Feasts From The Middle East Cookbook & Recipes*

Feasts From The Middle East Cookbook & Recipes

[Ad-gifted] If you love authentic Middle Eastern food and often dine at Comptoir Libanais and want to recreate those dishes at home, then read on as we share how you can win a copy of Tony Kitous’ Feasts from the Middle East Cookbook. 

This cookbook has over 100 delicious, fresh, fragrant and flavourful recipes which is accompanied by stunning and vibrant photographs featuring the food.  It is wonderful that Tony adds a personal revelation, story or history behind every recipe, so that the reader can relate to the dish and understand its beginnings. To get an idea of the type of recipes available in the book, we are sharing four of our favourite recipes from the book here, so you can try making these at home.

Some of the featured recipes include Pastries Stuffed with Feta & Halloumi, Aubergine Shakshuka, Slow-Cooked Shoulder of Lamb and Tahina, Chocolate & Pistachio Cheesecake. Trust us, the dishes in the book are really simple to make and so flavoursome at the same time. If you love what you see here, don’t forget to join our competition so that you can win yourself a copy of this book.

Pastries Stuffed with Feta & Halloumi or Olives Samboussek (Makes 36–40)

If you peeked inside some village homes, you’d find Lebanese mamas rustling up these little tasty parcels. These are offered in their restaurants as part of their sharing mezze

Ingredients:
500g white flour, plus extra for rolling
20g sugar
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp beaten egg plus 1 large egg, beaten, for brushing
1 tbsp vegetable oil
15g butter, melted and cooled a little
250ml water

For the cheese filling:
125g halloumi, grated
125g feta, crumbled
½ tbsp nigella seeds, plus extra to garnish
3 spring onions, chopped
10g mint sprigs, leaves picked and chopped

For the olive filling:
200g green olives and black Kalamata olives, stoned and chopped
10g thyme sprigs, leaves picked and chopped
½ tbsp red pepper paste
1 garlic clove, chopped
½ tsp black pepper
sesame seeds or nigella seeds, to garnish

Method:

Sift the flour into a large bowl and stir in the sugar and salt. Make a well in the middle and pour in the tablespoon of beaten egg, the oil, cool melted butter and water. Stir everything together to make a rough dough, then transfer to a board and knead until smooth. Set aside.

Mix the cheese filling ingredients in one bowl, and the olive filling ingredients in another.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured board until it’s about ½cm thick and use a 9cm cutter to stamp out rounds. If it’s easier, divide the dough into four pieces and roll out the pieces one at a time.

Take half the pastry rounds and spoon the cheese filling on to one half of each round. Then take the rest of the pastry rounds and spoon the olive filling on to those. Close up the pastries, crimp the edges and brush them with beaten egg. Sprinkle with either nigella or sesame seeds. Transfer to a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes until golden. Brush them again with the egg wash half way through, if you think they need it.

Tony’s Tip – You don’t need any special equipment – if you don’t have a cutter, you can use a glass to cut out the dough rounds. Any combination of ingredients you fancy can go inside them – spiced lamb, cheese and herb, or spinach and herb. Just remember not to overfill them so the filling remains intact. I also love to dip my samboussek in tahina or harissa.

Aubergine Shakshuka (Serves 6)

My mum used to make this favourite of mine for me, my brothers and my sister. Breakfast was pretty busy for her with seven of us to feed, but she could rustle this up quickly and sometimes she made it for lunch instead. If she was really pressed for time, instead of waiting for the eggs to set, she’d scramble them into the tomato mixture, which I loved. Here I’ve married the classic with one of my favourite ingredients, aubergine. You must make the sauce in an ovenproof frying pan, as the eggs are baked right at the end. Just 5 minutes in a hot oven is all it takes for the whites to set and the yolks to still be soft and runny.

Ingredients:
olive oil, for frying
2 large aubergines, sliced into rounds
½ red onion, sliced
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
8 large tomatoes on the vine, chopped
125ml tomato juice
½ tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper
½ tsp cumin (optional)
6 large eggs
100g feta cheese, roughly chopped

TO SERVE
a few parsley sprigs and
a large mint sprig
warm pitta bread
Preheat the oven to 220°C/200°C fan/gas mark 7.

Method:

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large frying pan. Season the aubergine slices and fry them in batches for 3–4 minutes on each side, until golden and tender, adding more oil as necessary. Transfer the slices to a plate as they are cooked.

Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a medium frying pan and sauté the onion gently over a low-to-medium heat for about 8 minutes, stirring every now and then, until softened. Stir in the garlic and cook for a further minute.

