Syria: It’s a party to Damascus!
Hello Kryddhyllan friends, and welcome back! It’s been awhile. How is everyone doing? Since our last post, the world has changed quite a bit – never, for example, did we imagine that we’d be writing this in the midst of a global pandemic that continues to shake entire societies to the core. It’s a time of uncertainty. But (to quote the hundreds of commercials circulating right now) “in these unprecedented times”, we’ve found ourselves getting used to the slower pace of life at home, and have, like so many others found comfort in the kitchen – whether it’s through revisiting cherished recipes, learning new ones, or spending time feeding sourdough starter (thanks to a universal bread baking frenzy and the subsequent yeast shortage).
Maybe it’s just because our food-blog brains are hard-wired to think of everything in relation to the next meal, but it truly seems as though the act of cooking and sharing a meal is now, more than ever, one of the best ways to show love for one another, even meals are shared while physically apart.
That being said, there’s no better time than the present to keep honing your culinary skills and maybe impress your loved ones (even if it’s just through a group video dinner) than by whipping up a new, delicious meal! And even if the memes have proven that things like time don’t exist right now, it is in fact, the weekend – and that calls for celebration in the form of a new Kryddhyllan guest (woop woop)!
This week’s guest hails from “the Pearl of the East”, a very prominent city which according to scholars, is one of the oldest most continually inhabited ancient cities in the world (it was after all, founded in the 3rd millennium B.C.)! Have you guessed it? Fine, one more hint: the name of the city was imported from Greek and translates to: “a well-watered place” in English and Latin. Ok, we’ll stop teasing; we’re talking about Damascus, also known as the capital city of Syria! Known for its cool, desert climate, has long been an important cultural and commercial hub, thanks to its geographic location, which forms an intersection between the orient and the occident, between Africa and Asia. As a result, Syrian cuisine is a mashup of the many cultures of civilizations that settled in Syria at one point or another since its first inhabitants. As one of Earth’s oldest civilizations, Syria has been influenced by Persians, Greeks, Romans, Umayyads, Ottomans, as well as the French – as well as by trade with its neighboring countries. This, together with the fact that its location offers fertile lands and favorable weather, means that the country has been able to enjoy locally produced, seasonal produce – including eggplant, green beans, cauliflower, and zucchini (yes please)! While Syrian cuisine differs among regions (like most countries), there are a few staples in the Syrian kitchen, including: olives, za’atar (a delicious spice made with thyme, marjoram, sumac, and sesame seeds), and olive oil.
One of the staple dishes is a fresh salad that’s perfect for summer celebrations, and features radishes, tomato, cucumber, and fried flatbread. It’s also one of the delicious dishes we made together with our guest Hussam. A native of Damascus, he had worked and travelled all over the world before the promise of work-life balance piqued his curiosity and brought him to Stockholm. We sat down with him to learn more about his travels, the fishiness of Swedish cuisine, and his absolutely unique favorite spice for seasoning his food. Read on to learn more and to find out how to make this Syrian feast that had us wishing we hadn’t worn such constricting jeans (because we took seconds and thirds of EVERYTHING). Enjoy!
Drink with: Arak mixed with water (wine and beer is also ok)
Listen to: the tantalising voice of George Wassouf
Addas shorba (Syrian red lentil soup)
Serves 6 people
Ingredients:
1 red onion
About 3 cups of red lentils
50g butter
2-3 tbsp salt
1 tbsp cumin
1 tbsp paprika powder
1 tbsp allspice
Cooking oil
Water
1 lemon
Instructions:
Finely chop the red onion
In a large pot, put in the butter and let melt on medium heat
Add in the onion and stir until the butter starts to brown. Add a dash of cooking oil while the butter is cooking
Once the onion is translucent add in the lentils and stir (you can also add rice if you like, but we did a pure lentil soup)
Cook the lentils for about 5 minutes while stirring
Pour in the water (rule is that it’s supposed to be about 4 times the amount of lentils)
Add about 2-3 tbsp of salt. Increase the heat to high and keep stirring until the soup starts to simmer, then lower the heat and put on a lid. Let simmer like this for about 15 min
After the soup has simmered add in the spices (cumin, paprika and allspice) and blend everything together. Let the soup sit on medium heat for another 20 min, and stir now and then
Cut the lemon into slices and add 2 into the soup (depending on your taste for lemons, you could add more)
Use the rest of the lemons for serving the soup, it’s really delicious to add in!
