In This Lebanese Family, It’s Not Shabbat Without Hamod

Photo by Dave Katz

Shared by Nina Dahan
Recipe Roots: Beirut > London > New York City

“I make it my business to stop by my parents' [home] every Friday afternoon to say Shabbat shalom with my kids,” Nina Dahan explains. During the pandemic, “We’re just doing it in the backyard.” Those visits are also when Nina gets her Lebanese hamod fix, a lemony potato soup made with celery and garlic that’s served over rice and, in her family, alongside peas cooked with allspice and onions.

Hamod, also spelled hamud, is popular among Iraqi and Syrian Jewish families as well, though its style and preparation varies, some families prepare it as a soup, while others eat it as a sauce with rice. The rendition in Nina’s family comes from Beirut by way of London. 

When Nina was a baby in 1970 — five years before a civil war broke out and many of the country’s Jews fled — her family left for Europe for her father Marco’s job. They moved to Geneva and later to London.

Vicky was still finding her way in the kitchen when they arrived in London and getting accustomed to the goods sold in English markets. “She basically taught herself how to cook from what she knew,” Nina explains. Her mother used cookbooks and made short long distance phone calls home. “You had to speak very quickly because they [were] charging you crazy amounts of money,” she remembers. 

Vicky’s culinary education and Nina’s, continued when Nina’s grandmothers Farha and Sarieh would visit from Israel where part of the family moved. “We had no family in England and we were totally alone. They would come live with us for months, three or four months at a time, in England. Growing up as a kid, that was my family,” Nina recalls. 

It was Farha, Vicky’s mother, who taught her daughter how to make the hamod initially. But, Sarieh made a version as well and taught Nina to make the kibbeh, or meatballs with rice, that are sometimes added to the dish in the family. The two renditions of hamod melded, Nina says, and were adapted by Vicky to work with what was available in supermarkets in London in the 1970s and early 1980s. Sometimes zucchini was added, other times, Swiss chard. Vicky doesn’t call her cooking Lebanese, Nina explains, rather she makes classic recipes filtered through an English lens. 

When it came to mahshi, or stuffed vegetables, that are served in the family at every holiday meal including Rosh Hashanah and Sukkot, adaptations were needed too. In London at the time, Vicky couldn’t find eggplant or small zucchini, so she sliced large zucchini and made the traditional stuffed onion sleeves in a sweet and sour sauce of lemon juice, pomegranate molasses, tomato paste and sugar. 

In 1984, the family moved again, this time to New York, both for Marco’s job and seeking a larger Jewish community. With the move, came the family recipes, which have been passed down to Nina who works as a registered dietician. She’s mastered mahshi and can make the family hamod. Still, she prefers her mother’s. Thankfully, when she arrives every Friday for her visit in her parents’ backyard, she says, “My mother always has a plate of hamod ready for me.”

Hamod

Makes: 4 to 6 servings
Total Time: 2 hours

Ingredients
For the kibbeh (stuffed meatballs):
¾ pound ground beef
1 cup rice flour
1 ½  teaspoons salt
4 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons parsley, finely chopped
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 tablespoon olive oil

For the soup:
3 celery stalks, sliced thinly, leaves chopped and reserved separately
3 Yukon gold potatoes, cut into ½ inch cubes5 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
½ cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon salt
5 cups water, vegetable broth or chicken broth
⅛ teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 to 3 tablespoons dried mint (optional)

Preparation
1. Make the kibbeh: Place ½ pound of ground beef, rice flour and 1 teaspoon salt into a food processor. Process for about 4 minutes or until combined well and smooth. Gradually add up to 4 tablespoons of water and blend after each addition of a water, until a smooth dough-like consistency is formed. Transfer out of the processor and set aside.

2. Make the kibbeh stuffing: Mix ¼ pound beef, ½ teaspoon salt, allspice and parsley until combined. Take ½ teaspoon of the mixture, roll it into a small meatball and place it onto a sheet tray. Continue with the remaining mixture until you've formed about 35 meatballs. Freeze these small meatballs for about 20 minutes.

3. Shape the kibbeh: Transfer the small frozen meatballs from the freezer. Take about ½ tablespoon of the rice flour and meat mixture and roll it into a ball between your palms and flatten into a flat disk about 2 inches wide. Place one small frozen meatball in the center of the disk and fold the outer layer over itself, pinching the seams and rolling between your palm to form a sealed larger kibbeh ball. Repeat with the remaining mixture shaping 35 kibbeh balls.

