A taste of the Middle East

I am guessing that a lot of you have been watching Nigel Slater's Middle East and along with me are hoping that there is a book in the writing.
Here at Netherton HQ, we are very fond of Claudia Rosen's A New Book of Middle Eastern Food - an interesting title, as our copy was published in 1986.  But the recipes are timeless and classic and it was intriguing to compare her recipes with those being created in the homes that Nigel visited.  

This is not authentic, it is just a delicious combination of ingredients, inspired by the tastes of the Middle East, which I hope you will enjoy as much as we did.
We ate this with slices of bread, drizzled with Bennett and Dunn rapeseed oil, sprinkled with home made za'atar and then baked until crisp on our griddle plate in a hot oven.
It would be equally good with a flatbread and of course, whilst it makes a great vegetarian main dish, it would also be good with lamb chops!

150g butter beans, soaked overnight, simmered until soft in fresh water.
100g green beans, chopped
2 tblsp rapeseed or olive oil
1 red onions, sliced
2 fat cloves of garlic, sliced
1 aubergine, cut into ½" cubes
2 tsp salt
½ tin chopped tomatoes
1 cinnamon stick
Juice of half a lemon
1 tblsp chopped mint

Heat the oil over a medium heat in a Prospector pan and add the onion, garlic and aubergine.
Cover with a lid and cook slowly until the whole lot is soft.  This should take around 20 minutes.
Add the beans, tomatoes, cinnamon and salt, pop the lid back on and cook for 30 minutes.  
Remove from the heat and stir in the lemon juice and mint.
Either serve immediately or allow to cool to room temperature. 

Serves 2

Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2018 ©

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk 

Middle Eastern influences

Dates seem to fall into the Marmite category - you either love them or hate them, few people can take or leave them.
OH is particularly fond of them and we can always rely on his mother to keep us stocked up with these sticky delights.

They are great for snacking on, although I am not so thrilled that sticky fingerprints remain very much a thing in our house, despite there no longer being any toddlers around.

But they offer so much more potential than simply a biscuit substitute.
Much loved throughout the Middle East, dates find their way into a wide range of sweet and savoury dishes and, closer to home, are an integral part of a true sticky toffee pudding.

This tart brings together a number of Middle Eastern flavours and textures into a tart (galette?) which can either be eaten as a dessert, with Greek yogurt, or simply with a cup of strong, black coffee.

Pastry
150g self raising flour

100g cold butter

50g icing sugar

1 egg

Milk

Chop the butter into small cubes and add to the flour and icing sugar.  You can either pulse this mixture in a food processor or rub the butter into the flour by hand until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.
Add the egg and just enough milk to bring the whole mix together into a stiff dough.
Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for an hour

200g chopped dates, soaked for 20 minutes in just enough boiling water to cover and then blitzed to a coarse purée

100g chopped walnuts

2 level dessertspoons tahini

2 level dessertspoons set honey

Splash of orange blossom water

2 tsp sesame seeds

A little melted butter

Sugar  

Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC

In a large mixing bowl, thoroughly combine the date purée, walnuts, tahini, honey and orange blossom water.

Remove the pastry from the fridge and roll out into a circle approximately 32 cm in diameter.

Lay the pastry onto a baking tray, if you are using one of ours, you will not need to grease it.

Use the 12" serving and baking tray, as shown below, one of the griddle plates or the heavy duty baking sheet we designed with Val Stones, star of the Great British Bake Off 2016.

And make a special note - every time we sell one of these baking sheets, we will donate £2 to the MS Society, Val's designated charity.

Spread the date filling over the pastry to within 2.5cm from the outer edge.

Fold in the outer edge of the pastry, but leave some of the filling exposed.

Bake in the oven for around 20 minutes.

Remove from the oven and sprinkle the sesame seeds over the exposed filling. Brush the pastry with melted butter and scatter on a generous sprinkling of caster sugar.

Return to the oven for another 10 minutes.

Serve at room temperature.

Netherton Foundry 2017 ©

www.netherton-foudnry.co.uk