MOUTABEL
Grilled eggplant with sesame paste and fresh lemon juice
Moutabel is really a dip like hummus, but it's a totally different experience. Like hummus, moutabel is frequently available on virtually every Middle Eastern table. Within this recipe the eggplants are grilled, however they may also be fried. You may know a kind of this dish known by another name, babaganoush. Throughout the month of Ramadan, moutabel is eaten every single day. Previously the eggplants could be pounded and combined with other ingredients by hands inside a large copper bowl. I'm able to remember my mother assigning me the job of garlic clove crusher.
Ingredients (serves 4-6 people)
2 eggplants
1/3 cup tahini (sesame paste)
3 ounces plain yogurt
1-2 teaspoons of salt in order to taste
two tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 1/two tablespoons pomegranate paste (optional)
Paprika
Sweet red peppers
Parsley
Pomegranate seeds
Walnuts
Grill the eggplants.
Stick the eggplants on a few skewers and grill over a wide open flame (I put them around the naked flame of my gas stove). This really is the easiest method to get that great smoky flavor (place them underneath the grill if you want). Your skin will blacken and wither using the heat, keep turning them before the eggplants° skin is soft throughout to touch along with a skewer can certainly cut with the vegetables.
When this occurs, take them of the flame and insert them in a pot full of cold water (this helps to awesome the eggplants making it simpler to peel them).
Peel the eggplants (I discovered it will help and to peel them under cold flowing water).
Discard the burnt skin and set the pulp inside a strainer to preferably leave overnight within the fridge. This can be sure that the excess water is taken away.
(Rather of grilling, you are able to deep or shallow fry your eggplants until golden. Then move on with preparation. That way however, you aren't getting that smoky taste that is so usual for this dish.)
Cut the eggplants into small pieces after which pound to some rough pulp (you don°t need it too smooth, it°s best to possess some texture left).
While you add some other ingredients make certain you incorporate them one at a time in to the mixture.
First, add some tahini, then your yogurt if you want (yogurt can help take a few of the bitterness from the vegetables away, however if you simply like this bitter taste don°t add any yogurt).
Now add some fresh lemon juice and also the salt (to taste).
If you need a sweeter taste I discovered that adding pomegranate paste is effective.
Put the mixture inside a dish and smooth it to pay for the dish. Garnish with paprika, parsley leaves, wedges of sweet red pepper, pomegranate seeds and walnuts (walnuts go very well with this particular dish). Complete having a dash of essential olive oil. Like hummus, moutabel could keep for a few days within the fridge. Don°t forget to pay for with plastic wrap.
SHISH TAOUK (Chicken Shishkebab)
Boneless chicken marinated in garlic clove, fresh lemon juice and essential olive oil and grilled on skewers
After I was becoming an adult within the 70°s, °shish° more often than not meant grilled lamb ° you rarely saw chicken. However the recognition of chicken implies that we lengthy ago adapted our most widely used methods for preparing meat to chicken too. Now, shish taouk is among the most widely used meat dishes at Al-Waha. It's very easy and the marinating yields probably the most tender, delectable chicken.
Ingredients (serves 4-6 people)
1 1/4 pounds boneless skinned chicken
1 tablespoon paprika
two tablespoons fresh lemon juice
5 tablespoons essential olive oil
Garlic clove sauce (see recipe below)
Pepper and salt to taste
Preparing Shish Taouk
Cut the chicken into medium size cubes. Inside a bowl mix the paprika, fresh lemon juice, essential olive oil, garlic clove sauce, pepper and salt.
Marinade the chicken cubes within the mixture for 4-5 hrs or overnight.
When prepared to prepare, thread the chicken pieces on the skewer. Make certain the pieces are firm (you need to do this by cramming plenty of them on a single skewer).
Then, simply grill (or better, charcoal) before the meat starts to brown.
Serving Shish Taouk
This scrumptious dish could be offered with wedges of pita bread and lemon, and it is good when offered with grain and salad.
Garlic clove sauce is created like mayonnaise and lots of fresh garlic clove is added along the way. A less complicated way of using this method is by using ordinary mayonnaise and add plenty of fresh crushed garlic clove.
1 mind of garlic clove
1 egg
vegetable oil
Preparing Garlic clove Sauce
Peel and crush the garlic clove and put inside a mixer. Add some egg and blend until very smooth. Add some oil very, very gradually (just like a trickle) within the mixer before you achieve a creamy consistency.
If the mixture separate along the way, take it out of the meals processor, completely wash and dry the device. Re-assemble the processor put and egg in and beat. Adding the mix very gradually.
HUMMUS
Pureed chickpeas with sesame paste and fresh lemon juice
Hummus has its own history like a °food from the poor,° because it°s very filling and fairly nutritious, but this chickpea dish is now commonplace eaten through the Middle East, turning up on every table at each meal at each degree of society. Hummus even turns up regularly on Western appetizer lists and buffet tables.
