“When I was in Gaziantep, Turkey, last year researching my cookbook, I visited a large hangar where this man was rolling ceviz sucugu, grape leather for walnut sausages, exactly like my aunt used to. When I saw him spread that great jelly, I was taken back to summers at home in Mashta el-Helou [Syria]. A fantastic moment, so touching,” reminisces Anissa Helou, the London-based Lebanese-Syrian food writer, journalist, broadcaster and blogger, on one of many memories recorded in her ninth cookbook, Levant: Recipes and Memories from the Middle East, recently published by HarperCollins.
Levant brings together 150 traditional recipes that Helou gathered from her upbringing and travels in Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan,Turkey and Iran, which she calls the mother of all cuisines.
Peppered with memoirs from her culinary journey, Helou steers away from categorising the recipes by the norm of starters, mains and the like. Instead, she draws the dishes together, quite cleverly, through the differing social structure of family, farm, souqs, restaurants, bakeries and sweet-makers. Her main goal: to record the food traditions of countries that are changing beyond recognition and are at risk of disappearing.
“It was going to be a travel memoir and cookbook with photos, which would have been different to what I have done before, but the photo-grapher had a break-in and he lost the photographs including lots from Syria and so they [the publishers] decided to go without photography.
“For me, food is culture. I approach it quite differently from just cooking. As much as I am interested in perfecting recipes and a refined palate, what interests me the most is recording dying traditions for the next generation who may not be as involved in food preparation. So it’s a continuous research that’s more an intellectual, cultural, historical and social pursuit, than commercial.”
While there is a general perception that the cuisines in Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine and Syria are relatively similar, Helou paints a good picture of the variances.
She also dispels the myth that Levantine cuisine is meat-heavy, explaining that meat is almost always used as an adjunct to vegetables, evident in the prevalence of vegetarian stews and mezzes overflowing with dips, salads and savoury pastries.
These countries are bursting with fruit and vegetables that people eat naturally, playing homage to seasonality. It is only in grilled dishes such as kibbeh or kofta that meat takes centre stage.
“Lebanon is fresh with simple flavours that favour tartness and savoury. In Turkey and Syria, you have more complexity, and also in Iran, you have the mixture of meat with fruit, sweet with sour. In Jordan and Palestine, it’s more homely and they take a little spice.
“Iran is quite different. Iran is the only country where rice is king, whereas burghul and freekeh are the staple elsewhere. Dishes from country to country may have the same texture because the ingredients are similar, but the taste and flavour are different because the preparation is different,” Helou explains.
Home cooks will rejoice in the simplicity of most recipes as Helou favours an easy life in the kitchen, despite her 1,500-strong cookbook collection. The exceptions are more elaborate and time-consuming dishes such as stuffed vegetables – one of her favourites is the Swiss chard version or the kibbeh bil-saniyeh pie.
On the sweet front, Helou loves karabij pistachio cookies with dried root, using desiccated wood to produce something extraordinary.
“I only cook when I am testing or for friends. Otherwise I have leftovers. I make a lot of salads, probably my favourite food. I eat them everyday, even in the winter. My secret for looking healthy is olive oil.”
What about olive oil’s lower smoke point, though? “No matter what you tell people in Lebanon and Syria, they will continue to use olive oil but no one fries in it anymore. I fry with rapeseed or sunflower oil. But for other cooking methods I will use very good olive oil,” she says.
Cookbooks aside, Helou has recently branched into the world of restaurants in London with the opening of Koshari Street, an Egyptian- inspired street food experience serving the country’s famous spicy rice dish. With plans further down the line to expand globally, we may just see the concept pop up in the UAE.