Fatoush (Syrian style salad)
Serves 4-6 people
Ingredients:
1 cucumber
2-3 large tomatoes
A few handfuls of mache salad
One small piece of romaine lettuce
3 bell peppers (any colour)
1 spring onion
¼ red onion
5-6 radishes
A few tbsp of sliced black olives
1 piece of pita bread
Cooking oil (for deep-frying the bread)
Fresh cilantro
Dressing:
2-3 tbsp white wine vinegar
2-3 tbsp of pomegranate syrup (if you don’t have that crema de balsamico also works)
3-4 tbsp of olive oil
A dash of dried mint
A dash of sumak (dried spice you can get at most supermarkets)
Instructions:
Chop all the vegetables into small pieces (about 0,5-1 cm) and mix in a large bowl
Cut the pita bread into small squares (2x2 cm) and heat the cooking oil in a pot on high heat
Fry the pita bread pieces in the oil and take out when a bit browned and crispy. Put the bread aside on a plate with some kitchen towels, to absorb the excessive oil
Mix all the ingredients for the dressing together and spread over the vegetables, mix well
Add the fried bread into the salad, and garnish with some fresh cilantro
Kibbeh (Bulgur and meat based dumplings)
We have a confession to make…For this recipe we cheated a bit and bought ready-made kibbeh. However, these were home-made and the real deal, exquisitely crafted with minced beef and nuts.
You deep-fry the kibbeh in a neutral cooking oil until a gold brown and crispy surface. Once fried set the kibbehs aside on a plate with kitchen towels to absorb the excessive oil.
You are ready to enjoy your Syrian feast!
Interview Time!
Kryddhyllan: Okay, the first question is… what is your favorite food from home and why?
Hussam: Kibbeh and yalanji. Why, I dunno why, but I guess just because it has ties to my childhood maybe. But yeah, they’re also very delicious, and they take a lot of work *laughs.
Kryddhyllan: The best kind of food!
Hussam: Yeah, it’s really nice.
Kryddhyllan: So what was the second one?
Hussam: Yalanji. I think it’s similar to those stuffed vine leaves…
Kryddhyllan: Dolmar!
Hussam: Exactly, and you fill it with rice and other stuff. You can make it as a meza, like an appetizer. It’s so good. Sometimes you end up just eating all of them and then not the main course.
Kryddhyllan: Been there. *pauses and pours more wine. So next question! What brought you to Sweden?
Hussam: That’s a very good question. I have no idea!
Kryddhyllan: You’re just like “I woke up one day and I was here….”
Hussam: Haha, exactly. No at that time I was in Nigeria, and the president disappeared, and things became a little bit chaotic in 2015-ish, around March. And the situation became so chaotic that we (all of the foreigners and their families) were advised to leave for a while. They pretty much said, “things are under control, but it’s better if you leave”. And then I figured ‘well I wasn’t involved in the Syrian war because I don’t like this whole war thing in general, and I have no connection to Nigeria, so why would I go from one war in one country to just end up in another war in another country?’ I figured this wasn’t really sustainable, I needed to find a place to call home and just, at least gain new experience. I was initially planning on going to London, I wasn’t at all planning on coming to Sweden. But we had a neighbor named Anna-Karin when I was in Dubai, she lived beside us for more than fifteen years, so she knows me from when I was very young – she’s kind of like a second mom, and a close family friend. She was the one who said “why don’t you come to Sweden, you’ll like it, people are very friendly and speak English very well, it’s gonna be fine, give it a few months before you move to London”. So I figured I would give it a chance, and then things started to just work out, I haven’t really thought about “why Sweden” since then, to be honest.
Kryddhyllan: So you haven’t really questioned it much?
Hussam: When my girlfriend and I were talking about her moving to Sweden, I kind of thought about it, because obviously she would be leaving her job and stuff like that, so I thought if I’m not planning on staying in Sweden, then what would be the point of her coming here if we’d go elsewhere? But then I also thought about the fact that I’ve been here for five years, and I’d travelled a lot before coming here, but had only ever stayed in a country for 2-3 years. Now that I’ve passed the four, five-year threshold, and I figure that I’m kind of settling down here. I figure, I’m not annoyed, I don’t have a bad situation, it’s actually very good, or any reason to feel uncomfortable here. My career is good, I have good friends, I have a good life – so what would be the point of just moving to a new country? So, I figured that we’ll stay here until we decide that we want something else, and then we’ll just move.
