Iraqi Cucumber Pickles-Turshi Khiyar طرشي خيار

While making my weekly visit to the farmers market, I picked a few pounds of crispy crunchy Persian cucumbers, plus other vegetables for the week. I decided to make some pickles.

Pickles are served with every meal in Iraq. We prepare big jars of seasonal vegetables. In the winter, we pickle beets, turnips, cauliflower and cabbage. During the summer, we pickle green peppers, small eggplants, a variety of cucumbers, and green beans. When growing up in Iraq, we used to buy bushels of these vegetables, and spend hours in the kitchen poking these vegetables with a knife and sprinkling salt over them to drain some of their liquid. We had the whole family, including children, and grandparents participating in this process.

We use two methods: salt brine or vinegar. You could use quart (32-oz) mason jars or Pint (16-oz) mason jars.

Salt Brine Method

4 pounds small cucumbers

¾ cup Kosher salt (not iodized, or fine salt)

4-6 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Rinse the cucumbers and place in the colander to drain. Poke each cucumber with a knife. Place in the colander and sprinkle ¼ cup of salt over them. Leave to drain in the sink for a few hours.

In the meantime, Bring 3 cups of water, and ½ cup of sat to a boil. Turn off the heat and leave it to cool.

Stack the cucumbers in clean sterilized jars. Pour the brine over to top jar. Add 2 cloves of crushed garlic and one tablespoon of chopped parsley to each jar and seal. When cucumbers change color, in 10 days, they are done. Refrigerate the jars after opening.

 Sometimes, we used to put the jars under the heat of the sun to speed the pickling process.

Another method is to pour the boiling liquid over the cucumbers and seal the top. This will speed the pickling process.

Vinegar Method

You could use white, or any light color vinegar. You could use apple cider vinegar but will change the color of the vegetables.

4 pound Persian cucumbers, or pickling cucumbers

4 cups vinegar

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

1/3 cup salt

2 teaspoons ground coriander

1 teaspoon curry powder

1 teaspoon sugar

In a pot, bring the vinegar, salt, garlic and spices to a boil. Remove from heat and pour over the cucumber to top jar. Seal the jar. Pickles will be ready within a week.

If you find the vinegar too strong, you can measure 3 cups vinegar and 1 cup water and follow the above recipe.

You could use these methods for other vegetables.

Lamb with Chickpeas Soup- Tashreeb Laham باللبلبي تشريب

Chickpeas is a very popular legume that we add to a large variety of dishes. We add it to bulgur pilaf, a stew, or for salad. Street vendors sell a bowl of lablabi with a slice of lemon. It is a very satisfying and delicious snack.

For this recipe, you can use canned chickpeas, but traditionally we soak the dry chickpeas in a bowl of water overnight.  The following day, we cook them in a pot of water for an hour until the chickpeas are soft. Then add salt and sometimes we add turmeric and Arabian spices.

1 pound lamb shoulder, cubed with bones

4 cups water

1 onion, sliced

1 (15-ounce can) chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon bahar (Arabian spice)

Tannour bread or Nan for serving

Rinse the lamb, and put in a pot with water. Bring to a boil. Add the onions, salt and spices and cook for 45 minutes until meat is tender. Add the chickpeas and simmer for 10 more minutes.

To serve this soup, put a few pieces of tanour bread in a bowl and scoop the soup over it. Serve slices of lemon and scallions with the soup.

Sometimes we add Noomi Basra (dried lime) to this soup to give it a sour flavor. If you are using whole dried lime, make sure to remove the seeds before adding them to the soup as they give a bitter flavor.

Enjoy!

Fried Rice Kibbi-Kubbat Halab. كبة حلب

Have you thought of what you could do with leftover cooked rice? This is a traditional appetizer recipe that we make with boiled long grain rice, and we add saffron or turmeric to it while rice is boiling to give it a yellow color. We also add golden raisins and almonds to the filling. Sometimes, we add chopped parsley to the filling when cooled.

I was able to alter the recipe a little since I am using leftover rice, and the result was very delicious and successful.

Dough:

3 cups cooked rice, leftover, room temperature

2 eggs

Filling:

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

½ pond ground lamb or beef

½ cup onion, chopped

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon Arabian spice (bahar)

¼ cup pine nuts, toasted

2 cups vegetable oil for frying

Heat oil in a sauté pan, and add the meat. Cook the meat for 5 minutes and add the onions, salt and spices and stir. Lower the heat to simmer and cook until onions are soft. Add the pine nuts and set the meat filling aside to cool.

Put rice and one egg in a food processor and process for a few minutes until rice becomes a soft dough. If the rice is still hard, add the second egg and pulse to make nice smooth dough. If dough has a lot of moisture, add cornstarch to the dough and mix.

To form the kubba, or kibbi, have a small bowl with vegetable oil to wet your hand for shaping the bubba.  Take a small piece of the dough the size of small egg. Roll it in your hands and make a hole in the middle to form a cup. Fill the hole with one teaspoon of the filling and seal it. Shape it like a football.

