Harira or حريرة is a rich soup full of tender lamb, chickpeas, vegetables and noodles, the perfect iftar meal to break a Ramadan fast or a delicious meal anytime of the year.
The couple of times I've returned to
Singapore, there was always an agenda and no shopping or class-taking
time. Imagine my delight when I was
invited to go again, all expenses paid – yay, even an executive club room in
the hotel, which means open bar and canapés at happy hour! – with my days off
and no agenda.
I immediately got online
to sign up for a class. I really didn’t
care what they were teaching; I just wanted to be in the AFC kitchen. The class available on my Saturday there was
called Exotic Favorites and we learned to make baklava, a lamb and tomato soup
named harira, and the roasted eggplant dip baba ganoush, as part of a
traditional mezze.
Now, a confession: I
lost my notes. All I have left are a
bunch of photographs, my memories and this pen.
 |
| Pretty cool, huh? |
So I am recreating this harira rather slap-dashly and with
the help of a few different online recipes.
I don’t see how it can turn out badly, since all of the ingredients are
fresh and tasty but it will not be the same as the one we made at AFC. For one thing, since we didn’t have two hours
for the soup to simmer, the chef had made stock from the lamb and started with
that instead of putting it all in together to simmer, as below. But, hey, all alone here, just me and the hound, I
have all the time in the world for simmering.
Ingredients
Olive oil
400g or 14oz lamb
1/2 kilo or 1lb fresh tomatoes
2 medium onions
3 stalks celery – well-washed
1 big bunch cilantro or coriander leaves
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
Good pinch of saffron
Sea salt
Black pepper
Cayenne
60g or about 3 oz tomato paste
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
30g or about 3 oz fine pasta, broken into short lengths
1 lemon, cut into wedges for squeezing at will (at serving
time)
Method
Cube your lamb and brown it in a little olive oil. Season with black pepper, sea salt and
cayenne.
Add two liters or a little more than two quarts of water to
the pot. Bring to the boil.
Meanwhile, chop the celery, tomatoes, onions and the stems
of the cilantro and add them to the pot. Chop up the cilantro leaves and save them
for later.
Add in the cinnamon, ginger, saffron and tomato paste. Simmer, covered, for two hours. Or more.
About 10 minutes before serving, add in the chickpeas, dried
pasta and chopped cilantro leaves. Check
the seasonings and add more salt and cayenne as needed. Cook till pasta is al dente.
According to our AFC chef (I believe his name was Khalil)
harira is a traditional iftar
soup, originally from Morocco, which means it is commonly eaten during the
Islamic fasting month of Ramadan as part of the sunset meal. He said sometimes lentils are added as well,
for more substance.
In a side note, I love Google
Translate. When I looked up harira,
it gave me that lovely word you see in the title. (Arabic is so beautiful. If only I could read it.) When I turned it around and asked what that
word meant, the translation was “calorie.” Now I have one thing I can recognize on a nutrition label, should such a
thing exist, when we move to Egypt.
For a vegetarian version, forget the lamb and start from where you add water to the pot. Add vegetable stock (homemade or from a couple of cubes and water) and go from there. You might want to add the lentils for extra protein.
For a vegetarian version, forget the lamb and start from where you add water to the pot. Add vegetable stock (homemade or from a couple of cubes and water) and go from there. You might want to add the lentils for extra protein.
Here are a few photos of the AFC kitchen and store. It seems that since then, the Asian Food Channel was bought out by an American company so the test kitchen is no longer open, more's the pit.
* I paid for my own class and received no compensation for writing this post.
