THE FOLLOWING IS A LIGHT LUNCH, NICE AND REFRESHING ! NICE AND EASY.
A LIGHT LUNCH RECIPE ( 2 PEOPLE)
FATTOUSH SALAD (my personal favourite, a must have at Maroush, my take on it)
INGREDIENTS: - 2 Medium Tomatoes, 3 peices of Romano Lettuce, 1/4 cucumber, 1/4 onion, lemon, Mint (fresh or I however use Colemans Mint- quick and easy), Olive Oil, Parsley (your choice), Seasoning rock salt, and pepper. Lebanese croutons (separate recipe- my take)
1. Wash the Tomatoes, romano lettuce, and cucumber.
2.Roughly chop the lettuce, Dice the Tomatoes, and Diced chunks of cucumber; finely chop the onions and place in a large bowl.
3. Teaspoon and maybe a half more, of Coleman's mint sauce (this is good because it has a sweet flavour which brings out the salad well)
4. Table spoon of Olive oil, and 1/4 of fresh lemon juice.
5. Season, with rock salt and pepper. Taste.
TIP: ADD PARSLEY IF YOU WOULD LIKE, I DON'T, BUT TRADITIONALLY THEY DO.
Tasting is important, because you'll be able to tell if the flavours are balanced. If it's two sour, add a bit more salt and mint. This salad should have minty sweety notes, with a tang, but be bursting with flavour.
LEBANESE CROUTONS (OPTIONAL- NICE FOR A BITE)
INGREDIENTS: 1 1/2 cup FLOUR, WATER accordingly to make dough- SALT, VEGETABLE OIL
1. Take the 1 1/2 cup of flour and place in a bowl, and add half tspn of sald, add warm water, and make into a nice firm dough. Try not to make it sticky.
2.Take the Dough in two sections. Role out the first section quite thin, (about four pages thin)
3. Scoar the dough with a blunt knife in diagonals going one way, about 1 inch apart, now do this the opposite way, and it will make little diamond shapes. They don't have to be perfect.
4. Heat oil for frying, and take each little diamond and put it in the hot oil. FRY till nicely golden. Take them out and leave them on kitchen towel to soak up the excess oil.
5. Repeat this once again with the second section of dough. (steps 3 & 4)
6. Once cooled down, take a hand ful, and put it in the Fattoush salad, and there you have Lebanese croutons.
TIP: YOU can make these croutons and store them in an air tight container, and they remain fresh for ages. Add each time you make a salad, so it may seem like alot fo work but its once, and you can easily make 4-5 salads from 2 sections of dough.
BABA GANOUSH
This is a great accompliment to the salad. It is Pureed aubergine, with sesame oil, garlic and mayonnaise- almost like a pate but not so thick. You can find it in the supermarkets, but not everywhere, in the dip section near the hummous. Its made by a company called Sabra, known as an Aubergine dip. If you don't want to go to the hassle of making it try and get you hands on this stuff. Take a good two dollops of baba ganoush in a bowl, add a bit of rock salt and pepper, a bit of olive oil, and lemon, and mix.
INGREDIENTS: - AUBERGINE, GARLIC GLOVES ABOUT 4-5, SESAME OIL, LEMON JUICE, OLIVE OIL, MAYONNAISE, AND SEASONING (serves 3-4)
1. Boil / GRILL / Oven the aubergine. To grill takes skill but tastes better and gives it a chargrilled effect. You take the aubergine and leave it on top of the stove, let it fire up. Keep turning it. It's not easy but it is quick, and worth it. Takes about 5 minutes. Or leave it in the over for about 25 - 30 minutes at 180 degrees celsius. Or Boil.
2. Once done let it cool down, then peel of the skin.
3. Chop it up and stick it a blender with garlic cloves, [dollops accordingly] probably 1tbspn mayonnaise, and a tbspn of sesame oil.
4. Season with rock salt, quater of a lemon, and olive oil.
5. Blend up, you don't want it to be super smooth.
6.FINITO.
TIP : I've never made baba ganoush from scratch, but when I do I will probably not use a blender for the dip, more so do it by hand, because aubergine mashes up easily, and grate the garlic instead.
FYI THE RECIPE IS BASED FROM WHAT I CAN TASTE, NOT STOLEN OF SOME WEBSITE. SO if you try it let me know. At the moment I just use the Sabra stuff. =)
TO EAT : - FRESH BREAD anything will do- you pick =), Two forks, rip the bread, put some baba ganoush on top, and with each mouthful a bite of the salad. SCRUMPTIOUS!
LAST NIGHT
So good afternoon those who are reading - if any one is. Today's agenda is to describe what my experience of Cedar's Lebanese (Leicester) was in comparison to London's Maroush.
Now outside Cedar's it really isn't much of a looker, it's a bit student holiday 'cheap place to eat looking.' However, not to put you all of right away, once you get it in, this place oozes charisma, style, and the decor is modern, with a traditional lebanese layout. Lovely.
Hummus (chickpea dip),
Moutabal (aubergine pureed with sesame paste, lemon, garlic), (It's okay, but baba ganoush at Maroush is definitly a winner)
Warak Inab Bezeit (Vine Leaf rolls with rice, tomato, onion, mint, lemon juice and olive oil), (YUM)
Tabouleh (Mixed parsley, onions, tomato, crushed wheat, seasoned with mint, olive oil and lemon juice) (surprisingly balanced- really not overpowering)
Lebanese pastry things, one filled with lamb, and one with halloumi cheese, parsley and onions. (nice for a change up on the pallete)
Oh and LEBANESE PICKELES- which are just gerkins in my opinion haha
COLD MEZZE was all for £5.95, so I'm not knocking it for value. Now in comparison to Maroush it is lacking, but when you're in the Midlands and need a fix this is pretty great. I was also shocked about the Tabouleh, in other words the parsley salad. I'm very partial to parsley, I don't know why personally, nonetheless this salad was absolutely refreshing-Astounding what a bit of lemon, and mint can really do. The salad went down really well with the dips, and the hot mezze hummus shwarma chicken (£5.50)(not that I would order this again, but try it once.)Quick FYI, Maroush does make great FRESH lebanese bread, as Cedars do microwave ready made lebanese bread- or something like that I think. Also it's sad but Cedar's don't do 'baba ganoush'.
Mains were the highlight. We couldn't quite tell how hungry we were so we ordered 2 sandwiches and one more hot mezze-
Shish Taouk-Grilled chicken cubes, with garlic sauce, pickles, lettuce and tomato. Wrapped in Lebanese bread (absolutely scrummy) £3.25 each ( brilliant)
The Sandwich was brilliant, I've been craving it for ages, because I love the garlic sauce around tender cubes of grilled chicken. This deffinitly does measure up to Maroush sandwich -deffinitely!! Throw out the greasy kebab's and grab one of these. Cheap and cheerful, and always hit the spot.
The Overall food cost would have been about £23 pounds for two people [super value especiallly for a date, or romantic dinner setting]- more than enough food, because we COULD NOT finish what we bought =\. Another FYI : We also got margharitas which bumped up the bill, but funnily enough a margharita does wash all that food down nicely, and if you're a non alcoholic- grab a bitter lemon, should do the same trick.
So there it is, last night's account of dining, Lebanese cuisine, and for all those people that havn't tried Lebanese food, hopefully I've provided you with some fun things to try at home, or when your out.
Right I better be off, I hope You've enjoyed the blog.
Rash =)
Right I better be off, I hope You've enjoyed the blog.
Rash =)
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