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Kempinski Grand & Ixir Hotel’s flavourful Baharat restaurant, located in Bahrain City Centre, is taking the spice out of its kitchen straight into the homes of fine food lovers with a series of special culinary sessions.
Baharat, which means spices in Arabic, has been tantalising guests taste buds since its official launch last month, attracting food aficionados from across the kingdom to sample its menu, which offers traditional Arabic cuisine with a modern twist.
The mouth-watering creations were inspired by Moroccan Chef de Cuisine Issam Seddoq. He brings a wealth of knowledge to the dining table from his previous experiences working in Marrakech, Saudi Arabia and Dubai.
His passion for cooking started at an early age, slaving away in a hot kitchen alongside his father, a leading pastry chef in Morocco.
He specialises in Lebanese, Egyptian, Turkish, Iranian and Moroccan cuisine, which are all offered up at the venue’s buffet arena, and also creates his own spice mixes to personalise his cookery.
His menu has become such a delight that it has left guests wanting more, which is how the cooking class came about.
Chef Issam said: “Many people ask me about our dishes. What is the recipe? How do you make your spices? I love to cook and am flattered that they love our food so much that I want to share our secrets with them.
“This is the first cooking class and I aim to teach the students to cook with patience and love because when you do, it all adds to the taste. They will learn how to use simple ingredients to create big flavours with everything that you can find at home.”
The recipe of the day was a tasty Moroccan dish known as fish tagine. Tagine is a rich stew of meat, chicken, or fish, and most often includes vegetables or fruit.
My mother once told me that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. However, by some stroke of luck, I managed to nab myself a man without having any culinary experience. Mind you, I have also come to realise that while he will be loved, my future husband will no doubt starve unless I start showing some prowess in the kitchen.
Hence, this class was the right course of action and Chef Issam was the man with the plan.
The restaurant was transformed into a large kitchen for the class. The marble countertops were laid out with fresh veggies, bowls of seasoning and the stars of the show, large hammours.
Being one of the six students, I was ready to grab my fish by the tail and scale new culinary heights. Chef Issam demonstrated his skill of filleting a fish in record time and even showed us how to tell a fresh fish from an older one. He then asked us to buddy up and fillet a fish together as a team.
I immediately made friends with Tejas Omudhakar, 38, an independent health care consultant, from Saar. She was my cooking companion and, at times, my photographer. She had heard about the cooking class online and quickly signed up. She said: “I am interested in learning more about authentic Arabic cuisine and taking it to a gourmet level. I want to learn something I can make at home and for special occasions.”
Tejas passed the fish, which we called Smelly, and the cleaning process began. Using the back side of the knife, I was instructed to rub the dull part against the fish gently, tail side up. Once Smelly has been shaved and carefully held, to avoid any cuts, he was sliced near the spine from head-to-tail.
Then it was a case of slowly slicing the skin inwards until a nice cut of fish appeared. The fillet was placed with the skin side down on a cutting board. Using a flat knife, once again I gently, peeled the skin off. The last step involved removing any hidden bones by grabbing a large tweezer and plucking them out.
Once I finished, I handed Smelly to my buddy for her to fillet the other side. Then everyone moved onto a second cooking station to create the marinade Charmoula sauce. The spice mix was simple and included fresh coriander and parsley, lemon juice, olive juice, cumin, red chilli powder or paprika and salt to taste.
Afterwards the fillet was placed in the sauce and set aside to marinade.
Meanwhile, Chef Issam showed the class how to make their own pickled veggies, cucumbers and lemons at home.
When the fish was ready, we began to form the tagine from a basket of veggies. The bottom of mine was layered with sliced white onions, potatoes, carrots, green peppers, whole green Thai chillies, olives and then the fish. But I didn’t stop there. I then placed minced garlic, fresh thyme, and drizzled pickled olives, chillies and veggies on my fish.
The tagine was then covered and placed on a charcoal grill (or in the oven) for about 35 minutes until cooked.
Then we made a simple savoury carrot salad with a charmoula sauce. Its zesty lemon was refreshing and the dish proved to be a juicy appetiser.
The class ended on a high note, tasting our creations together and picking the chef’s brain for further wisdom.
I went home feeling as though I had conquered my dish with a gold star, however it could have used a pinch more salt. I am proud to say though that after taking his class, this clumsy workaholic can now cook confidently and with no fear of burning the house down.
