Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street Television

- All right, this looks fantastic.

It could be great for a brunch.

We've got creamy hummus mixed with crunchy pita and these buttery almonds on top.

- No one can tell you you're not getting your veggies in with this green shakshuka.

The richness of the egg and the feta, along with the freshness of all the greens that are in there, can't beat it.

- (chuckling): That's really good.

As I said, I really like the char, especially with the onions, which is nice.

Cause you get a little bit more spice, it's juicier.

And as I said, this is weeknight friendly.

You can do this in about 45 minutes, any night of the week.

- You know, the Middle East is a very complex culinary landscape, given the huge number of cultural influences over the centuries.

But there are a few dishes that really have become classics, including hummus fatteh, which is hummus served with crisp pieces of pita.

A chicken shawarma, of course, and in this case, grilled or broiled chicken served with a yogurt tahini sauce.

And finally, a green shakshuka with leeks, spinach and peas.

Please stay tuned.

- (speaking Arabic): (processor whirring) - In Amman, Jordan, we tried probably more than our fair share of hummus fatteh, which is kind of like your favorite hummus on steroids.

It's the same creamy hummus that you know and love, but with whole chickpeas and toasty pieces of bread folded in.

It's all topped with these buttery toasted almonds.

It's a great contrast of textures and flavors.

And in Jordan, they serve this for breakfast or brunch, which is great because it's vegetarian.

So, all the protein that you need from a vegetarian meal, and it's really quick and easy to put together.

So, we're going to start by making an herb and chili mixture that's going to go in the hummus itself and then, serve as a garnish at the end.

So, the first thing we're going to put in is some lemon zest.

And some lemon juice.

Some chopped parsley.

Little bit of grated garlic.

And this is two or three, depending on how spicy you'd like it, jalapeos that we've minced.

And we'll just simply mix this all together.

Now I'm just going to set that aside.

We'll use it in the hummus in a little bit.

In the meantime, we'll talk about the bread.

So in Jordan, sometimes they use kind of a big sub roll, but we really like the texture of what is traditional, which is flatbread.

It's going to absorb a little bit of that hummus, so you want it to stay kind of crispy, and these pita breads really hold their texture.

So, we're going to toast them.

I've cut two pita into pieces, so I've kind of cut them through the middle, and I'm going to brush them with a little bit of olive oil.

You kind of want to do your best to make sure these don't overlap on the tray so that they get really nice and toasted.

And then, I'll sprinkle them with a little bit of cumin.

So, these are going to add a lot of really nice texture to our hummus fatteh, but also, a lot of flavor because we're adding these really nice spices to it.

I'm adding also some sumac.

Sumac is a red berry that gets ground up, has sort of a tart, almost floral flavor, kind of like citrus.

All right, so I'll flip these over and just kind of repeat what I just did on the other side.

Okay, so I'm going to toast these in a 400-degree oven for eight to nine minutes.

You want to flip them over, halfway through.

The key here is to get them really nice and golden brown.

As long as you're not burning them, you can't get them too toasted, because we want them to be very crisp before we fold them into the hummus.

So in Jordan, they would probably already have a hummus made and ready to go to just fold in some chickpeas and some bread.

But we're going to make a really quick and easy homemade hummus using canned chickpeas.

So I have two cans of chickpeas for this recipe.

You want to make sure when you're draining your chickpeas, to reserve a half a cup of that chickpea liquid, because we're going to use that to make our hummus.

So to start, I'm going to put in just two cups of chickpeas... ...which is only part of that two cans.

And then, some tahini.

A little bit of lemon juice.

And a half a teaspoon of salt.

And we're going to go ahead and process this just for 30 seconds, just until this is almost smooth.

Okay, this looks just about smooth.

So we're going to add the rest of the ingredients.

I have a little bit more tahini.

That chickpea liquid, that hopefully you have reserved.

And then half of that parsley-chili mixture we made earlier.

All right, and we'll let this process for a couple of minutes, two to three minutes probably, until it's really smooth.

So, if you're looking at this, you're probably thinking to yourself, "Lynn, you really messed this one up."

But actually, we want it to be this sort of loose texture.

It's definitely a lot looser than what you're going to find in your kind of supermarket container of hummus.

And that's because we're going to fold in that bread and that bread is going to absorb a lot of the moisture from this.

