You make it sound increedibly tasty! Also very pretty.
1 Like
Voting for August is now complete. It’s official! We will be extending this COTM, Flavors of the Sun, for another month. I hope some of you who haven’t yet had the opportunity to dive in to this book will be able to do so in the next month.
4 Likes
CITRUSY PILAF - p. 44
Another one from the “Ten More Ways to Use Preserved Lemons” spread. This is very simple. Cook your rice, or other grain, and then fold in minced preserved lemon and fresh dill. Of course you could have other add-ins as well. I had intended to use some pine nuts in my pilaf, but forgot. Either way, the preserved lemon and dill brighten and dress up plain rice. I served this as a side for stuffed baby eggplants.
9 Likes
ROASTED POTATOES - p. 203
This is in the “Ten More Ways to Use Harissa Spices and Liquid Harissa” spread on pp. 202-203. You coat baby potatoes in melted butter and harissa spice mix, and roast until tender. I roasted at 400 for about 35 minutes (my potatoes were more toddler-sized than infant). The author describes the dry harissa spice blend that they sell at Sahadi’s. They toast and grind their own spices for it and it contains five kinds of chiles. It sounds wonderful and I immediately went to their Web site to see if they sold it online. They don’t. Nor does the book give a recipe. So I used the recipe from Mourad, but I tweaked the chiles by substituting the chile mixture from Amá for a portion of the Aleppo pepper called for, to add complexity. The Mourad recipe also had citric acid in it, so there was a bit of a tang. The potatoes came out like mini baked potatoes with a very tasty skin. I ate more than expected.
10 Likes
I recall an Ottolenghi recipe that combines harissa and potatoes from an old COTM - will look back. Hard to wrong with that combination!
Whole Foods used to sell a harissa blend in a small jar that I stared at on many visits but decided was probably cabinet excess given that I own all the component ingredients, lol. I will look for the Sahadi’s one the next time I go (and would be happy to mail it to you if you still want it then!)
ETA: Found it - was in Simple (though this one actually seems a lot simpler haha)
2 Likes
POM-ROASTED EGGPLANT, pg. 79 (#10 of “More ways to use pomegranate molasses”)
I actually made a very similar dish years ago after hearing it praised on the Splendid Table. I hated it, and I’m posting about it to initiate a discussion about your experiences with pomegranate molasses.
For this dish, pom molasses and olive oil are whisked together and seasoned (this book includes Aleppo pepper too). The mixture is brushed onto chunks of eggplant, which are then broiled. I recall using wedges of long Chinese eggplants. They looked beautiful – all shiny and mahogany-colored - but they were inedibly sour.
I used unsweetened pomegranate molasses, which was just too much for me in every application. I ended up throwing the bottle out. Years later, when I decided to buy some again, I couldn’t even find unsweetened at the store even though there were several brands. Given that the unsweetened version was too sour for me anyway, I bought the sweetened.
I’ve always been sensitive to extreme sour, but has anyone else had this experience with pomegranate molasses? Which type have you all been using? Can you even find unsweetened locally, or have you been ordering online?
The brands I see in the store all have sugar. The Sadaf brand, which you can order, does not. I have also made my own by boiling pomegranate juice, and did not add any sugar. I didn’t find it too sour, but then I like sour things. Sadaf also makes a “sour” pomegranate molasses, which not only doesn’t have sugar, but also has citric acid added so it is especially tart. I wonder if you got one like that.
Did you make the eggplant in this book with sweeter pomegranate molasses? Did you like it better?
There was also “harissa-baked potato skins and iceberg lettuce salad” in Simple. I made that one. Just looked up my review, and it starts with, “This was really lame.”
I was also surprised by the omission–where was the editor? Luckily, the last time I made harissa, I set aside some excess spice because I thought having a premade mix would come in handy (and freezing and thawing the paste is a pain). I believe mine is just cumin, coriander, and caraway so I can adjust the heat level as needed. I usually use New Mexico and guajillo chilies or baklouti when I grow them.
1 Like
Given that they sell their own brand of harissa spice mix, I don’t think the omission was a mistake.
