THE COOKBOOK TEST #0030: MAYDĀN (PART ONE)

INSTALLMENT #0030 (FREE) BETRAYED BY BEAUTY / COMPLIMENTS TO THE CHEF / THE LAMB AND HUMMUS SITUATION

Dear Readers,

I’ve been betrayed by glossy fancy restaurant cookbooks often enough to essentially distrust them as a species. Between hard-to-find ingredients, tedious and nearly infinite subrecipes, poorly scaled-down and barely tested recipes, and dripping condescension, upscale restaurant books may be the least bang for the most buck out there in the culinary-literary world. They are invariably pretty, but that’s a siren-like attempt to dupe the gullible, many of whom won’t even bother to try to cook a single recipe after wading through pages of intimidation and pomp.

So what drew me to MAYDĀN: RECIPES FROM LEBANON AND BEYOND? For one, I’m always a sucker - A SUCKER - for food from the Mediterranean in general and the Lebanon / Turkey / Israel / Syria side of things more specifically. Falafel, shakshoukah, jeweled rice, lamb kofta, shawarma sandwiches - these are soul foods for me, comfort foods, inexplicably homey foods that make me happy. And secondly, I’m tentatively planning a big blow-out meal with a Persian/Middle Eastern theme early next year, so more ammunition on that front is welcome - given a runway of 10 months, I should be able to gather and tweak the five or six killer recipes I need to cater a really memorable meal for my friends and family.

Maydān, which is inspired by a Washington, D.C.-based restaurant of the same name, gives off good vibes. I don’t know what it is about thos book that makes me think it’ll be different than its snooty restaurant book cousins - maybe it’s that the photography seems warmer and more cheerfully welcoming, the recipes seem both recognizable and reasonably ambitious, the sub-recipes seem numerous enough to be serious without being completely overwhelming. I liked the way it looked. I like the way it felt. I trusted it. Was that trust rewarded when I spent a good chunk of a week preparing a ridiculously elaborate lamb-based entree? Read on dear readers, read on.

at your service,

James

MAYDĀN: RECIPES FROM LEBANON AND BEYOND
BY ROSE PREVITE WITH MARAH STETS
ABRAMS | 2023 | $40

I like to think of myself as a pretty competent home cook. That said, the compliments I generally receive tend to be along the lines of “that was delicious!” and “thanks for a lovely meal,” or “I’m stuffed and I couldn’t eat another bite.” One of my recent dinner guests, a well traveled gentleman who is no stranger to good restaurants, ate the lamb and hummus I prepared from Maydān and later proclaimed, “that was one of the best dinners I’ve ever had.”

That’s the sort of good stuff you can take to the emotional bank. The more cooking I do, and the more dinners I make for my family and guests, the less I can taste my own food. It’s hard to explain, but I remember my grandmother making wonderful Easter and Christmas and Thanksgiving meals for us, and helping herself to a plate of food, and eating very little, and I always wondered: what’s the deal with that? The food’s great! 

But eating your own cooking is often like reading your own creative writing - you can see all the decisions and emotional scaffolding behind the facade, and it’s hard to appreciate the beauty of the thing. You can see the process, and the flaws, and various satisfactory incremental improvements, but to really taste the food it helps to have friends and family who are kind - but honest.

If you’re reading this and we’re friends, this isn’t a call for more praise - it’s just a report that your naturally kind words keep me going on this journey. That, and really good recipes like this hummus and lamb situation from Maydān. I dug this book (and am feeling sufficiently motivated) that next week’s column and recipe will be from Maydān as well - there’s just too much here to cover with a single attempt.

HUMMUS BIL LAHME

The hummus with lamb recipe in Maydān is one of those fussy compound restaurant recipes  that I’ve come to know and loathe over the years - it’s like a Russian nesting doll, hiding layers of complexity and additional ingredients. It took me several hours over the course of several days to execute. And it was so thoroughly delicious - the lamb rich, bright, savory and compelling, the hummus light, elegant, and (arguably) perfect - that I will absolutely go through the hassle again when the right event presents itself.

