Levant: Recipes and memories from the Middle East. Anissa Helou
cook will stuff and roll the leaves in the recipe below in an hour, while a novice or less practised cook may take nearly twice as long. I belong to the latter camp not because I am a novice but mainly because I don’t prepare the dish that often. As a result, I am rather slow at rolling the leaves. Regardless, it is a wonderful party piece and well worth the effort.
Serves 4
8 thin lamb chops (about 600g/1lb 5oz total weight), most of the fatty bits trimmed
Sea salt
1 cinnamon stick
200g (7oz) medium-sized fresh or preserved vine leaves
Stock from cooking the lamb chops
Juice of 1 lemon or to taste
For the stuffing
125g (4½oz) short-grain white rice (bomba, Calasparra or Egyptian), rinsed under cold water and drained
200g (7oz) freshly minced lean lamb, from the shoulder or neck (either ask your butcher to mince the lamb or do it yourself using the fine attachment on a meat grinder)
2 tbsp water
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground allspice or Lebanese seven-spice mixture
¼ tsp finely ground black pepper
Put the lamb chops in a saucepan, cover with water and place over a medium heat. As the water is about to boil, skim away any scum that rises to the surface, then add a little salt and the cinnamon. Cover the pan with a lid, reduce the heat and let the stock bubble gently for 15 minutes. Lift the chops out onto a plate, strain and reserve the stock for later.
Meanwhile, make the stuffing. Place the rice in a mixing bowl, add the minced meat and water and season with the spices and a little salt. Mix with your hands to blend well. Pinch off a little mixture and sear in a hot pan to taste, then adjust the seasoning if necessary.
Choose a pan with straight sides and large enough to arrange the lamb chops in a tight even layer on the bottom. Put the vine leaves (fresh or preserved) in a colander and run boiling water over them. This will soften them and make them easier to roll. If you are using preserved leaves, rinse these beforehand in cold water, at least a couple of times, in order to get rid of some of the briny taste.
Take one vine leaf, cut and discard any stem and lay it flat on your work surface, smooth side down with the stem end nearest to you. Arrange ½–1½ teaspoons of stuffing, depending on the size of the leaf, in a thin raised line along the side of the leaf facing you. The line should be thinner than your little finger, set about 1.5cm (⅝in) away from the edge of the leaf and from the end of the leaf on either side. Fold each side over the rice, in a line that slightly tapers towards the bottom, then fold and tuck the top edges over the stuffing and roll from the stem end, neatly but loosely in order to leave enough space for the rice to expand during cooking.
Place the rolled leaf, loose edge down, over the lamb chops, on one side of the pan. Continue filling, rolling and arranging the vine leaves, side by side, lining the sides of the pan first and making one layer at a time, until you used all the leaves. If you have any leftover stuffing, put it in a small pan, add an equivalent amount of water and cook for 20 minutes to serve on the side.
Pour some, or all, of the reserved stock over the rolled leaves until they are barely immersed. If you do not have enough stock, add water. Add a little salt, bearing in mind the saltiness of the vine leaves, and shake the pan to swirl the water and dissolve the salt. Put an overturned heatproof plate over the leaves, to stop them from unrolling during cooking, cover the pan with a lid and place over a medium-high heat. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to medium and let the pot bubble gently for 50 minutes. Add the lemon juice and cook for another 10 minutes. It is a good idea to test one vine leaf, before you take them off the heat, to make sure the rice is properly cooked. Remove from the heat and leave to sit, covered, on a work surface for about 10 minutes.
The traditional way of serving this dish is to turn out the contents of the pan onto a serving platter as if it were a cake, and this is why you need a pan with straight sides. You’ll also need to wear heatproof gloves while performing this operation. First pour out the cooking juices into a bowl while holding back the stuffed vine leaves using the plate covering them. Remove the plate and place a big round, flat serving platter over the top of the pan. Hold it firmly against the pan with the flat of one hand. Slide the pan slowly over the edge of the work surface and put your other hand underneath it. Lift the pan off and quickly turn it upside down, then slide the platter onto your worktop and slowly lift the pan off to uncover a ‘cake’ of cooked stuffed vine leaves topped with the juicy lamb chops.
Alternatively, you can spoon the rolled leaves out, a few at a time, and arrange them in neat layers in a serving dish, putting the lamb chops on top or all around them. Baste with some of the cooking juice and serve immediately with a bowl of yoghurt.
Citrusy Petits Pois, Carrot and Lamb Stew
YAKHNET BAZELLA WA JAZAR
I was always delighted when my mother announced that we had yakhneh (stew) for lunch and in particular when it was this delectable one with its unusual taste of orange peel that is so well suited to the carrots and peas. (For more on the use of citrus peel in Levantine cooking.) I now make it quite differently from my mother, however, using Chantenay carrots which are small enough to keep whole for a prettier presentation. If I can’t find any, I simply cut larger carrots in half across then again in half lengthways. I also use frozen petits pois that I thaw in boiling water, drain and add to the stew at the very end to keep the vivid colour. To thicken the sauce and keep it tasting fresh, I use canned cherry tomatoes that I first drain thoroughly to minimise the cooking time. My mother, like everyone in Lebanon, uses fresh tomatoes. I would probably do the same if I lived in a country where the tomatoes are good. Sadly, this is not the case in England except possibly for two months of the year at the height of summer.
Serves 4–6
50g (2oz) unsalted butter
1 medium-sized onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 lamb shanks
2 × 400g cans of Italian cherry tomatoes, drained
Peel of 1 small unwaxed orange
6–8cm (2½–3in) strip of unwaxed lemon peel
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground allspice or Lebanese seven-spice mixture
¼ tsp finely ground black pepper
Sea salt
300g (11oz) Chanteney or baby carrots
500g (1lb 1oz) frozen petits pois, defrosted (or fresh when in season)
Melt the butter in a large saucepan over a medium-high heat. Add the onion and sauté until golden, then place the meat in the pan and brown on all sides.
Add the tomatoes, orange and lemon peel, and season with the spices and a little salt. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to low, cover the pan with a lid and cook for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the carrots and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes then discard the orange and lemon peel. By now the sauce should have thickened. If it hasn’t, uncover the pan and boil until it is quite thick. Add the petits pois and simmer for another 5 minutes or until the peas are done. Serve hot, either with good bread or with vermicelli rice.
Vermicelli Rice
REZZ BIL-SH’AYRIYEH
Here is a fun variation on regular rice in which toasted vermicelli is cooked with the rice. Vermicelli rice is normally served with meats cooked in a yoghurt or tahini