Nine-spice mix
MAKES 100GM // PREP TIME 5 MINS // COOK 15 MINS (PLUS COOLING“This spice mix is featured in many of the dishes in this book,
lending them a uniquely Palestinian flavour,” says Reem Kassis. “It
is my mother’s own blend, but feel free to adjust to suit your taste,
or substitute with store-bought baharat, or Lebanese seven spice
mix, for an equally tasty, albeit slightly diferent, flavour profile.”6 tbsp whole allspice
6 pieces of cassia bark or
cinnamon quills
3 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tbsp whole black
peppercorns
1 tsp cardamom seeds
½ tsp cumin seeds
10 cloves
2 blades of mace
½ nutmeg, crushed1 Place all ingredients in a large
frying pan over medium-low
heat. Stir with a wooden spoon
periodically to ensure spices
do not burn, until you begin to
smell the scent of the spices
(about 10 minutes).
2 Remove pan from heat
and set aside to cool completely
(about 1 hour). This step is crucial
because if the spices are not
cooled properly, they will form
a paste when ground rather
than a powder.
3 Place all the roasted spices
into a heavy-duty spice grinder
(or a mortar) and grind until
you achieve a fine powder
consistency. Store spice mix
in an airtight container. It will
keep for several months,
although the scent will fade
with time.G
rowing up, there was the food we ate at our
kitchen table in Jerusalem, and the food we
ate at my grandmothers’ tables in their villages.
It was delicious, it was made with love, and it
was our food. But the thought of these foods making up
a Palestinian table was an elusive notion at the time.
Not until I left home for another country did I grasp the
undeniable importance of food to national identity and
the intricacies associated with defining it.
On my journey to bring these pages to your hands,
I came to a quiet clarity: there is no single Palestinian
table. The Palestinian table spans our entire geography
from the mountains of the Galilee to the valleys of the
south, from the coast of Yaffa all the way to the West Bank.
It is scattered across the globe and built from memories of
a time when most of us lived in the same land. In spite
of our political circumstances and global dispersion,
what ties all Palestinian tables together is more than just
good food; it is the notion of “home”, the spirit of
generosity, the importance of family, and the value
of bringing people together.
One of the few things I regret about living abroad
is that my own daughters won’t get to enjoy that
same kind of slow lifestyle with a bevy of aunts,
grandmothers, and family cooks coming together
around a Palestinian family table, laden with food,
steeped in laughter and conversation, and boasting
the stories and knowledge of generations. Through the
recipes and stories in this book, however, I hope that
they can carry our history, our food, our culture, and
our home wherever they go in the world and never be
too far away from a Palestinian table.Reem
Kassis.Lentil,
garlic and
pasta soup120 GOURMET TRAVELLER