Family Cooking Together – Middle Eastern
Middle Eastern Recipes
Our cooking together cookery classes are as much about learning to cook as they are a sociable experience. We hope you enjoyed your class and are ready to recreate the dishes at home.
You Cooked:
- Main & Side: Saffron Chicken with Tabbouleh, Flatbread and Moroccan Cherry Tomato Sauce;
- Dessert: Date & Ginger Baklava
Saffron Chicken
Ingredients – Serves 2:
- – saffron – 1 pinch
- – Juice of 1 lemon
- – 2 cloves of garlic. minced
- – 2tbsp of yoghurt
- – 1tsp of madras curry spice
- – Salt & Pepper
- – Chicken, four boneless thighs
For Veggie Version
- – 1/2 cauliflower cut into steaks
Method:
- Mix the yoghurt, saffron, madras, garlic and lemon juice. Add salt and pepper Taste and adjust accordingly. Smear all over the chicken. Set to one side for a while or even cover and fridge overnight.
- Use a frying pan, heat to high and make sure you get plenty of colour on your chicken. You can then pop the whole pan into the oven for about 20-25 minutes at 200C– always check juices are clear before serving chicken.
Tabbouleh
Ingredients: Serves 2
- ¼ fresh cucumber, deseeded and diced
- 100g cooked and cooled cous cous or bulgar wheat – make sure you break the grains up with a fork and drizzle some olive oil through.
- ½ pepper (any colour, although red/ yellow are the sweetest) – deseeded and small dice
- 1 fresh tomato – quarter, deseed and dice
- Handful of each of the following fresh herbs:
- Mint leaves (no stalks); Coriander, parsley, and dill – rough chop
- Extra Virgin Olive oil – 1 tablespoon
- Salt & Pepper to Taste
Method:
- Mix the herbs and vegetables through the grains, making sure there are no lumps.
- Squeeze the lemon juice over and then drizzle the olive oil on top. Taste, season and taste again.
Moroccan Cherry Tomato Sauce
Ingredients – Serves 4-6
- – 1 tablespoon olive oil
- – 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced (about 1/2 cup)
- – 1 clove garlic, finely chopped 1 tsp
- – 1 red chilli, chopped
- – 1/2 tablespoon tomato paste plus a pinch of sugar
- – 1 can of chopped tomatoes
- – 2 cups cherry tomatoes or a similar amount of chopped tinned tomatoes
- – 1/4 cup water or more as needed
- – 2 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander
- – ½ tsp of palm sugar
- – 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
- – 1/4 teaspoon cumin
- – 1tsp of pepper flakes (Turkish)
Method:
- Heat oil in a medium pan. Sauté onions for 4-6 minutes until tender and lightly browned. Add garlic, spices, tomato paste (with a pinch of sugar). Stir and cook for 1 minute.
- Add cherry tomatoes, chopped tomatoes, chilli and water. Bring to a boil. Then lower heat to simmer, stirring occasionally. The total time will be about 10 minutes, after 5 minutes, help burst tomatoes by gently pressing with a spatula or large spoon to burst them (careful not to squirt yourself).
- Stir in sweet drop peppers and coriander. Continue cooking until tomatoes form a sauce of the consistency you like. More cooking will make it thicker. Add more water to thin it out if needed. Taste and adjust seasonings e.g., more salt, sugar.
Flatbread
Ingredients – Serves 2:
- – 185g plain or 00 flour – plus extra for dusting
- – 20 ml of olive oil
- – 80ml water
- – 0.5tsp of baking powder
Method:
- Add the flour, baking powder, olive oil & 80ml water to the mixing bowl, stir all together using a wooden spoon…once it all combines, take the dough with your hand until it becomes a springy dough. If your dough is too sticky, add a little more flour. If too crumbly, add a little more water.
- Set Aside – it doesn’t need to rest for long, but you can wait until you need to cook.
- Split dough into 8 balls, heat frying pan to high heat, while the temperature builds, sprinkle flour on clean work surface or board, and some on your rolling pin.
- Take a ball of dough, flatten into rough circle with your hand then roll until thin, keep turning and flipping over.
- Add 2 -3 flatbreads to your pan at a time and cook until you see the rotis blister and char.
- Once both sides cooked, keep wrapped in tea towel – this softens your flatbreads.
Date and Ginger Crumb Baklava
Ingredients – Serves 2:
- 4 sheets Filo pastry
- 100g Medjool Dates
- 20g Ginger Biscuits (recpe below)
- 100 ml honey
- 100ml double cream
- 1 tsp Lemon, lime, rosewater or orange blossom water.
Method:
- Lay a sheet of filo on a baking tray and drizzle honey over the top.
- Smash up the ginger biscuits and sprinkle on top.
- Chop up the dates into small pieces and scatter over the top.
- Cover in more filo sheets and repeat 3 times
- Roll up tightly and place in the centre of your baking tray
- Cover in remaining honey and ginger crumb.
- Bake for 12-15 mins on 150
- Whip double cream in a bowl and add a teaspoon or your chosen flavour, lemon, lime, rosewater or orange blossom.
- Remove and serve.
Gingerbread Biscuits
Ingredients
- 350g plain flour
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 125g butter
- 175g light soft brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 4 tbsp golden syrup
Method
- Sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and cinnamon
- melt butter, sugar & syrup in a pan
- Add flour and combine
- Add beaten egg
- Rest mixture briefly
- can be kept in clingfilm and in the fridge and used from cold
- Preheat the oven to 180c/350f/gas 4. Line two baking trays with greaseproof paper.
- Roll the dough out to a 0.5cm/¼in thickness on a lightly floured surface.
- Using cutters, cut out the gingerbread men shapes and place on the baking tray, leaving a gap between them
- Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until lightly golden-brown. Leave on the tray for 10 minutes and then move to a wire rack to finish cooling.
We Hope You Enjoyed The Class
If you have any feedback about the class or questions for chef please do get in touch. Email: lovetocook@foodsorcery.co.uk
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