4. Strain the stock through a fine strainer or a colander lined with cheesecloth. Discard the solids. The stock will keep for 2 to 3 days in the refrigerator (boil for 2 minutes before using). Or freeze it, leaving a layer of fat on top to seal the flavor.
Umm Hassane’s Mjadara Hamra
Red Mjadara
Serves 8 to 10
I’ve taken a few liberties with this recipe. Umm Hassane would never add spices because in her village this dish gets its flavor solely from caramelized onions. The trick is to bring the onions just to the point of burning without actually burning them. You will be stirring continuously (at first occasionally, then almost nonstop) for about half an hour. But because cooking times will vary according to the water content, freshness, and size of the onions, I recommend you watch them very closely and trust your senses—smell, sound, and sight—more than your clock. Your kitchen will smell like heaven when you’re done.
Ingredients
2½ cups small brown lentils
2 cups coarse (#3) bulgur wheat*
2 tablespoons salt, divided, plus more to taste
8 cups water, plus more as needed
2 cups cold water
½ cup pure olive oil (not extra virgin)
½ cup canola oil
2¼ pounds onions (about 5 large), finely diced (5 to 6 cups)
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon freshly ground white or black pepper
1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper
¼ teaspoon allspice
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
Equipment
Medium cooking pot
Large, heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven
COOKING THE LENTILS
Rinse the lentils and bulgur separately and drain. Put the lentils in a medium cooking pot with 1 tablespoon of salt and eight cups of water. Bring to a boil and skim off the scum. Cover the pot and turn the heat down to low. Simmer the lentils very slowly, about 40 minutes. Stir the lentils occasionally, adding more water if needed.
COOKING THE ONIONS
1. Get 2 cups cold water ready to throw over the onions when they’re done (once they get going you won’t have time). Heat the olive and canola oils in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. When the oil starts to heave and shimmer, throw in a little of the onion; if it sizzles dramatically, the oil is ready. Add the onions and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. At this point the onions should be expelling a lot of liquid, almost boiling in the mix of oil and onion juice. They will still smell sharp and a little raw from the sulfur evaporating. Turn the heat up and stir them enough to keep from sticking.
3. After 10 to 15 minutes, the onions should have expelled most of their liquid. When they begin to caramelize, developing little flecks of reddish brown at the edges, lower the heat slightly and keep stirring. This is a good time to check your lentils. They should be simmering very quietly, gently swelling up with the heat. If they’re bubbling at all, turn the heat down and add more water if needed.
4. By now the onions should be golden brown all over and darker brown around the edges. Start stirring them more frequently—you can ignore the lentils for now—and turn the heat up under the onions. Once they start turning reddish brown and crispy, almost burning, make sure your 2 cups of water is handy. Do not stop stirring. The next few minutes will be crucial. If the phone rings, don’t answer.
5. At a certain point, usually about 35 to 40 minutes after you put them on, the onions will begin to change very rapidly. They will puff up like Rice Krispies and start turning dark reddish brown, almost maroon. They will start to give off a bacony, almost-burnt aroma that distinguishes mjadara hamra. As soon as that happens, immediately throw the cold water over them, take them off the heat, and keep stirring. They will continue to sizzle furiously for about 30 seconds. Keep stirring until they settle down.
COOKING THE MJADARA
1. Check the lentils. By now they should have soaked up most of the water. If they are soft and some of them are beginning to burst, they’re ready.
2. Move the onions back over high heat. When they are boiling vigorously, throw in the lentils, spices, and enough water to cover by about 1 inch. Bring back to a boil and continue to boil for about 10 minutes.
3. Test the lentils. They should be really soft now, almost crumbling. Taste for salt and adjust. Add the bulgur and turn the heat down to medium-low. It should be grumbling softly, making a comfortable growling noise as the bulgur absorbs the liquid. Let it cook for 10 minutes.