So we want it to be nice and thin so that it doesn't turn to paste when we mix in those pieces of bread.

So the last part of this recipe, and probably my favorite, are these wonderful toasted buttery almonds that go over the top.

They're crunchy and buttery, but actually, we're not going to use butter.

We had this all over Jordan, and one of the home cooks we tried it with, actually used ghee.

Ghee is clarified butter with all of the milk solids taken out, and somehow it's managed to taste even more like butter than butter.

It also has a really nice nuttiness.

So I'm going to add the ghee to this pan on the stovetop, and we'll let that melt, and then we'll toast our nuts.

If you can't find ghee, which you can find usually in the refrigerated section of the supermarket, you can use extra-virgin olive oil.

But I would not recommend using regular butter because it will probably burn, and then you'll get that kind of bitterness, which will not be good here.

All right, so we're using slivered almonds here, rather than, say, sliced or just chopped almonds.

They have a ton of texture, but a lot less work than chopping your own almonds.

So you want to get these really nice and golden brown.

That's going to add a lot of nutty flavor, but it's also going to make them really nice and crisp.

If you're working on an electric cooktop, like a coil style cooktop or a glass electric cooktop, a tip I have for you when you're toasting nuts on the stovetop is to use the heat of the pan to help regulate the temperature.

Electric cooktops are hard to cook on because they don't have great control of the temperature.

So if you take the pan off the heat and use the residual heat of the pan, that'll help toast those nuts, and you have a lot more control.

All right, I can tell these are pretty much done because I can smell them, and they smell fantastic.

So, I'm just going to take it off the heat and add a little bit of cumin.

All right, we'll set that aside while we finish the rest of the hummus.

So I have the hummus that I made earlier, and I'm going to add in the whole chickpeas.

And then, we'll break up our pita bread that we toasted.

And if I did it right, you'll hear me?

(cracks) Yeah, crack that up.

You want just little bite-sized pieces of pita in here.

All right, now I'm just going to mix this all together.

All right, I'm going to give this a little taste.

Mmm.

Crunchy and creamy, but it just needs a little bit of salt and pepper.

That is so good.

I can't believe how crunchy that pita bread is.

All right, that's all set.

We'll come back and finish this up.

All right, so for our final flourishes, we're going to add those toasted nuts and the ghee that we melted all over the top of this.

That's going to make this really nice and crunchy, but also buttery and rich.

And then, the rest of that parsley-chili mixture.

This smells really, really good.

And then last, a little sprinkle of some more sumac.

All right, this looks fantastic, it'd be great for a brunch.

This is hummus fatteh from Aman Jordan.

We've got creamy hummus mixed with crunchy pita and these buttery almonds on top.

Make this tomorrow instead of making your pancakes or bacon and eggs.

- Classic shakshuka is a skillet dish of eggs poached in a spicy tomato-based sauce.

But in Israel, there's actually a green version that's made with leafy vegetables, and it's just as popular.

Our green shakshuka is inspired by Limor Chen's version over at Delamina East in London, and it involves leeks, spinach, and peas.

And it also gets a finishing touch of feta cheese.

It's the best thing to mop up with a nice warm flatbread.

So to make it, we need to work with a lot of spinach.

Here I have actually about a pound of baby spinach.

If you've ever been guilty of buying baby greens at the grocery store, only to throw them away a week later, completely untouched, this recipe is for you.

Now, I said there's a lot of greens in this bowl, because there are, but we have a nice little trick up our sleeve to reduce the volume and help all this spinach wilt faster in our skillet, and that involves just a little bit of salt.

And now, with the salt in the bowl, using your hands you want to go ahead and start massaging, very similar to how you would do with kale, but you want to be a little gentler.

If you go too hard, it's going to start expelling liquid far before it hits the pan, and that's not what we're looking for.

We only want this to wilt down just a little bit.

So what I'm doing is I'm crunching down with my fingers and I'm actually turning the spinach.

So that way, all the spinach kind of rotates in the bowl, and everything is getting just a little bit crushed.

You should start to feel some moisture expel from the leaves, but again, you don't want to go too crazy and you don't want this to become soup.

So as you can see, simply by crushing up the spinach just a little bit, the volume has already shrunken down.

We're going to go ahead and set that aside.

And now we could take a look at our other green ingredient: the leeks.

