Middle Eastern Feast

Here's three new recipes that I had had bookmarked for a while and finally decided to make on my days off!

Lamb stuffed eggplant.
Recipe from: http://www.gnom-gnom.com/stuffed-eggplant-with-lamb-and-pine-nuts/
In this recipe I made a few changes- I substituted almonds in place of pine nuts and I left out the tamarind paste.
First roast the eggplants for a bit.

Cumin, paprika and cinnamon

Cook the onion with the spices and then add ground lamb, almonds, parsley, and tomato paste.

Pile lamb mixture on top of the eggplants.  Then you mix spices with water and lemon juice and pour into the bottom of the pan.  Cover tightly with foil and bake 1 1/2 hours.  Open up to baste with the cooking liquid a few times and to add water if needed.

The next recipe I tried was tabouli!

Recipe from: http://deliciousshots.blogspot.com/2012/03/true-middle-eastern-feast.html

Basically you mix bulger, chopped onion, tomato, lots of parsley and lemon juice together.

The last recipe was for Ma'amoul, a shortbread like cookie filled with a date and nut mixture.

Recipe from: http://www.fiveeurofood.com/index.php/2012/12/fun-with-maamoul/

For this recipe I got rose water and orange blossom water, which I have always wanted to try!

Very floral!

Walnuts and dates for the filling.

For the filling I used almonds, walnuts, dates, sugar, cinnamon, rose water and orange blossom water.

Blend together in a food processor until a crumbly paste is formed

The dough for the cookies is made from Semolina flour, (another new ingredient for me!) regular flour, sugar, butter, rose water and orange blossom water.  After kneading the dough you let it rest for 30 minutes.

Form dough into pots and fill with a Tbsp of the nut filling and then seal, roll into ball and flatten.  Place formed cookies on a parchment lined baking sheet and cook at 400 degrees for 12-14 minutes.

Out of the three recipes that I tried I was most impressed with the cookies!  A little bit of work was involved, but it was totally worth it!