Food From the Levant

Sorry I am writing this a bit late but I am currently swamped with work, research and few extra-curricular activities not running smoothly these days. Whinge over!

As I mentioned in my last post, Michael Hanson chef and owner of The Hearth Pizzeria and Bake House has kindly invited me to help run a charity event in aid of Syria. Michael wanted to serve food that represents the true flavours of The Levant. We wanted it to be a relaxed chilled evening with delicious authentic dishes, lovely wine and beautiful music. 

The menu

To start, we served six mezze dishes with a beautiful freshly baked flat bread:

Green Keshkeh

Mutabal

Baba Ghanouch

Tabbouleh

Chicken Livers with Pomegranate Molasses

Hummus with Sujuk

Ful Ma'ala (green Fava beans with garlic and coriander)

In addition I was hoping to serve a second hummus dish topped with Ful for vegetarians. However on the day it turned out we had Turkish tinned white beans instead. So, with a bit of improvisation, we ended up cooking the beans then crushing them with salt, cumin, Turkish sun-dried red peppers paste (Muhammara), garlic and lemon juice. It worked a treat!

For main, we served roast leg of lamb with Freekeh and roast vegetables with "Arabic" spin. The latter was cumin, lemon, garlic and chopped parsley. 

For desert, Michael have made beautiful ice creams with true Levantine flavours, pistachios and rose.

The Experience

This was my first experience cooking in a professional setting to 45 paying costumers. I will have to say, I loved every minute of it. Tiring and hot at times but very rewarding. 

The restaurant as I mentioned is pizzeria with a beautiful food fired oven. Although we had a small hob in the preparation area most of the cooking was done in the oven, an unusual method for cooking Freekeh, Ful and chicken livers. It worked well however.

Potato Makmora, my style

Lamb shanks were a revelation the first time I tried them. Believe it or not  that was only 5 years or so ago. 

In Syria we don't cook Lamb shanks the way God intended. Instead we take the meat off the bone cut it into cubes and use it to cook stews. The cut is called Mozat (موزات). I assume it is from the Arabic word Mozeh which means banana. I assume because the the shape of the muscle resembles a tiny banana. (The last three sentences are completely made up. Most likely it has nothing to do with Banana)

I never tasted Mozat until I cooked that lamb shank for the first time.

My mum, bless her, hates meat. She would have been a vegetarian without a doubt if vegetarians were invented at that time. She can't touch raw meat of any form. My dad does all the meat handling and prep at our house. My mum would just push the stuff into the pan with spoon. Once cooked it doesn't get any better. She would only eat red meat if it is in its purest form without any sinew or any trace of fat, preferably without meat flavour or texture! 

I don't know if you have seen a boiled lamb shank. It has a gelatinous connective tissue that holds the muscle together. If my mum ever see this on her plate she wouldn't eat for a week. So needless to say we never ever had lamb shanks in our house.

Enough about that and back to the recipe. This is a simple dish of lamb, potato and onion. I add carrots for extra sweetness. Cooked nice and slow in a clay pot with salt, pepper and allspice. Melting in your mouth tender. It is by far my favourite lamb dish and a stable on my dinner party menu.

Here is my recipe for four:

Four lamb shanks

Two potatoes

One onion

Four carrots

Chicken stock 150 mls

Salt and pepper to taste

Allspice  1tsp

Start by roughly chopping the onion. Peel carrots and potatoes and cut into one inch cubes. Then into the clay pot. Onions at the bottom, lamb shanks, carrots and potato. Pour the chicken stock season generously with freshly ground black pepper and rock salt. Generously sprinkle the allspice over the meat and potatoes. Cover and into a cold oven.

I start the oven on 200c. After twenty minutes I turn in down to 165c and cook for three and a half hours. 

If you want to follow standard culinary procedure then brown the meat before adding to the pot. However I don't bother when I am cooking in a clay pot. The meat browns nicely as you can see in the picture.

Mlehy, food of the brave.

When I started this blog two years ago I had two aims in mind, firstly to share my love of food and secondly, and most importantly, to show my beloved country Syria in all its beauty. To share with all of you everything good about the great Syrian people, about their cuisine, their life and their history. A propaganda website, not for a regime or government but for a land and city I love so much.

I promised myself to keep this blog politics free zone. I refrained from expressing personal views on anything that goes on in the Middle East. I wanted it a place for all people. Even food politics stayed out of my blog. No comments on Hummus war. No arguments on who invented Tabouleh, kebbeh or any of the sorts.