• Anissa Helou’s latest cookbook, priced at Dh130, is available from the Kinokuniya bookstore in Dubai. Visit www.anissas.com
Samantha Wood is the founder of the impartial restaurant review blog www.foodiva.net
Here are two recipes from Anissa Helou’s cookbook
Chicken Fatteh
Fattet Djej in Arabic
Fatta means “to break into pieces” in Arabic, and fatteh (also known as fatta depending on the country or the accent) describes a composite dish made up of pieces of toasted pita topped with meat, vegetables and/or pulses, covered with yogurt and garnished with toasted pine nuts. The dish is typical for street breakfast in Lebanon, although it is eaten at other times of the day, too, and there are many variations depending on the time it is served, the region or the family. Here I give a version of the dish using chicken, but you can easily make it with lamb instead. Replace the chicken with a shoulder of lamb, skinned and trimmed of fat, or 1kg (2lb 2oz) neck fillets, and prepare it in the same way, bearing in mind that you may have to cook the lamb for a little longer. The traditional method is to use dried chickpeas that you soak and then cook with the meat, but I like to simplify things if I can and I now use ready-cooked chickpeas that are preserved in brine in a jar without any preservatives. All I do is rinse them well before adding them to the stock and cooked meat to heat them through. In that time, they absorb the taste of the stock and you won’t know the difference between the chickpeas you’ve cooked from scratch and the ready-cooked ones.
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 medium-sized chicken (about 1.5kg/3lb 5oz)
1 cinnamon stick
Coarse sea salt
1 large round pita bread, opened at the seams (I substituted toasted lavash for pita, but you can use any flat bread as long as it’s not too thin) 3 tbsp unsalted butter
100g (3 oz) pine nuts
1 x 675g jar of chickpeas preserved in salted water (475g/16 oz drained weight), rinsed under cold water and drained
1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
A handful of mint leaves, crushed with the garlic (optional)
1kg (2lb 2oz) plain yogurt
Method
Put the chicken in a large saucepan, add 1.25 litres (2 pints) of water and place over a medium heat. As the water comes to the boil, skim any scum that rises to the surface. Once it has come to the boil, reduce the heat, then add the cinnamon stick and 1 tablespoon of salt and cover the pan with a lid. Let the stock bubble gently for 45 minutes or until the chicken is cooked.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 220°C (425°F); gas mark 7.
Toast the bread in the oven until golden brown, then remove and allow to cool. Spread the pine nuts on a baking sheet and toast them in the oven at the same time for 5-7 minutes or until golden brown.
Remove the chicken from the saucepan and strain the stock into a clean pan. Then skin the chicken and take the meat off the bone before cutting it into bite-sized pieces. Add these to the stock with the chickpeas and place over a low heat.
Mix the crushed garlic (and mint, if using) into the yogurt and add salt to taste.
Break the bread into bite-sized pieces and spread over the bottom of a serving dish. Spread the hot chicken pieces and chickpeas over the bread. (You can, at this stage, add a little stock, although I prefer not to because I like the bread to stay crisp.) Cover with the yogurt and garnish with the toasted pine nuts. Serve immediately.
Fattoush from Las Salinas, Lebanon
A rather nondescript restaurant by the sea in Tyre in the south of Lebanon, Las Salinas may not be attractive but the food is definitely worth the detour. It serves incredibly fresh fish, caught not too far from the restaurant. Its fattoush, the salad of choice to serve with fish, is quite different from any I have had elsewhere. Instead of using lettuce with the herbs, as they do in some restaurants, the chefs add very finely shredded cabbage, which makes for an even more crisp salad.
The salad can do without bread, which is preferable when served with a dish such as fatteh.
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 medium-sized round pita bread
3 tbsp ground sumac
6 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium-sized pointed spring cabbage (about 400g/14oz), trimmed and very finely shredded
100g (3 oz) spring onions (about 1 bunch), trimmed and thinly sliced
300g (11oz) small cucumbers (or large if you cannot find the Middle Eastern variety), sliced into medium-thin semicircles
300g (11oz) cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered depending on their size
200g (7oz) flat-leaf parsley (about 1 bunch), most of the stalk discarded, coarsely chopped
100g (3 oz) mint (about 1 bunch), leaves picked from the stalks and coarsely chopped
100g (3 oz) purslane (about 1 bunch), leaves picked from the stalks
Sea salt
Method
Preheat the grill to high or the oven to 200°C (400°F), gas mark 6.
Tear the pita bread open at the seams and toast it under the grill or in the oven until golden brown. Place it on a wire rack to cool.
Break the toasted bread into bite-sized pieces and put in a mixing bowl.
