Shakshuka

A middle eastern breakfast dish of eggs poached in a spiced tomato sauce.  While nominally a breakfast dish, it's savory enough to eat for other meals as well as being fast and easy.  This dish can be made vegan by leaving out the eggs, though it ends up lacking protein.  Serve with pita.

1 28oz can of whole peeled San Marzano tomatoes
6 cloves garlic, crushed
6 T olive oil
1 t cumin
1/2 t caraway
1/2 t cayenne (or to taste)
1 t paprika
6 eggs
salt and pepper to taste
A squeeze of lemon juice (optional)

Heat the oil and saute the garlic lightly in a large skillet.  Crush the tomatoes by hand in to the skillet and add the seasonings.  Cook for 15 minutes or so partially covered, then taste and adjust seasoning.  Crack the eggs in to the skillet and cook, partially covered, until the whites have just set.

Falafel

This is the Egyptian version of the well known fried bean dish.  Unlike other versions of the dish the Egyptian version uses fava beans instead of chickpeas, and flattens out the balls to pan fry rather than deep frying.  As a note: it is absolutely necessary that you start with dried beans; canned beans will produce mushy results.  Serve with tahini sauce; you can also serve this with pita, cucumber, tomatoes, and/or pickled turnip if you want to make sandwiches out of it.

1 lb dried fava beans, split and husked, soaked in plenty of water for two days in the fridge
2/3 C flat leaf parsley, de-stemmed
2/3 C cilantro, de-stemmed
1 T cumin, ground
1.5-2 t coriander, ground
8 cloves of garlic
1 t baking powder
2 medium onions, chopped
1/2 t cayenne, or to taste
2T flour
Salt and pepper to taste
vegetable oil for shallow frying

Add everything except the vegetable oil in a food processor and pulse to combine.  You may have to work in batches, and you're ultimately looking for it to be well combined but still have a little texture.  Form patties roughly 1 cm thick and 4-5 cm across; the patties should just hold together (add a little extra flour if they don't).  Form a small patty and cook it to test seasoning; adjust as necessary.  Fry patties until browned and crispy, with an interior that is soft (and green!).

Tahini Sauce

A wonderful garlicky tangy accompaniment for many middle eastern dishes, especially falafel. Before the water is added this will be a very thick paste, but will thin out to a rich and creamy sauce.

2/3 C tahini
2/3 C freshly squeezed lemon juice
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
Cold water to thin out the sauce (about a 1/4 C)
Salt to taste

Blend together the first three ingredients, then pulse in the water until you reach a creamy consistency.  Add in salt to taste.

Toum, V2

Another take on the middle eastern garlic sauce; I wasn't happy with the meringue-like texture of the previous attempt at making toum, so this time I used straight lecithin instead of getting it from eggs.

4 T lemon juice
1 C oil, I used vegetable oil, but a mix of vegetable and olive might also work
7 cloves garlic
salt to taste
1 t lecithin
2 T cold water

Mix the lecithin into the oil.  Food processor the garlic with salt and 1 T lemon juice and 1 T water.  With the processor running, slowly drizzle some of the oil in, then alternate slowly adding oil and the combination of lemon juice and water.  If it still seems runny you can add more oil in, but the general rule is that you need 1 t of lecithin per cup of oil.

Lentil and Rice Soup

A simple middle eastern soup.  I typically don't add the lemon juice to the soup, instead just serving it with a lemon wedge.

Ingredients:
1 T olive oil
2 onions, chopped
1 small hot pepper, finely chopped (or whole dried chile, removed before serving)
8 c chicken stock (veggie stock for vegetarians)
2 c toor dal, rinsed (or other split lentils)
1 t ground cumin
2 t ground coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon pepper
Pinch of saffron (optional)
2 T basmati rice, uncooked
Splash of lemon juice (optional)
salt to taste

Heat oil in a saucepan and sauté onions and hot pepper over medium heat for 10 minutes.
Add remaining ingredients and bring to boil.
Cover and simmer for an hour or until the lentils are soft. Puree, then return to saucepan and reheat.

Stuffed Grape Leaves

The small rich stuffed grape leaves made in the Egyptian style with a yogurt sauce.  This is another fairly approximate recipe, and rolling the leaves can be somewhat difficult if you don't first see how to do it, but the main secret is to make sure that the filling is completely wrapped.  This is also quite a bit easier if you have a large pot with a colander insert as you need something to put pressure on the top of the leaves while they cook.