Now these leeks have been cut down straight down the middle lengthwise, and then they were held right underneath the kitchen faucet to allow all the water to flow out towards the top.

That way, it pushes any of the sand that might have snuck into the crevices out into the sink and out of your food.

With your halves, you just want to go ahead and slice them thinly.

You don't have to be precious about not cutting through any of the pieces you've already cut, because it's all going to cook down in the pan anyway.

With our leeks all nicely sliced, let's go ahead and get our nonstick 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat with a little bit of olive oil in it, and we'll heat that oil until it's shimmering.

And now we could go ahead and add in those leeks we sliced up.

As well as some onion that's been chopped up.

And we'll cook this down until the onions and leeks start to soften, but not brown; and that takes about seven to nine minutes.

We don't want to brown these because we don't want to develop any extra sweetness in this dish, because otherwise, that'll throw the flavor off.

So now that everything's nice and softened, we could go in with our garlic.

We only want to cook this until it's aromatic, and that takes about 30 seconds.

So now that I could smell all of that garlic, we could finally work with all this spinach that we wilted down.

So the beauty of reducing the volume with all that salt earlier means all of this spinach can go all into the pan in one fell swoop.

So now, using your tongs, go ahead and kind of give all that spinach a turn, so that way it comes in contact with the hot pan and begins to wilt down.

We're going to cook this whole mixture down for about two to three minutes, or until all of that spinach is completely wilted.

As you can see, all that spinach wilted right on down, which means we have room to add in more of our ingredients.

So, we're adding in a little bit more green in the form of frozen peas that have been thawed, along with some cumin, some Aleppo pepper.

And if you can't find Aleppo pepper, Marash pepper is a perfectly fine substitute.

And we're also going to throw in some feta cheese.

Now this is two-thirds of the feta that we have in this recipe because the rest goes on top at the end.

And finally, to help everything move along, we're adding in a quarter-cup of water.

So we're going to stir this mixture through so all the spices can start to bloom.

Also, to start melting down the feta and impart that nice briny salinity.

The aromas coming off of here are so fresh, but that nice, earthy, smoky cumin is definitely coming through.

So, now that everything's stirred through, this is the perfect opportunity to taste.

Now I'm saying do this now, because once you crack eggs into this situation, you can't reseason or anything; so, do it now.

Mmm.

A little bit of pepper wouldn't hurt, and I don't think I need to add much more salt because that feta is plenty salty.

All right, so all of that feta has begun to melt.

So now we could work with our eggs.

The first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to use my tongs.

You could use a spoon, you could use a spatula to make little wells, that are about two inches wide in the spinach.

You just want to make these little crevices for all of that loose egg to sit in, so that way it cooks up nice and evenly.

So now, we could go ahead and crack these eggs on in.

Okay, so with all of that egg set in its wells, we want to go ahead and sprinkle them with a little bit of salt and pepper.

(slapping hands) Now that all the eggs are seasoned, we're going to go ahead and pop a lid on it, and let it cook over medium-low heat until all of those eggs are fully cooked and the yolk is set, but still a little bit runny.

And that takes about five to eight minutes.

Take a look at this.

All of the eggs are perfectly cooked through.

The yolks are still a little bit runny.

And I do want to add in that final touch of extra feta cheese right on top.

I want all of them, but I'll pick this one.

Oh, yeah.

Look at that.

This green shakshuka looks super tasty.

It's green in color, it's green in flavor, and it's the perfect thing to serve along with some nice warm, crusty flatbread.

No one can tell you you're not getting your veggies in in with this green shakshuka.

Oh yeah.

Look how tasty that is.

Mmm.

Oh, man.

The richness of the egg and the feta, along with the freshness of all the greens that are in there, can't beat it.

- You know, here at Milk Street, we travel the world, and once in a while, we come across a recipe we love; chicken shawarma, for example.

But translating it back here is not easy because we don't have a vertical spit.

We do love the flavors in shawarma, however, which we can absolutely do here.

We just have to find a way to cook the meat.

And it turns out a broiler actually does a pretty good job of that.

So, this is chicken shawarma (chuckling): in a broiler, not on a spit.

So we're going to start with the flavors, the spices.

And we have cumin and coriander; a tablespoon each.

Some hot paprika.

You could use sweet, but substitute about a third of it with red pepper flakes.

And cinnamon, which is a spice that's used all over the world in savory dishes as well.