4. Place the olive oil in a wide pan over medium high heat. Place as many kibbeh balls that can fit into the pot and sear until golden brown on all sides, about 3 to 5 minutes each side. Repeat in batches until all the kibbeh balls are seared.

5. Make the soup: Place 1 tablespoon of oil into a pot over medium heat and saute the garlic until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the celery, potatoes, lemon juice, salt, water, sugar and dried mint (if using). Mix and bring the mixture to a boil.

6. Once the soup is boiling, gently place the kibbeh balls into the soup. Cook on a simmer until the potatoes are fork tender and the kibbeh balls are cooking through, about 35 to 40 minutes.

7. Serve hot and garnish with fresh mint and radish.

Zucchini Mahshi (Stuffed Zucchini with Beef and Rice)

Photo by Dave Katz

Makes: 4 to 6 servings
Total Time: 2 hours

Ingredients
8 to 10 zucchini
1 tablespoon neutral oil

For the stuffing:
1 pound ground beef
¾ cup arborio rice
1 tablespoon allspice
1 teaspoon salt

For the sauce:
 ½ cup lemon juice
¼ cup pomegranate molasses
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon sugar 
1 ½  tablespoon salt 
Water

Preparation
1. Shape the zucchini: Remove the stems, and peel the zucchini in a striped pattern. Using an apple corer, core out the center cavity of each zucchini, leaving about ½ an inch of zucchini meat on the edges.

2. Make the filling: Place the beef, rice, allspice and salt into a bowl. Mix well until combined.

3. Stuff the cavity of each zucchini with enough meat to fill it up with ¼ of an inch space on each side (the filling will expand as it cooks).

4. Make the sauce: Combine the lemon juice, pomegranate molasses, tomato paste, sugar and salt into a bowl, mix well.

5. Place 1 tablespoon of oil into a wide pot over medium heat. Once the oil is hot, place the stuffed zucchini into the oil and sear on all sides until golden brown, about 3 minutes per side.

6. Pour the sauce over the zucchini. Add enough water to cover the zucchini about ¾ up the way. Place a lid on the pot and cook over medium to medium low heat or on a simmer for about 40 minutes or until the meat and rice is cooked through and the sauce reduces and thickens.

7. Serve hot.

Onion Mahshi (Stuffed Onions with Beef and Rice)

Photo by Dave Katz

Makes: 4 to 6 servings
Total Time: 1 hour and 30 minutes

Ingredients
4 large yellow onions

For the stuffing:
1 pound ground beef
¾ cup arborio rice
1 tablespoon allspice
1 teaspoon salt

For the sauce:
½ cup pomegranate molasses
½ cup water
1 ½  tablespoon salt
1  teaspoon sugar

Preparation
1. Fill up a large pot halfway with water and bring it to a boil over high heat.

2. Peel and cut off the roots off of the onions. Make a lengthwise slit to reach the center of  each onion (cutting only halfway through the onions). 

3. Once the water is boiling, add the onions into the pot and boil for about 10 to 15 minutes or until the onions soften and their layers start separating. Drain the onions and set aside until cool enough to handle.

4. Make the stuffing: Place the beef, allspice, rice and salt into a bowl and mix until combined. 

5. Gently peel the layers of each onion making sure each layer stays intact and does not tear.

6. Place about 1 to 2 tablespoons of the meat mixture into one end of the inside of a piece of onion. Roll up the onion layer to seal the meat mixture and create a torpedo shape. Repeat, filling and shaping the remaining onion layers with the meat mixture.

7. Preheat the oven to 360 degrees.

8. Make the sauce: Place the pomegranate molasses, water, salt and sugar into a bowl and mix until combined. 

9. Place the onions into a medium sized baking pan. Pack the stuffed onions tights and place them in two layers if needed.

10. Pour the sauce over the onions. Add enough water to cover ¾ the way up the onions. Cover the baking pan with aluminum foil and bake in the oven for about 30 minutes or until the rice and meat is cooked. Uncover and continue cooking for another 15 to 20 minutes until the sauce thickens. 

11. Serve hot.

Bazela (Peas with Allspice)

Photo by Dave Katz

Makes: 4 servings
Total Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons ground allspice
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons water
2 10 ounce bags of frozen petite peas, defrosted

Preparation
1. Place the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onions once the oil is hot and saute until soft, about 10 minutes.

2. Add the tomato paste and allspice and mix well, cooking for about 5 more minutes. 

3. Add the peas, salt and water and saute the mixture for about 20 minutes until the peas are tender and coated with the sauce.