Ramadan

This Iranian rice, a festive dish served at weddings, is as sumptuous as you get. You can see by its appearance why it is called “jeweled.” Iranian and Middle Eastern stores sell barberries (sour berries called zereshk), sugared orange peel, and slivered almonds and pistachios. Dried pitted sour cherries and cranberries can be found in some supermarkets.

This homely dish is a favorite in Syria and Lebanon. Good-quality canned chickpeas will do. If you are using them, drain a 14-ounce can and put them in with the rice.

An Arab dish often served with grilled fish.

There is something very comforting about this homely Turkish pilaf in which the rice is cooked in the broth of the chicken. For an Arab version with pine nuts, flavored with cinnamon and cardamom, see the variation.

In Egypt this is prepared in the spring, when fava beans are very young and tender. It is served hot as an accompaniment to meat, or cold with yogurt and a salad. Egyptians do not remove the skins of the beans.

Iranians have a predilection for fresh herbs, which they use in huge quantities. This traditional Iranian New Year’s dish consists of rice cooked with a variety of fresh herbs. Their greenness is believed to ensure a happy and “green” year ahead. The herbs are chosen according to individual taste and mood, and to what is available. Favorite Iranian herbs include tarragon, chives, flat-leaf parsley, dill, fenugreek, and cilantro. Choose 3 or 4 or use them all, but try to use fresh ones.

Many dishes standardized in the courtly kitchens of Constantinople during Ottoman rule spread throughout the Empire. This is one of the classics that you find in all the cities that were once outposts of the Empire. It is good to serve with meat or chicken.

A number of popular Lebanese dishes which go under the name of fatta (see page 222) involve yogurt and a bed of soaked toasted or fried bread. This one is served for breakfast accompanied by scallions and green peppers cut into strips.

You can serve these hot or cold.

This version of the Tunisian meshweya (page 85) can be served hot or cold. I prefer it cold.

This famous Turkish dish is served as a cold appetizer or first course. Conflicting stories are told about the origin of its name, which means “the Imam fainted.” Some say it came about when an imam (Muslim priest) fainted with pleasure on being served it by his wife. Others believe that the Imam fainted when he heard how expensive the ingredients were, and how much olive oil had gone into the making. The dish is part of the range of zeytinyagli (cooked in olive oil) dishes Turkey is famous for. It can be cooked in a saucepan or in the oven.

A Persian filling of meat and rice with yellow split peas is cooked in a sweet-and-sour sauce and served hot with plain rice.

A tbikha is a Tunisian dish which mixes fresh vegetables with pulses such as chickpeas and dried fava beans.

A disadvantage of these root vegetables is that they provoke wind. But they do have a delicious flavor. Smoother, less knobbly varieties available today are easier to peel.

Cooked vegetables are not highly considered in Iraq, where they usually only find a place in a pot with meat, but turnips are treated with special respect. One way of dealing with young turnips is to peel and boil them in salted water, then press them under a weight to squeeze out some of the water, and serve them with a dusting of sugar. A special flavor is obtained when a little date syrup, called dibbis (see page 43), is stirred into the cooking water. Lately, I have tried sautéing sliced turnips with fresh dates and found it very pleasant to serve as a side dish with meat or chicken. You may use a moist variety of California dried dates.

I like the surprising blend of sweet potato with ginger and chili pepper.

Combinations of fresh and dry vegetables are called tbikhas in North Africa. All kinds of vegetables—peppers, carrots, turnips, cardoons, spinach—are cooked together with chickpeas and dried beans. This dish can be made hot and peppery with harissa, but it is very good without.

Ma’louba means “upside down” in Arabic. This is a layered meat, vegetable, and rice dish which is turned out upside down like a cake without disturbing the layers. A special wide pan with short straight sides is used to cook it. The eggplant is normally fried first, but broiling in this case does not impair the flavor. It is famously a Palestinian dish. The rice absorbs the meat sauce and the flavor of the eggplants and becomes soft and brown. Serve it with yogurt.

Bell peppers change in color as they ripen from olive, pale, and bright green to vivid yellow and red. The red ones are the ripest and sweetest. In Turkey they are roasted or deep-fried whole and served hot as a first course accompanied with yogurt or with a tomato sauce. There is no need to peel them. A long, pointed, piquant (but not hot) variety is also prepared in the same way.