Feast Read online

  Dedication

  For my late father, who

  would have preferred me

  to follow my first ambition

  to be the Arab Marie Curie

  but was then perfectly

  happy to see me switch to

  art, and later to food!

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Introduction

  Bread

  Pita Bread

  Saj Bread

  Somali Pancakes

  Iranian Flatbread

  Turkish Flatbread

  Moroccan Bread

  North African Multilayered Breads

  Arabian Pancakes

  Yemeni Bread

  Arabian Date Bread

  Paratha

  Naan

  Zanzibari Savory Doughnut

  Zanzibari Sesame Bread

  Indian Flatbread

  Savory Pancakes

  Uzbek Flatbread

  Kashgar Multilayered Non

  Filled and Topped Breads and Pies

  Moroccan Pigeon Pie

  Egg Briouats

  Southern Lebanese Za’atar “Pizza”

  Ramadan Bread

  Saudi Meat Pies

  Berber Meat Bread

  Lebanese/Syrian Savory Pastries

  Ground Meat Pide

  Turkish Meat Boreks

  Turkish “Calzone”

  North African Filled Bread

  Indonesian Multilayered Bread

  Indian Meat Breads

  Uighur Scallion Pancakes

  Bread-Based Dishes

  Senegalese Bread Rolls

  Arabian “Pasta” with Meat and Vegetables

  Saudi Eggplant Fatteh

  Saudi Meat Fatteh

  Lebanese Lamb Fatteh

  Egyptian Fattah

  Syrian Fatteh

  Arabian Meat and Vegetable Stew over Crispy Bread

  Sweet Recipes Using Bread

  The Bread of the Harem

  Egyptian Bread “Pudding”

  The Whole Beast

  Baby Goat Roast

  Iranian Stuffed Whole Lamb

  Saudi Roast Lamb Shoulder on a Bed of Fragrant Rice

  Saudi Camel Meatballs

  Moroccan Mechoui

  Moroccan Meat Kebabs

  Turkish Kebabs

  Lebanese Kebabs

  Lebanese Kafta

  Moroccan Kefta

  Meat Satay

  Chicken Satay

  Indian Galawati Kebabs

  Hyderabadi Kebab

  Grilled Lamb’s Liver

  Indian “Scotch Egg”

  Chicken Mishkaki

  Kashgar Kebabs

  Afghani Sikh Kebabs

  Iranian Ground Meat Kebabs

  Chicken Kebabs

  Lamb Shawarma Sandwich

  Baked Kibbeh

  Kibbeh in Sumac Sauce

  Grilled Syrian Kibbeh

  Kibbeh Balls with Quince in a Fresh Pomegranate Sauce

  Meatballs in Sour Cherry Sauce

  Chicken Tagine with Olives and Preserved Lemons

  Poussin Tagine with Carrots, Olives, and Preserved Lemon

  Lamb Tagine with Potatoes and Peas

  Lamb Tagine with Eggplant

  Moroccan Meatballs with Rice

  Lamb Stewed with Cumin

  Sweet-Savory Lamb Tagine for Eid El-Kbir

  Awadhi Chicken Korma

  Quail Tagine with Sweet Potatoes

  Iranian Chicken in Walnut and Pomegranate Sauce

  Aceh-Style Goat Curry

  Pakistani Chicken Curry

  Iranian Yellow Split Pea Stew

  Iranian Mixed-Herb Lamb Stew

  Iranian Lamb and Eggplant Stew

  Quince Stew

  Shanklish Salad

  Paneer

  Paneer Makhni

  Yogurt Drink

  Mango Yogurt Drink

  Sweet Yogurt Drink

  Cooked Yogurt Sauce

  Festive Jordanian Lamb in Yogurt over a Bed of Rice and Bread

  Lamb Shanks in Yogurt

  Grilled Eggplant Puree and Minced Meat in Tomato Sauce

  Kibbeh Balls in Minty Yogurt Sauce

  Lebanese Dumplings in Yogurt Sauce

  Turkish Dumplings with Garlicky Yogurt

  Fresh Almonds in Yogurt Sauce

  Spinach and Yogurt Spread

  Labneh and Tarragon Dip

  Eggplant and Yogurt Spread

  Yogurt and Elephant Garlic Dip

  Yogurt and Cucumber Dip

  Azerbaijani Yogurt Soup

  Rice, Grains, Pasta & Legumes

  Slow-Cooked Biryani

  Hyderabadi Biryani

  Awadhi Biryani

  Calcutta Biryani

  Malabar Chicken Biryani

  Emirati Biryani

  Indonesian Kebuli Biryani

  Saudi Shrimp “Risotto”

