Karim Arsanios’ stuffed onions with rice and almonds

For the onions

1. Cut off 1/5 from the top of the onions and delicately remove the core with a spoon, without damaging the 2 outer layers.
2. Sprinkle them with salt and turn them upside down to allow them to release some of their juice.
3. Meanwhile, caramelize, in a skillet, the part of the onion that was removed, with olive oil, salt and pepper over low heat for about 30 to 40 minutes.
4. Cut the mushrooms into small cubes.
5. Melt the butter and sweat the mushrooms for about 2-3 minutes.

For the meat

1. Season the meat with salt and pepper, then cook over high heat for 3 minutes with the garlic cloves.
2. Caramelize with pomegranate molasses.
3. Deglaze with the red wine.
4. Let cool once the alcohol has evaporated.
5. Once the meat mixture has cooled, add the egg, the breadcrumbs, the parmesan, the parsley, the lemon zest, the herbs (whatever you have in your fridge), salt, pepper and olive oil, and mix.
6. Add the mushrooms.
7. Taste and adjust the seasoning accordingly.
8. Pour a little olive oil into the onions and begin to generously fill them with the stuffing.
9. Use a Pyrex dish; cover the bottom with enough salt so the onions stay stable. Close the onions with their tops.
10. Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 170° C for 30 to 35 minutes (depending on oven strength).
11. After the first 30 minutes, remove the foil, raise the heat to 180°-190° C, drizzle with olive oil and bake for another 10 minutes.

For the rice

1. Soak the rice in water for at least 30 minutes (or up to a few hours).
2. Drain.
3. Melt 10 grams of butter, add the cinnamon, cloves and rice to the pan, and cook over medium-high heat for one to two minutes, stirring frequently.
4. Add the water, salt (to taste), cover and cook for 15 minutes over low heat.
5. Then, turn off the heat and let the rice rest another 10 minutes.
6. Roast the almonds in 10 grams melted butter with a pinch of salt (to taste) until lightly golden.

Assembly

1. Serve the rice with the almonds, herbs and lemon zest on a plate and place the onion on top.
2. Add a drizzle of olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt if needed. Bon appétit!

Karim and his mother Lisette: the story

"I was lucky enough to grow up in a home where food was always prepared with care and love. I used to spend a lot of time in the kitchen, watching, and especially sneaking food when my mother held dinners and parties. I didn't realize it at the time, but those moments are probably what shaped the way I see, interact with, and think about food.

My mother, Lisette Pichardo, who passed away in 2007, was Venezuelan, and learned Lebanese and Italian cooking while we lived in Beirut and Rome. Her cooking style was traditional, she knew how to build flavor, but due to her exposure to different flavor profiles throughout her life, she was able to hone traditional recipes and make something more out of them. As my own journey into the culinary world progresses, I am realizing more and more that if you have a good understanding of the basics of a traditional dish, new flavors can improve or even elevate it.

Food is cultural, and like many things, is a representation of the world we live in; an interconnected, eclectic world where multiculturalism fuels creation. Food is constantly changing and cannot be reduced to or defined as just one thing. What unites tradition and novelty is the care you put into making a dish, a posthumous lesson I learned from my mother, and for that, I will always be indebted to her," explains Karim Arsanios.

After leaving finance and the United States, food enthusiast Karim Arsanios returned to Lebanon and began producing an olive oil called Solar, harvested on family land in Kour in Batroun of two hectares at 450 meters altitude, with 1,600 olive trees over a hundred years old. His extra-virgin oil, certified organic and launched in 2020, has already won many prizes in Lebanon and abroad: a gold medal for best organic oil in the world at the BIOL in Italy, a silver medal for its quality at the IOOC in London, and a bronze medal for its design. Karim Arsanios began exporting his label, olive oil and its derivatives, sold in the United Arab Emirates, soon in the United States and Northern Europe and everywhere else through the Lebanese platform Lebzone. His ambitions include conquering the world and, maybe soon, a restaurant in Athens where he can finally serve his delicious dishes…

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