Recipes 

Saudi Arabian street food made at home in an American kitchen… what could go wrong?

Making Veggie Samboosa for Bahrain 2024

A hearty vegetarian salad with fresh ingredients and a variety of textures and flavors.

Here you will find not just cheese, not just pan-fried cheese, but cheese pan-fried in butter, topped with the zippiest dressing that balances it so well you don’t even feel the least bit guilty for eating cheese fried in butter.

Freekeh is popular in Egypt particularly, but also all over the Middle East. We cooked this along with a fresh salad for the Bahrain GP for the first race of the 2023 F1 Season!

Tex-mex at its weeknight’s finest. A Tamale Pie casserole that is filling and delicious.

A popular way to prepare tofu in Japan, this silken tofu is lightly coated in salt, pepper, garlic, and potato starch and then seared in a pan to create a beautiful crispy layer and depth of flavor.

With a little prep, tarts are surprisingly easy, and this version even skips the need for eggs or cream instead using creme friache to make it even easier and to highlight the fresh tomatoes. Delicious.

A warm and hearty baked savory tart is wonderful served with a bright salad of mixed greens and herbs.

This dish has a few of my favorite ingredients popular in this region including sumac, pomegranate molasses, and barberries. It serves a crowd and has wonderfully unique flavors and textures!

This summery salad is made with a mixture of punchy herbs and creamy components like feta, walnuts, and soft boiled eggs.

This Provençal bread tart is beautifully sweet and savory.

Another perfect recipe from the master herself, Marcella Hazan.

Aussie burgers with the Lot — Veggie style!

This dish works so well with the strong herbal flavors and subtle cauliflower, topped with a creamy dressing that balances it perfectly.

Soft pillowy whole wheat dough encases a slightly tangy filling of spinach, feta, and pine nuts. Lemon and mint amps up the flavor a bit.

Manakeesh (alternate spellings: Manakish or Manaqish) are sometimes referred to as Middle Eastern Pizza, they are basic flatbreads with a range of tasty toppings and are infinitely adaptable.

Kibbie (also spelled Kibbeh, Kibba, Kubba) is a family of dishes that might take the form of patties, fritters, or casseroles. In this delicious recipe, the filling is made hearty with garbanzo beans and walnuts, and flavorsome with onions, spices, and spinach.

Machboos is equally the national dish of Qatar as it Bahrain, and it appears in many variations.

This is a super simple recipe that is a variation of a Brazilian Fish Stew (Moqueca Baiana) made with coconut milk, paprika, and cumin. It is creamy and rich and reminiscent of a curry, but much simpler to make.

These Stuffed Poblanos are full of flavor and perfect with a side of Lime Rice and a simple salsa.

Butternut Squash Soup is a long-time favorite of mine, my sister used to make it when she visited from college, and it screams fall to me more than pumpkin spice lattes and decorative gourds.

Pide can be made with a wide-variety of fillings. Popular ones are spiced ground lamb, mixed greens and herbs, and cheese and egg. This version has an earthy mix of chard, spinach, green onions, and parsley.

Pasta, garlic, tomato, olive oil, basil. All ingredients I immediately associate with Italy. Also almost the sole list of ingredients in this recipe.

A simple savory tart perfect for lunch or a light dinner served with a bright crunchy salad.

A plant-based Hungarian main dish — Mushroom Paprikash — with onions, sour cream, and dill.

Toad in the Hole is a popular dish usually made with sausage and Yorkshire pudding baked together, this is a vegetarian version with carrot and onion replacing the sausage. The addition of a little chili and paprika adds a nice kick and makes for a pretty, and delicious, vegetarian main.

This adaptation of the classic French stew, Coq Au Vin, plays with the traditional flavors by using a brighter fortified wine— dry vermouth — to simmer the chicken and vegetables in.

Kuku (also sometimes spelled Kookoo) is essentially a very heavily vegetable laden frittata with Persian spices. This is a particularly savory version with eggplant, zucchini, potatoes, and onion.

Not all salads need to be complicated. With a little mint and some tangy cheese, this is pretty much perfection.

Tart and earthy, this is a beautifully complex grain salad.

With a spicy, punchy sauce this makes a standout side dish.

Okra cooked until just charred and still crunchy with perfectly spicy chilies and tart lime.

Roasting radishes brings out a sweetness that compliments the inherently spicy and slightly bitter nature of the root vegetable. Roasting them in butter, just makes them all the more delicious.

This summery salad is made with a mixture of punchy herbs and creamy components like feta, walnuts, and soft boiled eggs.

These beauties are pan steamed with just a bit of salt and a bay leaf, creating tender fluffy potatoes, that are then skewered on rosemary branches and broiled or grilled to add a touch of browning and depth of flavor. Lovely to present and delicious.

Creamy textured cauliflower encrusted with a parmesan top.

Bright and refreshing!

