Braised Leeks in Dalac Bilaash Sauce
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This recipe adds to a humble somali classic: Dalaac Bilaash. Dalaac Bilaash is a slow cooked tomato sauce, often served with Mufo (A somali style pitta, or rice).
Brown Butter Kabaash
Potato and Anchovy Sambuus
Brown Butter Kabaash
A playful exploration of a Somali classic.
Hilib (meat) is adored by all Somalis. As such, vegetarianism can be seen as peculiar or a sort of ailment. I've witnessed Hoyoo's (Mums) and Habo's (aunties) quickly morph into nutritionists when informed that someone is a vegetarian. At times, their concern can promote a brazen disregard for dietary requirements. When I informed my mum that my husband was a vegetarian before taking him for dinner, she still cooked him a huge slab of lamb alongside some rice. Similarly, when I first took my husband to my sister's house, pre-warning her that he was a vegetarian, she served us salmon. Thankfully, my husband is more flexitarian than vegetarian.
Somali cuisine is tied to a nomadic culture where food systems rely heavily on animals, so it’s easy to explain the cultural embedding of meat throughout this. As a result, I'm highly conscious of the ways Somali food is rooted in meat, and the ways that we can fall short of delivering delicious Somali food to non-meat eaters. This dish attempts to address some of the ways we can shift towards alternatives while still maintaining the rich fattiness of traditional dishes like hilib. Substituting lamb for cabbage, the process is the same: we salt, sear, cook low and slow, with patience and love.
A Veggie Take On Hilib
A Veggie Take On Hilib
Serves 4 as a side dish
Sweetheart cabbage
100g of unsalted butter
1 1/2 tbsp miso
Honey 1 tsp
Xawaash (Somali spice mix)*
3 stems of Spring onions
1 brown onion
1 1/2 tsp Sesame oil
2 tbsp Neutral oil - Vegetable or Sunflower oil
1 tsp White Wine Vinegar
1 tsp salt
300 ml Sour cream
1 clove of garlic
Ingredients
* Quick tip: Almost all the recipes I share will call for Xawaash - a traditional Somali spice mix, consisting of cumin, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and stock. There are varying spices with each kind. Most Somali recipes online will call on you to blend your own spices but this isn’t necessary, especially if you don’t have the time. You can buy veggie and non veggie xawaash from a Somali grocers. If you are based in london, it isn’t hard to find.
Step One
Pre-heat your oven to 180C/160C Fan. Quarter your cabbage lengthways. Rinse the cabbage, dry with a kitchen towel and then sprinkle salt cut side up.
Step Two
Put your butter in a saucepan, cook for 6-7 minutes on a medium high heat until the butter is foamy and a deep brown.
Step Three
Add your spices - the xawaash, paprika, honey, miso and salt - to the butter. Mix together until combined.
Step Four
Pour the butter mixture over the cabbage and put in oven uncovered. Cook at 160 for 40-50 mins. Keep basting the cabbage with its own mixture every 15 mins or so.
Step Five
While the cabbage is in the oven make your saucy base. Grill some spring onions on the hob. Heat some sesame oil. Trim the ends of your spring onions, then add to your hot oil. Char the spring onions until soft and slightly wilted. Approximately 3 minutes.
Step Six
Put the spring onions into a food processor with your clove of garlic. 1 tbsp of your sesame oil and a sprinkle of salt. Blitz until smooth. Add to the sour cream. Taste and add extra salt, pepper and bit of honey and chilli if needed for extra balance
Step Seven
After 40/50 mins, change the over setting to grill and let the cabbage cook for another 15 minutes. While you finish off the cabbage in the oven, thinly slice some onions (use a mandolin if you have one!) and cook in your neutral oil till caramelised. Place your onions on top of a kitchen towel, so any excess oil is removed.
