Fattet zait al shamiyeh
We all have memories associated one way or another with food, whether of family meals, picnics, festive seasonal meals, camping or merely the special weekend breakfast.
Friday was always a big breakfast day for us growing up. Well, it was more of a brunch day to be more specific, and it forever took place just before noon. My father was and still is our breakfast specialist. To him, and most Damascenes really, Friday breakfasts means a big table spread of many staple Damascene breakfast delights and a star dish or two. Some of my favourites stars that taste the best when made by him are layered falafel salad, foul(cooked dried fava beans), chickpea fatteh bil zait or chickpea fatteh bil badweh (prepared with msabaha, commonly known as HUMMUS.
Fatteh is a style of food with a specific preparation technique that involves stale or fried Arabic bread (pita) and endless options of sauces and toppings.
What does fatteh mean? It is basically pieces of bread that soak up a sauce. In the olden days' stale bread was used as the food was scarce and there was no room for waste, it is recycled, nowadays fried bread is more common in many preparations. Fatteh has many variations using specific preparation techniques. The Egyptian fatteh is very different in style from the Levantine fatteh, though the execution is following almost the same process. The various variations of Levantine fatteh, on the other hand, bear the same names across the region, however, differ slightly with the add-ons. For example, a Homsi chicken fatteh has an add-on of cooked white rice as opposed to the Damascene one. The traditional fattes are chickpea fatteh (a stable Friday breakfast), chicken fatteh, aubergine fatteh, offal fatteh, trotter fatteh, meat fatteh and many more. You can always play around with fatteh as the variations are endless if you follow the technique. For example, one of my variations which is a spin of fattet makdouse is the rolled kufta aubergine fatteh and my simple Aubergine and lamb fatteh.
All fattes are consumed piping hot.
Servings: 4
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Servings: 4
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
3 tins of cooked chickpeas
1/2 cup old olive oil with acidity above 2%
1 cup hot water
1 ¼ cup chickpea water
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 loaves of Arabic bread
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tablespoon cumin powder
1 1/2 teaspoon Himalayan salt
Method:
• Pour the chickpeas, and it’s brine into a pot and bring to boil.
• Cut or tear by hand the bread and mix in 1 teaspoon of the salt, the minced garlic and one teaspoon of the cumin powder.
• In a blender put hot water, chickpea brine, olive oil, baking soda and the remainder of the salt and blend till you have a milky colour. See notes below.
• Soak the bread with ½ cup of chickpea brine and 1/3 of the chickpeas and toss.
• Top with the emulsified sauce, finish with the remainder of the chickpeas and sprinkle the rest of the cumin powder.
Notes:
• Using tinned chickpeas is faster, but you can cook your own by soaking the dried chickpeas overnight in plenty of water and then boil them with a ¼ teaspoon of baking soda which preserves the bright colour of the chickpeas.
• The olive oil must be old with 2% acidity plus and not extra virgin.
• If the oil floats on the surface, this is an indication that the acidity in the oil is low and the emulsification can not take place.
• Make sure when making the sauce that the saltiness is perfect to your palate.
Per Serving : 516 Calories; 29g Fat (50.6% calories from fat); 11g Protein; 53g Carbohydrate; 8g Dietary Fiber; 0mg Cholesterol; 1539mg Sodium.