Lebanon Gourmet Cooking Meetup

Many major holidays like Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year's are celebrated in nations around the globe at this time of year. Do you have a family favorite holiday dish? Something from your family's native country perhaps? Come share it with your foodie friends. It can be a recipe from any cuisine in the world.

After dinner, let's have a cookie exchange! Bring 3 or more dozen cookies to exchange at this event and you'll get a nice assortment to take home and share during the holidays with your family and friends. Now these cookies will be special because they are from your gourmet friends in the Lebanon Gourmet Cooking Club--not your everyday group of bakers!!

This event is also an annual tradition for the Lebanon Gourmet Cooking Club. We have over 600 members now. Amazing! Throughout the years, most of you have attended one or more of our potlucks. I highly encourage all members to try to come and celebrate the holidays with us, especially those folks who have come at least once. We'd love to see you again! We miss you! And for those of you who haven't come yet, this is a great time to give it a try. Come see what you are missing!

Come celebrate the New Year with a Chinese Feast with fellow foodies!

The "Eight Cuisines" of China are:
Anhui (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anhui_cuisine),
Cantonese (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantonese_cuisine),
Fujian (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fujian_cuisine),
Hunan (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunan_cuisine),
Jiangsu (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiangsu_cuisine),
Shandong (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shandong_cuisine),
Sichuan (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sichuan_cuisine), and
Zhejiang (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhejiang_cuisine) cuisines.

Which Chinese cuisine is your favorite?

Although a restaurant favorite, Chinese food is rarely prepared by home cooks in America. I challenge each of you to try to make your favorite Chinese dish or appetizer for this potluck. When I like something at a restaurant, I try to figure out what the ingredients are. Then I go home and Google a recipe that seems to match the restaurant version as much as possible. I then experiment until I get it as close as possible to the restaurant version. It's fun! Plus once I master it, I can have my favorite food anytime I want! I wish you the best of luck with your experiment and hope to see you and your dish in the New Year!

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_cuisine

Brazil's cuisine is interesting, to say the least. The country's long history of immigration and wide cultural diversity across its regions has served to widen the range and variety of Brazilian foods. In this sense it is hard to generalize about Brazilian food, mainly because there is no one single national Brazilian cuisine that distinguish it, but numerous very distinct regional ones.

Brazilian food mirrors the variety and mix of its people, with influences from the indigenous people of Brazil, the Portuguese, African and Italian people, to name but a few. It is this ethnic make up that has largely influenced Brazilian food preferences across Brazil, culminating in foods of different cultures being adapted over time to suit regional tastes as it exists today.

Brazil food in the north east for instance, has a strong Afro- Brazilian slant (the legacy of African slave people), with seafood being a very popular and widely used food staple in Brazil cuisine. Typical, popular Brasil foods in this region include dishes such as fish stew; brown beans and dried shrimp fritters. Being a coastal region, excellent seafood can be found in many of the north east towns.

Other Brazil popular foods include beautifully flavoured dishes such as tacacá - which is a spicy soup; pato no tucupi - a spiced duck dish; and vatapa - a seafood dish in a thick, rich sauce. One of Brazil's most popular foods include Feijoada, which is a stew of beans with various beef and pork products and is typical of the Brazilian Portuguese cuisine. This Brazil food is perhaps the closest the country comes to a having a national dish. The dish is served up all day at weekends by Brazil restaurants.

Vatapa is another of Brazil popular foods. It is made from bread, shrimps, coconut milk, palm oil and peanuts or cashew nuts, which are mashed to form a creamy consistency. It is a typical condiment that is used particularly in the state of Bahia and is commonly eaten with acaraje, an Afro Brazilian fast food made from black eyed peas, which is formed into a ball and then deep-fried in palm oil. The shrimp ingredient in the above Brazilian recipe can be replaced with chicken, turkey, ground tuna or numerous other alternatives.

Farofa is toasted farinha, which is usually served with onions and bits of bacon mixed in. If you're on a budget, look out for the terms prato feito, prato comercial or refeição completa. You will have a substantial meal relatively inexpensively.