Kryddhyllan: Sounds like a pretty solid plan! And since moving to Sweden, have you come across any favorite new dishes?
Hussam: It’s going to sound pretty cliché to talk about meatballs, but I do love them. But I also really like this fish dish… what’s it called?
Kryddhyllan: Salmon? Sill?
Hussam: Sill! Yeah. I mean I tried it once and it was actually cool, so when I see it on the menu I usually order it because I like it a lot.
Kryddhyllan: Wow, you’re like the first person we’ve interviewed to say that about sill. Cool! Did you know anything about Swedish food before coming here?
Hussam: Nope. Not a thing.
Kryddhyllan: Not even IKEA?
Hussam: No *laughs. I know IKEA but I didn’t know about their food.
Kryddhyllan: They have to work on their marketing some more! What would you say is the best and worst thing about Swedish food?
Hussam: I guess the best thing is that it’s simple. I think you can easily, it’s limited in variety, at least the things I’ve been exposed to, but that makes it better because you can easily get your favorite things and just roll with it. It’s easy to choose basically. The worst thing is that there’s too much fish, there’s a lot of fish dishes. I mean I like fish, but I don’t feel like everything needs to be around fish – at least the things I was exposed to were mainly around fish. I like the sea and all that, but there’s a lot of fish variety. That’s what I’ve noticed at least, maybe I’m wrong.
Kryddhyllan: Nah, there is indeed a lot of fish! But if you had to pick one food to eat for the rest of your life, what would it be and why? Can be from anywhere, or it could be a type of food. Like ham sandwiches or hamburgers. Maybe not sandwiches, that’s too broad.
Hussam: I already know that I would go for pizza, but specifically napolitana pizza.
Kryddhyllan: Oooh, good choice! Such a gourmet choice, very nice. And the same thing goes for spices, if you had to pick one spice or herb or mineral to flavor your food with, what would it be? What’s your spice of life?
Hussam: Hmm…. (long pause). I guess, pomegranate syrup.
Kryddhyllan: Ooooh, cool! We have to try some. So you haven’t had any since moving to Sweden?
Hussam: I mean I haven’t actively searched for it. But the great thing about it is that it goes with all the foods that we used to eat. Even with this meal, you can add a small bit and it’s delicious.
Kryddhyllan: The search for pomegranate juice begins! They probably have it at ICA Liljeholmen. Next question, what’s the best meal you’ve ever had?
Hussam: It can be from all over the world?
Kryddhyllan: Yes, from anywhere. The best meal ever, in the history of you.
Hussam: I guess the grilled kibbeh, with hara. It’s the same stuffing as what we ate today, but you add pomegranate, and different types of nuts. You have to grill it, and there has to be a lot of fat in it, and then when you grill it the fat melts and adds this incredible flavor. But it’s so heavy, you have two and then you’re just done, you have to take a nap.
Kryddhyllan: Yum! Was it at a restaurant?
Hussam: All the restaurants in Damascus make it. We used to go there in the summer. I grew up in Dubai but every summer for us had to be in Damascus, my family wanted us to keep the connection. And this type of food is usually very famous, and it’s quite expensive because it takes a lot of handwork and quality ingredients to make.
Kryddhyllan: Sounds incredible. And last but not least! What is your favorite restaurant at the moment?
Hussam: Hmmm, what’s it called…. I forget what it’s called but there’s a restaurant in a suburb of Damascus, where they specialize in home-cooked food. It’s a huge restaurant and they have like, literally an army of people who work there and they make such great food. Ah, I can’t remember the name.
Kryddhyllan: No worries – it does sound amazing though. Do you have any favorite restaurants in Stockholm?
Hussam: (long pause) ….
Kryddhyllan: Just silence…
Hussam: Well, there is this place on Sveavägen that makes really good napolitana pizza.
Kryddhyllan: Giro?
Hussam: Yeah! Exactly. It’s really good.
Kryddhyllan: Well, that was all the questions! Congrats, you passed!
Hussam: Phew.
