Lebanese Chicken Provencal & BloggerAid Culinary Olympic 2010

BACFF is hosting an event to promote both our sport (food) and our mission (to be actively promoting the alleviation of world hunger). We invite you to participate and represent your country. Here’s how:

1. beginning today and ending on February 28th at midnight, please submit a recipe that represents your country to blogs4famine (at) gmail (dot) com. Let's show some national pride in our countries cuisine.

2. Include the name of your blog (if you have one), your URL and a photo of your submission.

3. Feel free to use the event logo/avatar and include a photo of your country flag (the flag is optional but we’re encouraging national pride)

4. Post your submission on your blog with a link back to BACFF at http://www.bloggeraidmarketing.ning.com/ and also a short piece encouraging readers to buy The BloggerAid Cookbook available at Create Space https://www.createspace.com/3405882. Include stories of your countries athletes, cuisine or anything else you would like to include. It is only limited by your imagination!!!!

Here are some general guidelines:

1. if you’re an expat, you can choose to either create something that represents your country of birth or the country you are currently in.

2. You must be a member of BACFF to participate

3. All entries will be posted on BACFF on March 5th.

From a small Country of 10,452 km2, three Lebanese athletes marched their way to represent Lebanon in the Winter Olympic Games in Alpine Skiing.

The tourism industry in Lebanon has been historically important to the local economy and remains to this day to be a major source of revenue for Lebanon. Before the Lebanese Civil War , Lebanon was widely regarded as, "The Switzerland of the Middle East." Often being cited as a financial and business hub where visitors can experience the Levantine Mediterranean Culture.

Skiing is one of the winter sports in Lebanon, we have seven skiing places .

Like British Columbia, in Lebanon you will be skiing on top of high mountain slops and in two hours you will be swimming in a beautiful azure warm water.

For the second year Beirut is voted the best tourist destination in the world according the New York Times.

I am participating in the BloggerAid Culinary Olympic 2010 Event. Though I am now a new Canadian, married and living in North Bay, a beautiful city in Northern Ontario. I was born and raised in Lebanon, and the love of my Country is very strong inside my heart, I share it with my family, with friends and with every one I meet, through the food and the flavours I write about in my blog.

My recipe is extremely tasty, full of flavours, easy to prepare. Though the dish includes chicken, this meal can be a tasty vegan dish, by omitting the chicken and only using roasted potatoes, and following the rest of the step

Lebanese Chicken Provencal

Ingredients:

1-1 whole grain fed air chilled chicken

(Or a store bought roasted chicken)

2- 2 pounds of potatoes washed and cut into cubes

3- 1 large fresh cilantro

4- 2-3 heads of garlic

5- Fresh lemon juice from 2-3 depends on your taste

6- 2 tablespoons olive oil

7- 2 tablespoons canola oil

8- Salt, pepper, cayenne pepper

9- 1/3 -1/2 cup of homemade chicken stock

Preparation:

Wash and dry the chicken, rub with salt and pepper and roast it in the oven, starting in a warm oven at 450F for 15 minutes, then lower the heat to 375F, turn the chicken on the other side and continue roasting... If you have a convection oven, use the convection setting.

Clean and cut the potatoes into cubes, roast them in the oven with the chicken. Add the salt, pepper and the canola oil.

When the chicken is cooked, take it out, and let it cool, debone it and keep the bones for the stock, or freeze them for later.

Wash the fresh cilantro, coarsely chop it. Peel the garlic, and using a mortar and pestle, mash the garlic and cilantro adding little salt.

Prepare your baking dish, add the sliced chicken to the dish, and when the potatoes are ready add them over the chicken and mix them , pour the olive oil and fresh squeezed lemon juice over the cilantro and mix well and pour the mixture over the chicken and potatoes, mix well to combine.. Add the chicken stock and stir to combine. Cover the dish with foil, and return it to the oven. Bake in 350F oven for 10 minutes, then take the cover off and continue roasting for another 10 minutes or until the liquid is soaked and started to roast again…

The smell is amazing

Happy Valentine from my Kitchen to Yours

Some words and quotes about love :

• Love is not finding someone to live with; it’s finding someone you can't live without. - Rafael Ortiz
• You may conquer with the sword, but you are conquered by a kiss. - Daniel Heinsius
• If music be the food of love, play on. - Shakespeare
• It's never too late to fall in love. - Sandy Wilson
• To love is to receive a glimpse of heaven. - Karen Sunde
• Where there is love, there is life - Mahatma Gandhi
• If I could reach up and hold a star for every time you've made me smile, the entire evening sky would be in the palm of my hand. - Unknown
• There is no remedy for love but to love more. - Thoreau
• Some love lasts a lifetime. True love lasts forever. - Unknown
• If love is great, and there are no greater things, then what I feel for you must be the greatest. - Unknown
• Where there is great love, there are always miracles. - Willa Cather

Below are some desserts which will be excellent as valentine gifts.

