Daoud is Arabic for David and Basha is a Turkish Ottman class title equivalent to Lord. This title was given to high ranking personnel in the Ottman political system like governors and army generals. Dawood Basha was a nobleman in the Levant and the dish was invented in his kitchen.

Daoud Basha dish is meatballs cooked in tomato sauce and served with rice or bulgur in the Levant country, while it is served with pasta in Europe.

Syrians cooks take much pride in their dishes, especially those prepared for a special occasion or celebration. Stuffed meats and vegetables take centerpiece at family gatherings during the holy month of Ramadan, using ingredients which are often seasonal and fresh.

Few Syrian family meals are as popular as chicken stuffed with freekeh.

It is a chicken with crispy golden brown skin, very tender inside, accompanied by chewy, heavenly flavored freekeh, and some green salad.

Freekeh is a green durum wheat that has been roasted and cracked, it contains tons of nutritional benefits loaded with protein and fiber.

Sometimes  chicken  is stuffed with rice, but really using freekeh gives the chicken a new aroma.

Overnight oatmeal with dates in a jar for a hearty, healthy, make ahead breakfast. How cool is that ?. Dates and overnight oats will make your mornings a breeze. This is the right start for a great day.

It is tasty, fresh, colorful and healthy. This jar contains fruits, dates, chia seeds and oats, just throw a handful of ingredients in a jar at night and eat it in the morning.

Dates contain several vitamins and minerals, in addition to fiber and antioxidants. However, they are high in calories since they are a dried fruit. Also dates are high in fiber.

Oats are rich in carbs and fiber, and also they are very high in many vitamins and minerals.

Chia seeds: These little seeds are packed with fibers, omega3 and can soak up to 5 times their size in liquids.

Malfouf is a traditional Syrian dish which involves rolling cabbage leaves with a stuffing of ground meat, rice, 7-spices (of course), then stacking them in a cooking pot in layers with garlic in between, and then simmering them on low heat in a sauce made with lemon juice, fried minced garlic, water and salt.

Malfouf is much easier to prepare than stuffed grape leaves or zucchini (kousamahshi) as the leaves are larger and quicker to roll up.

Even the stuffing is quite easy to make consisting of meat rice and a few spices.

Malfouf can also be prepared with a vegetarian stuffing similar to waraqenabb'zeit (vegan stuffed grape leaves.

Pieces of pumpkin are transformed into sweet and glistening amber-colored jewels in this recipe for Pumpkin preserve. it is crunchy outside and creamy inside, usually we replace the ordinary breakfast table preserves with these little gems.

Pumpkin is not popular in the Mediterranean but the pumpkin preserve is very popular in Syria specially in Latakia.

If you try to cube up some pumpkin and just boil them in syrup, the cell walls in the pumpkin will break down and you will end up with a mushy, liquid mess. For this reason, you’ll need a special ingredient to achieve the firmness in these preserves.

Calcium hydroxide  is the secret to solidifying the sides of the pumpkin pieces and keeping them from disintegrating during boiling.