Middle Eastern

Kisir is a salad from Gaziantep. You need the fine-ground (not medium) bulgur, which you can find in Middle Eastern stores. The chili pepper gives it a thrilling zing but you can leave it out. Serve the salad with little lettuce leaves that can be used as scoops.

Deep-frying is the most popular way of cooking small- to medium-size whole fish, and red mullet (barbunya) are among the most prized. Garlic and parsley enhance their sweet flesh. Ask the fishmonger to clean the fish, but to leave the head on. Serve them with salad or Mashed Potatoes with Olive Oil, Scallions, and Parsley (see page 168).

This can be served as a first course or as a cold main course with pickles, sliced red onions, and a green salad. Cold-smoked mackerel is soft and moist and more of a delicacy than the hot-smoked variety. Hazelnuts, almonds, or pine nuts can be used as an alternative to walnuts for this classic sauce, which is called tarator. In that case, white bread should be used. The sauce can also be served with poached or grilled fish or with cold vegetables cooked in olive oil.

This strongly flavored version of a very common meze originates in Georgia, where walnut trees abound. There is plenty of garlic, but it is not overpowering because it is fried. The eggplant slices can be deep-fried, but I prefer them roasted in the oven. They should be served cold, and they can be made in advance.

This salad is popular throughout the Middle East. Unless it is to be eaten as soon as it is made, it is best to salt the cucumber and let the juices drain before mixing with the yogurt; otherwise it gets very watery. If possible, use the small cucumbers sold in Middle Eastern and Asian stores—they have a finer flavor than the large ones. Cacik is served as part of a meze and also as a side dish—to be eaten with spoons from little individual side bowls—to accompany pies, meat dishes, and rice. It even makes a lovely cold summer soup. Use plain whole-milk yogurt.

Gray mullet roe was originally used in Turkey for this famous dip (also known under the Greek name taramasalata) but smoked cod’s roe has now generally replaced it. This is a world away from what you can buy ready-prepared and is really worth making. Serve it with Turkish or pita bread.

Yogurt softens the flavors and adds to the creamy texture of this refreshing purée.

The Turkish people claim to have a hundred ways of preparing eggplants. For them, it is the king and queen of vegetables. This is the classic purée that is also found in all the countries around the Mediterranean with a variety of different flavorings and trimmings. Serve it as a dip with bread or with crudités such as carrot, cucumber, and celery sticks.

These exquisite pastries called “the bride’s fingers” feature in medieval Arab manuscripts found in Baghdad, fried and sprinkled with syrup and chopped pistachios. In Morocco, they are made with the thin pastry called warka or brick (see page 29) and deep-fried. I prefer to make them with fillo and to bake them. For a large-size version of the pastries, I use a supermarket brand where the sheets are about 12 inches × 7 inches. I especially recommend you try the dainty little “bride’s fingers” (see Variation). I make them for parties and I keep some in a cookie tin to serve with coffee. They are great favorites in our family; my mother always made them and now my children make them, too.

A sweet couscous made with the fine-ground couscous called seffa (see page 28) is served hot, accompanied by a drink of cold buttermilk or milk perfumed with a drop of orange blossom water served in little glasses. The couscous needs quite a bit of butter because there is no broth. See the suggestions below for extra garnishes.

This is the best-known fruit tagine outside Morocco. Restaurants in Paris accompany it with couscous seffa made with fine-ground couscous (see page 28) with plenty of butter, one bowl of boiled chickpeas, and another of stewed raisins. The best prunes to use are the moist Californian ones, which are already pitted.

In an Arab culture born in the desert, dates have something of a sacred character. Considered the “bread of the desert,” they symbolize hospitality and are much loved and prestigious. You would find this dish at wedding parties. Some people find it too sweet, so you might prefer it, as I do, without the optional honey. The dates give it a slightly sticky texture. Use the semi-dried moist varieties from California or the Deglet Nour dates from Tunisia.

This is a recipe that is similar to the chicken tagine on page 93, but the result is quite different. The sweetness of the pears goes surprisingly well with the lamb. Choose firm pears; if the fruit is too soft, they tend to collapse during the cooking. Comice and Bosc are good varieties. Use a boned shoulder of lamb or neck fillets, and trim only some—not all—of the fat.

Ask your butcher to saw the knuckle of veal into rounds, retaining the marrow in the center of the bone (as for Italian osso buco). You can buy very good frozen artichokes, which come from Egypt, from Middle Eastern stores. They come in packages weighing 14 ounces and containing about 9 small artichoke bottoms. If you want to use fresh artichoke hearts or bottoms, see page 8. Use young fresh peas or frozen petits pois.

This is marvelous! I use frozen artichoke bottoms that come from Egypt and are available here in Middle Eastern and Asian stores. You get about 9 in a 14-ounce package and that is enough for 4 servings.

The tomatoes can be served hot or cold. I prefer them cold. For vegetarians, they make an elegant main dish accompanied by a potato or carrot salad. Use large or beefsteak tomatoes.