1st day at Horeca 2011

I've come to the definitive conclusion that it's not only about the food, but about the person making the food. Yesterday the Horeca workshop started with food prepared by the restaurant Mayrig. A group of ladies came on site to prepare the recipes. I had a taste of "Pandjarov Sarma" - handpicked Swiss chard leaves stuffed with a special blend of rice, spices and tomato with olive oil, "Vospov Keufteh" - red lentil kebbeh served raw topped with fresh tomato salad, "Mante" -the traditional Armenian crispy dumpling topped with tomato soup and fresh garlic yogurt. It is equivalent to the Lebanese "Shish Barak". The whole is sprinkled with sumac.For a quick dessert, "Tahinov Hats" were carefully prepared. They are cookies made with tahini, flavored with cinnamon. Mayrig is proud to share these recipes which have been passed on from mother to daughter for generations.

The second group, headed by Jean D'arc, from Sofil Catering served an Armenian Kebbeh recipe called "Yahnili Kufta", "Patatesove Kufta" which is kebbeh made with boiled potatoes, "Manteh Roseh" - which for me was out of this world, and a delicious dessert called "Zardah" - rice pudding cooked with grape molasses. Again, I stress on the character of the person involved in the cooking. I was very much impressed by Jean D'arc's energy and talent. I admire a tough, talented woman like that - surrounded by her whole family who was rooting for her.

I learned a lot, tasted a lot...It confirmed the importance of this cuisine in our society. I will work on getting it out there!

Visit to Beyno - Cooking Meat with Vinegar

Horeca 2011

The Lebanese Culinary Heritage Workshop at Horeca:

 

I shall be hosting the workshop this year, here enclosed is the schedule:

Description	Date	Starting	Ending
Armenian cuisine workshop: Master the secrets of traditional Armenian dishes by Mayrig restaurant	29/03/2011	16:30	18:30
Armenian Cuisine Workshop: preserving and reinventing Armenian dishes by Sofil Catering	29/03/2011	18:30	20:30
Tahini workshop: Discover new recipes with Tahini by Chef Joe Barza, Consultant Joint Operations Expert	30/03/2011	16:30	18:30
Tahini workshop : Learn how to prepare Sweets with Halawe by Chef Charles Azar, exectuive pastry chef, Four Seasons Hotel	30/03/2011	18:30	20:30
Mezze workshop: discover Citrus and Sea food mezze with Chef Karim Haidar, modern Lebanese cuisine chef and consultant chef of many parisian restaurants	31/03/2011	16:30	18:30
Mezze workshop: adapting Lebanese Cuisine to International tastes"  special menu of Lebanese dishes and ingredients mixed for western tastes and palates With Reem Azoury, US-trained chef supported by  USAID and LBLI in collaboration with the federation of the Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture in Lebanon	31/03/2011	18:30	19:30
Kebbeh workshop: "Kan ya ma kan Kebbet Loubnan" by Souk el Tayeb.  Discover different interpretation of Kebbeh from North to South, Coast to Bekaa; from Zgharta's purest Kebbeh, to the South most fragrant " tehwishit kebbeh" to the vegeterian versions or event Armenian vospov kofte.	01/04/2011	16:30	20:30

The rich culinary heritage of Lebanon goes under the spotlight at HORECA 2011 as famous chefs and local producers highlight many classic Lebanese dishes using traditional recipes and the best locally-sourced ingredients.

Visitors to these daily cooking demonstrations will be eager to discover some of the recent innovations that have added a new dimension to this renowned cuisine. Lebanon is rightly famous for its wide range of dishes that merge Middle Eastern traditions with a touch of Western influence. With fish from the Mediterranean, good quality meat and fresh fruit and vegetables from its farmland, the country has created a rich variety of delicious fare to delight the palate.

During this year’s show, a team of talented chefs will show how new culinary developments can be used to complement traditional techniques and add a new vitality to trusted Lebanese favorites as they utilize the bounty of Lebanon’s rich culinary heritage.

Home cooks and professionals alike are sure to discover something new when they explore the Lebanese culinary heritage at HORECA 2011.

Article by Michael Karam on Lebanon

Read Marketing Lebanon is fine, but some things need fixing by Michael Karam, author of Wines of Lebanon.

"Indeed, the edgier side of Lebanese cooking appears to be very much in demand by global consumers. Anissa Helou, the London-based Lebanese-Syrian food writer and tour guide, has done wonders to spread the word through her books and blog to make the dishes of the Levant desirable. In Lebanon, Cherine Yazbek and Barbara Abdeni Massaad have written books championing rural Lebanese food and rituals, just the sort of thing that would make people swoon, from Hoxton to Tribeca."

