hraimeh - spicy libyan fish

This was a very easy recipe to make, if you ignored the instructions and just used them as a guide. For instance, the measurements are very strange “3/8 cup + 1 tablespoon water” and I found the cooking time for both the sauce and the tuna to be too long.

Just cook the sauce until the flavours meld and it thickens a little, then add the fish and watch it carefully. Tuna is very easily dried out so only cook it a minute or two on each side or you’ll end up with something very unappetising.

The cumin and caraway really added the North African flavour to this dish and the herbs finished it off nicely. I must admit I added a touch of harissa to the sauce as well, just to make sure it really was spicy.

This is another recipe I’ve cooked from The Jewish Kitchen by Clarissa Hyman. It’s a great book because it covers the diaspora and therefore has food from all over the world.

I don’t imagine this is specifically a Jewish recipe though, as many Libyans would make something similar.

This dish is pareve, so it’s a great, neutral recipe to have in one’s repertoire.

Hraimeh – Spicy Libyan Fish
Recipe from The Jewish Kitchen by Clarissa Hyman. Serves 4.
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons olive oil
3/8 cup + 1 tablespoon water
Juice of 1 lemon
4-5 tablespoons tomato paste
4 garlic cloves, crushed
Salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon ground caraway seeds
1-2 teaspoons red chilli (seeded/chopped) or hot & sweet paprika
4 tuna steaks
Fresh coriander and parsley, chopped finely
Method:
1. Mix oil, water, lemon juice, paste, garlic, salt, spices.
2. Pour into wide shallow pan and simmer 10 minutes.
3. Add fish and coat with sauce. Cover and cook on low for 15 minutes.
4. Top with fresh herbs and serve with lemon wedges.

This dish tasted pretty damn good and I imagine it could work just as easily with lamb or beef (these wouldn't be pareve) or even eggs as a vegetarian option.

The herbs I used, alongside mint, are very common in North African and Middle Eastern cooking. I have covered the properties of coriander before (and I plan to do parsley in the future), so instead I might just leave this short and sweet.

But if you want to read about some inventive food, check out my review of Interlude, a restaurant that was both unique and amazing!

Our WHB host this week is the lovely founder herself, Kalyn. Be sure to visit Kalyn's Kitchen for the recap.

Tags: morsels and musings food blog food and drink australia recipes weekend herb blogging whb main spicy sauce spicy libyan fish hraimeh caraway chilli cumin tomatoes seafood fish tuna libyan recipes libyan food libyan cuisine libyan libya north african recipes north african food north african cuisine north africa

lithuanian pickled fish

In my quest to cook my way around the world I have now managed to cook a variety of recipes from 30 different countries, and yet I find myself leaning towards a few national cuisines more regularly. Perhaps it’s because they are more familiar to me, in both method and ingredients, and that I prefer the flavours?

Apart from influences from Australian, British and American chefs in their reinventions of the English speaking world’s traditional cuisine, I seem to have been heavily influenced by Mediterranean cooking.

Italian food features most prominently with Greece and Spain getting some decent kitchen time as well. Mexican food shines through, influenced by our close friends and bridal party compadres, Robot & Bicky, while Indian food, with its flavoursome vegetarian options, also plays an important role in our home.

Today’s recipe for Weekend Herb Blogging was quite outside the usual as I attempted a Lithuanian recipe from an enlightening cookbook called The Jewish Kitchen. Author Clarissa Hyman attended a Rosh Hashanah lunch in Trondheim (Norway) where she was presented with this wonderful pickled fish made by a descendant of Lithuanian Jews.

The result was firm pieces of fish in a sweet-sour sauce. In fact the overall flavour composition was very sweet and matched the white fish well.

As I was making the brine, the smells wafting from the pot made me think of the sweet brine used in Sweden's inlagd sill (a type of pickled herring). I love inlagd sill so much and I couldn’t help tweaking this Lithuanian recipe just a little to add my own spicy input (some peppercorns and allspice).

Marinuota Žuvis (Lithuanian Pickled Fish)
Recipe by Henriette Kahn, Rosa Kahn & Ida Ullman from The Jewish Kitchen by Clarissa Hyman. Serves a buffet of 8 people.
Ingredients:
2 lb 4 oz halibut steaks
7/8 cup white wine vinegar
1 3/8 cups + 1 tablespoon sugar
1 ¾ cups water
1 large onion, thinly sliced
3-4 bay leaves
1 lemon, finely sliced
2 tablespoons raisins
2 tablespoons chopped almonds
1 tablespoon ground ginger
Salt
Method:
1) Combine all ingredients (except for fish) in a large pot and boil gently for 20 minutes.
2) Remove from heat, add fish steaks, cover then leave until mixture reaches room temperature.
3) Transfer fish to deep serving dish then spoon sauce over the top.
4) Refrigerate for at least 24 hours before serving.
Anna’s variations:
• I added 10 whole black peppercorns and 6 whole allspice berries.
• I also used red onions to add colour to the dish as the onions become bright pink during the brining process.
• I used flaked almonds instead of chopped.
• I had to use swordfish since halibut isn’t easily available at Sydney fish mongers.

The herb I used in this recipe was obviously the bay leaf. I use both fresh and dried bay leaves in my cooking but in this case I used dried leaves as they have a more pronounced flavour.

I have used bay leaves in a previous WHB entry and learnt that they can have a narcotic effect. Strange but true!

This week’s host for WHB is Becky from Key Lime & Coconut and I wish her luck for the mammoth task of writing the round-up!


Tags: morsels and musings food blog food and drink australia recipes weekend herb blogging whb main pickle pickled fishbuffet halibut swordfish raisins bay leaves almonds seafood seafood recipes jewish recipes jewish food jewish cuisine lithuanian recipes lithuanian food lithuanian cuisine lithuania