Jewish, Middle Eastern Recipes
4 recipes found
Swiss Chard and Lamb Torte With Fennel-Pomegranate Relish
Festive dishes in Israel and throughout the Middle East often include rice and lamb. This magnificent recipe, topped with a bright pomegranate and fennel relish, is the Israeli chef Erez Komarovsky's twist on an ancient, labor-intensive classic of individual stuffed chard, cabbage or grape leaves, symbolizing the plenty of the fall harvest. It is perfect for Rosh Hashana or any seasonal holiday gathering. Make it with blanched Swiss chard, grape leaves or even cabbage or kale as the outer crust, and assemble it a day in advance. Then bake it and revel in the heightened flavors from the cardamom, cinnamon, fennel and mint; the crunch of pistachio; and the slight kick you get from the Mexican Serrano pepper now planted in Israel.
Chicken With Eggplant and Swiss Chard
A version of this delicious Jewish-Middle Eastern chicken dish, adapted from Joan Nathan's cookbook "King Solomon's Table," dates to medieval times. You can make it in one day, but it's best to make the chicken a day ahead, then it refrigerate it overnight and remove the layer of fat that rises to the top. (If you choose to make it all in one day, you may want to use a fat separator to strain the sauce before serving.) For more heat, add a little hot paprika or cayenne.
Kubaneh (Yemeni Pull-Apart Rolls)
The Jewish-Yemeni bread kubaneh was traditionally cooked in the residual heat of the hearth on Friday night, low and slow, ready to be eaten on Shabbat morning. At his restaurant, Nur, the chef Meir Adoni adapted a recipe that requires less than 30 minutes. You'll need a stand mixer to aggressively knead the basic yeasted dough, but afterward the fun of this bread is shaping it by hand, one bun at a time. With generously buttered hands, spread each piece of dough into a big, sheer sheet, then roll it up like a log and swirl it into a bun. Don't worry about a few rips and creases here and there in the dough as you spread it. Keep laminating, creating fine layers of fat as you roll and swirl, and those will give the baked kubaneh additional volume, texture and a rich, buttery flavor that make it one of the world's great breads.
