clean and hassle-free while reducing household waste FLAVOURS OF FALASTIN Take a culinary journey through the streets of Palestine with flavour-packed recipes for recreating the magic of Middle Eastern cooking

OUT | ENTERTAINING

WORDS SAMI TAMIMI & TARA WIGLEY PHOTOGRAPHY JENNY ZARINS

At the same time as exploring the regions of Palestine, the purpose of Falastin is to be full of recipes that work for and delight the home cook today. We really want you to cook from the recipes in our book – to find them practical and doable as well as delicious. This means you’ll find fewer recipes for stuffed vegetables in Falastin than you would in a ‘traditional’ Palestinian cookbook, few er recipes for celebratory dishes which take half a day to prepare, and less call for hard-to-find kishek or jameed, the fermented discs of yo ghurt and wheat in which to bake a leg of lamb.

However, loyalty to the Palestinian pantry – and a reliance on the ground allspice and cumin, olive oil, pulses, grains, za’atar, sumac, lemons, yoghurt, dill, garlic and green chillies which fill it – is unwavering. Our recipes feel distinctly Palestinian, even when they are presented in a slightly new light. Luckily, for those living outside the Middle East, the P alestinian pantry is also one that can be easily sourced and put to gether from mainstream shops and sites. Sami Tamimi and Tara Wigley

Musaqa’a Echoes of the Greek dish moussaka are correctly heard here, both in the name and feel of the dish. It’s a vegetarian take on the hearty, humb le, healthy and completely delicious traybake. It works well either as a vegie main or as a side with all sorts of things: piled into a jacket potato, for example, or served alongside some grilled meat, fish or tofu. It’s just the sort of dish you want to have in the fridge ready to greet you after a day at work. It’s also lovely at room temperature, so it’s great to pile into Tupperware for an on-the-go lunch. You can make and bake this in advance; it will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days, ready to be warmed through when required.

SERVES 4 OR 6 (as sides)

5 medium aubergines (1.25kg) 120ml olive oil 1 onion, finely chopped (160g) 6 garlic clove s, crushed 1 tsp chilli flake s 1 tsp ground cumin ½ tsp ground cinnamon 1½ tsp tomato purée 2 green peppers, deseeded and cut into 3cm chunks (200g) 1 x 400g tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed (240g) 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoe s 1½ tsp cas ter sugar 15 g coriander, roughly chopped, plus 5g extra to serve 4 plum tomatoes, trimmed and sliced into 1½cm-thick rounds (350g) Salt and black pepper

1 Preheat the oven to 220°C fan. 2 Use a v egetable peeler to peel away strips of aubergine skin from top to bottom, leaving the aubergines with alternating strips of black skin and white flesh, like a zebra. Cut widthways into round slices 2cm

thick and place in a large bowl. Mix well with 75ml oil, 1 teaspoon salt and plenty of black pepper and spread out on 2 large parchment-lined baking trays. Roast for about 30 minutes, or until completely softened and lightly browned. Remove from the oven and set aside. 3 Reduce the oven temperature to 180°C fan. 4 While the aubergines are roasting, make the sauce. Put 2 tablespoons oil into a large sauté pan and place on a medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook for about 7 minutes, until softened and lightly browned. Add the garlic, chilli, cumin, cinnamon and tomato purée and cook for another minute, or until fragrant. Add the peppers, chickpeas, tinned tomatoes, sugar, 200ml water, 1¼ teaspoons salt and a good grind of black pepper. Reduce the heat to medium and cook for 18 minutes, or until the peppers have cooked through. Stir in the coriander and remove from the heat. 5 Spread out half the plum tomatoes and half the roasted aubergines on the base of a large baking dish, about 20cm x 30cm. Top with the chickpea mixture, then layer with the remaining tomatoes and aubergines. Drizzle with the remaining tablespoon of oil, then cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for another 20 minutes, or until the sauce is bubbling and the tomatoes have completely softened. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for about 20 minutes. Top with the remaining coriander and serve either warm or at room temperature.

OUT | ENTERTAINING

Sami Tamimi and Tara Wigley were brought together through Yotam Ottolenghi and their mutual love of Palestinian food. Sami is the cook and your host, a Palestinian boy from East Jerusalem who ended up working at London’s Baker & Spice, where he met a young Yotam. They set up Ottolenghi together and this cookbook is his love letter to his mother and country. Tara is the guide to this feast. A writer and passionate cook with a background in publishing, she spent years collaborating with Yotam on his books and recipes, and has now joined Sami to tell the story of Palestine’s hidden recipes from real cooks’ kitchens.