Step Eight
Plate up the dish, with sour cream at bottom, cabbage on top, pour over any remaining butter mixture. Hit it with a little bit of vinegar for brightness and pile the caramelised onions on top
Anchovy and Potato Sambusa
A Sambusa Truce
A Sambusa Truce
A sambusa – as referred to in Somali - is a Samosa, a triangle-shaped filo pastry stuffed with meat, fish, or vegetables and seasoned throughout with warm aromatic spices. One thing to note is that Somali food and Indian food are at once similar yet distinct; the presence of samosas in Somali cuisine represents a historical and economic relationship through long-established maritime trade across the Indian Ocean.
A variety of sambusa fillings exist. Most commonly, you’ll find meat sambusas stuffed with lamb and beef. On occasion, however, you’ll find fish sambusas stuffed with tuna. There is a universal agreement that meat sambusas are the inoffensive and superior option; tuna fails texture-wise and can often be dry. In fact, biting into a tuna sambusa can be a real source of distress for certain Somalis.
Sambusa is probably my favourite Somali staple. It doesn't make much of an appearance in day-to-day cooking and eating in Somali households, due to the complex preparation involved, but it always comes out in full force during Ramadan and is very much associated with the rituals and traditions of that time. In the run-up to the holy month, a day would be set aside for the kneading, folding, and stuffing of all the sambusas to be eaten after sunset. I maintain that freshly made sambusa, marked by homemade filo pastry, is the best kind. Fresh, crispy pastry is the defining feature of a delicious sambusa, so you shouldn’t cheat. It’s an arduous task, but it comes with maximum reward, giving you the crispiest pastry layer, covered in bubbles from deep frying. Biting into one of these crunchy, oily parcels after a long day of fasting remains a highlight of Ramadan for me.
These potato and anchovy sambusas are incredibly moreish, umami, soft, and moist. This recipe is heavily inspired by my favourite pasta dish, bigoli in salsa, a Venetian dish that consists solely of slow-cooked onions and anchovies.
Makes 12 Sambusas
Ingredients:
Pastry:
140g plain flour
70ml water
½ tsp salt
1 tbsp vegetable oil
For the paste:
½ tbsp flour
3 tbsp water
Filling:
12 anchovy fillets - A can or a jar
300g baby potatoes
3 spring onions
1 brown onion
1 green chilli
1 1//2 tsp Xawaash mix
1/4 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Pepper
1/2 tsp Turmeric
Frying:
400 mls of a neutral oil, either sunflower or vegetable oil.
Step One
Put your flour, salt and oil into a mixing bowl. Slowly begin to incorporate the water into the flour with your hands. It will appear a bit watery at first but keep kneading until you form a ball.
Knead for 10 minutes and cover to rest for another 15 minutes.
Step Two
Cut the dough into 6 pieces. Roll each piece into a little ball. Place the ball onto a flat surface with some extra flour to prevent it from sticking. Roll out the dough until it has 1cm thickness and is about 10 cm wide. Pour 1 tbsp of oil on top and rub it all over the rolled out dough. Repeat with each ball until you have 6 layers. Make sure that you have thoroughly oiled and sprinkled each sheet before putting the next one on top.
Step Three
Make sure you have a big enough surface as the next stage requires you to have lots of space to roll out the dough. Sprinkle some more flour onto the surface. Roll out the dough until it stretches about 30 cm. Don’t worry about the sheets sticking together. If you have oiled them up enough they won’t. Also don’t worry if it isn’t a perfect circle, you can cut it into your desired shape, use the pan you’ll use to heat the pastry in to assist the shaping of your dough. Once you’ve got your circular pastry, create quarters by cutting your dough twice through the middle.
Step Four
Place your sheets in a large flat pan. They should all be layered one on top of the other Set the temperature to medium low heat. You don’t need oil for the pan, however you can use some if you don’t have a non stick pan. Cook the sheets for about 5 minutes or until you see flour marks begin to appear. Flip the sheets halfway so both sides are evenly cooked. The key to separating the layers, is to do so when they are hot, do not wait until they have cooled down, with some tongs, or quickly with your finger tips begin to pull the layers apart from each other. Once separated place on plate and cover with kitchen towel so they don’t dry out.
