Julie Taboulie's Lebanese Kitchen

It's my magical mezze amidst the moonlight.

Announcer: "Julie Taboulie's Lebanese Kitchen" is made possible by... Man: Do your thing Do your thing, do your thing Syracuse, do your thing Do your thing, do your thing Syracuse, do your thing [Middle Eastern music playing] Mezze is internationally known all over the world as one of the most distinctive and delicious displays of dishes to delve into, derived right from Lebanon in the Middle East.

And today, I'm preparing and presenting some of the most popular small plates among the mezze, starting off with my heavenly hummus, a creamy and dreamy chickpea and sesame seed spread that is always a star plate at any mezze table; followed by my blissful baba ghanouj, a rich and robust earthy eggplant dip that is delightfully delicious.

And a newcomer to the mezze mix is my spicy roasted red pepper and walnut spread called mouhamarah, making up a mouthwatering trio of terrific appetizers that will tickle your taste buds all evening long.

It's my Lebanese and Middle Eastern magical mezze under the stars and as far as the eye can see, for you and for me.

Welcome to my magical mezze show.

It's my Lebanese and Middle Eastern small plates.

And today we're making some of the most popular small plates seen throughout Lebanon and the Middle East, and also some of my personal favorites.

It's a magnificent trio of my heavenly hummus, which is a creamy and dreamy chickpea and tahini soft spread, and then we also have my baba ghanouj.

It's a rich and robust earthy eggplant dip.

And last but not least is my mouhamarah.

I sort of have my roll of the tongue.

Ha ha!

It literally just translates to the word "red," and that's exactly what it is.

It's a rich, red, roasted red pepper, sort of smoky, spicy spread, and today is all about multitasking.

We're multitasking with our mezze plates.

So I have begun cooking our chickpeas.

And basically what I have done is I did two cups of dried chickpeas.

I placed them in a big bowl.

I covered them with about 6 to 8 cups of cold water, and I added my sort of tip and trick for you all is some baking soda.

And the baking soda, by adding it into the chickpeas as they're soaking with the cold water, it helps to tenderize the beans so that they can cook faster for you, and it also helps to take some of that acid out of the beans as well.

So it's definitely a really good thing to have on hand when you're soaking your beans.

And then the next day, after soaking them, I drained and strained them from the water, and then I placed them in a nice, big pot right before me and I covered them with fresh cold water and I put the lid on the pot.

I brought them to a rumbling boil.

And then once they started to boil, I lowered the heat to, like, low, medium heat, and I'm just sort of slowly simmering them away.

So now let's talk about baba ghanouj.

I got these beautiful Italian eggplants right before me.

You can see how the color is just nice and sort of deep purple, and the stems are nice and green, which is an indication that they're nice and fresh, OK, and what we're gonna do is we're just gonna simply take a small, sharp paring knife, and we're gonna make some slits all over the skins of the eggplants.

This is gonna help the eggplants to bake more evenly in the oven.

OK, so we're gonna get these in the oven.

I have my oven preheated to 450 degrees, and then we're gonna get started on my roasted red peppers.

OK.

So our eggplants are gonna be baking for about 40 to 45 minutes until they're completely deflated.

They're gonna look like sort of like flat tires-- ha ha ha-- for lack of a better phrase.

In the meantime, we're gonna get started on our roasted red pepper dip called mouhamarah, and it's not as widely known, I should say, as hummus and our eggplant spreads, but it is absolutely delicious, and I think that you guys are just gonna love it, especially all of you roasted red pepper fans out there.

I have these beautiful red bell peppers, and we're using 3 of them.

And because it's a spicy spread, I'm gonna be putting some other spices into the mix, but I also have just a couple nice, little red hot peppers.

So I'm going to roast those as well, just to give some natural heat to this dish.

OK.

So now it's time to check on our chickpeas, which should be just about ready now.

As I mentioned before, they've been simmering away for about 45 minutes or so, so I'm just gonna take one of the chickpeas and I'm just gonna--see that?

I'm just smushing it between my fingers, OK, so that means it's nice and soft.

So that is my indication that these chickpeas are ready.

I'm gonna ladle them into a bowl.

OK, so now we have scooped up all of our chickpeas from the hot water, and the key to making this nice and creamy is that we're gonna reserve some of that cooking liquid.

So the first ingredient that you always need when you're making your hummus at home is some nice, fresh garlic, and I'm just going to use about 6 cloves, because remember, I'm doubling my recipe.

So I have about 5 to 5 1/2 cups of cooked chickpeas.

So half of it would be about 2 1/2 cups or so.

In that case, you would use about 3 cloves of garlic.

