6

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, crushed

1 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 soup

120 GOURMET TRAVELLER