Lebanese food for infidels

I live with five other people in a house and tonight we had a potluck. We each invited a few friends. Only one of the five of us avoids eating animal products, and the potluck was entirely vegetarian and mostly even vegan. Of course this made our vegan (who doesn’t entirely like that word) very happy. And it made everyone else happy too, because it was some damn good food. Let’s see if I can list most of it: spicy Thai noodles with vegetables and tofu, fried tofu skins stuffed with rice, meatless sushi (mango, pickles, tofu, avocado, sweet potato), seaweed salad, tasty carrot/broccoli/and-lots-of-other-tasty-vegetables soup, braised golden beets, fake fried chicken in a teriyaki-like sauce, roasted vegetable ravioli with pesto and artichokes, amarinth with veggies…and I feel like there was something else, but I’m just not sure. Oh, amazing berry pie, all tart and gooey and purpley and sweet. And really rich chocolate cake. As everyone was getting their delicious creations in order, I laid out a few simple Lebanese-inspired appetizers to whet our palates. Below, you’ll find a photograph of the ingredients, the “before” picture, if you will:I went to Queen of Sheba market for the canned beans and the tahini when I was in the neighborhood yesterday and then stopped by a little place near my house, in the shadow of Safeway, called Golden Produce for, well, the produce. I had the labneh from a recent trip to Walnut Creek, purchased from the Afghani Market where my uncle and I stopped to pick up kebabs for dinner. The za’atar has been sitting in my cabinet for months, since I stole some from my cousin’s wife’s kitchen cabinet.

Whenever people ask me about cooking Lebanese food, I tell them to remember three basic ingredients: lemon, garlic, and olive oil. This is the simple triumvirate that will get you through any Lebanese meal. Those, and of course your beans, your starches. And there’s usually a pile of meat, too, but, truth be told, there are plenty of dishes to eat without it.

So I’ll start with the bread. Pita is brilliant because you can use it to eat with; it’s the ultimate edible utensil. I bought a bag of wheat pita that I warmed up and cut into halves just before dinner. And tonight, for an added crowd-pleaser, I made pita chips from a bag of white pita. For this, cut each pita loaf into six slices, like a pie and separate each slice into to triangles. Lay the slices flat on a cookie sheet, so that no pieces overlap. Dab each with some olive oil and sprinkle in za’atar. (Za’atar is a Middle Eastern spice mix that varies in its constitution by country; the Lebanese version has sesame seeds and thyme among its ingredients.) Bake until golden brown and cool before serving.

Next, labneh. This labneh was store-bought, like I said, and I just spread it into a bowl and drizzled with olive oil and za’atar and garnished with parsley and black olives. You can also make labneh at home by draining yogurt (skim, low-fat, or full fat) in a cheese cloth in the fridge for a few days.

Okay, hummus. I’ll never forget when I was living in New York after college and somehow I received the knowledge from my mother of how to make hummus and when I served it to friends they were all totally wowed by this dish that I didn’t even really like, that was super-simple to make. But then I started liking it more when and began to realize that the main thing with hummus is that you really have to get a feel for the proportioning the ingredients as you like them according to flavor and texture. I usually roughly go by the can of chic peas. For each can you use, drain about half the water and reserve the rest to dump in your bowl with the chic peas. Than add about a clove of garlic, a big pinch of salt and the juice of one small lemon or half a large one. Also add a big spoon of tahini. Blend until smooth. I just got a hand-blender for Christmas and it works all right and is super-convenient for clean up. Hummus is often traditionally garnished with radishes and paprika. Tonight, I used parsley, olive oil, and olives.

Now, baba ghanoush. This is exactly the same as the hummus, except you use eggplants instead of chic peas, which makes it entirely different. All I could find at Golden Produce were Chinese eggplants—skinny, light-colored little things. I prepared them as I always do, by roasting over the gas range, blackening the outsides as the insides soften. Then after they cool, I peel off the outside layer of skin. Today I had trouble roasting them all the way through, so I saved the hard parts, and threw them into a skillet with a little bit of oil to soften and cook them more. It all turned out pretty good. I had half of an onion I’d caramelized last night, which I threw in for flavor, along with a dash of crushed red pepper. I was using the last of a jar of tahini, so I let it sit in a few tablespoons of hot water a few minutes to get all the paste off the glass.

And, finally, foul. Foul, which just means fava beans, was a big part of my life in Egypt. Heck, it’s a big part of everyone’s lives there. But I still like the Lebanese version better, which is what I made tonight. Now of course with all these canned beans, you can really do it, and buy them dried and soak and boil them and all that, but of course I went for the easy way out and bought a big can of favas. I drained just a little bit of the water and saved the rest, dumping it all out into a pot. I added lemon, garlic, and salt and then heated the whole thing until simmering slightly. Then I turned off the fire, added minced parsley and tomatoes, and put it in bowls.

B aided me by very skillfully cutting up a cucumber into small, round slices to serve as a refresher and a dipping alternative to the pita chips. Yum. Here is the “after.”

And I didn’t take the “after after,” but it would have been a picture of a bunch of very satisfied looking people, sitting slumped in a haphazard ring of chairs in our living room with smiles on their faces, and my Lebanese mezzas were an essential precursor to that bliss.