Falastin

Reviewed By Despina Mina

‘I’m not a breakfast person’ are words you will never hear from me. I’m one of those chirpy morning people, who can start a conversation five minutes after opening my eyes and it’s often about food. I think I’m a delight, others might dispute this. A creature of habit, I like to wake up a little earlier than necessary so that I can prepare and eat breakfast at my leisure - it’s one of life’s simple pleasures. But it’s at the weekends when I most indulge with a cooked breakfast, one that needs time and effort to make, one that ends up taking so long to cook it ends up becoming brunch.

I wanted to cook from Falastin, written by Sami Tamimi (friend and business partner of Yotam Ottolenghi) and Tara Wigley (recipe developer, writer and member of the Ottolenghi family) even before Cibare suggested a breakfast themed issue and it just so happened that the first chapter is dedicated to breakfasts. Amongst the herb filled omelettes and spiced hummus there are two shakshukas that caught my eye and all I had to do was decide which one to cook first.

Falastin is a celebration of Palestine (pronounced with an F as there is no P in the Arabic alphabet). The sights, the sounds, the smells and the politics but at the heart of this is the food. Despite the ongoing troubles, Palestine is blessed with a bounty of stunning ingredients and inspiring people who want to pass on their culinary history and traditions. Sami and Tara introduce us to Baseema,

the founder of a government funded cooperative called Anza (meaning ‘Hard Rock’). Here, people come to handcraft foods, including a local couscous called maftoul, spice mixes and baked pastries that they sell to schools - all this creates a closeknit community that share stories and teaches skills, ensuring that everyone gets to eat a better quality meal. We’re also introduced to another inspiring woman, Islam, a wife and mother of six children living in a refugee camp. Along with five other ladies, Islam gives cookery classes within the camp and opens her home to visitors.

Falastin is filled with over 100 recipes, each one accompanied with cooking notes. These are ideal if you’re hosting a party, as they advise on how you can plan ahead by cooking parts of the dish earlier and finishing it just before you want to serve. Suggestions on how you can swap certain ingredients also give the reader the confidence to stray from the exact recipes if they wish.

I started preparing my Green Shakshuka three days in advance by making the green shatta, a lightly fermented chilli oil. I chose a slightly milder green chilli, but this can be swapped for something punchier and more traditional. The recipe makes a pretty decent amount too, that apparently lasts for six months. But not in my house, as since making it, it’s been added to almost everything. The acid from the vinegar, the heat from the chillies and the salt to ferment them is a simple combination that creates perfect chemistry. It’s ready just in time for the weekend and after a cold, brisk walk in the local park with our very energetic puppy, I make the Shakshuka. The green part comes from a buttery leek, chard, spring onions, fresh herbs and of course the green shatta. It does take a while to make but the best things are worth the wait. I served this with a sprinkle of za’atar and some fresh bread to scoop up all the yolky juicy goodness. It’s fair to say we skipped lunch that day.

Not breakfast related but if you already have this book or are planning to buy it, I can highly recommend the Lamb Bolognese with Okra, especially as the helpful cooking notes explain how to prevent the okra going ‘slimy’ and it works a treat. It was so delicious, I regretted not doubling up the recipe. The Pistachio Harissa was also a winner, a fragrant, nutty tray bake made with semolina (so think a dense texture), steeped in a rose hinted sugar syrup - perfect with a cup of tea or coffee. Falastin is a wonderful book, with so many beautiful stories. If this is your first venture into Middle Eastern food, brace yourself for a taste explosion and if you’re already an Ottolenghi fan, then you’re a fan of Sami and Tara’s too.

THE PLOUGH

By Simon Carlo

The Plough sits handsomely at the southern tip of Harborne High Street, where the suburb bleeds into Edgbaston and the road dips and bends before climbing slowly into the city centre some two miles later. It’s a pub synonymous with quality: more upmarket than most and with an ease about the menu and service. It’s an extremely popular venue: on the Saturday morning when we visit it’s filling up nicely despite being open for just thirty minutes. By the time we leave at around noon both the inside and garden area are pretty much full.

