Sunday, April 21, 2013

Batinjaan Mahshi with Ground Lamb


  • 20 small cylindrical eggplant
  • 1-1/2 cups minced lamb or beef
  • 1/4 cup pine nuts
  • 3/4 cup minced onions
  • 1-1/4 tsp. 
  • Salt-1/2 tsp. 
  • Pepper-to taste
  • 1-1/2 cups fresh tomato juice, or diluted tomato paste
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 cup (or more) samneh, (or other shortening)

Clean eggplant and trim stems to about half an inch. Do not remove hulls. Partially peel, leaving lengthwise strips of alternating peel and flesh. Fry eggplant until soft in hot samneh. Drain into shallow baking pan or pyrex baking dish. Fry chopped onions in samneh until yellow. Add meat, pine nuts, salt and pepper and fry until meat is well done.

Slit each eggplant lengthwise to form a pocket. Gently press several spoonfuls of stuffing into the slits. Cover with tomato juice, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Simmer on top of stove 15 minutes and then bake 15 minutes in hot oven to brown the tops. Serve hot in the baking dish. Good with Lebanese rice.

Friday, April 19, 2013

Bint Al Sah'n

Bint al Sah'n - "the concubine"


400 degrees F. 20 minutes

 Serve with Natural Uncooked HONEY.


One of my favorites, learned from the Yemeni side of the family - and my blessed mother-in-law.


1) 1 tsp of yeast dissolved in 1/4 cup of warm water2) 4 eggs3) 3 cups of white flour sifted before use4) 1/4 cup of water (in addition to the 1/4 of cup in which you have dissolved the yeast)5) 1 tsp salt6) 1/4 cup of melted butter(or ghee if you have some at hand)

In a bowl hand whisk the eggs, add the salt, water, yeast mixture and whisk well. Slowly add the flour and knead into a dough. Slowly pour the melted better and continue kneading until all the butter is incorporated. You can use a mixer for this, but we usually knead it by hand.
The dough takes on a yellowy color from the eggs and the butter!

Divide into 16 balls of equal size and cover so they do not dry up ( REMEMBER to flour the plate you put them on, so they do not stick to the plate). Let rise for about 20 min. You can use a rolling pin and start opening up each circle as big as you can–each one has to be so thin that you can literally see through it. Our yemeni mothers and sisters do this by hand. I continue with my hand here, tossing it from one hand to the other. BE CAREFUL it does not break! It will be VERY thin, almost see through.

With a spoon sprinkle some melted butter onto a round metal oven dish (about 14 inch in diameter). Then place the first layer onto the butter–make sure the edges stick to the oven dish. Sprinkle more butter on this layer and repeat the process of opening up the balls of dough–basically repeat the previous three steps–until you get the to last one. Don’t sprinkle the top of this layer with butter, but rather brush it with some egg yolk and sprinkle some black seeds on it.Place in the preheated oven about 20 minutes, until it rises and browns on the top.