Pumpkin soup with ginger (syrup) and coconut milk
Pumpkin soup doesn’t look so good, I notice when I listen to our guests. It is not often possible to make a pumpkin soup really tasty. Fortunately, this soup is an exception to the rule, the guests said. And I couldn’t agree more. By the way, it applies to all pumpkin soups here on the site. You can make really tasty pumpkin soup, folks.
Date cardamom cookies
Date cardamom cookies are of course available on every street corner throughout the Middle East. From Lebanon to Morocco (that’s North Africa idd) and back. And in any form, they are delightful. These ones too. We also use them as a starter in the menu. With a dip. Divinely delicious and surprising at the same time.
Fennel in spinach-cashew sauce and fresh coriander
Fennel, not many people immediately are taken by it. Unless you let the fennel stew for so long that it loses everything that doesn’t make it tasty and magnifies everything that makes it very tasty. The spinach sauce is the star in the firmament.
Pointed cabbage with dried fig and hummus
Frying pointed cabbage is of course a very good idea anyway. Along with pieces of dried fig, a mixture of coriander powder/coriander seed/sumac does the rest. It turns pointed cabbage into the attention-grabber of your menu. The hummus is a nice extra that brings everything together.
Firm kibbeh with leek and potato and the classic kibbeh spice mixture
Kibbeh is to the Middle East what stampot is to the Netherlands. It is a dish with which you make a kind of ‘cake’ of bulgur with (sweet) potato or pumpkin for example and an intermediate layer of fried vegetables, nuts, herbs, spices. Here is a delicious hearty version with leeks and potato. Very surprising in taste. You could almost eat it as a pancake.
Braised red bell pepper with dates, lots of coriander seeds and pine nuts
Red peppers become so deliciously sweet if you simmer and braise them for a long time. It makes a tagine dish so delicious. Here the peppers still get help from medjouldadels, the kings of dates. In recent months, since our last visit to Morocco, I have started to use even more dried fruit in dishes. With potatoes, in kibbehs and also here with the bell pepper. Truly a find of Moroccan and Middle Eastern cuisine. The pine nuts give the earthy character and the coriander seed in abundance gives it its own signature. It was ‘the favourite’ of many guests when we had this in the menu at the beginning of September. Now at your home.
Salad of beetroot, pistachio, pomegranate molasses and sourberries
The sweetness of the beet, the sour/sour of the pomegranate molasses and the sourberries, the nutty, earthy and crunchy of the pistachios… And the fresh bed of yogurt make this an ultimate salad that everyone really likes. Even those who are not so fond of beets. We ate this earlier this year in a restaurant in Marrakech and remembered it because it was so tasty.
Onions from the oven with orange syrup and thyme
I had been looking forward to including this dish in the menu for a long time. But each time I felt that it did not fit into the composition of the main courses, until last week. It was the perfect moment. And they were also terribly tasty, according to all the guests. Success assured.
Artichokes and potatoes from the oven with basil cream
It took a while before I dared to put artichoke on the menu. I thought not many people would appreciate artichokes, but nothing could be further from the truth. You love artichoke en masse. Just too much fun. And in this dish they make a great combination with all the other ingredients.
Tomato salad on eggplant puree with tamarind and pistachio
It’s the discovery of the month. Eggplant puree with garlic and tamarind. Man, what a fatally delicious combination. And then the fresh crispy flavorful tomatoes on top, red onion and pistachio to top it off. You want to eat this every day.
Seasoned purple carrot with dates and hazelnuts
Carrot like you’ve never eaten carrot before. So special, so surprising, so delicious. It’s a hit in the menu when it’s in there. Carrot just becomes your favorite and that is very clever for carrots, I think.
Pumpkin-carrot orange soup à la Astrid
We ate this soup at our friend Astrid’s. And it was so incredibly delicious that I immediately decided to include it in the next menu. And the guests were just as excited about it. Success assured.
Fig hummus
Hummus is hummus, but sometimes you want to vary a little with it. Completely against the strict hummus rules, of course. But you can also violate those rules from time to time, I think. Fig hummus is an incredibly tasty variation on the theme. Slightly sweet, slightly crunchy and delicious with a mezze that you serve for lunch. Or as we sometimes do, at brunch. But as a starter or snack also completely great.
Smoked eggplant soup with homemade basil oil, cumin and cinnamon
Eggplant at its best. Smoky and soft in the soup. Crispy on top. And the homemade basil oil makes it all a bit fresher and greener.
