FoodMan

you are correct MsMelkor. For the lamb one Tahini is the traditonal sauce. Here are the typical ingredients in a Shawarma pita wrap if you order it in Lebanon: Beef/lamb: Tahini sauce (taratoor), tomatoes, pickled turnip slices, pickled cucumber slices, sliced onions, chopped parsley. Chicken: Garlic sauce, french fries, pickled cucumber slices, shredded lettuce. Elie

Thanks for sharing the tips, especially this one!! Actually when I made my quiche yesterday, I did not wait till it cooled like the recipe asks because it was already getting late and it still needed and additional 1.5 hrs of baking after being filled. So, five minutes after the crust came out of the oven it went back in, and I was so worried because I thought I might be doing it harm. Who knew I was actually making it the right way. Making it it in a round mold with straight sides definitly makes it trickier to get the crust in with minimal breaking. The sides are 90 degrees with the baking sheet so you cannot just lay it in there as you would in a flared sided pan. You have to roll it off the pin and immediately ease the dough into the corners before it rips under its own weight. Russ, please keep us updated if you do try it with a round mold. Elie

I would say that both Chicken and beef/lamb are very common in Lebanon. I hesitate to say that chicken is the more popular one now, but it sure seems like it. I even think that the chicken Shawarma is a recent addition, I could've swon until the mid eighties only the beef/lamb combination was known as Shawarma. Then chicken showed up and I remember the first time my dad bought us these sandwiches I thought it was the best thing since pita bread . As for the garlic sauce, my class in eGCI has a couple of recipes for it. It is THE sauce in any sandwich with chicken and most other meats. My favorite is basically garlic, lemon juice, olive oil and salt blended to a smooth paste or pounded in a pestle (or is it mortar?). It is never just raw garlic alone. Elie

The quiche was a great success this time. Having the proper size mold definitly helps a lot. I barely had to patch anything except for a couple of (imaginary) weak spots. Here are my notes for successfully making this quiche: 1- If you do not have the proper sized straight-sided ring or pan, use a deep dish flared tart pan. I never tried it but I think Russ did and I bet it makes unrolling the dough in it a lot easier since the straight sides of the recommended ring mold will offer a certain challenge. 2- Work with a cold but soft dough. I think my crust cracked last time because it was too cold when I rolled it, it was a pain to get in the pan in one piece and required a lot of patching. So make sure the dough is SOFT, but no too soft. 3- The other reason I believe my crust cracked last time was because I did not roll it correctly. Since I was using the springform pan ring (3 inches high) I had to roll the dough a little too thin AND I did not have any overflow of dough over the edge. Make sure when you roll and put the dough in the ring pan that you have at least ½ inch overflow all around. This will insure the crust dos not shrink away from the edge and create a potential crack when you fill it with custard. All these points are pretty much included in the recipe, I just wanted to re-inforce how important they are. Another thing; why does he insist on “layering” the custard and filling?? Once the batter is poured over the filling everything gets mixed in anyways. I think I will simply put the filling in and then pour all the custard and top with cheese, unless someone can point out a good reason for not doing so! The only imperfection in the quiche was that in an effort not to have leftover filling like I did before, I reduced it and ended up with less than was required to completely fill the shell. Here are the pics for the mushroom quiche: Elie

From zankou chicken's website they define Shawarma as : At least they seem to make it with slices not ground meat . Elie

I Lebanon, I never saw shawrama where beef/lamb is pureed and molded . The first time I encountered this is when I visited Cyprus, and then of course in the US at Greek restaurants. Chef- do they also call it Shawarma at those Armenian places where the meat is pureed? Maybe it is an Armenian variation, who knows. Elie

From today's digest: I've never been to this place but heard good things about it. Has anyone else been? What did you think? Is chef Sheely's departure going to affect the place much? Elie

From the TX Digest: What do you think about the article? I thought it was pretty interesting Myself I prefer Grey Goose Vodka in my martini. Two olives please. I do have the occasional Gin martini though, as I will today when I get home . My prefered Gin is "Broker's" and I normally either have it with tonic, Sprite, or in a Negroni. Elie edit: fixed link.

Houston Press Dining Section: Banana Breakfast Sabor! offers a worthy breakfast Central American style. Not so much when it comes to dinner though. Robb Walsh also visits Pollo Campero's breakfast menu. Houston Chronicle's Dining Guide: Charmed, I'm sure Alison Cook dines at the charming but seemingly inconsistent Bistro Calais. Changes at Mockingbird Dai Huynh reports that Chef Sheely left Mockingbird Bistro to his ex-wife and her son-in-law. No longer forgotten, this drink is gaining on vodka and rekindling interest in the cocktails of yesteryear Dai Huynh is talking about Vodka...er..I mean Gin in this article. Well I am not that far off as it turns out Gin is the first flavored Vodka! Elie

Last night I made the pastry for my quiche. The pastry disk will be shaped, baked, filled and baked again tonight. I stopped by SLT and picked up a 9X2 inch cake ring or mold as they call it and I will be using it. Report and hopefully pics to follow. I am not expecting any quiche disasters this time, but you never know.... Elie

