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Hassouni

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Everything posted by Hassouni

  1. I will concur with others than the LGM stuff has a VERY distinctive taste - I don't really use it much in cooking - only as a condiment where it's taste will complement the food rather than clash with it.
  2. Both are referred to as "khibiz 'arabi" in Lebanese dialect (I might be wrong, it might just refer to the pre-packaged kind). The fresh-baked ones my friends always refer to in restaurants as "khibiz fresh/fraiche" or, if you wanted to say fresh in colloquial arabic, "taza". This is in comparison to various other indigenous bready objects, like khibiz mar'ou', or saaj, or mana'ish (which are sort of all related to each other), which do not have pockets.
  3. Hassouni

    Orgeat

    Hey, I have all these ingredients, I may have to make this, thanks again Princesse!
  4. Oh man, Laoganma stuff is like crack. I have the one Beebs mentioned, it's called "spicy chili crisp" in English. I use it with dumplings and as an all purpose spicy condiment alternative to plain chile oil or shichimi togarashi
  5. You're right about more tahine and less lemon juice. I didn't have enough tahine for what the recipe required, and it was fine. I would add more lemon though. And also, it seems as if they call for a lot of water to be mixed in, and when blended up it will seem VERY watery. A few hours in the fridge takes care of that.
  6. I should point out there are types of bread in Lebanon that would fall under the "pita" designation (this term is unknown in the Arab world). Both are round and have a pocket. What's sold in stores and bakeries, and eaten at home, is SUPER thin (like, no more than 2-3mm), and often very large in diameter (possibly over a foot). It is very chewy, in a good way. This is served at restaurants cut into triangles and presented in a baggie, because it dries out and goes stale extremely quickly. This sort is what's used for shawarmas, falafels, and other sandwiches, as a wrap, NOT as a "pocket sandwich." The other type I only ever see in nicer restaurants - it's fresh baked, thicker, less chewy, and smaller, no more than 6" in diameter. They're always served straight from the oven, and are very soft to begin with, but get a bit harder if they sit out over the course of the meal. I would imagine that the latter type is easier to make. JoNorvelleWalker, could you post a picture of what you made?
  7. Sami Tamimi's grandmother's hummus recipe from the Jerusalem makes the smoothest hummus EVER! Highly recommended. http://food52.com/blog/7305-yotam-ottolenghi-sami-tamimi-s-basic-hummus
  8. There's a bar in DC that does that. Quite good. I wouldn't say they beat rum mojitos hollow though - a mojito is supposed to be a clean, refreshing, effervescent drink for hot weather. Mezcal by its very nature doesn't have that effect. A Mezcal buck with mint would probably be superb though...
  9. I could theoretically get a high powered gas burner for the patio, It'll just be a vicious nuisance when the weather gets really cold or brutally hot
  10. My budget has become unexpectedly constrained so I won't be moving on these any time in the immediate future, but I'll do some research and when I do purchase something I'll be sure to report back. The good news is that the next day, the flat doesn't smell of cooking, but again, let's see what happens when it gets really cold out and opening the door is a nuisance...
  11. Overall, I treat recipes as guidelines rather than absolute instructions. Sometimes if it's something I'm really not familiar with, such as the first time cooking from Land of Plenty, years ago, I may follow the recipe to the letter on the initial run, but then I'll modify it in later preparations. Nearly universally, several things I don't follow when using a printed (or online) recipe" Browning/caramelising/sweating onions. IT NEVER TAKES FIVE MINUTES, but every recipe says five minutesSame goes for browning meat, it often takes longer than the recipe specifies, but I have a specific shade of brown I wantIf making something spicy, upping the spices considerably. I used to cook a lot of Indian food and most recipes say "a teaspoon of cumin/coriander". Try tablespoon. Same goes for doubanjiang, gochujang, garlic, etc.I very rarely measure out liquids, except for cocktails or my very limited baking experience. Other than my jiggers I don't have precise table/teaspoon measuresI will say a big exception to this is if I'm making a recipe from Kenji from Serious Eats's Food Lab. The man does his research and his instructions are usually spot on.
  12. Man, after making mapo tofu and stir fried yu choy tonight, I need some solution. Recirculating SUCKS (or rather I wish it did). Flat was smoky to the point I had to open the front door, and the stove heated up the entire place so much that I had to go to the patio to cool off. This is fine in nice weather, but I dread this come winter. How quickly will a good filter rid me of the smoke? Not much I can do about the heat, I'm guessing
  13. look up: knafeh osmaliyeh halawet jibne muhallabi riz bi halib ma'moul and of course: baqlawa, burma, etc