4. Taste the bulgur for doneness. It should be soft and chewy, almost fluffy, without a hint of bite. Adjust for salt again, cover the pot tightly, and let it sit in a warm place—over very low heat, with a flame tamer, or in a warm oven (some people wrap it in a towel)—for at least 1 hour before serving. Serve with something acidic: pickles, lemons, tomatoes, tabbouleh. I love it with lemony fattoush and whole-wheat pita bread.
VARIATION
If you just can’t get enough of caramelized onions, add this optional garnish:
2 large onions, sliced into ⅛-inch rings
¼ cup olive and/or canola oil
Fry the sliced onions in the oil over medium-high heat until they are reddish brown and crispy. Top the mjadara with them.
Kibbeh Nayeh
Raw Kibbeh
Serves 4 to 6
Rule number one: don’t make this unless you trust your meat. Rule number two: don’t buy already ground meat unless you really, really trust your butcher. The safest method is to grind it yourself (see the kafta recipe for instructions). Rule number three: do not ever let this dish sit, not even in the refrigerator. It must be eaten immediately.
Umm Hassane, who does not trust the butchers in America, first maintained they wouldn’t grind the meat finely enough for kibbeh. “How are you going to make kibbeh nayeh in America?” she told me once. “You can’t!” But then she discovered we could grind our own meat at home, in a food processor, and since then I haven’t done it any other way.
Ingredients
1 cup fine (#1) bulgur wheat, preferably the dark brown kind
½ cup roughly chopped onion
¼ cup roughly chopped parsley leaves
¼ cup roughly chopped mint leaves
2 teaspoons Kamuneh (recipe follows)
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon grated lemon or orange zest
8 ounces lean lamb shoulder or beef chuck, trimmed of fat and muscle, roughly chopped
Ice water
¼ cup blanched walnuts, pine nuts, cashews, or nuts of your choice
To Serve
5 or 6 sprigs mint
Raw hot green peppers
Several small onions, peeled and quartered
½ cup extra virgin olive oil, plus more to taste
Arabic flatbread
Equipment
Fine-mesh strainer
Small mixing bowl
Food processor
Medium mixing bowl
1. Rinse the bulgur wheat thoroughly, getting rid of any chaff. Drain it in a fine-mesh strainer and put it in a small mixing bowl. Add water gradually, mixing it with your hands, rubbing the grains to soften them, until they feel moist but not waterlogged. Soak for 1 hour.
2. Grind the onion, parsley, mint, spices, salt, lemon or orange zest, and ¼ cup of the bulgur in a food processor until you have a grainy, fragrant paste. Remove and set aside.
3. Wipe out the food processor, add the meat, and grind until it’s smooth and almost buttery. (Depending on your processor, you may have to finely chop it first.) Massage the meat into the bulgur mixture with your hands, bit by bit, kneading with the same kind of motion you would use for bread dough. Add splashes of ice water periodically (some people do this part in the food processor with crushed ice, but Umm Hassane disapproves). You want a consistency that’s firm and solid but also smooth, like wet clay.
4. When you’ve achieved the desired smo
othness, form the kibbeh into a patty and score it with a fork. Press the nuts into the top, making pretty patterns if you feel inspired, and garnish with sprigs of mint, hot green peppers, and chunks of raw onion. Pour the olive oil over it liberally until it’s swimming in a little pool of oil. Serve with flatbread to alternate with bites of mint and raw onion, and add more oil when it begins to dry out. Eat immediately. (If you have any left over—I never do—you can form it into tiny meatballs, freeze it, and use in shawrabet shayrieh.)
In the mountains of Lebanon, where people still make their own wine and arak, kibbeh nayeh is washed down with a shot of the fiery anisette liqueur. If you don’t have any arak, try Turkish raki, Greek ouzo, or Italian sambuca. It’s also good with a strong red wine, something spicy and not too sweet.
Kamuneh
Cumin Mix
Makes almost 3 tablespoons
Kamuneh” is a diminutive of kamun, cumin. It’s one of those Levantine spice mixes with as many variations as Lebanon has warring sects. In certain Beirut neighborhoods, old women sell kamuneh on the street, by the pound, with hot peppers on the side so you can adjust the heat. Hanan gets hers from a local baker, who puts in rose petals; Aunt Nahla’s is elegantly simple, mostly cumin seeds and hot red peppers; and Adessa’s family recipe is even simpler—cumin, allspice, black pepper, and white pepper. I buy mine from a Lebanese women’s collective called Earth & Company, which adds ten spices, and Ali Fahs makes his with no less than thirteen ingredients. Everyone believes his or her version is the best. They are all correct.
