Kubbat Halab (Iraqi style rice kibbeh stuffed with mushrooms, aubergine and chestnuts)

I have to admit, Iraqi cuisine is not something that I am too familiar with. While it shares some similarities with its neighbours, and the Middle East as a whole, with the exception of some of the food popular among the Iraqi Jewish diaspora such as amba (the ubiquitous mango and turmeric sauce found in many of Israel’s falafel and sabich shops), sabich – a pitta stuffed with fried aubergine, pickles and egg and slathered in the aforementioned amba sauce, and marak kubbeh adom or red kubbeh soup. A rich sweet, sour and spicy beetroot soup with bulgar wheat dumplings stuffed with usually meat, but sometimes a vegetarian mixture my knowledge is lacking.
There are some distinctly Iraqi specialities, one of which is kubbat halab or Aleppo kubba/kibbe. While named after the Syrian city, this dish is uniquely Iraqi. Traditionally a spicy meat filling encased in a turmeric coloured rice dough and then fried until crispy. 

My version is a vegetarian adaptation, I had originally planned to stuff the kubba with a mushroom mixture, however I didn’t have enough so added some aubergine and chopped chestnuts, ultimately you could probably stuff it with whatever takes your fancy. I often make these stuffed with cheese, which while totally non-traditional are unbelievably delicious. Crispy fried rice encircling melty oozy cheesy goodness. Mmmm
The ingredients below are enough to make 4 or 5 kubbeh, size-wise mine are around the size of a tennis ball, squashed slightly. Oh, that’s another thing. Shape – Sometimes these kubbeh are the more traditional kibbeh torpedo shape, other times they are ovals or like mine squashed spheres. It’s all personal choice, though if you’re shallow frying then you probably want something with a flatter base.

Note: Recipes for kubbat halab usually call for an egg to bind the rice together, and washing the rice prior to cooking to remove some of the starch. I omitted the egg and the washing stage, figuring the starch would help the mixture stick together. It did.

Ingredients
250g long grain or basmati rice
1 tsp turmeric
Pinch of saffron threads
Salt

Stuffing
2 cloves of garlic
Mushrooms*
Aubergine*
Chestnuts* (chopped – or any type of nut)
1 tablespoon Paprika
1 tsp Cumin
1 tsp Allspice
2 tablespoons sultanas

*I've not given quantities, but to fill 5 kubbeh, I used 6 small mushrooms, a handful of chestnuts, and a couple of slices of grilled aubergine (all leftovers scavenged when I realised I didn't have enough mushrooms!)

1. Add the rice to boiling water with the saffron, turmeric and salt. Rather than cooking by the absorption method I boiled the rice for around 12 minutes until it was just done and then drained.
2. To make the dough, traditionally leave the rice to cool enough to be handled, and then work it between your fingers breaking up the grains until you have a rough dough to which you add 1 egg. I used an immersion blender to puree the rice. You don’t want to do this too thoroughly, I left some of the rice whole to create texture. Taste the rice dough and add more salt if you think it needs it

3. For the stuffing, chop the vegetables finely and fry until soft and then add the spices. I haven’t gone into much detail, as basically you can use whatever you want!

4. Before assembling, it helps to have a bowl of water to dip your fingers in to keep the mixture from sticking.
5. Take a good sized handful of the rice dough (around the size of a tennis ball) and then flatten on the palm of your hand, add a spoonful of the filling and then fold the dough over the filling and shape the finished kubbeh. There are quite a few different methods of doing this, and I guess you make them how you’ve seen them being prepared! Some people take a ball of the kubbeh mixture, place a finger inside and flatten out the sides creating a rice dough ‘cup’ into which the filling is placed. The dough is quite pliable so either method works just as well. Once you’ve sealed the filling in the rice ball flatten is slightly

6. To prepare, shallow fry in oil until crispy and golden brown. I also oven baked some, while you don’t get the same delicious crispy rice crust, they are still tasty and obviously a slightly reduced calorie version

7. Lovely served with amba, or harissa, or any way you fancy!

Bamya (Egyptian style okra stew)

I love okra in all its forms, but none more so than in the hearty Egyptian stew bamya. As with a lot of Middle Eastern and North African foods, the recipes are shared throughout the region, but with subtle differences. Bamya in Egypt pretty much always contains meat of some sort, after much trialand error I found that rather than use  meat substitute, using grilled chunks of aubergine work perfectly. Especially when marinated in a sweet and sour vinegary marinade.
As with all my recipes, the amounts are approximations, use more or less liquid depending on how much okra you have.

