Lady’s Wrist and Mortadella

Lady’s wrist or Lebanese Mortadella is a savoury dish prepared either with beef, lamb or a combination of the two or from chicken… in This recipe we are using beef.

For the Meat:

700 gm of roast beef

½ head of garlic (if you like garlic you can add more)

2 green peppers cleaned and sliced

1 tsp of freshly ground black pepper

1 ½ tsp of sea salt

2 large eggs

1 cup of bread crumbs

Clean the beef from fat and cut into cubes. In a food processor add cubed meat, garlic and green bell pepper and grind finally until the meat gather on one side of the blade, you might do that in several batches… add the egg and bread crumbs , salt and pepper mix well in a bowl to combine.

For the Stuffing:

½ head of garlic sliced

1 cup of roasted pistachio

Or 1 cup of green olives

For the boiling water:

Couple bay leaves

1 tbsp of sea salt

1 tbsp of white vinegar

Divide the meat into three equal parts, on a cutting board laid with a large piece of plastic wrap, take one part of the meat and spread it in the centre of the plastic wrap in a rectangular shape 1 cm thick. Add sliced garlic and pistachios or green olives over the meat and take one side of the wrap and roll the meat over the stuffing using the plastic wrap to roll. Close tightly with the wrap bringing both ends to the centre, and then rewrap it in another plastic and twist the ends and tie each end with a cooking twine...

In a big enough pot, filled with water, add bay leaves, salt and vinegar. Cover the pot to boil. Add the meat wraps to the boiling water, cover and cook for 15 minutes.  Take the meat out to a plate and let it rest and cool.

If you want to use this meat as an appetizer platter you can slice, and serve it over a bed of lettuce, or you can fry it with couple spoons of butter before slicing it to give a nicer brown color. Perfect as a cold meat sandwich.

To serve as a meal… over low heat in the same pan which you fried the rolls, add another spoon of butter and same amount of flour and make a rough, add beef stock and cook on low stirring to thicken the sauce, add ¼ cup of red wine or 2 tsp of red wine vinegar to the stock add the meat and cook for 15 minutes. Serve with mashed potatoes.

Note: My late aunt used to stuff the meat with boiled eggs .

My preference is the garlic and pistachios.

 

Sfeeha Baalbakieh - Meat Pastries from Baalback

Baalbek (Arabic: بعلبك‎) is a town in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon, altitude 1,170 m (3,850 ft), situated east of the Litani River. It is famous for its exquisitely detailed yet monumentally scaled temple ruins of the Roman period, when Baalbek, known as Heliopolis was one of the largest sanctuaries in the Empire. It is Lebanon's greatest Roman treasure, and it can be counted among the wonders of the ancient world. The largest and most noble Roman temples ever built, they are also among the best preserved.

Towering high above the Beqaa plain, their monumental proportions proclaimed the power and wealth of Imperial Rome. The gods worshipped here, the Triad of Jupiter, Venus and Mercury, were grafted onto the indigenous deities of Hadad, Atargatis and a young male god of fertility. Local influences are also seen in the planning and layout of the temples, which vary from the classic Roman design.
Baalbek is home to the annual Baalbeck International Festival. The town is located about 85 km north east of Beirut, and about 75 km north of Damascus. It has a population of approximately 72,000.

Heliopolis, the City of the Sun
When Alexander the Great conquered the Near East in 334 BC, Baalbek was renamed Heliopolis, Helios Greek for sun and Polis Greek for city. The city retained its religious function during Greco-Roman times, when the sanctuary of the Heliopolitan Jupiter-Baal was a pilgrimage site. Trajan's biographer records that the Emperor consulted the oracle there. Trajan inquired of the Heliopolitan Jupiter whether he would return alive from his wars against the Parthians. In reply, the god presented him with a vine shoot cut into pieces. .

I can talk without stop about this majestic City, where I spent most of my childhood years in a small village outside the big town of Baalback, the village is called Fakha - Fruits. this village was famous for its good quality of fruits.

During the first world war, the Ottman Turks invaded Lebanon and Syria, occupied the Country from 1516-1916, they burned towns, farms and lands, and Fakha was burned several times by the Ottman.

Fakha is My mom's home town, where she was born, and raised with her three sisters, two of them already deceased. My grandfather M. Arouk, had a small farm with some sheep and goats, and couple pieces of land where he used to take the cattle's every morning so they can eat and drink water and enjoy the fresh cool air. My grandfather will be picking a basket of fresh figs and grapes to bring back home. This will their breakfast . It was a simple and beautiful life .

I am sharing with you a simple, delicious recipe from the Baalback Region; it’s called Sfeeha Baalbakieh, which means meat pastries from Baalback. Sfeeha used to be prepared by the farmers when they have a freshly cut lamb meat. they will finely chop it with their sharp big knives, add some chopped onions and tomatoes from the garden, and some spices for flavouring. The mix used in stuffing some dough prepared in advance and turned into meat pastries called Sfeeha, as a flat pastries with closed sides pressed together to seal the dough and to keep the juice from running out, also will keep the meat tender and tasty. The farmer's wife would bake the pastries in a wood Tanour Oven similar to Tandoori Oven.

Dough:

5 cups all purpose flour ( 2 cups will be used for the starter)

1 tbls salt

1/4 cup olive oil

Ten minutes sponge:

4 tsp of instant yeast

2 tbsp sugar

2 cups warm water

2 cups flour

Add the yeast to the warm water, with the sugar and the flour using a wooden spoon, and let it rise , within ten minutes you have a wet starter as a base for your dough.

add the rest of the flour and the salt, the olive oil and mix well to combine a smooth dough.