Heat 2 cups of oil in a small deep pot.  Drop 4 kubba in oil, and fry for about 3 minutes. Remove them with a slotted spoon and drain on a paper towel.

Serve them with pickles. You can freeze them, and reheat them in the oven when needed to serve.
For a vegetarian filling, saute onions and add peas and chopped mushrooms. Add salt and spices.
Cool before filling the dough. Drain the filling from any liquid.

Tahini Pistachio Halva-Halawat Tahini bil Fistuq حلاوة بالطحينة

Halva is candy that resembles fudge.  Growing up in Iraq, my mother made a variety of halva, and we used to snack on it. We serve halva with a cup of Arabic coffee too. In order to serve it with coffee, I decided to stuff pitted dates with halva, and serve them as candy.

This halva is made with sugar syrup, but I prefer to use honey. You can use any type of nuts. Walnuts and pistachios are preferred for this recipe.

½  cup tahini

½ cup honey

1 teaspoon ground cardamom

¼  cup whole pistachios, shelled

½ cup toasted sesame seeds

Pout the tahini and honey into a bowl. Whip it for 3 minutes. Add cardamom, sesame and pistachios and stir with a wooden spoon. Remove it from the bowl and plate it on a fruit dish. Decorate with pistachios. You can refrigerate it and serve it when ready.

For the date halva candy, take one teaspoon of halva and fill the pitted date. You can arrange the dates on a plate. When done, I decided to arrange a few pieces in a foil container to give to friends.

Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Cheese Bourek- Bourek Bil Jibin بورك بالجبن

This is my mother’s recipe that she used to make very often to serve with afternoon tea. You can use any type of cheese, but feta cheese is very close to the farmers cheese we had.

Bourek is simply a turnover that is savory or sweet filled with cheese, vegetables or meat. You can use the same dough recipe to fill them with apricot or fig jam.
Traditionally, we use the following dough recipe, but for convenience, you could use puff pastry or phyllo dough. You can fill the bourek and bake them or freeze them and bake them when needed. We usually fry the bourek, but I prefer to bake them, and serve them warm, or put them in a freezer bag, and when you need to serve them, put them in a toaster oven for 10 minutes.

Dough:

2 cups all purpose flour

½ cup vegetable oil

½ cup water

1 teaspoon yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 egg, whisked

In a bowl, combine flour, sugar and salt and set aside. Measure ½ cup of warm water, and add the sugar and yeast and stir. Set aside to activate the yeast for 5 minutes

Add the oil and the yeast mixture to the flour and kneed it by hand for 5 minutes. You could use a food processor for the dough. Add a few tablespoons of water if you find the dough a little hard. (some flours absorb more water). When the dough feels smooth put it in an oiled bowl, cover it with a towel and leave it to rise for 30 minutes.

Prepare the Filling:

½ cup feta cheese, crumbled

1 egg, whisked

1 teaspoon dry mint

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and set aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Assembly:

Roll out the dough on a floured board. Use a glass or a wide round cookie cutter to cut circles. Put one teaspoon of the filling in the center of the circle. Fold the circle to make half moon. Crimp the edges by twisting the edges, or use a fork to press down the edges to seal the dough. 

Arrange on a baking tray lined with parchment paper and brush the top with egg wash. Bake for 20 minutes.

Make 18 turnovers.

Chocolate Covered Date Nut Balls

I usually make date nut balls and roll them in shredded coconuts or toasted sesame. I created this recipe for Valentine’s Day and dipped the date nut balls in melted chocolate. The result was very tasty and elegant. You can try it using any kind of nuts. I prefer walnuts with dates.

2 cups soft pitted cooking dates
or Majdool dates, pitted

  2  tablespoons butter                                                                                                

½ cup chopped walnuts
½ cup toasted sesame seeds
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup dark chocolate, melted
Melt butter in a pan and sauté the dates for 2 minutes. Add toasted sesame seeds, walnuts, ground cardamom and cinnamon. Stir using a wooden spoon to combine and make a soft ball.
Remove from heat and set aside to cool for 30 minutes.
Take a small ball of the mixture the size of a cherry tomato, and roll it in your hands.
 Using a bamboo skewer, dip the date balls in the melted chocolate, and arrange on a tray lined with parchment paper. You can decorate the top with a piece of walnut, or leave it plain. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Serve at a room temperature.
Use them within 2 weeks, or store them in a plastic container in the refrigerator.

Lamb Stew with Potatoes and Peas

You could use stewing beef for this recipe, but you need to cook it longer.

1 pound stewing lamb

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 cinnamon stick

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon Arabian spice-Bahar (cinnamon,allspice,cloves,cardamom,black pepper)

1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce

1 (16-ounce) can diced tomatoes

2 cups water

3 large potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 cup frozen peas

Heat oil in a pot and sauté the lamb for 5 minutes. Add garlic, salt, cinnamon stick, spices and stir. Pour the tomato sauce and the diced tomatoes and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and add the water, and simmer on medium heat covered for one hour until lamb is cooked.

Add the potatoes and peas, and add 1 more cup of water and simmer until potatoes are soft and cooked. Check the sauce if it needs more salt. Serve it with saffron rice and salad.