CARDAMOM-SPICED CHICKEN KEBABS - p. 184
These have been on my to-do list for a while, and I already had the zhug (recipe from the book) made up and ready to go. I used the Daring chicken once again. The marinade is olive oil, cumin, coriander, cardamom, salt, garlic, jalapeño (I used serrano), and parsley. This has a long marinating time - overnight (which to me means ~24 hours). That’s OK in this case since there is no acid in the marinade. I cooked these on a grill, but the instructions are for broiling. The finished kebabs are to be served with the zhug. Well, guess what? I completely forgot about the zhug, which was sitting in my fridge. The kebabs were pretty good on their own, although not as vibrantly flavored as the chicken kebabs with toum, which I reported on upthread. But zhug is an intense flavor, and with that, I have no doubt that the kebabs would have been incredibly flavorful. So don’t be like me! Remember the zhug!
7 Likes
But MeIMM said it was not available on the website, so that is some strange marketing if it is only available in person in the store.
Maybe sometimes they do sell it online? I don’t know. But they don’t include recipes for ANY of the spice mixes. There are recipes calling for harissa (both liquid and dry spices), berbere, ras el hanout, etc, and no recipes for any of them. There is discussion of them, and there are tips for purchasing. The assumption in this book is that you are going to purchase them from somewhere, maybe not necessarily from them. They do sell the others online, just not the harissa. So maybe it’s out of stock and they usually sell it.
The ras el hanout and berebere are available on the website–not that those aren’t also just as easy to make, so it just struck me as curious.
Says available for local and nationwide delivery when I looked, but in any case the title of book includes”buying” so ostensibly one could substitute a different purchased harissa spice mix (WF’s makes one, for eg).
They have packaged mixes and single spices in the labeled bottles, and loose mixes and spices priced by weight that are pre-packed into small rectangular takeout-like containers at the store. The harissa powder is in the latter category.
The labeled bottles are on the “shop” part of the website.
For the others, follow the “local delivery” link - the Atlantic Avenue store then shows nationwide shipping (not for everything, though).
Probably need to buy enough to make the shipping worth it, but their pricing is very good for the most part, so if someone needed enough things, it’s not a bad way to buy.
2 Likes
Thanks for that info. I was just looking at the online shop.
2 Likes
Their recipe for “Berbere Spice Mix” is on pg. 160 (under “Fiery Berbere Shrimp”).
It piqued my interest because of the inclusion of anise seed, but it calls for 2 cups (!!!) of paprika. Not gonna happen.
ZA’ATAR-ROASTED VEGETABLES, pg. 126
This is straight forward and not really something you need a recipe for, but it’s also not something I would have made without coming across it in the book. I usually roast my vegetables plain and then top them with an interesting sauce later.
1/4 c olive oil is whisked with 2 T za’atar, 1 t Urfa pepper, and some salt. Cut-up cauliflower and broccoli are coated in the mixture and then roasted at 450 degrees for 20 minutes.
I don’t find cauliflower and broccoli to roast in the same amount of time, so I roasted on two sheet pans and added thickly chopped portobellos to the broccoli tray.
The tray of cauliflower desperately needed some acid, so I squeezed lemon juice over it when eating. I imagine including red wine vinegar in the original mixture would work well.
It was interesting how differently the za’atar combined with the broccoli and mushrooms. It complemented their nature flavors instead of dominating with earthiness. They were improved with a little lemon too, but they didn’t need it as badly.
4 Likes
This was too beautiful to ignore, but it was kind of meh in my execution. I had cucuzza squash, hence the smaller cuts. It absorbed way too much oil (it looked nicely browned when I took it out the oven!), so I’d cut back next time. Maybe I just needed to raise my oven rack, but it took longer than five minutes per side. I should have copied MEIMM’s lemon and garlic tip, but I mistakenly thought the hot squash would temper the garlic enough. I only used half a serrano, but this was still a bit spicy for me (I am admittedly not a chile head, but I loooove urfa). It still made a nice lunch with a pilaf of farro, preserved lemon, chickpeas, and feta.
8 Likes
