Hello
I haven’t written for a while as my life has been busy in ways other than food, however I have still been cooking, a lot, and have lots of photos that I can use when I get the time to write about the wonderful dishes I have tried.
This blog is a thank you to my sister-in-law who told me about a wonderful Happy Foodie event organised by her local book shop in Chorleywood and where she bought me Comptoir Libanese by Tony Kitous and Dan Lepard. I hadn’t tried Lebanese flavours before but Tony took along some flat bread, Labneh and za’atar and the flavours were amazing. One of the beauties of the event was that it wasn’t all food demonstrations but some really good discussion and panels where people talked about food. When I first saw Tony at this event I had no idea who he was, but he completely bowled me over with his passion for the ingredients, enthusiasm for his food and interest in all different cuisines. I really wanted to try cooking some of the dishes straight away, but had to wait to get the book as a Christmas present!
In January we had some wonderful family friends coming round and I knew this was my opportunity to try some of the mouth-watering recipes as these friends love trying different foods. There were so many dishes I wanted to try there was a likelihood I would have cooked too much, so I tweeted Tony for recommendations, and he replied quickly with some wonderful suggestions. I had my menu. I also had lots of willing helpers in the kitchen, one in particular who really enjoyed herself and was great fun. Miss you Nat!
Lebanese feast
I thought this was going to be a labour of love as two days before I started making my own Labneh, however the recipe was so easy to follow. It is basically drained yoghurt, and was simple and delicious. I think I worried that I would do something wrong, but a muslin in a sieve, over a bowl and stored in the fridge is really quite easy and concentrates the flavour beautifully. All it needed on the day was a drizzle of olive oil and some za’atar. A wonderful spice blend used in a number of dishes.
Labneh with za’atar
Tony’s suggestions were Pomegranate Molasses Marinated Salmon and he even suggested where to buy the pomegranate molasses. I phoned the local ‘big’ Sainsbury’s and they were very helpful and checked that they had some in stock. They also told me how many bottles there were – three! I always try to shop locally when I can but sometimes need to go to the major supermarkets.
Pomegranate Molasses Marinated Salmon
Comptoir halloumi and tomato salad was also easy to do with just a bit of time to griddle the halloumi, then a very simple assembly. I think it would be even more delicious cooked on the bbq with heritage tomatoes. Come on summertime.
Halloumi and Tomato Salad
I also decided to make Chicken Wings (Jawaneh) and they were scrumptious. I’m looking through my cookery book as I write this and I think my picture looks very similar to the professional one in the book so am very pleased with myself for the photography skills as well as the culinary skills.
Chicken Wings
Making Tabbouleh was an education due to the proportion of parsley to bulgar wheat. It is really a parsley salad with a little bit of bulgar wheat, tomatoes and spring onions in a tangy lemony dressing. Very fresh and vibrant, especially after any excesses at Christmas.
Tabbouleh
We also made our own Comptoir frozen yoghurt and had pistachio’s, pomegranate seeds and honey for people to add their own toppings and create their own variation. However, no photos were taken so all the care and attention that Denise spent freezing the yoghurt, and Ray shelling the pistachio’s has not been recorded but we can say that it was sublime. The lack of photos probably had something to do with the amount of alcohol consumed by that point in the proceedings!
Thanks everyone for a great evening. Apart from cooking some dishes from this wonderful cookbook for my sister-in-law, and family, who bought me the book in the first place I think lots of the recipes will become firm family favourites.
Happy Cooking!