Sirocco by Sabrina Ghayour

Cookbook challenge part 7

This weekend we were away visiting family for the Easter holiday, which meant I was cooking for the next cookbook challenge in my Mother-in -Law’s kitchen down in Wiltshire. As there were going to be a few of the family around over the weekend, I wanted to make a selection of dishes that we could share on the Saturday and still have some leftovers for Sunday lunch. It seemed like a good opportunity to use this book which I have been wanting to try for a while as it just looks so colourful.

Before we set off on Good Friday, there was time to bake some hot cross buns for breakfast. They came out rather rustic looking, but were still tasty.

Saturday was a beautiful hot sunny day, so we went into Devizes to watch a few people setting off for the Devizes to Westminster canoe race.

And now, on to the cookbook challenge.

I knew I wanted to make these stuffed baby aubergines as soon as I saw the recipe, but I also knew my sons were never going to eat this, or aubergines in any form in fact. Now that I also had another vegetable loving adult to cook for it seemed a lot more worthwhile.

This recipe is very simple, but the tahini really adds extra depth of flavour and makes it more special. One son tried a tiny piece and then his brother took one look at his face and declined! They were very popular with the rest of us though – no leftovers for Easter Sunday.

I needed something a bit more substantial that everyone would definitely eat, so puff pastry seemed like a reliable choice and these Za’atar and Goats’ Cheese puffs were easy but effective. If I had been able to get ready rolled pastry they would have been even easier, but I had to roll mine out – it didn’t take too long but was more difficult to make the puffs all the same size.

They look slightly burnt in the picture, but that’s where the cheese got a bit too well toasted on top and they didn’t taste burnt at all. We had these warm and everyone thought they were delicious. The aromatic za’atar went really well with the cheese too, so it’s worth getting a tin of this.

Next I needed a couple of salads. The first one was apple, sumac, red onion and pomegranate salad. I used sumac before when I cooked from the Ottolenghi Simple book and since then I’ve been sprinkling it on all sorts of things to give a tangy flavour.

This refreshing fruity salad was a great contrast for the rich pastry and aubergine dishes. It was a large portion so there were lefotovers for Sunday lunch (the citrus juice stopped the apple from turning brown). It even looks like the picture in the book doesn’t it?

The second salad was a supposed to be made from Maftoul (Palestinian couscous), but I couldn’t find that anywhere so I used giant wholemeal couscous which I think is very similar, but not identical.

The recipe also included black garlic which I’ve never tried before. This is what it looks like.

It’s been aged in special conditions until it turns black and sticky and it has a sweet mild flavour which is very different to fresh garlic. As it’s mild you usually need to use the whole bulb in a recipe which does make it quite expensive – this bulb cost me about £4. The recipe also included dried sour cherries which seem to be in short supply at the moment as I couldn’t get them in Manchester (or in Devizes, but that is quite a small place), I used ordinary dried cherries which were not too sweet, but not exactly sour either.

This made a huge portion with plenty of Sunday lunch leftovers. All the family liked it, except our youngest niece and nephew but they are not known for their adventurous tastes. I would have this again, although with all the dried fruit, black garlic and fresh herbs it is probably the most expensive salad I’ve ever made.

Of course there had to be a dessert and we all love a drizzle cake so I made this one which included orange, lime and lemon.

It had a good zesty flavour and a crunchy citrus sugar topping as promised. The ground almonds give this a good moist tender texture.

This was all quite fun to cook and not too difficult even in an unfamiliar kitchen. There was a lot of citrus fruit involved, which made everything taste light and fresh but also meant a lot of zesting. I bought a new mini grater / zester especially for this meal and the cooking would have been a little arduous without it. We enjoyed having a selection of different flavours and textures and this was a good meal for a warm sunny evening.