Truly Lebanese Feast

I was invited today to a truly Lebanese feast at a Lebanese home. The hostess, cooking for her family for over four decades, put an impressive spread for just five of us (including her) attending.

The lunch began with a huge bowl of Tabouleh and a large platter of Humus. 



As the hostess rightly pointed out, these two platters are the first (and a must) to show up on a Lebanese dinner table. We then progressed to three Mehshi (a search on the word on this blog will give you few entries describing those). The Mehshi selection included:

Selek (chard - picture on the left), Warak (vine leaves) and  Kousa (zucchini).

There were also small Lebanese spinach pies. These were hand made with a very delicate flour and oil dough and stuffed with a mixture of spinach, onions and spices.


I know one loyal somerville kitchen follower who adores those and I bet she is really craving those right now - they were excellent.

Another part of the feast was the Lebanese-style grilled chicken - marinated with garlic, olive oil and thyme. 

Chicken is served with a garlic dip (bottom corner of the picture). This is simply crushed garlic and canola oil whipped into a mayonnaise-style texture. Garlic lovers will fall heads over heals over this dip.


But my favourite part of the meal is Kebbeh Nayeh. If you do a Kebbeh search on this blog, you'd see several versions of this dish. This was a raw meat version and one of my favourite Lebanese dishes that I am not able to figure out how to make it myself. I typically eat it when I travel to Lebanon so it was a special treat to have it here today. 

Our hostess comes from a Lebanese northern town that is famous for their Kebbeh. As such, this was a perfectly made platter, so perfect that I ate half of what you see above on my own.

We were on the table over two hours! 

What a lovely generous feast, delicious food and great company. 


Thank you Susan!