  Qatari Shrimp “Risotto”

  Qatari Chicken and Rice

  Saudi Lamb Kabsa

  Emirati Rice and Meat

  Qatari Festive Rice and Chicken

  Yemeni Chicken “Risotto”

  Sweet-Savory Rice

  Saudi Fish “Risotto”

  Lebanese Fish and Caramelized Onion “Risotto”

  Bengali Vegetable “Risotto”

  Koshari

  Zanzibari Coconut Rice

  Afghani Vermicelli Rice I

  Lebanese/Syrian Vermicelli Rice

  Afghani Vermicelli Rice II

  Plain Iranian Rice

  Rice with Fava Beans

  Herbed Polow

  Lentil Polow

  Baked Rice Cake with Lamb

  Jeweled Rice

  Festive Sweet-Savory Rice

  Indonesian Yellow Rice

  Indonesian Fried Rice

  Azerbaijani Sweet-Savory Rice

  Couscous with Seven Vegetables

  South Asian Meat, Legumes, and Wheat “Porridge”

  Wheat and Meat “Porridge”

  Persian Meat and Wheat “Porridge”

  Qatari Chicken “Porridge”

  Sweet Couscous

  Sweet-Savory Couscous with Chicken

  Moroccan Couscous with Monkfish

  Tunisian Fish Couscous

  Lebanese Couscous with Chicken

  Spicy Noodles with Shrimp

  Salim’s Pasta Sauce

  Classic Balaleet

  Umm Saeed’s Balaleet

  Bulgur and Nut Cakes

  Bulgur “Risotto” with Chickpeas and Lamb

  Chicken and Lamb with Frikeh

  Lamb Shanks with Chickpeas and Wheat

  Zanzibari Sweet Noodles

  Egyptian Split Lentil Soup

  Lebanese Lentil Soup

  Tunisian Chickpea Soup

  Moroccan Chickpea and Lamb Soup

  Lentil, Chickpea, and Bean Soup

  Meat, Beans, and Tomato Stew

  Iranian Pomegranate Soup

  Ful Medammes

  Nigerian Breakfast Fritters

  Lentil Kibbeh

  Cannellini Beans, Dill, and Eggs

  The Chicken That Flew

  Chickpea Flour Fritters

  The Sea

  Baked Stuffed Fish

  Baked Sea Bass with Tomatoes and Olives

  Moroccan Grey Mullet Stuffed with Swiss Chard

  Spicy Baked Fish with Herbs and Nuts

  Spicy Baked Fish in a Tahini, Herb, and Nut Sauce

  Bangladeshi Fish Head “Risotto”