Tip the tomatoes into the pan along with any juice and stir into the onion. Cook for 8 minutes until the tomatoes have broken down and softened – they should be a pulp. Pour in the tomato juice and cook, again over a low heat, for 5 minutes. The sauce will be quite thick by this stage. Season with salt, black pepper and the cumin, if using. Spread a layer of aubergine slices over a large, ovenproof dish, then spoon over half the tomato sauce. Repeat to make two layers.

Make a hole in the sauce with the back of a large spoon and crack an egg into it. Do the same all round the dish until you’ve positioned all the eggs. Scatter over the feta. Bake in the oven for 5 minutes. Pick the leaves off the parsley and mint sprigs, and chop roughly. Scatter over the shakshuka and serve with the warm pitta bread

Slow-Cooked Shoulder of Lamb (Serves 4)

We’ve been serving this in our restaurant for more than 18 years now and it’s so good, so popular, that I don’t think we’ll ever take it off the menu. In our culture we don’t serve our meat pink or medium; it’s always well done. So in this recipe the joint is cooked until crispy on the outside, moist on the inside and soft enough to be shredded with a fork. This recipe really sums up what this book is all about – layers of flavour in one huge feast of a dish, brought to the table accompanied by a wonderful array of sides to complement it.

FOR THE MARINADE
½ onion, roughly chopped
3 garlic cloves
½ bunch of coriander,
roughly chopped
20g root ginger, chopped
¼ tsp cumin
½ tsp ras-el-hanout
¼ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp turmeric
¼ tsp Lebanese sevenspice

1 tsp salt                                                      }
¼ tsp white pepper                                   }
½ tsp black pepper                                    }  mix
50ml vegetable oil                                      }
2–2.5kg shoulder of lamb, bone in         }

FOR THE SAUCE
25ml vegetable oil
25g butter
½ red onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
4–5 sprigs of thyme
2 tbsp tomato purée
400g tin chopped tomatoes
small handful of coriander, chopped
small handfiul of flat-leaf parsley, chopped

FOR THE DRIED FRUIT
4 each dried apricots, dried figs, dates and prunes handful of golden raisins
1 cinnamon stick
2 whole star anise
1 tsp rose water
2 tbsp honey

FOR THE RICE
1 tbsp vegetable oil
½ onion, finely chopped
150g lamb mince
1 tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper
good pinch of Lebanese seven-spice mix
1 tsp ras-el-hanout
200g basmati rice
25g toasted mixed nuts
handful of fresh mint leaves

TO SERVE
Greek yoghurt
harissa
toasted sesame seeds

Up to two days before you serve the lamb, marinate the shoulder. Put the onion, garlic, coriander, root ginger, spices, salt, peppers and oil into a mini blender and whizz to make a paste. Put the shoulder into a large sealable container and rub the paste all over it. Cover and chill for at least 24 hours and up to 48 hours.

Take the lamb out of the fridge so that it comes up to room temperature – if it’s too cold, it will take longer to cook. When you’re ready to cook it, preheat the oven to 220°C/200°C fan/gas mark 7.

Method:

Put the lamb in a roasting tin and roast in the oven for 20 minutes until it has coloured on all sides.

While the lamb is cooking in this short blast of heat, make the sauce. Heat the oil and butter in a medium saucepan and sauté the onion, carrot and garlic for 10 minutes over a medium heat until starting to soften and turn golden. Stir in the thyme sprigs, tomato purée and the tin of tomatoes, then fill the tin with hot water twice (making about 800ml of water in total) and pour that into the pan, too. Stir in the coriander and parsley, and bring to the boil. Simmer, half covered with a lid, for 15 minutes. Blend until smooth using a hand blender.

When the lamb has cooked for 20 minutes, take it out of the oven and pour the sauce over it. Cover the tin tightly with foil, reduce the temperature to 170°C/150°C fan/gas mark 3 and return the lamb to the oven. Cook for about 3 hours until very tender. After each hour, remove the tin to check the meat and pour in 500ml boiling water, stirring it into the sauce. Turn the shoulder over, and spoon the sauce all over it. You’ll know it’s ready when you can push your finger through the side of the shoulder easily because the lamb has become very tender.

The next step is to prepare the fruit to go on top of this dish. Put all the dried fruit into a small saucepan, add the cinnamon, star anise, rose water and honey and enough cold water to just cover the fruit. Cover the pan with a lid and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 10–15 minutes to allow the fruit to plump up. Set aside to cool.

