Well that sure looks like something I just got finished making the other day...except the marinade uses hardboiled eggs not beans...those are cannellni beans aren't they?
This recipe is odd, but quite delicious :)

Here is the recipe I used (I added red pepper flakes to mine)

Here is a link that might be useful: Piedmont Eggs

Well thanks much. I'm going to give it a try. And you solved one mystery--I didn't even know what kind of beans they were.

I'll try to see if my daughter's fiance can give you some insight. He is Lebanese and quite a foodie!

Linda

I have a Jewish cook book that has lots of middle eastern recipes in it. It's 'The Book of Jewish Food' by Claudia Roden. It has lots of Sephardi recipes.

In this book Harissa is used a lot. It's a spicy red pepper paste. One dressing for boiled vegetables calls for:

4-5 tablespoons olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon harissa (or 1 tsp paprika and a good pinch of cayenne
1 teaspoon ground caraway
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

I've used variations of this dressing for all sorts of vegetables. I never use the caraway. Sometimes I add garlic or cilantro, etc.

To make Harissa you basically just take 1/2 pound of dried red chile peppers. I use a mix of the little bird peppers, ancho, new mexico, etc. Remove stems and seeds, boil in water until soft. Drain and put in food processor with a head of peeled garlic cloves and 1 tablespoon salt. Add water as necessary while in the FP. The recipe also calls for 1 tablespoon each of ground coriander and caraway. I leave those out so my paste can be combined with whatever flavors I want later on.

I usually add a bit of olive oil as it seems to help the texture. I also push it through a sieve to remove any tough skins from the peppers.

Did you have this at a restaurant?

Darenka, Here is the response I got from my Lebanese soon-to-be son-in-law:

Looks like some type of butter beans salad. For our bean salads, the dressing is garlic, olive oil, lemon juice and chopped parsley. The use of chili Pepe is regional, we don't use much of it, but others do. You can always alter it any way your want.
If this dish is served warm as a stew, then it would be tomato based with cinnamon/allspice/garlic as the seasoning.
From the picture, it seems that the red color is from the chilies not tomatoes.
I'll start the dressing with:
2 large garlic cloves, mashed in mortar and pestle with 1 teaspoon of salt
Freshly squeeze juice from one lemon
3-5 table spoon of olive oil (until you get the right amount of tartness)
Then add:
chopped parsley (or cilantro)
black pepper
chili
I also like to add chives.

He also asked if it had a cumin flavor?

Linda

I'm in Germany and there is a large Middle Eastern population here so you can buy all these little dishes they call 'antipasta' at the green markets and take it home. This particular vendor tells me his mother is Palestinian and his father is a Kurd, and he doesn't know where the recipes come from, but if he gave them out, his mama would kill him. Well... we don't want that to happen. I just need a lot less fat in my diet (I'm trying to save all my fat consumption for chocolate).

I think there is some cumin in it and when I sampled some coriander, there seems to be a hint of that as well. It's spicy, complex, and a little biting. Fabulous stuff. Thanks so much for all your help and suggestions. It's amazing what you folks can do with a picture. I wish I could have one of you taste it and you'd probably know instantly what everything was.

I have picked up some great ideas and recipes from this forum. For some reason, not being a skilled cook, I'd never wandered in here. It's especially a good place for us beginners to learn a thing or two.

darenka, I bet you can find ready made Harissa since you have a large middle eastern community. I can't find it here so I have to make it. You could just use a little oil and sub water for the rest (of whichever recipe you wind up using) if you don't want to use all oil.

Where's Lars? I bet he would know.

Hi, Darenka. My name is Lisa and I am also in Germany. (Hence the screen name. LOL) What part of Germany are you in?
Lisa

I swear I saw a VERY similar recipe just lately in some kind of Martha Stewartish, healthy entertaining type magazine. It was part of a summer party menu. I just can't seem to find it. But I do remember that red pepper flakes were part of the mix, and that it used butter beans, which are large limas.

Actually, I thought I'd try all the recipes; I might end up with something even better. Besides, that will solve one of the 'what are we having for dinner dilemmas'. That's one of the reasons I LOVED this forum when I stumbled in here. You folks have made dinner so much easier--and harder. Lots of great ideas, which to choose? I will NOT be posting pictures though because I've never made a pretty dish in my life--tasty sometimes, but not pretty.

Lisa -- Whooo Hoooo... does this mean we get to meet at Ikea for a GardenWeb party? (A number of GardenWeb folks over on the kitchen forum actually get together in various cities and shop Ikea together.) I've never lived close to any GardenWeb person that I knew of--and face it--everything in Germany is relatively close. I'm near Stuttgart, and you've heard of my village, everyone in Germany has heard of my village. Winnenden, of the school shooting fame. It's really sad because it's small enough that it seems to have touched everyone somehow. I'm quite a new transplant here (had a hard time finding my garden zone) but we love it. And you, where do you live?

I am between Cochem and Koblenz on the Mosel. I would love to meet up with you one day. Stuttgart is not that far from me.
Send me your email to lisa @ fam-rittel . de (without the spaces, of course)
Lisa