Bazergan is made with Bulgur – which is cracked wheat, but use the fine grade, as there are coarser grades. Bulgur is also a staple ingredient in Tabouli salad.
Bazergan receipe:
1 cup fine cracked wheat
1 small onion, finely chopped
3 Tbs oil
2 T. lemon juice
8 TBS. Temerhindi (Tamarind concentrate, Setton’s make a jar) or you can subsitute prune butter
3 TBS. Tomato paste
2 teaspoons cumin
Salt to taste
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pinenuts (optional)
Soak the bulgur in hot water for 15 minutes and drain (use fine mesh colander as the bulgur is small) Add the drained bulgur to a mixing bowl. Add all the ingredients except for nuts, and combine well. Before serving garnish with nuts &/or chopped parsly. Enjoy. You can make it spicy by adding a little crushed red pepper. But Syrians don’t really make their food spicy in the hot sense. Enjoy and let us know if it came out tasty!!
The Deal Delights cookbook was a great cook book put together by the Sisterhood of Deal. It has been out of print for a while. Poopa Dweck who wrote the Aleppo cookbook, was the Editor of the Deal cookbook.