OUT | ENTERTAINING

Musakhan is the hugely popular national dish of Palestine. Growing up, Sami ate it once a week, pulling a piece of chicken and sandwiching it between a piece of pita or flatbread. It’s a dish to eat with your hands and with friends, served from one pot or plate, for everyone to then tear at some of the bread and spoon over the chicken and topping for themselves.

Traditionally, musakhan was made around the olive-oil pressing season in October or November to celebrate (and gauge the quality of) the freshly pressed oil. The taboon bread would be cooked in a hot taboon oven lined with smooth round stones, to create small craters in the bread in which the meat juices, onion and olive oil all happily pool. It’s cooked year-round, nowadays layered with shop-bought taboon or pita bread, and is a dish to suit all occasions – easy and comforting enough to be the perfect week-night supper as it is, but also special enough to stand alongside other dishes at a feast.

For a vegetarian alternative, the chicken can be replaced with thick slices of roasted aubergine or chunky cauliflower florets, or a mixture of both. If you do this, toss the slices or florets in the oil and spices, as you do the chicken, and roast at 200°C fan for about 35 minutes (the aubergine) or 25 minutes (the cauliflower).

SERVES 4

1 chicken (about 1.7kg), divided into 4 pieces, or 1kg chicken supremes (4—6, depending on their size), skin on if you prefer 12 0ml olive oil, plus 2—3 tbsp extra to finish 1 tbsp ground cumin 3 tbsp sumac ½ tsp ground cinnamon ½ tsp ground allspice 30g pine nuts 3 large red onions, sliced 2—3mm thick (500g) 4 taboon breads (see headnote), or any flatbread such as Arabic flatbread or naan bread (330g) 5 g parsley leaves, roughly chopped Salt and black pepper

TO SERVE 300g Greek-style yoghurt 1 lemon, quartered

1 Preheat the oven to 200°C fan. 2 Place the chicken in a large mixing bowl with 2 tablespoons oil, 1 teaspoon cumin, 1½ teaspoons sumac, cinnamon, allspice, 1 teaspoon salt and a good grind of black pepper. Mix well to combine, then spread out on a parchment-lined baking tray. Roast until the chicken is cooked through. This will take about 30 minutes if starting with supremes and up to 45 minutes if starting with the whole chicken, quartered. Remove from the oven and set aside. Don’t discard any juices that have collected in the tray. 3 Meanwhile, put 2 tablespoons oil into a large sauté pan, about 24cm, and place on a medium heat. Add the pine nuts and cook for about 2—3 minutes, stirring constantly, until the pine nuts are golden brown. Transfer to a bowl lined with kitchen paper (leaving the oil behind in the pan) and set aside. Add the remaining 60ml oil to the pan, along with the onions and ¾ teaspoon salt. Return to a medium heat for about 15 minutes, stirring from time to time, until the onions are completely soft and pale gold in colour but not caramelised. Add 2 tablespoons sumac, the remaining 2 teaspoons cumin and a grind of black pepper and mix through, until the onions are completely coated. Remove from the heat and set aside. 4 When you’re ready to assemble the dish, set the oven to a grill setting and slice or tear the flatbread into quarters or sixths. Place them under the grill for 2—3 minutes to crisp up, then arrange on a large platter. Top the flatbreads with half the onions, followed by all of the chicken and any chicken juices left in the tray. Either keep each piece of chicken as it is or else roughly shred it as you plate up, into two or three large chunks. Spoon the remaining onions over the top and sprinkle with the pine nuts, parsley, 1½ teaspoons sumac and a final drizzle of olive oil. Serve at once, with the Greek-stye yoghurt and a wedge of lemon alongside the dish.

Kubez el tahineh The journey of these rolls can be traced through Lebanon to Armenia, where this particular kubez el tahineh recipe comes from. They are simple to make, impressive to look at and loved by all, especially kids. Eat them as they are, or sliced and spread with dibs (treacle) and tahini, the Palestinian equivalent of peanut butter and jam, where creamy tahini is mixed through with a little bit of grape or date molasses (you could use date syrup).

Kubez el tahineh are best eaten fresh on the day of baking but are also fine for 2–3 days once baked, warmed through in the oven. They also freeze well, after they’ve been baked and left to cool; you can pop them into the oven straight from the freezer.

