Middle Eastern

Recipes from “The Book of Jewish Food” by Claudia Roden

Poulet aux Dates (Chicken with Dates)

Page 253

This Moroccan combination has roots that go back to medieval Baghdad.

6 chicken quarters

4 TB peanut or sunflower oil

2 large onions, 1 lb, coarsely chopped

2 tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp mace

¼ tsp nutmeg

1 TB honey

salt and plenty of black pepper

½ lb dates, pitted

Juice of 1/2 -1 lemon

A pinch of saffron

½ cup blanched almonds, toasted or fried

In a large pan, sauté the chicken pieces in the oil for a few minutes, until lightly colored, turning them over once. Remove them and put onions in. Cook them on low heat until soft, then stir in the cinnamon, mace, nutmeg and honey, and pour in about 1-3/4 cups of water. Stir well and put in the chicken pieces. Bring to a boil, add salt and pepper, and simmer for 25 minutes. Now add the dates, lemon juice, and saffron and cook for another 5-10 minutes, or until the chicken is tender. It is important to taste and adjust the seasoning for the right balance of flavors is a delicate matter in this dish. It usually needs plenty of black pepper to counteract the sweetness. Serve with the almonds sprinkled on.

Mechouia Salad (Grilled Salad)

Page 253

This most popular Tunisian salad is usually served as a first course, but can me a meal in itself.

2 green or bell peppers

3 medium tomatoes

1 7-oz can of tuna in brine, drained [solid, not chunk]

2 hard-boied eggs, quartered

4-5 TB extra-virgin olive oil

Juice of 1 lemon

Salt and Pepper

Turn the peppers and tomatoes on a baking sheet under the broiler. Take the tomatoes out after 10 minutes, when their skins come off easily and they are only slightly softened. Peel them and cut them into quarters. Follow instructions “to roast and peel bell peppers” on page 253 [I’ll leave this out] and cut them into ribbons.

On a serving platter or individual plates, arrange the elements of the salad—the peppers, tomatoes, flaked tuna and eggs—in a decorative way. Mix the oil, lemon, salt and pepper and drizzle on top.

VARIATIONS

• Garnish if you like with chopped preserved lemon and 1-2 TB capers, squeezed to rid them of some of the vinegar. [I DID THIS…AND USED PLENTY LEMON]

• Add 6-7 cloves of garlic, grilled in their skins until soft, then peeled and served whole.

Sweet Jeweled Rice

Page 450

This is now a favorite at Iranian Jewish weddings, where it is served with roast chicken, cut into small pieces and sprinkled on top of the rice. There are various versions—usually with candied orange peel and almonds and all kinds of dried fruit. The following, with dried pitted sour cherries and cranberries, is a delight. It sounds difficult, but it is not. You may use store-bought candied peel, but a homemade one tastes better.

2-1/2 cups basmati rice

About 1-1/4 tsp salt

Finely pared peel of 2 oranges, finely shredded (we might have used candied citron that I had or used a lemon…don’t remember)

½ cup sugar

1/3 – ½ cup dried pitted sour cherries

5-6 TB sunflower oil

¼ tp saffron powder

1 cup split blanched almonds

Wash the rice, then soak it in cold water with 1 TB of salt for at least 1 hour.

To make candied peel, pare off the orange peel, leaving behind the white pith, and shred it finely. In a small pan, boil the peel in plenty of water for ½ hour to remove the bitterness, then drain. In the same pan, put the sugar with 1/3 cup of water and bring ot a boil. Add the drained peel and simmer for about 20 minutes. Soak the sour cherries and cranberries in water for 15 minutes.

Bring about 9 cups of water with about 2 TB of salt to a boil (do not worry, the salt will be drained away) in a large saucepan. Pour the drained rice into the fast-boiling water, let it come to a boil again, and boild hard for about 8 minutes, or until the rice is partly cooked and still a little firm, then drain in a colander. Pour the oil in the bottom of the pan. Stir the saffron in [I have a note to soak the saffron in water or oil or something and add at the end, and stir if using baking method] and pour the rice back in. Mix in the andied peel (drained of syrup), the drained cherries and cranberries, [I have note to add in at end if using baking method] and the almonds, and stir very well, so that all the rice is evenly colored yellow with the saffron and imbued with oil.

Put the lid on and steam on the lowest heat for 20 minutes until tender. Or put the rice in a baking dish, cover with foil, and bake at 350° for 30 minutes.

• Note: It is always bet to reheat the rice, if necessary, in the oven, for it tends to burn at the bottom of a pan when it is dry.

VARIATIONS:

—Instead of sour cherries and cranberries, use chopped dried apricots and dates.

— Add coarsely chopped pistachios as well as almonds. [I USED THIS ONE]

— Use 1/3 cup commercial chopped candied peel instead of making your own.

— Omit the candied orange peel if you don’t like it’s sweetness

Mango Chutney

page ?

3 fleshy mangoes, about 2 lbs, cut into small cubes

3 oz fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped or grated

2 garlic cloves, minced or crushed in a press

½ tsp salt

¼-1/2 tsp cayenne or chili powder

1 cup white-wine vinegar

¾ cup jaggery or muscovado (unrefined) sugar

¼ cup slivered almonds

¼ cup raisins

Put all the ingredients together in a pan and simmer over very low heat for about 15-20 minutes. Cool before putting in a jar. [Liquid never set…cook down until almost gone?]

Stulage – Muhallebeye (Fragant Milk Pudding – Basic recipe with variations)

page?

Milk puddings with ground rice are ubiquitous in the Middle East. For the Jews they are the all-purpose dessert of the dairy table and the traditional sweet of Shavout and Purim. In Turkey and the Balkans such a dish was called “sutlage”; in Syria and Egypt, as in the rest of the Arab world, it was “muhallabeya.” Every community has its own traditional flavorings and presentation. Us the basic recipe and add the flavorings from one of the variations that follow. Each one transforms the pudding into something special.

¾ cup rice flour

5-1/2 cups cold milk

½ cup sugar

For the flavorings and garnishes, see the variations

In a little bowl, mix the rice flour with a cup of the cold milk, adding it gradually and mixing thoroughly to avoid lumps. Bring the rest of the milk to the boil in a pan. Pour the rice flour-and-milk mixture in, stirring vigorously, then cook on very low heat, stirring continuously until the mixture thickens. If you don’t stir every so often, the milk will thicken unevenly and form lumps. Let the cream cook gently for a few minutes more (in all, 15-20 minutes). Stir in the sugar and cook until dissolved. Stir with a wooden spoon, being careful not to scrape the bottom of the pan, because the cream always sticks and burns at the bottom, and you want to leave that part behind, untouched. The cream might seem too light, but it does thicken when it cools. [It never set. Really cook down quite about.] Pour into a large bowl or into small individual ones and serve cold.

FLAVORING VARIATIONS

— The most common way is to add 1-2 TB orange-blossom or rosewater towards the end of the cooking and to garnish with a sprinkling of chopped almonds and pistachios.

— For a Judeo-Spanish version from Turkey, boil the milk with a stick of vanilla or add a few drops of vanilla extract or the zest of ½ lemon. Serve sprinkled with 1 tsp cinnamon.

— Cardamom—a popular flavoring with Indian, Iraqi, and Iranian Jews. Add 1 tsp ground cardamom and 1 TB rosewater a few minutes before the end of cooking.

— Instead of rice flour, you can use cornstarch or a mixture of rice flour and cornstarch.