Cheese

You need to use large dried apricots for this famous Turkish sweet. The cream used in Turkey is the thick kaymak made from water buffaloes’ milk (see box below). The best alternatives are clotted cream and mascarpone.

This is a meat stew with pasta. I am assured that it only tastes right if small Italian pasta called “orzo,” which look like tiny bird’s tongues or largish grains of rice, are used. In Egypt, families used to make the pasta themselves with flour and water, rolling tiny bits of dough into little ovals between their fingers. A friend recalls spending hours doing this with her brother every Sunday as a small child.

This Syrian recipe which combines bulgur with eggplants and the salty, chewy halumi cheese makes a lovely vegetarian main dish.

This is a family dish we all loved. My mother accompanied it with yogurt. The fried onions and large amount of sharp cheese lift the usually somewhat insipid taste of zucchini.

This famously Greek dish is to be found throughout the Arab world without the creamy topping. Broiling or grilling instead of frying the eggplants makes for a lighter and lovelier moussaka. This one is made upof a layer of eggplants, a layer of meat and tomatoes, and a layer of cheesy white (béchamel-type) sauce. Serve with salad and yogurt.

In Tunisia, where egg dishes are ubiquitous, they call this a tajin because it is cooked in a clay dish of that name. It can be eaten hot or cold.

This simple herby omelet is particularly delicious. Use a good-quality feta cheese, or try another cheese. It can serve as a main dish or an appetizer.

This is usually prepared in individual portions in two-handled frying pans and served in the same pans straight from the fire. You can, of course, use one larger frying pan, or as many as are convenient. In the Middle East, the hard, dry Greek cheeses kashkaval, kefalotyri, or kasseri and the white, firm, slightly rubbery halumi are used.

This wonderful creamy Turkish pie is something between a savory flan and a cheese lasagna. The fillo turns into a soft, thin pasta, so don’t expect it to be crisp and papery. It sounds complicated but it is quite easy, and you will be delighted by the lightness and the variety of flavors and textures.

The filling is a traditional one for the famous Greek pie. A milder-tasting alternative was adopted in Britain by my contemporaries from Egypt. Both make a lovely teatime savory as well as a snack meal accompanied by salad.

In Lebanon the turnovers with meat are the most prestigious, but we in Egypt always made cheese ones. No tea party was ever right without them. The recipe for the dough has been passed down in my family for generations as “1 coffee cup of oil, 1 coffee cup of melted butter, 1 coffee cup of warm water, 1 teaspoon of salt, and work in as much flour as it takes.” We baked the pies, but it was also common to fry them in oil.

The large, famous Greek pie is much quicker to make than the little triangles and cigars. It is not finger food but makes an excellent first course or main vegetarian meal.

These Tunisian fried parcels in a crisp casing of ouarka (see page 125) are ubiquitous appetizers in North African restaurants. You can use fillo to make them, although it is not quite the same. They should be served immediately, as soon as they come out of the frying oil.

These large individual pies with a Turkish filling make a wonderful first course. You need the sweet orange-fleshed pumpkin for this. It is sold in Middle Eastern and Oriental stores, almost all the year round, in large slices, with the seeds and stringy bits removed.

This is the most popular Turkish börek. The little rolls or “cigars” make ideal appetizers and canapés. It is best to use a thicker quality of fillo, which is not likely to tear during cooking. If the fillo sheets are too thin, use 2 strips together and brush with butter or oil in between. In this case you will need to double the number of sheets.

Yogurt often accompanies these Turkish fritters.

This salad brings back for me memories of the garlands of islands floating in the deep blue sea, the plaintive sound of the bouzouki, and the sugar-cake houses.

The salad is made in the Lebanese mountain villages with a fermented goat cheese, but you can use a strong, crumbly goat cheese.

This strong-tasting Egyptian salad made with feta cheese is good with ful medames (page 328).