Feasts From the Middle East

Once the flatbreads are cooked, slide them on to a board. Scatter over the pomegranate seeds and mint, and sprinkle with sumac. Drizzle over the molasses and extra-virgin olive oil. Squeeze over a little more lemon juice and serve.

‘Kaak’ in Arabic means ‘bread’, and these, with their distinctive handbag shape, are at their best fresh from the oven. Topped with sesame seeds, they are thinner than other breads, but you can prise them open and fill them with anything – salty feta and slices of juicy ripe tomatoes are always good in my book. You can see the shape in the photo.

SESAME SEED BREAD (#ulink_45d9fba1-4099-5a7d-885a-8baa56ca0456)

KAAK BIL SEMSSOUM

MAKES 6

150ml tepid water

12–15g dried yeast

50g sugar

500g white bread flour, plus extra for rolling

10g salt

1 medium egg

100ml vegetable oil, plus extra for greasing

sesame seeds, to sprinkle

FOR THE EGG WASH

2 medium eggs

1 tsp white wine vinegar

Pour half the water into a bowl and sprinkle over the yeast. Add a pinch of the sugar and stir everything together. Set aside to allow the yeast to activate for 5 minutes.

Sift the flour into a large bowl and stir in the rest of the sugar and the salt. Make a well in the middle and add the egg and oil. Whisk the egg to break it down. Pour the yeast mixture into the middle, rinsing out the bowl with a little of the remaining water so that all the yeast goes in. Pour the rest of the water into the flour mixture.

Mix all the ingredients together to make a rough dough, then tip it on to a board and knead well until it’s really smooth. This will take about 5–10 minutes,. Put into a clean bowl, cover and leave in a warm place for about 40 minutes.

Divide the dough into six equal pieces. Take each piece and roll it in the palm of your hand to make a ball.

Lightly flour the work surface and roll out one piece until it measures about ½cm thick and about 15cm across. Use a 5-cm round cutter to cut out a circle at the top, near the edge on one side of the round. Pull this bit of dough out to make a handbag shape.

Beat the eggs and white wine vinegar together in a bowl. Brush this all over the dough, then spread liberally with sesame seeds, pressing them down so that they stick to the egg wash. Slide on to a lightly oiled baking sheet (or lined with baking parchment). Do the same with the rest of the dough until you’ve made six breads in total. Put to one side at room temperature for 40–50 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/gas mark 6. Transfer the baking sheets to the oven and bake for 15–20 minutes until golden.

TONY’S TIP

You can bake the small rounds of dough you’ve cut out to make little rolls. Brush with the egg wash, scatter over the sesame seeds and put them on a separate tray. Bake them for about 10–12 minutes.

You’ll never see an Arabic table without bread on it. Bread means so much to people in the Middle East that if we don’t have any bread, we wonder how can we eat the food – there’s nothing to dip into the sauces or mop up any juices from a stew. Sometimes I have wondered whether the food that’s served is more important or the bread. That’s why I’m keen to share my pitta bread recipe so you, too, can always serve bread. This recipe has a particularly wholesome taste, thanks to the wholmeal flour, and is scattered with nigella seeds before baking for extra flavour.

ARABIC BREAD (#ulink_296d287f-59ee-5d0c-aae5-ea42eda099ea)

KHOBZ

MAKES 12

1 tsp dried yeast

10g sugar

220ml lukewarm water

300g white bread flour

100g brown bread flour

5g salt

2 tsp olive oil

nigella seeds, to sprinkle

Put the yeast into a bowl with a good pinch of the sugar and half the water. Set aside for 5 minutes to allow the yeast to activate and become frothy.

Sieve the flours into a large bowl and stir in the salt. Make a well in the middle and pour in the oil, the yeast mixture and the remaining sugar and water. Stir everything together to make a rough dough. Knead on a board until smooth.

Put the dough into a clean bowl, cover and leave to rise for about 30 minutes until doubled in size.

Divide the dough into 12 pieces and roll them into rounds on a lightly floured surface. Sprinkle a few nigella seeds over the top of each piece before the final roll so they stick to the surface on the final roll. Put the pieces of rolled dough on to floured baking sheets and cover. Leave in a warm place for 45 minutes–1 hour to prove.

Preheat the oven to its hottest temperature.

Bake the pitta breads for 4–5 minutes until the dough has puffed up slightly and is cooked all the way through.

(#ulink_9f6f1386-eb1c-5542-b655-1dabe3a314c8)

HOMMOS 4 WAYS

I love hommos with a creamy texture and packed with garlic and tahina. I’m even happier if it’s served drizzled with peppery olive oil and flatbread to dip in. (see here (#litres_trial_promo) for photo.)

This recipe calls for dried chickpeas. When you cook them yourself, you can check when they are ready. I test by pressing one between finger and thumb – it should easily squash into a paste. Too hard and they won’t whizz into a smooth mixture; too soft and the texture won’t be right.

And, yes, that’s right, there are ice cubes in the ingredients list! Don’t add water instead as it will make the finished texture too watery.

CLASSIC HOMMOS (#ulink_34c8c48b-5cde-569e-a0ac-56cc19255107)

SERVES 4–6