Ingredients:
Potatoes, sliced approximately 1/4", enough to cover the bottom of the pot
6-7 large cloves of garlic, sliced lengthwise into several large slices each

Grape leaves:
1 large jar grape leaves, drained and rinsed (I typically make sure I have two on hand, you may need some of the second depending on the size of the leaves and how tightly you roll them)
3 lbs of ground beef (it's important that you don't use anything leaner than 80/20, it just won't taste right with lean beef)
~ 4 C of uncooked basmati rice
salt as needed

Sauce:
4 C plain yogurt
one good sized cucumber, peeled, seeded, and minced
6-7 cloves garlic (or to taste), minced
handful dried mint, or to taste

Mix the sauce ingredients, as these need time to blend in flavor.  Mix together the beef, rice, and salt.  Layer the potatoes on the bottom of the pot (these actually aren't typically eaten, they're just there to keep the grape leaves from burning and sticking to the bottom of the pot). 
Cut off the small piece of stem from the grape leaves, then trim them to an appropriate size. Most of the grape leaves will be big enough to cut in to 2 pieces (3 for large leaves, but the smaller the piece you cut the harder it is to roll). A small amount of the beef and rice mixture should be put in to the center of the piece of leaf and rolled so that it forms a stuffed cylinder approximately 5-6 cm in length and 2 cm or less in diameter. The filling should be completely wrapped in leaf so it doesn't leak out while cooking.  If you find leaves or pieces of leaves that have holes or are otherwise unsuitable for stuffing, set them aside as we'll need a layer or two of leaves to cover the top.
Do this for all the grape leaves and filling, placing them in the pot in circles so that they form solid layers of grape leaves (make sure to pack them tightly together). When a layer is complete put 6-8 slices of garlic between the grape leaves in the layer, then top with a layer of unstuffed grape leaves.
When you've used all of the filling top with another layer of unstuffed leaves, then pour in enough hot water to more than cover the top of the leaves and weight down the leaves (I usually use the colander insert with something like a pot of water on top of it for weight).  Simmer until the rice is done, approximately 30 minutes (pull a leaf out and test to make sure it's done).
Carefully pour off the excess water, and serve with the sauce.

Baklava with 3 nuts

My recipe for baklava made with a mixture of walnuts, almonds, and pistachios.  This makes an 11"x7" pan, and this is rich enough that it'll feed a small army, or 8 hungry foodies.  This recipe more than most is approximate, just taste it as you go.

Ingredients:
phyllo dough
melted butter

Nut mixture:
Between 1 and 1 1/4 lb of nuts, evenly mixed between walnuts, almonds, and pistachios (I get unsalted unroasted nuts for the walnuts and almonds then roast them, and salted in shell pistachios)
1/4 C sugar
1 heavy t cinnamon
1/4 t ground clove
1/4 t ground cardamom
salt to taste, if using all unsalted nuts

Honey mixture:
1 1/4 C honey
1 1/4 C sugar
5/8 C water
2 cinnamon sticks
6-8 cloves
scant 1/2 t ground cardamom

Preheat the oven to 350.  Simmer the ingredients for the honey mixture together until syrupy, then kill the heat and allow to cool (remember, it will thicken as it cools).  When it's cool remove the cinnamon sticks and the cloves.

Food processor the nut mixture together, and you may have to work in batches as there's quite a bit of it.  You want small chunks but not powder.

Heavily butter each of eight layers of phyllo and put those in the bottom of the pan.  Add half the nut mixture, then add eight more buttered phyllo layers, then the rest of the nut mixture.  Add another eight layers of buttered phyllo on top.  Cut the top layer into diamonds a little over an inch on a side, and if you want to be fancy push a clove into the center of each diamond (this is removed before eating).  Bake until golden brown (approximately 20 minutes).  Remove and cool for 15 minutes before adding the honey mixture; cool another 3 hours before serving.

Toum, V1

This is an initial pass, modified from a recipe online, but I wasn't completely happy with the meringue-like texture that I got from this one (I could be biased, I despise meringue).  The next time I think I'm going to skip the egg white and add some lecithin as an emulsifier, though the acidity of the lemon juice may keep that from working well.  If the lecithin works it would also make this generally fridge stable unlike something with raw egg in it.

6 cloves garlic
3-4 T lemon juice (to taste)
salt to taste
1/4 C neutral flavored oil
2T cold water
1 egg white

Food processor the garlic, a pinch of salt, and 1 T of lemon juice together.  Add the egg white and processor some more.  Drizzle in half the oil while blending, then alternate slowly adding the lemon juice and the rest of the oil.  At the end add water while checking the consistency, and adjust the salt of necessary.

Pastirma

It's getting cooler, which means this is the time to start curing meat, and this one is a rich, spicy, delicious cured beef common among many of the countries that made up the Ottoman empire. It originated in Armenia and is very common in Turkey though I was originally introduced to it by an Egyptian roommate in undergrad. It can also be called basturma or any one of a number of others depending on country.

