Moorish: Vibrant recipes from the Mediterranean

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Stir the yeast into 50ml of the warm water, then allow it to sit for a few minutes until it has dissolved.

After the 1½ hours has elapsed, add the preserved lemons and apricots to the stew, stir well and leave it all to cook slowly with the lid off for a further 30 minutes. Fluff the rice up with a fork and add a few extra knobs of butter. Fold in the chopped apricots, dried chopped cranberries, toasted pine nuts and pistachios. Ghayour then published Sirocco (2016) and Feasts (2017). Her fourth book, Bazaar – Vibrant Vegetarian Recipes, was published in 2019.After completing her education, Ghayour was employed by restaurateurs such as Ken Hom and worked in corporate catering in the City of London for around fifteen years. [3] To cook the lamb mince, heat a large frying pan over a high heat and drizzle in enough vegetable oil to coat the base of the pan. Fry the onion until golden brown, then add the minced lamb and mix well to break down the meat and combine it with the onion. Add the turmeric, cumin and cinnamon and mix well until the spices evenly coat the meat. Cook for 8-10 minutes until the meat is brown and cooked through, then take off the heat and set aside. To prepare the marinade, thoroughly blend the ingredients in a mixing bowl until the sugar dissolves. Add the prawns and work the marinade into them using your hands. Cover the bowl with clingfilm and allow to marinate at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Pour enough vegetable oil into a deep-frying pan to fill a depth of 2cm/¾in. Heat the oil over a medium-high heat and bring to frying temperature. (CAUTION: hot oil can be dangerous. Do not leave unattended.) Line a plate with kitchen paper. This dish is more than just a simple broth – it is a wonderfully hearty meal and offers a great way of using up vegetables. There are no rules – it should contain whatever you find lying around the house and in your fridge. Preheat a griddle pan over a medium-high heat. Brush the aubergine slices with olive oil on one side and chargrill for about 6‑8 minutes on each side, brushing the reverse side with more oil as you turn them over, until the texture softens and they are cooked through with nice griddle marks. Set aside. To make the dressing, mix all of the ingredients together in a small bowl and season with salt and pepper.

To make the fatteh, heat the oil in a frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add the minced beef and immediately break it up as finely as you can to prevent it cooking in clumps, adding the spices and garlic granules as you do so. Season generously with salt and pepper and cook until the meat is well browned, then set aside. Preheat a large saucepan over a medium-high heat. Fill the pan with boiling water and add the rice with a generous handful of crumbled sea salt. Boil for 6-8 minutes until the rice is parboiled. You will know it is parboiled when the colour of the grains turns from the normal dullish white to a more brilliant white and the grains become slightly elongated and begin to soften. To make the tomato sauce, dry-fry the cumin seeds in a large saucepan over a medium heat for 1–2 minutes until they release their aroma. Heat the oil in the pan and fry the onions until nicely browned around the edges. Using a pastry brush, brush the exposed flesh sides of each aubergine wedge with a good amount of olive oil. Arrange the wedges, skin-sides down, on the prepared baking tray, then sprinkle liberally with the cumin seeds, ensuring some seeds land on the exposed flesh of the wedges. Roast for 45-60 minutes or until the aubergine wedges are golden brown, with dark, burnished edges. Arrange the wedges on a large, flat platter and season well with salt and pepper.

Towards the end of the cooking time, drain and rinse the mussels and clams. Pull the beards off the mussels and give them a gentle scrub. To make the fried onions, heat the oil and fry the onions until deeply browned and crispy. Transfer to drain on kitchen paper. Shape the mixture into approximately 24 meatballs, about the size of table tennis balls. Gently roll them to elongate them into long sausage shapes. Stir the tomato sauce and place the kefta in the sauce, ensuring some of the sauce covers the kefta. Cook for 30 minutes with the lid ajar, stirring carefully halfway through and shaking the pan to ensure the kefta cook through and are immersed in sauce. Meanwhile, put the beaten eggs into a small, shallow bowl and season with salt and pepper. Put the flour and all the spices into another shallow bowl, season generously with salt and pepper and mix until evenly combined. Coat each piece of fish evenly in the seasoned flour, shaking off any excess, then dip it into the egg mixture until fully coated, and finish by dredging it in the flour mixture again, ensuring each piece is well coated. Repeat until all the pieces are coated. Fry the fish in the second pan of oil until the batter is crispy and a deep golden brown. To make the meatballs, preheat a large frying pan over a medium heat. Put all the ingredients, except the oil, in a large mixing bowl and, using your hands, mix everything together really well for 6-8 minutes, ensuring you break up all the clumps of lamb so that everything is combined and the mixture is smooth – this will make for light and smooth meatballs.After spending the majority of her life in London (she fled Tehran after the Iranian revolution in 1979), the 45-year-old cook now lives in Yorkshire with her husband Stephen and stepsons Olly, nine, and Connor, thirteen, who is a man of few words but equally sneaky.