Lebanese main dish & dessert

April's international cuisine was Lebanese. It wasn't the most successful month of cooking, but I did find a decent main dish and dessert recipe. The appetizer was a type of bread... but I'm going to make tweaks to the recipe I found and update on that later.

Lebanese food is usually heavily seasoned, but not spicy. It's very similar to Greek cuisine, and I wanted to make sure I found recipes that leaned more into the category of Lebanese and not Greek. For my main dish I made Lebanese Chicken & Potatoes.

     8 cut up chicken pieces
     8 small potatoes
     3 cloves garlic, crushed
     1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
     1 cup fresh lemon juice
     salt & white pepper to taste

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
• Wash & peel potatoes. Slice the potatoes and chicken into bite size pieces and place in a large baking dish. Sprinkle salt and white pepper on top.
• In a bowl, stir together garlic, olive oil, and lemon juice. Pour over chicken and potatoes. 
• Cover dish with tinfoil and bake for 30 minutes. 
• Remove tinfoil and turn heat up to 475 degrees F and cook another 30 minutes.

Half a dish of Lebanese Chicken & Potatoes.

This was a very basic recipe and turned out well. It makes about 5-7 servings. The only pain was crushing the garlic cloves, so I gave that task to the Boyfriend Unit. The lemon juice gave the flavor a nice twang. I would recommend this as a dish if you have guests over and want to whip up something a little different.




The dessert was super awesome. Technically, it's more of an Algerian cookie, but Lebanese desserts do tend to favor almonds, so I let that slide. However, it's not a cheap dessert to make due to the amount of almonds needed. Nether the less, I created a batch of Makroud el Louse (or if you want an easier name, call them Algerian Almond Cookies).

     1 pound almonds, whole
     1 cup sugar
     2 eggs, lightly beaten
     2 cups water
     1/2 cup sugar
     1 tablespoon orange extract
     3 cups powdered sugar

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Grind almonds into a fine powder and then add to large bowl. Stir in 1 cup of sugar.
• Make a crater in the center of the pulverized almonds & sugar. Add the eggs and stir with spoon until the dough comes together. 
• Knead the dough with clean hands until smooth. Divide the dough into 4 equal portions and remove to a floured work surface. 
• Roll one portion out into a rope about as thick as two fingers. Press down to slightly flatten the roll and then cut the rope at a diagonal to make 1 inch pieces. 
• Repeat with the rest of the dough and place the 1 inch pieces on an ungreased cookie sheet.
• Bake cookies 12 minutes and then let cool.
• While cookies bake, bring the water and 1/2 cup of sugar to a boil in a saucepan over high heat. Stir to dissolve sugar and let boil for 10 minutes. Removed from heat, stir in the orange extract, and let cool to room temperature. 
• Get a bowl to hold the powdered sugar. Lightly dip each cookie into the sugar syrup and then dip into powdered sugar to coat the dampened part of the cookies. Place on rack to dry and repeat process for all cookies.

Before baking in the oven.

After baking in the oven.

These cookies are so darn good. I couldn't help but eat a few while typing in the instructions. I was very leery about what the results would be, but I was happy with the taste and texture. I ended up with 48 cookies from this one recipe. I shared with some family and friends, and the cookies received one thumbs up (because the other thumb was busy holding another cookie). If you can't find orange extract, you can use a teaspoon of lemon zest. I'm not sure if the orange extract really added to the flavor, but it does give the cookies a heavenly aroma.

I only have one major rule for this cookie - make sure you share.

Fun fact - This entry doesn't really have any fun facts.

Dang Dangos

Okay. Finally. The Japanese dessert.

Dangos are dang hard to make. I'm not even fully sure I made them correctly... And frankly, I'm a little scared to actually taste them. Might just be one of those dishes I have the Boyfriend Unit eat before I risk my own taste buds.

Fun fact: Dangos are dumplings that can be either savory or sweet. They are usually served on bamboo skewers.

I found my recipe on The Anime Blog, and decided to create the Easy Dango:

          1 cup mochiko (sweet rice flour)
          1/4 boiling water

• Fill medium sized saucepan with water and boil
• Slowly add a small amount of water to the mochiko and carefully knead dough together
• Keep slowly adding water until dough is the consistency and texture of an earlobe
• Form dough into small balls and add them to boiling water
• Cook for 8 minutes or until they float to the surface

Fun fact: Bocchan dango has three colors. One is colored by red beans, the second by eggs, and the third by green tea. I just used food dye.