Ingredients
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
1 teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon Aleppo pepper
Optional (but recommended):
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground coriander
¼ teaspoon dried culinary rose petals
¼ teaspoon dried marjoram
¼ teaspoon dried oregano
⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
In a small bowl, mix spices. Add optional ingredients as desired, crumbling the petals and dried leaves. Store in a cool dry place.
VARIATIONS
TOMATO KIBBEH
This is a classic peasant dish for people who can’t afford meat or for villagers observing the traditional mourning custom of giving up meat after the death of a relative or neighbor.
1. Substitute 2 cups chopped ripe tomatoes for the meat. (You can peel and seed them if you want, but I usually don’t bother.) Salt the tomatoes lightly and let them sit for a few minutes. Drain off the juice and set aside. Use the juice to moisten your bulgur instead of water.
2. Mix the bulgur, spices, onions, and herbs as for kibbeh nayeh. Mash the tomatoes in a mortar and pestle, adding olive oil very slowly, while massaging in the bulgur bit by bit. You want the olive oil to emulsify with the remaining tomato juice, making a velvety suspension much like traditional Spanish gazpacho. Keep adding, tasting the whole time, moistening with the reserve tomato juice, until you have a mixture about the consistency of a loose tapenade. Serve as a side dish or meze.
POTATO KIBBEH
Substitute 2 cups boiled or baked floury potatoes, mashed, for the meat. Only use the first 5 spices (cumin, black pepper, white pepper, allspice, Aleppo pepper) in the Kamuneh and do not include the parsley, mint, or nuts. Increase the lemon zest to 2 teaspoons and add the juice of ½ lemon. You may also want to increase the salt, olive oil, and Aleppo pepper.
RAW FISH KIBBEH
Same as kibbeh nayeh, but substitute sushi-grade raw fish for the meat. Only use the first 5 spices (cumin, black pepper, white pepper, allspice, Aleppo pepper) in the Kamuneh. Instead of 1 teaspoon lemon zest, add the juice and grated zest of 1 whole lemon. Experiment with other spices and garnishes—this is especially good with lemongrass and grated fresh ginger.
Umm Hassane’s Mlukhieh
Jew’s Mallow
Serves 6 to 8
This is not your standard Beirut mlukhieh (puréed leaves, meat cooked separately, served with onions and vinegar). This is a fiery, down-home, southern-style mlukhieh, garlicky and pungent, with whole leaves and chicken simmered together and drenched in lemon juice.
Ingredients
4 ounces dried mlukhieh leaves*
4 cups water
4 cups Chicken Stock
⅔ cup Taqlieh
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, diced
3 large Swiss chard leaves
3 tablespoons lemon juice (about 1 lemon)
1 head garlic (8 to 10 cloves), peeled
6 chiles de arbol
1 tablespoon sea salt, plus more to taste
2 cups cooked chicken meat from Chicken Stock
Quartered lemons for serving
Optional (but highly recommended) for serving:
Aleppo pepper
Cooked rice
Equipment
2 large stockpots or Dutch ovens
Strainer
RECONSTITUTING DRIED MLUKHIEH
1. Spread the leaves out on a clean surface and pick through them. Snap off stems and discard brownish leaves and any foreign objects you find.
2. Bring to a boil 4 cups water. Put the leaves in a stockpot or Dutch oven and pour the water over them. Cover and let soak until cool, at least 1 hour.
3. Rinse the leaves thoroughly under cold running water until it runs clear. Drain and return to the pot. Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down and simmer until the leaves are tender, about 2 hours (this will vary according to size and age). You may have to add more stock or water.
