Extra Schmaltz!

 There's a small hole-in-the-wall restaurant on State Street in Madison, Wisconsin called Mediterranean Cafe. They have a combination of a small fixed menu (falafel, shawarma) and daily specials. My absolute favorite daily special was their Chicken Apricot Pie: a delicious casserole-square of creamy bechamel, sweet-tart apricot something, chicken and bulgur, served with yellow rice and a salad. The best part of the cafe is that everything is hot and pre-made, so you often would get your food before you found your table.  I've wanted to re-create this dish for years, but I've been going basically off of decades-old memories and vibes. I've had a Word doc (pre-Google docs ubiquity) going with multiple versions of it. The biggest breakthrough I had was stalking their Yelp page to find pictures of the dish, which helped me realize that it doesn't have a crust, it just has bulgur to soak up excess liquid.  The dish has a few parts: You're mixing cooked chicken with s...

This is an adaptation of the recipe for Ternera con Guisantes  from the amazing tome " A Mediterranean Feast " by Clifford Wright. Given that veal is all but impossible to find, I switched it to beef. We used a sirloin roast that was part of the quarter beef we bought, but I think it would also be good with a chuck roast. I made this version crockpot or Instapot friendly, which is more convenient for most. It yields a wonderfully spiced roast with not a ton of effort. We used a sirloin roast of some kind from the quarter of beef we bought, but I don't know specifically which cut. I don't think it matters much for a slow-cooked dish like this. We served it with risotto, which was a great combo. We devoured it too quickly to take a photo, though! Ingredients One 3 lb. beef roast, tied One bag of frozen baby peas Parsley to garnish Sofrito 3 Tbsp. olive oil 2 large ripe tomatoes, seeded and chopped fine 3 garlic cloves, minced 1 bay leaf 1/2 tsp. dried thyme...

Couscous in Morocco is traditionally eaten on Fridays during lunch time, following the Friday mid-day prayers, similar to the idea of a Sunday roast after church. It's usually a family affair, and is eaten off of a giant central platter. If you're good, you can eat it with your hands, forming a ball of veggies, meat and couscous and popping it into your mouth. Otherwise, you can just use a large spoon. Also, it's often served with "rayb" Moroccan buttermilk as an accompanying beverage, but I tend to skip that. This recipe is based on Melanie's Moroccan family's recipe. You can make it with any meat you like, but she prefers chicken. The veggies here are just a suggestion - you can use whatever is in season. The microwave bit is not strictly traditional, but her family in the US really prefers the convenience of it to the more traditional double-boiler. The main 'technique' in this is that you're cooking the meat and veggies first, and usin...

My wonderful siblings got me a cookbook in Morocco that is both inspiring and idiosyncratically translated. The quantities are along the lines of "heaping coffeespoonful" and "one teaglassful". Many of the dishes have combinations of sweet and savory, fruit and meat, which intimidate me. I should try out more of these recipes than I do, but I thought this relatively simple one would be a good start. Moroccans must be quite fertile, as these recipes often begin with "take 2 whole chickens, add 11 pounds of tomatoes...", so I scaled this one back for our 2-person family. The result was a deeply hearty, warming, satisfying stew, and I am finally reconsidering my dislike of sweetened meat dishes. A thoughtful gift from Alex and Melanie for a food-obsessed person like me! This dish has a wonderfully mellow, warming character. Almonds are supposed to be whole and blanched, but I couldn't find those. 1 whole cut-up chicken 1 stick butter 1 ...

There is a restaurant in Madison, Wisconsin, called "Mediterranean Cafe" aka MedCaf and they have perfected how to do 'fast food' right. They make huge batches of homecooked food, and have such quick turnover that it's always really fresh. Every day they have 4 specials, in addition to some standby items that are always available - it's hugely popular, and at lunch time there's often a bit of a line out the door. One of my favorite dishes that they had, which was a special and so only available certain days, was a chicken apricot pie. I don't think this is an authentic dish in any particular country, but represents the kind of fusiony approach that make MedCaf so popular. This is the recipe from my third time making it, since the first couple just didn't come close enough to what I remember. This recipe requires one unusual ingredient, "Qamar ad-din" paste. It's basically unsweetened apricot fruit leather that is normally used to...

