Pickling Jalepenos / Writing about Sweet Wine Making

My friend Fady Daw, an organic producer, who founded Adonis Valley gave me a whole bunch of jalapeno peppers on Sunday night. He makes a red chili pepper paste with the jalapenos. Today I am going to dedicate some time to pickling these wonderful treasures. I absolutely love everything that is HOT! (well, almost!). Anyway, there's really nothing to it. I will give you the methods of preparing these pickles so if you get your hands on some, you can pickle them and enjoy them all year long. Nothing should ever go to waste, actually that's why I am so intrigued with mouneh making because you really use every single ingredient / harvested vegetable or fruit fully and conserve it for later use without any spoilage or waste. Fantastic!

I am also to dedicate time to writing about the wonderful day I had yesterday with Francois's father making sweet wine and awarma. Can you imagine that one can make wine at home? The whole process is so interesting + the family story is even more. When you are welcomed with such hospitality in a beautiful village where all you can hear is your voice and perhaps a distant goat, you realize that this is heaven on earth. We sat down for breakfast outside to eat kisheck bi awarma. It was so delicious. Salwa, Francois's mother put 2 heads of garlic to prepare this rich soup, 2 tbs. of awarma and kisheck powder diluted in water. I ate the whole garlic cloves and to my surprise did not feel sick or full after the meal. Usually if I eat garlic, it's off to bed or I'm sick the whole day... I had so much energy. Francois's father gave me some sweet wine, dated 10 years back, to finish off this lavish breakfast. It was delicious! It had the same taste as the wine served in church with communion. So today I shall write about this wonderful day and how to make wine at home for those who feel that they want to adventure themselves into such a production. I thank God for days like this when you come home with photos of a lifetime and memories which keep you going ... for one needs fuel to keep going ... that's mine!

Anyone for kisheck bi awarma? You can make your own, it's quite easy. Get yourself 2 garlic heads, yes heads ... not cloves... You won't die I promise... 1 onion, 2 tbs. of awarma, 2 cups of kisheck, and about 3 to 4 cups of water. In a cooking pan, add the awarma and the onion, fry. Add the garlic cloves and let cook for about 5 minutes. Add the kisheck, mix then slowly add the water. Bring to a boil and cook for an additional 5 minutes. It's done!


I call this photo, PRIDE... pride of a father, pride of a producer, pride of carrying traditional recipes of one's forefathers...

What better way for a father and a son to spend quality time together than by producing homemade wine? Well, perhaps drinking it later!

Oops, I almost forgot to post this photo taken by Francois entitled Me and the Goat, when will I ever have my own? Dreams... dreams... (I will one day, I feel it!)


You have to cook the fat (liyeh) before adding the meat to make the awarma - the Lebanese meat preserve par excellence ....



Practice makes perfect ...



I shall post the jalapeno recipe later ...

My weekend - Tabouleh / Aredna

Enough about Food Wars, does everything have to be about war? Can't we just enjoy hummus and tabouleh without thinking that someone or some state is stealing it from us... Can't people understand that this is just borrowed land and borrowed time... Can't we appreciate our differences instead? Build on them, share them, and teach our children ... stop being a dreamer, not in your lifetime...

Anyway, I was able to go to the Tabouleh Festival and let me say it was amazing! I was very impressed. A lot of people showed up at the tent in Saifi and it was very crowded. The ambiance exciting, the goal was met. It smelled like onion... It was a huge tabbouleh indeed! The children sang the song tabouleh tabouleh and we went home satisfied ... We had a little something to do with the success of this immense event. That was the goal!


My son Albert singing, with Omar Farhat playing the derbakeh.