Cover the dough with a plastic wrap and let it rise and double. Because you used a starter

it will not take long for the dough to double in size . Punch down the dough (Degas) and devide it into small balls the size of a walnut or baseball.

Ingredients for Stuffing:

1/2 kg (16 oz) ground lamb meat , ground beef, or a mix of both

1 kg (32 oz) firm tomatoes, finely chopped, seeds removed

5 medium onions, finely chopped

1 tsp salt

A dash of ground the following: cayenne red pepper, ground cinnamon, and ground allspice

2 tbls butter diced

2 tbls yoghurt

1 tbls sesame paste (Tahineh)

1 tbls pomegranate molasses

4 tbls fried pine nuts (optional)

Mix the meat with the Chopped Tomatoes, onion and spices. Add yoghurt, sesame paste and pomegranate. Add the fried pine nuts if using. Divide dough into walnut size balls. Roll between hand palms to smooth. Dust your board with some flour and roll out the balls with a rolling pin to form 8 cm diameter circles. Put one tbls of meat mixture in the centre of the dough. Bring the edges up and press to make a square. Arrange meat pastries in a tray with parchment paper. Bake in a moderate heat oven (350° F) for 20-25 minutes or till dough is golden and meat is cooked. Serve hot with yoghurt as a first course, or serve warm as an appetizer.


P.S.: for safety reason, try to cook the meat couple of minutes just to change color and you dont see any red in the meat. Cool before mixing.

 

Pomegaranate Molasses
The best Meat Pastries , easy to prepare, full of flavours and can be served hot as first course with yogurt and cucumber salad, or warm as an appetizer.

Prepare a sponge for 10 minutes then knead the dough.

Mix everything together

shape the pastries either rounds or squares by closing the four corners

the pastries are ready for the oven

 

THURSDAY - MARDI GRAS PARTY

The Landry's Are Happy to Invite You
To A Mardi Gras Party
Thursday, FEB 19, 2009

Menu including dessert

Appetizers: Tabbouleh, Hummus, Goat cheese balls, Brie cheese in croissant, black olive tapenade, and home made pickles (pearl onions, dill pickles and antipasto) home made bread

brie stuffed in croissant dough

Black Olive Tapenade

Entrée: Fried Kibbee Balls, Seafood Pasta

Desserts: light Sherry Pavlovas with home made vanilla ice cream or berry sorbets with tropical fruits.

Goat Cheese balls

Shrimp & Sea Scallops Pasta

Roasted Pigeons - Asafeer Mhamarah

Pigeons , Tabbouleh and Lebanese Red Wine

My baby brother Simon went bird's hunting with his friends end of Summer, and he had around 100 birds to bring home, they ate some and left the rest in the freezer, promising me the next feast , I will get some photos to share since this is uncommon in North America, and I would like to share with you, since its a delicacy in Europe and the Middle East.

Its very simple to prepare soon as you get your birds, boil some water and soak the birds in the hot water for couple of minutes , to help you clean the feather , then you open the stomach and clean the inside, wash them in clean cold water for couple of times using flour and lemon juice then drain them. Put in the fridge either to cook them immediately or in freezer bag to freeze.

Cooking direction

in a non stick frying pan or pot with a lid, add couple of spoons of olive oil, with couple of spoons of butter, add the birds, cover the pot and let them cook on medium heat making sure to keep your eye to turn them to the other side when browned, it will take around 15-20 minutes.

to finish the pot either squeeze 2 - 3 lemons and add them to the pot and stir to combine, or first your can add some cognac and get it on fire then add the lemon juice.

Its simple, tasty delicacy and part of the Lebanese Mezza.

1- My brother Simon hunting

2- my sister Mona and my sister in law Natalie, and my niece Miss Thea

3- my sister Madelene and mom`s hand

 

MTABAL BATINJAN - BABA GHANOUJ

Lebanese Eggplant Dip - Mtabal Batinjan (Baba Ghanouj)

WALNUT STUFFED EGGPLANT

Yield: 4 hearty servings

2 1-pound eggplants (450g each)
1/2 pound (225g) tomatoes, chopped
1/4 pound (115g) cremini or button mushrooms, sliced
1 cup (240 ml) chopped onions
4 large cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground Lebanese spice mix
Freshly ground black pepper
2/3 cup (160 ml) walnuts
1 6-ounce (170g) can tomato paste
3 heaping tablespoons capers, well drained
2 to 3 small ripe tomatoes, sliced

Cut the eggplants in half lengthwise, slicing through the stem end. Using a curved, serrated grapefruit knife, scoop out the flesh, leaving a 1/4-inch (.5 cm) thick shell, and coarsely chop the flesh. Put the chopped eggplant into a large, deep skillet or flat bottom wok.
Rub the inside of the eggplant shells with a small amount of olive oil and place them on a baking sheet. Place the eggplant shells under the broiler and broil them 3 inches (7.5 cm) from the heat source for 5 to 10 minutes, until fork tender. Watch carefully to prevent burning. Remove the eggplant shells from the broiler and set them aside.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees (Gas Mark 5). Add the chopped tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, garlic, olive oil, salt, cinnamon, and pepper to the skillet with the chopped eggplant, and cook and stir for 7 to 10 minutes, until the vegetables are tender.
Coarsely grind the walnuts in a nutmill and add them to the skillet along with the tomato paste and capers. Mix well.
Fill the eggplant shells with the vegetable mixture and top with tomato slices. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and bake, uncovered, for 25 to 35 minutes. .

Hummus Bi Tahini Sauce - Hummus Dip