Cooking Lebanese in Trapani
How even with the same produce, it is difficult for me to successfully produce Lebanese dishes in my adopted city
I chose Sicily for my newish and possibly last adventure because it reminded me of home, ie Lebanon and Syria where I hail from, without being home. The weather is as glorious. The people almost as hospitable and the produce very much like what I grew up with. Except that every time I cook Lebanese in Trapani, it is never quite the same. I have the dry ingredients and spices I need (there is very little chance of me finding them in Trapani, not only because it is a small city but also because people here love their own food which I do too but I also love my own!). Anyhow, as I said, the fresh ingredients are the same except that they grow them differently. The parsley is almost always overgrown, mainly because they use it as a garnish or a flavouring and not as a main ingredients the way we do. As a result, I need to order it in advance if I want to make tabbüleh. The mint and spring onion are seasonal which really struck me at first as even in Lebanon you can find both all year round. This said, one thing I have done successfully is drying mint. It comes out beautifully and is even more flavourful than the one I get already dried from the home country. The dried leaves are also beautiful, as you can see from the collage below, and because it really tastes of mint, I don’t crush it very fine.
But to go back to me cooking Lebanese in Trapani. Somehow, I can never do it as well as in London. My latest try was nammürah (pictured above), which I had perfected in London. I tried to buy semolina in my local supermarket but they didn’t have any. In fact, the shoppers I asked didn’t even know what I meant and it wasn’t because of my imperfect Italian! Fortunately, I found dregs in two different jars in my kitchen cupboard which were enough for my recipe. The plain yoghurt I bought was the right consistency (it needs to be quite runny) but it was a little sour. Italian butter is what it is, not as good as French and I still don’t know why. As for the bicarbonate of soda is the same. I had no problems with the syrup because I have a stock of rose and orange blossom waters that I had brought with me from the home country.
Perhaps my semolina had been sitting for too long because even though the nammürah came out fine, it was not as good as the versions I had made recently in London. Also, I couldn’t buy the right size square baking dish, which is now my favourite shape for this cake, so I used my round one. I thought that because it was non-stick, I didn’t need to brush it with tahini but the syrup makes it stick somewhat and as a result, it is not so easy to unmould in one piece. So, a word of advice if you decide to make the recipe below, which is a preview of the one in my forthcoming book, brush your baking dish with tahini. Oh, and it also took 5 minutes longer in my professional oven in Trapani to get to the right colour, so always check for doneness and colour regardless of the times given in a recipe!
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