I also went to see Aredna, the food exhibition in Dahieh. I learned again something new about the mouneh - that depresses me because I thought I knew it all. No, not quite... I learned how to make debs teen, meaning fig molasses, another recipe to include in my book. I bought interesting packages to add to all my mouneh items in my pantry. I got a bag of dried Damascus roses. I intend to use them to decorate cheese platters and to add them in some of my cooking to give an exotic touch to the dishes. I bought another bag of "cammounieh", I can't get enough of this spice mixture. I really find it to be a piece of art. Its smell is just exquisite and the dried rose petals are so gorgeous in the mixture. I bought a bag of red lentils from Yohmor, a village known for its lentils in South Lebanon. I have been told that they are quite special. Of course, I passed by to see my friend Abou Cassem. I got from him some za'tar roughly sieved to use in cooking my tomato sauces. A man in the corner was making brooms, I could not resist for a mere 4.000 LL. Some producers sell bags for flavoring stock. I got a whole bunch of those to use for my chicken stock. I also got a bag of dried rosemary to use to season meats. I'm thinking of going back again because it is truly an exceptional market. Producers and farmers come from all over Lebanon: Hermel, Jbeil, Bekaa, Baalbeck, etc. It is so interesting to talk to them about their production and stock up on mouneh items for the winter. My next visit will be to see if indeed there is something else that I can learn from mouneh making. Min' shuf!

Here is the man who makes the brooms:

Hands off hummus article

Lebanese to Israel: Hands off our hummus!

By ZEINA KARAM (AP) – 22 hours ago

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j_bC3N1RPvWmQjmX_DO2hbP1uIqAD9BHJ4L83?index=0

A Full Week in Beirut Made Especially for Foodies

Come join producers and farmers from all over Lebanon every Tuesday in Hamra, in the Bread Republic alleyway; for more info check out this link!

http://www.mercatidellaterra.it/network/beirut

There is also a grand food exhibition / market in DAHIEH starting Oct. 23 called AREDNA... It will include over 100 food producers and farmers... I have been visiting this exhibition for the last two years and found it to be by far the best market ever... It's a MUST SEE for people who are intrigued to live through something exceptional... FOODIES OF COURSE! I will take photographs and post them when I go...

I wonder what Souk el Tayeb is cooking up this weekend... It's truly a wonderful week for food market lovers: the food fight in Saifi, the Slow Food Earth Market in Hamra, and the weekly market on Saturday of Souk el Tayeb.

AND to top it off: for those who love to read about food ... Le 16eme Salon du Livre Francophone de Beyrouth, meaning the 16th Edition of the French Beirut Book Fair in Beirut. We are spoiled!

I will write more later ...

Restaurant Training - Day 2: Kebbeh Labanieh

So enough about fighting food wars, tomorow we'll do that! Second day of my training, a basic element that should not be forsaken on a Lebanese table - The vegetable basket. For those who want to know, tomatoes (baladi is best), cucumbers, mint, radish, lettuce, carrot sticks, green and red chili peppers. The vegetables should be crisp and just washed. It makes quite a statement when you enter the restaurant and start with a drink and snack on fresh vegetables. That's Lebanon! Ok enough said about this subject ...



Today, I was aimed to delve into the making of Kebbeh Labanieh, don't know about you, but this is one of my favorite Lebanese dishes. I'm looking at my notebook and there so many comments, let's start:

1. Use the freshest laban (yogurt) you get get - not bitter - (baladi)
2. When you start heating the laban, it should be already at room temperature. The biggest fallacy is to start cooking the laban straight from the fridge (instant shock, no good!!!) So we agree that the laban is to be taken out of the fridge hours before heating it on the fire.
3. When you start heating the laban, you must use the lowest temperature before you add cornstarch diluted into a bit of water. Then you can raise the fire a bit to let the cornstarch act to thicken the laban. NO EGGS!

Ingredients:
laban - 1kg
clarified butter - a bit
kebbeh balls (unfilled/ but i prefer the filled ones)- 24
corn flour - 1 tbs
garlic - 3 cloves
mint or cilantro (kezbarah) - a bunch



1. deep-fry the kebbeh balls, strain and reserve.
2. heat the laban as mentioned above, cook until it starts to boil, here comes the secret ingredient - add a bit of cream (a small box) and some warm stock (reserved from a previous cooking).
3. in a small pan, add some clarified butter, fry garlic for a minute, add diced mint or cilantro, turn off fire... don't over cook the mint or cilantro
4. when the laban is hot, add the fried mint or cilantro, mix then add the kebbeh balls carefully without breaking them. Heat for a further 5 minutes. It's ready!

