FoodMan

Pomegranate molasses translates into "rub rumman" or "dibs rumman", depending where you're from I guess. Where I came from (up north) it was always refered to as "dibs". I also think it is too pungent to add to fatoush and will overpower the sumac. A chunky chop is how I cut up my ingredients. The pita bread is fried then broken into pieces. Basil with Kibbe? I am pretty sure it tastes great. But nope, never ate it, we serve fresh mint with Kibbe Nayyeh. Come to think of it so did all restaurants where we ate it in Lebanon. Never basil, but I will give a try next time. Elie

Speaking of putting his name on crap. I just remembered that he actually wrote the intro to Sandra Lees wonderful "cook"-book . Elie

Here is the Houston Chronicle review of Sorrento. As for recommendations, other than Mark's, I would recommend you try Aries. They have fabulous food. The other place that has to be one of my top favorites in the city is Cafe Rabelais (review here). It is a small cozy place in Rice village that serves up wonderful Bistro food. We were just there on Friday, I had a fantastic rabbit confit plate. Other things to recommend (the menu changes all the time and is written on a black board), are the mussles, cassoulet, the rack of lamb and the bavette with shallots. If you are in the mood for some classic French comfort food and do not mind waiting 15 to 30 minutes to sit down, give them a try. Please do report where you go and how you like it. Elie

My grandmother has about 4 different wonderful Basil plants in her country house. as does almost every home in my town. What do we use them for? Ornamental and for the lovely fragrance. My grandfather almost always pick a sprig or two and rubs them on his hands after a meal. I've never had them in Lebanese food. HKDave's description of Fattoush is pretty much the norm at my house. Also Purslane is usually added when available. Sumac is a MUST, without it it is just a salad. The other MUST is the bread. We always fry it. this gives it a much better taste and helps it stay crisp longer. but many families do toast it in the oven instead. Elie

I would have to both agree and disagree with Bux. Ideal gatsronomy as a general concept does not exist. However, I believe it does exist on a personal level. To clarify, and as Bux said, I would not recommend every fine meal (at a restaurant or home) to every diner. To me though, the ideal gastro experience is the one that makes me feel most comfortable. To sum it up it is a meal cooked by my mom, a meal that brings back fond memories of childhood. This is MY ideal gastronomy. Thanks for starting the discussion Chef. Elie

no basil leaves. Elie

Ahhh.....sounds quite interesting (fusion of Texas and Middle-Eastern)...will have to try it soon. What kind of chiles did you use? ← this recipe is from James Peterson's Duck Cookbook. The name of the chile escapes me now, I believe it was the maroon colored dry poblano. Elie

Thanks all, I will be trying this soon. Hopefully I will post a pic or two. I might use the chez panisse recipe with a reduced juice mixture. Elie

I love this thread as well, now I really need to get this Herme book. Keep up the good work folks. Elie

then reviewes would be based on how deep one place's feedbag is compared to another Elie

So I have a small Meyer Lemon tree in back yard that has about 4 or 5 large almost ripe fruit. I would love to try and make a top notch gelato or ice cream with them but I have no recipe. I thought it might be fun to get some of your ideas. Should I use the peel only and flavor the dairy with that? OR Should I make a curd base with the juice as well? I prefer the end result not to be too tangy, hence my question about just using the peel (and reserve the juice for another use). My thought is to use a basic vanilla gelato recipe as a base and improvise from there. However, I really do not want to waste these fruits that my one year old tree put so much effort into producing . So, some professional advise would be very much appreciated. Elie

I have to agree with Bux. If a pattern starts to show in the reservation requests it might seem almost "spammish". My request consisted of a few sentences in English explaining that we would like to have dinner at El Bulli for our anniversary in May. I have no idea if my egullet connection had anything to do with us getting selected since I did not mention the site at all. However, my full name is in my signature, so I cannot be sure. Elie

Chef Adria, First I would like to thank you very much for taking the time to chat with us. Who among the chefs in America do you do you especially admire? Are there any in particular that have any influence on your cuisine? Elie