Step Five
Start preparing the filling:
Boil 1 litre of water in a pot, stream in table salt - you want the water to be heavily salted, so approximately 2-3 tbsp of salt in the water, if not more. Once you get the water to a boil, add 1kg of baby potatoes and cook for 15 minutes or until the potatoes begin to soften. Don’t worry if they are still a bit hard in places. They will continue to cook and soften with the rest of the ingredients.
Step Six
While potatoes boil, get a medium/large pot and fry your onions in a neutral oil, take the heat down to a medium low and cook for 15-20 mins or until the onions become jammy, sprinkle with oil once you start cooking. Once your onions are light brown in colour and jammy in texture, add the anchovies, and 1tbsp of the anchovy oil (if you still have it for some extra fishy flavour). Cook for another 15 minutes until they merge into a paste. Then you add your aromatics - green chilli, and garlic, cook on medium low heat for another 5 minutes. Add 1 tbsp xawaash, 1tsp cumin and 1tsp garlic powder.
Step Seven
Add your boiled potatoes and begin to gently press and crush them into the onion mixture down so break apart into small, semi mashed chunks. Cook for another 10 minutes with regular stirring and mashing of larger potatoes. Taste for seasoning and add salt & pepper.
Step Eight
Now for the paste: Get a small bowl and mix ½ tbsp of flour to 3 tbsp of water. Set aside for assembling the sambusa.
Folding the sambusa:
Place the triangle sheet on a surface with the pointed end facing towards you. Fold the two sides inwards. lining one side with paste. essentially you are creating a cone shape, with a triangle flap facing towards you. (Watching youtube videos helps, but practice is the main thing). Use paste to fill and bring together any gaps. Pinch the ends and you should have triangle in your hand (hopefully).
Finally you are ready to fry your sambusa. Heat a neutral oil such as vegetable oil to 180C, drop your sambusa in - you can also test a corner of a sambuus to check if the oil is hot enough to fry it. Once your sambusa is golden and covered in oily bubbles, transfer to a kitchen towel.
Serve immediately, accompanied by bisbas (a somali hot sauce)
Braised Leeks In Dalac Bilaash Sauce
Braised Leeks in Dalac Bilaash Sauce
Braised Leeks in Dalac Bilaash Sauce
A quick and easy side dish with simple ingredients that shine when cooked intentionally. This dish is inspired by the humble yet punchy Somali recipe: Dalaac Bilaash. Made more substantial by the addition of caramelised leeks.
Serves 4 as a side
Ingredients:
3 leeks
1 tbsp Xawaash
1 tbsp veggie bouillon
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp coriander
2 tomatoes (grated)
1 tbsp olive oil
3 cloves of garlic
⅓ cup water
1 brown onion
Kosher salt
Step One
Trim the tops of your leeks and wash thoroughly to remove any dirt between the layers. Slice your leeks in half lengthwise. Repeat with the remaining leeks and season the halves with a sprinkle of salt. (Handle gently to keep the leek layers intact.)
Step Two
Heat olive oil in a flat frying pan over medium-low heat. Once the oil is hot, place the leeks split side down. If you have a meat weight, place it on top of the leeks to ensure even browning. Cook for approximately 8 minutes or until the leeks develop a caramelised, deep golden-brown layer.
Step Three
Meanwhile, grate the tomatoes into a bowl and finely dice the onion and garlic.
Step Four
Remove the leeks from the pan and transfer them to a tray or plate. In the same pan, add the diced onion and a bit more olive oil. Swirl the onions around to pick up the caramelized bits from the pan. Season with a sprinkle of salt and let the onions sweat for 5 minutes over medium-low heat.
Step Five
Once the onions have softened, add the minced garlic and cook for another 2 minutes. Stir in the Xawaash and veggie bouillon, then incorporate the grated tomatoes, tomato paste, and water. Cover and let the sauce simmer for 15 minutes, until it deepens in color.
Step Six
Stir the sauce and carefully nestle the leeks into it. Allow them to cook for another 10 minutes.
Step Seven
To serve, remove the leeks and pour the sauce into your chosen serving dish. Place the leeks on top of the sauce or alternatively you can serve straight from the pan. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt to finish.