Tag Archives: Za’atar

Middle Eastern Chicken on Flatbread with Fattoush

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Another busy week this week  included William Curleys‘ Patissiere, awesome Massamam Curry at Chaophraya in Manchester, amazing Arnavut Cigeri (Albanian Style Lambs Liver) & Kaniyarik (Aubergine stuffed with mince meat, onions, peppers, tomatoes cooked in the oven and served with rice), at Meze in Darlington. Oh, and a couple of full english breakfasts!!

It’s me and the ‘Bosses’ 25th wedding anniversary this year, and to do something a bit different we are planning a trip to Padstow, to attend a two-day Indian course at Rick Stein’s Cookery School, watch this space for a review if we manage to make it.

Back to the kitchen and more middle eastern inspired food, this time chicken….

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WARNING, ITS GOING TO GET GORY AND MESSY, SPATCHCOCKING A CHICKEN IS NOT PRETTY

Every time I am in the kitchen I try to do something new or different (or both!), this time was the art of spatchcocking. Before dealing with the Chicken, I prepared a marinade.  A pot of Yeo organic Yogurt is put into a bowl with a good generous handful of chopped fresh Thyme, the same of coriander, 4 tablespoons of Harissa paste, a teaspoon of Sumac, a teaspoon of Coriander powder, 1/2 a teaspoon of Cumin. Add the grated zest of a Lemon, and its juice and mix together well. Set aside whilst we prepare the chicken.

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Take your chicken and turn it over so that its Breast side is facing away from you and the open cavity is on the top. Take a sharp knife (Or kitchen scissors if you have them), and cut close to the bone that runs down the centre of the chicken. You should end up with a cut like above. Turn the Chicken over so you can finish the cut safely.

Next, place the Chicken with the open flesh face down on the chopping board with the breast side up. Put your hands on the body, pushing down to flatten and ‘break’ the spine firmly.

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It should look like the picture above, I was a bit nervous about this process but its actually quite easy to do if you take it steady and be careful with the knife!

So that’s the Chicken and marinade sorted, you now need to cut through and ‘slash’ the Chicken in several places to let the marinade penetrate and impart its flavour.  Mine looked like this after the next element of butchery!!

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The next stage is to place the Chicken on a roasting tray and smother it in the marinade, a lovely messy job but very satisfying. Make sure you massage the marinade into the cuts to make sure the flavours penetrate right into the meat.  I put mine in the fridge after this stage and left to rest for about 7 hours….

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Next step is to prepare the Fattoush, a Middle Eastern Salad of toasted Bread, Tomatoes, Onions, Radishes, Dill, Parsley, Sumac, in fact loads of delicious flavours.  There are many different variations on this dish and the one I chose was a variation on the lovely Bethany Kehdy, and her new book ‘The Jewelled Kitchen’, its beautiful and one of my favourites at the moment.

It’s an exercise in ‘Mis en place’, a phrase used in professional kitchens meaning put in place or preparing everything ready for cooking or construction, in the ways of salads.

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As an experiment, I changed some of the ingredients slightly, adding about 150 grams of mixed Red Quinoa, White Quinoa and Bulgur Wheat that had been boiled for 10 minutes and left to cool.  I made a dressing from thinly sliced Red Onion, 60ml of Rapeseed Oil, 4 table spoons of Sherry Vinegar, some Salt and Pepper and massaged it all together leaving it to marinade for 10-15 minutes.

My Fattoush looked like this when completed.

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Prior to starting cooking, I had popped into Waitrose to pick up some bits and pieces (read wine!), and was considering what and how to serve the Chicken. Not being inclined to spend too much time on making bread I found some interesting looking Italian Flatbreads that were thicker than a Tortilla, and had some body and texture to them.  These were going to be the ‘blanket’ for the dish.

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I came up with an idea to make them even more interesting, and it involved a 1/2 inch paint brush!!

I had some Ghee in the cupboard so took my trusty brush (that is really handy in the kitchen), and brushed each Bread with the Ghee all over.  I then sprinkled Dukkah and Za’atar over both, giving them a good covering as evenly as possible.

Prior to serving, the bread’s were put together with the clean side on the outside, and heated through in a frying pan for a couple of minutes before turning over and repeating on the other side.

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The Chicken needs about 1 1/2 hours in the oven, I used a temperature of 170 degrees in our fan assisted beast. The smells coming from the kitchen invoked memories of wandering around  Jemaa el-Fnaa in Marrakesh, Morroco. The market square is famous for the food stalls that start cooking late afternoon and swamp the area with amazing aromas and exotic spices.

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The Chicken was roughly divided and placed onto the warm Flatbread and served with the Salad. It was absolutely delicious and actually really simple to make. You can prep the Chicken in the Morning and leave to marinade. The Salad is mostly a construction exercise, the results will delight the palate.

Have a go yourself, I am pleased I did.

L8ers, till next time.

Jules

بلاد الشام / Bilad al-Sham / The cuisine of Levantine

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When the weather is hot my cooking turns to the middle east, as you will have noticed in recent posts. I find that I cannot manage to eat large meals, and whilst salads can be exciting, a Meze type meal is healthy, easy to digest and great fun to create.

Shawarma is traditionally cooked on a vertical spit, and comes from the turkish word ‘çevirme’ which means turning. One of my food heroes Yotam Ottolenghi has his version of the dish in the book ‘Jerusalem’ which was also a TV series shown on BBC 4.

Spices for Shawarma

 Lamb & MarinadeAs you can see, quite a lot goes into this dish apart from a leg of Lamb, that has been ‘punctured’ with a long thin knife to let the marinade penetrate over a 24 hour period.

