“Once upon a time I was just a girl from Bahrain, born to an Arab dad and an English mum. Life was slow and calm, the island was sunny, and the smell of rice cooking wafted all the way up to my bedroom,” writes Noor Murad in the introduction to Lugma, her delightful new cookbook which has been shortlisted in the prestigious André Simon Food Awards.
“Lugma” is Arabic for a bite, or a mouthful, and Noor’s book is “an ode to the food of my childhood, a mash-up of food from Bahrain and the surrounding countries, with a slightly westernised take, thanks to my English roots”. So while her mother made an irresistible walnut cake and pored over her Delia Smith and Ken Hom recipes, “she would never, for the life of her, cook the food of the Gulf”.
After time spent doing holiday jobs in hotel kitchens at home, Noor travelled to the US for culinary training and a job in “a fast-paced Manhattan restaurant” before eventually moving to Britain and working as a recipe developer in Yotam Ottolenghi’s test kitchen.
Although she has co-written books with Ottolenghi, Lugma is Noor’s first as a sole author. She points out that many Middle Eastern cookbooks are focused around the food of the Levant, rather than her homeland, a Gulf state. As she explains: “Bahrain is unique in that it pulls on different cultural influences: on the abundance of herbs, dried limes and sour flavours from Iran; on the liberal spice and chilli heat from India; on the elaborate rice dishes which the region is so famous for; and on the foods of the Levant that the world is more familiar with.”
For the Nerve she shares her recipe for saloonat dajaj. “Saloona refers to any stew-like dish in Bahrain. It usually contains meat or fish, hearty veggies, and is always tomato-based. It is always quite saucy, the flavourful sauce generously poured on to rice, or the entire stew poured on to tannour bread to make a dish called thareed. I thought perhaps I wouldn’t include a saloona recipe in this book, but my dad informed me in no uncertain terms that this would be sacrilege and so here we are with a very rustic version.“
The André Simon prizes will be announced on Wednesday. Good luck, Noor!
Words by Jane Ferguson
Noor Murad’s chicken and vegetable stew.
Noor’s saloonat dajaj
Feel free to mix up the vegetables – other root veggies would be delicious, as well as big chunks of courgettes and aubergines. Just be sure not to cut the vegetables too small; you want nice chunks that don’t disintegrate into the sauce.
Serves 4-6
Marinating time: 1 hr to overnight
Ingredients
For the chicken and marinade
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1½ tsp fenugreek seeds
3 dried mild red chillies (Middle Eastern or Kashmiri), stems removed
6 whole cloves
10 cardamom pods, left whole
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp caster sugar
50g fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated
6 garlic cloves, finely grated
200g Greek yoghurt
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1½ tbsp olive oil
4 chicken legs (1kg)
Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the stew
3 tbsp olive oil
1 large red onion, finely chopped
1 green chilli, finely chopped, seeds and all
2½ tbsp tomato puree
350g tomatoes, roughly grated and skins discarded
½ tsp caster sugar
30g coriander leaves and soft stems, roughly chopped
350g floury potatoes (about 2 medium ones), peeled and chopped into 6cm chunks
½ butternut squash (500g), or 1 small squash, peeled, deseeded and cut into 7cm chunks
1 large carrot, peeled and cut at an angle into 5 pieces
Method
Start by marinating the chicken. Toast the cumin, coriander and fenugreek seeds, dried chillies, cloves and cardamom in a small dry frying pan over a medium heat until fragrant – about 3-4 mins, stirring occasionally. Transfer to a spice grinder and blitz until smooth (alternatively use a pestle and mortar and some strength!).
Add half the mixture to a large bowl with the turmeric, paprika, sugar, half of both the ginger and garlic, the yoghurt, vinegar, oil, 1 tsp of salt and a generous grind of pepper. Mix well to combine.
Use your hands to pull away at and discard the chicken skins and then, using a sharp knife, cut between the joints to separate the thighs from the drumsticks. Add these to the marinade and mix well to coat.
Refrigerate for at least an hour or up to overnight if time allows. Remove from the refrigerator about 30 mins before cooking.
To make the stew, add the oil to a large, lidded cast-iron pan or Dutch oven and place over a medium-high heat. Once hot, add the onion and cook for 4 mins, stirring occasionally, until softened and lightly coloured.
Add the chicken pieces and any marinade left in the bowl, stirring to coat in the onions, and cook for about 6 mins, flipping a couple of times, until sealed (they won’t colour much).
Stir in the rest of the ginger and garlic, as well as the chilli, tomato puree and the remaining spice mix, and cook for 1 min more, until fragrant.
Add the grated tomato, sugar, coriander, 800ml of water, the vegetables and 1 tsp of salt and bring to a simmer. Once simmering, cover with the lid, turn down the heat to medium-low and leave to cook gently for 40 mins.
Remove the lid, give everything a stir and cook for 30 mins more, or until the chicken is very tender and the vegetables soft (the stew will still be quite saucy). When ready, transfer to a large serving bowl and serve warm.
Extracted from Lugma: Abundant Dishes and Stories from My Middle East published by Quadrille, (£28)
Photography by Matt Russell