Platter of Baklawa

Knafeh Naboulsieh - with Clotted Cream and fresh Cheese

Oussmalieh - Katayfeh with Kashta

Baklawa with Semolina Cream /Kashta

Walnuts, Almond and Pistachio Diamond Baklawa

(60-80 layers of phyllo)

Apricot & pistachios Baklawa

Bird's Nest Baklawa using Katafeh

Coffee Baklawa

Chocolate & Hazelnuts Baklawa

Blossom Baklawa with Almonds

Three kinds of nuts baklawa

Pistachios Baklawa

Flower Cookies

Double Chocolate Chips Cookies

with milk and dark chocolates

Homemade chocolate truffles

1- Black Russian Truffles with vodka and walnuts

2- Hazelnuts Tequilla Truffles

3- Brandy Truffles

4- Double chocolate Coffee Truffles

5- Caramel pecans truffles

Valentine Dinner at home

Most of us have plans to celebrate valentine day with someone special, some will go to fancy restaurants, some will buy expensive jewelry, and some prefer to cook a nice dinner and enjoy a quiet romantic evening ... If you are one of many who like to prepare a nice romantic dinner at home, this is a great meal for you and your loved one.

This meal is great as a family dinner, or get together, it meal can be prepared and assembled the day before, to be ready for the oven when you plan to serve it.

An amazing tasty dinner, easy to prepare , either using roasted chicken,  from the store, or from leftover roasted chicken, or leftover roasted turkey. Or you can cook the chicken with some veggies and herbs to make homemade stock (don't overcook the chicken, take it out and let it cool, then debone and return the bones to the stock to give an extra flavour to the stock).

The wild mushroom gives the dish a wonderful earthy flavour, and the wine takes it to the next level.

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons flour
1 whole chicken or pieces skinless
350 grams of smoked ham cut into pieces
Over One pound wild mushroom, cleaned and sliced
2 cups warm whole milk or 1 ½ cups milk + ½ cup heavy cream
4 cups chicken stock (from cooking the chicken)
1 pinch of freshly ground nutmeg
White pepper and salt to taste
2 ½  cups Mozzarella cheese
½ cup parmesan cheese
3/4 cup white wine (optional – adds great flavour)
Package of Tagliatelli pasta

 Preparation:

Step 1: melt 2 tbsp. butter in a pot , cook the mushrooms in the butter first and when they starts browning move them to a plate add more butter add the flour and make a roux.  Add the wine and stir then little by little start adding the milk, and stock , keep stirring when it starts to thicken add the heavy cream if you are using. Cook for few minutes add the spices then add half of the cheese and stir.  Take from heat. You might think that the sauce is too much , don't worry the pasta will soak it , and become creamy.

Step 2: boil your pasta for 8 minutes only as it will continue cooking in the oven.

Drain and when your sauce starts to thicken, add your sliced chicken, the ham, cook for 10 more minutes on medium low, then add the drained pasta and the mushroom and toss well until the sauce coats the pasta and the mixture is well blended, adjust the seasoning

Step 3: transfer the pasta mixture to the prepared baking dish, either 13 x 9 or two 8 x 8 ( you can bake one and freeze the second for another meal don’t add the cheese on top if freezing- freeze well).  Cover the baking dish with parchment paper then a foil paper, place the dish on a baking sheet to avoid any dripping in the oven. Bake in preheated 400F oven.

After twenty minutes, check the dish if it`s bubbling and almost ready, sprinkle the top with the cheese mix. Uncover and return to the oven to melt the cheese.

 Serve with white wine and enjoy an amazing meal.

 

Apples Apples Apples - An apple a day keeps the doctor away

Who said eating a cake is fattening. This is a healthy way to eat an apple cake and enjoy the full flavour without feeling guilty:

Ingredients:

1 cup homemade apple butter or good quality jar (I use my own)

1 cup of sugar

1/4 cup of butter

3 eggs

3 cups cake flour or all purpose

1 cup raisin

1 cup chopped nuts

2 tsp baking soda

Dash of salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp spice mix: nutmeg, cloves, cardamom (or use one kind you like)

2 apples chopped

Streusel topping (optional)

Perfect in a lunch box

Square cake pieces

Mini cake loaves

Baked in ramekins

In a silicon cake pan

Sheish Barak Yuksuk - A Tribute to my Grandparents

My posting is only intended to honour my ancestors, their heritage and the cuisine of the Assyrian Orthodox Church…I am not preaching or talking politics, or discriminating any one.

The Syriac Orthodox Church is one of the most ancient Christian Churches tracing its roots to the Church of Antioch. The disciples were first called Christians in Antioch (Acts of the Apostles 11:26). Apostle Peter is believed to have established a church in Antioch in AD 37, the remnants of which are still in Antakya (the modern name of Antioch), Turkey.

The Assyrian language is Aramic and it’s the language of our Lord Jesus.

Before the war approximately one half of the Assyrian population lived in what is today Southern Turkey. The Young Turks took control of the Ottoman Empire only five years before the beginning of World War I. The Ottomans planned to join the side of the Central Powers. In 1914, knowing that it was heading into the war; the Ottoman government passed a law that required the conscription of all young males into the Ottoman army to support the war effort.