Comida Baiana, a particular favourite in Salvador, is made with excellent fresh fish and shellfish, hot peppers, coconut milk, fresh coriander and palm oil.

Cheese buns or cheese breads is another Brazil popular food snack or breakfast fare. Made from Cassava or corn flour, they are chewy and moist inside and are relatively inexpensive. Cheese buns are approximately one to six inches in diameter, with about two inches of height. These Brazil popular foods snacks are favourites among all age groups and are usually sold by Brazil fast food street vendors.

Brigadeiro is a simple Brazilian chocolate fudge candy created in the 1920's and named after Brigadeiro Eduardo Gomes and its shape is a reproduction of that of some varieties of chocolate truffles.

Source: http://www.brazil-travel-northeast.com/brazil-popular-foods.html

Russian cuisine is distinctive and unique, and as any other national one, it was formed under the influence of different environmental, social, geographical, economic and historical factors. The main feature of Russian cuisine is considered to be an abundance and variety of products used for cooking. There are numerous dishes made of dough such as pies, cakes, rolls, blini, etc. as well as unleavened dough, including dumplings and homemade noodles. Being a country of Orthodox Christian religion which implies numerous fasts, Russian cuisine offers a great number of vegetarian dishes including mushrooms, pickles etc. The Russian culinary palette is also rich in meat, poultry and fish dishes which are served on various occasions. Here are some of the more popular Russian dishes to whet your appetite:

Blinis or blintz are a Russian type of pancake or crepe. They are usually thin and big, they may be served with sour cream, jam, honey, or caviar or smokes salmon. Russians eat blinis folded or rolled with all sorts of filling such as mushrooms, cottage cheese, ground meat, cabbage and many other foods.

Sirniki are small blinis made of cottage cheese. This is a typical food for breakfast or brunch. Kasha is the most common meal in Russia. It is easy to cook, healthy to eat and everybody can afford it. Pelmeni are meat or fish dumplings originally coming from the region of Siberia. They are usually kept frozen and cooked in boiled water right before eating Varenniki are dumplings similar to pelmeni but they're usually stuffed with cheese, mashed potatoes, cabbage, meat, hard-boiled eggs or different fruits (cherry or plump). Pirog is a big pie stuffed with fruits, mushrooms, meat or fish. Borscht is a soup originally coming from the Ukrainian cuisine but now equally popular in Russia. It has a distinctive reddish-purple color because it’s cooked with beetroot and tomatoes. In Russia borsch is always served hot.
Herring under the fur coat - is a traditional Russian salad. It's loved in Russia but might appear a rather weird dish to foreigners. The salad has several layers: salted herring is covered with chopped onions, potatoes, carrots, beet roots and dressed with mayonnaise. Salad Olivier is usually known as Russian salad in the West. It is popular in winter season. Among its ingredients are boiled potato, peas, meat, pickled cucumbers, onions, eggs and carrots. Vinegrette is a traditional Russian salad made of boiled beets, potatoes, carrots, pickles, onions and sauerkraut. It is easy to cook and remains very popular especially in winter time. Holodets is a traditional Russian meal which is served during various celebrations. Pickled cucumbers have been known in Russia for centuries. There is a century old tradition in Russia to eat pickles as a “chaser” after drinking vodka, another tradition - to have them with potatoes. Beef stroganoff - a Russian dish very popular around the world. Small pieces of beef filet (usually strips) are sautéed in sour cream together with onions and mushrooms. Chicken Kiev is a popular dish of chicken breast rolled around butter. It’s often stuffed with grated cheese, mushrooms, herbs, egg yolk, then breaded and baked in oil.
Source: https://bridgetomoscow.com/russian-cuisine

Bulgarian food, relatively undiscovered, is making its way onto the culinary world map. Bulgaria, nestled in the Balkan Peninsula of Eastern Europe, has a rich history, and culinary influences come alive through Bulgarian dishes. The food in Bulgaria has an Ottoman heritage and shares similarities with its neighbors. With the Black Sea to the east, Bulgaria borders Romania, Serbia, Macedonia, Greece and Turkey.

Come join us for a fabulous feast featuring this part of the world!