These are meatballs for when your grandmother isn't  coming over. They are garlicky and full of spices, with jolly hard-boiled eggs for added satisfaction, providing a great mess of comfort food for a cold winter night. I got the recipe from Cracking Curries , and added the pressure cooker option, which makes the meatballs oh-so tender. The great thing about this meatball is that you don't need to pre-fry them, saving time and mess. You could also stew them in the crockpot (though the sauce-making takes some advanced prep). Delicious over basmati rice. Orange juice serving suggestion from Dan. 1 lb ground lamb 1 small onion 1/2 bunch cilantro 1 egg, beaten (or less) 1 tsp. cayenne 1 tsp. black pepper 2 tsp. salt 3 Tbsp. butter 1 large onion, sliced 2 medium tomatoes, diced 1 Tbsp. tomato paste 6 cloves garlic, minced 1" knob ginger, minced 2 tsp. ground coriander 1/2 tsp. cayenne (to taste) 2 tsp. salt (to taste) 1 c. boiling water 4 eggs, har...

So this is a very traditional, and very delicious dish from the Arab Levant. It is called "maqluba" which means "flipped over" due to the very last step of flipping the pot onto a serving platter. I always laugh because instead of being chicken on rice, it's rice on chicken until that last step, and so a totally different dish than the chicken on rice that's eaten most of the time. There are a variety of typical styles of this dish. The style here is with chicken, cauliflower ('zahra' in Jordanian Arabic) and carrots, also optionally featuring potatoes. Meat and eggplant is another style, featured here .  Another tradition style, especially in spring or early summer is with fresh fava beans and meat ( here's a recipe in English ). Ingredients: 2-3 pounds chicken (whatever cuts you want) 1 large cauliflower, cut into florets 3-4 carrots, cut into large chunks (I do this by cutting at a diagonal to the carrot) 3 medium waxy potatoes, dice...

 I cannot believe that I have not posted this recipe, even though I have probably made it a hundred times. Now you too can know the secret of how to make killer chicken kebabs, every time. This recipe will impress friends, endear you to in-laws, please picky eaters, and perhaps even make you more attractive. The key is using dark meat, i.e. chicken thighs. This is also good with lamb. Multiply the recipe to make more (I usually make about 12 thighs). Unfortunately I do not have any good pictures, but this captures how tightly you should pack the chicken onto the skewer for maximal juiciness. 6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs 2 cloves garlic, crushed 2 Tbsp. olive oil ~1/3. c. full-fat plain yogurt 1 Tbsp. salt additional seasonings* (optional) Cut the chicken thighs into large-ish chunks that will stay on your skewers. Combine the remaining ingredients in whatever container you want to marinate the chicken in, then and add the chicken thighs. There should be just ...

This is a great dish to bring bright colors and fresh (non-mayonnaisey) flavors to a potluck. I used "maftoul" (giant couscous), but you could any grain that suits your fancy and stays toothsome when cooked: barley, wheat berries, bulghur, brown rice, wild rice, etc... 1.5 c. maftoul couscous 3 c. chicken broth 1 red bell pepper, diced 1 yellow bell pepper, diced 3 green onions, sliced 1/3 c. red onion, diced 1 can chickpeas, drained 1/4 c. olive oil 1 lemon 1 small bundle fresh mint, sliced thin 1 Tbsp paprika 2 tsp. black pepper 1 pinch allspice 1 Tbsp. salt or to taste 2 tsp. Aleppo pepper flakes (optional) Bring the chicken broth to a boil and add the couscous (or other grain). Reduce to a simmer and cook until tender (it is OK if there is extra liquid). Drain the grain and rinse under cold water. Cut the vegetables into uniform pieces and add to a serving bowl with the chickpeas and drained grain. Add olive oil and lemon juice and mint. Toss and se...

I made this not quite realizing that it was a real recipe - I was thinking of making shish barak (see Mimi's recipe for that), which is kind of like Middle Eastern ravioli. However, I had no patience for making all those little ravioli, but I really enjoyed that sauce. Only later did I realize that this is a legitimate, traditional recipe, called Kufta bil-laban, "Kufta in yogurt." (Not so helpful for everyone, but here 's a recipe for it in Arabic.) Ingredients 1.25 pounds lean ground beef 2 tsp. allspice 1/2 tsp. cumin 1/4 tsp. white pepper 1/4 tsp. black pepper 1/4 tsp. cinnamon 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes (optional) Dash nutmeg 2 cups yogurt (or 1.75 c. yogurt, 1/4 cup water if yogurt is very thick, like greek yogurt. Middle eastern yogurt is normally a bit watery) 3 tsp. corn starch 4 cloves garlic, minced 1 Tbsp. (or to taste) cilantro, minced (optional) Olive oil for sauteing Preparation Preheat oven to 450, or broiler if yo...

