Arab Levant / Syrian Spiced Fish [Samaka Harra]

Yield: Makes 6 servings
Preparation Time: 1:20 hours

6 large garlic cloves, peeled

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

2 fresh red or green long chili peppers, cored and seeded

1 small onion, cut into pieces

1 large, ripe tomato (about 9 to 10 ounces), peeled and seeded

3 tablespoons tomato paste

1 teaspoon freshly ground cumin seeds

1 whole sea bass or red snapper (about 6 pounds), scaled, gutted, and cleaned but left whole with head and tail on

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1/4 cup finely chopped fresh coriander leaves

1. In a mortar, pound the garlic and salt together until mushy. Put the chili peppers and onion in a food processor and chop finely. Add the tomato and process in bursts until it is chopped. Remove to a medium-size bowl and stir in the pounded garlic, tomato paste, and cumin.

2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Rinse the fish and pat dry with paper towels. Score the fish in 3 places on each side. Lay the fish in a baking pan and coat with the olive oil on both sides. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, then cover with the chili pepper sauce. Bake the fish until the dorsal fin feels as if it will come off with a tug, about 1 hour, basting with the accumulated olive oil in the baking pan. Sprinkle with the coriander and serve.

Variation: Preheat a gas grill on low for 20 minutes or prepare a charcoal fire. Place the fish on a rack inside a large aluminum baking pan, for example, the kind you use to roast a whole turkey. Place the aluminum pan on the grilling grate, draw down the hood or cover, and grill until done, 45 minutes to 1 hour, making sure some smoke can escape through vent holes. The fish is done when one of the dorsal fins almost comes off when you pull on it.

Arabic Spiced Fish

(Yield: 2 servings)

2 (4-6 oz) fillets of white fish (I used haddock)

2 TB canola oil

1 TB all-purpose flour

1 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp each allspice, cinnamon, and curry powder
[** OR the ready-made fish spices from Jerusalem!]

Salt and pepper

Prepared couscous or rice, for serving (I used whole wheat couscous)

Preheat the oven to 350F. In a shallow bowl mix together the flour, cumin, allspice, cinnamon, curry, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Pat the fish dry, dredge it in the flour/spice mixture, and gently shake off the excess.

In a medium frying pan, add the oil and sauté over medium to medium-high heat; add the fish when the oil is hot (when it starts to ripple). Sear the fish until golden brown on the first side (about 3-5 minutes), then flip the fish and sear it until browned on the second side (about 3 minutes). Transfer the fish to the oven to finish cooking (about 3-5 minutes). The fish is fully cooked when it’s opaque in color and flakes easily with a fork.

Serve the fish on top of couscous or rice, alongside Tahini Salad.

Green Tahini (a.k.a. T'hina)

This is the way an Israeli taught me how to make it. And it's delicious.

Ingredients:

tahini / t'hina
juice of a quarter of a lemon
garlic
cilantro
salt
pepper

Directions:

1. Put a few spoonfuls of tahini in a small mixing bowl. Add lemon juice and stir.
2. Very slowly add cold water to the tahini, stirring madly while doing so. Stop when the tahini is creamy and still somewhat stiff. You don't want it to get too watery.
3. Add garlic and chopped cilantro.
4. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
5. Eat with flatbread baked with Za'atar!

Ways to use Za'atar (Thyme seasoning)

"Za'atar," as I learned in the fall, is the Arabic word for "thyme," but it denotes a specific kind of wild thyme found in the general region of Palestine, perhaps Lebanon and Jordan. It's dried and mixed with salt and something else, and Palestinian mamas have their own secret recipes for it. The Israelis claim that it is endangered due to overharvesting and have banned its import/export from the West Bank; the Palestinians, however, argue that they have thousands of years of experience in sustaining its growth and harvesting carefully. Needless to say, this green stuff has become a political issue of its own. (And it's not the only food item that serves as a microcosm of Israel's conflicts with its neighbors; Israel and Lebanon bitterly compete over who produces the best hummus. Here's a little background to the controversy.)

Anyway, luckily this green stuff CAN be found in Berlin, and hopefully at Middle Eastern stores in North America as well. Here's how to use it:

A. Dip some flatbread into olive oil. Drag the bread over the Za'atar. Put in mouth.

B. Drizzle olive oil over some flatbread. Top with Za'atar. Put in the over for 5 minutes. Put in mouth! (Goes fabulously with freshly made "tahini," "tahina" in Arabic or "t'hina" in Hebrew, that has lemon juice and cilantro in it.)

C. Drizzle olive oil over fresh soft white cheese--"labneh" (Arabic) or Greek yogurt--and sprinkle Za'atar over it. Eat with bread.