Feast
Page 20
2. Halve the grilled eggplants lengthwise and scoop the flesh out of the skin. Put in a sieve to drain off the excess liquid. Transfer the eggplant flesh to a shallow bowl and mash with a potato masher or with a fork. Add the garlic, yogurt, and tahini. Season with salt to taste and mix well. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Keep warm.
3. To make the meat topping: Melt the butter in a deep skillet over medium heat. Add the lamb and sauté, breaking up any lumps, until it has lost all traces of pink. Add the chopped tomatoes, tomato paste, and ¼ cup (60 ml) water. Season with salt and pepper to taste and let bubble gently for 15 minutes or so, until the sauce has thickened and there is no excess liquid. Keep hot.
4. To serve, spread the eggplant puree over a serving platter, raising the edges so that you can spoon the minced meat inside the edge. Sprinkle the chopped parsley all over the edges and the toasted pine nuts over the meat. Serve immediately with bread.
Kibbeh Balls in Minty Yogurt Sauce
KIBBEH LABNIYEH
LEBANON | SYRIA
This is one of my favorite Lebanese/Syrian dishes, although I prefer the Lebanese version because of the added mint. The Syrian one is plain without any herbs, and most people stabilize the yogurt with cornstarch whereas few people in Lebanon do this. Instead, they use one or more eggs depending on the quantity of yogurt, which makes for a lighter, more refined texture.
SERVES 4
Kibbeh balls from Kibbeh in Sumac Sauce
Cooked Yogurt Sauce
Sea salt
1. Prepare the kibbeh balls as directed and put them uncooked in the freezer while you make the yogurt sauce.
2. Make the herb-garlic mixture as directed in step 1 of the cooked yogurt sauce recipe, using fresh mint in the herb-garlic mixture. Set the mint-garlic mixture aside.
3. Make the yogurt sauce as directed in step 2, and once the yogurt has boiled, drop in the barely frozen kibbeh balls, reduce the heat to low, and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally—do this gently so that you do not break the kibbeh balls. Stir in the mint-garlic mixture and simmer for a couple of minutes more.
4. Serve hot, preferably as soon as it is ready (see Note) in soup plates with spoons to scoop up the sauce.
NOTE: You can make this ahead and reheat it, but as with all dishes cooked in yogurt, you have to be careful not to let the yogurt curdle during reheating. You need to reheat over low heat and stir very regularly at the beginning and all the time at the end as the yogurt is about to boil.
Lebanese Dumplings in Yogurt Sauce
SHISH BARAK
LEBANON | SYRIA
These dumplings are time-consuming to make and I usually prepare a whole batch to put in the freezer so that I only need to make the yogurt sauce on the day I plan to serve shish barak, thus avoiding hours in the kitchen making the dumplings. You can do the same or you can use store-bought Turkish manti, which are the Turkish version of these dumplings, and cook them in your own yogurt sauce. Obviously ready-made is not as good as homemade, so here is a recipe to make them. I have found a similar recipe for this dish in a fifteenth-century Syrian cookery book, Kitab al-Tibakhah (the Book of Cookery), written by a legal scholar from Damascus, Ibn al-Mabrad or Ibn al-Mubarrad: “Shushbarak: You take minced meat and stuff it in dough rolled out like cut tutmaj [unfilled dough cooked in yogurt]. It is cooked in water until done. Then take off the fire and put yogurt, garlic and mint in it.” This recipe hasn’t changed much since. The Turkish version, which is called manti, is made by first boiling or baking the dumplings, then serving them with fresh yogurt spooned all over, whereas the Lebanese cook the dumplings in the yogurt sauce.
SERVES 4 TO 6
FOR THE DOUGH
1½ cups (175 g) unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling out
Sea salt
FOR THE STUFFING
1 small onion (3½ ounces/100 g), finely chopped
¼ teaspoon ground allspice
⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon
⅛ teaspoon finely ground black pepper
Sea salt
5 ounces (150 g) lean ground lamb
TO FINISH
Cooked Yogurt Sauce
Lebanese/Syrian Vermicelli Rice, for serving
Dried rose petals, for garnish
1. To make the dough: Mix the flour and a pinch of salt in a bowl. Make a well in the center and add ⅓ cup plus 2 tablespoons (110 ml) water to the well. Gradually bring in the flour and mix until you have a rough dough.
2. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and knead for 3 minutes. Shape the dough into a ball, invert the bowl over the dough, and let rest for 15 minutes. Knead for 3 more minutes, until you have a smooth, malleable, but rather firm dough. Cover with a damp cloth and let rest while you make the filling.
3. To make the filling: Put the onion in a medium bowl. Season with the allspice, cinnamon, pepper, and salt to taste and firmly rub the seasonings into the onion with your fingers until it softens. Add the lamb and mix with your hands until well blended with the onion. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary (see Note).
4. To make the dumplings: Sprinkle a little flour all over a large freezerproof platter and have it on hand to put the meat dumplings on it. Divide the dough into two balls. Flatten one slightly, dip both sides in the flour, shake off the excess flour and roll out into a large round about ⅛ inch (3 mm) thick. Use a 2-inch (5 cm) round pastry cutter to cut the dough into as many disks as you can, starting from the very edge and working your way around the outside then the inside. If you do not have a pastry cutter, use a thin-edged glass. Pick up the dough scraps, knead it into a small ball, and let it rest to make more dumplings once you have finished the first batch.
5. Turn the disks over. Lift one and lay it on the fingers of one hand. Place ¼ teaspoon stuffing in the center, and fold the dough over the filling to form a half-moon. With your free thumb and index finger pinch the edges tightly together into a thin flat edge. Fold the half-moon-shaped dumpling until the tip ends of the half-moon meet, pinch them well together, and stand the curled dumpling on the floured platter—the dumplings for shish barak should look like tortellini but with a flat rim. Continue making the dumplings and arranging them neatly on the platter until you finish both dough and filling.
6. Put the dumplings in the freezer until you need them. This should stiffen them a little and prevent their shape from being spoiled by handling when you drop them into the yogurt sauce. (If you are freezing them for later use, wait until they have frozen before covering them with plastic wrap so you don’t squash them.)
7. Prepare the yogurt sauce as directed, but keep the cilantro-garlic mixture separate. Take the dumplings out of the freezer and carefully drop them into the simmering yogurt. Bring back to a simmer and stir in the cilantro-garlic mixture. Simmer for 5 more minutes, or until the dumplings are done.
8. Sprinkle with a few dried rose petals and serve immediately as is or with Lebanese vermicelli rice.
Turkish Dumplings with Garlicky Yogurt
MANTI
TURKEY
The main difference between manti and shish barak is in the shape of the dumplings—tiny and square for manti and just small and round for shish barak—and the yogurt sauce, which is only warmed up and seasoned for manti but cooked for shish barak. These two differences result in very distinct dishes, even if the concept is the same. I am not sure how Turkish cooks manage to make dumplings that are smaller than the nail on your little finger, which is the criterion for those learning to make them, especially for young Turkish brides. I for one am not eligible to marry a Turk as my manti are bigger than my little fingernail. Fortunately, the size does not affect the taste. Some people bake their manti before ladling the yogurt onto it. I like the silky texture of boiled manti.
SERVES 6
FOR THE DOUGH
2 cups (240 g) unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling out the dough
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
; 1 organic egg
FOR THE FILLING
9 ounces (250 g) lean ground lamb
1 medium onion (5 ounces/150 g), grated on the fine side of a grater
A few sprigs flat-leaf parsley, most of the stems discarded, finely chopped
½ teaspoon finely ground black pepper
Sea salt
TO FINISH
4 cups (35 ounces/1 kg) Greek yogurt
4 cloves garlic, minced to a fine paste
Sea salt
4 tablespoons (60 g) unsalted butter
1 teaspoon pul biber or Aleppo pepper
1. To make the dough: Mix the flour and salt in a bowl and make a well in the center. Add the egg and ⅓ cup (80 ml) water and gradually bring in the flour. Knead until you have a rough dough.
2. Transfer to a lightly floured work surface and knead for 3 minutes. Shape the dough into a ball, invert the bowl over the dough, and let rest for 15 minutes. Knead the dough for 3 more minutes. Roll into a ball and cover with a damp towel. Let rest while you prepare the filling.