As you all know I haven't written anything on the blog for almost three months now since these sad events started to unfold in my beautiful country. I tried to write few times but words were choked in my throat. How could I keep politics out of this blog while my brave country men are being killed everyday on the streets asking for freedom. How could write about the beautiful things of Syria while its people are being arrested tortured and killed.

After some thinking I decided I should start writing again. The least I can do for my country is to go on writing. It is still a beautiful welcoming place regardless of who is in government. Time will come again when Syria is as beautiful and as peaceful as ever.

This post is dedicated to the brave city of Daraa and all the martyrs.

Fifteen hundreds years ago in a tent in the middle of the Arabian desert a Bedouin man named Hatim had guests stopping at his door unexpected. The man and his wife got in a state of panic. They had nothing to feed their hungry guests. It was a tough dry year and they had no sheep to slaughter in honour of the guests. Hatim decided to slaughter his pride and joy, the most valuable possession a Bedouin man can own, his horse to feed his guests. The man was Hatim Al-Taiy a sixth century Arabic poet. Because of that incident and many similar stories he became an icon of Arab generosity up to our day.

Generosity, honouring your guests and hospitality is an essential part of the Arabic psyche. Showing your generosity is as important as generosity itself. With very little resources and few food choices in the desert those days, meat was the only way to showcase your hospitality. You couldn't be an honorable host unless you slaughter some animal and serve an extravagant amount of meat in honour of your guest.

This tradition survived the centuries. Up till this day nothing can show your generosity more than heaps of meat served over large trays of rice. Kabseh in Saudi Arabia, Majboos in Gulf countries, Quzi in Iraq and Mansaf in Jordan are modern examples of this centuries old tradition.

Syria is slightly different case from its neighbours. It is a more ethnically and gastronomically diverse country. Rich resources and food variability mixed with a variety foreign influences over the centuries resulted in a more sophisticated cuisine. Smaller portions, variety of dishes, generous use of vegetables and less meat are the hallmarks of modern Syrian food.

That doesn't mean we Syrians don't have the traditional Arabic generosity running in our veins (well, most of us at least. We Damascene are not famed for our generosity!). Bedouin and tribal areas especially at the East of the country are as Arabic as anybody else. They share a lot more in cuisine and costume with their cousins across the Arabic desert than they do with their country men in Damascus and Aleppo.

Daraa and the wider Houran region extended over the border between Syria and Jordan is another "proper" Arabic area of Syria. People of the region are very generous and kind hearted despite not being the richest in the country. This generosity is evident in their food.

Mlehy is Houran national dish. It is a ceremonial dish for great occasions, weddings and celebration. It is the way people of Houran show their generosity to their guests. The dish is very similar to the better advertised Jordanian mansaf but it uses Bulgur instead of rice.

Melhy is made by cooking lamb (or chicken in less formal occasions) in a broth made with a stone-hard sun dried yogurt called Jameed or Ketha as it is called sometimes in Houran. Of course I didn't have any Jameed here in London (if you know where to get it in London please let me know) so I used the driest form of yogurt I could find, Labneh balls. You can buy these in all Middle Eastern Supermarkets. They are great for breakfast, sandwich filling or a mezze dish.

Finally, if this recipe looks nothing like what your mum used to make please forgive me. I only tried Mlehy once in my life and this recipe is my interpretation of the dish.

Here is my Mlehy recipe:
(Enough for four people)

Four Lamb Shanks
One onion finely chopped
Course bulgur 2cups
Chicken stock 1cup (or boiling water)
Boiling water
Ghee clarified butter 4tbs
Four Labneh balls
Allspice 1tsp
Salt
Pepper
One bay leaf
One stick of cinnamon
Pine nuts 30g

Start by mixing the Labneh balls and chicken stock in a food processor on high speed until you get a smooth runny mixture with no labneh lumps.

Melt two spoons of Ghee butter in a large pot and brown the lamb shanks on all sides. Remove the lamb shanks and fry the onion on medium heat till soft. Return the shanks to the pot and add the stock and labneh mixture. Top with hot water to cover the meat. Add the allspice, bay leaf, cinnamon stick and salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a strong boil then turn the heat to medium and simmer for two hours or until the meat is fully cooked and almost falling of the bone.