Saturday- Chicken noodle soup made with homemade chicken stock, chicken thighs, lentils, and frozen pasta scraps I saved from making ravioli. Sunday- Duck two ways...two very different ways. the legs, wings and neck were braised with dried orange peel, almonds, wine and Gran Marnier. Served this one with yogurt-garlic mashed potatoes The breasts were seared and served with dried chile-almond-raisin sauce. Served this one with homemade tortillas, and a simple cabbage salad. dessert: pan fried Atayif with lots of rosewater syrup. Elie

Finally, I managed to sit my butt down and type this up. I tested this recipe this weekend so it should work just fine. Hope someone else tries it and reports as well. For a syrup recipe you can find the one I use here. Atayif For Pancakes: ½ cup sugar ¼ cup water 1 tsp lemon juice ¼ tsp rosewater 3 cups AP flour 1 tsp instant yeast 2.25 cups water ½ tsp lemon salt ½ tsp baking soda Cream Filling: 4 Tbsp corn starch 1 cup whole milk 1 cup heavy cream 1 tsp rosewater ½ tsp orange blossom water Make the pancakes- In a sauce pot combine the sugar, water, and lemon juice. Over medium heat, bring to a boil and let simmer for five minutes. Remove from the heat and add the rosewater. Let cool. Once cooled it should be pretty thick, thicker than molasses. In a bowl mix the flour and yeast. Add the water and mix until you get a thick batter. Cover the bowl with a plastic wrap and let the batter ferment at room temperature for and hour or until bubbly. Add the thick syrup, lemon salt and baking soda to the batter. Mix thoroughly, cover and let sit for another thirty minutes. The batter is now ready to use, it should be thicker than a pancake batter but still loose enough to pour from a ladle. If it is too thick mix in a little water. To cook the pancakes, heat a nonstick pan or griddle over medium heat, make sure it is not too hot. Mix the batter and cook by ladling no more than 3 tablespoons at a time on the hot pan. Cook only on one side, until the bottom is lightly browned, and the top is set but not dry. The pancake is cooked if many holes start forming on the top and the batter is no longer shiny. You do not want the top to be dry or the pancakes will not seal when you stuff them. Basically the top should remain sticky. I know this sounds confusing but after cooking a couple of those you’ll know what I’m talking about. Put the pancakes in a dish and cover with a towel. If you are not using right away, cover the pancakes with plastic wrap and refrigerate. Make the filling- Whisk the first three ingredients together until smooth. Put in a pot and heat over medium heat, whisking often until the mixture boils and is thick. Stir in the rosewater and the orange blossom water. Let cool to room temperature then cover and refrigerate until ready to use. You can sue this filling for any middle eastern dessert that requires cream filling (kashta). Assembling and frying (or not)- To stuff the pancakes, put about a teaspoon of the filling in the center and seal by pressing the edges of the pancake together. You should end up with a perfect half moon. If the edges are a little dry, wet them with a little water and they should seal fine. The finished atayif can be served as is drizzled with syrup or pan fried. To pan fry them, just heat up 1 Tbps of butter per two Atayif and pan fry until both sides are golden and slightly crispy. Serve with syrup.

Wow! Those look amazing, especially the keshta sweets. You think they would ship here? Someday, I hope I can go there and try them myself. Are the Ghoraiba similiar to Mamoul, but filled with cream instead of dates or walnut filling? Does anyone have a recipe for the fatayr bi-sbanigh. How do you make the pastry? I would weigh 200kg if I lived in Tripoli. Both pastry shops look fabulous. ← The Ghoraiba is a cookie that is not stuffed, it usually is very buttery and crumbly, kind of like short bread. For the fatayr bi-sbanigh, Behemoth pretty much summed it up. You can use any bread dough for the pastry (The pita bread dough in my eGCI class will work fine). For the filling, I would add the stop of salting and draining the spinach. My mom does that and it leaches some water out of the spinach and removes some of the astringency that could in the leaves. Just chop, salt, let drain for about an hour then wash and squeeze dry. As falvoring I am very partial to pomegranate molasses and chopped walnuts for the filling. Thankfully, they still do. Behemoth, znood el sit are usually fried not baked and then soaked in syrup. Elie

