Multicultural foods attract adventurous 'home chefs' at Dubbo's popular cooking classes

The Daily Liberal recently attended the Lebanese Cuisine session with Salam Farachi Taleb at the old CWA building on Wingewarra Street.

Mrs Taleb, a scientist and former classroom teacher, has been sharing her easy-to-follow tips for cooking traditional dishes of her native country, Lebanon.

Several volunteers of various multicultural backgrounds residing and working in Dubbo will be holding cooking classes too, which will be on the regular calendar of go-to-events in the city.

The CWA kitchen overflowed with the aroma of Mrs Taleb's tasty Lebanese foods that were simmering in the cook top and oven. The popular dishes were ones you could often find around dinner tables and she was excited to showcase them to a class of nine enthusiastic home chefs.

She told the group the "top secret" to making the perfect Lebanese meal was the Lebanese seven spices of ground black and white pepper, paprika, cumin, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom, and cinnamon.

Along with a selection of herbs suggested in the recipe such as coriander, mint, and parsley that Kim Howard and Ruby Thompson were chopping on the boards, they made Makloubeh, Fattoush, Batata Harra, and Namoura.

While cooking up a storm, Mrs Taleb's husband, the migrant support worker at Dubbo CCS, Khaled Taleb set the table for a dozen diners, including their two young children who were excited for the Namoura dessert.

Namoura is a typical dessert among Arabic families in Dubbo, Mrs Taleb said, the tantalising smell of rosewater mixed with lemon juice in its syrup is a concoction of semolina, coconut, and yogurt that most children munch in mouthfuls.

As the dessert cools down in a square baking dish, the mix of herbs for the Makloubeh is readied.

Lorraine Manusu and Tristan Cameron neatly cubed the chicken breast mixed with Indian rice, beef mince, cauliflower florets, and eggplant. It is served topped with chopped herbs and almond nuts.

While chopping the meat, Mr Cameron said he's "a bit of a chef at home always trying new recipes to add to my repertoire that Ruby [his partner] enjoys" for dinner.

When family and friends from the northern region visit them, Ms Thompson said "they love it when it's Tristan making dinner because he's pretty adventurous and has the skills".

Ms Thompson said her signature dish is homemade bolognese with fettuccine pasta.

She and Ms Howard prepared the Batata Harra, a spicy cubed potatoes side dish recipe fried in olive oil and mixed with garlic, chilli flakes and coriander with lemon juice.

Aside from Amanda Mackay's typical meat and three veggies dinner, she has picked exotic dishes with lots of herbs and vegetables, such as the Fattoush she's learning to make.

"It's enjoyable making these dishes with Salam because I gather enough confidence to experiment," she said.

Mrs Mackay spends $50 a week on fruits and vegetables and Wayne Parrish is also budgeting food expenses, which was one of the reasons they both joined the cooking class.

"If I cook my meals and stay away from the takeaway, it's economical," Mr Parrish said.

For every Lebanese-style salad such as the Fattoush, Mrs Taleb said it is paired with fried Lebanese bread, browned till crispy.

The pomegranate kernels are served to sprinkle over the greens mixed with radish, garlic, and spring onions. The dressing is lemon juice, salt, olive oil, pomegranate molasses, crushed garlic, and sumac.

Sumac is a red spice made from berry-type fruits of the sumac trees grown in Middle Eastern countries, and can be bought in specialty shops for Meditteranean food spices.

READ ALSO:

"Sumac is one of the spices which are not easy to find so we often buy it online or in Sydney where it's available," Mrs Taleb said.

But for Peta Couvret, a veterinarian nurse in Manilla, near Tamworth, the lack of nearby takeaway shops means she has to be inventive with meal planning.

"It's an hour's drive to get a takeaway so I don't have a choice but to cook, which is good for me that's why I am interested in cooking classes like Salam's," Ms Couvret said.

To join the next multicultural cooking class by Dubbo Connecting Community Services, check their website or call (02) 6883 2300 or email khaledt@dnc.org.au.