Once the meat is ready start cooking the bulgur. In a pot add the bulgur, salt to taste and 3 cups of hot water and bring to boil. You can add a ladle or two of the meat broth to the bulgur for extra flavour. Turn the heat to medium and cook for 20 - 30 minutes stirring occasionally. Add more boiling water if required.

Fry the pine nuts in the rest of the ghee butter. Remove as soon as they turn golden as they burn very quickly. Continue to heat the ghee in the pan til it starts to smoke then carefully pour over the cooked bulgur and stir. The last step is optional and it adds a nice smokey flavour but few extra calories, your choice.

Serve the cooked bulgur with a sprinkle of pine nuts with the meat and broth on the side. The broth has a rich sour meaty flavours with a hint of fragrance from the spices. Pour some of it over the Bulgur to eat or simply sip it with a spoon. Delicious!

Freekeh with Slow Roasted Lamb Shanks

Freekeh (فريكة roughly translated, Rubbed) is a type of wheat grain common in the Levant, Egypt, Turkey and parts of North Africa. Freekeh grains have a distinct nutty smokey flavour due to the preparation method. Traditionally freekeh is cooked as pilaf or soup but it is a versatile ingredients and can be utilised in numerous ways from salads to cereal bars.

To make freekeh, wheat is harvested green. This is then arranged in piles and set on fire. This is a tightly controlled process and only the straw and chaff burns while the high water content in the green grains prevents them from burning. This process gives freekeh its distinct smokiness. The grains are then thrashed and rubbed by hand (hence the name) to separate the chaff. The final step is drying the grains in the sun.

In Syria, freekeh is cooked as a pilaf with cooked chicken or lamb. Shanks (or Mozat as called in Syria) is a favourite cut to serve with freekeh. However Mozat is of-the-bone cut and it is served braised rather than roasted.

You can buy freekeh in London from Middle Easter supermarkets. Try Green Valley in Edgware Road or Damas Gate in Shepherds Bush.

Today's recipe is my take on the traditional Freekeh with Mozat. I cooked freekeh the traditional way but I roasted the lamb shanks in the oven with Arabic style flavours. I also like to raost some vegetables with the meat; potato, caroot... anything you like really.

Here is my Freekeh with lamb shanks recipe:

4 Lamb shanks
One potato
Two Carrots
Mushrooms 200g
Olive oil 2-3 tbsp
Black pepper 1tsp
Salt 2tsp
Paprika 2tsp
Chilli powder 1tsp
Allspice 2tsp
Juice of half a lemon

For the freekeh:
Freekeh 2 cups
Chicken stock 2 cups (stock cube are a good alternative)
Boiling water 2 cups
Green peas 200g
Pine nuts 30g
Ghee clarified butter 2-3 tbs (leave out for a healthy version, it adds a great flavour though!)
Salt
Pepper

Heat the oven to 200C.

Mix the oil, lemon juice and all the spices to make a spicy rub with Arabic flavours. Rub the mixture into the shanks to cover completely and get some of the mix into the muscle fibres. Arrange the shanks in a deep roasting tin bone side up. Cut the potato and carrots into chunky cubes and add with the mushrooms to the tin around the shanks. If you have any spice mix left drizzle over the vegetable. Otherwise season with salt and pepper. Add a little water to the tin to prevent the spice mix from burning.

Cover the tin with foil and roast on the high heat for 30 minutes. Turn the oven down to 170C and continue cooking for another 120 - 150 minutes. Take the foil off for the last 45 minutes. After you take the foil off paste the meat with juices from the tin every 15 minuets or so to stop it drying.

Wash the freekeh in a large bowl. The burnt grains and any residual chaff will float on top. Pour away with the water. You don't need to get rid of every floating grain. You need the smokey flavour they give. Soak the freekeh in cold water for 30 minutes.

In a heavy bottom pan add the freekeh, water and stock. Bring to hard boil then turn the heat to medium and cook for around 30 - 45 minutes. Taste the freekeh to make sure it is fully cooked. The texture should be a bit al dente. If the pot is getting too dry add a little bit of boiling water. Add the peas 5 - 10 minutes from the end (I cooked them for longer than I should in the picture above).

While the freekeh is cooking fry the pine nuts (and some almonds if you wish) in the Ghee butt till golden brown. Remove the nuts quickly before they burn. Preserve the butter for later.

Once you are ready to serve heat the butter until smoking hot. Pour very carefully over the freekeh put and mix through.