How I Write - Time Out Beirut March 2011

Printed in Time Out Beirut March 2011.

I remember when I started writing my first book Man’oushé, I showed my husband the initial text I was scribbling. He looked puzzled and stated, “are you writing a book on the man’oushé or are you writing a biography”. He simply could not understand how my personal story was linked to this Lebanese thyme pie. He was not the only skeptical on the matter. Yet finally, years later, readers still acknowledge the fact that it’s the personal story that made my first book so special and therefore successful.  Writing about food is indeed something very personal to me. It’s about how one relates to food—its identity, how it becomes part of who I am, who prepares it, how it becomes part of a larger community, the society we live in. 

Writing is a virtual reality for me. I enter into a world where nature prevails, free from man’s superficial commodities and destructive artifacts. With the photographs I take, I paint the perfect picture of how I would like the world to be portrayed. I write the words to emphasize the image to make sure that the message has been conveyed and understood. Food and its preparation are connected to humanity, people—the best part of the specie, the chosen ones. It is linked to those who farm, cook, create, invent, process, and finally feed us. It is they that inspire me again and again to write. It is they that I want to spend time with, far from the ones who live a meaningless and shallow life.

I write to portray the lives of those who would go unnoticed among the clutters of our present heroes, who are only a deceitful fragment of our imagination. In jotting these words, I’d like to leave a small trace which could have a positive influence on the future generation, primarily the one where my children will flourish into adults. It is them who constantly stimulate me to move forward to reach out towards something more substantial and beneficial.  Everyone feels they want to change the world. When I write, I feel that I am doing just that. In my own way, I am constantly working on making things better. It has become a therapy, a simple way of life.

Happiness is Homemade

I just finished mixing three batches of dough to make homemade bread. I made three different kinds of bread today. The first batch was made with green olives. You simply cannot beat the taste of Lebanese olives, tangy with lots of zest. Unbeatable! The second batch was mixed with nigella seeds, just the right flavor for a salmon sandwich (just an idea). And last but not least, brown bread made with wholesome brown flour. It feels like home, perfect. Did I mention I just started a diet? When I start a diet, I cook and bake 24/ 7. If I could realize one tiny little wish in life, it would be to EAT as much as my heart desires and NOT get FAT! As I was mixing the dough, I told myself how lucky I was to be able to fulfill my inner joy with the mere mixing of flour, salt, and water. Why does cooking and baking make me so happy? Is it perhaps that the final product will be the element that will unite our family around a table for a good time... Or is it simply the smell and taste that I cherish the most? Whatever the case, it's nice to know that one can find happiness in the comfort of his / her own home.

Seek and ye shall find...

Can you smell it?

Bread Starter Lessons

Exert taken from the book Mouneh:

(For detailed recipes, buy your copy now!

Purely traditional bread making begins with a starter which can take up to a week to ferment and become established. A starter is a flour and water mixture that collects wild yeasts from the atmosphere. It is created by simply combining flour and water allowing it to ferment by airborne yeast. The starter is used to leaven breads. A small amount of the dough is then kept back and used for the next batch. With time, starters improve, so with a few attempts, your bread will develop a very distinctive flavor and texture.

To produce bread in the past, one had to harvest the wheat, separate the grain from the husk, crush the grain into flour, mix it with water, leaven the dough, and finally bake it. Peasant families, usually women, would bake on a fixed weekly schedule. The bread was baked on a convex disc (saj) in a sheltered spot or it was taken to the communal oven (forn).

For Christian villagers, the initial starter was made on the 6^th of January, Feast of the Epiphany. A small mixture of flour and water was formed into a small piece of dough. This dough was hung on a tree on the eve of the feast. Villagers believed that Christ would come late and bless the dough and everything outside including the crops and the animals. The tree would bow modestly at the moment of Christ’s benediction. The small piece of dough would be hung on various types of trees, with the exception of the fig tree. According to legend, the fig tree was shunned because Judas was said to have hung himself on this tree. This starter, called khamiret al-Massih – meaning Christ’s yeast - was then used to make bread. Before the bread was baked, a small piece of the risen dough was set aside to leaven the next batch. This process continued throughout the year and would sometimes last indefinitely.

To this day, you can still find households in Lebanon who make their homemade starter to be used throughout the year. Unfortunately, it has become a rarity mostly done in villages. There are, however, some enthusiastic bakers (like my mother and her dear friend Mrs. Marcelle Aboussouan) who believe that using one’s starter makes the whole experience of bread making a ritual worthy of safeguarding, along with other ancient baking techniques and precious cultural culinary traditions.

Bread baked on the saj

Measuring the water to make the starter

Helweh wa Moora, everyone at work!

The final step, hanging the piece of dough outside for 10 days