Extraordinary feast

OVER at the Novotel visitors can enjoy a unique iftar with live cooking stations on the beach under the supervision of Chef Azzam Semaan.

Lebanon born Chef Azzam received his practical training at the Faqra Club and Resort before joining the Century Park Hotel, Kaslik.

Over the following years he moved on to various five star establishments including the Intercontinental Hotel, Phoenicia and Le Royal Hotel, Beirut where he served as senior sous chef before coming to Bahrain.

He has won various gold and silver culinary medals and is looking forward to bringing his extensive experience to bear to create Novotel's superb Ramadan feasts which he and his team promise will be the most memorable on the beach.

Chef Azzam said: "Ramadan is a special month and we are keen to provide something special with an extraordinary feast that will indulge everyone's pleasures."

While keeping the authentic Arabian traditions the Ghabga buffet will be modified with some contemporary Mediterranean dishes.

Chef Azzam added: "We will certainly keep the genuine style, feel and atmosphere of Middle Eastern tradition but we also adapt western influences to accommodate our varied customers."

The special Ramadan recipe Chef Azzam has chosen to share with GulfWeekly readers is below.

This innovative dish is constructed by three main ingredients; chicken, lamb and couscous with tomato sauce and is suitable for either Ghabga or Ifthar

Novotel boasts that it is the only resort on the island with a Ramadan tent on the beach which can take up to 400 guests.

The tent is decorated in truly original Bahraini style with carpeting and a Majlis area.

Throughout the Holy Month, Novotel is offering a special Ghabga menu (buffet), Middle Eastern cuisines, sheesha, Arabian sweets, fresh juices and beverages.

And there will be live cooking stations and a barbeque on the beach with the tent open from 8pm till 2am.

There will also be live entertainment with a resident band delivering Arabic songs.

The hotel's popular La Perle seafood restaurant will also be serving Iftar nightly with international, Mediterranean and Arabic dishes on offer.

Sohoor is available upon request/reservation at the tent from 2am to Sunrise.

Mediterranean chicken lamb chop

Ingredients:

Lamb chop 80gm

Veal chop 40gm

Chicken leg 160gm

Chicken breast 20gm

Fresh cream 10gm

Couscous 60gm

Green peas 10gm

Pumpkin 25gm

Pine seed 10gm

Wheat 10gm

Green lentil 10gm

Tomato jus 20gm

Chicken stock 10gm

Salt and pepper 10gm

Method:

Stuffed chicken leg:

Clean chicken leg and debone. Meanwhile, steam the green lentils and wheat.

Then make chicken mousse by blending the chicken with fresh cream and salt. Roll and stuff the leg with a mixture of the chicken mousse, lentils and wheat.

Steam it in an oven for 20 minutes then roast and glaze with tomato jus.

Lamb and veal chop:

Clean and cut it in shape to show the bone then grill medium well.

Couscous:

While steaming the couscous, clean and boil the pumpkin with chicken stock and the green peas.

Sauce:

Reduce tomato juice with the chicken stock, salt and pepper. Arrange and present as shown.

Barbecue to pamper your taste buds

There's nothing like a barbecue to get the juices flowing on your Iftar.

The sight and smell of iron and charcoal, rosemary and garlic seem as old as time and quite in harmony with the late summer evenings of Ramadan. Tough herbs, rosemary, bay and thyme, are good seasonings for food cooked over charcoal.

Small chickens, hacked down the backbone with a cleaver, cook in 15 minutes over embers.

Roll them in olive oil, seasoned with crushed garlic, ground cumin, coriander seed, grated lemon zest and sometimes the North African spice mixture ras el hanout. As the skin crisps, the spices singe and take on an altogether darker character.

Grilled poussin with pickled lemon relish ras el hanout is the mild Moroccan spice mixture. The recipe usually contains cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, rosebuds, turmeric and black pepper.

Ingredients:

(Serves 4)

4 poussins

4 tbsp ras el hanout

8 tbsp olive oil

3 lemons

For the relish:

6 tomatoes

2 moderately hot red chillies

4 spring onions

A large bunch of parsley

30gm coriander

A pickled lemon

4 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp lemon juice

Method:

Using a heavy cook's knife, split the poussins down the back and open each one out like a book. Lay them skin-side up in a shallow dish.

Stir the spice mix into the olive oil with the juice of one of the lemons. Rub this into the poussins then set aside for an hour (or longer).

Get the grill hot.

Season the poussin with sea salt and place skin-side down on the grill.

Leave the poussin until the underside is golden and the skin is crisping nicely, then turn and leave until the other side is cooked. Test by inserting a skewer into the thickest part of the leg. If the juices run clear then it is cooked. Serve with the relish below and remaining lemons, halved.

To make the relish, halve the tomatoes, discard their seeds and chop roughly. Halve the chillies, scrape out the seeds with the point of the knife and discard them. Slice them very finely. Trim the spring onions.

Slice them into fine rounds then add them to the chillies and tomatoes.

Pull the leaves from the parsley and coriander and roughly chop them.

Add them to the chillies. Slice open the pickled lemon, discard the pulp then chop the rind thinly. Stir this, together with the olive oil and the lemon juice into the other ingredients. Mix thoroughly.