Serve the shank on a bed of freekeh with the vegetable on the side. Sprinkle the pine nuts on top.

Serve with some yogurt or Syrian style Tzatziki.

Signature dish: Sea bass with Syrian style warm lentil salad

I can't believe a whole month has passed without me writing a word on my blog. To my defence (I keep telling myself) I moved house, I moved job, I moved city (Syrian Foodie in Essex nowadays), I have a three months old baby, I am organising an international medical conference and I have a couple of research projects that I am so far behind on. I think I have a very valid excuse!

To start me writing again I decided to write about my "signature dish" but which one? I thought long and hard about that one. I wanted my signature dish to be something I created. I wanted something modern and elegant. And finally a dish with a true Syrian flavour to it. (speaking of elegant, I am not happy with the pictures I have. when I cook this dish again I will take new photos and re-post).

Us Damascene are not big fish eaters. Many house holds in Damascus would eat fish less than once in a year. And when we decide to eat it we use the most an imaginative way of cooking fish, deep fried. Don't get me wrong, I love deep fried fish with Arabic bread and nice taratour sauce on the side but I love fish cooked with a bit more imagination. I love combining fish with interesting salads, I love fish curries and I love fish with vegetables or beans on the side. So when I wanted to create an interesting fish dish and give it a Syrian flavour was particularly challenging.

Lentil and fish is a classic combination. From experience I believe the less you do to a nice piece of fish the better so I decided to leave the fish as simple as I can and turn my attention to the lentils to Syrianise it. What I did in essence was to take a simple classic Ful bi Ziet (broad beans in olive oil) and replace the broad beans with lentils. Add a piece of nice fish and the result works a treat and unmistakably Syrian.


Here is my Sea bass with warm lentil salad:

Sea bass fillet skins on 1-2 per person
Dry green lentils 100g
One large tomato
One onion
Chopped parsley 30g
Lemon juice
Olive oil
Garlic two cloves
Salt
Black pepper

Wash the lentil and cook in plenty of salted water until nice and tender. This might take 20 - 30 minutes depending on the lentil. Drain and keep warm.

Chop the tomato and onion as fine as you can. Crush the two cloves of garlic and add with the lemon juice and parsley to the tomato and onion.

Heat a heavy-bottom large pan. Season the fish with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Add a little oil to the pan and cook the fish fillets skin side first. You need to press the fish fillet down with your hand to prevent the skin curling. Once started cooking you can add the next fillet and repeat the same process. Once the skin is gold and crispy turn the fillet to cook the other side. The whole cooking process should not take more than few minutes.

Add the warm lentils to the salad. Season with salt and a generous amount of olive oil. Spoon some of the lentil salad and arrange the fish on top. Drizzle with olive oil.

Ramadan Special: Oven Cheese Fatayer

Few weeks ago I discovered a new ingredient, Lavash bread. I have always seen it on Middle Eastern grocery shops in West Ealing but I never thought about trying it until recently, and what a discovery! Lavash is a type of very thin bread native to Turkey, Iran, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. The bread is a beautifully versatile ingredient that can be used to make pastries, borak and even oven samosa. For those of you familiar with Syrian breads, lavash is somewhat a cross between Saj bread and Tanoor Bread.

In Ramadan pastries has an essential role on the Iftar table. It adds a nice variety to the meal and nice side to a warm bowl of soup. Cheese, meat and spinach are the classic fillings.

For today's recipe I tried to create a cheese filling that doesn't require a trip to a Middle Eastern shop. I wanted to make a cheese filling that resembles the taste of that used in cheese borak in Syria but without the use of any "specialty" cheeses. I will have to say, the experiment was a great success. Even better than I expected!

Of course using Lavash bread defies the purpose of this whole exercise. So if you want to keep "high street supermarket only" tag to your dish you can use filo pastry or even puff pastry although the latter will produce a completely different dish.


Here is my Oven Baked Cheese Fatayer recipe:

Lavash bread 400 g
Feta 250g
Grated mozzarella 250g
Parsley 50g
Butter 50g
Salt
Black pepper
Milk
one Egg

Heat the oven to 200 degrees.

Mash the feta cheese with a fork and mix it with Mozzarella, chopped parsley, egg, salt and freshly ground black pepper. If your mix is too thick you can add a splash of milk. Be careful not to add too much other wise you will end up with a soggy pastry base.