3. To make the filling: Combine the ground lamb, onion, parsley, pepper, and salt to taste (see Note) in a bowl. Mix with your hands, kneading the mixture, both to mix it well and make it smoother.
4. Form the manti: Divide the dough into 4 equal portions and roll each into a ball. Place one ball on a lightly floured work surface and cover the others. Roll out the dough as thinly as you can. Cut it into strips 1½ inches (3.5 cm) wide, then cut the strips crosswise into 1½-inch (3.5 cm) squares. Put a little meat stuffing in the middle of each square and either fold into triangles (which was the shape the Ottomans made) or shape them how they are made these days by lifting 2 opposite corners of the square and pinching them together, then lifting the other two corners so you have a kind of pouch with 4 angles. Pick up the dough scraps, knead together, then shape into a ball. Let it rest while you roll out another ball of dough to make more dumplings. Continue in the same way until you have used all the dough, including the scraps that you rerolled, and the filling. You should end up with 120 tiny dumplings—if you find it tedious to make these so small, make the squares bigger to make about 40 larger dumplings.
5. Bring a large pot with water to a boil over medium heat. Add salt to taste. Meanwhile, heat the yogurt in a double boiler until very warm. Add the garlic and salt to taste and keep warm.
6. Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat. When the butter starts sizzling, add the pul biber. Keep over very low heat.
7. Drop the manti into the boiling water and cook for 5 to 7 minutes. Drain well and transfer to a serving dish.
8. To serve, pour the warm yogurt all over and drizzle the pul biber butter over the yogurt. Serve immediately.
Fresh Almonds in Yogurt Sauce
YOĞURTLU ÇAĞLA AŞI
TURKEY
The recipe below comes from Filiz Hosukoglu, my great friend and guru for all things culinary in the Turkish city of Gaziantep. One day, after she’d seen my post online on fresh green almonds that can be eaten whole, she commented on how they cook them in yogurt in Turkey and when the nut inside is not yet fully formed. Within a month or so, the shell hardens and becomes inedible but is not yet so hard as to need cracking with a nutcracker. At this stage, the inner nut is fully formed and is the only edible part, along with the inner skin of course.
SERVES 4 TO 6
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
10½ ounces (300 g) lamb, cut into ½-inch (1 cm) cubes
Sea salt
4 cups (1 liter) boiling water
1 pound 5 ounces (600 g) fresh green almonds, halved, the soft immature kernels removed, rinsed
⅓ cup (60 g) cooked chickpeas, well rinsed if canned
FOR THE SAUCE
1½ cups (375 g) strained yogurt
1 organic egg
TO FINISH
2 tablespoons (30 g) clarified butter
½ teaspoon finely ground black pepper
½ tablespoon safflower (see Note)
Good bread, for serving
1. Put the oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the meat and a little salt. Sauté the meat until it has browned, about 5 minutes. Add the boiling water, reduce the heat, and let simmer for 30 minutes, or until the meat is tender.
2. Add the almond halves. (If the almonds are not fresh enough, blanch them first for 3 to 4 minutes to remove the acidic taste. You will be able to tell how fresh and tender they are if you taste one raw.) Cook for 30 more minutes, or until the fresh almonds are tender. Add the chickpeas and turn off the heat.
3. To make the sauce: Mix the yogurt with the egg in a separate pot. Place over medium-low heat and start stirring until the yogurt becomes hot enough to almost burn your little finger. (This is how Filiz’s grandmother used to describe the desired heat for the yogurt.) If the yogurt reaches a higher temperature or is allowed to boil without stirring, it will curdle. Add 2 to 3 tablespoons hot meat broth two or three times to the yogurt mixture to bring it to the same temperature as the broth.
4. Add the hot yogurt sauce to the meat, chickpeas, and fresh almonds. Cover and keep on very low heat—you do not want it to bubble, just to stay hot.
5. When ready to serve, combine the clarified butter, black pepper, and safflower in a skillet and place over medium heat. Wait until the butter starts sizzling. As soon as that happens, transfer the yogurt, meat, and almonds to a serving bowl. Drizzle the sizzling safflower butter all over the top. Serve immediately with good bread.
