Join the waitlist for Fig & Cardamom Jam. The real drama happens in the pastry kitchen – George, our Head Baker, and Julia, our Exec Chef, will be checking the prices, waiting for them to come down a bit so that the real project of September can start in earnest – making enough of our black bursa fig and cardamom jam to last until Christmas, something we rarely succeed in. Makes about 2.5kg or 6–7 small jars Takes about 45 minutes 2kg black figs 1.35kg caster sugar 1 whole orange 1 vanilla pod (or 2 de-seeded pods)8 cardamom pods For the best results use ripe soft figs. If you use dry thick-skinned ones you will end up with a leathery jam....
The most tortuous of all foods to prepare, this is truly a case of the result justifying the effort. Once you have tasted stuffed vine leaves from the cooking pot, you will understand why tinned ones can never compare. If you are lucky enough to own a vine, then use the fresh leaves – they are amazing when they are young and soft; all you need to do is blanch them for 30 seconds in salt water. But as most of us don’t have access to a vine, we buy pre-salted leaves in a jar. Some recipes leave room for personal taste and improvisation, but this is not one of them, at least not until you have made it a...
This dessert tends to get plenty of compliments and has become our signature dish. It is quite complex, with a few different components, and is quite ambitious for home preparation – not because the stages are difficult, but because there are a few of them. You can use a generic supermarket feta, but for a finish that is smooth and salty, buy one of the tinned smooth fetas sold in Middle Eastern delis. It will be worth it.
Sarit devised this recipe to finish a jar of tahini and a tin of preserved lemons that had been languishing in the fridge. The sticky cookie dough is shaped into individual balls, they’re then pressed a little, and rolled in sesame seeds. The result is a moist, fragrantly citrusy cookie with a satisfying crunchy exterior.
This North African egg dish seems to be the one that most people conjure up when they think of a Middle Eastern breakfast. The appeal is obvious: fiery tomato sauce with eggs poached in it, the whites just set and the yolks still runny, oozing into the sauce as you pierce them with or spoon or better yet, with a...