Butter the bottom of a small baking tin. Add two layers of the bread brushing each layer with melted butter. Spread halt the cheese mixture then another bread layer, more cheese then the top bread layer. Brush the top generously with butter to get a crispy finish.

Bake in the oven for twenty minutes until the top is golden. Let cool for few minutes, cut to individual portions and serve.

Spinach Stew

I haven't cooked spinach since I met my wife few years ago. Although it was one of my favourite vegetables to eat as a child, Nada didn't like it so I didn't bothered cooking it. I never questioned what about spinach she didn't like. Then it all came clear. I had the misfortune of trying Sabzi!

Sabzi for those who don't know it is a Persian way of cooking spinach along with few other green herbs. The dish is also popular in Iraq especially in the south of the country. Sabzi was by far the worst thing I ever tasted in my life, and trust me I don't make such statement lightly. Everything was wrong about Sabzi. The combination of the herb, spices and the overpowering dried lime didn't work for me at all. Apologies to my Iranian and Iraqi readers who like the dish.

No wonder my wife didn't like spinach if this is the only version she tried. You can't taste the spinach among all these overpowering flavours.

Spinach is one of these delicate flavoured vegetable and to make the most of it you need to use with similarly gentle flavoured ingredients. Italians got it absolutely spot on using spinach with the equally delicate Ricotta cheese. Persians (Sabzi) and Indians (Sag Aloo) got it wrong in my book.

Last week I went on the mission of setting the record straight and introducing my wife to the way Syrians cook spinach.

I cook my spinach stew-style with braised lamb cubes but you can make an easier and much quicker version using minced meat. The latter is the more common version in Syria.


Here is my Spinach Stew with Braised Lamb recipe:

Lamb cubes 400g
Spinach 600g
One medium onion
Chopped green coriander
Garlic 2 cloves
Salt
Pepper 1/2 tsp
Allspice 1/2 tsp
Two pods of Cardamom (optional)
Two cloves (optional)
Olive oil

Start by browning the lamb cubes in olive oil in a heavy-bottom pot. Once brown on all sides roughly cut the onion and add to the pot. Season with salt, pepper, allspice cardamom and cloves. Cover with boiling water. Bring back to boil then turn the heat to medium and let the meat simmer until fully cooked and falling away with gentle pressure. It usually takes between one and two hours depending on the quality of the lamb and the size of the cubes.

Braising lamb and the using the resulting gravy is a very popular method in Syrian cooking. This is usually the base for most stew dishes. Chicken is usually prepared in a similar manner before the meat is taken of the bone and used in the different dishes. I like to add the cloves and cardamom to take the fatty edge of lamb meat and to add an "Arabic" flavour to my dishes. They serve a similar purpose of Bouquet Garni in French cooking.

Back to the spinach stew, remove the cardamom and cloves and some of the stock if you made a large amount. You will need almost 250mls of stock for that amount of spinach. Add more or less according to your taste and how you like your stew.

Add the spinach to the pot, cover and cook for five minutes. Add a handful of chopped coriander and crushed garlic. Cover and cook for another five minutes.

Serve with a wedge of lemon, nice crusty bread and vermicelli rice.

Syrian Fajitas(ish)

I was never a fan of fusion cuisine. I am still to try a fusion dish that tastes better or even comparable to its ancestors. Usually it is the flavour combinations that ruins the experience for me.

Personally I always found that fusion between two geographically close cuisines works better than two wide apart. May be because neighboring countries use similar ingredients so when you fuse the two cuisine, flavours don't come out of place.

So for somebody with such views to post a fusion recipe is a bit hypocritical, but I really love this dish and felt obliged to share it with you.

The recipe is definitely more Syrian than it is Mexican. The flavours and ingredients combinations is Syrian while the style and cooking methods is Mexican. I am not sure if that qualifies as fusion cuisine strictly speaking. See and judge by yourself.


Here is my Syrian Fajitas recipe:
Beef steak 500g (I use Sirloin steak)
One red pepper
One yellow pepper
Large onion
Salt
Pepper 1/2tsp
Paprika 1tsp
Chilli powder 1/2tsp
Allspice 1/2tsp
Dijon mustard 1tsp
Vegetable oil

Parsley and Onion Salad
One red onion
Parsley 70g
Juice of half a lemon

Tahini Sauce
Tahini 4tbsp
Juice of half a lemon
Salt
Water

Two large tomatoes

8 Tortillas


Start by slicing the steak into this strips. Marinade for an hour if you have time in all the spices, salt and a little olive oil. Slice the onion and peppers into similar size strips. Heat a large frying pan or wok until very hot. Start by frying the onion in a small amount of vegetable oil for a couple of minutes. Don't over cook as the vegetables need to be a bit crunchy. Add the meat and continue to cook then add the peppers and cook for another couple of minutes.