Serve kebbeh labanieh with rice ... you know how to make rice, right? Use angel hairs in the rice, kids love it....

Hummus Food Fight Between Lebanon and Israel

here is a link I just found on the internet: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/3178040/Hummus-food-fight-between-Lebanon-and-Israel.html It's pretty hot, what ever happened to the make FOOD not WAR campaign!! It's long gone... but seriously, I find it ridiculous to call hummus an Israeli dish come on there's plenty of dishes to go around... I remember eating the Israeli pastrami in the States...! How will all this be resolved... Will we make history this weekend? to be continued ...

More on the Exhibition... Exhibition Overview - IFP Lebanon

El Hommos Lebneneh 2009
24 October - 25 October

An attempt to break the current Hommos & Tabbouleh world Guinness Record


Exhibition Overview


El Hommos el Lebneneh will be a national event destined to place Lebanon on the culinary map again giving back to Caesar what was originally to Caesar…”g Yes we the Lebanese are claiming loud & proud our proprietorship for the “Oh so famous” Lebanese hommos & tabbouleh mezzeh. Held under the patronage of the ministry of industry & in partnership with the association of Lebanese Industrialists A.L.I IFP is organizing an attempt to break the current world record of the biggest hommos platter ever made! Add to that tabbouleh too! A special workforce will be put together under the supervision of world renowned Lebanese Chef Ramzi- current manager of Al-Kafaat catering school- that is concretizing this local attempt. Talking to the Chef: “I am delighted & proud to be supervising this attempt. We are mobilizing some 250 young Chef Apprentices that will be preparing everything on site under the strictest hygiene regulations .The General public will be able to taste safely the final product”.


And to add: “All of the ingredients that we are going to use are fresh with no chemical derivatives or substitutes. Imagine some 2.5 tons of lemon juice only! That says a lot concerning the colossal size of this event.” Thanks to Mr. Fadi Abboud, President of A.L.I (Association of Lebanese industrialists) the food copyright issue was raised during the summer of 2008, as he rightfully shed the light on the millions of dollars in loss in the lucrative Hommos market.


Talking to Abboud: “I first noticed this piracy during the many international food exhibitions that we attended: Lebanese producers would find out that most of our specialties, such as Hommos, Falafel and Baba Ghannouj, were marketed as Israeli. Our cuisine is being dishonestly used as Israel is appropriating our dishes: today, the fame of Hommos reached out to the globe. Upscale restaurants in New York & London are serving gourmet versions of hommos and falafel, as traditional Jewish dishes. We are talking about colossal losses as the Hommos market is a robust one with worth of over $1bn with 500,000 tubs eaten a day in the UK alone. If we win this fight, there is huge potential for Lebanon”


And to add: “We have been researching & documenting data to prove that 25 traditional dishes hail from Lebanon and deserve the EU's Protected Designated Origin status, meaning they can be marketed under their name only if they were made in the country. It is time that Lebanon registered its main food trademarks to avoid substantial losses like these. We are preparing to file an international lawsuit against Israel for claiming ownership of traditional dishes that are believed to be originally Lebanese. ”


The attempts for breaking the biggest Hommos and biggest Tabbouleh records (in addition to a new one: the biggest “Platter ever made”, conceived, designed & executed by Lebanese engineer Mr. Joesph Kabalan) were born here, in collaboration with the syndicate of Lebanese food industries. They will be all held in Saifi market on October 24th & 25th 2009, stretching on some 5800 SQM, hosting Lebanese restaurants and Artisans from the oil, soap, souvenirs and craftsmanship industries in addition to a variety of entertainers, games & auctions.

The event is expected to attract some 50 000 visitors, families, children, adults & young adults alike. For more info, please visit our website: www.ifpexpo.com or contact Ms. Sarah Fayad or Ms. Joelle Ghannam at: +961 5 959 111