This salad has so many delicious flavors and textures with toasted pecans, sliced dates, punchy herbs, and a tart-sweet dressing that marries the whole dish together.

This is one of those salads that you know will be tasty, I mean… fennel, kalamata olives, pomegranate seeds, of course it will be delicious. But the surprise is how well it all goes together and how none of the elements overwhelm the others.

Super simple chopped salad that can be served as a topping for chicken, steak, or pork, or as a great side salad for any Brazilian meal.

A simple Mexican side dish, great for sopping up sauces or mixing with beans or other richly flavored dishes.

This is one of my all-time favorite salads. Brussels sprouts or broccoli both work equally well. The dressing is infinitely editable to your taste and it saves well in the fridge for days.

This is a simple salad with a nice combination of crunchy vegetables, ripe fresh tomatoes, and bright lemon and herb dressing.

A little of this salad goes a long way and is great alongside Pide stuffed with greens and herbs.

Braising the asparagus in a bath of water, lemon, and garlic infuses it with the rich and bright flavors of the garlic and lemon, and leaves the asparagus perfectly tender.

A simple savory tart perfect for lunch or a light dinner served with a bright crunchy salad.

Simple, crunchy, and a great side to the many rich Austrian dishes.

How can anyone resist something quite so pretty? With store-bought puff pastry, this dish is surprisingly simple for such a fun presentation!

A composed salad with a delicious combination of textures and flavors.

This is more of a concept than a recipe, but I want to share it nonetheless. It can be served as a starter along with flatbread, or set on the table alongside a main meal. Either way it brings lovely texture and flavor to any meal!

This simple but flavorsome bean dish hails from what author and cook Naomi Duguid terms the “Persian Culinary Region” spanning Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, and Kurdistan.

Spinach Borani is a delicious starter made simply with thickened yogurt and quick cooked spinach and fried onions. The sumptuousness of the dish belies the simplicity of the ingredients.

These green beans are a great side dish or even a light meal. The final splash of vinegar and fried garlic add punch and flavor, the egg and bread cubes add texture and satiety, and the combination is a delicious dish.

This recipe is an adaptation of what would normally be pickled, but an overnight rest in the fridge gives similar flavor results without the fuss.

This simple but delicious side dish marries well with spicy dishes, especially those made with Piri Piri hot sauce.

Chickpeas in a tangy, aromatic onion-based gravy

This salad is fabulous with its perfect mix of ingredients, insane crunch, and the brightness of the lemon in the creamy yogurt dressing.

I don’t know about you but I love mushrooms. they are so versatile and umami-rich. This is a simple preparation the brings out their flavor and gets a nice kick of freshness from the herbs mixed in just before serving.

These date bars are very rich and full of warming flavors.

Similar to biscotti, these Middle Eastern baked goods are perfect with a nice hot cup of tea. 

Buttery and fragrant with cinnamon these are easy as can be and melt in your mouth.

Pumpkin bread for the picky pumpkin eaters

Crumbly, delicious, and cute!

Super fluffy cake-like banana muffins scented with warm spices.

Polvorones are the crumbliest of cookies. Made with toasted flour, ground almonds, sugar and just butter to hold them together they melt, or more accurately crumble, in your mouth in a delicious way.

Perfect little pies for the Miami GP

A classic orange sponge cake with a simple apricot glaze to bring out the tart and sweet flavors.

Apple Crumble is a classic fall dessert. This is a slightly different twist with almond flour, coconut oil, and ground oats. It is easier than apple pie, tastier than a simple crumble, and perfect with vanilla ice cream.

This Turkish Semolina Cake in Syrup, also called Revani, is at first lightly sweetened and then drenched in a lemon-hinted syrup. The semolina flour and ground almonds give it a nice chew, and the bit of apricot make each bite beautifully flavored.

This cake is so full of apples and goodness and, as it turns out, is very simple to make. Just a little patience while the eggs and sugar whip up gives you a fluffy, delicious, and satisfyingly light cake.

Butter and almonds? Sign me up.

This Apple-Nut Cake is a super simple one bowl cake from Hungary. It is incredibly moist and a wonderful combination of apple, walnut, and cinnamon flavors.

This plum crumble is easy and a great use of any stone fruit including plums, nectarines, or peaches.

This version of a Gugelhupf was nicely dense and not too sweet, perfect with a cup of coffee.

Warm flavors of dates, walnuts, and cardamom make for a delicious filling to this simple and flaky pastry.

Fluffy, cakey, chocolately, a Ted favorite.

The thing that makes this a standout is the line of halvah running through the center of the cake, lending it an earthy, chewy, and almost savory quality, in perfect compliment to the warm walnut, cinnamon, and brown sugar flavors throughout.

Baklava is one of those desserts that satiates perfectly. For such a tiny little serving it has to hit all the right notes, and it does. Crispy, chewy, crunchy, sweet, just a touch salty, and decadent.

