Nawras challenges us (and himself) with his signature dish shish barak, a great dish to cook together as you reminisce, and keep your fingers crossed that your yoghurt doesn’t split….
Why is this your Legaspy?
N: Partially because it’s easy…
All: * Laugh in nervous disagreement *
N: Well, we thought it was easy. But to the best of my knowledge this is quite Syrian and I’m not going to be offending any other country or anything and it also has nice memories, it was a nice dish to make
L: Did you have a moment when you ate the food and it took you back?
K: Maybe not in the best way
N: * Laughs * No the time we spent preparing it was taking me back. I mean, I was even sharing with you the stories – it’s the process not the final thing because after all you eat this in a few minutes
Who taught you how to cook?
N: It was partially my mum, online and on the phone. Because when I needed to cook there was no-one around me, so I was always calling my mum to get some ideas or my aunt, or even my work mum.
K: Cute!
N: Yeah my work mum was a wonderful lady and I always sat with her at work and then the last hour I would say “okay, what are we making today?” and then she would say “you bring these kind of ingredients, do it this way, that way…” and we forget about work. That’s when I started cooking. But people were never really in front of me showing how to cook.
K: Were they always Syrian dishes as well?
N: Yeah this was all back home in Syria
L: What was the first dish you cooked on your own?
N: It was kebab hindi! It’s like small pieces of kebab with slices of onion and tomato sauce and you put it in the oven so it’s easy to make. The first time it went really well!
L: Success!
What is a dish you can’t cook but wish you could?
N: We’ll pretend we didn’t talk about this already while preparing…
All: * Laugh *
N: Sheikh al Mahshi which is another Syrian dish, but you need the tiniest zucchinis ever and you core them and stuff them with the cooked meat, fry them and then you put them also in a cooked yoghurt and serve with the rice with the little noodles. It seems doable, but actually it’s really difficult to core these tiny zucchinis because you can puncture them very easily.
K: Do you think you would ever attempt it?
N: I mean, if I can find those zucchinis! It’s my favourite dish, and quite a tricky one to make.
L: Does that one also have the oil poured over the top?
N: No, because the fried zucchini themselves will have some oil oozing out of them
K: Oh that sounds really good
Who is your biggest inspiration when cooking?
N: oof…
K: It’s hard right!
N: Well it takes someone who actually cooks a lot but with my limited experience, because she wasn’t always there, I would say my mum. The way she cooks the food is always superb and as I also mentioned before how she’s efficient in the cooking and in the kitchen is amazing. And still she managed to make everything wonderful! It’s very rare that I’ve had dishes better than what she makes
L: Yeah, mum’s cooking is always best
K: Did she encourage you to cook?
N: She is old fashioned for sure, but she knows that all her children have left the nest and are on their own. So of course she always asks, “what are you going to eat today?” when we have our weekly talk. She is very anti pasta, so she always asks me to make sure it’s not that.
What do you like to listen to while you cook?
N: I mostly have in the background videos of panel shows like ‘Would I lie to You?’, ‘Taskmaster’ or ‘Mock the Week’. But yeah, I don’t listen so much, I just put that while cooking so I don’t have to pay attention. They’re just there and can remind me of some jokes and then I can laugh at it again
What is the best dish you’ve ever eaten?
N: It’s got to be a Syrian one again because, you know those are much better…
K: Not that you’re biased or anything….
All: * Laugh *
N: Ok, I’m going to go with the other option because Sheikh al Mahshi is already taken for the other option, so Yebra. That’s the vine leaf rolls stuffed with rice and meat, and you have to stack them inside the pot and there’s water on top of them. Of course, if you want to make them properly (that’s the part I don’t like to eat but it’s important for the flavour) you have to put a lot of big chunks of meat and fat in the bottom of the pot to really feed that flavour in – 3asa 3ees [the cow/bull tail] we called them – good luck transcribing that!
K: Yeah that’s going to be tricky…
N: But my mother used to love to eat those, they’re very unhealthy but they’re the best parts. I was always a picky eater when I was younger, so the meat inside the roll was very little and I can enjoy that.
L: Was there a specific place you had that? Or at home?
N: No it is definitely better at home. It’s not very common culture in my community to go to restaurants. Food at home is always better, the sad part is the mother is slaving in the kitchen the whole day for it
Nawras’ Shish Barek
Ingredients dough:
2 cups flour
1/4tsp salt
3/4 cup water
Ingredients filling:
1 onion
250g beef
1/4tsp black pepper
1/4tsp baharat
Ingredients sauce:
1kg yoghurt
1 egg
1tbsp cornstarch
1/2tsp salt
1 cup water
Ingredients fried topping:
1tbsp ghee
2 garlic cloves
1tsp dried mint
50g pine nuts
- Add the dough ingredients to a bowl, adding the water slowly in case not all is needed. Knead until smooth and then leave to rest for 30 minutes
- In the meantime prepare the filling. Chop and fry the onion until it is soft, then add the meat breaking it apart. Mix in the baharat and black pepper and fry for a few minutes
- While the meat is cooling slightly, roll out the dough thin and then cut out smaller circles.
- Add a teaspoon or so of the meat filling to each small circle and seal up the dumplings. Set to the side on a floured plate so they don’t stick together
- Mix the sauce ingredients together and heat over a medium heat in a deep saucepan. Stir in one direction continuously until it’s boiling, then add the dumplings. Leave to cook for 20 minutes over a medium heat
- To prepare the fried topping, add the ghee to a frying pan and once hot add the garlic, mint and pine nuts. Fry together for a couple of minutes. If you want more for topping whilst serving double the amount of fried topping ingredients.
- Once twenty minutes is up pour the fried topping sauce into the yoghurt sauce and serve!
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