Sanctuary Kitchen Brings Homs Home

We were supposed to have a food processor and did not. But thanks to the right ingredients provided by Sanctuary Kitchen, and expert guidance from Chef Nour, we were able to create flavors from the city of Homs, Syria right in our own kitchen.

It was part of the International Festival of Arts and Ideas, which hosted an online class from Sanctuary Kitchen as part of its adaptation to throwing a festival during the Covid-19 pandemic.

As the event’s accompanying notes stated, Sanctuary Kitchen, part of CitySeed, ​“partners with immigrant and refugee chefs to build economic opportunity and authentic connections through food. Our vision is to enhance the culinary skills of refugees and immigrants in a supportive environment that honors story and diverse cultural traditions, fosters community and understanding, offers professional development, and generates economic success in the most delicious way possible.” Judging by the outcomes of the food we made in our kitchen and the comments from other participants, with this class Sanctuary Kitchen succeeded on all fronts.

On the menu were muhammara, which the event page described as ​“a bold and tangy spread with bulgur, red peppers, walnuts and pomegranate,” and qatayif, ​“sweet ricotta filled pancakes with an orange blossom syrup.” Our guide to making these Syrian dishes was Chef Nour, speaking through a translator, and with aid in the kitchen from Sumiya Khan, co-founder of and kitchen program manager at Sanctuary Kitchen.

On Thursday afternoon, we began our culinary journey by going to CitySeed’s office on Grand Avenue to pick up our ingredients.

On Saturday, as 7 p.m. approached, we laid out all the ingredients in the box, ranging from the dry ingredients for batter, to assorted vegetables, to cheese and tahini.

At 7 p.m. the Zoom meeting quickly filled with 70 sets of participants (the event was sold out). Denise Santisteban, project manager at the International Festival of Arts and Ideas, welcomed us to the ​“reimagined” festival and turned the proceedings over to Khan and Chef Nour. Khan Khan mentioned that this was Sanctuary Kitchen’s first online cooking class since the pandemic began and that they were hoping to do more. WIthout further ado, they dove into the task at hand. As they moved through the ingredients, they mentioned that we might need both a blender and a food processor.

We owned a blender, but did not have a food processor. Was this going to work?

The first order of business was to make the syrup for the qatayif. This was essentially a simple syrup — sugar and water made into a solution by heating it and then letting it simmer. But Chef Nour (speaking through a translator) informed us that there would be two other ingredients — first, a squeeze of lemon juice, which went into the mixture as it was heating up, and in time, orange blossom water, to be added at the end. We were encouraged to take an aromatic, fragrant sniff. ​“When you smell it,” Khan said, ​“you’ll know.” She also added that this ingredient could be found in Middle Eastern and Indian markets in West Haven.

While the syrup was simmering, we moved on to make the batter for the qatayif — the idea being that we would want time to let the batter rest. The dry ingredients were a mixture of flours and yeast, including mahlab, a spice made from the kernel inside a particular kind of cherry pit. The kernels were dried and then ground, giving a taste Chef Nour described as akin to almonds.

Steph, the baker in our house, had questions about the consistency of the batter. ​“It’s pretty runny,” she said of the batter she had made following Chef Nour’s instructions. Almost on cue, Chef Nour said through her translator, ​“it’s pretty runny.”

“It shouldn’t have any lumps of flour,” she continued. Nour used a blender. We decided to keep our blender ready for whatever the food-processing step was going to be, so Steph mixed the batter by hand and got a consistency that looked a lot like what Chef Nour was demonstrating.

With the batter done and resting on the table, we turned off the heat on our syrup and added the orange blossom water as we were told. We were ready to make muhammara. ​“You’re going to need a food processor,” Nour said again. We crossed our fingers.

The first step was to combine bulghar wheat, tomatoes, bell peppers, and walnuts into the processor. How much of each should we use? The Zoom meeting’s chat window lit up with questions about measurements. ​“The way Nour cooks, she cooks by taste and looking,” Khan said. ​“So don’t worry too much about quantities.” With a smile, she added, ​“when in doubt, just put in everything we gave you.”