We start, as all good breakfasts should, with a pitcher of Bloody Mary, lipstick red and spicy. Three choices of vodka, for which the right one is Chase Smoked. Coffee for the non-morning drinker: dark, rich, and brooding from the stainlesssteel US imported beast which sits behind its own counter. Then onto the menu, which for the three of us means almost everything.

Before we get on to the food, a quick word about the way they do things here. The Plough runs like a highclass hotel. They have two kitchens (pre-pandemic there was a third), and two teams who work pretty much twenty-four hours a day. One goes through the night baking bread and making patisseries for breakfast, which is then picked up by the team who keep the stomachs full throughout the day whilst working the stoves in either kitchen. What is baked and not eaten or sold gets utilised the following day: the

pastries, for example, get refashioned into the French toast. It’s a very slick operation.

That French toast is excellent. The bread part is as rich and flaky as you would imagine from leftover pastries, served topped with fruit compôte, cream cheese spiked with lemon zest and crunchy sweet pumpkin seeds. And there is the superb breakfast brioche roll with fillings of topquality streaky bacon, fried egg, and potato rösti. A sriracha mayo mingles with the warm yolk, with spring onions for that green, toothsome sweet bite. It goes extremely well with a Bloody Mary. It also might be my favourite.

My vegetarian friend worked through fritters of cauliflower, perked-up with a zingy salsa, jalapeños, and that quintessential millennial breakfast item, avocado. Here it is ideally placed to temper those items that surround it and provide a creamy texture against the fritters. Avocado also makes another appearance smashed on toast with a poached egg. North African dukkah provides that nutty, slightly spiced texture. It’s balanced, and, more importantly, knows when to stop adding ingredients to the plate.

Ultimately anywhere with a breakfast menu is going to be judged on its full English, and here is a prime example worthy of the title of Birmingham’s Best. Sausages and bacon from the excellent Roger Brown’s butcher down the road (Roger is butcher to many of Birmingham’s finest restaurants), fried egg, hash brown, mushrooms, grilled tomatoes, toast, and beans. They know and respect the little idiosyncrasies that haunt the dish, so beans are self-contained and on the opposite side of the plate to the egg. The position of the sausage means that you can if you wish provide a barrier between the two, but please know that I will judge you if you do. Everything is cooked with the precision that you would find in the Wolseley, served with the warmth of a team who know that service matters. At £15 it isn’t cheap, but then the best things never are.

With that we consider more Bloody Marys (should that be ‘Bloodier Mary’?) before opting to settle up and leave for the rest of the day. They say that breakfast is the foundation for a good day, the fuel required to start in the correct way. If that is your personal belief, there is nowhere better in Birmingham for that than The Plough.

SPECIALITY COFFEE CULTURE ON THE ISLAND OF LOVE AND HALLOUMI...

By Andreas Christou

Let me begin by making a statement! I am Cypriot (of Greek origin, if that makes any difference) and as most Cypriots, believe that our little island and its food are the best. This includes our olive oil, our honey, our cheese, our pastries, our BBQed food (this one is definitely fact) etc etc... So, knowing this about me, you should understand that I may come across a little biased at times, however, unlike many Cypriots I am also critically realistic!

Visiting my motherland consistently from the age of nappies and dummies, I was just two when I ate my first snail that was collected by my newly made refugee grandfather in lands he wasn’t too familiar with as yet. I remember crying my eyes out every time I had to leave this land of sea, sun and big family. My mother alone is one of nine brothers and sisters! All of whom were small stock farmers, hunters, fishermen and wild food gatherers. I’m lucky to claim that food has been a major part of my upbringing: Cypriots have always had to make best of the little they had/have.

I have witnessed first-hand how the island has gone from being a war-torn place with bleak future to a land that still has that war-

torn undertone but whose people are now living a lavish lifestyle. It is great to see Cyprus continue to be a melting pot of culture, ranging from a variety of spices from deepest Africa to recipes from the vast lands of the Italian countryside. Cyprus has and will always be the jewel of the Mediterranean where east meets west.

