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A generous and warming autumnal crumble featuring tart cranberry, fragrant quince, and sweet apples, crowned with a buttery almond crumble topping studded with toasted flaked almonds. This deeply flavored dessert showcases the subtle flavors of fall fruits balanced with sweet spices and served warm for maximum comfort.
Chicken poaches in a heavily spiced broth (saffron, ginger, cinnamon, lemon). The shredded meat returns to a reduced sauce thickened with beaten eggs to make a soft set. Toasted almonds with sugar and cinnamon form a layer. Everything wraps in butter-brushed filo, baked golden, and dusted with icing sugar and cinnamon.
Bread is soaked in milk; mince is browned with onions; curry powder, turmeric and Cape Malay spices bloom. Apricot jam, mango chutney, vinegar and lemon balance the spice with sweet-sour notes. Raisins, toasted almonds and the soaked bread are folded through. The mixture is pressed into a baking dish; eggs are whisked with the leftover milk and poured over; bay leaves are stuck into the surface; the lot is baked until the topping is just-set with a faint wobble.
The Ashkenazi version, simplest and most common in northern Europe and the United States: tart apples chopped fine, walnuts crushed coarse, cinnamon, a little brown sugar, and sweet kosher red wine to bind. Stirred together and left for the flavours to meld. Some households add a pinch of ground ginger or a squeeze of lemon. There are dozens of regional variants (Sephardi versions use dates and figs); this one is the most familiar at a North American seder.
Saudi Arabia's national dish, the one platter you'll meet at almost every gathering from family lunch through wedding banquet. You brown chicken pieces or lamb shoulder hard in a heavy pot, then build a base of onion, garlic and ginger softened in the same fat, with tomato and a spoonful of baharat (or a dedicated kabsa spice mix) blooming until the kitchen fills with cardamom and cinnamon. The protein simmers in tomato and stock until it's tender and pulling away from the bone, then long-grain rice goes in to cook absorption-style in the same liquid, drinking up every layer of flavour the broth carries. You finish with almonds toasted in butter, raisins plumped briefly, and a fresh salsa of tomato, onion, chilli and parsley spooned on the side to cut the richness. Eaten communally from the centre platter, with hands or a long spoon.
A bunch of mint and a bunch of coriander are blended with green chilli, garlic, ginger, lemon juice, cumin and a small handful of roasted gram (for body). Thick natural yogurt is folded in at the end. The chutney finishes bright green, sharp and cool; designed to cut through the richness of chargha, boti and chapli kebabs.
A temper of mustard seeds, chana dal, urad dal, peanuts, dried red chilli and curry leaves is bloomed in sesame oil. Turmeric is stirred in for colour. Cooked, cooled rice is tossed through off the heat, then lemon juice is added at the end so the heat doesn't dull the acidity. Bright lunchbox classic; the dish should taste fresh and tart, not muddled.
The Saudi gathering platter built for the night when one cut of meat isn't enough. Three proteins share the same pot: lamb shoulder and beef chunks go in first with a kabsa-spiced tomato base for ninety minutes of slow simmer until they're meltingly tender, then chicken pieces drop in for the last thirty-five minutes (their cook time is shorter, so they go in later). The strained meat broth, deeply spiced from everything that has braised in it, becomes the cooking liquid for basmati scented with saffron and dried lime. At the end you arrange all three meats on top of the rice in the same platter and bring the whole thing to the centre of the table. The kind of dish you make for a wedding lunch, an Eid gathering, or the night the extended family arrives unannounced.
Beef is browned and simmered with onions, garlic, ginger, tomato and a touch of curry powder. Green, unripe plantains are peeled and added to the pot to steam-cook in the sauce until tender. A loose peanut paste is stirred through near the end for body and richness. The whole dish is one pot and built in stages.
Onions are softened with garlic and ras el hanout. Carrots, parsnips, potato and squash join in stages, root first, fast-cooking last. Chickpeas, tomatoes, stock and apricots simmer everything together. At the end, preserved lemon, fresh coriander and toasted almonds finish; honey rounds out the spice if needed.