Hello Friends!  I was inspired to make Manakish by Appointment with Death, the latest book in the Dining with The Dame series.  The book is largely set in Jordan and although no Jordani food is mentioned (quelle surprise). I thought Manakish would be a good representative dish for that post. I made my version of manakish, took the photos, and then decided to do something else for the Appointment with Death post.  But the manakish was really tasty. Too good not to share!  So here it is…actually before that.  Let’s talk about what it is.  Manakish or Manouche is a traditional Jordani flatbread usually with a topping of zaátar or cheese.  Mine is a  not traditional. It is at best manakish adjacent or as I like to say, manakish-ish.  Now, we’ve got through that…here it is:

The Recipe – Manakish

I used this recipe from Hungry Paprikas for the base recipe for my manakish.  Per the recipe, I used feta, mozzarella and nigella seeds.  And then I added a  little sprinkle of Zaátar, some red onion slices and a few chilli flakes.  I really had to restrain myself from adding olives, mushrooms, etc as if this was a regular pizza!  This was very tasty despite so few ingredients!  Sometimes, less really is more!

The salad you can see in the first photo and below is my version of  a tomato, pomegranate and caramelised walnut salad from Gourmet Traveller which felt Middle Eastern enough to work well with the Manakish.  Also, the cherry tomatoes and the parsley are from my garden!  I used olive oil and lemon juice in my dressing to keep it simple.  I had also decided to forgo the candied walnuts in the recipe for plain walnuts.  Do not do this.  They were divine.  I wish I had made far more of them than I needed because they were decidedly more-ish!

I would love to see Petra, it looks stunning and is definitely on my bucket list of places to go!

In the short term though, I will have to content myself with eating Manakish and reading Appointment with Death.  The post for which will be up in two weeks’ time!

I am literally at this moment watching The Deer Hunter for my film club. I can see why it’s seen as a classic but so far (about 1.5 hours in) it has been unremittingly grim and I am not expecting a change of tone any time soon.  Far less harrowing, this week I am hosting our Tasty Reads Cookbook Club where we are cooking from Recipetin Eats.  If you are not a fan, I can recommend it!

Have a great week!