Now I need to be clear: Cyprus has and has always had a massive coffee culture, the Turkish influence on the island made sure of this. Our Cypriot coffee is in fact Turkish coffee (do not shoot the messenger!). Our postcard coffee shops with moustachioed, Vraka-wearing old men sipping coffee, are still a reality in many towns and villages. They’re where you find out what is happening locally and where experienced backgammon players will throw double sixes at will.

However, the island has unfortunately been invaded by the big coffee brands and this has taken away much of the attention of the new generation of coffee drinkers, ordering stacks of coffee via their equivalent of Deliveroo. This leaves little space for independent coffee specialists, but within the little space they have been given, they seem to be putting up a great fight and have started to persuade people that it’s a good idea to drink speciality coffee made by better trained baristas. When the news of speciality coffee shops and roasteries began to hit my Insta feeds I was, to understate it, a little excited, especially when I learned that some of these were situated in my town of Larnaca! I recently visited my little island for the first time after two and a half years, the longest I had ever been away from it, and I was planning which coffee establishments I would visit in my hometown.

What I remembered from my previous visits and what remains true, is that whenever I mentioned to family and friends that I roast coffee, the first thing they would mention was their favourite coffee brand - and 99% of them mentioned a commercial brand, from Caffe Nero, Costa, Coffee Berry and so on! They would quickly follow up with the least favourite of these brands too, so I was visiting places they had not been aware of. Previously I found this a little off putting, however, now that I have a better understanding of the journey people take in their route to speciality coffee, it fills me with more hope. A hope that they will realise that real coffee is even better, and that coffee has many tastes and flavours, similar to the wine they love.

Excitedly, I went on my planned coffee tour, usually with my father or brother in tow. They have been around me long enough and have

shared enough good coffee with me to give an in-depth point of view that is more descriptive and accurate than “it’s too bitter” or “it’s too strong”. These companions also enabled me to order two drinks at a time without it seeming I was a secret shopper! My natural line of questioning, however, soon gave the game away. This actually worked to my advantage, as every “coffee person” I spoke to was very open, very welcoming and asked me as many questions as I had asked them. I love our coffee community, and I have rarely met anyone in our field who doesn’t want to improve, who doesn’t think they have more to learn, or who isn’t looking for the holy grail of coffee. Every place I visited had an exceptional food offering too, bar my favourite coffee spot. I could see that their focus was purely coffee and everything else was there merely to offer an enhanced coffee experience. The tahini pastries I tried were amazing, the traditional Cypriot Boukoma (inspired and added to my own menu) … it was refreshing and good to see these making a comeback, alongside the traditional Cypriot sandwiches, the western brunch items, all fabulous and it made me so happy to see them so popular.

Coffee: I don’t want to be that person who focuses on the negatives because there were so many positives however, without going into too much detail of the specifics of each coffee shop I visited, there is a little lack of high knowledge. Some are already doing things really well, but some still lack the training and experience to really call themselves speciality. I believe this has also to do with the amount of competition in their local area. With more skilled and better trained competition, standards are set higher, and product and service can be compared to those of likeminded businesses.

The constant upkeep of espresso recipes is one area that needs to be improved across the board, to deliver consistently good coffee. The minimal understanding of how to steam milk for different drinks was apparent everywhere bar my favourite spot. The confidence to realise that more doesn’t necessarily mean better is a destination they need to navigate to. The lack of options in the wonderful world of pour over coffee and how important it is to be OCD throughout the entire process is also something I would love to see addressed in the coming years.

The positives and the good news are that they are open to improving, open to new products, to new ideas and I am already arranging to spend more time in Cyprus and offering to do some training with some of the guys I met on my travels. If we can all do

our bit to grow the speciality coffee world through spreading knowledge and our own skill set, then more and more people can enjoy good coffee on this wonderfully welcoming island I call my second home.

I am inspired, happy and still as biased as ever towards my beautiful island. I know these seeds of good speciality coffee will keep growing and I can’t wait to see how this wonderful industry develops year on year.

Yamas x