Lebanese Menu

[sfcackalacky]

In attempts to cook more at home on the weekend, but still enjoy various cultural foods, my husband and I have made index cards with all of the countries in the world written on them. We draw one of them out of a bag each week and have a "theme" night on Saturday featuring that country's food, music, etc., and research the country's history, politics, and culture to talk about over dinner. It is such a blast to cook dinner together and learn more about the various places and issues we've researched.
So far, we've done Mexico (Yucatan), Hungary, Scotland, Southern US, all where one of us have roots, but this week we drew Lebanon from the bag. Anyone have an authentic Lebanese menu that we can use? Thanks for any input you can give me!

(We use index cards so we can write the menus from that night/comments and reuse the recipes if they are really good.)

[sixelagogo]

I would definately start with a variety of mezes (small dishes, hot and cold) that begin the meal. If it's just the two of you eating, you might want to make maybe only 2 or 3, though if yer having guests, i'd suggest 4 or 5.

One of my favorite things my Lebanese grandma used to make is Kibbeh Nayeh, raw ground lamb with bulgar. To eat, splash it with a little olive oil, some chopped raw onion and eat it like you eat most all lebanese finger food, by grabbing it up with pita bread. It's shockingly fantastic and i crave it all the time.

Another thing to make would be stuffed grapeleaves...very different from greek grapeleaves, these are filled with meat (sometimes lamb, sometimes beef), rice and seasoned with allspice cooked in a lemon/water broth.

Of course, tabouleh, hummous, fatoush, and bubbaganoush are awesome, but so are cracked olives and cousa, cored out zucchni stuffed with the same meat and rice blend found in the grapeleaves.

One of my favorite main courses is lubiya, green beans slowly cooked in an allspice/cinnamon scented with cubes of lamb served over rice, as well as Shish Tawook, a lebanese version of shish kabob. Rice with Hushwey (cooked ground lamb and pine nuts and scented with allspice) is a common side dish and really tasty side dish.

Rice pudding is fairly traditional (and easier than baklewah/baklavah) to make, and is scented with rose or orange blossom water.

Good luck and please post yer results.

[scubadoo97]

Fried kibbeh. Not an easy task even for a skilled cook. Not to difficult if you have a thick shell but to get the shell thin to 1-2mm takes some work. Syrian Jews don't use a typical kibbeh dough of bulgur and meat for the shell but use a bulgur and flour dough that to me is more difficult to work with but is lighter and crisper. The insides are basically the same as traditional Arab fried kibbeh and is ground meat with bahrat spices and pine nuts. I love these and made about 4 dozen a couple of months ago. I fried these up today.

Kibbeh neyeh is pretty easy to do if you don't have an eversion to eating raw meat.

[alkapal]

sfcackalacky, great, charming, adventuresome idea. fun, too!

sixelagogo, i love your menu. in fact, it is almost verbatim the exact things mr. alka and i order. would you please share your recipe for loubiya?

and scubadoo, your kibbes look purr-fect! i still haven't made the "pumpkin kibbe" i once mentioned. but it is described as "mashed pumpkin and bulgur, with onion, walnut and pomegranate filling." if anyone has a recipe, please post it.

[scubadoo97]

Thanks alkapal. My grandmother would have not thought so. Hers were indeed perfect. Each one perfect shaped and all the exact same size. Just amazing and all shaped by hand.

[JungMann]

Kibbeh nayeh is certainly a great treat, but it might be pushing the envelope a little. The cooked version (little footballs of lamb and bulgur) are equally good, sometimes better with the combination of crunchy outside and meaty inside. I'd serve with homemade humus bi tahini and labneh.

Fattoush is a traditional salad course, and probably one of the most popular Lebanese dishes out there. You can eat it alongside one of the many great mains mentioned above. Shish taouk (chicken kabobs, though I prefer lamb), stuffed summer squash are all very seasonal. Grilled quail is popular, as is shawarma. Serve your protein atop a light rice pilaf to soak up the flavorful juices.

