Cookbook 37: Lebanese Cookbook

This cookbook is the obviously named Lebanese Cookbook by Dawn, Elaine and Selwa Anthony.  This book was first published in 1978, mine in 1983, and the photos definitely show it.  The lack of stay fast blue in the printing process gives the book it’s 1970 Lileks appearance.  Thankfully none of the images take away from the delicious food in this book.  It is very much an Anglicised Australian take on Lebanese food, with all the listed ingredients available in Australia.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that this book is still being published, and am almost tempted to get the newer version to see how it’s changed.

I bought this book second hand at possibly the best second hand book store in Victoria, the Daylesford Book Barn, back in the early 90s.  My family fell in love with the book and we went through and made many of the recipes, one of which I’ve memorised because it is ultra tasty.  I give this book 4 stars out of 5, with the loss of one star because some of the instructions could be a bit clearer, but otherwise it’s amazing.

Rice Pilaf (Ruz Bish’irreeyeh)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup broken up vermicelli or fine egg noodles
• 2 1/2 tablespoons ghee or sustitute
• 2 cups rice (preferably long grained), washed and drained
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 4 cups boiling water
• ground cinnamon

Method:

1. Saute the vermicelli or noodles in the ghee until a light brown colour, stirring constantly to avoid burning
2. Mix the rice and salt well into the vermicelli then add the boiling water.  Give one final stir, allow a few seconds to bubble, then cover the rice tightly.  Turn heat down to very low and simmer until cooked – approx 20 minutes.
3. When ready to serve, stir the rice gently with a fork, turn onto serving dish and spring ground cinnamon lightly over top.

Notes on this recipe:

• (From the book) Lightly fried pine nuts may also be sprinkled over the rice
• (From the book) When served with chicken, half chicken broth may be substituted for half the amount of water.  Alternatively, add 2 chicken stock cubes to the water.
• This really is a straight forward and awesome recipe.  It is absolutely delicious and would go with most food that calls for rice.

Dawood Baasha (meatballs and pine nuts in tomato sauce)

Ingredients:

Meatballs:

• 500g finely ground beef, lamb, or hamburger meat
• 1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
• 1/2 cup finely chopped or ground onion
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Sauce:

• 1 cup pine nuts
• 1/2 cup olive or nut oil
• 2 large onions, chopped
• 4 medium tomatoes, peeled
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste blended with 1 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
• salt and black pepper
• juice of half a lemon

Method:

1. Mould the kafta (meatball) mixture into balls about half the size of an egg.
2. In a saucepan lightly brown the pine nuts in oil, remove and set aside.  Fry the onions in the same oil until golden brown, remove and set aside, then brown the meat balls and set aside.
3. Place the peeled tomatoes and tomato paste blended with water in the pan and bring to the boil.  Add the mixed spices, salt and pepper, lemon juice, onions and meat balls.  Simmer for 20 minutes adding a little more water if required.  Add the pine nuts just before serving.

Notes on this recipe:

• If using tinned tomatoes, as I did, drain them first so you don’t end up with a lake of tomato sauce.  Unless you like lakes of tomato sauce, and then go crazy.
• This recipe really has a lot of pine nuts in it.  They are delicious, but if you don’t like pine nuts, stay away.
• We made this with lamb mince, and it was delicious
• Have I mentioned that everything was delicious yet?

Cabbage Rolls

Vegetable stuffing

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup chick peas, soaked overnight, drained and then boiled for 20 – 30 minutes
• 1/2 cup chopped mint, or 2 teaspoons dried mint
• 1/2 cup finely chopped parsley
• 2 medium tomatoes, chopped
• 1/2 cup spring onions, chopped
• 1 1/4 cup rice, washed and drained
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon Zaatar mixture or thyme
• 1 cup olive oil
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice

Method:

• Drain the soaked chick peas and crack them by placing them in a clean cloth and rolling with a rolling pin.
• Wash and drain the cracked chick peas, place in a bowl and mix in all the remaining ingredients.

Cabbage Rolls

Ingredients

• Vegetable stuff (see above)
• 1 medium cabbage
• 2 tomatoes sliced
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt

Method

1. Place the tomato slices and garlic cloves in a layer on the bottom of the saucepan.
2. Remove the core from the cabbage, separate and wash leaves.  Dip them into boiling water a few at a time until they become wilted and pliable.  Tim the large central veins flat (removing them if they are too hard to roll.  Cut very large leaves in half but leave small ones whole.
3. Take a cabbage leaf, lay it down with the inside up and place a tablespoon of stuffing in the centre. Fold the bottom of the leaf over the stuffing, then roll tightly, forming a roll about 10 – 15 cm long and 2.5 – 4 cm wide.  Repeat with remaining cabbage leaves and stuffing.
4. Pack the rolls, open ends down, in tight rows and layers in the saucepan, on top of the tomato and garlic.  Sprinkle each layer with salt and lemon juice.
5. When the stuffed cabbage rolls have been packed tightly in the saucepan, take a heatproof plate and turn it upside-down over the top of the cabbage, pressing down firmly.  Add enough water to cover the plate while it is under pressure.
6. Leave the plate in place and cover the saucepan securely.  Bring quickly to the boil, turn down heat and simmer very slowly until the cabbage is tender (between 45 – 60 minutes).
7. For maximum flavour let the cabbage to cool in the saucepan with the juices.  Reheat before serving.
8. To serve, drain the juice from the saucepan.  Turn the stuffed cabbages onto a large platter and pour the juice over the top.

Notes on this recipe:

• Individually separating all the cabbage leaves from the cabbage takes longer than you think.  We probably only used about 10 leaves (and cut them in half because they were quite large).
• This recipe is an adaptation of two in the book, and I’ve completely reworked how it was written so it fits as one recipe and not two recipes with separate instructions for cooking.
• The rolls are a lot less fragile than you first think, so you can remove them from the saucepan with tongs
• Also, you need a saucepan large enough to fit a plate into, or the right size saucepan for plate (bread and butter plate perhaps).  Remember the plate is going to be REALLY hot after it’s been simmering for 45 – 60 minutes, so you need to be able to lift it out with something – so some gap around it is useful.
• For those who like cabbage (not me) they were really good.

Zucchini and Egg Fritters (Ijjit Kousa)

Ingredients:

• 1 clove garlic
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 – 6 spring onions
• 1 pinch pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon mixed spices
• 1 cup zucchini pulp
• 5 eggs
• 3/4 cup self raising flour
• 1/2 – 1 cup parsley, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh mint or 1 teaspoon dried mint
• olive or nut oil

Method:

1. Crush the garlic in a bowl with the salt.  Mix in the spring onions, pepper and mixed spices.  Add the mashed zucchini and the eggs.  Beat well with a beater, then thoroughly mix in the flour.  Add parsley and mint.
2. Spoon the mixture into a pan of hot oil and fry until the fritters are golden brown on both sides.  Repeat this procedure until all the mixture is used.

Variation: Add 1 tablespoon of olive or nut oil to the mixture. Pour it into a greased baking dish to a thickness of 2.5 – 4 cm and bake in a moderate oven until cooked – approx 3/4 hour.

Notes on this recipe:

• We grated the zucchini instead of mashing it.  It still worked
• This dish doesn’t make anywhere near enough fritters, we had 2 each (there were 5 of us), and we all wanted more.

Oo’whamat (Dough balls in syrup)

Attar (Sugar syrup)

Ingredients:

• 3 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon rosewater or orange blossom water

Method:

1. Dissolve sugar in water, add lemon juice and bring to the boil.  Skim the foam from the surface and continue to boil, stirring occasionally until syrup thickens slightly – approx 10 minutes.  Add the rosewater or organise blossom water towards the end of the cooking time.
2. Stand syrup to cool.

Dough balls

Ingredients:

• 3 1/2 cups plain flour
• 7.5g dried yeast or 15g  fresh yeast
• 2 1/2 cups lukewarm water
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• Attar syrup
• Nut or corn oil for frying
• ground cinnamon (optional)

Method:

1. Warm a mixing bowl and sift the flour into it.
2. Dissolve the yeast in 1/4 cup of the lukewarm water, add the sugar and set aside until it rises and foams.
3. Beat the remaining water into the yeast, then gradually add the flour, beating constantly until the mixture becomes a sticky batter.  Cover with a damp cloth and place in a warm spot to rise – approx 1 1/4  hours.  During the first hour beat the mixture vigorously at quarter hour intervals.
4. Place 5cm oil in a frying pan and heat until very hot. With a wet teaspoon scoop up the dough and drop it into the hot oil.  The dough balls will swell up and float to the top, at which stage you should turn the heat down to medium and keep cooking until they are crisp and golden brown.
5. Remove the dough balls from the oil, drain on absorbent paper, and while still hot immerse briefly in cool Atter syrup.  Set aside and sprinkle with cinnamon.
6. Serve hot or cold

Notes on this recipe:

• You can dip the donuts in syrup, or do what I do and drizzle some over the donuts in a bowl, and then lightly toss the donuts so they are well covered.  That way you’ll end up with left over syrup you can use for cocktails or anything else that requires sugar syrup.
• Don’t bother changing the oil temperature while cooking, it’s far easier to get it at one good temperature and then keep it there.
• This dough is so sticky that neat balls of dough to cook require significant mastery.  Don’t worry if yours resemble the elder gods (deep fried of course).
• These are like eating heaven.