Assyrians in what is now Turkey primarily lived in the provinces of Hakkari, Şırnak, and Mardin. These areas also had a sizable Kurdish population. The Ottoman Empire entered World War I on October 29, 1914. My grandfather Gorguis was a young guy, very handsome, educated comes from a well known family from Adana, was also forced to join the army and fight the first world war.

He told stories about the war and how badly the Christian soldiers were treated, some of them were used as bodies’ fence to protect the Empire Army, and who remained alive returned home without their manhood, so that no child will bare their names. My grandfather was very lucky that his education and wisdom moved him from the front lines to the logistic line, where he works on fixing the heavy equipments and machinery.

The Assyrian genocide took place in the same context and time-period as the Armenian and Greek genocides. Contemporary sources usually speak of the events in terms of an Assyrian genocide, along with the Armenian genocide and Greek genocide by the Ottoman Empire, listing the Greek Orthodox, Syriac Christian and Armenian Christian victims together. For example, the International Association of Genocide Scholars reached a consensus that "the Ottoman campaign against Christian minorities of the Empire between 1914 and 1923 constituted genocide against Armenians, Assyrians, and Pontian and Anatolian Greeks."

After the war my grandfather married Rihana. A pretty young lady from Ephesus, their first child was a baby girl (Araliah), then my father. When the genocide happened and the Ottoman soldiers where moving from one town to another, my grandparents, their relatives and friends all gathered at the town church, and in the middle of the night during a sever snowy weather, ran away on horses using old wagons, and some were walking… crossing from town to town walking on bodies not even looking behind or where they are stepping… In the effect of that critical situation they lost the baby girl who didn’t survived the harsh cold weather, my father was still an infant… he made it to Lebanon, where they settled and lived till they died, hoping that one day they will go back to their Town and their home….

During my childhood times when we used to visit our grandparents, you always find Teta Rihana in the kitchen cooking a big meal, the smell of her food reached the main road, and you know that something delicious is happened on my Teta`s stove. One of these meals is the Sheish Barak Yuksuk, which is almost similar to the Lebanese Sheish Barak, but instead of the Yogurt sauce which cooked the dumplings, you use tomato sauce.

Sheish Barak Yuksuk:
Yuksuk is a Turkish word for soup, and Sheish Barak means meat dumplings

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 recipe Ajeen or basic dough recipe
3 cloves garlic, crushed with a dash of salt
1 cup finely chopped fresh mint (if fresh is not available use couple spoons dried)
½ kg (16 oz) ground meat (either beef or lamb)

bones or oxtails for the broth
3 medium sized onions, finely chopped
¼ cup fried pine nuts
1 tspn salt
¼ tspn ground allspice
¼ tspn ground cinnamon
2 tbls butter

1 cup of dried chickpeas soaked in water over night

4 cup of tomato juice + 8 oz chopped tomatoes

fresh lemn juice( 1-2 lemons depend on your taste)

Basic Dough or Ajeen
(this is used in many savoury pastries)
INGREDIENTS:
1 kg (32 oz / 5 cups) plain flour
1 ¼ cups warm water
½ cup olive oil
½ cup vegetable oil
2 tbls salt
2 tbls sugar

PREPARATION:
Sift the flour into a working surface.Mix in salt and sugar. Make a well in the centre.Pour olive oil and vegetable oil in the well.Mix the dry ingredients into the liquid.Add water gradually. Knead the dough into a ball (if the dough is too stiff add some water).Knead the dough on a floured working surface until it is smooth and elastic this can be done in an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook, or in a food processor.Form the dough into a ball and put into a lightly floured bowl, covered with a damp cloth. Leave in a warm place until the dough has doubled in size.

Preparing the Sheesh Barak

Roll out the dough with a rolling pin to about 1 cm thickness. Using a round cookie cutter (medium size), press over dough to get equal rounds.Fry onion in shortening till color changes a little. Add meat, salt, allspice and cinnamon. Stir occasionally and fry for 7-8 minutes. Add pine nuts and Mix. Drain the mixture as butter would affect closing the pastries.

Spread the round a little with your fingers. Place 1 tspn of the filling on it. Fold over one end to make a semi-circle. Press edges down to seal. Take the two ends from the straight side, bring them together to make a small ring. Press well. Repeat till rounds are done.

You will have left over dough , (this is the best part) roll the remaining dough in thin rope and cut into diagonals. Place the stuffed dough and the cut pastries in a tray with parchment, Bake in a hot oven (400F) for 10 minutes or until golden.

If you are using bones or oxtail, wash and dry with paper towel, and bake in the oven till brown, and drain all the fat. Move them to a plate .

In a big pot add the tomato juice and the tomatoes the oxtails and the chickpeas and cook until the sauce thickens and the meat starts to fall down from the bones. Mash the garlic and chop the fresh mint or sprinkle the dried mint if using and add it to the pot, boil for 7 minutes more. Add the Sheish Barak and keep boiling for fifteen minutes add the lemon juice and stir. and continue cooking for 5 more minutes...

The smell is unbelievable . Grabe a plate and enjoy a delicious home comfort meal.

Note: when the meat falls of the bones , and the chickpeas are very tender, your meal is ready to serve.