Some pepper... ...and some salt.

And we're just going to mix that up.

So that's our spice mix.

One really good trick when you're cooking, if you're going to serve something with a sauce, take some of it out at the beginning, which I'm going to do here; a teaspoon.

And we're going to put that in this bowl, and this will be used for the dressing a little bit later.

To the spice mix, we're going to add olive oil, of course, some lemon juice; just a tablespoon.

And some tahini... which is common.

And now we're going to add the chicken and the onions.

Let it sit for 20 minutes or so while you're preheating or heating the broiler.

Now, this is not really a marinade.

A marinade is supposed to get into the meat.

This will coat it and give you some nice char and some flavor in the broiler.

So we'll just let that sit.

Let me toss a little bit more while we work on the sauce.

Okay, so now we have a teaspoon of that reserve spice mix, and we have yogurt, of course.

You know, until I was about 20, I only ate yogurt that had fruit in it.

(chuckling): So that was the American style back in the '60s.

Mint, which is used frequently throughout the Middle East.

Some olive oil, some lemon juice, some tahini.

And when you buy tahini, it's nice to get the tahini that's not a paste; it's not super thick and super dark.

Should be a little bit light-colored and should be loose.

And just do a little bit of lemon zest.

It turns out when you're zesting lemon or whatever, don't do it on the counter, because all the essential oils that come out of the zest as you're zesting will end up on the counter.

So you're going to lose about half your flavor that way.

Okay, that's good.

So we mix that up.

So we have the sauce done.

We have the chicken and onions sitting.

Now we're going to heat the broiler.

It's really a good idea to heat a broiler at least 20 minutes.

My broiler at home takes a long time to heat up, and it's not going to give you even heating because we're going to have a nice tray in there.

So I give it at least 20 minutes to make sure it's hot enough and make sure that it's going to be evenly heated throughout that tray.

So we're back in 20 minutes when the broiler is heated and we'll cook the chicken.

The broiler is ready.

All we have to do is put this on a baking sheet.

I use foil on mine if you're worried about the food really sticking and making a mess.

And these half baking trays, by the way, you can buy them pretty cheaply.

I bought like six or seven of them.

You don't have to spend the big bucks on them, but they're really handy, so I would always keep a few of these around.

So now, this is going to go in the oven, about 18 minutes.

A few things, you want to turn it around halfway through.

But with a broiler, you want to check frequently (chuckles) because you never know how hot it is.

Things can burn quickly, so keep your eye on it, don't just sit around for 18 minutes and come back.

You want to check it every couple of minutes.

And the usual rule is six inches from the broiler.

That's really important.

If it's eight or ten inches it's going to take forever to cook.

So we'll be back when it's done, in about 18 minutes.

So let's check the chicken.

Yeah, that looks great.

One really nice thing about using the broiler is you get some char to it, especially with the onions, which you probably wouldn't get with a regular shawarma.

So, in some ways, the broiler is better.

Mint, again.

I just want to stir that up so you get the sauce, get the mint in nicely.

Now to build a pita.

And sauce, of course.

Mmm.

Cucumber.

A slice of tomato.

I'm going to skip the lettuce.

So, there we are, chicken shawarma in a broiler.

This is a really fast recipe.

This is definitely weeknight-friendly, so let me take a taste.

Mmm.

(chuckling): That's really good.

As I said, I really like the char, especially with the onions, which is nice.

And all the spices we used, a little tahini and other things, really make a nice sauce as well.

So it turns out we can do chicken shawarma at home.

We just have to use the broiler.

And as I said, this is weeknight-friendly.

You can do this in about 45 minutes any night of the week.

So, if you want this recipe, and all of the recipes from this season of Milk Street, just go to at MilkStreetTV.com.

Recipes and episodes from this season of Milk Street are available at MilkStreetTV.com, along with shopping lists, printer-ready recipes, and step-by-step videos.

Access our content anytime to change the way you cook.

- The new Milk Street Cookbook is now available and includes every recipe from our TV show.

From pad Thai with shrimp and no-fry eggplant parmesan to Korean fried chicken and salty honey browned butter bars, the Milk Street Cookbook offers bolder, fresher, easier recipes.

Order your copy of the Milk Street Cookbook for $27, 40% less than the cover price.

Call 855-MILK-177 or order online.