Turkey and Couscous Burgers with Tzatziki

by Diana

One of my dearest Venezuelan friends comes from a Syrian origin family as I do. When we were at high school one of our hobbies was to make arabic food together, not only to celebrate our family's common culture, which brought us closer of course, but also to exchange recipes from my grandmother's notebook and  from her mum's memory, and sometimes, one of our main motivations, to  try to sell them to her neighbours so we could gather some money to go out! 

The following recipe is one of those that I learnt from her and her mother. It is what I consider a modern version of kibbe or kibbeh -an arabic dish- but in shape of burgers. I had to modify it for many reasons: the original recipe uses wheat instead of couscous, but I only had couscous and it works just fine for this one. I also prefered to use turkey mince because is less greasy than meat mince -in this country-. And I added some extras like mint leaves and sesame seeds, just because I had the creative mood on and couldn't stop. However, it is the same principle that I learnt years ago with my friend, and most importantly, equally delicious! 

I hope you try it at home!

Enjoy!

© Diana Chaccour

Pear and Roquefort Bruschettas

by Diana

Last week, as part of the weekly French class I attend, we watched a video about the process of making Roquefort cheese -or blue cheese, as you Anglo-Saxon people call it-. It is expected of course, that after watching that video at eight in the evening I would end up in the supermarket across the street, buying a good piece of "value" Roquefort -shame on me-. I shared my intentions with one of my classmates, a lovely trustworthy vegetarian young woman, who suggested to prepare my cheese with pears and bake it in the oven. Her expression seemed so pleasurable and gratifying whilst she described me that combination of flavours that I just had to do what she said. So I obeyed her blindly and tried at home this bruschettas that I am now posting here. And if you accompany them with a glass of good red wine -not the "value" one please- you'll have a fully delicious -and almost French- experience. I hope you like it! 

Bon appétit!

© Diana Chaccour