Salad

This is the common all-purpose dressing for fish. It can also be used as a marinade.

Although shami means “Syrian,” this was a specialty of the Jews of Egypt. It has a strong taste of lemon and garlic. It should be made with a good, well-flavored chicken stock (see page 143). After the recipe was given to me thirty-five years ago, I never heard of it again until recently, when I was giving a lecture about Jewish food and a man complained bitterly that I had left it out of my Jewish book. So I feel obliged to leave it in here.

I like to make this Lebanese salad with basmati rice, because the grains stay very separate.

For this North African salad, use a firm white fish such as cod, haddock, or monkfish.

This is an instant salad to make with canned chickpeas, but they must be good-quality.

This famous Turkish salad makes a light snack meal.

This is a Turkish way of dressing beets.

Leeks are especially popular in Egypt.

Make this fiery Tunisian salad with old carrots, which taste better, and add the flavorings gradually, to taste. The color is beautiful. Serve as a dip with bread or bits of raw vegetables.

For this Tunisian salad, use old carrots and mealy potatoes.

This simple and delightful North African salad is easy to make with the frozen artichoke bottoms obtainable from Middle Eastern stores.

Use mealy potatoes for this Tunisian salad, which is served as an appetizer and also as an accompaniment to grilled fish.

In this Moroccan salad, the curious mix of sweet and spicy is quite delicious. It is nice as it is but you may add, if you like, a handful of black olives, the chopped peel of a preserved lemon (see page 459), and a tablespoon of capers.

They call it meshweya, which means “roasted,” because the vegetables are roasted—usually over a fire. There are many versions. This one can be a meal in itself.

In this Tunisian salad the blandness of zucchini is lifted by the very rich flavoring.

The combination of raisins and pine nuts was brought by the Arabs all the way to Spain and Sicily.

I love this Moroccan salad. The eggplants are boiled, not fried, so it is not oily. It is best made several hours in advance so that the flavors have time to penetrate.