Middle Eastern

My older son loves a very simple red lentil soup served at a local Middle Eastern café. It’s good, but to my mind, not very interesting, so I created my own version, with a little more style and substance. I make this regularly and he rarely clamors for the café version.

You might not think so, but butter is as important to the cooking of much of India, Africa, the Middle East, and all the way north to the Caucasus as it is to French, Swiss, or Scandinavian cooking. So it’s not too surprising to see it surface as a main ingredient in the broth for this traditional Armenian vegetarian bulgur dish. The red bell pepper and paprika tint the bulgur balls a Titian red, while the mustard and butter add a soft yellow hue to the broth. If there are any leftover balls and broth, chill them together thoroughly, until the broth is thickened to a cheeselike consistency. Then press them together and form the mixture into balls. Drizzle with fruity extra virgin olive and serve with crackers or bread.

Lamb sausage spiked with pine nuts and raisins, masterful fare from Turkey found around the Mediterranean, is exactly right for a summer grill party. The figs and fennel practically insist on being combined into a marmalade to accompany the lusty sausage. It can also be used as a compote for pork or chicken dishes or as a topping for toast or scones. If you happen to have a fig tree, or know someone who does, use its leaves to wrap the sausage. They impart an aroma and flavor of cinnamon that greatly enhances the lamb and evokes the Garden of Eden, after the Fall.

This lamb, green bean, and tomato soup-stew, known as fasoulia in the home of my childhood, was the by-product of a regular event: my father dissecting a leg of lamb into its parts, from the most highly treasured, neatly cubed pieces for shish kebab to the fattier but still tender parts for grinding into sausage. A sidebar of the ritual was putting the bone and all the gristly bits into a pot, covering them with water, and gently simmering them into a broth for fasoulia. Even though the dish was a by-product of making shish kebab, it enjoyed a humble stature on our dinner table. These days when I desire a taste of lamb home cooking and am not deconstructing a leg of lamb, I use a bit of purchased ground lamb for meatballs. The green beans are key here, and though I usually turn up my nose at frozen vegetables, I make an exception for fasoulia, so that it can be enjoyed throughout the year. I find this soup-stew doesn’t need anything in the way of a side dish. A slice of bread, a spoon, and family company suffice, but Armenians would include pilaf on the side.

A constant—an icon—of my Armenian American childhood were grape leaves, cabbage leaves, bell peppers, zucchini, and tomatoes wrapped around or stuffed with lamb and rice sausage. My mother, a native of the American Southwest, married my father, an Armenian who enjoyed the honor of being the first of his direct family line to be born in the United States. So, in our family it was he who carried forward the Armenian tradition of lamb at table. That was not difficult for my mother to accommodate: her father was a rancher who raised sheep from time to time. In other words, lamb was a food that my parents easily shared through their more than half century of marriage. Interestingly, though the sausage stuffing was the same whether it was tucked into grape leaves, cabbage leaves, or vegetables, there was a name distinction: wrapped in leaves, the dish was called sarma, but stuffed into vegetables, it was dolma. Dolmas and sarma made with cabbage leaves were considered family fare, and they were a dinner staple in our household. Stuffed grape leaves, which require more time and earnest effort, were festive fare, so they were saved for family get-togethers or special birthday requests (mine in particular). For how to blanch and separate the leaves for making stuffed cabbage leaves, see page 151.

Imam bayildi, as this dish of Turkish origin is called in Bulgaria, Albania, and Greece, and its story have a special place in my cooking repertoire and in my heart. It was introduced to me by Susanna Hoffman, my longtime friend and sometimes cookbook coauthor, who is, among other things, an esteemed social anthropologist whose special field of endeavor is Greece. The story of imam bayildi has many versions, but details aside, it is essentially a tale of love and household thrift. A bride new to the house of her new husband, an imam, came with a dowry of olive oil. But there was only a certain amount. And the imam loved eggplant above all other foods. In practice, because eggplant, as it cooks, is a great gulper of olive oil, and olive oil is the equivalent of kitchen gold, the dish was using up too much of the bride’s dowry. What to do? How to please the husband and keep the eggplant rich and unctuous without blowing the kitchen budget? Susanna solved the dilemma by having the thoughtful bride coax the eggplant into softening with the addition of some water, thereby requiring less of the precious olive oil and with equally excellent results. Was the imam thrilled? Did he faint as the original story line suggests? We don’t know, but we presume the clever, money-minded bride kept her place and the imam was happy. In yet another, latter-day telling of the story, I call the beef and eggplant filling a sausage and the eggplant shells the casing, and imam bayildi winds up in a new sausage cookbook.

A couple of chicken thighs amount to a lot of flavor alongside the filling chickpeas and crusty bread in this hearty Lebanese-inspired stew.

This dish comes straight from my mom, who made it nearly every Friday during Lent. It’s hearty and savory, and the rice and lentils together make it a perfect vegetarian protein. The burnt onion garnish is key; it adds depth and richness to the overall effect. Mom often served this with a rustic tomato, cucumber, and red onion salsa seasoned with lemon and mint, which lend acidity, texture, and fresh flavors to the plate.

