My Middle Eastern Night

A few weeks ago after getting home from Jordan, I hosted a "Middle Eastern Night" at our house so that some family and friends could come over, see my slideshow of pictures from my semester abroad, and eat some authentic Arab food.  It was great fun, I was so excited to see everyone again and tell my stories.

But let's be honest, it was really about the food.

In Jordan, a small group of us study abroad students went to Dr. Wafaa's apartment where she taught us how to make hummus, yogurt sauce, maklouba, shatta (hot sauce), and lemonade with mint.

So, using those recipes, I replicated that meal at home, to great success! The hummus was delicious (and a huge hit - the huge bowl of it was gone by noon the next day), the tzatziki-esque yogurt sauce was yum, and everyone liked the maklouba (which means "upside down" in Arabic because of how it's made), even if the rice was a bit mushy.  I didn't make the shatta, but I did make the 'aseer limon ma nana ("lemon juice with mint"), which exploded all over me because I apparently don't know how to use a blender. Oh well. Gina finished it when I went to try to get the sticky Sprite off my clothes.

Appetizers: pita bread, pita chips, hummus, tzatziki, and pistachios

Getting the ingredients itself was interesting. Most were available at regular grocery stores, but I couldn't find the short grain Egyptian rice anywhere. I didn't have time to search out a Middle-Eastern market in the area (there are several Indian groceries, but I don't know of many Arab ones), so I went to Montgomery Market instead, which usually has a good supply of ethnic foods. No Egyptian rice, but I used Valenciano Spanish paella rice instead. I also picked up some Zaatar and I think a couple other random Arab foods there. (They also had kunafa mix! I didn't buy it, but I might try it in the future.)

I got to be chef to mother's sous chef for once! She made the tzatziki according to my recipe and got all the mint that we needed from her herb garden. 

Here are the recipes (courtesy of my roommate from Jordan, Lauren), which we used more like guidelines: (what we actually did in parenthesis)

Hummus

Ingredients:

¼ kilo of raw chickpeas (3 cans of chickpeas, rinsed)

2-4 heaping spoonfuls of Tahina, sesame seed paste

½ of a lemon, juiced (3 lemons)

2-3 large spoonfuls of plain yogurt

Salt

1-2 cloves of fresh garlic

Olive Oil

(cumin and tumeric)

Preparation:

1. Overnight, soak chickpeas in lukewarm water. (Or not, if you're using cans)

2. Fill large pot with soaked chickpeas and water until ~1 inch above the level of chickpeas. Boil for an

hour, uncovered. (Again, unnecessary with cans)

3. Taste chickpeas to see if soft. Put in blender or food processor and add several spoonfuls of Tahina.

Blend until chickpeas are broken up.

4. Add lemon juice, garlic cloves, and salt (and cumin). Blend.

5. Add water and yogurt until it’s the consistency desired.

6. Serve in a bowl with olive oil drizzled on top. (And some stripes of cumin and tumeric, with some whole chickpeas in the middle.)

I can't eat store-bought hummus anymore!

Al-Khierib Leban (Yogurt with cucumber sauce)

Ingredients:

9 small cucumbers

1 kilo of plain yogurt

2-3 cloves of garlic

(1 lemon, juiced)

Salt to taste

Handful of fresh mint leaves

Preparation:

1. Cut the ends off of the cucumbers. With a cheese-grater, grate the cucumbers into a large bowl.

2. Peel the skin off the garlic, grate the cloves into the same bowl as the cucumbers.

3. Cut the mint leaves into very fine pieces. Set aside.

4. Mix the yogurt (and lemon juice) into the cucumbers and garlic in the large bowl. Salt to taste.

5. Sprinkle the mint leaves over top.

6. Serve immediately or refrigerate.

Thanks to Mom for the pretty presentation

‘Asir limon m’a na’na – Lemon juice with mint

Ingredients:

- 3 lemons

- A handful of mint leaves

- 1 liter of 7up/Sprite

Preparation:

1. Juice the 3 lemons. Put into blender.

2. Put handful of mint leaves into blender.

3. Blend until mint leaves are fairly chopped.

4. Add the 7up into the blender gradually

5. Blend until half liter is used. Add the rest of the 7up at the end of blending.

6. Serve over crushed ice.

The maklouba was a bit harder to make since I wasn't sure if the recipe was for one pot or the four pots we made as a group in Jordan.... so that one I made up as I went along. I would have to make it again to see what I actually put in it in order to give any kind of accurate recipe. 

In short though, it is peppers, onions, fried eggplant, tomatoes, and marinated chicken, all mushed up together, covered with rice, and boiled in a pot. Once the rice is cooked, it's done! And you flip the pot over onto a serving tray and eat it. (Hence why it's called "upside-down.")

And that's it!

Our maklouba pots in Jordan

The finished product