I am often asked if I think food is a tool for peace. I am asked this because I, a Jew born and raised in Jerusalem, set up a restaurant business with Sami Tamimi, a Palestinian born and raised in the same city.
In our cookbook Jerusalem, Sami and I look into how central hummus is to both our cultures, and how debates about ownership of that dish and its heritage have often fuelled the political argument. But I would argue that food (hummus or otherwise) has just as much power to bring people together as it does to force them apart. While it would be flippant to suggest that hummus per se is a tool for peace, there is something very real about the act of bringing people together around a table to eat, whatever their differences: the very act of cooking and sharing food is a unifying one. It’s certainly a good place to start, if nothing else.
To mark the 30th anniversary of the UN’s International Day Of Peace earlier this week, International Alert, a leading peace-building organisation, is currently holding its third annual Talking Peace festival. As part of the event, which runs until 2 October, they’ve set up the Conflict Cafe on London’s South Bank, which will serve food from Lebanon to begin with and later from Sri Lanka. The doors are now open and the communal tables are all set up, so do pop along if you can, to share some food in support of peace.
When I was putting together this week’s grape-based recipes, the sight of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes Of Wrath on my bookshelves made me smile. The link may seem a little tenuous, not least because those forced from their land in the 1939 novel are economic rather than political migrants, but the synchronicity between then and now is clear, in my mind, at least. Today’s dishes could have been united by anything, really (chickpeas, grapes, aubergines) because what you’re eating matters less than the act of sharing food, which really does matter. It’s not the only tool for peace, true, but it is a step in the right direction.
Burrata with chargrilled grapes and basil
If you can’t get hold of burrata, use buffalo mozzarella instead. This is enough to serve six as a generous first course, or as a light lunch with some crusty bread to mop up the dressing.
300g seedless red grapes
2 tbsp valdespino (or other top-quality sherry) vinegar
3 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
1½ tsp soft dark brown sugar
1½ tsp fennel seeds, toasted and lightly crushed
Flaky sea salt and black pepper
12 18cm-long wooden skewers
3 balls burrata (or buffalo mozzarella; 600g net weight)
6 small sprigs red or green basil, to serve
Put the grapes in a medium bowl with the vinegar, oil, garlic, sugar, a teaspoon of fennel seeds, a quarter-teaspoon of salt and plenty of black pepper. Using your hands, toss to coat, then set aside to marinate for half an hour (or even longer, especially if you want to prepare the grapes ahead of time). Skewer six or seven grapes on to each stick, and reserve the marinade – you’ll need it for serving.
Put a ridged griddle pan on a high heat and ventilate your kitchen. Once the pan is good and hot, grill the grape skewers in batches for two to three minutes in total, turning them over halfway through. Remove from the heat and keep warm while you griddle the remaining skewers.
To serve, tear each ball of burrata in two and put one half on each of six plates. Arrange two grape skewers per portion, so they’re leaning against half-cheeses, then spoon a teaspoon and a half of the reserved marinade over each portion. Sprinkle over the remaining fennel seeds, garnish each plate with a sprig of basil and serve.
Grilled chicken with muscat grapes and fennel
Muscat grapes are particularly sweet and floral, but other red grapes will work here just as well. Use a mandoline, if you have one, to slice the onion and fennel, because you want them really thin for this dish. Serves four as a main course.
4 skinless chicken breasts (500g)
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp rosemary leaves, finely chopped
1½ tbsp thyme leaves, finely chopped
Salt and black pepper
1 tbsp caster sugar
60ml red-wine vinegar
1 cinnamon stick
2 tsp sumac
¼ tsp black peppercorns, crushed
150g muscat grapes (or seedless red grapes)
80g red onion, peeled and sliced into 1-2mm-thick rounds
2-3 small fennel bulbs, trimmed and sliced 1-2mm thick
2 tsp fennel seeds, toasted and lightly crushed
20g basil leaves, torn
10g tarragon leaves
In a bowl, combine the chicken with a tablespoon of oil, the rosemary, thyme, half a teaspoon of salt and plenty of pepper, then refrigerate for an hour.
Heat the oven to 220C/425F/gas mark 7. Heat a large frying pan on a medium-high flame, then fry the chicken breasts for five minutes, turning them once halfway through, until golden brown. Transfer the chicken to a small baking tray and roast for 10 minutes, until cooked through. Once the chicken is cool enough to handle, tear it into roughly 4cm pieces and put it in a bowl. (If you’re not serving up any time soon, cover and refrigerate the cooked chicken at this stage; take it out of the fridge 30 minutes before using.)
Put the sugar, vinegar, cinnamon, a teaspoon of sumac, a quarter-teaspoon of salt and some pepper in a small saucepan and place on a high heat for a minute or two, until the sugar has dissolved. Tip this into a medium bowl with the grapes and red onion, and leave to marinade for 30 minutes, stirring from time to time.
To serve, pour the grape mix over the chicken and toss to combine. In a small bowl, mix the fennel, fennel seeds, basil and tarragon with the remaining two tablespoons of oil and another quarter-teaspoon of salt, then add to the chicken bowl and give everything a very gentle final stir. Serve on a platter, with the final teaspoon of sumac sprinkled on top.
Grape and pomegranate granita with vodka and mint
Make this a day ahead. If you fancy intensifying the booziness of the granita, put a bottle of vodka in the freezer an hour before serving, then drizzle a little over the top of each portion as you serve it – you’ll have to do this at the table, because the vodka will melt the granita. Serves four, generously.
100g caster sugar
100ml water
3 large sprigs fresh mint, plus 4 small sprigs, to serve
700g black (or as dark as you can get) seedless grapes
100ml good-quality pomegranate juice
50ml vodka (or gin)
60g pomegranate seeds (ie, the seeds from ½ small pomegranate)
Put the sugar and water in a small saucepan on a high heat. Once the sugar has dissolved, add the larger mint sprigs and boil for a minute. Turn off the heat, leave to infuse and discard the mint sprigs when cool. Pour the syrup into a large bowl.
Put the grapes in a food processor and blitz, skin and all, until very finely chopped. Put a large sieve over the sugar syrup bowl, and pass the grape mixture through it, so the juice drops into the syrup; discard the skin debris. Add the pomegranate juice and vodka to the bowl, stir to combine, then pour into a plastic freezerproof container for which you have a lid.
Freeze uncovered for two hours, then use a fork to scrape any frozen crystals from the sides of the container into the centre, and stir to intersperse into the unfrozen liquid. Return to the freezer and repeat this scraping and stirring every two hours, until the liquid is completely frozen and crystallised – this should take about eight hours in total, and the mix will resemble snow. Cover and freeze overnight.
Five minutes before serving, take the granita out of the freezer and stir with a fork to separate the crystals. Spoon into four bowls or glasses, sprinkle with the pomegranate seeds and perhaps a little extra vodka, top each portion with a small mint sprig and serve immediately.
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