Bring a taste of the Lebanon into your home

In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed!

Kahlil Gibran

One of the things I’m really missing at the moment is an impromptu trip to one of the many lovely restaurants in town. We’re very blessed where we live, we have a choice of Indian, Chinese, Armenian, Ethiopian, French, Greek, Malaysian…… the list goes on, one of the joys of living in a big, multicultural city! One of my absolute favs though is a little Lebanese restaurant that never fails to deliver on taste and atmosphere!

I’ve been a little strapped for time recently and I’ve kinda lost my mojo a little on the cooking front however, last week I decided to go and find the missing mojo and try something new. With thoughts of Hummus, Kibbe, Mloukhiya, Falafel in mind, I decided to have a crack at a Shish Tawook recipe I’d seen in one of the Sunday magazines. I know it may sound a little pretentious but, omg, it was lovely!

Shish Tawook is the classic Lebanese marinaded barbecue chicken and is one of my favourite Middle Eastern dishes. The Lebanese love any opportunity to grill chicken and meat; they don't just wait for good weather like we do here in the UK! The Lebanese, fire up the barbeque in the middle of winter, they simply see it as another way of cooking.

There are lots of variations of Shish Tawook, especially when you go from one country to another in the Middle East, but the common factor is a creamy garlic flavour with an orange colour, which is a result of the paprika.

Some people like to use yoghurt, garlic powder, mayonnaise and ketchup but I recipe uses traditional garlic sauce as the base which gives it a wonderful zingy flavour. So, first the garlic sauce;

Lebanese Garlic Sauce (Toum)

Ingredients

2-3 garlic cloves
A good pinch of salt
1 egg white
1/2 a lemon juiced
1 cup vegetable or sunflower oil
2 -3 ice cubes

Instructions

Add the garlic, salt and egg white to a food processor and blitz well.
Keep the blender on medium and ever so slowly add alternating amounts of oil and lemon juice in a steady stream.
When the mixture has come together, add 2 ice cubes and blend for another 30 seconds or so until the mixture goes fluffy.

You could of course skip this step by getting something in a jar that pertains to garlic sauce however, the secret with this particular sauce is its fluffiness, honestly, it only takes about ten minutes so, get the feck on with it 😊

A lot of Lebanese food can be blow your head off hot, not Shish Tawook. Shish Tawook should be subtly spiced so, adding chilli would turn it into another thing altogether, white or black pepper is acceptable and a good paprika, not smoked, will also add depth and colour.

Though the classic way is to barbecue you can also quickly shallow fry the chicken pieces and then grill them until cooked through with a little charcoaling on the edges, I sometimes do this before I add chicken to curries or stews, it just helps seal in the flavour.

This dish is perfect for wraps however, to elevate it to a nice mid-week evening dinner I serve it with either Lebanese rice, basically long or medium grain rice with the addition of fine broken vermicelli pasta and sometimes a few toasted pine nuts, or lovely fluffy fat chips and a simple, Lebanese Fattoush Salad, again, it’s not difficult to make, there’s tons of recipes on the interwebs so, give it a go, there’s a lovely recipe here.

So, to the Shish Tawook!

Ingredients

3-4 chicken breasts
1-2 tbsp white vinegar
3 tbsp garlic sauce
A squeeze of ketchup
2-3 garlic cloves crushed
1/4 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp paprika
Pinch of salt
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
Drizzle of vegetable oil approx 1-2 tsp

Instructions

Wash the chicken breasts and cut into small cubes approx. 1 inch wide
Add the vinegar to the chicken breasts and set aside while you prepare the marinade
In a bowl add the crushed garlic, garlic sauce, ketchup, white pepper, paprika, salt, lemon and vegetable oil. Stir well
Add the chicken pieces to the marinade and refrigerate overnight, or for a few hours at least
Skewer the chicken cubes and barbecue or grill in the oven. You can also shallow fry
Serve with chips, coleslaw, pickles and garlic sauce

I know it’s the middle of the week but I LOVE a Lebanese wine to go with this and, at the risk of sounding like a wine heathen, (red wine with chicken, omg, what is she thinking!!), I adore Chateau Musar, personally I think it goes brilliantly with this! All in all, it’s a lovely, simple recipe that really does bring the taste of the Middle East into the home, give it a go, I dare you!

What’s on this week?