Spicy Middle Eastern fish...

...and the correct way to prepare them for the grill

By FAYE LEVY, YAKIR LEVY
Olive & Fish 370 (photo credit: Courtesey)
Olive & Fish 370
(photo credit: Courtesey)
The chefs in France who taught me how to cook had a “keep it natural” philosophy towards fish. They seasoned their fish lightly to avoid overpowering its delicate taste.
In Israel I learned a different approach from Yakir’s family. My mother-in-law, Rachel Levy, cooked her fish with plenty of spice. Her braised carp was one of my favorite fish dishes. To make it, she seasoned the fish slices with Yemenite soup spice blend (hawaij marak) made of cumin, turmeric and black pepper.
After sautéing the fish slices, she cooked them gently in fresh tomato sauce. (A simpler recipe with the same flavorings appears below.) Cooks from several other parts of the Middle East also like their fish with spice. In Iraq, wrote Kay Karim in The Iraqi Family Cookbook, before a whole fish is grilled, it might be rubbed with a paste of curry powder, tomato paste, garlic, salt, lemon juice and oil. (See recipe) A different marinade is used for fish fillets to be broiled; it’s a mixture of ground coriander, curry powder, crushed dried lime, garlic and salt. The same marinade is used for fish with rice, a specialty of the port city of Basra in southeastern Iraq. To make it, Karim layers marinated, lightly broiled fish with deep-fried onions, crushed dried lime and cooked rice, and bakes it; she unmolds the dish before serving it.
For her fish fillets with herb sauce, a dish somewhat similar to my mother-in- law’s braised carp, Karim simmers the fish in a sauce made from fresh tomatoes cooked with sautéed onions, garlic, green onions, curry powder and tomato paste. Unlike our family’s Yemenite sauce, this one also contains lemon juice, crushed dried lime and a generous amount of parsley.
Gazans like their fish spicy, wrote Laila El-Haddad and Maggie Schmitt in The Gaza Kitchen. Some of their dishes begin with a preparation that reminds me of Yemenite zhug (hot pepper-garlic relish). Their basic fish marinade is made of garlic crushed with salt and green chili peppers; to it they add cumin, salt, black pepper, lemon juice and slivers of lemon rind.
This marinade is used for simple grilled fish or for more elaborate dishes like sayadiya, or fish cooked with rice.
To make sayadiya the classic way, Haddad and Schmitt flavor rice with sautéed onions and a blend of sweet and sharp spices and ground, dried lemon, and cook the rice with fried, marinated fish fillets, sliced tomatoes and onion broth. For a different kind of sayadiya, made according to the family recipe of restaurateur Abu Hasira, the marinated fish fillets are poached in tomato broth with browned onions, garlic, nutmeg, cardamom, cinnamon and salt, and cooked with rice that was sautéed in olive oil until golden brown; the finished dish is served sprinkled with cumin and chopped parsley.
For cooking sardines Gazans prepare a spicy tomato sauce “designed to offset the oily taste of the fish.” To make it, Haddad and Schmitt sauté onions and hot green peppers, add chopped tomatoes, cumin, coriander, salt and pepper and simmer the sauce until it thickens. The fish can be baked in the sauce, or fried and accompanied by the sauce.
An olive oil marinade seasoned with allspice, cumin and chopped lemon rind is used in another Gazan favorite – fish with spicy tahina sauce. The tahina sauce is flavored with browned onions, garlic, hot peppers and nutmeg. (See recipe.) “The sweetness of the caramelized onions,” wrote Haddad and Schmitt, “offsets the slight bitterness of the tahina, making a rich sauce which complements the fish perfectly.” ■
Faye Levy is the co-author of La Cuisine du Poisson (Fish Cookery), published in Paris by Flammarion.
Fish Fillets in Yemenite Tomato Sauce My husband’s aunt, Mazal Cohen of Rehovot, who was born in Yemen, taught me how to make this dish. For the sauce she grated fresh tomatoes, so that most of their peels remained in the grater. She spiked it generously with cumin, turmeric and black pepper, and finished the dish with fresh cilantro.