This is a very simple and easy recipe for when you either have lots of leftover rice, or when you have almost nothing fresh in the house but a full pantry. It's a traditional, cheap Egyptian dish, and while I still haven't visited Egypt, I'm told I make it pretty close to the original. It's a pretty complete meal, it's tasty, and it makes a lot with little effort. I'm giving the recipe as if you're making it from scratch - if you already have one of the ingredients leftover, just add it in towards the end, so it can absorb some of the heat from the other ingredients. Ingredients: 1 c. brown lentils 1 c. white rice 1 c. elbow macaroni (Optional: 1 can chick peas, cooked a little to soften further OR use Chana Masala for extra spice!) 1 large can diced or crushed tomatoes (28oz) 2 Tbsp diced garlic 2 Tbsp white vinegar Crushed red pepper to taste S&P (Optional: squirt or two of  vodka to bring out the flavor of the tomatoes) 1 large onion...

To be honest, I was inspired to make this based on a menu item I didn't actually order at an Afghani restaurant - something called a Kaddo Bouarani, sweetened pumpkin with Afghani meat sauce. Since Lillian already has a wonderful recipe for the latter , I decided to try making the pumpkin half, especially since pie pumpkins are easy to find in the store these days (and cheap - my 3# pumpkin was $1). There are various recipes online - some call for more of a candying process , but I wanted something a little faster and less indulgent, so I based my recipe on the one here . The actual cooking of the pumpkin is easy, but skinning is kind of a PITA, so you might save this for company. However, the flavors mix fabulously well, so it is worth it to make, and I think that the pumpkin might also go well with a more Italian meaty marinara sauce. Afghani Pumpkin 1 medium pie pumpkin 2 Tsp oil 1/3 c. sugar A couple pinches/shakes cinnamon Preheat oven to 350. Remove ...

I've been finding Moroccan style sausage at many different meat shops lately. This was made with goat merguez sausage from Clancey's, which had really good flavor. I used a spice blend, but I'm sure you could use fresh spices and add some more ingredients (like dried fruit), but it turned out tasty when made this simple way. 4 links Merguez sausage, sliced 1 large onion, chopped coarsely 2 carrots, in large chunks 2 c. small cauliflower florets 2 Tbsp. tomato paste 3 Tbsp. Moroccan spice blend (ras al-hanout) 1 Tbsp. minced ginger 1 can chickpeas 1.5 c. chicken broth 6 Tbsp. butter Use a heavy bottomed pot to heat 4 Tbsp. of butter. Add the onions and saute until soft and starting to caramelize. Add the sausage and cook, stirring for 3-4 minutes until the liquid cooks off and everything starts to sizzle. Add the tomato paste and stir so it is well distributed. Stir in the spice blend and ginger. Add the carrots and 1 c. chicken broth and cover, simmering for 20...

I got this recipe from a cookbook by Chef Ramzi , which contains a nice mix of Middle Eastern and international recipes. I have no idea if it's an "authentic" Middle Eastern recipe, but it uses ingredients and techniques from that region. It's also really easy, uses simple ingredients and is quite tasty. Ingredients 1 small onion, cut into thin strips 3-6 cloves crushed garlic (traditionally pounded in a mortar and pestle with salt) 2 zucchini, cut into circles 1 eggplant, peeled and cut into 1" cubes 2 medium tomatoes, cubed 1 c. water 1/2 tsp cumin (or to taste) 1/4 tsp cinnamon (or to taste) S&P Preparation In a heavy bottomed, wide sauce pan or dutch oven, saute the onion and garlic together on medium-high in about 3 Tbsp of olive oil until transparent, then add the eggplant and cook until it starts to get soft around the edges. Add zucchini and cook for another couple of minutes until they start to soften a little bit. Add the tomatoes and the spices, an...

Here's a recipe from Melanie - I know we already have an ok-ish Moroccan bread recipe, but this one is a bit more authentic. However, every bakery/family does the bread a little bit differently. This recipe is heavy on the semolina flour, while others are more wheaty. It's also our first family-made video recipe! Here's a video so you can see the steps, with the recipe below. Moroccan Bread Makes about five round loaves of bread, approximately one inch thick and six inches in diameter. 1. Mix together flours. The below suggestion is my host family’s house recipe. I alter it by substituting some whole wheat flour sometimes; you can experiment with spelt if you like. 3 cups or 1/2 kilo of semolina flour (I use the Bob’s Red Mill variety from the co-op when I’m in the U.S.) 1 cup of white flour 2. Add the following to the flour mixture: - generous Tablespoon of salt, - about two teaspoons of seeds (I use white and black sesame seeds and anise seeds, but one could experiment wi...

