Musaqa’a.

Musaqa’a is a Palestinian eggplant, chickpea and tomato bake with inspired spicing–somewhat reminiscent of Greek moussaka. The recipe I’m using here is adapted from Chef Sami Tamimi’s and Irish food writer Tara Wigley’s new cookbook, Falastin. The recipes are Tamimi’s and the writing is Wigley’s. In the Introduction to the book, Wigley writes that the cookbook is a love letter to Tamimi’s heritage and to his mother.

Let’s get the “P” and the “F” out of the way first. Tamimi is a Palestinian chef who co-authored the best-selling cookbooks Jerusalem and Ottolenghi with Yotam Ottolenghi, the prominent Israeli/English chef. In the Introduction to the book, Tamimi explains that there is no “P” in Arabic and so it is common to use the term Falastin interchangeably with Palestine. Hence, the name of the book.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, Falastin is a cookbook of wonderful flavors and over one hundred recipes. The cookbook’s aim is to showcase Palestinian foods but to do so with innovative flourishes. The recipes in the book are geared for the home cook–perhaps a natural inclination for Tamimi who came from a family of seventeen children.

Here is a link to a YouTube video of Tamimi and Wigley preparing some of the recipes from the book: Sami Tamimi and Tara Wigley Cook From Falastin.  The Baby Gem Lettuce with Charred Eggplant, Smacked Cucumber, and Shatta recipe looks pretty great.(Shatta is a spicy condiment made from fresh or semidried green or red chiles.) That salad is definitely going on my “To Make” list— if only because the idea of smacking cucumbers makes me giggle. (I’m easily amused these days.)

Apparently, the Musaqa’a  is a recipe with all sorts of iterations. Eat it as a casserole dish with a dollop of yogurt and a side of steamed rice. Eat it for breakfast on toast. Tamimi recommends serving it on top of a baked potato.  The options are endless.

Eggplant, Tomato and Chickpea Bake: Musaqa’a

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Ingredients

• 5 medium eggplants
• 1/2 C. olive oil
• Salt and black pepper
• 1 onion (finely chopped)
• 6 garlic cloves (crushed)
• 1 t. chile flakes
• 1 t. ground cumin
• 1/2 t. ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 t. tomato paste
• 2 green bell peppers (seeded and cut into 1 inch pieces)
• 1 15-oz. can of chickpeas (drained and rinsed)
• 1 14-oz can chopped tomatoes
• 1 1/2 t. sugar
• 3/4 C. plus 2 T. water
• 1 C. cilantro (roughly chopped)
• 4 plum tomatoes (sliced into 1/2 inch rounds)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
2. Trim off the ends of the eggplants and, using a food peeler, peel strips of the skin off the eggplant. You want to peel alternating strips of the skin off the eggplants so that you have a stripe pattern. Cut the eggplants into 3/4-inch rounds and toss them with about 5 T. of oil, 1 t. salt and a generous amount of black pepper. Spread the oiled eggplant rounds out on a baking sheet that you have lined with parchment paper. Roast the eggplant rounds for about 30 minutes. You want the eggplant to be completely softened and lightly browned. Remove the eggplant from the oven and set aside.
3. Lower the oven temperature to 400 degrees F.
4. Heat 2 T. oil in a saucepan and saute the chopped onions for about 7 minutes until they are lightly browned and softened. Add garlic, chile flakes, cumin, cinnamon and tomato paste and stir it well. Continue to saute for 1 additional minute. Add the bell peppers, chickpeas, canned tomatoes, sugar, water, 1 1/4 t. salt and a generous grind of black pepper. Cook this mixture over medium heat for about 18 minutes. You want the bell peppers to soften. Stir 3/4 C. chopped cilantro into this mixture and remove from the heat and set aside.
5. Lightly oil a large baking sheet. Spread half of the plum tomato slices on the bottom of the baking dish and half of the roasted eggplant slices. Spread the chickpea mixture on top of the tomatoes and eggplants. Next, top the chickpea mixture with the remaining tomato and eggplant slices. Drizzle about 1 T. of olive oil over the top of the dish, cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.
6. After 30 minutes of baking, remove the foil and bake for an additional 20 minutes or until the sauce in the dish is bubbling and the tomatoes have totally softened.
7. Top with remaining chopped cilantro and serve warm or at room temperature. I enjoyed the dish with a dollop of Greek yogurt and a side of steamed rice to soak up the flavorful sauce.

