From Middle Eastern
Vegetarian Cookery, David Scott, Rider, 1981.
I had decided on a Middle Eastern style meal so wanted to
start with a soup and chose this one which is apparently used to break the fast
of Ramadan. Though there were several variations of harira I chose this one
because I like chick peas.
I used a little over 100g of chick peas which, after having
been soaked over night, were placed in a pan with half a chopped onion, a
little olive oil, a couple of handfuls of chopped parsley (stalks and all),
half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon and about the same amount of turmeric. After
a few minutes to bring out the flavours a little, a litre and a half of water
was added. The mixture was brought to the boil then turned down to a simmer
until the chick peas had cooked.
After seasoning the soup, about 50g of rice was added and
the soup simmered again for another 15 minutes. Now a heaped tablespoon of
flour was mixed with a little water and added to the soup. It was stirred until
the soup was boiling again, then turned down to simmer for another 15 minutes. It was now a reasonably thick soup and it was tasted again
for seasoning. It was taken off the heat and the juice of half a lemon added.
It could have had a beaten egg added but I felt that it was all now quite
satisfactorily thick.
While this was an acceptable soup it’s not one that I would
make again. The flavours were rather subtle and a bit bland over all. I think it
would have been improved if I had possibly added some garlic or chilli to give it a
little more ‘bite’.
The book I used is an old one but I find it a valuable one
for it has a rich selection of recipes from the Middle East together with
little pieces of information on the types of different styles of cooking. It
has no photographs at all, usually de rigueur
in cookery books nowadays, though it does have occasional line illustrations.
Oddly, I like this book more than many of the over produced volumes you find in
the bookstores.
Taste: ✔✔✔
Ease of cooking:
✔✔✔✔
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