Narsai David’s lamb marinated in pomegranate juice is famous in the San Francisco Bay Area from his days as a restaurant proprietor and popular caterer. Dennis Cakebread remembers that the first time he ever entertained at home, he prepared Narsai’s lamb. Brian has adapted the recipe slightly, reducing the marinade to create a basting glaze that accentuates the sweet-sour flavor of pomegranate. The dish is elegant and foolproof, so even a novice cook can look like a pro. Allow at least six hours for the lamb to marinate.

GOOD TO KNOW Kebabs are a good way to incorporate vegetables into from-the-grill dinners. They also allow you to use a small amount of a high-fat food, such as the chorizo in the pork kebabs, to maximum effect. If using wooden skewers, soak them in water for thirty minutes before grilling.

Tabbouleh is a Lebanese salad made with bulgur wheat, chopped herbs, and tomatoes. It is a spectacular salad, green and fresh, with more herbs than grain. Bulgur wheat is made from wheat grains that have been parboiled or steamed and then dried. It requires only quick cooking or soaking.

A pilaf is a savory dish of rice that has first been sautéed in fat and then cooked in a seasoned liquid. (It differs from a risotto in that the liquid is entirely absorbed.) Depending on the recipe, a pilaf may also include nuts, spices, a few vegetables, or even a complex meat stew. I make mostly simple pilafs, such as the red rice pilaf that follows, to go with quesadillas and black beans, or a basmati rice pilaf with saffron and onions to eat with a vegetable ragout. Long-grain rice is usually used in pilafs, although some cuisines use short-grain rice. Sautéing the rice before adding the liquid enriches the flavor of the dish and coats each grain in fat. This, along with thorough washing, keeps the rice from sticking together or clumping. Olive oil and butter are the most commonly used fats. To avoid burning the butter while sautéing the rice, add a little oil to it, or use clarified butter (see page 125). Onion is usually sautéed for a few minutes in the fat before the rice is added. After the rice is sautéed, a flavorful liquid is poured over it and brought to a boil. The pilaf is simmered, covered, until all the liquid has been absorbed, about 15 minutes. Depending on their cooking times, vegetables and meats are added sometimes with the liquid, sometimes after the rice has been cooking for a while. The tomato in the red rice pilaf here is added at the beginning to color the rice evenly. When done, pilafs should be allowed to rest for about 10 minutes before serving.

You might think of this Turkish dish as a kind of lamb shish kebab with a couple of twists. First of all, it can be executed indoors (though in good weather the initial browning could certainly be done on a grill). Second, it contains its own built-in sauce, a combination of yogurt and the juices exuded by lamb and roasted vegetables.

This is a stew of carrots, spinach, and rice cooked, you might say, to death. I first ate it at a Turkish lunch counter and was taken by its depth of flavor. The whole is definitely greater than the sum of its parts.

Yet another take on spicy fried chicken, this one bordering on fiery, but with a pleasant, feathery crust from the eggs. Marinate for up to a day if you like. You could serve this with almost anything, ranging from plain old cole slaw to Stewed Apples and Eggplant (page 458) to any of the Indian breads (pages 559–565).

This sauce is lovely layered with tomatoes or cucumbers. Thinned with more water, oil, or yogurt, it also makes a great salad dressing. You can buy canned or bottled tahini—ground sesame seed paste—at any Middle Eastern or health food store.

A popular drink throughout the Middle East, ayran is a refreshing protein-packed beverage for a hot day. In some places sugar is added instead of salt; try it either way. The amount of water you add will depend on the thickness of your yogurt; very thick yogurt will take almost an equal amount of water, and very thin yogurt may need only 1/2 cup or so.

I don’t know how strongly to stress that the boneless chicken meat to be used for kebabs should be from the thighs rather than the breasts. Thigh meat will remain juicy and tender, whereas breast meat—almost no matter how careful you are—will become dry, pasty, and tough. Buy boneless thighs (or, as I’ve seen recently, boneless legs) or bone them yourself (and save the bones for stock)—the process is intuitive and easy. As with Shish Kebab (page 354), if you want to grill other vegetables—tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, more onions, whatever—skewer them separately, then brush them with a little olive oil and sprinkle them with salt and pepper before grilling. Sumac is a sour spice found at Middle Eastern food stores.

Little more than chicken braised with onions but with a couple of “secret” ingredients. The first is a lot of saffron. Saffron takes a bit of an initial investment (it’s $30 or more an ounce), but it lasts a very long time; I use it regularly, and an ounce lasts me years. (Of course, I usually add it in pinches; this is a more extravagant dish.) The second is preserved lemon. If you can buy this at a Middle Eastern store, you’re in luck. If you can’t, you’ll have to make your own, but it takes weeks, so this recipe requires what you might call advance planning. However, the results are great even without the lemon. Couscous (page 526) is a natural here, as is the Spicy Carrot Salad on page 191.

Meat to be grilled for shish kebab, usually lamb, is ideally marinated in a paste of yogurt, minced onion, and spices, even if it’s only for a few minutes. If you prefer to eliminate the yogurt, use a couple of tablespoons of olive oil instead. And if you have dried ground sumac—a sour spice found at all Middle Eastern stores—sprinkle a little of it on the meat just before serving (you won’t need the lemon). If you choose to grill other vegetables—tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, more onions, whatever— skewer them separately. Simply brush them with a little olive oil and sprinkle them with salt and pepper. These skewers, of course, are ideal with Pilaf (page 513). Other cuts of meat you can use here: beef tenderloin (filet mignon) or boneless chicken thighs (which will require a little longer cooking time).