Samke harra

Ingredients

The fish

• 1whole white fish
• sea bass or snapper
• about 2 kg, scaled and gutted
• juice of 2 lemons
• salt and olive oil

The tahini sauce

• 300 gtahini
• juice of 4 lemons
• about 200 ml water
• 6garlic cloves, crushed
• salt

The hot base

• 2onions, chopped
• 2red peppers, chopped
• 3hot chillies, chopped
• a large bunch coriander
• chopped
• 1 teaspoonground coriander
• 4 tablespoonsolive oil

To finish

• 100 gwalnuts
• toasted and chopped
• 50 gpine nuts, toasted
• pomegranate seeds
• extra coriander

Directions

1. Keep adding the liquid gradually. It becomes smooth and pale again. Add the lemon juice first of all. It should pour like double cream. Score the fish deeply on both sides. Cut three or four slashes each side. Cut right down almost to the bone. That helps it cook evenly through.
2. Rub lemon, salt and oil over the fish. Work it right into the slashes. Rub it inside the cavity as well. Let it sit for thirty minutes. Bake the fish at two hundred degrees. A two kilo fish takes about thirty minutes. Take it to about three quarters done. Making the hot base is the next stage.
3. Heat the oil in a wide frying pan. Add the onion and the red pepper. Cook them for about twelve minutes. They should soften completely through. Add the chopped chillies to the pan. Cook them for about three minutes. Adjust the quantity to your taste. Three chillies makes it genuinely hot.
4. Stir the chopped coriander in. Add it near the end of cooking. Two full minutes is quite enough. Put the tahini in a large bowl. Use a bowl larger than seems needed. Start with the plain tahini alone. Whisk the lemon juice into the tahini. It seizes and goes stiff at once. Keep whisking it right through. Whisk the water in very gradually. Add a spoonful at a time only.
5. Whisk it smooth before the next. Different tahinis need different amounts. Add more water if it thickens later. Whisk the crushed garlic into it. Crush it to a paste with salt first. Use the flat of a large knife.
6. Taste it and season the sauce. It should be sharp, garlicky and salty. Add more lemon if it tastes heavy. Add salt gradually and taste again. Stir the hot base into the tahini sauce. Fold them together thoroughly. Pour the sauce over the part-baked fish. Cover the whole fish generously. Let it run down into the slashes. Let it pool around the fish too.
7. Return it to the oven at one hundred and eighty. Give it about fifteen minutes more. Check it at the very thickest point. Fish should reach sixty-three degrees.
8. Check it at the thickest part. Toasting the nuts is done meanwhile. Toast the walnuts and pine nuts. Toast them separately from each other. Shake the pan constantly throughout. Pine nuts take about two minutes. Tip them out of the pan at once.
9. Scatter the toasted nuts over the fish. Added any earlier they go soft. Scatter them over quite generously. Scatter pomegranate seeds over it. Add fresh coriander over as well. Serving it is always done hot. Serve the whole fish on a platter. Warm flatbread is served as well. Leftovers keep two days refrigerated.

Technique

• Tahini is made entirely from sesame and coats the whole fish invisibly as a sauce, while walnuts and pine nuts scatter over the top — say clearly what is in the dish, since sesame and tree nut allergies can both be severe and nothing about the sauce announces the sesame.
• Tahini seizes when the lemon juice goes in, going stiff, grainy and noticeably darker in a way that looks entirely wrong — that is normal, since the liquid disrupts the sesame fat and solids and the mixture tightens before it loosens. Add water a spoonful at a time, whisking smooth before the next, and it becomes pale and glossy again. Judge it by consistency rather than measurement, since different tahinis need different amounts.
• Bake the fish only to about three quarters done before the sauce goes on, since it keeps cooking through the fifteen minutes under it. Lower the oven for that second stage too, since tahini catches and burns readily and a high oven scorches the sauce.

Substitutions

• Toast the pine nuts and walnuts separately, since pine nuts brown in about two minutes and walnuts take five, and both burn within seconds of browning — shake the pan constantly and tip them out at once.
• Northern Lebanese versions lean heavily on tahini and chilli where southern ones use less of both; the atlas gives the Tripoli version.

Variations

• A whole large bunch of coriander goes into the hot base as a main ingredient rather than a garnish, added near the end since it wilts immediately and turns dark and bitter with long cooking.
• Crush the garlic to a paste with salt using the flat of a knife, since chopped garlic sits in harsh lumps through a smooth sauce.
• Scatter the toasted nuts just before serving rather than earlier, since they go soft under the sauce and their crunch is much of the point; pomegranate seeds add sharp bursts of sweetness and look striking against the pale green.

History

Tripoli speciality served whole at celebrations; the northern version leans heavily on tahini and chilli.

Frequently asked questions

What is Samke harra?

Samke harra is a main from Lebanon: baked fish under a hot sauce of tahini, chilli, coriander and walnut. Tripoli speciality served whole at celebrations; the northern version leans heavily on tahini and chilli.

How long does Samke harra take to make?

Samke harra takes 40 minutes of preparation and 50 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes serves 6. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Samke harra?

Yes, within limits. Toast the pine nuts and walnuts separately, since pine nuts brown in about two minutes and walnuts take five, and both burn within seconds of browning — shake the pan constantly and tip them out at once. Northern Lebanese versions lean heavily on tahini and chilli where southern ones use less of both; the atlas gives the Tripoli version.

What is the most important thing to get right in Samke harra?

Taste it and season the sauce. It should be sharp, garlicky and salty. Add more lemon if it tastes heavy. Add salt gradually and taste again. Stir the hot base into the tahini sauce. Fold them together thoroughly. Pour the sauce over the part-baked fish. Cover the whole fish generously. Let it run down into the slashes. Let it pool around the fish too.