Archive for the ‘Lebanon Recipes’ Category
Lebanese Recipes – Mehche Selek
Mehche Selek is the second recipe Lebanon Packages will be providing to its Visitors for a taste of Lebanon. Each week, a new Lebanese Recipes of the not very well known ones will be posted. Our choice for today is the Lebanese Mehche Selek.
Stuffed chard
Lebanese seven spice is a key ingredient for this style of cooking. It is available in all Middle Eastern food shops or online from steenbergs.co.uk.
Serves 4
12 large chard leaves (or more if the chard is small) and their stalks
small bunch of mint
large bunch of parsley
2 large tomatoes
100g cooked chickpeas
100g uncooked long grain rice
1 tsp Lebanese seven spice
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp sea salt
olive oil
juice of 2 lemons
Remove and reserve any chard stalks that extend beyond the leaves and chop into batons around 6cm long. Slice the leaves into 3 or 4 large pieces, crossways. Fill a frying pan with water, add 1 tsp of salt, bring to a simmer and blanch the leaves, in batches if necessary, for just a minute until wilted but still green. Then do the same with the stalks for slightly longer.
Remove and discard the stalks from the herbs, chop finely, then rinse in a sieve. Dice the tomatoes finely and add to the herbs. Add the chickpeas, rice, spices and seasoning. Dress with 5 tbsp of olive oil and the juice of the 2 lemons. Mix this filling well, using your hands.
Take a large heavy-bottomed saucepan, coat the base in a little oil and then line the pan with the chard stalks – these will protect the fragile chard leaves from the heat later. Then stuff the chard: place a single leaf flat on a board and put a generous tsp of filling in the middle. Gently tuck the sides of the leaf in, over the stuffing, then roll the leaf up from the side nearest to you. Place the rolled-up leaf in the palm of your hand and squeeze out firmly over the bowl of filling (to retain the juices). Put the stuffed chard into the pan, layering them up over the stalks. If you find your chard leaves are too small or are torn, you can layer up two at a time to make a big-enough whole leaf. The stuffed chard will only be about 6cm long and 2cm wide after they are squeezed out.
When you’ve run out of leaves and stuffing, strain the juices from the stuffing bowl into the saucepan and add 125ml of water and 1 tsp salt. Place the pan on a very low heat for 30 minutes. Finally, carefully invert the pan over a large serving plate and turn out. Add a splash of olive oil and serve. These can be eaten hot, warm or cold.
Mehche Selek is a variation of the well-known Mehche Warak Einab and is part of the Lebanese Mezze (Lebanese appetizers).
Lebanese Recipes – Mujadara
In our effort to provide Lebanon Packages Visitors with a taste of Lebanon, we will be frequently posting content about famous Lebanese Recipes. Our choice for today would be the Lebanese Mujadara (Please notice that there is another version of Mujadara, mostly prepared in Beirut called Mujadara Msefayeh, that we will be providing in another post).
Red beans with bulgur wheat and fried onions
Serves 4
400g dried red beans (you could use any small bean if you prefer)
1 litre cold water
2 onions
vegetable oil
salt
100g coarse bulgur wheat
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Wash the beans thoroughly in running cold water. Put them in a pan with the cold water and bring to a simmer over a gentle heat.
Remove the two outer layers of the onions and dice them finely. Put the vegetable oil into a small pan, add the onions, stir well and place the pan over a medium heat. Stir-fry them gently until very dark brown. Drain on a paper towel and discard the oil. Season the onion lightly with salt.
Mix the onions and beans together in a pressure cooker and cook over a low heat for 30 minutes. Carefully release the pressure then add the bulgur wheat and allow to simmer on a very low heat for a further 30 minutes. Taste for seasoning and finally add 1 tbsp or so of good olive oil and serve, ungarnished, in a big wide bowl in the centre of the table. Allow to cool slightly before serving. Eat it by serving yourself a small portion and dipping bread into it on your plate, or take just enough bread for one mouthful and dip directly into the bowl – it is considered very impolite to bite your bread and then dip again.