  14. The oldest part of Istanbul (Sultanahmet) is touristy, but the rest is much less so. There is good food there, but most of the great food is in Beyoğlu/Taksim, further up the peninsula on the Sultanahmet side, and on the Asian side. The food is NOT "asepticized." Turkey is a much richer country, so in large cities everything looks more developed, but I'd stop there. The vast majority of food there is "native" - There are only two disappointments I had anywhere. 1) the standard for bread among long-urban western Turks sucks, you want the Anatolian style bread. 2) The döner places at Galatasaray Meydanı are pretty bad, so avoid those. Otherwise, there are absurdly good fish restaurants in Istanbul, which cater to rich locals, Superb kebaberias (both on the low and high end), places reviving Ottoman court cuisine, and the delicious every day food of the people, whether it's from a food stall or a small canteen. Plus, if folksy is what you're after, travel into Anatolia and it gets "villagey and authentic" really fast.
  15. First time with Smith n Cross! Ooh ain't nothin like THAT first time!
  16. Honestly, absinthe in Tiki drinks is used in such minute quantities that I don't think it matters much what sort, as long as it's one made properly with real herbs and whatnot
  17. I will likely be testing the small pot first, as right now I don't have a table or enough seating for enough guests to warrant the big pot!
  18. I have a Zojirushi neuro fuzzy which I use swear by for pretty much all rice except Iraqi/Iranian style. I've tried, and it doesn't work. To everyone else: in Tyson's Corner, VA, on Rte 7 (if anyone is in the DC area), there is a TJ Maxx, Marshalls, and Home Goods all more or less next to each other, so I went to all three. Got the Cuisinart 2-ish qt that Smithy mentioned, and I found a 5 qt T-fal pot, which, while not thick all around, seems to have a solid enough bottom for me to get the crust I want. Both set me back about $45 total, so thanks to all who recommended these stores!
  19. Wow, there is one nearby, I'll be there tomorrow!
  20. Also, our own Sazji's Istanbul foodblog: http://forums.egullet.org/topic/96590-eg-foodblog-sazji/
  21. Not really....borderline not at all. Especially when compared to regional neighbors like Libya, Egypt, Syria, Israel/West Bank, Lebanon, Iraq.... Matt99fish don't let paranoia get in the way of your adventures! I haven't been to Morocco, but I have to say it looks very cool - I think the places most of interest foodwise would be Marrakish and Fes. Turkey however I am very familiar with, and it is one of the best countries anywhere - for almost everything! The food is near universally awesome (except the bland white bread in Istanbul and the Marmara region, but that can be got around), and Turks are very serious about their food, and it is DEFINITELY a street food kind of place, and has plenty of places doing higher end spins, both traditional and modernized on Turkish food in the larger cities. (I would imagine Morocco has less on the high end) Beware though that getting a cooking job in English in Turkey will probably be very unlikely unless you get hired by an Anglophone embassy. Turkey has a large enough population that bilingualism hasn't really set in, and only the very educated elite or those in the tourist trade speak English, and then not always well.
  22. Note, teflon or any functionally equivalent alternatives. That Zwilling looks good, though $100 seems steep
  23. Sorry &roid, I'm glad it works for you, but there is not a chance in hell I'm using stainless steel, based on experience. Teflon it is for me
  24. I rarely use nonstick, so don't know much about what's available. I OCCASIONALLY use a NS pan for eggs, but more often than not use my carbon steel wok. My personal pots and pans are: 14" CS wok, 12" Lodge pan that I've smoothed down and seasoned with much love and care, and a 5ish quart Lodge enameled Dutch oven (or "pot" as I call it). However - nonstick is CRUCIAL for one absolutely essential item in my repertoire: Iraqi and Iranian style rice, with hakkaka/tadig, the rice crust that forms at the bottom of the pot. Anything not nonstick is a recipe for disaster, and to prevent the rice from scorching and to keep it cooking evenly, a thick pot is desired, at least at the bottom. The last few years I've been cooking at my parents' house using their pots (some ancient unlabeled 1980s stuff, very heavy and thick), or in previous, rental kitchens on sub-optimal cooking vessels. Now that I have my own condo, I'm looking for 2 rice-worthy pots, one large enough to cook, say 2 cups of rice (let's say 2-3 quarts), and the other for more (5-ish quarts). I guess the small one would be some kind of saucepan, and the other vaguely dutch oven-y in shape, or resembling a scaled down stock pot. Calphalon seems make a few items that sound about right, but I don't know how thick-walled their stuff is. What other makers are out there?
  25. big crunktastic party at my new place yesterday, what better than pre-made cocktails served out of gallon water jugs? Made a gallon of gin buck: 1.75L gin (Seagram's...80 proof, whatever) 22 oz lemon juice squeezed right before the party started As much Ango Bs as was left in the bottle (two ounces perhaps?) Topped up to fill the jug with Gosling's ginger beer And a gallon of my own variation on a Jamaican classic, sorrel punch - following the tradition of 1 of sour, 2 of sweet, 3 of strong, 4 of weak, with a Jamaican recipe for sorrel (hibiscus tea) used as the weak It came out something like this: 4 of weak: 3.5 oz dried hibiscus aka sorrel aka flor de jamaica, simmered for half an hour in 52 oz water with a thinly sliced chunk of ginger, a few cloves, and a cinnamon stick or two, then left to steep in the fridge overnight 2 of sweet: mixed with 26 oz 2:1 white sugar simple 3 of strong: 39 gat-damn ounces of J Wray & Nephew White Lightning Overproof White Rum 1 of sour - 13 oz of limes squeezed at the last minute Both were AWESOME. Both were STRONG. Both gave most of the attendees hangovers this morning
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