To make this recipe as per the book, you’ll be cooking chickpeas, compounding Syrian seven spice, slow roasting or sous vide-ing lamb shoulder, broiling or grilling lamb shoulder, pulling lamb shoulder (like pulled pork), making harissa (or not - I bought a jar of it and have no regrets), briefly stewing lamb shoulder with orange juice, butter, and harissa, and making hummus. It’s all worth the effort, as the lamb is pretty damn tasty after it’s been roasted and grilled and transcendental when it has been pulled and briefly flavor-infused.

My advice to you if you pursue this (and you should) is to do your chickpeas a few days out, and the lamb roasting / grilling / pulling the day before. Day of is reasonably easy - whip together your hummus (about 30 minutes of prep) and stew your lamb (a few minutes of prep  and 30 minutes on the stovetop), and then present your guests with a feast to remember.

FIRST: CHICKPEAS
Makes about six cups

1 pound (455g) dried chickpeas
3/4 tsp baking soda

Soak chickpeas in a large pot for 24 hours in 1 1/2 quarts of water.

Drain chickpeas, return to pot, add 3 quarts of water and the baking soda. Bring to a boil, partially cover pot, and boil gently until chickpeas are fork tender, almost falling apart. Timing varies - 30-45 minutes should do it.

Let them cool in the cooking liquid, and store in the liquid in the fridge.

SECOND: SYRIAN SEVEN SPICE
Makes about 3/4 cup

1/4 cup ground black pepper
1/4 smoked Spanish paprika
2 Tbsp ground coriander
1 Tbsp ground cloves
2 tsp ground nutmeg
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cardamom

Stir these things together and store them. Voila!

THIRD: LAMB SHOULDER (PART 1)
Bone-in lamb shoulder, 4.5-5.5 pounds (or 3-4 pounds boneless)
1/2 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup Syrian Seven Spice

Rub the lamb shoulder with the salt and sugar, and refrigerate for 30 minutes to 3 hours.

Rinse shoulder under cold water, pat dry, rub it all over with the Syrian Seven Spice.

Sous vide at 200 F for 18 hours or roast for 5-6 hours (until very fork tender) at 275 F in a baking dish covered tightly with foil.

Remove shoulder from oven; cool. Grill or broil your roast until outside is crisped and seared. Pull with two forks (as you would with pulled pork) and refrigerate.

FOURTH: LAMB SHOULDER (PART 2)

This step takes place on the day of service, just before you want the feast to hit the table.

Place 4 cups of pulled lamb meat in large saucepan and add 1/2 stick (115g) butter, 1/2 cup of harissa, 1 cup of fresh orange juice, 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice, and 1 Tbsp of salt.

FIFTH: HUMMUS BIL LAHME
Serves 10-14

1 cup fresh lemon juice (from about 6 lemons)
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
6 cloves garlic
4 cups cooked, drained chickpeas
1 cup tahini (preferably pourable/light)
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt or to taste
1/4 cup reserved cooking liquid from chickpeas
Ground sumac to garnish

In blender to combine: lemon juice, olive oil, and garlic. Add chickpeas and blend until quite smooth. Add tahini and process until well combined. Season with salt and combine. Add up to 1/4 cup of cooking liquid to lighten texture.

Spread hummus on platter or large bowl, sprinkle with sumac, and top with the lamb.

THE VERDICT ON MAYDĀN
(***BUY IT*** / BORROW IT / SKIP IT / SCRAP IT)

Oh, Maydān. It’s too early to tell if this will merely be one of my favorite cookbooks, or it will ascend to the top five and live in perpetual rotation in my kitchen, as I absorb recipe after recipe out of its pages into our in-house culinary tome. This book is serious, thoughtfully written, warm, rewarding, and the well-spring of some absurdly tasty food. If you’ve ever wanted to dabble or leap headlong into Middle Eastern fare, this is a great way to kickstart your journey, as it contains everything from spice blends to side salads to ambitious mains to classic desserts, lavishly photographed and carefully written.