Recipes
Harak Osbao (lentils and pasta with tamarind, sumac and pomegranate)
This is one of Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi's contributions to Cook for Syria a brilliant fund-raising book of middle-eastern inspired recipes from top food writers which was conceived and curated last year by instagrammer Clerkenwell Boy*.
Apparently the name of the recipe means 'he burnt his finger', a reference to it being so irresistible that you can't help but get stuck in.
According to Ottolenghi "It is a dish fit for a feast but extremely comforting and delicious with all the toppings mixed in."
Serves 8-10
40g tamarind, soaked with 200ml boiling water
250g fettuccini, broken up roughly
60ml olive oil
2 red onions, thinly sliced (350g)
350g brown lentils
1.5 litres chicken stock
2 tbsp pomegranate molasses
6 garlic cloves, crushed
30g coriander, roughly chopped
20g parsley, roughly chopped
90g pomegranate seeds
2 tsp sumac
2 lemons cut into wedges
Flaky sea salt and black pepper
Mix the tamarind with the water well to separate the pips. Strain the liquid into a small bowl discarding the pips and set aside.
Place a large saucepan on a medium-high heat and once hot add the broken up fettucini. Toast for 1-2 minutes until the pasta starts to brown, then remove from the pan and set aside.
Pour 2 tablespoons of oil into the pan and return to a medium-high heat. Add the onion and fry for 8 minutes, stirring frequently until golden and soft. Remove from the pan and set aside.
Add the chicken stock to the pan and place on a high heat.Once boiling, add the lentils, reduce the heat to medium and cook for 20 minutes or until soft.
Add the toasted fettucine, tamarind water, 150ml water, pomegranate molasses, 4 teaspoons of salt and lots of pepper. Continue to cook for 8-9 minutes until the pasta is soft and almost all of the liquid has been absorbed and set aside for 10 minutes. The liquid will continue to be absorbed, but the lentils and pasta should remain moist.
Place a small saucepan on a medium-high heat with 2 tablespoons of oil. Add the garlic and fry for 1-2 minutes until just golden brown. Remove from the heat and stir in the coriander.
Spoon the lentils and pasta into a large shallow serving bowl. Top with the garlic and coriander, parsley, pomegranate seeds, sumac and serve with the lemon wedges
What to drink: I would chose a light, fruity young red from Syria's neighbour the Lebanon like the Domaine des Tourelles red which is currently selling for £9.50 from D & D Wine and around £10 from other indies.
From Cook for Syria (£25 Suitcase) Profits from the book are donated to aid children affected by the crisis in Syria. There are a whole load of delicious recipes in it from some of Britain's top food writers. Do buy a copy.
Bulgur, herb, walnut and pomegranate salad
Bulgur is a useful grain that you can apparently eat if you're diabetic as I discovered when I was staying with friends in France a while ago. It makes a great base for a simple salad that you can basically adapt to whatever you have in the storecupboard and fridge.
We ate it with barbecued lamb - it’s ideal as a BBQ side - but you could equally well serve it as a veggie or vegan main. Feel free to substitute whatever you’ve got handy. Some snipped dried apricots would be good if you don’t have a pomegranate, for instance.
Serves 4-6
3 tbsp olive or rapeseed oil
3-4 shallots or 2 larger banana shallots, peeled and sliced
125g bulgur wheat (I used a pack from the Waitrose Love Life range)
2-3 tomatoes, skinned, seeded and diced
1/2 cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced
2 sticks of celery, stringed and diced
2 tbsp salad dressing (I used a ready-made Maille vinaigrette with nut oil and red peppers that happened to be handy)
4-5 heaped tbsp chopped or torn herbs - I didn’t have any parsley so I used celery leaves, basil, mint and a bit of coriander,
75g walnut halves or pieces broken up into smaller pieces. Or substitute pine nuts
The seeds from half a pomegranate
1 tsp pomegranate molasses diluted with 1 tsp warm water
Heat the oil in a frying pan and cook the sliced shallots for 4-5 minutes until they’re beginning to brown at the edges. Tip in the bulgar and twice the volume of boiling water. Stir and simmer over a moderate heat until all the liquid is absorbed. Turn the heat down a bit towards the end to stop it burnng. Tip the grain into a shallow dish and spread it out.
