A fraction of a Lebanese table.

A little Lebanese table, and no, potato wedges are not traditonal!

I love taking traditional recipes and giving them a bit of a twist. I'm always challenging things mum makes which are steeped in tradition. My twists are generally met with the reply, 'no, you can't do that'.

But you can!

And Mum let this one through to goal.

Kibbeh is traditionally made with beef, or vegetables. I made it with chicken this time.

It's served as a side along with many other meats and salads on your typically massive Lebanese table, or as part of a mezza table. Especially during Christian and Muslim festival times.

As you have noticed when it comes to Lebanese hospitality it's not about filling plates, it's about filling the entire table with different varieties of food. And every good Lebanese woman knows how to do this.

They spend days preparing for a day of feasting when the entire extended family comes around. 

While this is only a fraction of what makes it onto the table in a Lebo situation, it's a good fraction. In an Aussie situation they're always a hit at cocktail parties if you have a plate going around, or as a main with a side of salad. And I don't think I have come across a child that hasn't loved them.

How can you not like them? It's like the Lebo equivalent of an Aussie meat pie! And everyone loves those!

Chicken, Spinach, and Pine Nut Kibbeh

Outer shell mix

The shell:

100g fine burghul soaked for 2 hours

1 medium brown onion

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp ground cummin

1/2 tsp all spice

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

a small handful parsley finely chopped

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

350g chicken mince

3 tblsp plain flour (if needed)

 The filling:

The filling

a dollop of olive oil

20g pine nuts

1 medium brown onion finely chopped

a small handful of fresh sage finely chopped

200g chicken mince

125g chopped spinach

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground white pepper

 1 tsp freshly chopped or dried oregano

In a food processor combine all the ingredients and process until well combined. Add the chicken mince and give it a few blasts until its all mixed in well. Then place in a bowl and cover. Refrigerate for 30 mins.

Like dough, it is easier to make the outer shell when the mix is cool.

If you don't have a food processor, don't worry. Just use your hands and chop the onion as finely as you can. It will just mean that your kibbeh won't have a smooth outer shell. If you're OK with that, then go for it. It still looks good, and the flavour isn't compromised at all.

While the outer shell mix is chilling, prepare the filling.

Heat oil in a fry pan, once hot add the pine nuts and stir them in the pan until they get a gold tinge. This won't take long so keep an eye, when they start to change colour remove from the pan, otherwise they burn.

Put the pan back on the heat, add a bit more oil if needed and add the onion. Cook until soft, add the sage and fry until fragrant.

Add the chicken, salt and white pepper, and cook until juices run clear. Don't over cook it otherwise the chicken will dry out in the oven.

Stir through the spinach and pine nuts and set aside.

Remove the outer shell mix from the fridge and mix with your hands, if it feels too moist mix through a couple of table spoons of plain flour at a time until the mix feels a bit firmer and not so sticky.

This is when it gets very handy:

1. Moulded hollow shell

2. Rotate filled shell closing the end as you go

3. Tornado!

1. Fill a little bowl of water, and moisten your hands with the water. Take a heaped tablespoon of the outer shell mix and roll into a ball in the palm of your hand. With your index and middle fingers, make an indentation in the middle of the ball. Keep pressing towards the outer walls of the ball until you get a hollow shell.

2. Fill the shell with a table spoon of the filling and turn the filled shell around the palm of your hand while closing the opening until it's a small hole. Finally bring it together with your fingers and close the hole. 

3. Continue shaping the kibbeh until it is a cute little tornado shape and place onto a lined baking tray.

If you think the shell can take more filling, by all means add more. No one likes an empty kibbeh!

You will not get this right the first time, trust me, but you will get better and better as you go along.

Moisten your hands once again and continue making the kibbeh. This recipe will make about 20 palm sized tornadoes. But it's up to you if you want to make them bigger or smaller.

They're great for an entree if you make them little, and kids just adore them.

Many tornadoes!

Once they're all made brush each one with a bit of oil and bake in a preheated oven at 180C fan forced for 20 minutes, or deep fry them until they a lovely golden colour on the outside.

Serve as a side, entree or as a main with salad such as tabouli. (I'll have to post the recipe for this later!)

NB: If you have fresh meat you can make a big batch and freeze them before baking. Lay them flat in the freezer and don't stack them. That's what my mum does. Then when you want them lay flat to defrost and follow the same baking instructions once thawed.

A light treat for a Spring day

It's Spring time and oranges are just beautiful, I've been eating them by the kilo! Here is a seasonal dessert I whipped up when a friend came over for lunch. You can incorporate this into your lunch or dinner menu during Spring or Summer quite easily.

It is an adapted recipe from bestrecipes.com.au, so if you want the original just google the website and orange souffle.

Just a thing about souffles. Don't be scared away by the whipping. I know they're best served straight out of the oven. But they do last about an hour or so before they completely deflate, and even then they still look OK.

If you prep everything before your guests arrive you can also pick up where you left off with relative ease without getting trapped in the kitchen.

You can actually re-whip egg whites, it's not that bad.

Orange, Cardamon and vanilla bean souffle

Serves 4

Juice from 4 oranges or about 1 cup orange juice

1/2 an orange worth of zest

100g sugar (caster, raw, brown white it's going to dissolve anyway)

1/4 tsp ground cardamon

1 vanilla pod

3 eggs seperated

Preheat your oven to 180C or 170C fan forced.