Sprinkle with the sumac, add the olive oil and mix well so that the bread is thoroughly coated.
Put the shredded cabbage in a salad bowl and add the rest of the salad ingredients with a little salt.
Toss gently together and taste, adjusting the seasoning if necessary.
Mix in the toasted bread. Serve immediately.
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
The results of the first round are as follows:
Qais Saied (Independent): 18.4 per cent
Nabil Karoui (Qalb Tounes): 15.58 per cent
Abdelfattah Mourou (Ennahdha party): 12.88 per cent
Abdelkarim Zbidi (two-time defence minister backed by Nidaa Tounes party): 10.7 per cent
Youssef Chahed (former prime minister, leader of Long Live Tunisia): 7.3 per cent
Porsche Taycan Turbo specs
Engine: Two permanent-magnet synchronous AC motors
Transmission: two-speed
Power: 671hp
Torque: 1050Nm
Range: 450km
Price: Dh601,800
On sale: now
'Spies in Disguise'
Director: Nick Bruno and Troy Quane
Stars: Will Smith, Tom Holland, Karen Gillan and Roshida Jones
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
How much sugar is in chocolate Easter eggs?
- The 169g Crunchie egg has 15.9g of sugar per 25g serving, working out at around 107g of sugar per egg
- The 190g Maltesers Teasers egg contains 58g of sugar per 100g for the egg and 19.6g of sugar in each of the two Teasers bars that come with it
- The 188g Smarties egg has 113g of sugar per egg and 22.8g in the tube of Smarties it contains
- The Milky Bar white chocolate Egg Hunt Pack contains eight eggs at 7.7g of sugar per egg
- The Cadbury Creme Egg contains 26g of sugar per 40g egg
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Women%E2%80%99s%20T20%20World%20Cup%20Qualifier
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EUAE%20fixtures%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E25%20April%20%E2%80%93%20Ireland%20v%20UAE*%3Cbr%3E27%20April%20%E2%80%93%20UAE%20v%20Zimbabwe**%3Cbr%3E29%20April%20%E2%80%93%20Netherlands%20v%20UAE*%3Cbr%3E3%20May%20%E2%80%93%20UAE%20v%20Vanuatu*%3Cbr%3E5%20May%20%E2%80%93%20Semi-finals%3Cbr%3E7%20May%20%E2%80%93%20Final%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EUAE%20squad%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EEsha%20Oza%20(captain)%2C%20Al%20Maseera%20Jahangir%2C%20Avanee%20Patel%2C%20Heena%20Hotchandani%2C%20Indhuja%20Nandakumar%2C%20Kavisha%20Kumari%2C%20Khushi%20Sharma%2C%20Lavanya%20Keny%2C%20Mehak%20Thakur%2C%20Rinitha%20Rajith%2C%20Samaira%20Dharnidharka%2C%20Siya%20Gokhale%2C%20Suraksha%20Kotte%2C%20Theertha%20Satish%2C%20Vaishnave%20Mahesh.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E*Zayed%20Cricket%20Stadium%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E**Tolerance%20Oval%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
THE SPECS
Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engine
Power: 420kW
Torque: 780Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh1,350,000
On sale: Available for preorder now
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Race card
6.30pm: Maiden (TB) Dh 82,500 (Dirt) 1.600m
7.05pm: Maiden (TB) Dh 82,500 (D) 2,000m
7.50pm: Handicap (TB) Dh 82,500 (D) 1,600m
8.15pm: The Garhoud Sprint Listed (TB) Dh 132,500 (D) 1,200m
8.50pm: The Entisar Listed (TB) Dh 132,500 (D) 2,000m
9.25pm: Conditions (TB) Dh 120,000 (D) 1,400m
RESULTS
5pm: Maiden | Dh80,000 | 1,600m
Winner: AF Al Moreeb, Tadhg O’Shea (jockey), Ernst Oertel (trainer)
5.30pm: Handicap | Dh80,000 | 1,600m
Winner: AF Makerah, Adrie de Vries, Ernst Oertel
6pm: Handicap | Dh80,000 | 2,200m
Winner: Hazeme, Richard Mullen, Jean de Roualle
6.30pm: Handicap | Dh85,000 | 2,200m
Winner: AF Yatroq, Brett Doyle, Ernst Oertel
7pm: Shadwell Farm for Private Owners Handicap | Dh70,000 | 2,200m
Winner: Nawwaf KB, Patrick Cosgrave, Helal Al Alawi
7.30pm: Handicap (TB) | Dh100,000 | 1,600m
Winner: Treasured Times, Bernardo Pinheiro, Rashed Bouresly
Founders: Abdulmajeed Alsukhan, Turki Bin Zarah and Abdulmohsen Albabtain.