About 45 minutes before the lamb will be ready, cook the rice. Heat the oil in a medium saucepan and sauté the onion for 5–8 minutes. Add the lamb mince, breaking it down with a spoon so it browns evenly, then stir in the spices and seasoning. Cook for about 1 minute, then stir in the rice. Once the rice is coated with oil and mixed into the spiced onion and lamb mixture, cover with 500ml boiling water. Put a lid on the pan, bring the liquid to the boil, then turn the heat down low and simmer for 10–12 minutes. Turn off the heat under the pan and set aside.

When the lamb is ready, take the roasting tin out of the oven and strain off the sauce. Keep it warm.

Take a large platter and spoon the rice all the way round the edge. Lift the lamb into the middle. Arrange the dried fruit around it, then scatter the nuts and mint over the top. Serve with the warm sauce, yoghurt, harissa and a sprinkling of toasted sesame seeds.

Tony’s Tip – The lamb will be at its best if you marinate it first for at least a day, and is even better if you marinate it for two days. As there’s quite a bit of work involved in putting this together, I also suggest that you make the sauce (which is poured over the lamb during roasting) at the same time, then seal it in a container and chill it. You can cook the dried fruit in  advance, too, and set it aside at room temperature in a covered container.

Tahina, Chocolate & Pistachio Cheesecake (Serves 12)

I discovered cheesecake when I moved to London, in 1988, in one of my first jobs, washing up and cleaning in a bakery run by a lovely Turkish family on the Walworth Road in Elephant and Castle. I hold very fond memories of working there, and I still pop in whenever I’m passing through south London. This cheesecake uses dark chocolate, tahina and pistachios, all marbled together and spooned on top of a classic digestive-biscuit base. It’s a match made in heaven.

Ingredients:
FOR THE BASE
150g digestive biscuits
50g pistachio nuts, toasted
125g butter, plus a little extra for greasing

FOR THE TOPPING
250g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)
25g butter
250ml double cream
50g runny honey
100g tahina
75g icing sugar
zest of 1 orange
600g mascarpone cheese
1 tbsp vanilla extract
250g cream cheese

TO SERVE
25g pistachio nuts, chopped halva, crumbled
toasted sesame seeds
Grease and line a circular 20–24cm springform tin with some baking parchment.

Whizz the biscuits and pistachios in a food processor until the biscuits have become crumbs and the pistachios are finely chopped. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over a low heat. Tip the crushed biscuits into the pan, stir together, then tip everything into the prepared tin. Level it with the back of a spoon and chill.

Now prepare the marbled topping. Break up the chocolate and put in a large, heatproof bowl. Add the butter, 100ml of the cream, the honey and tahina. Place over a pan of just-simmering water and leave for 5–10 minutes until the chocolate and butter have melted. Take a spoon and very gently stir everything together.

Meanwhile, put the rest of the cream, the icing sugar, orange zest, mascarpone, vanilla extract and cream cheese in a large bowl. Fold them together.

Take the melted chocolate mixture and drizzle it over the cream mixture, folding everything together until you have a marbled mixture. Spoon into the chilled cake tin, level the top and chill for 4 hours until set.

Loosen the tin and take off the paper around the edge. Slide a large fish slice under the cheesecake to loosen it and put it on a serving plate. Scatter the pistachio nuts, halva and toasted sesame seeds over the top and serve.

How to win yourself a copy of this book?

Terms & Conditions:
* Prize is not exchangeable for cash and not transferable
* Open UK Wide
* All entries must be received by Sun, 11 August 2019.
* The winner will be chosen at random
* The winner will be notified via the email address. They have up to 28-days to respond and claim their prize after being notified, after which time the prize will be considered unclaimed and will be re-assigned using a random selection method.
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* The winner will be published on the original giveaway blog post.
* Prizes are administered separately by the Book Author / Publisher and Yeah Lifestyle cannot be held responsible for problems related to fulfillment of prizes including non-delivery of the item

How much is Feasts From The Middle East Cookbook and where can I purchase a copy?

The kindle edition retails for £6.99 while the hardcover copy of the book retails on Amazon for £10.37 and you can get yourself a copy here.

About Tony Kitous

Tony Kitous is the man credited with putting the glamour into Middle East cuisine and providing the people of the Western World the opportunity to experience real, wholesome and healthy Lebanese food in a souk-like setting.  Comptoir Libanais means ‘Lebanese counter’ and that’s exactly what it is: somewhere you can eat casually, with no fuss.  The first Comptoir opened its doors in 2008 and has been steadily growing since 2015 and has seen them open their doors to their first Comptoir outside of Greater London which is Manchester.

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*We were sent a copy of the cookbook for the feature. All opinions are our own