Notes about Recipes in this book

• Smashed zucchini with chili, yogurt, and mint (Muttabal kousa)

  • mcvl on September 17, 2020

    Hmm, obviously it's just me, since michalow liked it so much (and convinced me to try it), but the pomegranate arils seem to be going off in a different direction from the rest of the dish. Maybe my mistake was using fresh ones instead of dried -- "seeds of one pomegranate" sounded like fresh ones to me. I still have half left; maybe I'll pick them out.

  • michalow on September 13, 2020

    It's mid-September and I've just discovered what I should have been eating all squash season. Mmm, next summer is going to be delicious!

• Cumin chickpeas with scallions, lemon, and olive oil (Auntie Nadia's balila)

  • mcvl on February 18, 2021

    Excellent. I'm in the process now of trying out all extant balila recipes -- this one is very, very good, just want to try them all to see which suit me best.

• Pomegranate and za'atar lamb chops with lemon, mint, and yogurt (Kastaleta bil za'atar wa dibs rumman)

  • mcvl on May 30, 2020

    Pretty good. I left out the pomegranate molasses because the seeds added enough sweetness. The yogurt sauce is to die for.

• Cauliflower fritters with spicy tomato sauce (Mshaat m'a dagga)

  • michalow on June 23, 2019

    These came out well, but I felt like I was guessing a lot as I prepared them because the recipe lacked key details. How hot should the oil be? How big are the cauliflower florets that are to be used one per fritter? How much is a serving of egg mixture? Fortunately, fritters are flexible and forgiving, so I wound up with something tasty even if it wasn't quite what the author had in mind.

• Mai's akkawi bread

  • Yildiz100 on April 15, 2019

    When I read this recipe it seemed straight forward enough, but making it I felt it lacked detail. First of all, it calls for too much yeast. (Two 7 gram packets.) I halved it and still found my dough rose to doubled within 40 minutes. Note: she doesn't actually say dough should double-she gives no guidance at all. Its fine if you have some baking experience but not for a novice. She says to make the dough balls golf ball sized and stick them in a bundt pan, but that would require layering them and would be essentially monkey bread-was I supposed to do that? Not clear in the instructions so I made them larger, as they look in her pic, and stuck them in a 9*13. Called for more cheese than I could fit in the bread (dough was very soft and very oily and in fact sunk under its own weight. It would tear with so much cheese) and more zaatar than you could reasonably blend with the amount of olive oil you are supposed to blend it with. Aaargh! Final product tasted good but was too oily.

• Cabbage salad with cumin, lemon, and mint dressing (Salatet malfouf bil toum wa na' na')

  • Yildiz100 on April 10, 2019

    I recommend mixing up the dressing ingredients on the side and then adding the dressing a little at a time because this recipe makes a ton of dressing, even bearing in mind that cabbages vary in size quite a lot. Nice flavors but there was so much cumin and mint that the salad had a powdery mouth feel, I would reduce the cumin, not the mint. It was a little overpowering.

• Macaroni with tangy yogurt and spiced ground lamb (Ma'carona bil lahmeh)

  • br22 on March 28, 2021

    Use serrano chili as jalapeno too mild with all the yogurt. Alternatively, add some aleppo pepper flakes. Definitely overcook the lamb as instructed...the carmelized crunchiness adds significant flavor and texture.

• Marinated feta (Feta bil zayt)

  • metacritic on May 09, 2020

    Feta marinates 2-14 days, getting better with time per the recipe. Indeed it does. It is very, very good after 1-2 days and exceptional after a week. I ordered (time of Covid) more feta to make this dish again.

• Poussin stuffed with green-herbed freekeh (Djaj mahshi bil freekeh)

  • Livia on April 01, 2019

    - Used chicken instead of poussins as much easier to find. - Cooking instructions are poor e.g. does not specify if the freekeh should be cooked, nor does it give the cooking time for the chicken which was given as an option. - Washed freekeh very well, then added to chicken stock. Left it to boil for 1 min then simmered for 25min - Cooked chicken for 10min, then stuffed it with the cooked freekeh, cooked for 30min in oven then removed foil and cooked for a final 15 for skin to crisp up. This was a very tasty dish and the stuffing is delicious and would certainly make again.