Pan I think there is a lot of history to your question, and I am afraid I might not get it all right. but here it goes: 1- the word Al Hallab is sort of like the word carpenter, or locksmith. It describes the profession that they are in not their actual name. the word comes from the Arabic word "Halib" meaning milk. SO I believe it refers to the fact that Dairy and cream play a huge role in their business. 2- Originally Abdul Rahman's full store name was "Abdul Rahman Rafaat El Hallab"!! confused yet? This means that Abdul Rahman is actually Rafaat's son. So you are correct, they are related as a father and son. Basically the son went off on his own and opened this shop back in circa 1888 (yes in the 19th century) or so. the name was recently changed (about 2-4 years ago) to Abdul Rahman with no Rafaat in it and they also dubb themselves "The Sweet Palace". The reason for this , the rumor goes, is due to conflicts between some of the brothers who are now running the business. Hope this clarifies it . Regardless, both places offer what is believed to be the best Middle Eastern pastry money can buy. Elie

Behemoth- I love Rafaat Hallab & Sons as well, it is almost identical to Abdul Rahman Hallab. However, my family always went to the latter when passing through Tripoli, so I am partial to it . The reason they do not ship the cream filled ones is because they are HIGHLY perishable and cannot stand the 48 hour trip to the states. I got that answer when I asked the person giving us the tour who I think was one of the managers. They really care about their product and would not even fill cream filled items (Atayif, Halawit EL Jibin,...) if you are taking it "to-go". they always pack the filling seperatly so you can do it yourself when ready to eat. Elie

we sure appreciate all your sacrifices Ellen. Another and IMO the best middle eastern pastry shop that sells it's stuff online is Abdul Rahman Hallab. I took a tour of their kitchens this past May in Tripoli, Lebanon. Pretty cool stuff. Elie

I second that! My favorite baklava to date is from a place in the old city in Jerusalem right across from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. There is a line of these baklava shops—probably three or four—where the big round trays of all different varieties of baklava are laid out. You point to what you want, either for take out or, my preference, to eat on the spot at one of the little sticky tables in the shop. It is the very wet sort of baklava—dripping with honey—which is my favorite. There are those in the dry baklava camp and my friend who lives in and is from Nazareth has taken me to what she and her family consider to be the best baklava bakery. It is indeed very good baklava, but too dry to rank as my favorite (not, mind you, that I would ever say no to this baklava) because if the baklava on the tray is not sitting in a pool of honey (with rose water), for me it’s too dry. When I'm craving baklava, I go to Titan Foods (a Greek grocery in Queens) and get a pound or so. It's the very wet sort so a pound gets me only about 8 very small squares--and I might even share it. ← I sure wish you had a picture of those Jerusalem Baklava shops. Are you sure it is honey that they use, not syrup flavored with rosewater? Unlike the Greek Baklava, in Lebanon honey is never used to drizzle over baklava. Personally I much prefer the rosewater syrup, since I think honey can be overpowering. Elie

Interesting conversation Wolfert. Thanks for sharing. There is one thing I am not getting here, are we saying that Molokhiya causes sleepiness? Personally I never noticed this. I've eaten a couple of bowls at a time with no problem. Elie

It was great, I loved it but it was painful to watch. That guy is completely incompetent that it is sad. He could not even use a hand mixer properly let alone run a kitchen. It also says a lot about Ramsey being able to turn that restaurant around in a few days! I seriously doubted he can do that with such a head "chef". I am looking forward to the next installment. BTW, they also did not bleep "shit" out

The really disturbing thing here is that it seems Puck is actually closing down his restaurants in favor of expanding his fast-food/processed food empire, while other "sell-out "chefs"" seem to be opening great restaurants all over the place, not soulless McPucks. Whether these chefs make money from a seasoning mix or a toothpaste commercial is besides the point. Elie

In today's Houston Press, Robb Walsh reviews Wolfgang Puck Express . As usual Mr. walsh does not write a run of the mill review, instead he does his homework and research. He argues that Mr. Puck sold his name and is basically peddling chain restaurant food. The reason this article was so interesting to me is because I had no idea how much Puck is actually moving from the fine dining business to the chain restaurant business. I have a lot of respect for Puck and for his talent as a chef (I loved his appearance on Iron chef America), but this trend is alarming. Elie

Nit Noi could be pretty bland at times (I love their Tom Yum (sp?) soup though), but compared to Thai Spice it serves a royal Thai dinner. Elie