And we are going to finely mince them up first.

[Whirring] OK. Beautiful.

They're nice and finely minced.

And now we are going to get our chickpeas into the mix.

Just gonna scoop them up, and they're nice and hot still, and that's also a key tip and trick when making the hummus at home.

It comes out much more smoother and creamier when the chickpeas are still nice and hot and warm.

And now we are going to give it a roll and see how it looks, and go from there.

[Whirring] So, I want you guys to see, just sort of scrape the side walls of the food processor bowl, and you can see that some are really breaking down and some are still sort of whole, which is OK, which is why we have our reserved liquid.

And this is also nice and hot still.

[Whirring] OK. That should do it.

All right, now let's take a look.

Gonna scrape our walls again, and this is what you really have to do when you're making it at home-- just kind of run the processor and stop it and scrape and see how things are looking.

OK, so I'm just gonna show you what the consistency looks right now, and it's nice and smooth, OK, and that's definitely what you want to achieve.

It's just the chickpeas and the reserved cooking liquid and the garlic, and that is nice and smooth for us, and now we're ready to add our tahini, which is our sesame seed paste, and our fresh lemon juice, and I have a nice, good-quality tahini.

All right, now we're gonna do 1/3 of a cup and another 1/3 of a cup, OK, so I'm doubling my recipe.

Now we're just going to simply just get the tahini paste incorporated with those chickpeas.

[Whirring] And just sort of stir it around a little bit.

Make sure that's sort of running through.

Now it's time to wake our hummus up with some fresh lemon juice.

Gonna do about one cup right now.

And also I'm going to season it with sea salt only.

It's about two teaspoons.

[Whirring] All right.

Beautiful!

Look how nice and creamy that is, right?

It's not too thin, it's not too thick, and it's still nice and warm.

Nice and creamy, and I want to give it a little taste to make sure that we are on point.

Mm.

It's so creamy.

Ha ha ha!

I've probably said creamy and dreamy so many times, but it's nice and lemony.

It has that sort of subtle garlic and nutty taste going on from the tahini, and that little touch of sea salt is all you really need to make this hummus heavenly.

And I have a special way in which I'm plating and presenting our heavenly hummus today, and I call it my I heart heavenly hummus bar, and I'm gonna be sharing it with you all in just a bit.

But next up is our mouhamarah, our roasted red pepper dip.

I love entertaining and eating with my family, especially for the mezze.

It's so much fun just to sort of, like, linger around the table, which is really part of the culture of Lebanon and the Middle East, and just sort of like enjoying everybody around the table as we pass around all of these delicious, little small plates.

And speaking of our small plates, we're doing our second one up, which is our mouhamarah, our roasted red pepper dip or spread, whichever you want to call it, and we're starting off with some nice, raw, whole, unsalted walnuts.

OK, and I have about a cup and a half of these.

I'm just spreading them out on a sheet pan.

And we're just going to lightly toast them in the oven.

I have the oven at about 250 degrees.

They're just gonna lightly toast for about 5 to 7 minutes, OK?

So we're gonna get them in and we're also gonna grab our roasted red peppers, because I know that they are completely done by now.

It smells sensational in this kitchen today with these roasted red peppers that we have and also our garlic that has been roasted as well.

And I'm just gonna reveal this for you guys to see.

We roasted one whole head of garlic, and it's gonna have this nice sort of roasted flavor for our mouhamarah, our roasted red pepper dip.

So I'm just gonna sort of leave it just like that.

I'm gonna grab our bowl so we can get our roasted red peppers into the bowl, and we're just going to allow the red peppers just to steam a little bit more and sort of soften the skin just a little bit more before we scrape it off of the peppers themselves.

OK, so now what we need to do is saute one onion.

Gonna give lots of flavor for our roasted red pepper dip.

[Sizzling] I have our beautiful walnuts out of the oven, and they're nice and lightly toasted for our mouhamarah, our roasted red pepper dip, and I have our onions sort of sauteing away, and now we're gonna get started on our roasted red peppers.

You can see that steam sort of-- kind of encompassing the whole bowl.

Just like that.

Beautiful.

I'm gonna show you how to simply remove the charred skin from the roasted peppers.

Just gonna pull them out.

Whoops!

Ha ha ha!

The stem came off of that one for me.

That was easy.

All right.

So now I like to just slice it right in the center.

Ooh, and nice and juicy, too.

And then using the back of my sharp paring knife, I just start to sort of scrape away the skin.

We don't want any of that charred black skin going in our roasted red pepper dip, because it is very red.

And now I have begun extracting our roasted garlic from its skins as well.

You can see how beautiful that golden brown.

Smells delicious.

