Well, here we go again - time for another round. This time, I'd like to propose
The Middle East
as a theme. Hot spices, cooling yogurths, a wide variety of styles from Bedouine cooking to the culinary melting pot of Israel - I hope we all have fun with a nice bit of summer cooking (with apologies to the southern hemisphere).
Well, i just bought a middle eastern cookbook (on kindle), so we will just have to start experimenting....
Not my normal cooking style, but thats what I like about these challenges
The region is notoriously hard to define geographically, but I really can't see a way to fit Greece in... Let's go with the most common definition - from Iran in the east to Egypt in the southwest and Turkey in the northwest, including all of the Levant and the Arabic peninsula.
Looking forward to your contributions - this is not my main area of experience either, but I am rather curious about the cuisine and have started experimenting with it a bit lately.
I don't think you can include Greece though a Greek is right at home with some of these flavor profiles. Some Greek foods have origins in the Middle East but not vice versa.
With my computer down I can't access my awesome pictures when I made matlouh so that means I'll have to make it again soon.
I don't think you can include Greece though a Greek is right at home with some of these flavor profiles. Some Greek foods have origins in the Middle East but not vice versa.
With my computer down I can't access my awesome pictures when I made matlouh so that means I'll have to make it again soon.
And we got a nice start there - I am expecting lots of eggplants this month!
I tried my hand at some Shakshuka today - eggs in tomato sauce:
Fry onions, garlic and bell peppers in olive oil, add tomatoes, season with bay leaf, paprika, cumin, salt, pepper and brown sugar, let it simmer for a while, then drop in the eggs and finish at low heat.
Transferring it to plates was a bit of a mess. If I ever serve it for guests, I gonna prepare individual portions in small cast iron serving pans and serve it right in the pan....
Shakshuka probably originates outside of the Middle Easter proper, most likely it is originally from Tunisia. These days, it can be found all over North Africa and the Middle East and became especially popular in Israel.
From my grandmother, Lebanese, born in Beirut, a great woman who raised 9 children. A stupendous cook too. She came to Argentina very young. This lady:
You will find inifite eggplants recipes in this Middle East zone. Check this step by step i posted in Recipes:
[thread="73055"]Egg And Parmesan Stuffed Eggplant [/thread]
I like it cut 3/16 inch thick. 1/8th is too thin, 1/4 too thick. Sear it off on both sides in a cast iron, carbon steel or other pan that releases well.
@ordo eggplant is not welcome in my home, but my mother is a huge fan
(we had a small garden when I was young and one year my father planted way too much eggplant, so we ate it in so many different was, for EVERY meal, I grew to dislike it after that)
I will be sharing this with her. At her new home in California, she has found a compadre who also loves eggplant.
In fact, she called me last night to tell me about her small dinner party on the patio of eggplant parm with angel hair pasta, she was over the moon /img/vbsmilies/smilies/tongue.gif
What is this? No love for eggplants? I could eat them all day!
Halloumi is nice, too, though.Never used Za'atar with it, I'll have to try that.
I made some mujadarah today. That dish is all over the middle east, in thousand varieties. Originally, it is probably from Iraq. In its simplest form, it's just rice, lentils and onions with spices, I added some beef and pine nuts. Coat onion rings in flour, salt and fry them until crisp. Roast cumin and coriander, add garlic and the beef, then the rice, stir and coat with the oil. Add the cooked lentils, water or broth and season with turmeric, allspice, cinnamon and a bit of sugar, simmer for 15 minutes and let it rest for 10 more minutes. Serve with yogurth and the onion rings.
Anyway, let's stop the teasing. Here's a video about Irany food, a culinary i know nothing about, really. I do not like the host and his experiments, but some surprising food is presented. It's a 4 part series.
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