These mini biscotti are flavored with a bright kick of lemon zest and filled with crunchy almonds. They are perfect with a glass of port or wine after dinner, or with coffee for an afternoon break.

I wouldn’t survive a day on the Great British Baking Show, but I still love watching all the creations and drooling over Victorian Sponge Cakes, Bakewell Tarts, or Sticky Toffee Puddings. This recipe is simple and requires no competitive baking skills.

Kossuth Kifli are a simple butter cake with a little hint of lemon, topped with chopped walnuts. Sliced using a basic biscuit cutter into crescent moon shapes and dusted with powdered sugar to make for a lovely presentation.

Serve this Austrian Plum Cake with a cup of coffee for dessert or breakfast. We had it for both and it was lovely.

When I posted this pie on social media, my friend’s comment was simply, “This pie should be in a museum”.

It is big, it is beautiful, it was delicious. I highly recommend, if you have a Sunday with some time on your hands, you tackle this behemoth.

The crunchy walnut-cinnamon topping on this classic Russian Butter Coffee Cake is heaven.

Hungarian Nut and Poppyseed Rolls are a lovely treat. They are not too sweet and are perfect with a nice cup of coffee or tea. I enjoyed making the two different fillings as they each had unique characteristics, but went very well together and look beautiful stacked up ready to be devoured.

Basbousa is a traditional Middle Eastern sweet cake made with semolina and a rosewater sugar syrup. It is a lovely sweet treat at the end of a large meal.

Pictures will not do this dessert justice. Insanely rich, with just a slight kick of cinnamon and spices to mix up the creamy chocolatey richness. This was a perfect end to a spicy dinner or really any evening. Delicioso.

Margarita Perfection

Another delicious Zwack cocktail to add to your repertoire. Sweet, strong, and complex this makes for a great pre-dinner or after-dinner drink.

This cocktail tastes like summer and sunshine in a glass.

Bright, refreshing, low-alcohol, flavorful, and easy!

Spiced Tea popular in India and all over the Middle East

I’ve said it before and I will say it again, I think Sprtiz’s are my favorite summer cocktail.

The Spanish version of a Gin & Tonic, is lighter, has more aromatics, herbs, and fun bits in it, and is perfect alongside some tapas any evening.

Here are 4 variations of the Pimm’s Cup, each has its own merits: super easy, more herbal and complex, simple and fruity, and the batch version! It’s like a choose your own adventure.

Another lovely approach to a Zwack cocktail. This time a Rye forward but well-balanced cocktail with orgeat and lime juice.

Zwack is one of my favorite discoveries through this process of exploring recipes from around the world. It is an herbal bitter liquor that adds complexity to any cocktail it finds itself in.

I love a good creamy cocktail. Coconut milk adds just enough creaminess and tropical flavor to work well with the serious kick of cachaça and lime. Try these! You won’t regret it.

Our friend brought a new liqueur into our lives this year from her recent visit to Mexico. It is a Mayan honey and anise liqueur called Xtabentun. We immediately began researching cocktail ideas and found a pretty delicious one in the Mayan Margarita. We made a few tweaks and think this version is perfectly sweet, strong, and sour.

‘Spritz’ has remained a favorite for summertime cocktails and bubbly aperitifs.

A clean drinking, on the sweeter side, aperitif.

A few of my favorite cocktails have french origins. Simple, refreshing, and elegant. 

When I think Monaco, I think glitz, glamor, caviar, and champagne. And of course Daniel Ricciardo flying face first into the Red Bull pool after pulling off a redemptive win on the streets of Monte Carlo. 

As soon as I opened the fresh bag of Sichuan peppercorns I knew we needed to create a cocktail to put them in. They were tart, spicy, floral, and something completely unknown.

Tart, punchy, just enough sweet and a great complement to an F1 Grand Prix.

"This ritual of tomar un vermut—literally, “taking a vermouth”—is to Spain what grabbing an espresso is to Italy. It’s a social activity undertaken pretty much whenever over the course of daylight hours, preferably with a friend or three.

Traditional Korean tea, spiked with Rye 

Lime, Mint, Sparkly... what's not to love?

Oooh another favorite cocktail! This is a great time in the F1 Calendar when so many favorites come up all in a row! 

Apparently the Singapore Sling is a hotly debated cocktail with a hundred origin stories and no agreement on what the original recipe is nor what the best modern version is. However the debate turns out, I land on the side of delicious. 

"A Spritz is always effervescent."

Zwack Unicum is a Hungarian liqueur known for its sweet-bitterness and herbal notes. Great in a cocktail!

This is my favorite go-to Sangria recipe because it is simple, quick, and it still tastes like the base wine and the tangy fruit it is composed of.

Caipirinhas are a tart, punchy drink made with cachaca, limes, and a little sparkle. Perfect for hot days and are most at home on a beach somewhere.

Margaritas are the cure to many ailments. And they go great with tacos.