This Einliche Jordanian dish is the best way to use your summer tomatoes

In Jordan, where I grew up, Galayet Bandora is a staple, and there is no better way to cook too many tomatoes. Tomatoes are cooked with a lot of olive oil, plenty of cut garlic and a little fresh green chilli peppers and simply seasoned with salt and black pepper. It comes together with very few ingredients, but it is so popular that it is considered one of the country’s national courts. As a rule, it can also be eaten with warm pita, it can also be eaten with a variety of rice dishes. His strength is in its simplicity.

While Galayet Bandora means “fried tomatoes” or “fried tomatoes” in Arabic, the tomatoes are not fried at all in this dish. Instead, they cooked on the stove until they collapsed and concentrated in a deeply hearty and of course sweet, stew -like dish. The “brat” in the name is probably an allusion to the spacious amount of olive oil in which they are cooked.

The best way to use your tomato excess

This is the dish that I turn to when the dizzying beautiful selection of varieties, shapes and colors of the tomato season is predictable on the farmers’ market and carried over-shop. The short of the season only encourages my tomato hoarding habits. It is the brightest and colorful route of the year and the one I look forward to. This dish is particularly good for the tomatoes that are too soft for A sandwich or CapreseIt is also a great way to use many of them.

It is one of my favorites – and most nostalgic – that I can cook through my transport. Since the list of ingredients is short, it is worth looking for tomatoes in the season, mature and local (if possible), which are naturally sweet and tastier than the kartboard-like that you often find in the supermarket. A fruity, peppery olive oil extraviregry plays seamlessly with the grass and Umami notes of the tomatoes. So few ingredients, but they come together to create a variety of flavors.

My version of Galayet Bandora: with heat, texture and tang

Galayet Bandora – With a hard “G” in the typical Jordanian dialect, but Alayet Bandora in my West Amman City Girl Accent – often contains a whole green Chile pepper (in this case, a Serrano), which is evaporating in the sauce. After traditional preparations, I first start an entire green chilli (usually a Serrano) in olive oil until it is brown and soft. Then I add a second hacked chile to get more warmth. The whole chile cooks like a spicy laurel leaf in the sauce – except that it actually gives something unmistakable. (Okay, good, laurel leaves do something too. But that does more and gives a subtle grass -covered warmth.)

I also touch roughly chopped yellow onions for texture (something that my mother always does) and end the dish with a dash of pomegranate melace. The bit is not traditional, but the molasses give a spicy pop and depth to add the brightness of the tomatoes and the wealth of olive oil. While the tomatoes take the time to simmer down, the preparation is quick, cooking is usually hand-off and everything happens in a Pfanne simply roll it away, and stir it occasionally, especially towards the end, when the mixture becomes more concentrated and susceptible to gluing and extraction.

How to serve galayet bandora

This dish is a complete celebration of the tomato-so-central and satisfactory that it is considered a main course in all of Jordan. Since it is made from far -reaching ingredients, it is exceptionally accessible, but is also extremely tasteful. It is usually eaten by tearing off the poor pieces of Pita and creating the cooked tomatoes, a method called Taghmees, which means “immersion”. The same approach is used for eating by mezze as Hummus And MuhammaraAmong other things. It is an intimate way to eat that, if they are done correctly, should not make your fingers chaotic. But if you decide to go with a spoon, I promise not to judge.

Why I love this dish

I always found it meaningful that this dish, which feels for Jordanian domestic food, is in strong contrast Mansafthe other national court in the country. Mansaf is great and ceremonial with a fermented, dried yogurt that is soaked overnight in a sauce made of Jameed, a fermented, dried yogurt. It is served over a thin flat bread called Shrak, layered with yellow rice and covered with roasted almonds. In comparison, Galayet Bandora is easy, on weekdays -friendly and completely vegetable. The two could not be more different: one relies on special ingredients and long preparation; The other comes together with what is fresh and at hand. This contrast is proof of the dynamic and far -reaching culinary traditions of the Levante. And for me, Galayet Bandora is one of my favorite methods to celebrate the fleeting tomato season – still the happiest time of the year.

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