Signature Dish
Crafting the Lebanese Bride Manoushe is a Family Tradition at Z&Z Manoushe Bakery in Rockville
Clip: Season 3 Episode 4 | 5m 32sVideo has Closed Captions
Seth learns the secret behind the Lebanese Bride manoushe at Z&Z Manoushe Bakery in Rockville, MD.
Join Seth Tillman as he steps into the kitchen with Danny and Johnny at Rockville's Z&Z Manoushe Bakery to create their signature dish: the Lebanese Bride manoushe. This iconic flatbread is topped with creamy labneh, savory za’atar, fresh vegetables, and velvety Tunisian olive oil, combining to deliver a symphony of textures and flavors in every bite.
Signature Dish is a local public television program presented by WETA
Signature Dish
Crafting the Lebanese Bride Manoushe is a Family Tradition at Z&Z Manoushe Bakery in Rockville
Clip: Season 3 Episode 4 | 5m 32sVideo has Closed Captions
Join Seth Tillman as he steps into the kitchen with Danny and Johnny at Rockville's Z&Z Manoushe Bakery to create their signature dish: the Lebanese Bride manoushe. This iconic flatbread is topped with creamy labneh, savory za’atar, fresh vegetables, and velvety Tunisian olive oil, combining to deliver a symphony of textures and flavors in every bite.
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Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipDANNY: We're making manoushe.
But today, we're going to be making specifically our "Signature Dish," which is called the "Lebanese Bride."
So we're going to stretch the dough.
SETH: You're going to teach me how to do this today?
DANNY: I'm going to try.
So we use a special blend of white and wheat flours fermented for up to 48 to 72 hours.
So now, you use your fingers and you're kind of creating these little pockets of dough.
SETH: Okay.
DANNY: And so, from here, you can see the dough is nice and elastic.
I'm going to toss a few times.
Sorry if I get flour on you, but you're in the splash zone.
SETH: Occupational hazard.
DANNY: Yeah.
So I'll bring it here over to our bread pillow.
My grandma actually makes us these custom bread pillows that we still use.
SETH: Okay, I love it.
DANNY: So I put a lot of semolina on this, so it doesn't stick.
And then, now is the fun part where you get to kind of slap the dough down and you put it here.
SETH: Boom.
DANNY: Hopefully you get it on.
You got to try to make it a nice circle.
I put a little oil on, because if you don't put oil on, it'll turn into pita bread in the oven.
SETH: Oh no.
DANNY: And so, we don't want it to puff up, even though it's delicious, it's just a little bit different than what we were going for.
SETH: The weight of the olive oil will kind of keep the dough settled a little bit?
DANNY: Exactly, and then, another bonus is it kind of fries it when you flip it, so that's always good.
SETH: Nice.
DANNY: All right, I'm going to put it in the flour for you and then, you take over from there.
SETH: All right, little flour on top.
Okay.
And then, start to, start to sculpt?
DANNY: Yeah.
You want to use the pads of your fingers.
Okay.
SETH: Oh, very soft dough.
Okay.
DANNY: Yeah, if it makes you feel any better, it took us years to get this down.
There you go.
SETH: All right, so a few flips?
DANNY: Yep.
And you want to remember which side is the face.
So this is the face.
You want that to go face down on the pillow.
SETH: Okay.
How's that?
DANNY: I lost track, but I think it looks good.
So face down.
Okay.
And now's the easy part, just kind of like pulling bedsheets, SETH: Okay.
DANNY: So you can just get underneath.
And sometimes, you want to keep a hand on top.
SETH: So we got a pillow.
We got some bedsheets.
DANNY: Yeah, that looks pretty good for a first time.
SETH: Ready to slam it down?
DANNY: Yeah.
So oh, don't forget the semolina.
SETH: Semolina.
DANNY: Because you don't want a sticky peel.
SETH: All right, here we go.
Ready?
DANNY: All right.
SETH: One, two.
All right.
DANNY: Not bad.
You can do any kind of design you want with the olive oil.
Just don't go too crazy.
SETH: Oop!
DANNY: That's all right.
We can clean that up.
SETH: All right.
All right.
Okay, there we go.