Dangos are often accompanied with sauces. I sprinkled white & brown sugar on top.

So end result - worse dish I have ever made. Don't make dangos. At least, not these dangos. There are some recipes that require the balls to be grilled instead of boiled, which seems more promising. But it's probably best if you just bake some plain ol' chocolate chip cookies for dessert instead.

Unimportant update.

March has been a super busy social month, so International Cuisine Night sort of got squished around. I already had success making rolled beef, fluffy boiled potatoes, and sushi rolls. My next goal is to make a Japanese dessert, dango.


Just a reminder for those new to the blog, each month I pick a cuisine and then try to create an appetizer, main dish, and dessert based on that cuisine. I have a small box that contains slips of paper with a variety of cuisine choices. Just for information sake, these are the available cuisines:

• Native American - January
• Great Britain - February
• Japanese - March
• German
• Russian
• Vegan
• Italian
• Jewish
• Spanish
• Lebanese - April
• Thai
• Greek
• Chinese
• Mexican
• Irish
• French
• Indian
• Vegetarian

Know a cuisine that I didn't list? Let me know so I can add it to my list!

Leprechaun Drop Cookies

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I was inspired to whip up a batch of cookies last night for the holiday.

3/4 cup sugar                                2 1/4 cup flour
3/4 cup brown sugar                     1 teaspoon baking soda
2 sticks butter (softened)               3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs                                  2 cups Andes baking mints
1 teaspoon vanilla                         1 cup semi-sweet baking chocolate chips
Green food dye

• Preheat oven to 375
• Mix sugar, butter, vanilla, eggs, and 8 drops of food dye
• Gradually mix in flour, baking soda, and salt
• Stir in baking chips
• Bake for 8 minutes

I present to you - Leprechaun Drop Cookies!

Sushi Part II - Photo update

Sushi rice spread over the seaweed & sesame seeds on top.

Cling wrap is placed around bamboo mat to keep rice from sticking.

Flipped, so rice will be on outside. 

This is the improved "Hon" roll. Crab meat, cream cheese, and (now) steamed asparagus.

Sliced and topped with sweet & sour sauce.

NOM NOM NOM!!!

The rolls were lovely and super tasty.

Yawata-maki & Jagaimo no tosa-fumi (I'm not speaking in tongues, I swear!)

While researching Japanese cuisine, I came across a couple of recipes I wanted to try instead of just doing one Japanese meal this month. Last night I tried my hand at yawata-maki (rolled beef) and jagaimo no tosa-fumi (fluffy boiled potatoes).

Fun fact: Japanese cooking was influenced by China in the 8th and 9th centuries when chopsticks and soy sauce were introduced.

So let's get down to business. For the Fluffy Boiled Potatoes, only a few ingredients are required.

2 large potatoes
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon sake
1 teaspoon salt

The original recipe also called for bonito flakes to be sprinkled over the potatoes after they're cooked. I failed to find any store that sold bonito flakes (no luck at a large Asian market uptown). And really, who wants dried fish flakes on their food anyways? Save that junk for the cats.

• Clean and peel potato skins. Cut into chunks (roughly the size of dice).
• Fill a sauce pan with enough water to cover potatoes. Heat water to a boil and then add potato chunks. Reduce to a medium heat.
• Let potatoes cook until they are tender. You can test by poking them with a skewer. If it goes in easily, they're done.
• Drain water. 
• Mix the soy sauce, sake, and salt together and then pour over potatoes. Toss lightly to spread the sauce around.

This makes about 3-4 servings. I used the two largest russet potatoes Walmart had to offer, but I think next time I'll just use one potato and cut the ingredients for the sauce in half. The flavor was amazing and I am for sure making this again in the future. It took a long time to have the potatoes cook because the cook book said to put the heat on low... but then the water didn't seem hot enough, so medium heat works better.

Bowl of fluffy boiled potatoes - great side dish.

The Rolled Beef gave me some grief. I had to cut the beef myself into the thin sheets required. Plus I found out I had no idea how to steam asparagus (instructions were not in the cook book). But now that I've lived through the experience, I think I could repeat the whole progress more smoothly.

