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From Greg Malouf:
“This recipe is a tribute to my Dad, using one of his favourite ingredients: rabbit!
“My father loved to cook and eat rabbit and so my brothers and I grew up eating it regularly and learnt to love it too.
“Dad was a keen and proud gardener, like many Lebanese. He loved to roast wild rabbit with his backyard herbs or slow braise with lemon, onions and cinnamon.
“Here, I’ve braised rabbit with Moroccan spices and baked it into the famous b’stilla pie. I like to think that the intricate stencilled patterning on the top of the pie is a bit of a homage to Dad’s life in the textile and garment industry (Note: Hand of Fatima stencils available on eBay and elsewhere)!
“I use farmed rabbit here, but you could happily use wild rabbits, if you can get your hands on them. They have a distinctive, rather pronounced gamier rabbit flavour.
“The key thing with either wild or farmed rabbit is to cook the meat at a very gentle temperature to avoid it becoming dry and stringy.
“I serve the pie with a Lebanese minted white cabbage salad – another childhood favourite, that also used ingredients from Dad’s garden. Garden white or Savoy cabbage are best for this salad as they are sweeter than red cabbage. The essential ingredient is the dried mint, which has a unique sweet flavour that works wonders with the cabbage.
“A must-have wine for this dish was suggested by my good friend, rabbit-lover and remarkable sommelier Jacqueline Lewis. She recommends serving Pyramid Valley Pinot Blanc, Marlborough, NZ.
“She says “this is a stunning Pinot Blanc. It is luscious, with enough gentle sweetness to balance the same in the B’stilla and lovely cinnamon spice to complement the spices of your dish. It has enough power to cope with all the flavour without overwhelming the dish. Now I’m going to have to grab a bottle and cook the dish!”"
Greg Malouf’s range of Middle Eastern spice mixes and other products- ‘Malouf’s Spice Mezza’- is available from The Essential Ingredient stores and online.
Recipe: Rabbit B’stilla
1 whole farmed Rabbit 1.2 – 1.4 kg cut into 8 pieces through the bone
4 filo sheets
1 cup finely diced brown onions
6 yolks eggs
150g unsalted butter, clarified
2 cloves garlic
1 thumb ginger, grated
10 saffron threads
1 level teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 level teaspoons ground cumin
2 level teaspoons ground ginger
2 birds eye chilli
½ cup coriander leaves picked and shredded
½ cup flat-leaf parsley, picked and shredded
ltr chicken stock
1oog flaked almonds
150ml olive oil
A splash of good quality dry sherry
Sea salt
Freshly ground white peppercorns
Garnish – 20g pure icing sugar
Pinch ground cinnamon
1. Wash and dry the rabbit pieces and season with salt and pepper
2. In a large pan heat half the oil and fry the rabbit pieces until brown. Add onions, garlic, fresh and ground ginger, saffron, cinnamon, cumin and ground coriander. Add more oil if needed. Continue cooking until rabbit pieces are completely coated with spice.
3. Deglaze with sherry then add stock. Bring to boil and simmer gently for 40 minutes or until rabbit is tender. Skim from time to time to remove fat
4. Drain off the stock and reserve both sock and onions. Remove meat from rabbit, discarding skin and bones and break into smallish pieces. Reduce stock by 2/3, skimming.
5. Take half the hot strained stock and slowly beat well onto the egg yolks. Tip this mix into the remaining reduced stock and stir over low heat until mixture is creamy and nearly set, as you would for an egg custard. Add shredded parsley and coriander. Then add the cooked onions and season with sea salt and white pepper. Refrigerate until completely cool and firmly set.
6. Heat the remaining olive oil and add almond flakes. Move gently with a wooden spoon until a pale golden colour. Remove from heat and strain off oil. Place on clean cloth to absorb oil.
7. Brush sheets of filo with clarified butter. Place the buttered filo at the bottom of a heavy cast iron black pan or a fry pan with a metal handle. Brush a second sheet and lay to form a cross, repeat with the remaining 2 sheets so the bottom and sides are completely covering the pan. Scatter the fried almonds at the base of the filo. Place the rabbit mixture into the centre of the filo and push out to the rim of the pan. Brush the side with butter and bring all the sides of the pastry up to the centre
8. Bake in oven for 18 – 25 minutes at 200 C or until the pastry is golden brown on the top and bottom. Turn out and with a clean cloth wipe off any excess oil
9. Sift the icing sugar and cinnamon powder together. Remove the pies from the oven and sprinkle them with cinnamon dust. Use a stencil or paper doily to create a pattern on the surface, if you like.
Serve immediately.
Lebanese style white cabbage salad
400g cabbage, very finely shredded
Juice of 2 lemons
1 small clove garlic, crushed with 1/2-teaspoon salt
60ml extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon dried mint
½ cup picked tarragon leaves
Sea salt and pepper to taste
In a large bowl, mix together the cabbage, and tarragon leaves. In a separate bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, garlic paste, olive oil and dried mint. Pour the dressing onto the salad and toss lightly. Season with salt and pepper and serve.
Serves 4
ABOUT GREG MALOUF:
An Australian of Lebanese descent, Greg has undoubtedly transformed the way those who have been lucky enough to eat at his table both understand and enjoy Middle Eastern food.
Until early 2012 you had to travel to MoMo’s in Melbourne if you wanted to see and taste what the noise was about, but the great man moved to London in February 2012 enticed by the offer of taking over the reins at iconic Petersham Nurseries Cafe, Richmond.
Since his arrival, he has quietly created a new menu which still adheres to the restaurant’s focus on seasonal dining and finest quality ingredients, but at the same time he has steadfastly built in his own Middle Eastern twist.
Greg’s interpretation of Middle Eastern food was finally rewarded towards the end of 2012 with a Michelin star.
Paula Wolfert, the San Francisco-based food author, has said of Greg’s work: ‘I’m sold on him. I don’t know of any other chef that can match Greg Malouf’s versatility and talent who is working in the medium. … I like his swing back and forth between old and new and his sensitivity with spices is especially brilliant … I say this because I cooked through his latest book. He is a brilliant chef. I like the way his food plays with my head.’
Greg’s reputation as the creator of a new style of cooking known as ‘Modern Middle Eastern’ – which has changed forever the perception of Middle Eastern food in the West – reaches far beyond his native Australia. He has in fact worked all over the world, and travelled extensively, however his dishes remain faithful to the essence of the Middle East, but presented with an unprecedented contemporary flair.
It was through his travels that he went on to produce 6 beautiful books on different cuisines, the latest being “Malouf: New Middle Eastern Food” in 2011, all to continued acclaim. In the same year, he was honoured as “Ambassador” by The American University in Beirut at their inaugural awards ceremony for his achievements in promoting Lebanese cuisine around the world.
Greg’s new restaurant is scheduled to open in Dunai in September 2014. It will be a venue for his modern take on Middle Eastern food. While this might seem a bit like bringing coals to Newcastle, the Gulf States, like the rest of the Middle East, are rather cautious and conservative when it comes to their own food. He hopes the local populace will be as excited by Greg’s imaginative food as people in the West have been.
Greg is a quietly spoken man whose easy-going manner and calm demeanour could not be more at odds with today’s crop of excitable, brash television chefs. He describes himself as ‘just a humble Lebanese-Australian boy from the suburbs’ doing what he loves to do best: cook and eat!