While the bulgur is cooling prepare your veg. Once the grains are cool, tip the tomatoes, cucumber and celery into the salad and toss with the salad dressing. Mix in most of the herbs, nuts and pomegranate seeds leaving a few to top the salad. Sprinkle over the remainder and drizzle over the diluted pomegranate molasses
What to drink
Because we ate this with lamb we drank a cinsault - the Mas des Chimères oeillade but you could equally well drink a rosé
Pomegranate Eton Mess
To round off National Vegetarian Week here's a recipe from one of the most inspiring vegetarian cookery books I've come across: Sally Butcher's charming, idiosyncratic Veggiestan.. Sally runs an Iranian food store called Persepolis in south-east London so the recipes - which are terrific - all have an middle-eastern slant. It's also a cracking read!
This is how she introduces it:
Now I’m a bit cross about this dish. ‘Cos I sort of invented it. And then a friend of mine in Oz said she’d read a similar recipe in the Melbourne Times or some such. And then the divine Nigella came out with another version of it.
Anyway, this is my recipe. Completely unauthentic but drawing upon the very finest ingredients of the Middle East. And the perfect conclusion to a Middle Eastern feast.
Eton Mess has to be the easiest sweet in the world to prepare. And, as this recipe shows, it is so easy to tart up.
Rose syrup is easy to find in Greek shops – ask for ‘triandafilou’.
Serves 4
2 egg whites
100g/3½oz/½ cup caster sugar
¼ teaspoon baking powder
(or replace the above 3 ingredients with 4–5 shop-bought meringue nests)
2 medium pomegranates
250ml/9fl oz/1 cup whipping/double cream
2 tablespoons rose syrup
handful of rose petals (optional decoration)
Meringues first. Preheat your oven to 160ËšC/325ËšF/Gas mark 3. Whip the egg whites until they start to peak, and then fold in the sugar little by little, followed by the baking powder. Line a baking tray with baking parchment, and then spoon the mixture on to it in random blobs – the finished product is to be broken up anyway, and so appearance and uniformity are irrelevant.
Turn the oven down to 120ËšC/250ËšF/Gas mark ½, and pop the tray in there for 2 hours. If you have time on your side, and the luxury of an airing cupboard at home, take the meringues out of the oven a little earlier, cover them lightly with a cloth and leave them in the airing cupboard overnight – this will get you the perfect, light finish.
Next to the pomegranates. Take one in both hands and gently knead it all around with your thumbs: you will be able to feel the seeds inside popping as you go. Do not do this too vigorously, as you may burst the skin, which will at the very least splatter you with largely indelible red juice. After a couple of minutes, make a small incision in the skin of the pomegranate, and invert it over a glass: you should now be able to squeeze out the juice from all the seeds you have burst. Now that the tension in the skin has been eased, it will be easy to pry the fruit open, and you will be able to crumble all the intact seeds into a bowl. Repeat this exercise with the other pomegranate.
Next, whip the cream together with the rose syrup and the pomegranate juice. Such a pretty pink, no?
Assembly time. Don’t do this until just before you want to serve – the whole thing will sink slowly if you do it too early. Break the meringue roughly into the rose cream, and then stir in most of the pomegranate seeds. Arrange a few rose petals around your chosen serving dish, pile the Eton mess into the centre, and strew with the reserved pom seeds.
Note:
Never choose a pom because it will look good in your fruit bowl; generally speaking the ones with the tauter, drier skins and the slightly angular shape are best. Size is immaterial – the smaller ones are often the sweetest.
What to drink:
You need a fresh-tasting young dessert wine with good acidity for this. A late harvest Sauvignon Blanc or Riesling would be ideal or, echoing the rose syrup, a vendange tardive Gewurztraminer
Recipe from Sally Butcher’s Veggiestan, published by Pavilion. Recipe photography by Yuki Sugiura.
RSSLatest post
What food to pair with MalbecMost popular
.jpg)
9 great wine pairings for duck (updated)
My latest book
How to Drink without DrinkingNews and views
.jpg)
Fine Wine and Fast Food
About Fiona
About Matching Food & Wine
Work with me
