Baklava

I told you all last week how much I love eating Middle Eastern food. It's true! La Sheesh in Ann Arbor is on my Top 5 favorite restaurant list. After eating a huge, delicious meal from there, I always make sure to leave a little room in my stomach for Baklava. You always have room for a little dessert, right? Baklava is a sweet, crunchy pastry with tons of layers and it always leaves your fingers sticky from the sugary, honey sauce that is poured over it after baking. It's the best way to end a meal. So like always, I wanted to learn how to make it on my own!

My best tip for you is not to rush the thawing process of the Fillo dough (like I did)! Allow yourself a day or two to allow it to thaw in your refrigerator. Mine was still partially frozen but I wanted to make Baklava NOW! The Fillo dough is so thin and so delicate that it started breaking apart in the spots where it was still frozen. It still turned out great but it would have been a lot easier to work with if I had allowed it to thaw properly.

Here is a picture to demonstrate how to cut it. Only half of the 9 x 13 inch pan is shown in the picture so there were 16 pieces in all.

Garlic Paste

I am a huge fan of Middle Eastern/Mediterranean food. I am lucky that there are many wonderful Mediterranean restaurants within 6 miles of my home. One of our favorite things about eating there is the fresh pita bread and garlic paste that they bring to every table as a starter. If you are a garlic lover, you will probably LOVE this recipe. If you're not a fan of garlic than you should stay far away from this recipe!

After the first time I had garlic paste I ran home and "Googled" G.A.R.L.I.C. P.A.S.T.E to see how to make it. I found this great video that shows step-by-step the proper technique for making it. It was a huge help in my quest to make the perfect garlic paste. After watching the video I knew exactly what I needed to do and it was a piece of cake. Mission complete!

I highly recommend you watch the video before attempting to make garlic paste. Here's the link: How To Make Garlic Paste

Pita Bread

Here's some great pita bread that I learned to make in class awhile back. It's great for sandwiches or for dipping into hummus or garlic paste. More on that later...

Have a great Monday!!!

Hummus

We had this along-side the Tabbouleh the other day. I often times buy hummus at the grocery store and have tried many different flavors of it but this was the first time I've ever made it from scratch. It is SUPER easy to make. Just throw everything into your blender or food processor and it's ready!

Garbanzo beans are just another name for chickpeas. A jar of Tahini can be found in the International Food Aisle of Meijer (for example).

This is a great side dish to serve with pita bread and also makes a great mid-day snack. It's healthy and delicious!

Tabbouleh

Several years ago while visiting a friend near Washington D.C., I was introduced to Lebanese food. I must admit I was a bit nervous at first. It all sounded so foreign to me. Let's see, we had Tabbouleh, Hummus, Baba Ghanouj, Falafel, and stuffed Grapeleaves to name a few. I have always been a big fan of salads and fresh vegetables so I became an instant fan to this new type of cuisine. Most everything we ate that night was vegetarian yet it was so flavorful and so filling!

To this day, I am still a huge fan of Middle Eastern food. Lucky for me, there are several great Middle Eastern restaurants here in Ann Arbor.

I randomly scrolled across this recipe the other day and had the instant urge to want to make it. I have a passion for trying new recipes especially when there are ingredients that are foreign to me. I love learning about new ingredients and searching them out in a grocery store. So today for example, I headed to Whole Foods in search of bulgar. I had no idea what aisle to find it in or what it would look like but I knew there would be a sales associate that would be more than willing to help me locate it. Bulgur can be found in the bulk aisle in Whole Foods. It felt like such a great accomplishment to make this recipe tonight. I learned how to prepare bulgar and now I know exactly what is in Tabbouleh the next time I order it in a restaurant.

It is such a fresh dish. It takes some time to do all the chopping, but it is so worth it! It tastes great by itself or served with pita bread.