I was really excited about making food for Jordan, and it definitely didn’t disappoint! I’m a huge fan of middle eastern and Levantine food, and Jordan fits the bill, with lots of olive oil and herbs.
Jordan’s national dish is freekeh, which is actually just a type of wheat. As it says on the package, it’s a fire roasted baby wheat. Similar in texture to bulgur wheat (think tabbouleh) but with a nice toasty flavor. It actually reminds me a bit of gunpowder tea. To prepare it, you simply boil it until tender, strain, then mix with whatever you want to make a salad. I used fresh parsley, plenty of olive oil, feta, and lemon juice. I made the whole bag since I figured it would make for a good week of lunches, but it’s so filling I didn’t even finish my pre-portioned out servings every day, so it took forever to get through.
The more interesting dish I made, though, is called manaqish, which starts with a yeasted dough.
The yeast is mixed with warm water and sugar and left to get nice and foamy, which is fun to see.
The yeast mixture is added to flour, salt, and olive oil, then mixed and kneaded until soft.
It's then left to rise until it's about double in size.
And then punched down, kneaded a bit more, and cut into 8 equal pieces and rolled into balls. Each ball is flattened into a disc, and then you make small indentations in the middle of the circle with your fingertips.
These little divots allow the topping to sink into the dough a little bit.
The topping, by the way, is simply olive oil mixed with za'atar. Za'atar is a delicious spice mix made with sesame seeds, various herbs, sumac, and hyssop.
The manaqish then go into the oven for a few minutes until the dough becomes very lightly golden and the topping starts to dry up. As they sit, the topping dries up even more as the olive oil sinks into the middle of the dough, and the herbs stick to the top. They're like little mini herbed pizzas, and they're delicious. And just like pizza, you can put basically whatever you want on top. Popular options in Jordan are minced lamb, cheese, and fresh veggies.
Definitely putting this one on the "make again" list. I bet a feta and walnut or olive version would be amazing!
Recipes Used: Za'atar Manaqish // Freekeh recipe came from a cookbook by "Julie Taboulie"
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