This is a great recipe for summer time because Kabob taste so good off of the grill. Thanks to my mother in law, Nina, for providing her popular recipe and making it with me. Serves 6 to 8 Ingredients 3 pounds lean ground beef 2 Medium onions 1 Medium tomato 1 cup whole parsley leaves ½ cup Bread crumbs (optional) 1 teaspoons ground black pepper 1 tablespoon salt 1 teaspoon baharat (middle eastern spice mix) Instructions
Serve with parsley, onions with sumac sprinkled on them, and other vegetables. Serve with pita bread You can also use this recipe to make Kufta. Just make into small patties and pan fry until browned on both sides. Kufta is usually eaten for breakfast with fried eggs and tomatoes.
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Serves 6
Ingredients: Rice 2 cups long grain rice 3 cups of water 1 tablespoon salt 3 tablespoons vegetable oil 1 teaspoon biryani spice Meatballs 1 pound ground meat ½ teaspoon black pepper 1 teaspoon salt Other 2 ½ cups cooked chicken 4 Med-large potatoes peeled and cubed 3 Med-Large onions sliced 12 oz package frozen peas 1 ½ teaspoons biryani spice 7 Tablespoons vegetable oil ½ teaspoon salt Directions For the chicken – you can boil a whole chicken with some salt for about 45 minutes or until done. Once the chicken cools off a bit, pull off the meat and place it in a bowl. If you are short on time you can buy a premade rotisserie chicken and pull of the meat. We boiled a medium size chicken and we got about 2 ½ cups of chicken after we pulled off the meat. Mix ½ teaspoon of biryani spice with the chicken pieces. Rinse the rice a few times to remove excess starch. Soak in warm water for about 20 minutes. While the rice is soaking start the following: Note: You can use the same pan or multiple pans for the following steps depending on how much time you have or how many dishes you want to wash. We were using 2 pans at once. Mix the ground meat with the salt and pepper and form into small meatballs. Heat one tablespoon of oil and sauté the meatballs until they are brown. Set aside. Heat 4 tablespoons of oil. Add ½ teaspoon of the biryani spice and ¼ teaspoon of salt to the potatoes and mix. Fry the potatoes until they are crisp and golden on the outside. Set aside. Heat one tablespoon of oil. Add ½ teaspoon of the biryani spice to the onions and mix. Sauté the onions until they are golden and caramelized. Set aside. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil. Sauté the frozen peas until the shell is soft and they have browned a little. Set aside. For the rice -heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a pot. Add rice and stir for the a few minutes. Add the water, salt, and biryani spices. Let the rice boil for a few minutes. Then put the burner on medium-low and cover. Cook for about 10 minutes. Fluff the rice with a fork then cover again and cook for 5 more minutes on medium-low. In a large bowl, pour ½ of your rice and ½ of the potatoes, onions, meatballs, and peas. Mix with 2 spatulas gently. Then add the other half of your rice, potatoes, onions, meatballs, and peas and mix gently with 2 spatulas again.