1 pound thinly-sliced beef sirloin or tenderloin            10 asparagus, steamed
2 tablespoons ground ginger                                      1 tablespoon sake
1/4 cup soy sauce                                                     4 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon sugar                                                    toothpicks

• Make teriyaki sauce by mixing together the ginger, sake, soy sauce, and sugar. Marinate the meat in sauce for an hour.
• Steam asparagus by cutting off the bottom third of the stalk (or just bend until it snaps - asparagus will snap at its weak point). Place in microwave safe container, add 3 tablespoons of water, cover with cling wrap with one corner opened. Microwave for 2 minutes.
• Slice asparagus to be the same width of the  the beef slices. Place 3 slices of asparagus at base of beef slice and then roll up, securing with a tooth pick. Refer to images below.

• Put a thin layer of vegetable oil in skillet and heat. Place the rolled beef pieces in and cook until brown. Be sure to flip and move the beef to insure all sides are browned. 

Having the toothpicks in the meat makes it a bit of a pain to cook them in the skillet, but it helps so much to keep it all together. You can remove the toothpicks once the meat has cooled a little. The teriyaki sauce gives these things a KICK of flavor which is beyond great. I made my slices about 2 fingers wide, so the beef rolls turned out to be bite sized. This is a dish that makes me feel like I've done some fancy, culinary cooking - but it was actually pretty easy. I did have to figure out how to cut my meat (by the way, have it slightly frozen to make it easier to slice) and learn how to steam asparagus. If you want to add a bit more flavor, cut slices of green onion to put in with the asparagus. Either way, it taste super awesome and will make you feel like like a real chef.

Most pointless fact ever: Eating asparagus will make your pee smell funny. That's a scientific fact.

Yawata-maki - a.k.a. Rolled Beef (if you prefer a more normal name)

This was a very fulfilling meal with a lot of flavor packed into each bite. This meal has easily become the top favorite so far. But don't take my word for it - you should make it for yourself.

A lesson about sushi.

Sushi is the most famous dish of Japanese cuisine and is usually eaten during celebrations in Japan. There are different types of sushi, but whatever type of sushi you order, it will contain fish and rice.
Fun fact: Sushi does not mean "raw fish". Sashimi is raw fish. Sushi is actually vinegared rice with other ingredients.


 The most well known type is Norimaki. This is when rice and seafood is rolled in sheets of dried seaweed. There is a large variety of items that can be placed inside the rolls such as avocado, cucumber, cream cheese, and, of course, the various seafood items. When the sushi is rolled with the rice on the outside (instead of the seaweed) it's referred to as an "inside out" roll. In Japan, it is much more common to see the rolls with the seaweed on the outside.




Nigiri is a ball of rice with the fish placed on top. This sushi sometimes has a strip of seaweed to keep the fish and rice together. The most popular varieties for this style include tuna, shrimp, octopus, or eel.




The third most popular sushi is Temaki. Dried seaweed sheets are rolled into cone shapes and stuffed with sushi rice, seafood, and vegetables. I'm not a huge fan of this type of sushi because I prefer the seaweed to be more masked within the other ingredients. But don't let that scare you away from temaki. Seaweed is actually one of the healthiest foods available, containing trace minerals, enzymes, and vitamins A, C, D, E, & K. It's good for your digestive and nervous system.


The sushi rolls I made were very plain. We made two sushi rolls, but I could have made more since the recipe I used created enough for 4-5 rolls. Since I don't own a rice cooker, I used a video from YouTube to figure out how to cook the rice correctly. Runny's Japanese Cooking had a great video that I followed - but again, a lot of rice was made.
I wanted to create an inside out roll, so I found a great video from HowCast.com to walk me through the steps. This particular video demonstrates how to make the California Roll, but I invited my own sushi rolls instead.

On the left is the Hon Roll and on the right is the Kelci Roll (for lack of more creative names). Originally, I had planned to use an avocado as well, but it turns out that they go bad very quickly (which now I know...).
The Hon Roll has shredded crab meat and cream cheese. We drizzled sweet and sour sauce on top.
The Kelci Roll had cooked salmon and cream cheese with a dipping sauce called hoisin on top.
Fun fact: Hoisin sauce is a Chinese dipping sauce. "Hoisin" literally means "seafood"... but fish is not an ingredient.

The Hon Roll was the favorite by far. Each roll was tasty, but they kept falling apart. Next time I'll have to make sure I wrap them more tightly with the bamboo mat. Also - it is VERY important to have a sharp knife to slice the rolls. Follow the tip from the video and slide the side of the knife against a damp cloth between cuts to prevent the rice from sticking.


I will be attempting more sushi rolls a few weeks from now on the International Cuisine night. Creating the rice is the most time consuming portion of the process, but now that I have the hang of it I look forward to creating more sushi rolls.


Now who wants to have a sushi party!