While waiting for the meat to marinade prepare the sides.

Chop the parsley and slice the red onion very thinly. Mix together with the lemon juice.

Add the tahini, lemon juice to a bowl and start mixing with a spoon. The mixture will become stiff and light in colour. Add a little water and mix again. Add the water small amount at a time until the mixture loosens to the consistency you want. It needs to be fairly loose but not water-runny. Add salt to taste.

Thinly slice the tomatoes. Warm the tortillas.

Serve the meat and all the side dishes and the warm tortillas. Guests can make their own wraps on the table. This recipe is enough for four people.

Mufaraket Batata

Mufarakeh is another one of these generic names of various vegetable dishes. They share very little between them some are vegetarian like Mufaraket Kusa (courgettes mufarakeh), some use eggs, and some are cooked with ground meat like today's dish Mufaraket Batata (Potato Mufarakeh). The only common factor I could think of is the simplicity of these dishes. They are usually easy to make, quick, simple and filling making them a perfect students and single men food.

The word Mufarakeh could be roughly translated to Rubbed or Massaged. Like Mnazaleh, the name doesn't make much sense especially non of the dishes called mufarakeh I could think of contains any rubbing or massaging of the ingredients.

Mufarakeh is not a modern Syrian word. Muhammad bin Hasan Al-Baghdadi described a dish called Mufarakeh in his book Kitab Al-Tabeikh (The Book of Cooking) in 1226. The dish he described is a scrambled egg-like dish made from chopped chicken livers, egg yolks and spices.

Potato Mufarakeh is a simple dish of potatoes, onions and minced meat. Traditionally the potato is cut into small cubes, fried and cooked with the meat in a pot. The result is a yummy dish but not great looking. I made some adjustment to the recipe mainly to make it more presentable. It is in a way a deconstructed version of the original dish.


Here is my Mufaraket Batata recipe:
Potatoes 800g
Minced lamb 400g
One large onion
Ghee clarified butter 1tbs
Vegetable oil
Chicken stock 250ml
Pine nuts 50g (optional)
Salt
Pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 200 C.

Start by preparing the meat mixture. Finely chop the onion and fry in the Ghee butter on medium heat till soft. Add the meat and continue to cook till fully cooked. Season with salt and pepper and add the pine nuts towards the end when all the water has evaporated from the meat mixture. The meat need to be well seasoned as it is the main flavouring ingredient.

Peel and slice the potatoes into 5 mm thick slices. Fry in vegetable oil till almost done. Drain on a kitchen towel.

In a deep roasting dish, arrange a layer of the potato slices and sprinkle some salt. Spoon the meat mixture into a thick layer. Arrange the rest of the potato slices on the top. Pour the chicken stock carefully. Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground black pepper and bake in the oven for 30 - 40 minutes till the surface is golden crisp.

Serve with a generous squeeze of lemon, Arabic bread and salad on the side.

One Hundred and One Mezze: 17. Fried Cauliflower

Today's dish is simply deep fried cauliflower. Deep frying vegetables is a unique method of Levantine cuisine ... I wrote the last sentence and immediately realised that it is not that unique. I just remembered Japanese Tempora Vegetables and Indian Pakoras. I decided to stick with the word unique as we don't dip our vegetables in batter as the Japanese and the Indian variety. We simply slice them, fry them and serve them.

Fried cauliflower can be served as part of "Ma'ali" meal. Ma'ali is Arabic for "fry up". But unlike English fry up ours is totally vegetarian. Different types of different types of fried vegetables served with salads, herbs, tomatoes and Arabic bread. Ma'ali is especially popular in summer months in Syria and a must for family picnics.

In restaurants ma'ali are usually served as part of mezze spread. Although many small family run restaurants in Damascus country side would be more than happy to serve you a full meal of ma'ali with their finest salads.

I like to serve fried cauliflower with a tahini based dipping sauce. Alternatively you can serve it simply with a sprinkle of salt and a squeeze of lemon.