Ha ha!

So we're first gonna start to add our roasted red peppers and our roasted garlic in our food processor with the juices as well.

Just like that.

We're gonna grab our onions.

I had a yellow onion, or Spanish onion.

You could also use a Vidalia or a red onion for our red dip.

Ha ha!

And now we're gonna grab our toasted walnuts, which have cooled by now, and I just lightly toasted, it's about one cup and a half.

We're just gonna add these.

OK, so now we're just gonna get our lid on, and we're just gonna pulse it just a few times.

We're not gonna sort of whip it like we did with the hummus.

We want it to have a nice, thick texture.

All right, perfect.

We're gonna check on our consistency and make sure that it is nice and a thick texture, which it certainly is, and it's creating this beautiful red color.

Just gonna show you what it looks like right now before we add in our seasoning.

See how nice and rich and thick that is?

Beautiful.

OK.

So now we need to add a little bit of lemon juice.

The lemon juice also just helps to sort of enrich all of those flavors.

It kind of brings them out a little bit more, too.

And I'm also gonna use a specialty ingredient that we use a lot in Lebanese and Middle Eastern cooking, and it's our pomegranate molasses, and we call it dibs rumman, and that's exactly what it is.

It's a molasses that's sort of tart and tangy, a little bit sour, a little bit sweet, from pomegranates.

Just gonna add a little touch of this, maybe about one teaspoon or so.

And we need some spices-- actually, just one spice, which is my Aleppo pepper.

Sort of my tilting my hat back to the place in which this dip was originated, in Aleppo, Syria.

And just a little touch of sea salt.

About one teaspoon.

[Grinding] [Whirring] Let's just give it a little taste first.

Mm.

It's actually perfect... just as is.

Doesn't need anything more.

It's nice and sort of rich texture, and I get that smoky flavor from the roasted red peppers.

And those also little hot peppers that we included, too.

And I love the crunchiness and the nutty flavor from the walnuts.

Kind of make a little scooper for myself with the bread and just get a nice scoop, just like that.

Mm.

It's delicious.

It tastes even better with the lavash bread.

Just sort of, like, enriches the lovely sort of lingering taste of this roasted red pepper dip.

And I think that you guys are just gonna love it so much, and I know that my family is loving it so much at my mezze party that I'm having today.

We are finally in the home stretch of our magical mezze amidst the moonlight.

OK, so for our baba ghanouj, I have our beautiful Italian eggplants, and they were about medium size, as you guys can see, and they basically baked in the oven for about 45 minutes or so until all of the flesh was completely cooked and they deflated just like so.

And then what I'm doing right now is I'm scooping up that delicious and rich robust eggplant right into my sieve that I have right over here.

So as we get the flesh into the sieve, I'm just using the back of my spoon to sort of press the flesh down to release any liquid that may come from the baked eggplant.

And the reason why we're doing this is because that liquid can tend to be a little bit bitter, and we definitely don't want our baba ghanouj bowl, our dip, to be bitter at all.

Now we're gonna make a little tahini sauce, if you will, to coat our baked eggplant.

It's just gonna be so delicious.

I have 3 cloves of garlic.

I'm gonna grab a little bunch of some nice, fresh flat-leaf parsley.

It's so effervescent.

And now we're just going to mince this up.

[Whirring] All right, perfect.

Now I'm gonna grab my tahini paste again.

I love this sauce, actually, with the garlic and the parsley and the tahini.

It's so flavorful.

You can actually just make this as a dip altogether.

I'm just gonna squeeze our nice, fresh lemon.

OK, beautiful, and now we're just gonna grab a little bit of cold water.

Just about 1/4 of a cup.

And we also are gonna add just a little touch of some sea salt, too.

And now we're gonna give it a roll.

We're gonna make the sauce.

We want it to actually be not too runny.

We want it to be somewhat thick because we want it to coat our beautiful baked eggplant.

We're just gonna simply add in our eggplant.

We've strained it from any excess liquid, and the key with making the baba ghanouj sort of, like, full-bodied is that we don't want to sort of run it like we would with the hummus.

It's gonna be similar to the mouhamarah.

It's gonna just be pulsed for a couple of times.

OK, look at that.

Is that not gorgeous?

Sort of really sort of thick.

You can see it's full-bodied.

It has those parsley flakes running through, and it has a nice sort of, like, earthy flavor to it.

Lovely.

And now we just need to grab some pita bread, and I found some beautiful pita bread at the supermarket.

My local grocery store, again, like I did with the lavash bread, and I love how you can find, like, whole wheat and white, and there's so many different flavors like onion and garlic, too, so, I actually picked out the whole wheat one.