Sweet potato salad with pecans and dried fig
A salad that gathers softness, crunchyness, sweet, savory and a little spice. Beautiful in color and certainly also delicious as a meal salad to put on the table.
Caramelized potatoes from the oven with prunes
Potatoes at its best. Crispy from the oven. Caramelized by a little sugar. And extra sweet and delicious because of the prunes that go so fantastically with it.
Swiss chard in white wine sauce with tahita sauce on top
Swiss chard is so versatile. I always do my best to make Swiss chard really tasty. Because I naturally find this vegetable less interesting. But prepared in this way, it is really incredibly tasty. So that’s the good news.
Kohlrabi salad Middle Eastern style
Kohlrabi and I do not have a long cooking history to share with you. But in recent years we get along more and more. If you cook seasonal and you work together with a vegetable garden … this is what happens. And that’s great. This salad is deliciously light, perfect for summer evenings, crunchy, flavorful and creamy.
Tastiest eggplant dip with pickled lemon
Okay, there’s baba ganoush. That’s a fantastic dish of course. But then one day you make this dish. Because you want to make something different. And you take the first bite and you cannot believe what you are tasting. And not just you, but everyone who tastes a spoonful of it. Really, unbelievably good.
Flatbread with yogurt and fresh za’atar oil
Flabread is a delicious and rewarding substitute for bread. It’s fluffy, it’s tasty, it’s something else. And a dot of yogurt topped with ‘fresh za’atar’ turns it into something festive.. And those red speckles? That’s a little sumac to top it off.
Red lentil soup with tamarind
An incredibly delicious soup, the tamarind makes it all the way. Along with all the spices. A soup for all year round.
Focaccia à la the Middle East
Bread is not my thing. I don’t really like bread. I don’t know why, but that’s just the way it is. Still, the bread we make at à la Damaris, I eat a few pieces of it every now and then. Because I can’t resist it anyway, because it’s very tasty. This focaccia absolutely is. Very spicy, very fluffy and very tasty.
Broccoli with a slightly spicy gochujan sauce and caramelized peanuts
Well, I just really like broccoli. In any form. But just like with spinach, I’m always looking for new opportunities to give the broccoli an even more amazing stage. Well, that worked out pretty well with this version *she said with a sense of understatement* when I listen to the guests in the restaurant. Try it yourself…
Fresh and spicy potatoes with tomatoes from the oven
Potatoes, whole garlic cloves, various spices and tomatoes. And then from the oven some lime juice and lime zest through it. Look, this does well on a summer night though….
Leek pistachio soup with sumac
Yes, leeks and pistachio and make a soup out of them. It’s a very logical combination, isn’t it? No, not at all. And yet honor if you make it. Because it’s simply delicious. And the sumac, which tops it off wonderfully with that acid in it.
Rice salad of broad beans, sourberries, cranberries and dill
Broad beans, what a great legume that is. I like everything about it. That recognizable taste, the bite, the color, the shape. The firmness. And in combination with sourberries and cranberries, you don’t know what you’re tasting. It’s become one of our favorites here. Guests come to eat him for lunch at à la minute and then come and get him for home in the evening. Thank kind of salad.
Asparagus with a very crunchy other half
We organize a number of asparagus evenings every year. On those evenings I also prepare asparagus with an Arabic twist. This also applies to this preparation. Every year I come up with something new. But I’ll make this one again next year anyway. Too tasty. Too surprising. And then I’m sure ‘everyone’ will come again.
Persian rice cake with spicy filling and surprising topping
Persian cuisine has its own signature. The flavors are full and subtle at the same time. Sourberries always a pleasant surprise, saffron a feast for the eyes. This cake has different layers and therefore also different flavor layers. And that makes it a party on your plate and in your mouth.
Iranian eggplant tomato stew
Chef Abbas has a great cozy Iranian restaurant in Gorinchem. Where he conjures up great dishes on the table. And this stew was one of them. He generously shared his recipe with me and here I share it with you. It’s slow cooking to the max, but well worth all those hours of waiting.
Fesenjan à la chef Abbas
We were on our way back from the coast and wanted to grab a bite to eat somewhere. I searched for Iranian and came across Chef Abbas in Gorinchem. In his cozy restaurant, this passionate chef conjured up one delicious dish after another. Like this Fesenjan. I asked for the recipe. I got the recipe. I made it myself. Delicious. And the guests agreed.