Main Dishes

It’s a perfect dinner served over rice or noodles

Meatball ingredients

Ground beef, eggs, milk, grated parmesan cheese, Bread crumbs, onion powder, kosher salt, pepper

Now that you know how to make basic homemade meatballs, there are so many recipes you can make with them! Here are some of our favorite versions we have tried!

Sweet and sour meatballs

Swedish meatballs

Pasta with meatballs

Sweet and sour chicken meatballs

For Sweet and Sour Meatballs Ingredients

¼ cup Brown Sugar

½ cup vinegar

¼ cup Ketchup

¼ cup Soy Sauce

¼ cup Water

1 ¼ cups Pineapple Juice

1 tbsp. Cornstarch

½ tsp. Garlic powder

1 kg Meatballs

1 Green bell pepper, (cubed)

1 Red bell pepper (cubed)

1 Yellow bell pepper (cubed)

1 Onion (diced)

1 cup Drained Small Pineapple Chunks

Rice for serving

Instructions

Add brown sugar, vinegar, ketchup, soy sauce, and 2 cups of pineapple juice to a large skillet over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil.

Adjust sweet with sugar, tang with vinegar, with salt to taste.

In a small bowl, mix cornstarch and remaining ¼ cup pineapple juice together. Whisking to get out all the lumps. Whisk into your skillet. As it starts heating up, keep whisking constantly until it thickens into a sauce consistency, and add meatballs, green, red and yellow bell peppers, and thinly sliced onion. Bring to simmer. Cover and cook8-10 minutes, until the sauce, has thickened and the meatballs are heated through. Stir in pineapple chunks. Adjust taste with sugar, vinegar, and salt.

Serve warm over rice.

 

Lebanese cuisine is known for its delicious dishes and this one is worthy!! This rice stuffed roasted chicken is an elegant, tender, juicy for festive lunch or dinner, and cooked only for special occasions

BROWNING THE NUTS

30 g Butter

2 tbsp. Vegetable Oil

1/4 cup Pine Nuts

1/2 cup Silvered Almonds, boil to peel the skin and slice in half

1/2 cup Cashews

 1/2 cup Pistachios

Heat the butter with 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil, and brown each kind of the nuts separately. Combine and set aside until you do the rest of the cooking.

PREPARE THE CHICKEN

1 Whole Chicken, not less than 1 & 1/2 kg

2 Cinnamon Sticks

3 to 4 Bay Leaves

½ tsp. ground Nutmeg

1 small Onion

Remove any giblets or other surprises from the chicken cavities. Rinse the chicken thoroughly, inside and out, under cold, running water, rinse and rub with lemon and salt, or with white vinegar. 

In a deep cooking pot, bring to a boil adding water to cover the chicken, remove the scum when it rises. Add cinnamon stick, one small onion, nutmeg, and bay leaves. Cook the chicken only half cook.

Drain, and set aside until it drys.

COOKING THE MEAT AND RICE

1/2 kg minced Meat

2/3 cup Vegetable Oil

1 tbsp. Butter

2 tsp. ground Cinnamon

1 tsp. 7 Spices

1 tsp. Salt

2 cups long-grain Rice

3 cups Chicken Stock

Meanwhile, brown the minced meat with vegetable oil and butter. When lightly browned add 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. 7 spices and 2 tsp. cinnamon. Add the washed and drained rice to the minced meat, mix and stir well for 2 more minutes to get assorted with the meat and the flavor of the spices. Measure 3 cups of the chicken stock you made earlier, and pour it into the pot of rice. Cook on medium-high heat until the rice comes to a boil, then lower the heat to medium-low and cover with the lid. Cook for 20 to 25 minutes until the stock is absorbed.

THINGS YOU’LL NEED FOR ROASTING THE CHICKEN

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

The Whole chicken prepared earlier, half-cooked

2 tablespoons softened Butter

½ tsp. Salt

½ tsp. coarsely ground Black Pepper

1 tbsp. Flour

1 large oven-roasting Bag

Roasting Pan

Now the chicken is ready, stuff the opening with some of the cooked meat and rice, cross its thighs to prevent rice dropping from the inside of the chicken, or (Secure the opening part of the skin together with a toothpick)

Rub the chicken with 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. coarsely ground pepper. Coat it well with 2 tablespoons of softened butter.

