While looking through a Syrian cookbook, I came across a dutch oven recipe for hameen, a dish that required a whole chicken, 5 hours, and long-grain white rice. It sounded delicious, but I definitely had to switch it up a little bit. This recipe is pretty simple and the ingredients are all really basic, and you should have most, if not all of them in your house already. Continue reading
Category Archives: Dinners
Leftover Frittata
My favorite thing to do with the leftover vegetables and herbs in the fridge is make a frittata. It’s pretty easy to do, and works for any meal of the day. It’s also very easy to make it to feed a crowd, or for just one. And you can put virtually anything in it! This morning, I had about 1/3 of a box of frozen peas sitting in the freezer, some leftover red bell pepper, and a carrot. Then I found some thyme that was just begging to be used (my fresh herbs often end up in the garbage, it’s rather sad).
Roasted Butternut Squash-Onion Pie
You can’t go wrong with caramelized onions and roasted butternut squash. Here’s a pretty easy (once you get the pie crust out of the way) special dinner recipe. Sure, it’s a bit fattening, but hey, once in a while you just have to splurge. If you’re having some company over and making dairy, this is definitely a great recipe to impress guests with. The list of ingredients looks rather long, but I found that I had a lot of the ingredients.
This recipe is from The Art and Soul of Baking, a book that I haven’t used in a while. I’m happy to have it opened up again, and keep finding more and more recipes to try… Continue reading
Homemade Bagels
Happy 2010! What a great way to start the new year…with a giant baking project!
Bagels have been on my baking to-do list for a really long time. I live in New York, so it’s pretty easy to get a decent bagel. I’m also pretty busy with work and school, and bread-baking is a bit time consuming. Bagel baking is even more time consuming, and therefore not a priority. I keep it on my list, though, and often read recipes for bagels, wishing I could make them.
Mushroom “Parmesan”
Okay, I have to admit that I don’t like parmesan cheese. So when I say parmesan, I mean muenster. It’s delicious, anyway. If you do like parmesan cheese, feel free to sprinkle some on top. I got the idea for this dish while watching Giada make vegetarian meals for her mom. It’s super easy and very delicious! When I make this, I make one mushroom per person. Serve with a side of pasta and a light salad for an easy weeknight meal.
2nd Avenue Deli Brisket
When the 2nd Avenue Deli closed, I immediately bought the cookbook on Amazon so I could recreate the delicious flavors I grew up with. I didn’t know that it would reopen even closer to where I lived. The first thing we made from the cookbook was the health salad. It wasn’t the same, but it definitely resembled the real thing. The next thing I made was the delicious brisket. It’s easy and is definitely worth the time put into it. Now that I have a dutch oven, it’s even easier than it ever was. Continue reading
Latkes (or Ejjeh Potato)
You didn’t think we’d get through eight days of Hanukkah and not post a holiday recipe for you, did you?
We actually eat ejjeh potato all the time, not only on Hanukkah. It’s a delicious and easy food to make for the beach on a summer Sunday afternoon. They also make great leftovers, so make extra and take some for lunch in a sandwich the next day.
Because latkes are fried, they are a customary Hanukkah food. On these eight days, Jews load up on oily foods to remember the miracle of the oil. These latkes are different than the Ashkenaz version, which you probably see more often. These are more like home fries. They’re soft in the middle and really deliciously crispy on the outside. Continue reading
Cooking Yebra
We taught you how to roll and freeze the yebra, and I’m sure you were eager to know how to actually cook at eat it…well here’s one way to do it!
Yebra is definitely a Syrian favorite. We eat it with sweet sauce, sour sauce, meat filled, and with rice and chick peas inside (a pareve version). Different families prefer it different ways. This is not how our mom makes it, but it’s a really yummy version with apricots, one of my favorites.
These take a long time to cook, so if you’re making it for Friday night dinner, make it on Thursday night and reheat it before dinner Friday.
Guest Post: Bulgur (or Cracked Wheat) with Chickpeas
Please give a warm welcome to our very first guest blogger, our lovely sister-in-law Adele!
I LOVE CHICKPEAS. There. I said it.
I’m a sucker for anything with chickpeas in them – salads, hummus, curry – whatever it is, I’ll eat it. Chickpeas, or Garbanzo Beans, are super delicious, super filling, super healthy, and super cute! (Seriously – have you ever looked at one? It looks like a baby butt!) If you ever need a protein in your meal – a handful of chickpeas is generally the way I go. They are versatile like you wouldn’t believe and couldn’t be easier to store. (In the past, I’ve bought dried chickpeas, soaked them overnight, boiled them, yadda yadda yadda. The canned is way easier. Just make sure to rinse them off thoroughly first. Here’s what Mark Bittman has to say on the subject.)
Rolling Yebra
Update: after you read this post and roll your yebra, go ahead and cook it!
Yebra, or stuffed grape leaves, is a traditional Syrian food that can be prepared in a few different ways. But before you can eat it, you have to actually stuff and roll the grape leaves with hashu (there’s a pareve version, too). To make a whole 16-oz. jar of grape leaves, you need to double the hashu recipe.
I actually used a slightly different recipe for hashu. This one is from a cookbook called Deal Delights, a pretty old book with traditional Syrian recipes.