Makes 4 servings ❖ 700 grams (1 ½ pounds) ripe fresh tomatoes or an 800-gram (28-ounce) can whole tomatoes, drained ❖ 2 tablespoons vegetable oil or olive oil ❖ ½ large onion, diced ❖ 1 tablespoon ground cumin ❖ 1 ½ teaspoons turmeric ❖ 1 teaspoon paprika ❖ ½ teaspoon ground black pepper, or to taste ❖ Salt and freshly ground pepper ❖ ¼ cup chopped cilantro (fresh coriander) ❖ 700 grams (1 ½ pounds) mullet, halibut or cod steaks or fillets, about 2.5 cm (1 inch) thick Grate fresh tomatoes using large holes of grater. If using canned tomatoes, chop them fine.
Heat oil in a large sauté pan, add onion and sauté over medium heat until golden brown. Add tomatoes, cumin, turmeric, paprika, salt and ½ teaspoon pepper. Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer 10 minutes.
Add 2 tablespoons cilantro to sauce.
Add fish and sprinkle it with salt and freshly ground pepper. Bring to a simmer. Cover and cook over low heat 7 minutes. Turn fish over and cook 7 to 10 more minutes or until it can flake easily.
Serve fish hot or at room temperature, sprinkled with remaining cilantro.
Fish in Tahina Sauce - Samak bi T’heena “A magnificent way of preparing fish,” is the way Laila El-Haddad and Maggie Schmitt described this dish in The Gaza Kitchen. They make the dish with fillets but note that fish steaks or a whole fish would work just as well. Serve the fish with white rice or with pita. The dish may be served hot or cold.
Makes 4 servings ❖ 700 grams (1 ½ pounds) firm fish fillets, such as sea bass ❖ Lemon juice (for washing fish) ❖ ½ cup flour, more as necessary ❖ Oil for frying Marinade: ❖ 1 ½ teaspoons ground cumin ❖ 1 ½ teaspoons ground allspice ❖ ¾ teaspoon salt ❖ 1 ½ teaspoons ground black pepper ❖ 3 tablespoons finely chopped lemon rinds ❖ 3 tablespoons olive oil Sauce: ❖ 1 large onion, julienned ❖ 2 tablespoons olive oil ❖ 2 hot green chiles, thinly sliced ❖ 3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced ❖ 1 ½ cups Tahina Sauce (see Note below) ❖ ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg ❖ Salt to taste ❖ 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
Wash fish carefully in cold water with lemon juice. Rinse well and pat dry.
Mix the marinade ingredients, forming a paste. Rub this into the fish. Allow to marinate for 15 to 30 minutes, but no longer.
Sauté onion in 2 tablespoons olive oil until caramelized (deep brown). Add chiles and garlic and continue cooking for 2 to 3 more minutes.
Prepare tahina sauce. Thin with about a cup of water until you have a smooth, liquid consistency. Stir caramelized onion, chiles and garlic into the sauce.
Add a dash of nutmeg, and salt to taste.
Leaving marinade rub on, lightly dredge fish in flour and shake off excess. In a heavy skillet, either deep-fry fish in 1 cup oil or pan-fry in 4 to 5 tablespoons of oil until just golden. This should take no more than a couple of minutes on each side, depending upon the thickness of the fillets. Remove from oil and place on paper towels, then arrange in a serving dish and keep warm.
In a saucepan bring the tahina sauce to a boil and immediately pour it ove the fish. Decorate with chopped parsley.
Note: Tahina sauce: With a mortar and pestle, crush 2 to 4 garlic cloves with ½ teaspoon salt to a paste. Add 2/3 cup tahina paste and 2/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice and whisk until smooth. Bit by bit, add about 1/3 cup cold water, or more if needed and continue stirring until you have a smooth thick liquid. Makes about 1 ½ cups.
Grilled Whole Fish This recipe is from The Iraqi Family Cookbook. Author Kay Karim notes that you can make it from trout or carp. Serve it with plain white rice and salad.
Makes 8 servings ❖ 1 tablespoon salt❖ 1 tablespoon curry powder ❖ 3 tablespoons tomato paste ❖ ½ cup lemon juice ❖ 5 cloves garlic, crushed ❖ ½ cup vegetable oil ❖ A 4½-kg (10-pound) whole fish Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well to blend the spices and make a paste. Preheat oven to 180C (350F).
Cut the fish along the spine. Do not remove the scales. Wash the fish and leave it in a colander in the sink to drain for 15 minutes.
Remove fish from colander and place it on a foil-lined baking pan. Cover fish with the prepared paste. Bake for 40 minutes, or until cooked.