  Indonesian Fish Head Curry

  Indonesian Crab Curry

  Indonesian Fish Curry

  Fish Kibbeh

  Fish in Tahini Sauce

  Fish Yassa

  Indonesian Fried Fish

&
nbsp; Algerian Fish Cakes

  Fried Mussel Brochettes

  Shrimp Brochettes

  Swordfish Brochettes

  Mackerel Tarator

  Pickled Swordfish

  Fish in Tamarind Sauce

  Stuffed Mussels

  Sardines Chermoula

  Fish Stewed in Spicy Coriander

  Arabian Spiced Fried Fish

  Arabian “Ravioli” with Fish

  Zanzibari Grilled Fish in Coconut Sauce

  Senegalese Fish Stew

  Spicy Baby Shark

  Emirati Fish in an Onion and Tomato Sauce

  Spices, Spice Mixtures & Spice Pastes

  Lebanese 7-Spice Mixture

  Dried Herb and Bulgur Mixture

  Garam Masala

  Indian Biryani Masala

  Qatari Biryani Masala

  Advieh

  Yemeni Spice Mixture

  Yemeni Mandi Spice Mixture

  Somali Spice Mixture

  Berbere Spice Mixture

  Arabian Spice Mixture

  Arabian Spice Mixture for Desserts

  Arabian Fish Spice Mixture

  Dukkah

  Yemeni Cilantro Chutney

  Harissa

  Spicy Shrimp Sambal

  Chili and Tomato Sambal

  Fresh Chili and Tomato Sambal

  Fresh Produce

  Tabbouleh

  White Tabbouleh

  Turkish Bulgur Salad

  Mixed Herb and Toasted Bread Salad

  Indonesian Vegetable and Egg Salad

  Scrambled Egg and Eggplant Dip

  Onion and Parsley Salad

  Eggplant in Tomato Sauce

  Moroccan Steamed Eggplant Salad

  Smoky Eggplant Dip

  Mario Haddad’s Fattoush

  Stuffed Grape Leaves Cooked on a Bed of Lamb Chops

  Iranian Stuffed Grape Leaves

  The Lord of Stuffed Vegetables

  Iranian Herb Omelet

  Iraqi Stuffed Onions

  Stuffed Cabbage Leaves

  Vegetarian Stuffed Swiss Chard

  Egyptian Mulukhiyah

  Lamb Shanks with Mulukhiyah

  Cauliflower in Tomato Sauce

  Vegetable Curry

  Fava Bean Salad

  Indian Fried Eggplant

  Wild Endive in Olive Oil

  Spinach with Paneer

  Iranian Pickled Eggplants

  Turkish Pickled Green Almonds

  Pink Pickled Turnips

  Eggplant with Walnuts and Garlic Preserved in Olive Oil

  Lime Pickles

  Green Mango Pickle

  Saudi “Salsa”

  Falafel

  Hommus

  Tahini Sauce

  Saudi Mulukhiyah Dip

  Lebanese Spicy Tomato “Salsa”

  Dried Okra Soup

  A Sweet Tooth

  Aleppine Breakfast Porridge

  Dried Fruit and Nuts in Apricot Leather Juice

  Lebanese Sweet Cheese “Pie”

  Moroccan Almond Spirals

  Baklava

  Caraway Pudding

  Cornes de Gazelles

  Semolina Cake

  Ramadan Date Cookies

  Ramadan Nut-Filled Cookies

  Date Halva

  Date “Fudge”

  Turkish Flour Halva

  Chickpea Flour Halva

  Carrot Halva

  Date-Filled Pastries

  Iraqi Date Cookies

  Pistachio Ice Cream

  Date Ice Cream

  Pakistani/Indian Ice Cream

  Cream or Walnut Sweet “Hand Pies”

  Sweet-Salty Cassava Cakes

  Malaysian Pandan Balls

  Indian/Pakistani Milk Rice Pudding

  Saffron Lebanese/Syrian Milk Pudding

  Indonesian Black Rice Pudding

  Moroccan Rice Pudding

  Syrian/Lebanese Rice Pudding

  Turkish Saffron Rice Pudding

  Saffron-Flavored Fritters

  Saudi Sweet Fritters

  South Asian Sweet Milk Fritters

  Lebanese/Syrian Round Fritters

  Aniseed Fritters

  Turkish Mixed Nut, Dried Fruit, and Legumes Dessert

  Lebanese Wheat and Mixed Nut Porridge

  Pumpkin Halva

  Sugared Almonds

  Grape Leather

  Grape Juice Pudding

  Orange Blossom Jam

  Mint Tea

  Turkish Coffee

  Arabian Coffee

  Arabian or Indian Milky Tea

  Acknowledgments

  Glossary

  Index

  About the Author

  Also by Anissa Helou

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  Introduction

  I slam was born at the beginning of the seventh century in one of the world’s harshest climates, in Mecca in Saudi Arabia around the year 610 AD, when the Prophet Muhammad began receiving divine revelations from the angel Gabriel. However, it wasn’t until the year 622 AD or 1 AH (after Hijrah, or exile) that the Islamic calendar marks the official start of the religion when, after a dispute with his tribe, the Prophet Muhammad fled Mecca to the city of Yathrib, now known as Medina.

  Medina was and still is an oasis in the desert, but though there was water, there wouldn’t have been much variety available to the early Muslims in terms of food, and their diet was mainly limited to dates from the palm trees growing in the oasis; meat and dairy from their flocks of sheep, camel, and goat; and bread from grain they either grew or imported in their trade caravans from the fertile countries of the Levant and beyond. The Prophet’s favorite meal is said to have been tharid, a composite dish made of layers of dry bread topped with a stew of meat and vegetables, which still exists in one form or another, under different names, throughout the Middle East and North Africa, and even as far as Indonesia, where some curries are served over roti.

  The Arabs have always been great traders, from even before the advent of Islam. They controlled lucrative trade routes along the Silk Road, and in the early days of Islam, they spread their religion not only through war conquests but also by peacefully converting the people they traded with. The goods they traded included spices as well as dry ingredients such as rice and legumes, although it is unlikely that they traded any fresh produce given how long the camel caravans took to cross the desert from lands where fruits and vegetables grew in abundance.