This is a recipe from Melanie/Melanie's host family here in Rabat. It's pretty easy, and makes a delicious, warm and hearty meal. Ingredients: Kufta balls: 1 # ground beef 1 tsp cumin 1/2-1 tsp tahmiira (Moroccan mild pepper powder, a bit different but replaceable with a mix of mild paprika and cayeanne) 2 Tbsps minced Italian parsley Salt Pepper Sauce: 3-4 medium tomatoes, skinned and seeded, diced (this is how tomatoes are usually prepared for Moroccan recipes, whether cooked or salads) 1/2 tsp tahmiira 1/2 tsp cumin 3 Tbsps minced Italian parsley Salt Pepper 1 Tbsp olive oil 1 Tbsp salad oil Steps: Before starting on the kufta, get the sauce cooking in a large skillet. Heat the oil on medium heat, then add the tomatoes. When the tomatoes start releasing their juice, add the spices, then turn it down to a simmer. While the sauce is simmering, combine the ingredients for the kufta, then form into balls about 1" in diameter. When the tomatoes have cooked down, you can eith...

You know what they say about the importance of food presentation...wait, what is it they say? This zingy green sauce is often served with Afghani food. It's sort of a Central Asian version of pesto, though it does not contain oil. It's easy to make and keeps well. It's great on grilled meat, or anything really. You will need a blender or food processor. 1 large bunch cilantro or 2 smaller bunches 1 jalapeno pepper, seeds removed 3 garlic cloves 4 walnuts 1 c. white vinegar 1 Tbsp. salt 1-2 Tbsp. sugar, to taste Chop the cliantro, hot pepper, garlic, and wanuts in a food processor, until very fine. Add vinegar, salt, and sugar to taste. Alternately, combine all ingredients in a blender at once and blend until fine. Makes a watery chutney that tastes best after it sits for a couple of hours. Store in a tightly closed container in the fridge--should last for several weeks. You can add some lemon or lime juice, but do not substitute it entirely for the vinegar, which gives an i...

This is a recipe I really love primarily from the Levantine area of the Middle East. It includes what a friend once described as the "three basics" of Levantine spices: garlic, tomatoes, and cilantro (sometimes parsley). This obviously isn't in everything, but they make a meal out of near anything... You can make this with either lamb or chicken. I happened to have some lamb broth, but after testing my squat PR, I didn't really feel like biking to the only place I know that sells lamb, so I used chicken. This recipe is based on one from the "Arabic Cooking: Step by Step" cookbook I have (in Arabic). Ingredients: Lamb or chicken (for the lamb use rib meat if possible, cut into small pieces, and I used whole bone-in chicken - if you omit the meat, this is vegetarian friendly) 1 pound okra, detailed and cut into 1/4-1/2" slices (frozen is fine) 4-5 tomatoes, peeled and diced 1 small onion, minced 1/4-1/2 c. minced cilantro 2-3 cloves garlic, squished with ...

This meal is hearty, chock-full-of-nutrients, and fairly quick. The meat recipe is one I picked up along the way and the bulghur recipe is from the Almost Turkish blog. The yogurt sauce on the side is optional but it adds a nice balance to the meat. If you want to make the recipes separately, the meat sauce can be served over rice or macaroni, and the bulghur would make a nice side to any meat dish. Feel free to get creative with spices on the meat sauce--I used a seasoning mix from Morocco last time I made it. Afghani Meat Sauce 1 1/2 lb. ground lamb or beef 1 medium onion, diced 3 Tbsp. tomato paste 1/2-3/4 c. hot water 2 tsp. salt, or to taste 1 Tbsp. ground coriander 1 tsp. black pepper 1 pinch red pepper flakes 1 clove garlic, crushed oil for cooking If you have a pressure cooker, use it to cook the meat. If not, a regular frying pan with a lid will work. Heat a little oil in the pan and add the meat. Break it up thoroughly while browning. Cook until excess moisture is gone. Add t...

This is a recipe for the basic bread used in Morocco in the same way flatbread is used in the eastern Mediterranean, i.e. to pick up food items, especially from very liquid dishes such as tajines. It's a somewhat trickier technique - you want to get larger pieces that are flatter than the loaf as a whole, so I generally take a piece from the top or bottom. It's also traditional to score it with a cross on the top so it can be easily torn into 4 pieces. This recipe is based mostly on the one from here This recipe calls for a bit of wheat flour, but you can make it only with white if you want: Ingredients: * 2 cups whole wheat flour (I think it would be better to use less of this, so it's not a 1-2 ratio) * 2 cups white flour * 2 teaspoons salt * 1 tablespoon yeast * 2 tablespoons vegetable oil * 1 or 2 tablespoons honey * 1 1/4 cup warm water * additional flour for kneading * Optional: 2 tsp. anise seeds * Optional: 2 tsp sesame seeds...