Nutrition

Calories

23786 cal

Fat

2618 g

Carbs

171 g

Protein

36 g

Click Here For Full Nutrition, Exchanges, and My Plate Info

7.8.1.2

247

https://bluecayenne.com/eggplant-tomato-and-chickpea-bake-musaqaa

Tamimi’s and Wigley’s cookbook Falastin is available here.

It is artichoke season–a truly wonderful development if, as I do, you enjoy artichokes.

The artichoke, Cynara scolymus, originated, according to Greek legend, when Zeus grew bored with the women on Mt. Olympus and looked to earth for romance. Seeing Cynara, a Greek beauty, he fell in love but, alas, she rebuffed him. Zeus had anger management issues and threw a lightning bolt at Cynara, turning her into an artichoke. Bummer for Cynara.

Artichokes are the large flower bud of a type of thistle. Thistles are a member of the lettuce family.  Somehow I never connected artichokes and lettuce.

Native to the Mediterranean region, artichokes are believed to have been cultivated as early as the 5th Century B.C. The wild variety of an artichoke is called a cardoon, by the way, and is smaller and more prickly than the artichokes grown today.

Like so many of our foods, the artichoke’s spread as a food pretty much followed the historical ages of exploration and colonization. The Moors introduced the artichoke to Spain. The Dutch introduced them to the English. The French brought them to Louisiana. And, ta da!, Italian immigrants brought them to California.

Score one for the Italian immigrants.

Modern-day cultivation of artichokes in California has long been centered in Castroville, California, and, if you are so inclined, you can attend the yearly artichoke festival there. Lest you sniff at the prospect of spending your days in Castroville celebrating the artichoke, Marilyn Monroe was the Castroville artichoke queen in 1948. If it was good enough for Marilyn…

At the Long Beach Farmers Market last week, artichokes were offered by several vendors and were being snapped up like…well…first-of-the-season artichokes. There was even some impatient jostling around the artichoke tables. It wasn’t pretty.

I bought four. On my way home, I stopped at Trader Joe’s. TJ had huge artichokes piled high in a center store bin. I bought three more.  Fortunately, I didn’t stop at other stores on my way home!

Seven artichokes. One person.

My name is Lorraine and I lose control around produce. 

I adapted this recipe from one that appeared online on the Epicurious site. The link appears at the bottom of this post.

If you are intimidated by the prospect of prepping an artichoke, here is a link to two videos explaning  how it is done. It is easy.

How to prep an artichoke heart

How to prepare a whole artichoke

Recipe:

3 T. olive oil

4 large garlic cloves, chopped

2 T. chopped cilantro (or Italian parsley)

4 artichokes (prepped and trimmed down to hearts–see video link above for directions on how to prep the artichoke hearts)

Cherry tomatoes (halved and sauteed in a bit of olive oil)

Directions:

Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add chopped garlic and 1 T. chopped cilantro and stir for 30 seconds. Add trimmed artichoke hearts and stir to coat with oil mixture. Cover the skillet and cook until artichokes are tender. This will take 12-15 minutes. Uncover the skillet and simmer the dish until the sauce in the skillet thickens, stirring to coat the artichokes. This will take about 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to serving plate and garnish with sauteed cherry tomatoes and the rest of the chopped cilantro.

Here is the link to the original recipe:

Epicurious Artichoke Hearts with Garlic, Olive Oil and Parsley