Marcia- This Pane Sic. looks perfect. The crumb looks excellent as well! So what did you use to make that perfect slash? Elie

It is pretty sad that she went to Dallas and one of the few places that she go to visit was this one! It's not about being a snob, I am sure Dallas has far more interesting low cost joints that tourists are better off visiting. Elie

I love the Peanut butter patties, they are so damn addictive. Caramel DeLites come a very close second. Elie

Hi FoodMon, A chickpea fry is similar to hash browns, but chickpeas...here is what I did Sliced a nice fat Spanish onion...chopped some garlic, chili and roasted garlic. Started off by sauteing the onions, med heat, getting them the caramel color we love, then added some balsamic to deglaze Once i decided the onions were pretty much done, added garlic and chili, and while this was happening, i would 'mash' some of the chickpeas...i would say about 1/3 gets mashed, the starch is important later on... Earlier in the day i made a 5 hour marathon tomato sauce... After the garlic is turning a little golden, i deglazed with some white wine, then added a chunk of the tomatoe sauce, and roasted garlic...fried that up I guess instead of a fry, its more of a Chickpea ragout...added the wood oven tomatoes at the end as garnish, finished with good evoo. Hope this helps ← Wow! That's totally not what I expected. Sounds very good though as an alternative to a mushroom or meat ragout. See I have this recipe from an old Food and Wine issue that uses chickpea flour to make a sort of dough. then it is cuts into finger size pieces (a la French Fries). these are then deep fried. I never got around to trying the recipe but I always thought it was interesting. I thought you did something similar and I wanted to see how you made it. Elie

Unless the bread is very wet (like Ciabatta) I almost always use my food processor to incorporate and more or less knead everything. Then I transfer to my counter and knead some more, usually a couple of minutes is all that is needed at this point. My test is always the windowpane where applicable. I have no mixer either but the food processor really makes my life easier and cuts my mixing/kneading time by a lot. Elie

Sadistick, your menu sounds very interesting. What exactly is a "chickpea fry"? Elie

We wanted to cook fish and the Mahi looked very fresh so I picked up a large fillet. It's also a pretty ugly, rainy day and we wanted some comfort food. So, I cut the fresh fish into large chunks, sauteed in butter and olive oil and finished with chopped garlic and parsley. I served it on top of a sort of chowder, made thicker than normal to form a nice base. The chowder had yukon golds, sweet potatoes, corn, bacon, green onions and cream. This improvised dish was excellent, if I do say so myself, and recieved rave reviews from all two of my diners . Elie

Skillet Corn bread is one of my favorite accompaniments. Additional garnishes include cheddar cheese, sour cream, cilantro, chopped onions and minced jalapenos. Elie

I use Alton Brown's recipe for crepes with perfect results everytime. To make perfect crepes, just ladle the batter into a non-stick pan, swirl to coat the bottom and here is the best tip (I think I got this tip from a Jaque Pepin recipe): USE more batter than you need per crepe and as soon as the bottom is coated pour the excess back into the batter container. This will ensure even thickness (or thinness I guess) with no lumps, excess batter or holes. This will make crepes that have a sort of a tail. when all of them are cooked, just cut the "tail" off, perfect crepes every time. I also like to cut the outer most edges (just about 1/8th of an inch or so to make perfect edges) when the crepes are rolled, for purely aesthetic reasons. Elie

Sahlmanese this is wonderful!! I also love that steak Varmint. Dinner last night was leftover corn bread heated up in the oven and served with soft scrambled eggs and cheddar. Elie

Jim- Sounds like you had fun in our town. I am glad you enjoyed yourself, and I have to agree, Central Market is food heaven . Elie

I hate to disagree with PEC, but I have tried their Tiramisu on a couple of occasions because it looks good. It never tasted good though, always tasted like it was made with packaged pudding and had an artificial taste. Maybe your location is different, who knows. If I go there for breakfast I stick with the croissants, or French Toast (their crepes are a disgrace for the product). I do have a very soft spot for their Creme Brulee Tart though, especially if it is fresh and the pastry is not yet too soft. Elie

That does look pretty tasty, BondGirl. I have not read the instructions for this recipe, but now I am intrigued as to why plastic wrap needs to be in the oven. Elie

To give you an idea how it looks like, the custard fills the straight sided pastry to the rim. So, imagine a cylinder made of pastry and filled with egg custard and cut a 2 inch thick slab from the cylinder. That's how the baked -barring any leakage- quiche looks like . If the only ring you can find is flaring, I am sure it will still come out perfect, and delicious. Maybe not Keller-perfect, but perfect by mortal standards. Elie

This might seem like a dumb suggestion, but has anyone tried putting a top on the molds? Maybe like a baking sheet so that the canneles will stay put and not rise out of the molds. Should I even try this? I use Wolfert's recipe as well with very good results and I have to "sit" them back down one or two times while baking. It would be nice not to have to do that. Elie