Serves 6-8
Ingredients Stuffing 2 lbs. Chuck roast chopped 6-8 Garlic cloves minced 3 cups rice rinsed 6 oz can tomato paste 2 Medium tomatoes chopped 1/4 cup olive oil 2 lemons juiced 2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses (optional) 2 tablespoons Salt 2 teaspoons Baharat (middle eastern allspice) 1 teaspoon black pepper pinch of red pepper flakes or ground red pepper (optional - can also add more if you like more spicy) Vegetables to Stuff (below is the combo I used for the stuffing made above but use any combo you prefer) Approximately 60 Grape Leaves About 6 - 10 outer layers of onions 2 Bell peppers 2 Zucchini peeled 2 Japanese eggplants Other options to stuff are tomatoes, other summer squash, cucumber, swiss chard (rolled), cabbage (rolled). Sauce 1 tablespoon Citric acid/lemonduzy 2 lemons juiced 1 tablespoon salt 1 teaspoon black pepper pinch of red pepper flakes or ground red pepper (optional) 1/3 cup vegetable oil 1 cup water Sliced Carrots, celery, or swiss chard stems to line the bottom of the pot. Directions
Yellow rice is typically topped with slivered almonds that are either toasted or pan fried for a couple of mintues until they brown little. Some like to fry golden raisins for a couple of minutes and top the rice with those too. The rice can be eaten with salad and chicken. It is also very good topped with the Curry chicken recipe posted earlier. In this recipe, I used yellow powder because I didn't have saffron. Yellow powder can be found at Middle eastern or Indian specialty grocery stores. Ingredients 2 cups rice 3 cups Water 1 tablespoon oil 2 teaspoons salt 1/8th teaspoon egg yellow powder or a few strands of saffron 1 tablespoon rose water (optional) Slivered almonds or golden raisins (optional) Directions Rinse the rice in a bowl a couple of times to remove excess starch. Soak the rice in warm water for about 15 minutes. Add oil, water, and salt in a pot and bring to a rolling boil. Add yellow powder or saffron and rose water (if using) to boiling water. Add rice to boiling water. Bring to a rolling boil again. Cover the pot and simmer (low heat) the rice for 10 minutes. Turn off and let sit for a few minutes. Fluff the rice with a fork or spatula. Fry almonds and or raisins for a couple of minutes spread on top of rice. Ingredients:
1 entire chicken about 3 pounds 4 large potatoes or approx 1.5 pounds peeled and cut into cubes (I like to use red potatoes) 1 medium to large size onion chopped 2 garlic cloves minced 1 (6oz) can of tomato paste 2 tablespoon lemon juice 2 teaspoons curry powder (more if you like spicy) 3 teaspoons salt 2 tablespoons vegetable oil water Clean chicken, discarding the neck and any internal organs that may come with the chicken. Cut out rib cage and discard. Cut remaining chicken into 6 to 8 pieces. You can remove some of the skin. Place chicken in a pot and add enough water to cover chicken. Add 1 teaspoon of salt. Cover the pot and bring to a boil. Skim the surface of boiling water at least once during cooking to remove anything that floats up during boiling. Boil until cooked (about 30 -40 minutes). Remove chicken from pot and reserve broth. In a medium to large pot, heat 2 tablespoons oil, add onion and saute until onion is translucent and becomes slightly golden brown. Add garlic and and sauté with onions for about a minute. Add potatoes and curry to the pan and saute for about 3 minutes while mixing. Add tomato paste to the pot and stir until it softens. Add lemon juice, 2 teaspoons salt, and 5 cups of reserved chicken broth (if you don't have enough broth, add water to get to the 5 cups). Mix thoroughly and bring to a boil. Add the cooked chicken. Bring to a boil, then cover the pot and cook on medium-low heat until the potato is tender and the sauce has thickened. Add additional salt and curry to taste. Serve with rice. This delicous cool and creamy dish can be eaten alone as a salad, a side dish, used as a dipping sauce, or added to pita sandwiches. It is very healthy and tasty. The recipe can be altered to your taste with different herbs either fresh or dry. I grew up eating this without any herbs. The dish can also be altered by using thicker or thinner yorgurt, or made with lebneh (yogurt strained in a cheese cloth) instead of yogurt. Ingredients:
2 cups plain yogurt 2 Lebanese/Armenian cucumbers or 1/2 of an English cucumber finely chopped 1 garlic clove, mashed then minced 1/8 teaspoon salt Optional: 1 teaspoon dried mint Put yogurt in a bowl and cover with at least 6 layers of paper towels to absorb excess water. Set aside for a 5 minutes. Discard the paper towel, and stir the yogurt. Add the cucumbers, garlic, and salt. Mix well. Add more garlic and salt if desired, but beware, the garlic will become much stronger tasting after the dish sits. This delicious casserole dish is time consuming to make, but is so delicious, it makes it all worth it. It also makes enough to serve the whole family. It is generally served with rice. Ingredients:
1 large or 2 medium eggplants 1-1 1/2 pounds beef minced 2 medium onions sliced 1 clove of garlic minced 2 large tomatos sliced 1 green pepper sliced 1/2 cup chopped parsely 1 (6oz) can of tomato paste 2 1/2 cups water 2 tablespoons lemon juice 1/2 cup vegetable oil (for frying eggplant) 1/2 teaspoon baharat (middle eastern mixed spices) 2 teaspoons salt plus more for sprinkling on eggplant and tomatoes. Wash the eggplants, cut off the stems and discard. Peel stripes on the eggplants lengthwise. Cut the eggplant into 1/4 inch thick slices and salt them on both sides. Let the salted eggplant stand for 30 minutes to 1 hour to allow the moisture to sweat out. Rinse the salt off and dry the eggplant with a towel. Heat about 1/4 cup of oil in a pan and brown the eggplant slices. You will need to add more oil in the pan each time you add new eggplant as the eggplant absorbs the oil. Put eggplant on paper towel after frying to soak up excess oil and set aside. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in pan, add the sliced onions and minced garlic, sautee to a light golden brown. Set aside. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in pan and add minced meat, sautee until brown. Add 1 teaspoon of the salt, baharat, and chopped parsely. Mix well and set aside. In a casserole dish (I use a 9 x 13 but other sizes are fine too) add the ingredients in the following order: meat mixture, onions, eggplant, green peppers, tomatoes. Sprinkle the tomatoes with a little salt. In a bowl, mix water, tomato paste, lemon juice, and 1 teaspoon of salt. Mix thoroughly until the tomato paste is dissolved. Pour the mixture over the casserole. Cover the casserole dish and cook in the oven at 400 degrees for about 1 hour or until all the vegetables are cooked. Serve with Basmati rice. This is a very time consuming salad because the parsley has to be trimmed of the stems, washed mulitiple times and finely chopped. All the work is worth it because it tastes amazing. Ingredients
4 Bunches of parsley 2 1/2 Large or 3 medium tomatoes 8 Green onions 1 Tablespoon dried mint leaves 1/2 Cup fine burghal Dressing 1/4 cup olive oil 1 tablespoon salt 3/4 cup lemon juice 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional) Directions Rinse the burghal and soak in one cup of luke warm water for about 15 minutes or until tender. Drain water and set aside. Trim all of the stems off of the parsley. Put the leaves in a bowl of luke warm water for about 5 minutes to to allow the dirt to settle to the bottom. Drain the water and repeat the process about 3 or 4 times until there is no more dirt/sand visible in the bowl. It may be easier to separate the dirt if you transfer the leaves to another bowl and then dump the water out. Chop the parsley very fine. I bunch up the parsley with one hand and chop with the other to make it easier. Chop the tomatoes and green onions. Mix the parsley, tomatoes, green onions, and burghal in a bowl. If you will be eating the salad within a couple of hours go ahead and mix the olive oil, lemon juice and salt in. I like to add the dressing about an hour before to allow the parsley to absorb the dressing. If you will not be eating it immediately, you can add the dressing ingredients later so the salad will not wilt too much. Ingredients
2 Cans Chick Peas (also known as garbanzo beans) 1/4 Cup Tahina (sesame paste) 1 garlic clove (use 2 if you want more garlic taste) 1/2 cup lemon juice 2 teaspoons Extra virgin olive oil salt Paprika, Cayenne pepper, parsley, or olives to garnish (optional) Directions Drain chick peas Add chick peas, tahina, garlic, lemon juice, 1 teaspoon of olive oil, and a dash of salt to food processer or blender. Process until it is a smooth consistency. You may need to add more olive oil to make it smoother. Spread on to a plate. Pour the other teaspoon of olive oil on top in a circular pattern (optional) Sprinkle paprika or cayenne on top (optional) Add olives or parsley to top (optional |