For dessert, baklawa might be time-consuming, so rice pudding is a good option. Also think about mouhalabieh: an ancient eggless custard somewhat similar to blancmange or panna cotta.

[coney with everything]

Second shawarma--very popular as a sandwich in the Detroit Middle Eastern (mostly Lebanese) restos. They accompany it with a garlic sauce so potent that you'll exude garlic fumes for days! It is fabulous.

Also very common here is crushed lentil soup.

You might have a look at this menu--these guys have great food.
http://207.97.251.55/carryout/anitas2/

[alkapal]

nice threads on chow about the awesome garlic sauce, too. that *makes* our rotisserie chicken plus lavash bread and pickled turnips into a total, garlicasmic feast!

[greedygirl]

Check out Claudia Roden's book Arabesque, which has a section on Lebanese food.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/mos...

[todao]

http://www.google.com/search?q=lebanese+recipe&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

http://www.recipezaar.com/recipes/leb...

[alkapal]

would you guys evaluate these recipes for lubiya?
http://www.recipezaar.com/66852
http://www.recipezaar.com/197770

[alkapal]

and this recipe for pumpkin kibbeh: http://fooddownunder.com/cgi-bin/reci... ?

[sixelagogo]

After all this talk about lubiya, i had to make it last night...I used Madeline Farah's recipe (though with some alterations) and served atop a rice/vermicelli pilaf.

Lubyi bil lahm (green beans with lamb)
1 lb. fresh green beans, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 lamb blade steak, cut into cubes, fat trim and bones saved (about 10 oz)
1 red onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4-1/2 tsp. allspice
1 ¼ c. tomato sauce
2 Tbs. olive oil
salt and pepper

Heat oil large skillet to almost smoking then add cubed lamb and bones. Brown on all sides. Cut heat, add onions and garlic, and sauté until softened, about 5 minutes. Add spices and sauté until fragrant. Deglaze pan with ½ cup water, then cover pan and allow to simmer for 10 minutes. Add green beans, tomato sauce and enough water to come half way up the depth of the mix. Cover and simmer for 30-40 minutes or until beans and meat are tender. Add Salt and pepper to taste. Serve over rice

Riz bish shiriyyi (rice with vermeceilli and pine nuts)

1 tbs. butter
1 tbs. olive oil
½ red onion, diced small
½ c. vermicelli, cut into 1 inch lengths
¼ c. pine nuts
½ tsp. allspice
1 c. basmati rice
2 ¼ c. water
1 Tbs. kosher salt

Heat butter and oil in medium skillet. Sauté onion until soft, then add vermicelli and pine nuts and sauté until browned. Add allspice and rice and sauté for another 1 minute. Add water and salt. Stir, cover, then bring to boil. Reduce heat to low and allow to cook for another 10 minutes, until water is absorbed. Allow to stand off-heat for another 10 minutes.

[sfcackalacky]

Thank you all for your posts!! We have a Halal butcher nearby, but the store was closed for the Labor day weekend. We had to buy lamb at the local Safeway and grind it ourselves in the food processor, so we were not so keen on eating the supermarket meat raw.
We made baked Kibbeh, fatoush, hummus, pita, and labneh.
Being from NC originally, I will HAVE to make the fried Kibbeh--everything is so good fried, right?!?
The raw lamb really looks tasty, too, if we can get it from a non-chain butcher. We are now big fans of Lebanese food, and these and the other recipes you guys were so nice to provide will definitely make it into our regular menu rotations!
The menu we did make was so, so good. The mint in some of the dishes was so refreshing.
Thanks again for all your recommendations!!

[sixelagogo]

Excellent and thanks for posting back
-good idea on nixing the raw lamb from safeway ( i wouldn't trust it either)...when buying lamb to eat raw, my mom always goes to the arabic halal butcher who knows she's making kibbeh neyeh...i hope you try it, as it knocked my German and formerly strict meat and potatoes eating dad off his rocker the first time he had it and sealed the deal with my ma.