That's a disaster.
But it's going to work.
DANNY: All right.
You didn't do too bad.
We're going to fire these in the oven.
So we're cooking them here at 740, which is pretty hot.
And what we're going to do for the brides, which is a little bit different than a traditional one, is we're going to flip it halfway.
And you can see now it's getting nice and bubbly.
That's my signal to let you take a look before what I'm going to do is flip it so you get the nice sear on the top.
We still want a firm bottom, but a soft top.
I'm going to give them just a little rotation.
It doesn't need too much.
I'm going to give it now a quick flip.
I'm not going to get too fancy here.
It's hot.
And then, quick second on the bottom, because those stones are really hot.
So again, I'm just going to watch it just maybe 30 seconds.
And whichever one looks nicer is mine, I think.
SETH: All right.
Hey, Johnny, another member of the family.
Nice to meet you.
JOHNNY: You too.
SETH: So you're going to be topping the Lebanese Bride?
JOHNNY: Yep.
We'll go ahead and do that.
So I'm going to lather the soft pillowy bread up with some labneh.
I like to explain it as like a yogurt cheese.
So it starts out in a yogurt form, and then, it gets strained to thicken.
And then, it becomes a little more like a schmear.
SETH: A schmear, all right, now you're speaking my language.
And I have to ask about the name too, Lebanese Bride?
DANNY: So Lebanese Bride is introduced to us from our dad, when they used to take summer trips to Lebanon, their first stop would be at the shop to get what was called "Lebanese Bride."
And it's on thinner bread, but same toppings.
They wrap it up and they use a white wax paper.
And so, when you peel back the wax paper, it looks like the veil.
And so, that's why it's called Lebanese Bride.
SETH: Got it.
Got it.
JOHNNY: So we're going to then douse it with za'atar overtop, which is a key ingredient that pairs perfectly with labneh.
So it's savory, herbaceous, and slightly nutty.
So next, after we have the labneh and za'atar over top, we're going to throw some juicy tomatoes right over.
And now, cucumbers for that crunch element.
It's the best one-biter, because you get cooling, creamy, refreshing, oily, savory, herbaceous, fattiness, all in one bite.
SETH: Every single bite, love it.
JOHNNY: Then comes the garden mint, and we're just going to sprinkle that right over the top.
This is a beautiful Tunisian olive oil, velvety smooth.
DANNY: And the olive oil, of course, is the other Z in Z&Z.
The first one, as you know, is Za'atar.
The Arabic word is zayt al-zaytun for olive oil.
So those are the two Zs, and no manoushe is complete without it.
JOHNNY: Going to sprinkle with salt now.
Just a little dash.
And now, I'm just going to slice it up.
If my dad was next to me, he'd be watching to make sure it's a perfect cut.
SETH: You have my full vote of confidence in how you cut a manoushe.
JOHNNY: Seth, grab a bride with me and we'll go enjoy.
SETH: Let's do it.
All right.
Oh, and we have more family now, Mom and Dad, world-famous.
MUNA: Hello.
ISSA: Nice to meet you.
SETH: Nice to meet you as well.
I'm going to give you guys the one that I rolled out, but Johnny did a great job with the toppings and the cutting, right?
ISSA: Good job.
We approve.
You did a good job.
MUNA: Looks good.
SETH: Awesome.
All right.
Well, I cannot wait to dig in here.
ISSA: Enjoy.
SETH: Wow.
ISSA: Zaki.
Zaki.
SETH: Just a symphony of flavor and a symphony of texture too.
Got some of that cucumber, little herbaceous bite there.
JOHNNY: My favorite word to use.
SETH: That's just delicious.
MUNA: In my way, I say it's zaki.
Zaki is how you say it in Arabic.
SETH: Zaki indeed.
Love that.
Going for another.
Oh yeah.
And the labneh is good too, because it gives you a little bit of that creaminess, that texture on top of the pie.
I can understand why some people might even mistake it for pizza, but just completely unique flavors and textures on top.
ISSA: That makes it not pizza.
SETH: Not pizza.
Just to be absolutely clear, not pizza.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipSignature Dish is a local public television program presented by WETA