Serves 4–6
1 pointed spring cabbage (about 500g/1lb 1oz), trimmed of any damaged outer leaves and finely shredded
Handful of cherry tomatoes, quartered
1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed (optional)
Juice of 1 lemon or to taste
50ml (2fl oz) extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt
½ tsp Aleppo pepper (optional)
Put the shredded cabbage and quartered tomatoes in a mixing bowl. Add the crushed garlic (if using), lemon juice and olive oil. Season with salt and Aleppo pepper (if using) to taste and toss the salad, being careful not to crush the tomatoes. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Serve immediately.
Turkish Burghul Salad
KISSIR
Kissir is the Turkish version of tabbuleh, with burghul and tomatoes being the main ingredients rather than parsley and tomatoes, which form the basis of tabbuleh. I am convinced that kissir is at the root of how tabbuleh came to be misinterpreted in the West as a grain salad. A food writer must have confused the two recipes, giving a recipe for kissir as one for tabbuleh, and the mistake stuck until very recently when cookbook authors, chefs and ready-meal producers finally understood that tabbuleh is a herb salad and not a grain one. This is not to say that kissir is inferior to tabbuleh in any way; it is just as scrumptious and healthy, with an intriguing sweet and sour taste imparted by the pomegranate syrup dressing. You can use lemon juice instead, if you prefer, which will give the salad a more straightforward tart flavour. I have adapted this recipe from one in my friend Nevin Halıcı’s Turkish Cookbook, though there are many variations. If you want to make it with pepper paste, for instance, omit the Aleppo pepper and stir in 1–2 tablespoons pepper paste with the pomegranate syrup and oil before using to dress the salad.
Serves 4–6
200g (7oz) fine burghul
2 small Spanish onions (about 150g/5oz total weight), peeled and very finely chopped
5 medium-sized firm ripe tomatoes (about 500g/1lb 1oz total weight), deseeded and diced into 1cm (½in) cubes
½ small green bell or Marmara pepper, deseeded and finely diced
Few sprigs of flat-leaf parsley, most of the stalk discarded, finely chopped
4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp Aleppo pepper
1½ tbsp pomegranate syrup or 3 tbsp lemon juice
Sea salt to taste
Put the burghul in a large mixing bowl and stir in 200ml (7fl oz) of boiling water a few spoonfuls at a time. Cover with a tea towel and leave to sit for 15 minutes.
When the time is up, stir the chopped onions into the burghul. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well. Taste, adjusting the seasoning if necessary, and serve immediately.
Stuffed Courgettes and Aubergines
MEHSHI KUSSA WA BATINJEN
Mehshi is possibly my all-time favourite dish for eating en famille – a homely yet sophisticated recipe that is as delicious as it is utterly satisfying. My grandmother often prepared it for us when we visited for lunch, and my mother always makes it for me when I return to Beirut. It is important to use the pale green courgettes sold in Middle Eastern shops. They are less watery than the regular dark green ones. It is also a good idea to select aubergines and courgettes that are more or less the same size for an elegant presentation; and of course choose ones that are very fresh. In Syria, some people cook the stuffed vegetables in a tomato sauce, but I prefer water, as in the recipe below, placing ripe tomatoes on the bottom of the pan to add both colour and flavour to the resulting sauce. And like my grandmother and mother, I also line the bottom of the pan with bones to enrich the cooking broth, although this is optional. An interesting variation on the courgettes is to use ’ajur, a variety of gourd that appears in the spring for a very fleeting season. Slightly bitter and with a striped skin, it is used by Syrian cooks to make this dish, stuffed with either rice or frikeh (‘burnt’ cracked wheat – see here). Perhaps one day an enterprising gardener will start planting ’ajur here, in which case I urge you use it as it is more interesting than courgettes with a more distinctive flavour.
Serves 8–10
1.2kg (2lb 10oz) medium-sized pale green courgettes (about 20 in total)
1kg (2lb 2oz) small aubergines (about 20 in total)
3–4 lamb bones (optional), rinsed under cold water
300g (11oz) ripe tomatoes, peeled and sliced
1kg (2lb 2oz) plain yoghurt, to serve
For the stuffing
200g (7oz) short-grain white rice (bomba, Calasparra or Egyptian), rinsed under cold water and drained
300g (11oz) freshly minced lean lean lamb, from the shoulder or shanks (either ask your butcher to mince the lamb, or do it yourself using the fine attachment on a meat grinder)
1 × 400g can of Italian chopped tomatoes
½ tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground allspice or Lebanese seven-spice mixture
1 tsp finely ground black pepper
Fine sea salt
First prepare the courgettes and aubergines. Cut off and discard the stem end of each of the courgettes and shave off the brown skin at the bottom. Cut off and discard the stem ends of the aubergines and remove any husks capping the skin. Next fill a large bowl with cold water in which to plunge the vegetables once they’ve been cored.
Holding one courgette firmly in your hand with your fingers wrapped around it and the cut top uppermost, insert a narrow apple corer (or a special Lebanese corer, if you can get hold of one) into the cut top and push down as close to the edge as possible (2–3mm/⅛in from the skin) and keep pushing until the corer is halfway down the courgette. Take out, insert the corer again next to the first incision and repeat until you cut a rosette all the way down the courgette, but leaving the bottom intact. Twirl the corer inside the courgette to loosen the pulp, and pull out the first piece. Slide it off the corer into a bowl (saving the pulp to make the courgette omelettes), then insert again and, with a circular motion, scrape the sides and bottom to remove as much pulp as possible, leaving walls 2–3mm (⅛in) thick. Do this gently and carefully, gradually extracting the pulp, or else you will split the top or pierce the sides or bottom of the courgette.
Plunge the cored courgette in the bowl of cold water, filling the inside with water. Finish coring the courgettes and leave to soak while you core the aubergines the same way. (You can use the aubergine pulp for a variation on the courgette omelettes, remembering to sauté it longer as it won’t cook so quickly.) Place the cored aubergines in the bowl of water and leave to soak with the courgettes while you make the stuffing.
Put the rice in a mixing bowl and add the minced meat and chopped tomatoes. Season with the spices and a little salt, and mix together with your hands so that all the ingredients are well blended. Pinch off a little of the mixture and sear in a hot pan to taste, then adjust the