#48 Syria

Syria is home to one of the most ancient civilisations on Earth and the capital, Damascus, is thought to be the oldest city in the world. Damascus is referred to in the Bible and was also once the capital of the Islamic world. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site by virtue of its buildings and monuments from many of the various civilisations that shaped it.

After visiting Jordan only five countries ago, here we are again at the eastern edge of the Med in the Levant region. Levant comes from the French lever, meaning ‘to rise’, as in the Sun rising in the east. The Levant region includes Jordan, Israel, Lebanon and Syria and the countries share a characteristic cuisine.

Levantine cuisine makes use of Mediterranean ingredients like aubergines, tomatoes and olives. Chickpeas and other pulses form a staple part of the daily diet. For instance, ful medames is a simple nutritious and delicious street food fava bean dish dating back to ancient times and still the on-the-go breakfast of choice today. Fresh herbs and a wide variety of spices create a great selection of flavourful and fragrant dishes, the favoured protein is lamb, and nuts are used in both sweet and savoury dishes.

Mezze

Of course, the characteristic trait of Levantine and Syrian cuisine is mezze. In the West, Lebanon seems to take all the credit for mezze dishes like hummus, and baba ghanoush, but to the untrained palette, such as mine, Syrian cuisine is almost identical to Lebanese cuisine, which, considering the shared history of the two countries, is hardly surprising.

One mezze dish that Syria can definitely take all the credit for is muhammara: a roasted red pepper and walnut dip, spiced with Aleppo pepper.

The city of Aleppo is sadly known to many of us only as a result of the monstrosities of the past decade, but it’s also shares its name with a sweet, earthy-tasting pepper grown in Syria and Turkey. The same pepper is known as pul biber in Turkey, (and also in Waitrose).

Muhammara is so quick and easy to make: simply blend together roasted red peppers (I used jarred), walnuts, good quality extra virgin olive oil, tomato purée, bread crumbs (which give the dip some heartiness), pomegranate molasses (lovely tangy sweetness), garlic, Aleppo pepper flakes (sub-in any chilli flakes), sugar, sumac, salt and a tiny bit of cayenne pepper.

This might be the best dip I’ve ever had. It’s savoury but with a wonderful sweetness, it’s earthy, picante, and smoky; basically, all bases covered every time you use a charred piece of pita to shovel it into your mouth.

I had intended to share this dip at a barbeque but covid struck again and I was forced to enjoy the whole lot in my sunny garden isolation. Next time you invite me to your barbeque and I don’t have covid, I’m bringing this!

Kibbeh labanieh

Kibbeh are eye-shaped meatballs made from pounded bulgur wheat and meat (lamb/beef/both), and often filled with minced meat: meat-filled meatballs. Kibbeh are a regional staple and can be served in many different ways, including with labanieh, a garlicky yoghurt sauce, which is a bit tangy, a bit creamy and amazing with the meat.

As these are something quite different to anything I’ve made or even eaten before, I did a fair bit of reading to try to figure out what I should be aiming for:

“…crunchy but not too dry.”

“…never too spicy or bland.”

“…shouldn’t be too big or too small.”

I didn’t realise Goldilocks was Syrian…

These are without a doubt the faffiest thing I have made so far in this blog. The kibbeh spice mix to start: a mixture of cumin seeds, black pepper, marjoram, basil, mint, cinnamon, salt and seven-spice…

…hang on…seven-spice? Before you compile the kibbeh spice mix you need to make seven-spice…which is actually made from EIGHT spices.

The filling is pretty straight-forward, consisting of slowly sweated onions with minced beef and lamb, pine nuts, seven-spice and sumac.

The kibbeh outer layer is a bit trickier. This requires combining soaked bulgur wheat, minced beef and lamb, the kibbeh spices, onion and cornflour into a paste. I managed this by using my Nutri-bullet for small batches and finishing it off with some hand bashing with a rolling pin. A food processor would greatly facilitate this activity.

I watched several YouTube tutorials on shaping the kibbeh, which looks to be simply a case of forming a hollow in the outer layer, stuffing it with filling and fashioning it closed into the desired shape. The Syrian housewives made it look so easy online, whereas it took me about half an hour to make a dozen! I wish I could show you photos of the construction process, but I already felt like I needed extra hands without having to take photos!

Once shaped, the kibbeh can be fried or baked. I baked mine and then finished them off in the labanieh, which was simply plain yoghurt thickened with cornflour and rice and flavoured with garlic and coriander.

The kibbeh were crunchy (but not too dry) and the spice was surprisingly subtle considering how much I added, but with a real depth of flavour due to the amount of different spices included. It was one of those Cook The World experiences that’s truly unique but I have no idea whether I got it right or not. I would be intrigued to try one of these made by someone Syrian!

Al-Sham Sweets

Levantine desserts are very sweet and syrupy, often made using filo pastry, nuts and citrus flavours.

As it happens, I live within walking distance of a Syrian dessert café in Cardiff. Al Sham on City Road has a counter piled with mountains of all sorts of tasty-looking treats, including numerous types of baklava. Baklava can be found throughout the Ottoman Empire countries, and consists of many, many layers of crispy filo pastry with crushed nuts and is deliciously drenched in honey or sugar syrup.

Harissa (not to be confused with the Moroccan pepper paste of the same name) is a sticky, sweet, dense cake of semolina and coconut, soaked in an orange blossom sugar syrup and topped with crunchy nuts.