My Mom’s Moghrabieh

Since I have posted an info page about Moghrabieh, I noticed that it arose a lot of interest. And since then I have been meaning to post a recipe, but you know my story with taking recipes from my mom.  And I wanted her recipe in particular, because Moghrabieh comes out perfect with her.

Mloukhieh

I don’t know if any of you can relate to me on this, but getting down a recipe from my mom is like the Mission Impossible of the cooking world.

Mom cooks by feel (I am kind of guilty of it too :$); she just throws in the ingredients the way they seem right. Whether it is the size, the smell or the taste and she ends up having a fantastic result. You would think it could not get better but another time you taste the same thing, she manages to perfect it even more, so much that she earned from me the analogy of the wine: “Mom’s cooking is like wine, it gets better with age”. For those who know me well, they know that this is the ultimate compliment from me and I am not someone to dish out compliments like they were candy on Halloween.

Zaza’s Soup – 3rd Mediterranean Cooking Event, Lebanon

I don’t know where this soup originated from, but I know it was cooked at my aunt’s household. My uncle was Armenian and his sister cooked this soup, so we named it after her: Zaza’s Soup. Maybe the soup is a mix of Armenian and Lebanese, even though the event is for Lebanese cooking, I think this soup characterizes the spirit of Lebanon and its diversity. Not to mention it is a delicious soup that I hope those who will try will enjoy.

Beef Breyani: Traditional South Africa in Lebanon.

I did my shopping along the week to get all the ingredients/spices for the Breyani. I meant to prepare it on Sunday (October 6). I even asked the maid at the office where I can find a place that sells masala and similar spices. She is Sri-Lankan and I figured that they use something similar in their cuisine. She pointed a close by place, but after some asking and a lot of running around, I declared myself forfeited. I don’t know if it is the maid’s broken Arabic, the people who did not know the place but pointed different spice stores or it was me who did not get the directions: result was no masala. I tried the supermarket but the masala I found had most of the spices I got. I even found a Breyani mix, but again it had the same spices I already had.