Open the oven-roasting bag and add 1 tablespoon of all-purpose flour. Close the bag and shake it to coat the inside of the bag with the flour. (The flour will blend with the juices to create gravy and will also prevent the bag from bursting during the cooking process).

Place the chicken in the oven bag and close securely with the ties that came with the bag. Cut six 1/2-inch slits in the top of the bag so that steam can escape. (The moisture get trapped inside the bag during the cooking process, ensuring that your chicken comes out flavorful and juicy).

Place the chicken in the roasting pan and cook for around 40 minutes.

Remove the roasting pan from the oven. Cut the bag from the top rather than the sides so that the juices do not run out, and lift the chicken out of the bag. Place it onto a serving platter and allow it to rest for 10 to 15 minutes. Stir the juices in the bag until they are smooth, and pour into a small bowl.

Place the chicken in the middle of a serving platter and put the already cooked meat and rice around the roasted chicken. Sprinkle the rice with the browned nuts on top.

Serve with the gravy on the side.

 

This kibbeh is made with fine rice instead of Bulgur. Kibbeh Hamoud is an Iraqi dish, the recipe is separated into three parts.

First part is the sauce

Ingredients for sauce:

1 large EggPlant, (cut into large shreds)

2 large Onions

Few Leaves of Swiss Chard, (in Arabic it is called, SELEK)

1 cup of cooked Hummus

2 tablespoons of Tomato Paste

1 small carton 200g Pomi, tomato sauce

2 or 3 tablespoons of Flour

4 Garlic cloves, (crushed)

2 squeezed Lemons

Salt and pepper to taste

4 tablespoons of Vegetable Oil

1/4 cup Vegetable Oil, (for frying the eggplant)

Water

Method

Soak the shredded eggplant with salt and leave for 15 minutes to release its water. After 15 minutes, try to squeeze them to release more of the water. Let dry.

Heat 1/4 cup vegetable oil in a frying pan. When the oil is hot enough, fry the shredded and squeezed eggplants, when golden color, remove and place on kitchen paper to absorb any excess oil.

Cut the onions to slices then fry them with the oil, when golden color add the swiss chard leaves and fry for 2 more minutes. Add the tomato paste, then the hummus and mix together for 1 more minute. Add the Pomi sauce and water to the mixture to cover at least 3/4 of the pan. When it starts boiling and if you find the color is light, add more Pomi. In a cup mix the flour with some of the sauce in order to add it to the main sauce to have a consistency of light gravy. Add salt and pepper to taste. Let it boil on low heat for a while.

The sauce is ready!

The second part is the filling

Ingredients

1 and 1/2 ounce Minced Meat

2 large Onions, (diced)

1/4 cup, Pine Nuts

3 tablespoons Vegetable oil

Salt and Pepper

Method

Cut the onions to small pieces. Fry the pine nuts with oil until lightly golden, add the onions, fry until they get soft. Add the minced meat, keep frying on medium heat until the meat is cooked. Add salt and pepper.

The filling is ready!

The third part is the kibbeh

Ingredients

1/2 kg minced Meat, (paste)

1 and a half cups of Fine Rice

One Onion

Salt and Pepper

Method

Use your blender to smooth the minced meat to become like paste, then add the onion, fine rice and the salt with pepper until well mixed together. If you find the paste is dry you can add some cold water.

The kibbeh paste is ready!

All you have to do is to make balls of kibbeh dough and then make a hole in the middle to fill the meat filling that you already prepared. (Don’t let the Kibbeh balls be too thick ما تخلي الاقراص يكونوا كتير تخان). You can make them as balls or flat or (oval-shaped اقراص).

Drop each of those kebabs or اقراص and the fried eggplants into the soup while it is boiling, one at a time so that they keep in shape.  Cook for around half an hour. Taste one to see if it is cooked enough.

It is ready to serve while hot.