Explore traditional Lebanese recipes

29 May 2013 - 03:12 By Andrea Burgener
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Andre Burgener has been immersed in all things food since she took over the making of the family's lunch box sandwiches aged eight (her mom could make a mean creme brulee and a staggering souffle, but could never butter the bread all the way to the edges.

COOKING THE BOOKS

IN THE last few years, the Ottolenghi cook books have become the bibles (Old Testament, New Testament, and a vegetarian testament in- between) of Middle Eastern cooking.

It's easy to forget the other voices from the broad region, and to forget that the term Middle Eastern spans very far-ranging cuisines.

Salma Hage's brilliant mega-volume on Lebanese food is here to remind us of both things. Salma grew up with about 1000 siblings, and learned to cook by feeding these masses. She became a chef in London once grown-up, but her home cooking remains traditional Lebanese, and it's this which the book explores.

There are more than 500 recipes crying out to be tried. If you like the sound of fried squid with chilli and sumac, potato and walnut kibbeh, pears poached in arak, and donuts with rose-petal jelly, this is the book for you. The dishes I've cooked from it have been glorious. I'm not convinced by the pinked page edges, the feeling of which sets my teeth on edge a bit, but it's a small matter in the big picture. The Lebanese Kitchen is published by Phaidon (2012), R508.

SWEET TALKING

The hot toddy needs no introduction. Not in liquid form anyway. But in hot baked mode, it might need a firm handshake. Whisky, lemon and honey: aren't all these things just born to be carried along in the warm cloud of a baked pudding sponge? A rhetorical question if there ever was one. I very much doubt this pudding will have the medicinal effects of an actual hot toddy, but then you're not making it for health reasons. The original recipe from Gourmet magazine which is here very slightly tweaked, said it was for four, but I ate half of it with ease.

HOT TODDY BAKED PUDDING:

1 cup milk / 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice / ¼ cup Scotch / 125g butter and 3 tbs honey, melted and slightly cooled / 1 tsp grated lemon zest / 1/3 cup flour/ ¼ tsp salt / 3 large eggs, separated / 1/3 cup sugar

HOW: Preheat oven to 180C. Butter a 20cm x 20cm (roughly) oven dish. Whisk together milk, lemon juice, Scotch, butter, honey, zest, salt and egg yolks, then stir in the flour. In a separate bowl, beat whites until they hold stiff peaks, then beat in sugar, a bit at a time, until you have a thick, gleaming mass. Fold egg white mix into the flour mix gently. Pour batter into the dish and bake for about 30 minutes, or until the top is set and golden brown, but the underneath still saucy (time will be dependent on your container shape). Serve with cream.

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