NOTE: Safflower is known as “bastard saffron,” and unscrupulous vendors in Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries often sell it as saffron to unsuspecting customers.
Spinach and Yogurt Spread
SPINACH BORANI
IRAN
It is said that the word borani comes from the name of Poorandokht, the daughter of a Sassanian king who was the first woman to rule Persia more than thirteen hundred years ago. She was apparently so keen on yogurt that various dishes using yogurt were created for her, and called poorani after her. Later, it was changed to borani. True story or not, borani refers to dishes cooked with yogurt. There are many variations, but they more or less follow the same principle of frying onions until caramelized, adding the vegetable of choice and the yogurt, and garnishing with saffron water and sometimes chopped walnuts.
SERVES 4
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion (5 ounces/150 g), halved and cut into thin wedges
1 pound (450 g) spinach (preferably baby spinach)
¼ teaspoon ground turmeric
½ cup (125 g) labneh
Sea salt
Pinch of saffron threads, soaked in 1 tablespoon water
Iranian Flatbread, for serving
1. Heat the oil in a large deep skillet or sauté pan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring regularly, until soft and golden, about 10 minutes. Add the spinach and turmeric and cook for a few minutes, still stirring regularly, until the spinach has wilted but not completely melted.
2. Transfer the mixture to a sieve to let the excess liquid drain off. Once the spinach has cooled and the excess liquid has drained, transfer to a bowl. Add the yogurt and salt to taste and mix well.
3. Transfer to a shallow serving bowl and make grooves here and there. Drizzle the saffron water into the grooves and serve with the bread.
Labneh and Tarragon Dip
LABNEH BIL-TARKHUN
SYRIA
Labneh is very easy to make. Just spoon your choice of yogurt—I alternate between sheep and goat yogurt—into a double layer of cheesecloth and let it drain for a few hours. The whey will drain off the yogurt and you will be left with creamy labneh, which you can have plain drizzled with very good olive oil and sprinkled with za’atar or use to make dips like the one below, which I discovered at Khawali restaurant in Damascus, back in the days when Syria was a peaceful country. The dip is a gorgeous pastel green color and it has an intriguing flavor, a combination of the subtle s
our tang of labneh and the heady aroma of crushed tarragon.
SERVES 6
2 ounces (60 g) fresh tarragon sprigs
1 small clove garlic, coarsely chopped
Sea salt
1½ cups (375 g) labneh
Extra-virgin olive oil, for garnish
Coarse sea salt and toasted sesame seeds, for garnish (optional)
Good bread, for serving
1. Strip the tarragon leaves off the stems and put in a mortar along with the garlic and a little salt. Crush with a pestle until totally pulverized and creamy.
2. Put the labneh in a bowl. Stir in the tarragon-garlic mixture. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.
3. Spread the dip onto a serving platter, making grooves here and there. Drizzle olive oil into the grooves and sprinkle with a little coarse sea salt and toasted sesame seeds if you feel like it. Serve with bread for dipping.
Eggplant and Yogurt Spread
BORANI-E BDENJN
IRAN
This is a wonderful dip with a subtle flavor of caramelized onion and saffron and a silky texture offset by the lovely crunch of the walnut garnish.
SERVES 4
2 large eggplants (1 pound 2 ounces/500 g)
¼ cup (60 ml) extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion (5 ounces/150 g), halved lengthwise and cut into thin wedges
1 clove garlic, minced to a fine paste
Sea salt and finely ground black pepper
½ cup (125 g) labneh
Pinch of saffron threads, soaked in 1 tablespoon water
⅓ cup (50 g) walnuts, coarsely chopped
Iranian Flatbread, for serving
1. Preheat the broiler to high.
2. Prick the eggplants in several places with the tip of a knife and place under the hot broiler. Broil for 30 to 40 minutes, turning them halfway through, until the skin is charred and the flesh is very soft. Halve the grilled eggplants lengthwise. Scoop out the flesh and place in a colander for about 20 minutes to drain off the excess liquid. Mash the eggplants.