Here is my recipe:

Cauliflower
Vegetable oil
Tahini 3tbsp
Half a Lemon
Cumin 1tsp
Salt
Garlic 2 cloves crushed

Cut the cauliflower into small florets. Heat the vegetable oil and fry the cauliflower till golden brown.

Mix all the sauce ingredients and wisk. The tahini wil become stiff and lighter colour. Add a little water and wisk again. keep ading water till the tahini sauce loosens again. Add enough water to get a runny consistancy.

Serve with fresh Arabic bread.

One Hundred and One Mezze: 15. Beetroot Mutabal

This dish is not a traditional Syrian mezze. It made its way onto the menu of few Damascene restaurants in the last few years. Travel guides favourite, Lailas, serves a version of this dish that was much appreciated by ABC reporter on her visit to Syria.

I will have to admit that I never tried this dish in a restaurant so I don't have a reference point. I just made up this recipe the way I like it. It is essentially the same recipe I use for Mutabal but I use beetroot instead of aubergine. The combination of the sweet taste of the beetroot, sour yoghurt and the earthy flavour of tahini works surprisingly well together. This dish works very well served next to lamb kebabs.

Here is my Beetroot Mutabal recipe:
Cooked Beetroot 250g
Tahini 2tbsp
Yoghurt 2tbsp
Lemon
Salt

In a food processor start add the beet root tahini and yoghurt. Process till fine and well mixed. Add a squeeze of lemon and salt to taste.

Spread in a plate. Decorate with pine nuts and a drizzle of olive oil. Serve with Arabic flat bread.

30 Minutes BBQ!

The other day I finished work quite late and my wife was working from home and very busy. We were starving so I wanted something quick but I wasn't in the mood for a take away. I wanted something that tastes of home.

So on my way back I went to tesco for some inspiration. In the meat isle I found chicken breasts ready cut into cubes. Nothing could possibly cook quicker. Perfect choice but what to do with it? I walked into the vegetable isles and I found these most beautiful Ramiro peppers. I love these peppers, sweet and delicate, I especially like them grilled. I got an idea. I am going to make a barbecue!

Not a full barbecue at seven in the evening in the middle of winter of course, but one Syrian variety, Shish Tawook.

Shish Tawook is a chicken breasts kebab very popular in Syria, Lebanon and Turkey were the name originates. There are many different recipes on marinading the chicken but they all share an essential ingredient, yoghurt.

In Syria Shish Tawook is always served with Toum, a delicious garlic sauce/dip that marries beautifully with all grilled chicken varieties. Due to time restrains I didn't make a proper Toum (I will post a recipe sometime in the future) but I made my super-fast Toum instead. Shish tawook is either served as a part of a barbecue platter with bread, mezze ... etc. or, quite often, as a sandwich in a flat bread roll or a bun.

Shopping is done. Now I am walking home, almost seven, and I set myself 30 minutes target from start to finish.

00:00:00
Walked through the door, stop watch started. Oven turned on to 200 degrees, Arabic bread out of the freezer.

00:00:47
Started to marinate the chicken, yoghurt, paprika, salt .... etc. Red onion and red pepper chopped.

00:03:14
Griddle pan on the cooker on maximum temperature. Meat and vegetables started to go onto the skewers.

00:06:26
Pan still not hot enough. I should start preparing the salad.

00:09:07
Finally, chicken is on the griddle pan. Salad chopping still going.

00:11:56
Chicken nicely charred on one side. Turned to the other side and the pan into the oven. I am still on time, chicken needs 12-13 minutes in the oven.

00:16:41
Vinegar, sumac, olive oil, lemon juice ... salad is ready. Now to the garlic sauce.

00:24:00
Chicken still needs another minute or so in the oven. I will slice the cucumber pickle and get the sandwiches ready.

00:25:33
Chicken out of the oven. I only have a couple of minutes to take a decent photo for the blog.

00:29:15
Photos taken. Sandwiches ready. Salad in the plates. 45 seconds to spare.