If you want to have a go, you will need Peppercorns, Clove, Cardamom pods, Fenugreek seeds, Fennel Seeds, Cumin Seeds, Star Anise, Cinnamon sticks, Nutmeg, Ground Ginger, Sweet Paprika, Sumac, Sea Salt, Fresh Ginger, Garlic Cloves, chopped fresh Coriander, Lemon juice and……………………..Groundnut Oil………..!

Pop all the ‘seedy’ spices into a pan and dry roast them, the kitchen will be filled with exotic aroma’s n no time at all. Grind the spices once heated through and add to a bowl with everything else and you have you marinade. Once done, take you leg of lamb and puncture the meat in several places and then put into a dish, smother with the marinade and rub well in. Cover and stick in the fridge for 24 hours, taking out from time to time to turn over and make sure the leg is really well coated.

Soused Onion

Completed OnionI was planning to serve the Lamb with various salads, a simple Red Onion piquant one was created by combining Sherry Vinegar with Rape Seed Oil, Salt, Pepper, Lemon Juice and Zest, and some fresh Coriander and finely chopped Mint.

The second Salad was some Baby Gems leafs, Tomato, Cucumber, Coriander (lots), and a dressing of Sherry Vinegar, Rape Seed Oil and Za’atar.

The lamb goes into a low oven (150 deg Fan, 170 deg Convection), for 4.5 hours. You need to add some water from time to time and cover the meat for the last 3.5 hours so the spices do not burn.

Cacik I made some Cacik to go with the Lamb, Yoghurt, grated Cucumber, Garlic, some Lemon Juice and drizzled with Olive Oil and sprinkled Sumac on the top too. I do like this particular dish, its adds a freshness and tartness which goes well with the Lamb, especially when served in grilled Pitta Breads, used a pockets to hold the various tasty fillings.

As you can see from the heading photograph, this meal is pleasing on the eye as well as giving the tastebuds a real treat. As the Lamb is cooked gently, it is meltingly tender and when stuffed into a ‘Pitta Pocket’ with the various salad’s and Caciik, you end up with the most delightful fresh taste, that will take you to the Casbah’s of distant lands.

Sahtain..

A Mixture – شكشوكة‎ or שקשוקה (Shakshouka)

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I was not expecting to cook over the weekend, but the heat of Sunday evening and the lure of the kitchen got the better of me.

We have been having a clear out and re stock in the kitchen, herbs and spices from Steenbergs recently purchased have included Sumac, Za’atar, Dukkah, Turkish Oregano, Spearmint from Egypt so opening the herb and spice cupboard is like an unknown journey across the seven seas!

The boss had taken our son out on sunday, leaving me to relax in the quiet and finger through some recipe books whilst listening to some hedonistic holiday anthems. Titanium, Bom Bom and Loca People hit the walls and ceilings with vigour, whilst in my head I was in far off places, Egypt, Lebanon and Tunisia.
It was soon evening and what to eat….Shakshouka was the answer.
The word means mixture if you believe wikipedia, and mine was going to be a blend of a couple of recipes from two of my favourite chefs, you know who I am talking about.
We had some Toulouse sausages in the fridge, these were de-skinned and put into a bowl with copious quantities of Sumac, Oregano, Chilli flakes, Habanero sauce (just a few drops, hot hot hot!) mixed with a fork, and left to marinate for an hour or so.
After an hour, the meat mixture was rolled into small balls, dusted with flour and fried in olive oil for a couple of minutes to brown, then set aside on kitchen paper to drain.
          
Next, an onion was chopped and added to a frying pan with some olive oil and butter, cooking slowly for about 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, I added some Salt and Pepper, Za’atar, a pinch of Sumac, chopped Garlic, fresh Coriander seeds and Cumin seeds. Quantities are according to your taste, as sometimes I find recipes need more than stated but its your chance to experiment. Remember you cannot take out but you can always add more, so taste as you go if unsure…..
I thought we did not have any peppers in the house, but remembered that I had been given a jar of roasted peppers as part of a christmas present, they came to the rescue and having been roasted and de-skinned already were absolutely perfect. Chopped into approx. 1cm pieces they were added to the pan and cooked for about 5 minutes, stirring from time to time.
          
Next I added a tin of chopped tomatoes to the mixture, and a sprinkling of sugar to bring out the tomatoes sweetness and counteract the acidity. The mixture was left to simmer for about 30 minutes on a low heat, enabling the flavours to develop.
Next step was to added the pre-fried meat balls, and continue to simmer for about 20 minutes on a low heat, this ensure the meat was cooked through.
At this stage, put on the oven, and set to 160 deg (Fan oven), or 180 deg (Convection/Gas) and set aside to dishes big enough for one serving, or whatever takes your fancy.
Transfer the mixture to the two bowls, ensuring the meat balls are around the outside enabling an egg to be broken into the centre, and shrouded by the piquant tomato sauce. Then put into the oven and bake for about 20 minutes until the eggs are set, but yoke still runny.
My version of the Shakshuka was served with some nutty bread and tasted delicious. Small balls of meat that were full of garlic and punchy spices, mellowed by a slightly sweet but flavourful sauce with the egg adding both texture and richness.  To finish I sprinkled some Parsley and Sumac over the top which you can see in the picture at the top of the page.
So there we go, another trip to the Middle East and a journey well worth taking. I am not travelling so much this week so hoping to get back in the kitchen and experiment some more.
il-hanā’ wa ash-shifā (May you have your meal with gladness and health)