Ingredients
300g okra
1 large onion 
1 aubergine 
Olive oil
8 garlic cloves
1 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp coriander seeds
2 tsp caraway seeds
2 tablespoons of tomato paste 
200ml of passata 
Margarine or butter (a good sized dollop)

For the marinade
A splash of balsamic vinegar
A splash of regular vinegar
Olive oil
1 tablespoon ground cumin, coriander and caraway seeds
Salt
1 tsp smoked paprika 

1. Cut the aubergine into large cubes and grill on a griddle pan until done, I don't add any oil. If you prefer you could roast the aubergine slices in the oven. You want them to keep a bit of body, so don't overcook
2. While the aubergines are cooking dry roast the cumin, coriander and caraway seeds and then grind in a pestle and mortar or a coffee grinder. (As an aside, this spice combination is known as tabil and is Tunisian in origin, while not strictly used in the Egyptian version, Egyptian cuisine does use coriander and cumin heavily, so as I always have tabil ready made I tend to just use that)
3. Tip the still hot aubergine cubes into a container and add the balsamic vinegar, regular vinegar and spices. Leave for at least an hour
4. Grate the onions, and fry in olive oil with 4 cloves of crushed garlic until golden brown
5. Add the okra and sautee for a few minutes
6. Stir in the spices and tomato paste and then add the passata. Top up with some boiled water if the sauce needs thinning down
7. Bring to the boil, and then simmer on a low heat for around 30 minutes or until the okra is tender
8. Now add the aubergine chunks and cook for another 10 minutes
9. As the bamya simmers, crush the remainder of the garlic and fry with the dried coriander in butter or margarine until golden brown, this is called the takliya and is the finishing touch in many Egyptian dishes
10. Pour the takliya into the bamya taking care not to miss a drop (I usually pour a little of the tomato sauce into the pan that the garlic has been frying in just to catch all of that garlicky goodness)
11. Serve with white rice and a squeeze of lemon joice

Kar Assaly (Egyptian pumpkin pie)

I've been woefully neglectful of my blog of late (but not of cooking and if anyone is interested in following my cooking experimentation I can be found here on Instagram). I've a ton of recipes that I've been meaning to upload, but I have been without a laptop, and unable to upload using my mobile phone, so they have had to languish a bit. Hopefully I'll be a bit more regular in my updates now! 

It’s winter and the grocery stores are filled with pumpkins and squashes, I normally prefer my pumpkins savoury, but had been intended on experimenting with sweet. I’d recently acquired a copy of an Egyptian cookbook, and one dessert recipe in particular caught my eye, Kar Assaly. It’s pie-like dessert with a sweet pumpkin base smothered in a creamy béchamel sauce and baked in the oven. The original recipe is quite heavy, and has a lot of added sugar, now… while I do like my desserts sweet, I decided to try and use as little sugar as possible, so to the base I added some grated sweet potato and carrot to add natural sweetness. I also went down the non-dairy route, mainly because my local supermarket was selling off some hazelnut milk, and I thought that would make a lovely addition to the béchamel. If you prefer to go with the original, then add sugar to taste to the pumpkin mixture, and substitute regular milk for the hazelnut milk.

Ingredients
1 small sweet potato (grated)
2 carrots (grated)
500g pumpkin (ideally butternut squash)
6 cardamom pods
1 stick of cinnamon
2 tablespoons orange blossom water
100g desiccated coconut
50g chopped nuts
Squeeze of honey (optional)
Handful of raisins (optional)

For the béchamel
50g margarine or ghee
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk (adjust according to thickness)

1. Add the grated carrots and sweet potato to a pan with the cardamom pods and cinnamon stick and enough water to cover and simmer until they start to disintegrate. While these are cooking, boil the pumpkin until tender and drain (if you want to go for the original recipe, boil the pumpkin in sugar water)
2. Remove the cardamom pods and cinnamon from the carrot and sweet potato mixture, mash the pumpkin and add to the pan. Stir in the coconut and orange blossom water. The pumpkin filling should have the consistency of thick mashed potato, if it’s too runny add more coconut, if too thick then add a little of the pumpkin cooking liquid
3. Spread a layer of the pumpkin in the bottom of an oven proof dish. Top with some of the nuts and raisins and then add the remainder and the rest of the nuts
4. To make the béchamel sauce, fry the flour in margarine or ghee until it loses the raw smell
5. Whisk in the milk, adding a small amount at first
Cook for around 10 minutes until thickened, if the sauce is too thick then just add more milk until it’s the desired thickness
6. Pour over the top of the pumpkin mixture (I sprinkled some flaked almonds on for a bit of extra texture) and bake until golden brown and bubbling (around 20-30 minutes) eat hot, warm or room temperature!

