fine

About 1/8 cup of sumac

1/2 cup of lemon juice

3/4 cup of olive oil

1/4 cup fresh mint, chopped

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Chop the lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, scallions, and parsley and toss them together, and then add the toasted pitas, and add them as well and toss them and mix them in.

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Mix the lemon juice, olive oil, mint, and a few shakes of dill into a dressing. Mix it then pour over the salad. Pour the sumac over the dressing.

Toss it all up and make sure it's well mixed and the dressing and sumac is evenly spread around. Should look like it's covered in dressing and speckled with the sumac.

would you happen to have one for hashwi? (i think that's how it's spelled!) it's one of my faves...i order it everytime we get middle eastern =)

and how about desserts? i've had a pastry called balouri (again, prolly not close to the actual spelling) that's super good. it has rose water in it. not really sure - is that something you can buy premade?

I've done some searching, and this is the closest thing I can come up with...I haven't tried the recipe (yet) so I don't know how good or bad it might come out. Apparently it's just a variety of baklava, using rosewater. I have NO clue where one would buy rosewater; I guess I'll try to scout out some of the middle eastern grocery stores here in town and see what I can come up with.

2 cup Med. chopped walnuts or pistachio nuts

1/3 cup Sugar

1 tbl Rose water

1 lb Filo dough

1 lb Drawn butter or sweet butter

1 Basic syrup recipe

SIMPLE SYRUP

 2 cup Sugar

1 cup Water

Few drops of lemon juice

1 tsp Rose water

Preparation : Combine nuts, sugar and rose water. Filo dough may be spread in a buttered 10 x 14 inch pan, brushing each layer with butter. Half way through the layering, place nut mixture in 1/2 to 3/4 inch layer. Then continue layering buttered filo on top. Cut in diamond shaped pieces. Bake at 300 degrees for one hour or until golden brown. Pour syrup over baklava making sure the dough is well saturated.

for the syrup: Combine sugar, water and lemon juice in saucepan. Boil over medium heat for 10 to 15 minutes or until slightly viscous (225 degrees). Before removing from heat, add rose water and let come to a boil. Remove from fire and cool.

The thing is...the kind I've gotten usually looks like the one on the right:

I suppose the appearance doesn't really matter, but I'd like to find out how they get the phyllo dough all shredded like that!