I’ve been watching Chef John for many years, and I love that he says, cold fresh water. Like what kind of water does he think we’re using? Old stale water? Water from a swamp. You’re the best Chef John.
Our house filling - ground beef, fresh coriander (1/2 cup chopped), fresh parsley (1/2 cup chopped), 2 cloves garlic, 1 onion minced, salt, black pepper, turmeric powder My mom used to make it in a panini press 🥹
Finding out this is a regular dish, this is one of those things where I say "Why am I just finding out about this NOW?" - this is everything I love!! I can't wait to try!
his terrible singing has evolved over the years. he used to just say "enjoy" with an audible smile, but over the last decade or so he's taken to this completely off key talk-singing. don't quit your dayjob, chef.
As someone who made this dish for many years: Do yourselves a big favor and consider making more than 2 pieces per person. Trust me on this, I never met a person who ate only 2 halves! (including myself)!
@@jacques42 you dont precook, the layer of meat is thin so it cooks well very quickly. you can always use a thermometer. and if you want to precook you can do that I guess but you will be losing juices soaked up by the bread and cooked. you can also cook these in the oven.
I used to work in a Lebanese restaurant that made these, except we added cherry sumac and a dash of cinnamon to the beef mixture, as well as a handful of toasted pine nuts. We (the staff) also experimented on our own stuffing with some extra onions, or tomatoes. It was very delicious, and I'd highly recommend trying to find or use cherry sumac in this, as well as pine nuts.
@@faithsrvtrip8768 It can work fantastically in plenty of various spice blends, though usually at such a small amount that the final dish doesn't taste of cinnamon outright, but it plays well with many other things. It's a staple spice in flavoring Chinese chili oil, and can do beautifully in a pork chop glaze.
We love you Chef John! On a more personal note; during the pandemic you really helped to demystify cooking for me--and I got to love cooking at home so much that 4 years after beginning my "learn to really cook" journey, I'm opening a restaurant!
As an Afghan I suggest dicing onion, tomato and cucumber with lemon or lime juice and opening the pita up and adding that in there. Probably have to cook the meat first if you want to do this though!
These have been popular here for a while. I'm used to pitas being thicker than this, that's probably why they'd have more meat, and also my friends usually make them on the grill. Great, fun food to eat.
I started watching food wishes in lockdown spend months watching the video then life started again I’ve come back today and the nostalgia I feel is unreal I love it
My Arayes is a little bit different. I usually include some kind of chopped nut (preferably pine nuts, although walnuts and pecans would also do), and I use smaller pitas and stuff them thick enough so that you could stand them on the exposed meat side. After tossing the prepared stuffed pitas with the meat in some olive oil, I fry it in olive oil and then bake it standing up on the exposed meat, on the bottom rack of my oven. That gets me a nice toasting on the top, but a perfect and uniform crust below.
I'm glad I bought that package of grass fed, finished ground beef because a cheeseburger Arayes seems on the horizon. But, I love lamb so I foresee getting some of that, as well! Welcome back, CJ! By the way, I bought an 8 pound sack of CA oranges that came with 8 oranges meaning each orange was 1 pound! Softball sized oranges!
Thanks, Chef John, for introducing me to some amazing food. You always do a great job of making a recipe easy for novices like me to follow. I have to try this!
I cut up a steak into small peices after I BBQ it. I toast the bread over the fire until golden brown. Cut in half put some steak and a garden salad=lettuce, tomato, cucumbers, onions, and red radish. I make a vinegarette=1cup apple cider vinegar, 1&1/2 cup olive oil, 1 tablespoon dry onion flakes, 1 tablespoon of dry garlic flakes, 2 tablespoon of horseradish mustard, a teaspoon of pepper a half teaspoon of salt. Wisk everything together except the oil. When well combined wisk the oil in slowly. For best results let sit over night refrigerated. I keep this on hand year round as this is also a good marinade.
Looks very tasty, given the spices it sort of reminds me of an american style taco meat quesadilla, but in a good way lol. I really like the idea of an italian style arayes as well, served with a bit of marinara on the side mmmm. I bet you could serve these with some golden rice too, not gonna lie I have made golden rice a dozen times since you posted that video, lord have mercy on my waistline.
There is a very fine line between this Lebanese recipe and the Mongolian Khushuur that my wife makes. I would suggest substituting finely chopped meat instead of ground. It adds an extra chew factor to it that blends with the crunchy texture of the wrapper.
I made this (as I did many of Chef John's recipes/techniques). It was delicious, pitas crispy, meat flavorful (I changed the recipe a bit) sauce good. But my supermarket pitas soaked up a lot of oil. And I mean A LOT. I ended up making the pitas as per packaging instructions and filled them with the meat mixture that I pan fried. Not as crispy but also less oily.
"I PITA the fool" I have made this before, but I've never dared cooking the raw meat in the pita. It's just a little less stressful to fry up the meat first.
I'm the Judy Blume of this bride and groom? Pretty sure I'm the *doom* of this bride and groom, but Arayes, here I come. Let's give you a try. Thanks, Chef!
😂 Italian American me with falaffel waffle breath and a weak Middle Eastern game.... ok so kinda meatball with kinda Mexican spices cooked in pita, dipped in Greek sauce? Yup! Making tomorrow!
Not only the smaller containers look better on video, they take up less space in the fridge, so I too prefer the smallest container possible method haha
quite interesting recipe as compared to the classical recipe . adding one tea spoon of olive oil into the meat mix will greatly improve the spread and flavor
Chef!!! I NEED you to cook m'beyu, an argentinian-paraguayan recipe, I think it may be an interesting flavor and texture to try, some people stuff it with ham & cheese (w/ afternoon tea or coffee), capresse stuffing, etc. Please give it a try!
@@bennyattar8862 yep !!! It's very very hot but also green and fresh. An acquired taste but laborious to make. I'm hoping CJ will make an easier version !!!
I’m about to go full-nerd here but, as to the stuffing, I think it might work better if you took a pita to use as a guide and then cut a circle from parchment paper that’s slightly smaller than the pita itself. Then, you put a piece of plastic wrap over the circle of parchment to use as a template for how much meat should go into the pita. Then, you divide the meat into two semi-circles and the stuffing should fit into the pita halves fairly easily, I would think. Alternately, maybe try placing little balls of the mixture in all areas of the pita half, like down in the corners, etc. Then, when you press, you’re only pressing a little bit of the mixture at a time and there’s less chance of ripping the bread. The balls of stuffing will kind of spread out, meet in the middle and the entire pita will get an even layer.
Huh. When I started watching, I fully expected the meat to be at least partially cooked before being put in the pita to brown the bread. I guess this way, you don't get the browning on the meat, but the upshot is that all the juices coming out soak into the pita.