MAKES 10 ROLLS

DOUGH 1½ tsp fast-action dried yeast 1 tsp caster sugar 110ml whole milk, lukewarm 30 0g plain flour, plus extra for dusting 75g unsalted butter, melted 1 egg, lightly beaten Olive oil, for greasing Salt

FILLING 100g caster sugar 1 tsp ground cinnamon 120g tahini

TOPPING 1 egg yolk, beaten 1 tbsp white sesame seeds

1 First make the dough. Put the yeast, sugar and milk into a small bowl and mix to combine. Set aside for 5 minutes, until it starts to get frothy. 2 Meanwhile, put the flour and ½ teaspoon salt into the bowl of a free-standing mixer, with the dough hook in place. Mix on a low speed, then slowly pour in the yeast mixture. Add the melted butter and continue to mix for about a minute. 3 Add the egg, then increase the speed to medium and leave for 5 minutes, for the dough to become well-kneaded. Using your hands, scrape the dough into a ball (it will be slightly sticky and elastic). Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, turning it a couple of times so it’s well greased. Cover the bowl with a clean tea towel and leave to rest in a warm place for about 1 hour, or until almost doubled in size. Put the sugar and cinnamon for the filling into a small bowl. Mix well to combine, then set aside. 4 On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough into a large rectangle, about 35cm x 50cm. Drizzle the tahini over the dough. Then, using the back of a spoon or spatula, spread it out evenly, leaving 1cm clear of tahini at both the shorter ends. Sprinkle the sugar mixture evenly over the tahini and leave for 10 minutes, until the sugar looks all wet. Starting from one of the long sides, roll the dough inwards to form a long, thin sausage. Trim away about 2cm from each end, then slice the dough into 10 equal pieces (they should each be just over 4½cm long). Sit each piece upright, so that its cut side is facing upwards. Then, using your hands, gently flatten out to form an 8cm-wide circle. Cover with a damp tea towel and leave to rest for 15 minutes. Preheat the oven to 160°C fan. 5 Transfer each roll of dough to a large parchment-lined baking tray, spaced 2—3cm apart. Brush all over (just the top and sides, not the base) with the egg yolk, sprinkle with sesame seeds and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 18 minutes, or until cooked through and golden. Remove from the oven and set aside for about 20 minutes — you don’t want them piping hot — then serve.

by Sami Tamimi and Tara Wigley, with photography by Jenny Zarins (Ebury Press, $49.99, available online and from all good booksellers).

OUT | ENTERTAINING

INSIDE | HOME & FASHION

Exquisite and exclusive. Aordable hand-woven cushions, quilts, throws, and table linen from Central Asia. www.birchandloom.com I robin@birchandloom.com Enjoy a 15% discount by using code INSIDE15 at checkout

WHOM.COM.AU SLOW DOWN THE PACE OF MODERN LIVING WITH AN EXTREMELY SOFT AND LUXURIOUS SLUMBER IN OUR FINEST ORGANIC BAMBOO LINEN SHEETS INSPIRED BY THE DRAMATIC RUGGED TERRAIN OF ICELAND. DESIGNED IN AUSTRALIA WITH A GLOBAL INFLUENCE.

RECEIVE 30% OFF ON YOUR FIRST ORDER. USE THE CODE ELYSIANINSIDE . OFFER ENDS AUGUST 2020. LYN FRANKE C O N T E M P O R A RY ARTIST

Lyn Franke is a multi award winning artist presenting a strong textile and painting background. Lyn welcomes commissions, for private or corporate clients, interior designers, or community organisations.

W W W. LY N F R A N K E .C O M 0 4 2 3 1 0 2 9 9 7 lynfranke@bigpond.com LynFrankeArt

“PLIGHT OF THE CARNABY’S” won the 2018 Town of Claremont Councillors Art Prize.

CONTEMPORARY & CLASSIC ARTWORKS

1000's of Affordable Paintings & Canvas Prints

FREE DELIVERY AUSTRALIA WIDE! DirectArtAustralia.com.au | 1300 90 21 53

MELBOURNE

OWNED | DESIGNED | MADE PAPER GOODS

WWW.INKYCO.COM.AU

The ‘Fold’ Ellipse Chandelier by Tigermoth Lighting in Brass, finished in a hand-patinated Bronze INSIDE | HOME & INTERIORS

Save $100 by using discount code INSIDE OUT at checkout at www.chapmantradingco.com.au Oer ends 30/06/20. Not available with any other oer.

CHAPMAN_TRADING_CO @CHAPMANTRADING

The Montauk Lighting Co. brings the best of the world’s feature lighting to Australia, including collections by Kelly Wearstler, Ralph Lauren Home, AERIN, Thomas O’Brien and Kate Spade New York through Visual Comfort & Co. and Tigermoth Lighting from the UK.

Let us help you find the perfect statement piece.

Visit our website to browse the entire range.