“My kind of cooking,” a participant wrote in the chat window.

Khan’s permission ended up being crucial. We added the other vegetables, tahini, and the amount of pomegranate molasses — also available in Indian and Middle Eastern groceries in West Haven — that Chef Nour had demonstrated, about four or five spoonfuls. We blended. Our dip seemed a little watery compared to what Chef Nour had made. We added the rest of the bulghar wheat, which seemed to fix it. We tasted it.

“Wow,” Steph said.

“The pomegranate molasses has a taste,” Chef Nour explained. ​“Some people don’t like it.” We loved it. ​“If you like that sour, tangy, tart flavor, you can add more.” We were too busy already eating it with the provided pita to do that.

We then watched with dismay as Chef Nour made her food look as good as ours tasted. ​“Syrians are known for their garnish art,” Khan said, as Nour expertly drizzled her dip with a little extra pomegranate molasses. We were not going to get there. Especially since we’d already made a mess of the dish by eating. ​“Bon appetit!” Khan said. We were way ahead of her. Apparently other participants were, too. ​“Ours isn’t as pretty as Nour’s, but it is delicious,” a participant wrote in the chat window.

Khan and Nour then explained that muhammara could be an appetizer or a side dish, usually for grilled meat. Chef Nour’s way of making the dip was unique to Homs, where she was from. ​“In Syria each area has its own food culture,” Nour said. ​“Some Syrians roast their peppers and onions first,” but ​“I prefer the fresh taste of the peppers and onions. This is how my mother made it, and how my grandmother made it.” Though she added that it was much more work before blenders and food processors.

Khan mentioned that in 2017, when Nour joined Sanctuary Kitchen, she asked to use a hand-cranked meat grinder. ​“Even with a food processor,” Nour said, ​“I prefer the meat grinder.” She also mentioned that the dish could be made much spicier by adding hot peppers to the mix.

That was all the excuse I needed. I quickly took a small portion of the dip and spiked it with hot sauce made mostly from habanero peppers. All the flavors lit up, the sweetness and tanginess mixing with the heat. I was in heaven.

We turned back to the qatayif. A participant mentioned that they had browned their syrup accidentally. ​“You made caramel! :) :)” another participant typed. Khan assured the first participant that all was well; the participant could just make another batch of syrup. ​“You just won’t be able to eat your dessert right away,” she said.

As Khan and Chef Nour set up a small griddle, Steph set about greasing a pan. As if she could see what we were doing, Khan said, ​“you do not need to grease your pan.” We ungreased it.

Chef Nour made a test pancake so we did the same. We watched as Nour explained that the bubbles rising through the dough indicated that all was going according to plan. We were told to wait until the dough cooked through. We did. Then we flipped the pancake. Then we received the instruction not to flip the pancake. We started again with the next pouring of dough. This one we made far too big.

“I feel like I’m on an episode of Nailed It,” one participant wrote. ​“Mine are so sloppy and such a mess but I’m having a great time.”

The idea was make medium-sized pancakes, then remove them from the heat, pinch one end, fill them with ricotta cheese, dip the cheese in crushed pistachios, drizzle it with the syrup, and then have at it. Nour explained that they could also be closed like dumplings and deep-fried; what we were doing was a variant. One participant asked if the dairy used in Syria was really ricotta cheese. Nour then explained that in fact ricotta cheese was just a close substitute, and that, in some cases, Syrians used cheese made from cow colostrum, the milk mothers release immediately following delivery of newborn calves.

The form of the qatayif was, in some ways, not as important as simply having the chance to experience the flavors together. I managed to burn my hand slightly in my enthusiasm for making one of the desserts while the syrup was still too hot. But in time we got the hang of it.

One participant chimed in toward the end, echoing the sentiment in our own house. ​“My dessert is a total mess and the dip looks halfway ok and I had a fabulous time!! Thanks for letting me join you all on my birthday. :) Best to everyone, especially you Chef Nour and your family — thanks for the translating and connections made tonight.”