Among the first people I met when I moved to the Napa Valley in 1979 was the Doumani family, whose ancestry is Lebanese. Carl, the patriarch, once brought a still-warm deer liver to me at Mustards and asked me to cook it for him. He was quite the sight walking in the front door clutching a dripping liver. His daughter Lissa convinced me to open Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen, which means she has had a role in making this book happen, too. She and her husband, Hiro Sone, own the celebrated restaurant Terra, next door to Cindy’s. Not surprisingly, the Doumani family piqued my interest in Lebanese food soon after I met them.
In 2000, I was fortunate to meet Anissa Helou, a wonderful food writer and art historian whose book, Lebanese Cuisine, is both a culinary history and a comprehensive collection of recipes of her birthplace. That book proved the perfect starting point for my research into this rich and varied Mediterranean cuisine built on an abundance of vegetables, citrus and other fruits, nuts, olives and olive oil, herbs, seafood, poultry, and lamb. This simple menu represents just a sliver of the wealth of the Lebanese table.
SPICED WALNUTS AND OLIVES
These quick and easy treats are addictive. Serve them with pre-dinner cocktails to heighten your guests’ appetite for what is to follow.
Zatar, an herb and spice mix common throughout much of the Middle East, is used to season both the walnuts and the olives. The mix varies by region and even by cook, but thyme, sumac, and sesame seeds are common to nearly every blend. Penzeys Spices carries a good-quality store-bought version. You can also whip up your own mix. I use equal amounts of dried thyme, toasted sesame seeds, and dried sumac. If you use 1 tablespoon of each, you will have enough for this menu, with some extra to try in other dishes. It’s great on grilled corn with butter and lemon or lime juice.
| SHOWN HERE | MAKES 2 CUPS WALNUTS AND 2 CUPS OLIVES
2 CUPS WALNUT HALVES
2 TABLESPOONS ZATAR
½ TEASPOON SEA SALT
3 TABLESPOONS OLIVE OIL OR SESAME OIL
2 TO 3 TABLESPOONS OLIVE OIL
3 OR 4 THYME SPRIGS
1 TO 2 TABLESPOONS ZATAR
ZEST OF 1 LEMON, IN WIDE STRIPS
2 CUPS OIL-CURED BLACK OLIVES
To prepare the walnuts, preheat the oven to 350°F. In a big bowl, toss together the walnuts, zatar, salt, and oil. Pour the nuts out onto a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 7 to 10 minutes, until nicely toasted.
To make the olives, in a large sauté pan, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the thyme, zatar, and lemon zest and then toss in the olives. Sauté for 5 to 7 minutes, until hot.
Serve the nuts at room temperature and the olives warm. You can mix them together, but I like to keep them separate. Remember to set out a dish for the olive pits.
WITH GARLIC AND POTATO SAUCE
The marinade on this dish was inspired by a recipe in Lebanese Cuisine, by my friend Anissa Helou. I adapted the sauce to include less garlic. All of the Lebanese recipes I have found use almost twice as much garlic as I would typically add. Everyone to whom I have served this dish has liked it, but you may want to double the garlic for a more authentic experience.
I cook the potatoes for the sauce in salted water and then reserve some of the water for moistening the “mash.” Passing the cooked potatoes through a potato ricer or a food mill (harder to clean) will give you the best texture, and the smoother the mash the smoother the sauce.
I use the marinade on a whole chicken and cook the bird in a covered grill. I feel that chicken cooked over a charcoal and/or wood fire is superior to chicken roasted in the oven, but you can opt to do the latter. The chicken can also be cooked in a wood-burning oven or in an “egg cooker” barbecue grill.
| SHOWN HERE | SERVES 6
1 TEASPOON ALLSPICE BERRIES
½ TO 1 TEASPOON WHITE OR BLACK PEPPERCORNS (DEPENDING ON YOUR TASTE)
½ TO 1 TEASPOON SEA SALT (DEPENDING ON YOUR TASTE)
¼ TEASPOON CAYENNE PEPPER
⅛ TEASPOON GROUND CINNAMON
GRATED ZEST AND JUICE OF 1 LEMON
2 TABLESPOONS OLIVE OIL
1 (4- TO 5-POUND) WELL-RAISED CHICKEN
4 CLOVES GARLIC
¼ TEASPOON SEA SALT
1 EGG YOLK
1 TO 2 TABLESPOONS LEMON JUICE (ABOUT ½ TO 1 LEMON)
½ TO ¾ CUP OLIVE OIL
1 CUP MASHED POTATO (SUCH AS KENNEBEC, RUSSET, OR YUKON GOLD)
To make the marinade, combine the garlic, allspice, peppercorns, salt, cayenne, and cinnamon in a mortar and smash and pound with a pestle until everything is pretty well mixed. Add the lemon zest and juice and the oil and smash again until you have thickish paste that is loose enough to smear on the bird. (Or, use a blender for this step.)