Based: Riyadh
Offices: UAE, Vietnam and Germany
Founded: September, 2020
Number of employees: 70
Sector: FinTech, online payment solutions
Funding to date: $116m in two funding rounds
Investors: Checkout.com, Impact46, Vision Ventures, Wealth Well, Seedra, Khwarizmi, Hala Ventures, Nama Ventures and family offices
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
UAE WARRIORS RESULTS
Featherweight
Azouz Anwar (EGY) beat Marcelo Pontes (BRA)
TKO round 2
Catchweight 90kg
Moustafa Rashid Nada (KSA) beat Imad Al Howayeck (LEB)
Split points decision
Welterweight
Gimbat Ismailov (RUS) beat Mohammed Al Khatib (JOR)
TKO round 1
Flyweight (women)
Lucie Bertaud (FRA) beat Kelig Pinson (BEL)
Unanimous points decision
Lightweight
Alexandru Chitoran (ROU) beat Regelo Enumerables Jr (PHI)
TKO round 1
Catchweight 100kg
Marc Vleiger (NED) beat Mohamed Ali (EGY)
Rear neck choke round 1
Featherweight
James Bishop (NZ) beat Mark Valerio (PHI)
TKO round 2
Welterweight
Abdelghani Saber (EGY) beat Gerson Carvalho (BRA)
TKO round 1
Middleweight
Bakhtiyar Abbasov (AZE) beat Igor Litoshik (BLR)
Unanimous points decision
Bantamweight
Fabio Mello (BRA) beat Mark Alcoba (PHI)
Unanimous points decision
Welterweight
Ahmed Labban (LEB) v Magomedsultan Magomedsultanov (RUS)
TKO round 1
Bantamweight
Trent Girdham (AUS) beat Jayson Margallo (PHI)
TKO round 3
Lightweight
Usman Nurmagomedov (RUS) beat Roman Golovinov (UKR)
TKO round 1
Middleweight
Tarek Suleiman (SYR) beat Steve Kennedy (AUS)
Submission round 2
Lightweight
Dan Moret (USA) v Anton Kuivanen (FIN)
TKO round 2
'The worst thing you can eat'
Trans fat is typically found in fried and baked goods, but you may be consuming more than you think.
Powdered coffee creamer, microwave popcorn and virtually anything processed with a crust is likely to contain it, as this guide from Mayo Clinic outlines:
Baked goods - Most cakes, cookies, pie crusts and crackers contain shortening, which is usually made from partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. Ready-made frosting is another source of trans fat.
Snacks - Potato, corn and tortilla chips often contain trans fat. And while popcorn can be a healthy snack, many types of packaged or microwave popcorn use trans fat to help cook or flavour the popcorn.
Fried food - Foods that require deep frying — french fries, doughnuts and fried chicken — can contain trans fat from the oil used in the cooking process.
Refrigerator dough - Products such as canned biscuits and cinnamon rolls often contain trans fat, as do frozen pizza crusts.
Creamer and margarine - Nondairy coffee creamer and stick margarines also may contain partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.
Match info
Uefa Nations League A Group 4
England 2 (Lingard 78', Kane 85')
Croatia 1 (Kramaric 57')
Man of the match: Harry Kane (England)
The details
Heard It in a Past Life
Maggie Rogers
(Capital Records)
3/5
Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
ALRAWABI%20SCHOOL%20FOR%20GIRLS
%3Cp%3ECreator%3A%20Tima%20Shomali%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EStarring%3A%C2%A0Tara%20Abboud%2C%C2%A0Kira%20Yaghnam%2C%20Tara%20Atalla%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3ERating%3A%204%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