Feteer meshaltet with cheese and olives (Egyptian stuffed flaky pastry)

I had a relaxing weekend planned, and my idea of relaxation usually involves cooking of some sort. I'd had a dream a few nights previously about feteer meshaltet, I'm not sure what triggered it but I woke up with the taste in my mouth and knew I had to make it...
For those unfamiliar with the dish, feteer meshaltet is an unbelievably delicious Egyptian pastry dish, it has the crispness of filo pastry and the layering and moistness of puff pastry. Layers of super thin pastry are smothered in clarified butter and stacked and folded upon themselves, sometimes it's stuffed, savoury and pie-like and sometimes just the pastry is baked and served with a dusting of sugar and honey. I prefer the savoury version and decided to go with a filling of feta and green olives (cheese is quite a common filling, often of the processed variety... Mmmmm)
I'm not a big maker of pastry, and I did wonder whether I would be able to re-create the transparently thin layers, and had bought some ready made puff pastry as a back up should it not work. However, the pastry was actually quite straightforward to make, the trick being to knead it well, and rest to allow the elasticity to develop, so I would encourage anyone to give it a go!

Ingredients
450g plain flour
250ml water (you may need a little less)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
100g margarine or ghee (melted)

For the filling
100g feta (crumbled)
1 handful green olives (roughly chopped)
1 tsp za'atar 

1. Pour the flour, salt and sugar and slowly add the water, I've said 250ml but you may need a bit less, orpossibly more. The dough should be quite wet and sticky, but still kneadable
2. Once the dough has come together in a smooth ball, knead for 10-15 minutes, then divide the dough into four parts. Drizzle with a little of the melted margarine (or olive oil), cover and leave to rest for an hour 
3. Once the dough has rested you're ready to make the feteer. Pour some of the melted margarine on a clean work surface and start pushing the dough flat with the heel of your hand, keep the dough well oiled for this. With the kneading and resting the dough should be quite elastic and you'll find it spreads quite easily. The idea is to get it as thin as possible, if you can see your work surface through the dough then it's think enough! As an aside, if you get the occasional hole, don't worry. It's going to be folded up so the odd tear doesn't matter

4.  Add the crumbled feta, olives and za'atar to the centre of the dough circle (or square/oblong/rectangle) and fold the sides in over the filling. Once it's encased put it to one side
5. Repeat the process with the second ball of dough, this time when it's reached the desired thickness carefully pick up your filled dough parcel and place it in the middle of the circle, and fold the pastry over it 
6. And repeat again with the third and fourth balls, you'll end up with a well wrapped dough parcel

7. Bake in a preheated oven until golden brown and crispy, I can't give temperatures as my oven doesn't have a temperature gauge, but 190C for around 20 minutes seems about right!

8. Eat, and then wish you'd made more! 

Zeytinli açma (Turkish soft bread rolls filled with olives)

I don’t bake much, it’s not that I don’t enjoy bread, but the process of baking always seems to be a bit too precise. However I had been dreaming of zeytinli açma, the beautiful soft Turkish bread rolls stuffed with a tangy black olive paste. One of the first things I do as soon as I arrive in Turkey is to hunt out one of these beauties, usually easy enough as a branch of a certain world famous coffee shop in the arrivals hall stock them. I only realised I had a bit of an addiction a couple of years ago when I realised I was planning my day around where I could buy my next fix…

I’m back in turkey next month, but as I’m still trying to get to grips with the oven in my new house I decided to try my hand at some baking, and what better bread to start than with the delicious zeytinli açma. I wasn’t too precise about measuring out the ingredients, and as far as the cooking times go, my oven doesn’t have a temperature scale so I’ll have to be a bit vague with regards to timing, but the end result was extremely tasty! The quantities make 10 açma, enough to eat with a few left over to freeze for later.

Ingredients
3 cups of white flour
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup of milk
A sachet of yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
Squeeze of honey
Salt

For the filling

100 g black olives

2 tablespoons margarine (or butter)

1. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl and add the milk and vegetable oil. Mix together, you should get a moist dough. Cover and leave in a warm place to rise for an hour
2. To make the olive filling, puree or finely chop the olives, and add a tablespoon of margarine or softened butter
3. Break off tangerine sized pieces of the dough and roll into balls, these quantities should make 10
4. Taking one ball of dough, roll it into a sausage shape and either squash flat, or roll flat with a rolling pin. This doesn’t have to be too precise. 