Rinse the chicken with cold water, drain well, and pat dry with paper towels. Smear the bird inside and out with the marinade, trying to get some under the skin as well. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for 2 to 4 hours.
To make the sauce, in a food processor, combine the garlic, salt, egg yolk, and 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice and process until the garlic has been reduced to small bits. Add the yogurt, ½ cup of the oil, and the mashed potato and process until almost smooth. Add the remaining oil 1 tablespoon at a time, until the sauce reaches a texture you like. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon lemon juice to taste. Cover and reserve at room temperature or refrigerated until needed. If refrigerated, bring back to room temperature before serving.
Prepare a medium-hot charcoal and/or wood fire for indirect-heat cooking in a grill. To do this, bank all of the hot charcoal and/or wood to one side. (When testing this recipe for the book, we used 10 pieces of mesquite wood and 20 pieces of charcoal briquette.) Place the chicken, breast side up, on the grill rack away from the fire, cover, and grill for 10 minutes. Turn the chicken breast side down, re-cover, and continue to cook for another 10 minutes. Then turn the chicken breast side up one more time and cook for 10 to 20 minutes, depending on the heat of the grill, until the juices run clear when a thigh joint is pierced with a knife. If the chicken seems to be browning and cooking too quickly, decrease the temperature of the fire by closing down the vents on the grill. When the chicken is ready, transfer to a platter and let rest for 10 to 15 minutes in a warm spot to allow the juices to settle back into the meat.
Carve the chicken and serve it on individual plates or carve it at the table. Pass the sauce at the table.
Clockwise, from left: Garlic Chicken, Crispy Walnut Triangles, Spiced Walnuts and Olives, Zucchini
WITH TOMATO AND MINT
Cook this dish at the height of summer when gardens and farmers’ markets are full of the three main ingredients: zucchini, tomatoes, and mint. In this menu, it is a side dish to the garlic chicken, but it would also be a wonderful first course.
In traditional Lebanese cooking, the zucchini would be fried or boiled before they are added to the sauce. I always do the garlic chicken on the grill, so I usually put the zucchini on the grill, which is nontraditional but delicious. If you want to add another vegetable, grilled eggplant would be good.
| SHOWN HERE | SERVES 6
2 TABLESPOONS OLIVE OIL, PLUS MORE FOR BRUSHING
1 LARGE OR 2 SMALL ONIONS, HALVED THROUGH THE STEM END AND THINLY SLICED INTO CRESCENTS
2 TO 3 TABLESPOONS CHIFFONADE-CUT FRESH MINT LEAVES OR CHOPPED FRESH CILANTRO, FOR GARNISH
1½ POUNDS TOMATOES,
PEELED AND COARSELY DICED
SEA SALT AND FRESHLY GROUND BLACK PEPPER
12 TINY OR 6 SMALL ZUCCHINI (1 TO 1½ POUNDS)
CAYENNE PEPPER, FOR GARNISH (OPTIONAL)
Preheat a medium-hot charcoal and/or wood fire in a grill.
In a large sauté pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions, cover, and cook for 15 to 20 minutes, until very tender. Add half of the mint, the tomatoes, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper and cook slowly for about 15 minutes, until thick and saucelike. The sauce could be made up to this point 1 day ahead, covered, and refrigerated, and then reheated just before serving.
Trim off the stem and blossom ends of each zucchini and split each squash in half lengthwise. Brush both sides with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
When ready to serve, place the zucchini on the grill rack directly over the fire and grill for 2 to 3 minutes on each side, until nicely charred on the outside and just tender inside.
