Syrian Fattoush Salad

This salad along with Tabuleh salad were in all the meals we had in Syria, whether it was in Damascus, Homos, Salamiya or Aleppo! It is a very healthy, herby salad with bits of pitta bread. In Syria the pitta bread was fried, I just browned it in the oven. This salad is part of the is part of the Golden Jubilee Series.






Ingredients
1 Cucumber, peeled and diced
3 large tomatoes; cut in cubes
1 large red pepper, seeded and diced
3 sticks celery; sliced
1/2 cup finely chopped parsley
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh mint or 1 tsp. dried mint
1 pita; torn in small bits and bake in the oven for 4 minutes
Dressing
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
pinch of sumac
salt and black pepper
Method
Mixed all the vegetables, herbs and pitta bread
Make the dressing by puting the ingredients in a small bottle, close the top and mix well, pour over, chill and serve in half-an-hour.

Baba Ganoush: Aubergine Dip

We had a lot of this in Syria, in fact with every single meal, it was delcious. This roasted aubergine dish is part of my Golden Jubilee Series


Ingredients

2 Aubergines
2 cloves garlic (minced)
2 tablespoons tahini (sesame seed paste)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons yogurt
salt
black pepper
olive oil to drizzle
Parsley for garnish

1. Wash the aubergines, make some slits on them and put them in a moderate hot oven (180 C) for 45 minutes.
2. Peel the aubergines, and liqudise with the rest of the ingredients
3. Garnish with parsley
4. Serve with warm pitta bread

Eid Dinner

For our Eid Dinner, we decided to combine the Syrian, Indian and Khoja Ismaili cuisine. This is what we came up with, it went down well!

Menu
Syrian Meze:
Houmus: chickpeas and sesame seed dip
Aleppo Muhamarra: hot pepper and walnut dip
Baba Ganoush: Aubergine dipPitta bread
Fattoush Salad with toasted pitta bread pieces
Tandoori chicken and Potatoes
Saffron Seera with almonds and pistachious
Lamb Pilau

Kabuli Pilau

Kabuli Pilau is a national dish for Afghanistan and is part of the Golden Jubilee Series



Ingredients
1 large onion (chopped fine)
3 tablespoons Vegetable Oil
2 Ib Lamb on the bone (2 inch pieces)
6 cloves garlic minced
2 cups Basmati Rice
3 medium tomatoes; blanched and peeled
2 tspn cumin seeds
1 teaspoon garam masala
Garnish:
2 large carrots; cut into matchsticks
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup water

Method

1. Fry the onions (in a large enough saucepan for the cooked rice), until almost caramelised, remove and set aside.
2. Brown the meat and garlic in the same oil, and add 3 ½ cups of water, boil until the meat is cooked, remove the meat and set aside
3. Wash and soak the rice for half an hour
4. Grind the fried onions with the tomatoes and add to the meat stock, bring to boil, simmer for 10 minutes.
5. Add the cumin seeds, garam masala and rice and simmer for 10 minutes, stir in the meat cook for a further 10 minutes or until there is no liquid visible,
6. While the rice is cooking, fry the carrots for 10 minutes, drain the oil, add raisins and water and cook for a further 10 minutes
7. Place the pilau in a larger platter and garnish with the carrots and raisins.

World-wide Ismaili Cooking

I always thought of Ismailis as from India, Pakistan and East Africa, I never gave a thought to all the murids in Syria, Iran, Lebanon, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, China, Jordan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Tibet and South Africa. Now of course we also live in Europe, North America Australia and New Zealand.
I am sure I have missed a few countries!
To celebrate MHI's Golden Jubilee, I am going to start a series of recipes eatern by Ismailis all over the world, showing the diversity of our people. I have already started this series with:

• Makdous - Syrian Pickled Aubergines

• Afghani Kabuli Pilau, Lamb Pilau garnished with carrot matchsticks and raisins

• Baba Ghanoush Roasted aubergine dip
• Syrian Fattoush Salad; green salad with toasted pitta bread pieces
• Aleppo Muhammara dip: Roasted peppers, walnut and pomegranate dip
• Afghani Gormeh Sabzi; a green herb stew
• Hummus bi tahini; chickpea dip
• Machi Paka; Coconutty Fish stew, EastAfrican Ismaili

To come:

• Syrian Bantinjan bil Laban, Fried aubergine in a garlic yoghurt sauce.
• Syrian Maklubit Betinjan, Lamb and aubergine with rice
• Tunisian Maraqat al-Safarjal, Lamb and Quince stew
  

you will have to be patient, as I will only blog tried and tested (tasted) recipes!

Makdous - Syrian Pickled Aubergines

My recent visit to Syria made me realise that one of the original Ismaili Cuisine was Syrian, in Salamiya I ate these delicious whole aubergine pickle for breakfast!

Ingredients

8 small round aubergines;
3 cloves garlic; crushed
half cup walnuts; roughly crushed
2 tsp salt
1 tablespoon crushed red chillis
olive oil

Method

1. Cut most of the stem of the aubergeins and steam for 20 minutes or until soft.
2. Cool, cut the aubergine lengthways to about 1/2 inch from the stem, without splitting into two
3. Drain the aubergines in a colander with a weighted plate on top for 2-3 hours
4. Mean while mix the garlic, walnuts, salt and chillis.
5. Stuff the mixture into each aubergine, and place into a glass jar stem side up. Cover jar and leave at room temperature
6. Pour olive oil to cover the jar, seal jar, refridgerate. Pickle should be ready to eat in 7-10 days.

Rhubarb and Fig Crumble

Recently I found some tiny dried figs in an Iranian shop, Shirazi Figs; these grow wild in Iran are slight crunchy when eaten dried. When cooked they are tender and very sweet. I thought to combine them with rhubarb which is slightly tart.

Ingredients

5 sticks rhubarb; sliced into 1-2 inch pieces
10 small dried figs; soaked in warm water
1/2 cup orange juice
brown sugar to taste

Topping
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup ground almonds
1/2 cup roughly chopped almonds
4 oz soft butter
2 table spoon brown sugar

Method

Heat the oven at 180 degrees
Add the rhubarb and sugar to the orange juice in a pan, and simmer for 20 minutes, add the soaked figs without the water
Mix the topping ingredients into crumb like constitency
Place the rhubard in a greased oven dish, place the topping on top.
Cook in the oven until the topping is nice and crispy (about 40 minutes).