I already wrote a little about kibbeh/kubbe before, those delicious morsels consisting (usually) of a bulgar wheat shell encasing a filling, and then fried until crisp or cooked in a soup. Sometimes, as in the case of tray kibbeh it is based with the filling sandwiched between the bulgar wheat.
I found a box of chestnuts that I had bought some time before and then promptly forgotten about (actually, more correctly they got buried under a million cans of chick peas and shoved to the back of the cupboard). After a clean out I decided that I needed to use them, and I knew exactly what to make. Mushroom and chestnut kibbeh.
While it is not a traditional kibbeh filling, it is a combination that works wonderfully well together. I can't take credit for the idea though, as I first tasted them at the Arabica deli counter in Selfridges... Pricey, but oh so delicious.
Ingredients
200g bulgar wheat
100g semolina
2 tablespoons flour
1 tsp salt
For the filling
2 large portobello mushrooms
200g chestnuts
3 cloves of garlic (crushed)
Olive oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp oregano
A splodge of harissa (optional)
1. Put the bulgar wheat in a bowl and cover with boiling water. You want it to be completely covered and leave to soak for 30-60 minutes
2. While the bulgar is soaking prepare the filling. Chop the mushrooms and fry in olive oil with the spices until softened, then stir in the chestnuts and cook for a few more minutes. Turn the heat up high and cook briefly until all the excess water from the mushrooms has evaporated. Tip onto a plate and let it cool
3. After the bulgar wheat has soaked, drain and squeeze out the excess water (a clean kitchen cloth is ideal for this). I couldn't get a hold of any fine bulgar wheat, so I mushed it up between my fingers to try and break down the grains at this point. Tastewise it makes not one bit of difference, but the fine bulgar does make for a slightly neater and prettier kubbeh
4. Mix in the semolina, flour and salt
5. Knead the dough for a few minutes, you'll notice that the dough tends to crack or crumble as it dries. Keep a bowl of water beside you as you work to dip your fingers in as you make the kibbeh shells
6. Take a lump of the dough (what size? Hmm... kibbeh size, bit bigger than a golf ball but smaller than a tennis ball!) and roll it into a ball. Placing your thumb in the centre of the ball squeeze the sides out so
as to make a cup-shaped receptacle for the filling. If the dough starts to crack or split
dip your hands into water to moisten it. Question: how thin
should your kibbeh walls be? Answer: as thin as possible!
7. Add a spoonful (or as much as you reckon will fit) of the filling and gently pinch the sides together. If it looks like there will be some leakage, just pinch off some more dough to patch it up. Wet your fingers and roll into an oval shape (traditionally the ends are pinched so it's more of a torpedo shape)
8. Continue until you run out of either dough or filling. This amount should make around 10 kibbeh. As an aside, if you have any excess filling it is delicious spread on toast. If you don't want to cook all of the kibbeh you can also freeze them at this point
9. Now to cook. You kibbeh afficionados may have noticed my kibbeh look a bit weird. That is because I decided to bake them rather than the more traditional deep frying. How you cook them is up to personal preference. Mine were baked at around 200C for 30 minutes until crispy. If you were so inclined you could also drop them into a soup and simmer for 30 minutes. It's all good!
I don't need much of an excuse to cook up a batch of maamouls as they are probably one of my favourite cookies to make. However, if I did need an excuse I found the perfect one in London last weekend - a maamoul mould. My granny used to have a few but along with her kitchen axe and massive cauldron they went AWOL after she died. This maamoul mould I bought from the rather fabulous Persepolis in Peckham. Well worth a detour to if you are hankering after all things Iranian (and generally Middle Eastern and scrumptious).
A small note on a couple of the optional ingredients: mastic is a resin from the mastic tree (Pistacia lentiscus), it's used in quite a lot of Middle Eastern and Eastern Mediterranean sweets and desserts and lends a pine-y flavour to the finished dish. Mahlab is a spice made from the seeds of a particular species of cherry (Prunus mahaleb) and gives an almondy/cherry flavour to the dish.
Ingredients
300g semolina
100g white flour
150g margarine / ghee
50g caster sugar
1/4 tsp ground mastic (optional)
1/4 tsp mahleb (optional)
1/4 tsp yeast
100ml orange blossom or rose water
For the pistachio filling
100g pistachios
Sugar (to taste)
Orange blossom water
1. Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl, melt the margarine or ghee and pour in, along with the orange blossom or rose water. Mix together until it comes together in a large dough ball. Cover with plastic wrap and leave for around 4 hours. I should point out, in that time nothing particularly magical happens, it doesn't transform in size, the waiting period is more to allow the semolina to absorb the fat
2. While the dough is resting, blitz the pistachios in a blender and add sugar to taste and then the flower water until you have a fairly tough marzipan-ish paste
3. Pinch golf ball sized (or walnut, depending on your frame of reference) pieces of the dough and roll into balls. With this quantity you should have enough to make around 20 (ish) maamouls
4. Take a ball into one hand and flatten out with the heel of your other hand. Pinch off a teaspoonful of the pistachio paste and roll into a sausage. Place this in the middle of the flattened dough circle and close the dough around it to encase fully
5. At this point squish it in your maamoul mould, traditionally the oval ones are used for nut fillings, and the round for date. If you don't have a mould then you can decorate a pattern on the top with a fork
6. Arrange the maamouls on a baking tray covered with greaseproof paper and bake in an oven preheated to ~190C for 15-20minutes. You want the bottom golden, but the top to be lightly coloured
7. Cool, and dust with icing sugar to serve (or alternatively leave for 5 minutes and eat while hot... Mmmm)
Keeping on the apricot theme, and with some left over amardeen sauce
from my mahalabiya, I thought I’d make up some amardeen drink. A
refreshing drink made of apricot leather (amardeen*) traditionally
served to break the fast at Ramadan. As with most of my
recipes amounts are approximate. Some recipes for this drink use added
sugar, but personally I find the apricots are sweet enough as is. Feel
free to chuck in some sugar if you like yours extra sweet!