  Even today the Muslim world whose recipes I have included follows the same arc more or less as that of the conquests during the expansion of Islam: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Egypt in North Africa, finishing in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India in South Asia, and Xinjiang province and Uzbekistan in Central Asia. In between are Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Turkey, and Iran in the Levant; the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar in the Arabian Gulf. On the fringes are countries where the influences are more diffuse, such as Zanzibar, Somalia, Senegal, Nigeria, Malaysia, and Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country.

  After the Prophet Muhammad died in 632, the Rashidun (wise guides) established a caliphate, with Medina as its capital, to continue spreading the Prophet’s word. They took Islam to the Levant and North Africa to the west and Persia, Afghanistan, and Iraq to the east, but it wasn’t until the Ummayads founded their own dynasty (661–750 AD), moving the capital to Damascus in Syria, that Muslims began to live in splendor. They expanded their culinary repertoire because of easy access to more varied produce—part of Syria is desert but much of the country is fertile with the fruit growing around Damascus famous throughout the Middle East and beyond; as are the pistachio and olive groves around Aleppo. The Muslims also acquired new culinary knowledge from the locals they ruled over, which they absorbed into their own cuisine.

  The Ummayads established one of the largest empires the world had yet seen, continuing Islamic conquests further west onto the Iberian penins
ula, and east into Central Asia to create the fifth-largest contiguous empire ever. However, it wasn’t until the Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258 and 1261–1517), when the capital moved to Baghdad, that Muslims started to develop a rich culinary tradition.

  The Abbasid caliphs favored Persian chefs—the Persians already had splendid courts and a rich culinary tradition—who brought a whole new culinary knowledge with them, which they then adapted to the taste of their new masters.

  Food became an important element of Abbasid culture and, in the tenth century, a scribe named Abu Muhammad ibn Sayyar wrote the first Arab cookbook, Kitab al-Tabikh (The Book of Cooking) for an unnamed patron who may have been Saif al-Dawlah al-Hamdani, a cultivated prince of Aleppo. The book contained a collection of recipes from the court of ninth-century Baghdad. The scribe himself descended from the old Muslim aristocracy and, as such, he was in a good position to faithfully transcribe the court’s recipes, which he gleaned from the personal collection of individual caliphs, such as al-Mahdi, who died in 785 AD, and al-Mutawakkil, who died in 861 AD, among others.

  Many of the dishes that are today typically associated with Arab, Persian, or North African cooking, such as hummus, tabbouleh, kibbeh, baklava, pilaf, or couscous, do not appear in this book. Still, there are dishes from that time such as hariisah (meat and grain “porridge”) or qataa’if (pancakes folded over a filling of nuts, fried, and dipped in syrup) that are prepared today even if slightly differently and with different names. The medieval lavish use of herbs continues to this day.

  The Abbasids allowed several autonomous caliphates like the Fatimids in the Maghreb and Egypt and the Seljuks in Turkey to prosper, and each developed its own distinct cuisine based on local know-how and ingredients, but all remained rooted in the tradition of Persian cooking. It was also during the reign of the Abbasids that Sufism rose as a mystical trend with a particular emphasis on the kitchen as a place of spiritual development.

  The next great Muslim empire was that of the Ottomans (1299–1922/1923) who established Istanbul as the capital; and with them, a new culinary influence was born. Ottoman cooks introduced many innovations and were among the first to quickly adopt New World ingredients.

  They took inspiration from the different regional cuisines of the empire, which they refined in the Topkapi Palace kitchens in Istanbul where hundreds of chefs cooked for up to four thousand people. Each group of chefs concentrated on one specialty with some groups, like the sweets-makers, having their own separate kitchens. All the chefs were hired on the basis of one test, which was how well they cooked rice, a simple task but a good indicator of skill. Eventually, the Ottoman palace cuisine filtered to the population during Ramadan events when food from the palace was distributed to the poor, and through the cooking in the yalis of the pashas, which was directly influenced by palace cooking.

  The Mughals were the last great Muslim dynasty and, at the height of their reign in the seventeenth century, their empire spread over large parts of the Indian subcontinent and Afghanistan. The Mughal emperors belonged to the Timurid dynasty, direct descendants of both Genghis Khan and Timur. The former in particular was famous for his pitiless conquests, destroying conquered cities such as Damascus and Baghdad, with mass slaughter of the citizens. But the Mughals founded a refined dynasty that owed a debt to Persian culture. This was evident in their art and literature and in their cooking, which they made their own by using local ingredients and techniques, and using an impressive number of spices, which they almost always toasted before use.