COOKING THE MLUKHIEH
1. Prepare the taqlieh. Heat the 2 tablespoons canola or olive oil in a second large pot over medium-low heat. Add the onion and sauté slowly, without burning, until it is brown and fragrant, about 30 minutes.
2. Turn up the heat under the caramelized onions. Add the taqlieh and chopped Swiss chard leaves and sauté until it is fragrant and sizzling, scraping frequently with a spatula to make sure it does not burn. When the taqlieh starts to get dry and stick stubbornly to the bottom (about 2 minutes), deglaze the pan with the lemon juice. Add the mlukhieh leaves with their liquid, the garlic, chiles, and salt. Turn the heat down to low and simmer until the leaves are very tender, about 1 hour. Add the chicken meat and simmer for another 15 minutes.
3. Like all stews, this will improve if you refrigerate it for an hour or two, or preferably overnight, before serving. Reheat gently and squeeze lemon juice over extravagantly. For heat lovers, sprinkle with Aleppo pepper. It is usually served over rice.
COOKING FRESH OR FROZEN MLUKHIEH
Use 1 pound fresh or frozen leaves. Omit the Swiss chard leaves (they’re used with dried mlukhieh to give it a fresh green color). Skip the first three steps and go straight to “Cooking the Mlukhieh.” After sautéing the taqlieh, add the lemon juice, then the garlic, chiles, and fresh leaves, turning them with the spatula to coat with the garlic and cilantro. Once they are well coated, add the 4 cups chicken stock and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to very low and simmer until the leaves are tender, about 1 hour. Serve as directed above.
VARIATION
Mlukhieh can be hard to find here in the U.S. If you want to try this recipe but can’t find mlukhieh, try the simpler spinach yakhne.
Yakhnet Sbanegh
Spinach Stew
Serves 6 to 8
Ingredients
3 pounds fresh spinach, stemmed
2 tablespoons olive oil
⅔ cup Taqlieh)
6 chiles de arbol
4 cups Chicken Stock*
1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
2 cups cooked chicken meat from Chicken Stock
Lemon halves for serving
Optional
Rice for serving
1. If you’re using fresh-picked spinach, rinse it at least five times, until
every trace of grit or dirt is gone from the bottom of your washing bowl. Chop it roughly.
2. Heat the olive oil in a deep skillet or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the taqlieh and sauté until fragrant and sizzling, scraping with your spatula to make sure it does not burn. When it starts to dry and stick to the bottom (about 2 minutes), add the chiles and then the spinach a handful at a time. Turn the spinach with a spatula, coating it with the garlic and cilantro, until it wilts and turns bright green, 4 to 5 minutes.
3. Add the chicken stock, 1 teaspoon salt, and meat. Simmer gently, just long enough to let the flavors mingle, about 5 more minutes. Taste and adjust for salt. Refrigerate for an hour or two, or overnight, before serving. To serve, reheat gently and squeeze lemon juice generously over. In the Middle East, it is usually served over rice (and occasionally over crushed day-old bread and topped with yogurt as a fatteh).
Ali Shamkhi’s Tebsi Baitinjan
Eggplant Casserole
Serves 6 to 8
This is my favorite Iraqi marga, or stew, an art form that deserves a book of its own. Some people make it with oblong patties of ground spiced meat (like the kafta); others make it with strips of meat, as I have here; and many make it without meat at all. For Roaa’s vegetarian version, simply omit the meat and adjust the spices down a little. For an even healthier version, try grilling or oven-roasting the vegetables instead of frying.
Ingredients
1 pound eggplants
1 pound potatoes, peeled and cut into ¾-inch rounds
1 large onion, cut into ¾-inch rounds
1 green bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and quartered
1 red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded, and quartered
2 large ripe beefsteak tomatoes (about 1 pound), cored and cut into 1-inch rounds
Canola or other neutral, high smoke-point oil for frying
1 pound beef top round, cut against the grain into 8 inch-thick strips
1 large clove garlic, cut into eighths
⅔ cup tomato paste
2 ripe tomatoes, puréed or grated (optional, but gives the sauce a fresh flavor)
Day of Honey: A Memoir of Food, Love, and War Page 39