* Also known as kamardeen/din / qamardeen/din / Amar el Deen/Din / Qamar el Deen/Din etc etc depending on the transliteration of Arabic
Ingredients
100g amardeen (or a few handfuls of dried apricots*)
100ml boiling water
2 tablespoons rose water
Pine nuts / pistachios (to decorate)
1. Tear the amardeen / apricot leather into small pieces and put in a bowl.
Cover with boiling water and leave to soak for at least 30 minutes (or
until softened, may take longer). *If you can’t get a hold of amardeen,
dried apricots are an acceptable substitute,
though the flavour wont be as concentrated. Try to avoid the ‘ready to
eat’ apricots that most supermarkets sell nowadays, they are partially
reconstituted and while perfectly ok to eat they are lacking in the
concentrated flavour. Ideally what you want is
wizened dried up shrivelled things
2. Once softened, puree until smooth. If necessary push through a sieve
3. Dilute with cold water until it reaches the desired consistency - you want a thickish juice
4. Stir in the rose water
5. Serve with ice and pine nuts (or pistachios) to decorate
Mahalabiya / malabi / muhalabiyah etc is probably one of my favourite desserts, easy to make and always delicious. I usually make a rose water syrup to go with it, but today I thought I'd try something more refreshing. I'd bought some amardeen (also known as kamardeen, qamardeen, kamar el din, gamar el deen etc etc depending on the transliteration) a fruit leather made of apricot that is popular in the Middle East. It's used in desserts and sweets (particularly Lebanese sweets), and when soaked and pureed it's turned into a refreshing drink, traditionally used to break the fast at Ramadan. If you don't have amardeen, then dried apricots will work almost as well. This recipe makes enough for 4 small portions (or two mahoosive ones!)
Ingredients
For the mahalabiya:
500ml milk
200g sugar
5 tablespoons cornflour
2 tablespoons rose water
For the sauce:
50g amardeen (or a couple of handfuls of dried apricots
Hot water
Orange blossom water (or rose water if you prefer)
1. Rip the amardeen into small pieces, put in a container and pour over enough boiling water just to cover. Leave for around 30 minutes or until softened and blend. Stir in the orange blossom water and add extra hot water until it has a sauce-like consistency (how runny depends on your personal taste). Leave to cool
2. Add the milk and sugar to a pan and bring to the boil
3. While the milk is heating, mix hot water into the cornflour until you have a smooth paste
4. Once the milk boils pour some into the cornflour mixture and whisk until smooth, then quickly pour this back into the pan with the remainder of the milk
5. Turn the heat down and whisk for around 5 minutes until it has the consistency of custard
6. Take off the heat and stir in the rose water. Pour into serving dishes and cool before refrigerating for a few hours
7. To serve, top with the apricot sauce and a sprinkling of flaked almonds
I seem to have gone a bit date crazy recently… In my defence, as my
local supermarkets just seem to stock awful 'ready to eat' dates (i.e.
reconstituted with nastiness, preservatives,
oil and usually tasting of nothing) when I see unadulterated dried
dates or beautiful glistening fresh ones I have a tendency to go a bit wild and buy in bulk. Which has resulted in having around 2kg of dates
in the cupboard, and a couple of packs of
reduced to clear medjool dates that I picked up last night on the way
home from work. So I decided I had to do something with them and quick.
As it is Ramadan at the moment, and it is traditional to break the fast
with dates and a drink, here is a recipe that
combines both.
Ingredients
500ml milk (real, soya, rice or otherwise)
10 dates*
2 tablespoons rose water or orange blossom water
Pinch ground cardamom
Flaked almonds or pistachios to decorate (optional)
1. The first step depends on how squidgy your dates are, if you’ve got
some large juicy medjool dates then just whizz them up in a blender. If
your dates are of the drier variety then chop them up finely and soak in
some freshly boiled water for an hour or so
and then puree
2. Pour the milk, date puree, rose water (or orange blossom water) and cardamom into a blender and blend
3. Serve over ice in a tall glass, decorate with some flaked almonds if
you so wish and enjoy. Also delicious if made into a smoothie with
yoghurt instead of milk, or with a scoop or two of ice cream to thicken
things up, or some oats if you want to have a breakfast smoothie instead. The possibilities are endless...
*I used medjool dates, so soft and lucious that they practically turn into a delicious puree as soon as you look at them. Dried dates will need some soaking to soften them up, and I am not sure how well it would work with a date like deglet noor, as beautiful they are to look at, and with a delightful honeyed taste I am not sure whether they'd puree successfully, but I may be wrong...
