The Gulf and Arabia · Volume 06, The Khaleeji Pearling and Bedouin Coast
Chebab
The UAE
An illustration of the dish, not a photograph of it cooked.
- Time
- 10 hours
- Researched
- 3 sources cited
- Reviewed
- Not yet reviewed from inside the tradition
- Cooked
- Not yet cooked and reported
Cardamom-and-saffron pancakes, an Emirati breakfast dish served with cream cheese, honey or date syrup.
As tradition built it
Makes around 15. Batter rests 2 hours, then overnight.
Ingredients
- 800 g semi-wholemeal flour
- 200 g whole grain wheat flour
- 1.5 litres warm water
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 medium egg
- 1 tbsp ground cardamom
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp turmeric
- ¼ tsp dry yeast
Method
- Combine the water, sugar, yeast, salt and turmeric.
- Mix in the egg, cardamom and 200g of the flour, and beat well.
- Add the remaining flour to a smooth, pourable batter.
- Rest, covered, 2 hours at room temperature, then refrigerate at least 4 hours, or overnight.
- Cook ladlefuls in a lightly oiled non-stick pan on medium heat until firm and dry on one side, flip, and cook through.
- Serve warm with cream cheese, honey or date syrup.
What a modern chef changes
The same batter, cooked on real griddle heat
Rung 5
Method
- Rest the batter the full 24 hours rather than the minimum, in the fridge, for a more developed, faintly sour depth from the slow fermentation.
- Cook on a well-seasoned cast-iron plancha over a Big Green Egg's open heat, genuinely closer to a saj's fierce, dry heat than a domestic non-stick pan.
- Whip the cream cheese with a little of the reserved date syrup before serving, so the condiment itself carries the same flavour the pancake is built to be eaten with, rather than two separate elements plated side by side.