Here is my home made shish tawook recipe:
Chicken breast cubes 400g
Red onion
Red pepper

For the Marinade:
Yoghurt 2tbsp
Vinegar 1tsp
Paprika 1tsp
Chilli powder 1/2tsp
Garlic powder 1tsp
Black pepper 1/2tsp
Salt
Olive oil 2tbsp

Super-fast Toum sauce:
Mayonnaise 4tbsp
Greek style yoghurt 2tbsp
White wine vinegar 1tsp
Garlic 3-4 cloves, crushed
Lemon
Salt

Mix all the marinade ingredients, add the chicken and ideally leave in the fridge for a couple of hours. Cut the red peppers and the red onion into 1 inch squares. You can use green peppers or mushrooms if you wish. Once the chicken is marinated start to put it on the skewers alternating between a pieces of vegetables and chicken.

If it is summer cook on a coal barbecue in the garden. Otherwise heat a griddle pan till very hot. Put the chicken skewers and don't turn till one side starts to char to give the beautiful barbecue flavour. Once one side is ready turn the skewers and put the pan in a 200C hot oven to finish cooking for around 12 minutes. You can cook it fully on the griddle pan if you wish but I find the meat becomes too dry this way.

Mix all the ingredients of the Toum sauce with Salt and lemon to taste.

Serve the shish tawook with Arabic bread, toum, salad and whatever mezze you like. Or simply spread some of the toum sauce on the Arabic flat bread, add pickles and tomatoes if you wish and roll. In Turkey they serve the shish tawook with white rice and salad.

Syrian Cheese Cake

Thia is my first crack on making sweets for the blog. I am not a desert kind of cook. And I am not a good baker even. This partly because I have some kind of mental illness preventing me from following recipes. I just can't help to change any recipe I am attempting I add stuff, change things around and I don't do measuring cups. This could be detrimental to some delicate dough recipes. But hey what can I do, it is an illness after all!!

So, if you come from such poor abilities like myself you would attempt something safe first. NO! Not me unfortunately. I decided to create something totally from my imagination. I wanted to make cheese cake but I wanted to make it as Syrian as I can which was a challenge.

To make it Syrian I looked for inspiration from our sweets. There is very few cheese based Syrian sweets: Kenafeh Nabulsiyeh (Cheese Kenafeh), Katyef Be Jebneh (Cheese stuffed pan cakes , fried and dipped in sugar syrup) and Halwet Jeben. The first two didn't offer me any ideas but the third gave me some hope.

Halawet Jeben is a specialty sweet of Hama, a small city in central Syria. It is a sweet dough made from sugar, cheese and semolina. This is stuffed with cream, rolled and cut into bite size pieces. The dough is stiffer than what you would expect is cheese cake but that can be adapted.

Biscuit base was my next challenge as I decided against using the traditional base. Instead I thought Filo pastry is the perfect replacement. It can't get more Syrian than that. Almost 90% of Syrian sweets are made of it.

Choosing cheese was not a problem. Akawi was the obvious and only option. This cheese is used for all the above mentioned sweets. Akawi is a white cheese with low salt content, melts very well and doesn't have a strong flavour which makes it ideal for sweets making. The nearest tasting cheese is the dry mozzarella that you use for pizza. Although Akawi has a low salt content it still need to be de-salted before use in sweets.

Finally for the dish to receive the Syrian seal of authenticity, I added a splash of orange blossom water (Ma' Zahher is Arabic).

Here is my recipe:

Milk 500ml

Double Cream 200ml

Sugar 175g

Semolina 150g

Orange Blossom Water 2tbs

Akawi Cheese 500g

Butter

Filo Pastry 6 large sheets

Icing sugar

If you are using frozen pastry make sure it is defrosted in advance.

Slice the cheese into 5mm thick slices. Put in a big bowl and under running water for 30 minutes to wash the salt away. Change the water completely every few minutes. The cheese should lose most of its saltiness. Drain.

Heat the oven to 160c.

In a pot add the milk, cream and sugar stir while heating till all the sugar has melted. Add the semolina and orange blossom water. Before boiling point add all the cheese and whisk till all the melted cheese is mixed in. Take of the heat and keep whisking for few minutes till it is smooth and well mixed.

Melt the butter and brush the base and edges of a 24cm (9inch) springform cake tin. Arrange your Filo pastry sheets so half of it is inside the tin and the rest out side to be fold on top. Make sure the pastry covers the whole tin(photo above right). You need to brush every layer with butter to stick in place.

Tip the cheese mixture. Wrap the Filo sheets on top in a random wrinkled pattern (photo). Again brush with butter.

Bake in the oven for one hour till nice and golden. Let cool down for few hours then put in the fridge over night.

Dust with icing sugar and enjoy.