Saute

A delicious Turkish specialty to be served hot with rice or bulgur.

This is an old family recipe which originates in Syria. It is easy to make now that dried pitted sour cherries are available. We used to have to pit them. Serve it with rice or, as was usual in the old days, on miniature pita breads split in half, soft side up.

This intriguing layered dish with a delicious mix of textures and flavors is a specialty of the city of Hama in Syria.

A quick and simple dish to be served with rice, bulgur, or potatoes, or with bread.

A Turkish dish in which yogurt, an important feature in Turkish cooking, is flavored with cardamom and ginger.

This is a quick and simple way of cooking chicken.

A Turkish dish of Georgian origin. Georgia borders on northwestern Turkey and is famous for plum trees and plum sauces. The traditional way to make this dish is to cut the chicken all the way down the back with kitchen shears or a bread knife, open it out, and cut away the bones. You season the flesh inside with crushed garlic, salt, and pepper, then close the chicken up, flatten it with a weight, and cook it in a pan gently in some butter for about 40 minutes, turning it over once. But I find it is easier and equally good to use chicken fillets.

You can buy tamarind paste (page 46) from Middle Eastern stores. Serve the scallops as an appetizer accompanied with a leaf salad.

A Moroccan way with shrimp that is quick to do and really delicious. If you buy the shrimp frozen, let them thaw in the refrigerator before peeling.

A specialty of the port of Salé, this is one of the rare fish couscous dishes of Morocco. The eel is usually cooked in a saffron broth, but I prefer to sauté the eel and serve it with a small portion of couscous (see page 375). The honeyed onions beautifully complement the delicate flavor of this fish. Have the eel skinned (the skin is tough and inedible) and cut into pieces or filleted by the fishmonger.

A North African—particularly Libyan—specialty. Algerians call the piquant sauce chetitha. The dish is not for everybody, and it is not for a delicate fish.

Preserved lemon and olives are a favorite combination for fish dishes in Morocco and other North African countries.

This Turkish specialty, popular throughout most of the Middle East, makes a good first course or cold buffet dish. Sliced swordfish is generally used, but most fish available in America are also suitable.

Pan-cooking with the famous marinade is the simplest and quickest way of preparing a Moroccan-style fish dish.

Small skate, tender enough to fry quickly, should be used for this Tunisian dish. The wings are bought already dressed from the fishmonger.

This rich Tunisian pie makes an interesting main dish.

You can find tamarind paste in Oriental stores. It gives the onions a delicious, intense sweet-and-sour taste.

Okra is one of the most popular vegetables in the Arab world.