Ingredients
How to use Rose Water
Find out more about how to use rose water in cooking and baking! We love this special Lebanese culinary tradition. Find pure imported flower waters in my shop here. We just HAVE to kick off February and spring with an ode to the beautiful Lebanese tradition of baking with flower waters. Their flavor is iconic,…
Read MoreHow to Choose an Eggplant
Follow these few simple tips to selecting beautiful eggplant, for fabulous Lebanese and other favorite dishes. Why we love eggplant. The deep purple hue and voluptuous shape of eggplant put it in the upper echelons of truly gorgeous produce. Of course there’s plenty of competition everywhere you turn at the farmer’s market. But purple is…
Read MoreWhy Great Olive Oil Should Always be on the Menu
Someone asked me recently, what are my top three pantry items? The first was easy: great extra virgin olive oil. The second: infused extra virgin olive oil. The third: kosher salt. We cook and drizzle and bake and drizzle some more with olive oil, every single day and even more when we’re cooking for a…
Read MoreWhat is Za’atar, and How to Cook with Za’atar
Za’atar spice is a special blend of wild thyme, sumac, sesame seeds, and salt. Za’atar, a word that itself means “thyme” in Arabic, is pronounced with the emphasis on the first half of the word: ZA-tar. Za’atar, like any spice blend from throughout the Mediterranean, different regions and even different families in the same region…
Read MoreIntroducing Maureen Abood Market, Lebanese Ingredients to love
For my dad growing up, working at Aboods Food Market meant missing plenty of good fun. Saturdays and any day school was out, he and his brothers were expected to show up in one place and one place only: the market. Shelves needed stocking, butchery needed butchering, and customers needed a smile—with quality, quality, quality.…
Read MoreFavorite Things: Coconut Extract (the real deal)
When you love coconut, you want to taste coconut. It took me years to understand that my coconut cream pies were just okay, and tasted more like vanilla custard pie with a little bit of coconutty chew rather than like truly tropical coconut cream. With all of the time I’ve spent in Florida (read: piña…
Read MoreIngredient: European-style butter (for our Za’atar Croissants)
Happy spring—it feels official now, even in Up North in Michigan, where it snowed as recently as last week. While we are far from the first crop of anything here, there is still the sense that the place is waking up and good things are coming our way. There are daffodils, and the cows are…
Read MoreIngredient: Fava Beans
What, can I ask, is wrong with the Lebanese that we so dearly love the very beans that require such painstaking attention? The chickpea is a wonder bean, but that little sucker is most often nothing until it is properly free of its skin. The fava is no different. My position as a bottom-feeder at…
Read MoreIngredient: Edible Dried Lavender
Last summer, when I was intoxicated with the beauty, scent, and flavor of the fresh lavender from Lavender Hill Farms up north here, I thought of this very February day. When seasons are so defined, so distinct, deep, and determined as they are in these parts, the pleasure and wonder of any of them is…
Read MoreMichigan apples, comfort me
It was the kind of fall morning that Michigan does best: mist rising off the bay, sun just up over the horizon, leaves on the cusp of their burning beauty. The day promised sunshine, warmth, and apples. Lots of apples. My friend Bill Sherman has been telling me about his family business, and invited…
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