6

I

t took Joseph Abboud some time to nail the description

for his newest Melbourne venture. He was conflicted about

labelling the food at Bar Saracen “Modern Middle Eastern”

because calling it modern “implies that what we do at Rumi

• and that Lebanese food in general – is not modern”.
  “It’s a living cuisine and we’re eating it in Melbourne where
  I was born, though my background is Lebanese,” he says. “So it’s
  inevitable that you take in your surrounds.”
  The solution? Abboud says that his new city bar and diner is
  “of Middle Eastern appearance”.
  The recipes here have been taken directly from Bar Saracen’s
  menu and prove his description to be apt. Designed to be eaten as
  meze, these dishes offer a lively, big-flavoured mix of traditional
  and contemporary food, rooted in tradition, but not tied to it.
  The kafta nayeh, for example, is a very traditional Lebanese
  raw-meat dish but is modernised here with the use of wagyu.
  The okra recipe belongs to the tradition of fried vegetables in
  Middle Eastern cooking, while the pickled eggplant uses a classic
  Lebanese pickling technique. A beetroot dish is served with a
  familiar pairing of labne and dukkah, but then mixes it up – the
  beetroot is thinly sliced on a mandolin, threaded onto a skewer
  and cooked over coals like a kebab. Hummus is topped with
  grilled calamari rather than the usual chickpeas or lamb.
  “I wanted to pull together a group of recipes that would make
  a really flexible meal,” says Abboud. “At Saracen you can have a
  couple of snacks at the bar or sit down and have one dish at a time
  or get a group of friends together at the chef’s table and have a
  feast. It’s the type of flexibility that suits the food I like to cook.”
  Abboud believes that Bar Saracen is, essentially, a modern
  Melbourne restaurant. “We’re trying to tell a story – there’s a link
  between how a culture is received and how its food is received.
  Ours is another angle. Some of the food goes back hundreds of
  years, some of it we came up with last week.”Bar Saracen,
  22 Punch La, Melbourne, Vic, (03) 8639 0265, barsaracen.com.au

4 (200gm) large uncooked

king prawns, peeled,

deveined and finely chopped

100 gm haloumi, coarsely grated

100 gm Greek sheep’s feta,

coarsely grated

2 tbsp finely chopped

flat-leaf parsley

1 tsp dried isot pepper

(see note)

2 egg yolks

6 fillo pastry sheets

Vegetable oil, for deep-frying

1 tsp nigella seeds

1 Combine prawns with

cheeses, parsley and isot

pepper, then fold through yolks.

2 Cut fillo into 9cm x 45cm

strips and keep covered with a

damp tea towel. Place 2 strips

on top of each other, place

2 tbsp of filling at one end, then

fold one corner of pastry over

Prawn börek

MAKES 8 // PREP TIME 20 MINS // COOK 10 MINS (PLUS DRYING

“Filled pastries have a very long history in the Middle East,” says

Joseph Abboud. “The original, sanbosag or sanbusaj, became

samosa in India, sambousek in Lebanon and sambusa in Ethiopia,

to name a few. Börek, which are a great snack, are another.”

filling to form a triangle. Repeat

folding from side to side in a

triangle shape until there is one

fold left. Brush end with water,

make the last fold and press to

seal and form a triangular parcel.

Trim excess pastry if needed.

Repeat with remaining fillo and

filling and refrigerate uncovered

to dry (1 hour).

3 Heat oil in a large deep

saucepan to 180°C. Deep-fry

börek, in batches, turning

occasionally, until golden and

cooked through (3-4 minutes;

be careful, hot oil may spit).

Drain on paper towels, sprinkle

with nigella seeds and serve.

NoteIsot pepper, also known

as Urfa biber, is a dried Turkish

chilli available from Middle

Eastern food shops.

Drink suggestionAn IPA such

as Colonial Australia IPA. ALL PROPS RESTAURANT’S OWN