Cut 1/4 from the top of each orange and squeeze out the juice. Scoop out remaining pulp and set to the side, these shells will become your 'ramekins'.

Run the juice through a sieve and discard the pulp. 

Zest two of the tops of the oranges or all four if you want it extra zingy.

Pour juice and zest into a small saucepan with 50 g sugar (about 4 slightly heaped tablespoons), ground cardamon, and add your vanilla pod. Bring to the boil stirring gently until sugar dissolves.

Simmer for a few minutes on low or until you get a nice vanilla aroma. Remove the vanilla pod, give it a splash of cold water and set aside to dry for reuse.

Give the seperated yolks a bit of a whisk.

Egg yolk mix should look like this once thickened

Then get your double boiler thing happening. (a pot of boiling hot water on the stove with a bowl on top, don't let the water touch the bowl)

On medium heat pour the sugar and juice mix into the bowl and slowly pour in the egg yolks while whisking. If the yolks start to separate take the double boiler off the heat and whisk until smooth. But this shouldn't happen.

Keep whisking until it thickens. Take off the heat and leave to cool.

You can use a spoon, but I like whisks because you don't get any lumps. I use a whisk with bechamel sauce too.

You can do this part a day in advance if you like. If you're in a hurry spread it evenly over a big plate to cool down faster.

Whisk the eggs until soft peaks form and slowly add the other 50g sugar. Whisk until sugar has dissolved.

You can do this before your guests arrive, and then when it's time for dessert just give it another quick whisk to get air back into it.

Gently fold in your egg yolk mixture into the fluffy egg whites and pour into the orange shells or greased ramekins leaving about 5mm from the top.

Bake in a preheated oven for about 15 minutes or until gold on top.

Garnish with mint and serve with whipped cream.

Note: this is a very light gluten free dessert, but if you want to add a bit of fat add 40g butter (melted) and two table spoons of plain flour, almond or hazelnut meal to the sugar and juice mix before adding the egg yolks.

I'm back

After a over a month away I'm back on the blog. I've been moving house and fixing up furniture for the last month or so. 

I'm just exhausted!

Anyway so I'm in Melbourne, and I am having an absolute ball! There are so many places to check out here, I'm kind of going through food over load!

I've been getting into bread since arriving, not the flat type but the traditional loaf style.

I'm a bit sick of the whole contintental thing at the moment and have been really enjoying your average traditional loaf.

It seems to be making a bit of a come back too. Everyone went all exotic and now they want to go home!

Olive and herb bread.

So this is what I made the other day. I know what you're saying, 'another olive bread?' But this is different. It's a traditional take on it, and the bread base gave me a great texture. 

I'm blogging this recipe because I think it's adaptable to any flavour you like. You could make a banana or raisin bread as a sweet version, for example. Or something savoury, like a linseed or pumpkin bread. 

The skie's the limit!

I'm into working out a rule of thumb for things, as I'm not much of a recipe follower. I get bored, and sometimes I just want to use something up instead of throwing it out.

And we shouldn't throw it out. It's wasteful, ungrateful and completely unnecessary. We live with enough excess.

My policy on excess food is this: share it, freeze it, or turn into something else. 

It's not hard.

Ok, that's enough of a moral bashing when it comes to waste. This isn't what I'm about here. I'm guilty too, if not food then on other things.

I have so many shoes, for example. Do I need them? No!

I love shoes.

It's probably the only thing I would trade a meal for. That's terrible isn't it?  Oh well, that's me. Guilty.

Traditional Olive and Herb Bread

3 cups sifted plain flour

1 tsp salt

2 tsp sugar

sachet yeast

1 cup warm water

1 cup green olives pitted and chopped

2 tbslp chopped fresh oregano leaves or whatever herbs you have in the cupboard.

Olive oil

A drizzle of milk

Mix flour, salt, sugar, and yeast in a large mixing bowl and add the water.

Knead until it's a smooth ball, be sure to collect the dough off the side of the bowl. You can do this on a flour surface or in the bowl, which is what I do to contain the mess.

Cover dough in olive oil put it back in the bowl, and leave to rise in covered in a warm place for 1 hour or until it has doubled in size.

Lining the loaf pan.

Grease a loaf pan with olive oil and dust with flour, or line it with baking paper or both.

I grease, dust then line the pan so that I have paper overhanging on the long ends. That way when it's baked I'm only detaching the short sides and lifting the rest out fairly easily.

In an deal world it should leave the sides of the pan when it's baked, but lets be realistic. When has anyone ever baked something that has just fallen out of the pan perfectly without needing to fiddle with a knife? This never happens to me so I use baking paper to minimise the fiddle.

After 1 hour punch the dough and add your olives and herbs. Kneed until mixed thoroughly. Place in your greased loaf pan. Brush some milk over the top. In my case, pour it over!

Cover once again and leave to rise for another hour.

Preheat your oven to 190C or 180C fan forced. 

Baked bread with a gold tinge.

Remove cover from the loaf and and place in the oven for 35-40 minutes. But keep an eye, every oven is different.

The bread is ready if you have a brown to gold tinge on top and it sounds hollow when you tap the bread in the middle.

Leave it to cool in the pan, then carefully turn it out onto a plate or chopping board. Cut thick slices and serve fresh or toasted with butter or your favourite cheese.