Margo's Kitchen

Aren't they irresistible. They'll need to be treated with love and respect. I'll take my time before I decide how to give them homage. Friends; I'll keep you posted. TBC

A friend asked me if I was familiar with snails Lebanese style recipe. She said she was ready to place an order if I was. I apologized and told her I can only prepare canned snails a la Bourguignonne. That was about 10 days ago. Two days later, I went out to get myself some fruits and veggies from the little mini market place round the corner from where I live. The guy sells only fruits and veggies nothing else. Good stuff, higher end quality, a bit more expensive than normal market prices but surely value for your money.

A special thank you to you dear friend Laura for inviting me to cook for your dinner party on Tuesday. Thank you for appreciating the choice of the dishes and courses I suggested. I am glad the feedback among your guests was positive in many ways. You opened doors for me, your lady friend M.. invited me to prepare a menu with a theme and cook on location for 30+ guests to celebrate an anniversary next Monday. Looks like the grilled leg of lamb and the dessert made an impact :).

Use Salt To Keep Vegetables Bright And Green While Cooking Salt is great for enhancing flavour, but it plays a bigger role in the chemistry of cooking than you might think. The folks at America’s Test Ki...

While browsing the photo-shoot of dishes, breads, tarts, etc... prepared over a fortnight, I realized there were 11 cuisines involved. Trust me it was not intentional, it just happened. There is Lebanes/Greek, French, Italian, Indian, American, English, Thai, Spanish, Ecuadorian, and Danish, hence the title International. Many recipes were tried for the first time, a couple were simply created, the rest were either twisted or cooked before. Shall we have a peek?

I was fortunate and had the privilege to be appreciated by a major renowned Lebanese TV channel, namely Future TV and its team of the famous morning show: Alam Al Sabah. During the month of July last, Future TV was promoting a campaign under the title Think/Eat/Save which inspired me to cook dishes only out of ingredients I had available at home. I was invited to shoot a cooking session, with the same Think/Eat/Save spirit, hence the video clip you may wish to watch now. Future TV, in its morning show Alam Al Sabah, ran the clip. You have no idea how proud I felt watching it. For this the least I should do be grateful and thank the person(s) who made this happen: Lareine the producer, Nadine and Lama who recommended it, the editing team, Alam Al Sabah team, Future TV management and mostly Chef Chadi Zaitouni. I try as much as I can not to miss his segments during the morning shows. I admire his choice of the dishes he cooks, the methods he follows, the twists he adds. I admire his vast knowledge of his ingredients, his tips, and his humourness. Future TV and Alam Al Sabah: Thank you..

http://www.futuretvnetwork.com/node/44012

عالم الصباح - فقرة "كارمن و الابراج" 11/08/2013 | Future TV

I have been watching ads on several TV channels and reading articles about The ThinkEatSave campaign, http://thinkeatsave.org/index.php/about, (please read) and I decided I try something myself. I opened the fridge, freezer and Pantry cabinets, made a list of all the ingredients and decided I’ll use whatever I have and buy as little as essentials and missing ones. It took 10 days overall to use all the stored ingredients, no food was wasted, no hole in my wallet and everybody was happy. It worked perfectly well and here are the results.

Especially when served with sour cream..

This is a cut of a Mexican Rice Casserole. A recipe I found on my news feed and wished to try it. Not all the dishes I try I follow the directions as suggested, on many occasions, with all modesty I follow my instincts and mostly my flair. Sometimes it works sometimes not... This time it did.. With the combination of all its ingredients (Rice, garlic, onion, tomato, chilies, chicken broth, cayenne powder, chilly powder, turmeric, cumin, salt pepper..etc...) and the very right baking, this dish is irresistible..

A friend of ours, owner of a Tex-Mex resto, recently opened a new resto in a prime location in Dubai. He invited us to a food tasting nite to serve the very best Mexican dishes you can eat in Dubai. For the grand finale, he came up with a beautiful nicely decorated white cake and served us. I could not resist a refill, it was so heavenly delicious. I had to ask for the recipe and tried it at home a few days later... I tell you one thing: i'll do it again and again and again...

Very ordinary oven grilled chicken... served with garlic paste...

Remember the ratatouille posted earlier? well, there were some eggplant, zucchini and yellow squash slices left... I deep fried them... Consider it one of the many Lebanese Mezza dishes... For the zucchini and squash fried slices, they are best consumed with a red vinegar/garlic/dried mint dip... with pita bread of course...