I want to get a little bit of red pepper flakes right on top and also just a little drizzle of some olive oil, too.

All right, now scooping it up just like that.

No fork needed.

Ha ha ha!

Mm.

Wow.

It has some really nice sort of subtle garlic flavor going on, and the olive oil and the fresh parsley and the red pepper flakes, eggplant, is just delicious.

You guys are gonna love this baba ghanouj for your friends and family, and I am loving it with my friends and family at my magical mezze little party that I'm having today.

[Giggles] And now it's time for our hummus bar that is right before me.

I'm gonna show you 6 other ways that you can top your hummus right at home.

So the first one I have in this pretty, little turquoise plate-- my favorite, one of my favorite colors-- is gonna be our Julie Taboulie signature style.

And all of the plates, I should say first off, I've drizzled with olive oil.

So we are going to add a little bit of paprika and also some freshly and finely chopped parsley.

And then I also toasted some pine nuts, too, in a little bit of butter, and that is one of my favorite ways, my Julie Taboulie way, to enjoy the hummus right at home.

And next up is our lemon lovers.

That is right here on our beautiful, little lemon plate.

I have some olive oil and I'm just gonna simply take a little wedge of a lemon and squeeze it--ha ha ha-- right on top, just like that, just to really kind of enhance that lemon flavor in our hummus.

Boom!

That one's done.

The next one we have is our baby blue plate, and this is gonna be topped with our heavenly heshwi, and heshwi is our mouthwatering meat mixture.

I have--you can use lamb or you can use beef.

And I've caramelized some onions.

There is parsley, toasted pine nuts, and I also have some sea salt, freshly ground pepper, allspice, and 7 Arabic spice.

And also, we have one out there for all of the veggie lovers, actually, two.

One right here is my fresh garden herb and onion.

I'm gonna take some sliced scallions or green onions.

I sliced both the white and the green.

And then some parsley flakes, some chives, and some fresh spearmint, what we call na'na in Arabic.

Beautiful.

And now for my blue plate special for my sister Salma, it's actually a vegetarian heshwi that's made with portabella mushroom to replace the meat, and all of the other ingredients are exactly the same.

And it's just delicious if you are a vegetarian, or if you're vegan, you're absolutely gonna just love this vegetarian heshwi that I created in honor of my vegetarian sister, my sister Salma.

Ha ha ha!

OK, and now for my final presentation here with our heavenly hummus bar is some like it hot hummus.

OK, so I'm going to take some paprika.

It's all about spices with this one.

And some crushed red pepper flakes and some cayenne, and I'm also gonna add a little bit of our crushed Aleppo pepper, which is our smokier sort of pepper that derives from Aleppo in Syria, and some smoked paprika, too.

And let's not forget about our other two signature and star small plates that we've made today-- our mouhamarah, which is our spicy and smoky and slightly sweet roasted red pepper and walnut spread that's absolutely out of this world along with our hummus, and our baba ghanouj, too, which is our rich and robust earthy eggplant spread.

That was with our baked eggplant, garlic, and a sort of tahini-type sauce that kind of coated that delicious baked eggplant.

What do you think?

Has this made for a magical mezze or what?

I am so happy that I could share what a mezze table means in Lebanese and Middle Eastern cultures with all of you, and I hope that you share all of these dishes, or at least some of them, with your family and friends, too.

Until we cook again, I wish you and yours to always takloull bil' hanna-- eat in happiness-- and sending smiles.

Julie, the baba ghanouj got a nice, little kick to it.

Julie: Do you like that?

I just tasted it.

Yes.

Do you like it?

Man: Very good.

Delicious.

[Indistinct chatter] The look on his-- the look on his face was excellent.

Man: No, not at all.

I don't think anybody was.

Announcer: "Julie Taboulie's Lebanese Kitchen, "Authentic Recipes for Fresh and Flavorful Mediterranean Home Cooking," is now available.

The cookbook offers 125 recipes, hands-on instructions, and tips and tricks to help you make all of Julie's dishes from this season.

Cook, create, and celebrate Julie's authentic recipes right at home.

To order a copy, call 1-800-PLAY-PBS or order online at shopPBS.org.

Join Julie Taboulie for fresh and flavorful Lebanese foods for your family and friends at JulieTaboulie.com.

Find Julie's authentic recipes for the tastiest Mediterranean home cooking.

It's Julie tested and Mama approved.

Visit JulieTaboulie.com today.

"Julie Taboulie's Lebanese Kitchen" is made possible by... Man: Do your thing Do your thing, do your thing Syracuse, do your thing Do your thing, do your thing Syracuse, do your thing [Middle Eastern music playing]