Anyway, back in the present, I'm using Maria Khalife's Middle Eastern Cookbook again. I'm not sure what the extraordinary appeal of this book is that has me running back to it, but I suppose it just seems very exotic. So first off is shawarma - the slightly dodgy meat you buy in small tiny pieces from the kebab shop after getting crazy drunk on a school night! I always assumed that this was a Turkish dish. but this recipe is from Lebanon. Funny enough the serving suggestion in the book is to plate this up with pitta, salad, garlic dip and french fries (and maybe crank up the old Billy Idol CD?) I don't have any of those things so I'm making a couple of side dishes, to you know, go on the side.
You're meant to marinade this stuff overnight, but I think we all know that that stuff doesn't mean anything, right? Who's with me? I gave it an hour and in the mean time started in on the Muhammar which is from Bahrain and translates as Golden Rice - not as sexy as it sounds, perverts ;). It's the perfect opportunity for me to use up some of the funny ingredients that have been cluttering my cupboards, saffron, which I don't like, rose water, which tastes like soap, and cardamom which I just have way too much of. Interestingly there is also almost a cup of sugar in this, don't believe me? How about if I also told you that instead of just adding sugar to the rice, you're meant to melt the sugar until it turns golden brown (texture like sun) then pour in the water and cook the rice in that!
While the chicken is marinading, the oven is heating up and the rice parboils in caramel water, I start making the Shakshoukeh which cooks very quickly but is meant to be served cold. Despite the fancy unpronounceable name, this is just bell peppers julienned and fried with garlic, chilli (I used Birdseye, and you couldn't even taste it!) tomatoes and coriander seeds. I also threw a tin of chickpeas in. For some reason this simple assembly is attributed to Jordan.
Result: Well feast your eyes, this lot made my kitchen smell really nice :)The Shawarma took about 40 minutes longer in the oven than the book claimed if would. This might also be the reason why it was pretty dry by the time it came out. My excuse for overcooking it was the totally unrealistic and bizarrely brown shawarma pictured in the book. For most part, mine stayed a uniform anaemic pale, and neither looked anything like the richly basted, moist stuff you get in the kebab shop. The only dominant flavour was the onion - there was enough of it! You almost couldn't taste any of the stuff I was expecting to make the meat lovely fragrant and delicious, the garlic, oregano, allspice, clove, nutmeg and sumac. If I ever make this again I'll definitely be a lot more heavyhanded with that crap.
The Muhammar didn't come out as yellow as in the book either, I must have not used enough saffron, oopsie! Still, I was expecting a stong sugar hit, (Pow! Right in the kisser!) but while this was definitely treading the line between pudding and side dish, the taste was amazing. Rich but mild enough to be a good base for the chicken, besides sweetness of the sugar you get a slight dustyness from the saffron but the cardamom and rose are just aromas. And I loved the method of parboiling the rice and then steaming it in the frying pan, I've never had such fluffy results!
The Shakshoukeh was alright, pretty good. Who cares?
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