After I was becoming an adult in Damascus, my dad used to visit the store to possess our hummus designed to taste. You can even provide your personal tahini (sesame paste) and fresh lemon juice. While which makes it, the retailer would allow you to taste it in order that it might be prepared just how you desired it. a bit more lemon, or a little more salt. This personalized method of hummus can be a factor of history in Damascus, however, it's still usual to come out to purchase your hummus freshly produced in an area shop. and it°s scrumptious!
Hummus should have an even, velvety texture: this really is essential! To have this, you have to skin the chickpeas -- less hard as it might seem. (When a customer requested me how did we all do this in Al-Waha. I clarified that people had about 20 small children in the kitchen area doing exactly that. The woman checked out me very perplexed after some hesitation requested whether which was legal! Now I shall let you know how it°s really done. )
Ingredients (Serves four to six people)
20 ounces (1 ° pound) of dried chick peas (also referred to as garbanzo beans) (Note: Don't use canned chickpeas, too soft!)
1 tablespoon of sodium bicarbonate
6 ounces of tahini (sesame paste)
6 ounces of fresh lemon juice (cold: add icy water to do this)
Salt
For garnish:
Paprika
Sweet red peppers
Parsley
Essential olive oil
Soaking the Chickpeas
It may be beneficial to examine your chickpeas before you decide to boil these to remove any disfigured or bad chickpeas.
Soak the dried chickpeas overnight with many different water (cover them completely, use two times the quantity of water versus. the level of chickpeas).
The following day, rinse the chickpeas well with cold water.
Cooking the Chickpeas
Fill a pot with lots of water, utilizing the same amount as whenever you drenched them.
Add some sodium bicarbonate, then provide the boil.
Once the water is boiling turn heat lower and permit to simmer before the chickpeas are cooked, 60 to 1 hour 30 minutes. You are able to cover all of them with a cover, but this isn't necessary, just make certain the water keeps boiling.
(To see if your chickpeas are cooked, throw one to the wall. Whether it sticks, they're cooked!)
Skinning the Chickpeas
Go ahead and take pot from the heat and set it underneath the cold water tap. The cold water will shock the skins into cracking so they will easily appear and float towards the surface. So as to enable them to float up you have to lightly stir the chickpeas and because the skins surface take them off having a slotted spoon. Keep stirring just a little and taking out the skins that surface until you°ve removed most skins.
Now strain the chickpeas and then leave these questions colander, within the fridge, preferably overnight. This allows all of the excess water to empty.
Preparing the Hummus
You are able to pound the chickpeas by hands inside a bowl utilizing a pestle however, a mixer makes things much simpler.
So, put the chickpeas inside a mixer til you have an even paste, add some tahini (sesame paste) before the mixture become very smooth, but nonetheless just a little firm.
At this time add some cold fresh lemon juice (mix icy water and fresh lemon juice with an very cold juice). With the addition of cold fresh lemon juice you'll avoid the mixture within the mixer from warming up a lot regarding affect its taste.
Finally add salt to taste.
Now leave the mix because it is within the processor for 15-twenty minutes, this enables it to relax and develop its full consistency. If, whenever you go back to it, you discover that it's too thick, just add a bit more fresh lemon juice.
Serving the Hummus
Place the hummus inside a dish and sprinkle some paprika, decorate with shapes made from sweet red pepper, then sprinkle some chopped parsley and lastly a touch of essential olive oil.
For those who have some hummus remaining, pay for it with plastic wrap and refrigerate it. It it's still scrumptious the following day.
FATTOUSH SALAD
Mixed salad with herbs, toasted Lebanese bread, vinegar and garlic clove
Fattoush is an extremely simple salad found all around the Middle East. It is a wonderful starter, because the freshness awakens the flavour buds.
Fattoush is better made before you consume, therefore the bread stays crispy and crunchy ° if you depart it too lengthy, the bread goes saturated.
Ingredients (serves four to six people)
1 tomato
2 cucumbers
3 scallions
Lettuce
1 eco-friendly pepper
1 red pepper
5 radishes
1 small onion
1 large pita bread
For that dressing:
Essential olive oil
Vinegar (balsamic vinegar is effective)
Salt to taste
Cut all of the vegetable fairly finely, aside from the onion, which must be chopped very finely.
You are able to toast the pita bread after which crumble it to the salad, or can diced it first after which toast it. Inside my restaurant, I love to dice the bread after which deep fry it in hot vegetable oil -- this provides it a heavier texture.
Stir everything together, add some dressing and blend.
Al Waha, 75 Westbourne Grove, London W2 4UL Tel: 020 7229 0806 / Fax: 020 7229 5161, alwahareservations@hotmail.co.united kingdom
