Lebanese Red Pepper Hummus Recipe

A Taste of the Mediterranean in Darien

Café D’Azur, which opened recently in Darien, is the new baby of Myrna and Pierre Lahoud, the restaurateurs behind the former Myrna’s Mediterranean Bistro. It’s an attractive and comfortable place that transforms from casual at lunch to sophisticated, candle-lit white-table cloth at night, with a wide-ranging menu that Myrna defines as “70 percent French/30 percent Mediterranean.” Executive chef Regis Saget, who comes from the Southwest of France, has cooked at Versailles in Greenwich; La Colline Verte, the much-missed French restaurant in Greenfield Hill; and St. Tropez in downtown Fairfield (now rebranded as Brasserie). Chef Joseph Jabbour, a native of Lebanon, was the chef at Myrna’s, and at Café D’Azur he prepares Middle Eastern classics like falafel, hummus and halloumi cheese. Let me get back to that citrus salad. It was the most refreshing tumble of frisée — the curly, slightly bitter green — dressed in olive oil, lemon juice and a hint of orange blossom water, and dotted with bits of kalamata olives. Segments of orange and sweet Meyer lemon circled the greens. All the flavors worked together, salty, sweet, bitter, juicy, with the exotic perfume of the orange blossom water. This is what I want to eat in hot weather. I was thrilled to see fresh sardines on the menu. If you hate sardines, you’ve probably only had canned (which I enjoy as a larder staple, a quick protein- and calcium-rich snack). Café D’Azur’s fresh sardines are filleted, broiled, served on toasted focaccia spread with eggplant caviar and red pepper coulis. Myrna says they are one of the most popular dishes. Myrna’s favorite is the makanek, Lebanese sausages. The lamb sausages are made all over the Mediterranean, “but the Lebanese make them the best,” she says. Mryna, who grew up in Greenwich, has a Greek father and a Lebanese mother. Café D’Azur makes makanek in-house, grinding lamb with cumin, cloves, nutmeg, coriander, white and black pepper, white wine, cognac and white vinegar. They are cured for about five days. They can be grilled, but Myrna says the best way to cook them is to sauté the sausages in olive oil and serve them with a little lemon juice. That’s how they do it at Café D’Azur. The crêpes, made from buckwheat flour, are homemade too, giving the thin pancakes a subtle elasticity in texture.

Recipes Site: Roasted Red Pepper Hummus Recipe

The Lebanese Recipes Kitchen (The home of delicious Lebanese Recipes and Middle Eastern food recipes) invites you to try Roasted Red Pepper Hummus Recipe . Enjoy tasty & easy Middle Eastern food recipes and learn how to make Roasted Red Pepper Hummus.

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