Spoon the warm sauce onto a platter and arrange the zucchini on top. Sprinkle with the remaining mint and garnish with the yogurt and cayenne pepper.
These triangles are delicious, but they are also very rich, so you won’t be able to eat that many. Because the syrup is dense, only a little is needed. Any extra syrup is great for seasoning iced or hot herb tisanes or black teas.
| SHOWN HERE | SERVES 8
¾ CUP SUGAR
5 TABLESPOONS WATER
½ TO 1 TEASPOON FRESHLY SQUEEZED LEMON JUICE (DEPENDING ON YOUR TASTE)
1½ TEASPOONS ROSE WATER
1½ TEASPOONS ORANGE BLOSSOM WATER
½ CUP WALNUTS
1 TABLESPOON SUGAR
¼ TEASPOON GROUND CINNAMON
½ TEASPOON ROSE WATER
½ TEASPOON ORANGE BLOSSOM WATER
8 SHEETS PHYLLO DOUGH, KEPT UNDER A DAMPENED KITCHEN TOWEL TO
PREVENT DRYING¼ CUP UNSALTED BUTTER, MELTED
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Generously butter a rimmed baking sheet or line with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
To make the syrup, in a heavy saucepan, combine the sugar, water, and lemon juice and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Boil for 3 minutes and then remove from the heat. Stir in the rose water and orange blossom water. Reserve until needed.
To make the filling, in a food processor, combine the walnuts, sugar, and cinnamon and process until finely ground. Pour into a bowl and stir in the rose water and the orange blossom water.
Lay a phyllo sheet horizontally on a work surface, with a long side facing you. Brush the right one-third of the pastry with some of the butter. Fold the buttered third in and then brush the top of the folded flap with butter. Fold the left third of the sheet over on top of the first fold. Lay out a second phyllo sheet and repeat the buttering and folding. Now brush the top of one of the folded sheets with butter and stack the other folded sheet on top. You now have 6 layers. Cut this stack into 2 squares. Place 1 tablespoon or so of filling off-center on each square, brush the edge around the filling with a little butter, and fold each square into a triangle. Less is more on the filling; the triangles should be flat. This dessert is mostly about the buttery, crispy phyllo. Place the triangles on the prepared baking sheet, and repeat until all of the pastry and filling are used up. You should have 8 triangles.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until golden brown and crispy on top. Transfer the triangles to a rack placed over a tray (to collect any syrup that drips from the triangles). Drizzle the syrup over the warm triangles. Serve warm or at room temperature.
PHYLLO SAVVY
MOST PHYLLO DOUGH IS SOLD FROZEN AND MUST BE THAWED SLOWLY. ONE OF THE BEST WAYS TO DO THIS IS TO LAY IT, STILL FOLDED IN ITS PLASTIC, BETWEEN TWO DAMP TOWELS AND LET IT THAW AT ROOM TEMPERATURE. THEN, WHEN YOU ARE READY TO START
WORKING WITH THE PHYLLO, TAKE OFF THE CELLOPHANE WRAPPING AND GENTLY LAY OUT THE SHEETS BETWEEN THE DAMP TOWELS. MAKE SURE THE TOWELS THAT THE PHYLLO COMES INTO CONTACT WITH ARE LINT FREE, AND REMOVE EACH SHEET FROM UNDER THE TOP TOWEL AS NEEDED.
1 BRUSH THE RIGHT ONE-THIRD OF THE PASTRY WITH SOME OF THE BUTTER.
2 FOLD THE BUTTERED THIRD IN AND THEN BRUSH THE TOP OF THE FOLDED FLAP WITH BUTTER.
3 NOW BRUSH THE TOP OF ONE OF THE FOLDED SHEETS WITH BUTTER AND STACK THE OTHER FOLDED SHEET ON TOP.
4 YOU NOW HAVE 6 LAYERS. CUT THIS STACK INTO 2 SQUARES.
5 PLACE 1 TABLESPOON OR SO OF FILLING OFF-CENTER ON EACH SQUARE, AND BRUSH THE EDGE AROUND THE FILLING WITH A LITTLE BUTTER.
6 FOLD EACH SQUARE INTO A TRIANGLE. PLACE THE TRIANGLES ON THE PREPARED BAKING SHEET, AND REPEAT UNTIL ALL OF THE PASTRY AND FILLING ARE USED UP.