5. Take a spoonful of the olive and margarine mixture and spread on the surface of the dough. Roll up, and taking one end of the roll in each hand, twist and then form into a ring. Don’t worry if some of the filling starts to come out, this is the intended effect
6. Repeat with the remainder of the dough
7. Brush the tops of the açmas with milk or egg yolk (most recipes call for egg yolk, I had no eggs in the house) and sprinkle with sesame seeds or nigella seeds
8. Bake for around 20-30 minutes

Nevzine (Turkish walnut and tahini cake)

It seems that when I have things on my mind, or am distracted I cook. That is my coping mechanism, and as life has been rather chaotic recently (a house move, and possibly another move on the horizon) my response is to make food. I'm not really big on comfort eating, but I find the preparation of meals to be the ultimate in relaxation. I guess with cooking it is one of those things that is seen either as a pleasure or a chore. My grandmother worked as a cook for a living, and when she wasn't working she would be always found in the kitchen cooking for pleasure. My mother on the other hand, while a good cook sees food preparation to be something that has to be endured between doing far more interesting things like gardening! So the love of cooking obviously skipped a generation. 

I’ve been trying to use up odds and ends left in my store cupboards, and had some ground walnuts and half used bags of flour and a quarter of a jar of tahini. In addition I’d unearthed a jar of pekmez, that thick gooey Turkish spread made from grape must. Ingredients that spoke to me of their desire to be made into a cake. And what better way to use them up than to make nevzine, a rich and utterly delicious Turkish cake that is lovingly soaked in pekmez until it is oozingly delicious. It's very similar to basbousa or revani, though more commonly made with regular flour. I didn't have enough flour for the recipe, so substituted fine semolina. The cake may not have been quite as dense as the traditional variety, but I think the semolina gave it a nice texture. Feel free to use all flour if you prefer. I also substituted yoghurt for milk, again I don't think that the flavour or texture suffered for this addition. 

Ingredients

2 cups of flour (either regular white flour or use half semolina and half flour)

50g ground walnuts

100g melted margarine

3 tablespoons yoghurt

3 tablespoons tahini

For the syrup

Make a 1:1 sugar syrup (i.e. 100g sugar to 100ml water with a squeeze of lemon juice)

3 tablespoons pekmez

1. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl, then add the melted margarine and mix until you have the consistency of wet sand. Then stir in the yoghurt and tahini. The dough should be thick batter-like consistency

2. Spoon it into an oven proof dish. Smooth down the surface and cut it into squares, placing a walnut half in the middle of each portion

3. Cook for around 40 minutes, a little bit vague, but my oven doesn't have set temperatures and my method is to light the fire, put in whatever I’m baking and then check it after 30 minutes! It's a method that seems to work (I'm guessing you should heat it to around 175C if you have an oven with settings). You want the cake to be firm and the top lightly golden

4. While the cake is cooking make the sugar/pekmez syrup and leave to cool

5. Once the cake is cooked, reinforce the score marks, and then pour over the syrup until all the cake is covered. Allow to cool and ideally refrigerate overnight so the syrup can completely soak in

The cake is delicious with coffee, and if it needs any further accompaniment a spoonful of ice cream or strained yoghurt complements it beautifully!

Kakaolu muhallebi (Turkish style chocolate milk dessert)

Of all the varieties of muhallebi available, kakaolu muhallebi (cocoa / chocolate muhallebi) is probably one of my favourites. Because after all, who doesn’t love chocolate?!

The recipe couldn’t be any simpler, and the whole process takes maybe 10 minutes maximum, you do need to give it a few hours (or ideally overnight) to cool and set, but apart from that, it’s something that can be knocked up at a moments notice. The amounts of ingredients are an estimation, when I made this I prepared it by eye, using enough milk to fill the size of containers I had plus a little extra. Add more or less sugar depending on your personal taste, I wanted the dessert to be a little bittersweet...

Ingredients

500ml milk

50g sugar

3 heaped tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder

3 heaped tablespoons cornflour

Dash of orange blossom/rose water (optional)

1. Add the milk (reserving a little) to a pan with the sugar and bring to the boil

2. Mix the reserved milk and the cornflour, stir well until you have a smooth paste

3. To the cocoa powder add some boiling water and mix until smooth, then add this to the cornflour mixture

4. By now the milk will probably be boiling, to create silky smooth muhallebi you need to take care when pouring in the cornflour mixture as it will start to thicken immediately*. I whisk the milk using a hand whisk and slowly pour in the cornflour, whisking all the time. Once it’s all incorporated lower the heat and cook the muhallebi for another minute or so and then take off the heat. Now add the orange blossom or rose water (if using)

5. Pour into small containers and allow to cool, then refrigerate for at least 4 hours (or overnight)

6. Eat!

*As an aside, if you are distracted and horror of horrors your wonderfully silky smooth muhallebi turns into a lumpy fright, all is not lost. Using a hand blender will remove the lumps and no one need ever know