The Lebanese Experience

Quick Lebanese Ouzeh Rice

This is the basic recipe for the famous Lebanese "Rice with meat". It's used as Ouzeh filling– stuffed puff pastry balls—or as even as Turkey stuffing. Or it can be eaten with a side of salad, preferably Fattoush (I'll post my version of Fattoush soon), or yogurt. It's one of my son's favorite dishes so we make it all the time. It's also become a Thanksgiving fixture! It tastes great with gravy and Turkey meat. You can even cook it with Turkey stock if you have some. If you have time, cook some beef in your slowcooker with the same spices and some beef stock and serve it on top of the rice.

Quick Lebanese Ouzeh Rice
Recipe

1 ½ cups of Rice (I am partial to Uncle Bens)
3 2/3 cups of beef stock (or chicken. Follow the instructions on you Rice box for how much water the rice needs to cook)
1 lb ground beef (or less if you don't like a lot of meat in your rice)
1 small onion, chopped
½ cup of pine nuts (optional)
½ cup of slivered almonds (optional)
1 cup of frozen peas (optional)
1 ½ teaspoons seven spices
2 tbsp butter or vegetable oil
Pinch of Salt

First, if you're making with pine nuts and almonds, roast them in a pan with some of the butter. When they've turned brown, remove them with a slotted spoon and set aside.

In the same pan (I do everything in one pot), add the remaining butter and cook the chopped onion until wilted. Add the meat, brown it. Add the rice, mix with the beef then add the stock. Add the spices, stir and bring it to a boil. Add salt, but not too much, especially if your stock is not reduced sodium. When it boils, lower the heat and cover.

Defrost the peas separately. When the rice is cooked, add the peas, pine nuts and almonds. Mix. Let it rest for 10 minutes and then enjoy!

If you don't have seven spices, try making it with allspice (NOT THE SAME), or make the mix yourself. Seven spices consist of cloves, cumin, nutmeg, coriander, cinnamon, and paprika.

Shawarma pot roast!

It sounds strange, but it actually tastes great. If you don't have the shawarma spices, try seven spices. I slowcooked it, but can probably roast it in the oven.

Ingredients

2lbs chuck roast
1 small bag pearl onions (frozen)
1 can diced tomatoes
1 beef bouillon
1 cup of water
Juice of two clementines or 1 small orange
2 tbl spoons of red wine vinegar
(for tangier taste, try mixing in lemon juice)
Shawarma spices
Salt

First, I recommend cutting the roast into two pieces. Start heating the pan. Rub the roast with salt and a generous amount of spices. Brown the meat in the hot skillet on all sides (i added a little olive oil).  Transfer the meat to the crockpot.

Add the tomatoes, vinegar, juice, water, about a teaspoon of spices, beef bouillon and onions to the pan.  Let boil then pour over the meat in the crockpot. I cooked it for 4 hours on high, and a couple of more hours on low. You can probably let it cook for six on low, if you plan to leave the house.

Enjoy! I served it with warm tortillas and Hummus!

The video that inspired a post

From an old post on the political site:

Amal gets into her blue convertible and drives up the long and straight road of her lover’s broken promise. She cannot sleep, she sings, however she lives in a dream. The broken promise appears in a thorny plant that ravages her body as she drives, until her blue car crashes into a lone leafless tree by a lake at the edge of a mountain. And there, under the vast smoggy sky, she wakes up, blood on her thirsty lips. Her salvation, it dawns on her, lies in the water of the lake. Finally, Amal, takes the wet path to salvation...

Am I living a false promise by believing that Lebanon will one day succeed? When I decided that I could no longer live in my country, it was out of fear of self-destruction, much like Amal did in the video. I was too old to keep battling the thorns of Lebanese society, and not live my life to the fullest where I can. But look at me now. I may have left Lebanon physically, but I am still there in spirit. On Tuesday, the thorns managed to hurt again and caused my heart to bleed, despite the distance. For there was a person on television speaking on my behalf, setting limits I did not believe in, and reinforcing a reality that I chose to leave to him to shape. Do I even have the right to complain, let alone cry over a country I left behind? It makes no difference, for my actions then and now are the same, and the feeling cannot be helped, whether I am here or there. Lebanon is etched in my heart and my mind. My dreams are still set in my old Beirut apartment, where I grew up amid a bloody war. Every night, I go back to my old school that overlooked a Syrian missile launcher. And I sit in class listening to my favorite teachers as the explosions rock my classroom, and then I wait outside for my father to take me to shelter. And then I forget myself in my comic books, amid superheroes and infallible beings. And when reality beckons, I dive into biographies of great ones.

In 34 years, I have turned myself into an idealist from an evil, self-destructive world that haunts him no matter how much he tries to get away.

And the video that inspired it:

An old favorite...

This song used to be my favorite song back in the 1970s. I am partial to the original, which I'll post here if I can find it. Here's Haifa and Rami singing it in Star Academy.

Nancy Ajram enters the new generation's imagination