Let's Dish - April 2024
If you've talked to me in the library, you know that I am a huge fan of movies and TV. Something else I'm very passionate about (and need to make an excuse to do more) is cooking & baking. I love trying new foods and recipes and sharing that with loved ones. With this blog series, you get to come along for the ride. So, let's dish!
This month, I cooked a few recipes from Yasmin Khan's Zaitoun: Recipes from the Palestinian kitchen. The first thing that drew me in was the cover (despite always hearing "don't judge a book by it's cover it's something we all do, right?). I absolutely loved the embroidery, especially as someone who started embroidering a couple years ago. From there, I loved a lot of the recipes. It was another month of narrowing down as much as possible for what I wanted to make.
Reading through the beginning with the author's life in Palestine and especially the focus on fresh ingredients was interesting. The phrase that really stuck out to me was Ahlan wa sahlan, loosely translating to "welcome" in English. The deeper meaning, though, is what I found truly beautiful: "May you arrive as part of the family and tread an easy path as you enter." Yasmin Khan talks about the welcoming nature of her culture and how this extends into the kitchen and the food. I feel like this is a very universal feeling with anyone who loves food and cooking. I know I love cooking food for others or to share with loved ones. I love expanding my knowledge of other cultures (hence this blog series) and how much food can be a good jumping point for that. It's a great way to learn about those that are different and realize that we're all not that different after all. Food can be very humanizing.
Like a lot of cultural cookbooks, this starts with staples of the pantry. There are some things that are fairly common here like olive oil, bread, dried fruit, nuts, and yogurt. Some things that might be different from our kitchens are types of grains used, their use of flower water, pulses (legumes such as chickpeas and lentils), and the spices.
Once we get into the recipes, it's categorized into 5 main categories: mazzeh, salads, soups, main courses, and desserts. Mazzeh are meant to be informal and grazed. They include dips like hummus, tapenades, flatbreads, vegetables, and pastries. Many cultures have their own versions of this like Greek mezze and Italian antipasto. It leans into that Ahlan wa sahlan mentality in that it's meant to be shared.
I chose recipes from the salad, main course, and dessert sections. All three recipes were incredibly easy and delicious.
First, for the salad, I made the Red Pepper, Lentil, and Tomato Salad. I love lentils and actually had some on hand, so it was an easy decision. It's also very easy and could be easily adaptable if you wanted to change up some of the veggies. Essentially, you want to cook the lentils, let the onions soak in apple cider vinegar, make a dressing from the vinegar, then mix everything together. It's really flavorful as well, especially when topped with feta. I already plan on making more eating and sharing.
For the main coarse, I went with the Roast Chicken with Sumac and Red Onion. This is another accessible recipe, most people familiar with the kitchen have roasted chicken before, so I think that makes it less "scary" to try the additional unfamiliar spice. If you've never had sumac before, it's a crimson-colored spice that has a lemony flavor. In fact, the name sumac, comes from the Arabic "summaq" which means "dark red." I'm sure some people will take pause hearing "sumac" because of the more familiar poison sumac. The easiest way to tell if it's poison sumac is the color. Unlike the bright red berries the spice is made from, poison sumac has white berries.
For the chicken, you let it marinate in the spices along with the onion for 3-4 hours then roast. Also making it easy is that the recipe calls for drums and thighs. The chicken is served on bread with pine nuts and parsley. I think if I made it again, I'd turn up the heat to get the dark roast of the chicken and onions in the book. While it turned out tasty, the color wasn't quite what I was expecting and I expected a little caramelization of the onions. I also couldn't find pine nuts while shopping, so I used pine nut hummus. I spread this on the naan before topping with the chicken. I also opted out of using cinnamon for one of the spices since I planned on sharing with someone with an allergy to cinnamon. I think that's one of the things I love about cooking is that in most cases it's easy to modify without fully ruining the dish.
For the dessert I made the Oranges with Orange Blossom Water and Pistachios. It's incredibly easy. Juice an orange and mix with orange blossom water and honey. Drizzle that over cut up oranges and serve with yogurt, pistachios, and mint. I used clementines since they are easier to peel, so I sectioned them instead of slicing. For the yogurt, I opted for vanilla Greek yogurt. As I said, it's really easy but also really flavorful and delicious. There isn't a ton of added sugar, you have the natural sweetness from the oranges and the added honey (which you can also control by using more or less if desired).
I really enjoyed cooking from this book. It's fully of delicious but also easy to prepare recipes that have a different palette than a typical American one. A few of the other recipes I'd like to try making at some point are: Falafel, Red Lentil and Squash Soup with Za'atar Croutons, and Banana and Tahini Ice Cream with Date Syrup.