A roughly 2 lb piece of beef like inside round. You want it to be fairly lean and with the grain of the meat running along the axis of the meat; you could use something like tenderloin if you want to shell out the money, but you don't want something thin like brisket. See note 1.
Salt for curing, you're looking for about a ten to one mix of kosher salt to pink salt* (see note 2)

Seasoning:
4 T red pepper powder (a mix of paprika and cayenne to taste)
1/2 t salt
1-2 t black pepper, ground
1/2 T cumin
3 T methi (fenugreek) seeds, ground
1 t allspice, ground
3-4 cloves garlic, crushed

Note one: this is a piece of meat that's going to hang at close to room temperature for a month, and likely won't be cooked, so get the good stuff. Don't just get stuff from the supermarket, but find yourself a good butcher and get to know them so you know you're getting quality meat.

Note two: You'll occasionally hear stuff about how nitrites aren't safe (and pink
salt is 6.25% sodium nitrite), but in small quantities it's just fine and occurs naturally in food we eat. More importantly, it inhibits the growth of botulism. I don't do any curing outside of short cures in the fridge without nitrite, and I wouldn't do any multi-month cures without nitrate.

* Trim the meat, then thoroughly coat the meat with the curing salt. Put in a dish and cover with plastic wrap before weighting down and refrigerating for 3-4 days. Turn the meat once a day, and when the time is up it should be fairly solid to the touch.
* When done, rinse the meat, soak it for 20-30 minutes, then thoroughly dry it.
* Run a piece of string through a corner of the meat, then hang it up to dry in a cool place (60 F, ~60% humidity) for two weeks. Check it regularly, and if any white or green mold is starting, scrub the whole time down with white vinegar. If black mold forms, or if the mold recurs, pitch the whole thing. Some recipes call for wrapping in cheese cloth, but that's just asking for mold.
* After those two weeks, mix the seasoning together with enough water to make a thick paste, then rub it all over the meat. Hang it to dry for another two weeks.
* At this point you're ready to eat, just slice it thinly and chow down (yeah, the dried seasoning mix will crumble off, but it's imparted its flavor); alternatively, sauteing some up in a skillet then scrambling some eggs with it would be a traditional use.

Roast Leg of Lamb with Couscous

One of my classics for large groups and special occasions: leg of lamb cooked in the middle eastern style and served with couscous.

Leg of lamb, preferably bone in
A bottle of red wine (a good merlot or another fruity wine)
A large onion, quartered and slivered
4-5 cloves of garlic, chopped
several tablespoons dried mint
Salt and pepper to taste
Couscous


1. Rub the lamb down with the garlic, mint, and salt, and allow to sit for 15 minutes.
2. Place the lamb in a baking dish, add the onions, and pour the entire bottle of wine on the lamb.
3. Cover and marinate for at least a day, turning several times.
4. Preheat an oven to 350 F, and bake the lamb, covered, till medium rare; an internal temperature of 130-140 F depending on how you like it (I typically aim for 130-135 F assuming it'll end up medium rare after resting).
5. Remove the pan and allow to rest before removing the lamb from the pool of marinade and drippings.
6. Use the heated marinade and drippings (as well as the onions and miscellaneous meaty bits) as the liquid when making the couscous (add in some stock if you don't have quite enough liquid.
7. Serve the lamb on couscous with a side of labna (labneh, or however it's spelled in your local middle eastern market) or toum. If you can't find labna you can make it by tossing plain yogurt in a few layers of cheese cloth and hanging it until it reaches the consistency of cream cheese.

Hummus

Two cans of chick peas (garbanzo beans)
3-6 T tahini (very roughly)
lemon juice
olive oil
minced garlic
salt

This is a very basic recipe, just toss everything in the food processor and adjust to taste and texture preference. As a bit of guideline, make sure you don't go too light on the tahini; early on my roommate in under grad who taught me to make hummus accused me of making poor man's hummus when I didn't put enough tahini in (tahini is the most expensive ingredient). The oil is what you vary to control the texture; I typically put in less than restaurants do because I like mine thick enough to stick to pita and with less fat. Generally You'll want to toss in 4-5 cloves of garlic to start, along with several tablespoons of lemon juice, about 3 T of tahini, a healthy splash of olive oil, and a hefty pinch of salt. From there just keep adjusting until you have something the consistency you want (for me thick and spreadable, for your typical version more akin to a sauce) with a nice rich taste and just enough garlic to wonder if you should go find a toothbrush before continuing your date (I'll save you the questioning: you should). Serve with pita.