Chef Daoud Mohammed Tarhini always packs in a little bit of Lebanon, on his travels.
You know, when people greet you here, it is really from the heart,” smiles Chef Daoud Mohammed Tarhini. Tarhini, hailing from Lebanon and working at the Grand Hyatt, Dubai, was on his first ever visit to India, for a Lebanese food promotion at the Hyatt Regency, Delhi.
Tarhini began working kitchens first in Beirut, in 1979, at a nightclub. Since then, work has taken him to Sharjah, Riyadh, Baku (capital of Azerbaijan), Sana’a (capital of Yemen), and Muscat, before settling down in Dubai seven years ago. He says that somehow India was never even a stopover on his travels.
But it is not the first time Tarhini is meeting Indians. His village in south Lebanon lies close to the tri-junction of the borders of Syria, Lebanon and Israel, in the foothills of the Golan Heights. He says he has met Indian soldiers on peacekeeping missions with the United Nations there.
He is quite excited to share pictures of his native countryside, which has olive groves against the backdrop of the Golan Heights. “There are many facets to Lebanon. There is Beirut with its party life, but also areas that are conservative. Then there is the agricultural countryside. But the whole country is so small, it won’t take very long to drive around it,” he says.
Lebanon has been a country in the eye of West Asian crises for several years now. Times were especially bad in 2006 when all of southern Lebanon found itself under Israeli bombardment. Tarhini, though, says that conflict doesn’t faze the Lebanese. “One moment you have bombs falling and the next minute people are going about their business. In Beirut, especially, the nightlife never stops,” he says.
Making a pitch for Lebanese food, Tarhini says the reason it has become so popular around the world is because the cuisine is not heavy. “We don’t use too much oil. Even if oil is used, it is olive oil. We always use fresh flavours like lemon and tomato,” he says, while adding that Lebanese food is salad-heavy and uses all kinds of vegetables.
Tarhini’s speciality in Lebanese cuisine is what he calls “hot food”. He says people often don’t get to see past the salads. He says the chicken and lamb roast, or dishes such as the sauda dejaz (chicken liver appetiser) are not found in a typical Lebanese spread. He always travels with a list of “hot food” that he can stir up for guests. But what is special about Tarhini is that he always insists on carrying his own pickles when he travels, especially pickled olives. They are an important part of Lebanese food, and he says the best pickled olives are made in Lebanon. “The olives are from the farms near my village and they are pickled just the way we would do at home,” he says. It is a pickle that is close to his heart indeed.
FAVOURITE RECIPE
SAUDA DEJAZ (Chicken liver, Lebanese style)
500 gm chicken liver
75 ml extra virgin olive oil
90 gm garlic
10 gm salt
7 gm black peppercorns, crushed
60 ml fresh lemon juice
Clean and wash the chicken liver. Put water to boil. Blanch the chicken liver in hot water to seal and also remove impurities. Strain in a colander. In a pan, heat the olive oil, and add garlic.
Next add the chicken liver and toss on a high flame. Adjust the seasoning. Finish with lemon juice. Serve hot with warm pita bread.
