RICE
Basmati is my go-to rice on the side if I’m serving a stew with lots of sauce, and it’s essential in dishes in which light, fluffy rice is needed, for example, my Palestinian Spiced Rice with Chicken (see here). Pudding rice isn’t just used for desserts; we use this stubby variety in recipes where the rice part of a stuffing, as in the Stuffed Cabbage Leaves with Spiced Minced Lamb and Rice (see here). The sticky nature of the grains helps to meld all the ingredients together and maintain the shape of the cabbage parcels.
ROSE WATER AND ORANGE BLOSSOM WATER
I buy these scented waters in big bottles, as they are better value. I quite often advise the chefs not to be cautious about adding these waters to dishes. The orange blossom water adds a really interesting twist to the Date, Almond, Orange Blossom & Labneh Smoothie (see here), while the rosewater is a must in the Roasted Aubergine, Rose, Honey & Labneh Tart (see here).
SALT
You’ll notice that most of the recipes in this book specify a measured quantity of salt in the ingredients list. It’s so important to season food properly as this helps to bring the flavours of all the ingredients together and enhance them. I like sea salt, but you may need to grind it to make it finer if you’re making bread, so that it disperses through the flour properly.
SESAME SEEDS
These tiny little seeds pack a punch once they’re toasted – see my gorgeous breakfast feta recipes (see here). They also give a great texture to falafel or to finish off our renowned Sesame Seed Bread (see here).
SUMAC
This is one of my absolute favourite spices. I love the deep red colour and the lemony, slightly sour flavour. The bush that these berries come from originated in the Middle East. The berries are dried and ground into powder. A sprinkling is perfect with sweet-flavoured ingredients such as tomatoes, so try it in my Village Tomato Salad (see here).
TAHINA
Along with extra-virgin olive oil and pomegranate molasses, tahina is one of those store-cupboard ingredients that I have to keep in. I buy it in a big plastic tub – it’s cheaper that way – and keep it in the cupboard next to the salt and pepper, so it’s always to hand. You may spot it labelled as ‘tahini’ in supermarkets. Anyone close to me knows how much I love aubergines, so even simple dishes such as grilled or roasted aubergines are served with a drizzle of tahina over the top, to make them taste even better. I also love it in the amazing New Potatoes & Green Tahina Salad (see here).
ZA’ATAR
I couldn’t live without za’atar, the spice blend of wild thyme, sesame seeds, sumac and salt, and I will add it to anything. It’s a must on man’ousha (see pages) and I particularly love it pressed into halloumi – see Za’atar-crusted Halloumi (see here). Just so you know, we call wild dried thyme za’atar, too.
My mum used to make this favourite of mine for me, my brothers and my sister. Breakfast was pretty busy for her with seven of us to feed, but she could rustle this up quickly and sometimes she made it for lunch instead. If she was really pressed for time, instead of waiting for the eggs to set, she’d scramble them into the tomato mixture, which I loved.
Here I’ve married the classic with one of my favourite ingredients, aubergine. You must make the sauce in an ovenproof frying pan, as the eggs are baked right at the end. Just 5 minutes in a hot oven is all it takes for the whites to set and the yolks to still be soft and runny.
SHAKSHUKA BATENJAN
SERVES 6
olive oil, for frying
2 large aubergines, sliced into rounds
½ red onion, sliced 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
8 large tomatoes on the vine, chopped
125ml tomato juice
½ tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper
½ tsp cumin (optional)
6 large eggs
100g feta cheese, roughly chopped
TO SERVE
a few parsley sprigs and a large mint sprig
warm pitta bread
Preheat the oven to 220°C/200°C fan/gas mark 7.
Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large frying pan. Season the aubergine slices and fry them in batches for 3–4 minutes on each side, until golden and tender, adding more oil as necessary. Transfer the slices to a plate as they are cooked.
Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a medium frying pan and sauté the onion gently over a low-to-medium heat for about 8 minutes, stirring every now and then, until softened. Stir in the garlic and cook for a further minute.
Tip the tomatoes into the pan along with any juice and stir into the onion. Cook for 8 minutes until the tomatoes have broken down and softened – they should be a pulp. Pour in the tomato juice and cook, again over a low heat, for 5 minutes. The sauce will be quite thick by this stage. Season with salt, black pepper and the cumin, if using.
Spread a layer of aubergine slices over a large, ovenproof dish, then spoon over half the tomato sauce. Repeat to make two layers.
Make a hole in the sauce with the back of a large spoon and crack an egg into it. Do the same all round the dish until you’ve positioned all the eggs. Scatter over the feta. Bake in the oven for 5 minutes.
Pick the leaves off the parsley and mint sprigs, and chop roughly. Scatter over the shakshuka and serve with the warm pitta bread.
This is a dish I had at a friend’s house on the outskirts of Beirut. We were totally spoilt there as his mum would cook four or five different dishes for breakfast every morning, and because she knew I loved this, she would always make it. It’s a big, open omelette, topped with tender chunks of aubergine, caramelised cherry tomatoes and bite-size cubes of halloumi – all seasoned with one of my favourite spice blends. If you want to get ahead with this to make it a really speedy dish to rustle up, you could cook the vegetables and cheese the day before and chill them. Just make sure you toss them in a pan to heat them through before topping the omelette.
BATENJAN WA HALLOUMI