During a college visit several years ago, my family and I tried this dish for the first time. Of all the entrees we ordered, this plate of wide tender noodles was the most popular. After the trip and home back in my kitchen, I went about recreating the dish. Freshly made rice noodles are the way to go here—dried noodles can be substituted, but there’s no comparison to the flavor of the sauce …
Main Dish
Butter Chicken
One of the keys to this dish is the spices—Kashmiri red chili and garam masala. Kashmiri chili is known for its distinctive vibrant red color and relatively mild heat. Whereas garam masalas are a combination of spice like: cardamom pods, cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, and black peppercorns. Using whole spices and grinding them with a spice/coffee grinder into a fine powder produces the best …
Rice with Chickpeas
Known in Lebanon as Riz B Hummus, has to be my oldest son’s favorite lunch as he eats it practically every day. The trio of allspice, cinnamon, and cloves add warmth, and a slight spicy sweetness to grains of white basmati rice. Creamy chickpeas and bits of ground beef are in here too, but are secondary to the rice. Serve it with a tangy cucumber and yogurt salad, some fresh sprigs of mint, and …
Green Beans with Tomato & Onion
This recipe is my adaptation to a Lebanese dish called Lubya bi-zayt or Green Beans in Oil that uses just a few ingredients. Tender green beans, ripe, juicy tomatoes, and soft melt-in-your-mouth diced onion, don’t get any better than this. You will find other recipes with slight variations, even one that includes ground beef (which my sons love), but my husband and I prefer this meatless …