Lebanese Spicy Fish Recipe Samke Harra
Nutritional Info
- Servings Per Recipe: 4
- Amount Per Serving
- Calories: 1,033.2
- Total Fat: 54.3 g
- Cholesterol: 80.4 mg
- Sodium: 1,890.7 mg
- Total Carbs: 74.4 g
- Dietary Fiber: 6.5 g
- Protein: 70.1 g
View full nutritional breakdown of Lebanese Spicy Fish Recipe Samke Harra calories by ingredient
Introduction
Background: “Samke Harra” translated from Arabic into Hot or Spicy Fish is a popular specialty dish of the port city of Tripoli El-Mina, Lebanon. One specific restaurant I recall from childhood is “Abou Fadi” which carries the name of its old late owner who himself was a fisherman. Abou Fadi made the best Samke Harra sandwiches hands down at least back in the day, because he always used fresh fish! Today his place is called “Malak El Samkeh Harrah” which means the King of Spicy Fish and I heard that it’s run by his children. Fortunately we found this random youtube video about the restaurant for the curious…Samke Harra is made of baked fish, a spicy tahini sauce and other spices and ingredients and can be eaten as a sandwich, or served in plates. It makes for a nice dinner if you have people over. Mom used to make it on special occasions when we had people over for dinner so it was a treat for us… We’ve tried eating Samkeh Harrah out in different places in Lebanon and outside of the country, and to be honest the best recipe ever was that of the people of Tripoli El-Mina so this is the one we’re going to feature today.
Background: “Samke Harra” translated from Arabic into Hot or Spicy Fish is a popular specialty dish of the port city of Tripoli El-Mina, Lebanon. One specific restaurant I recall from childhood is “Abou Fadi” which carries the name of its old late owner who himself was a fisherman. Abou Fadi made the best Samke Harra sandwiches hands down at least back in the day, because he always used fresh fish! Today his place is called “Malak El Samkeh Harrah” which means the King of Spicy Fish and I heard that it’s run by his children. Fortunately we found this random youtube video about the restaurant for the curious…
Samke Harra is made of baked fish, a spicy tahini sauce and other spices and ingredients and can be eaten as a sandwich, or served in plates. It makes for a nice dinner if you have people over. Mom used to make it on special occasions when we had people over for dinner so it was a treat for us… We’ve tried eating Samkeh Harrah out in different places in Lebanon and outside of the country, and to be honest the best recipe ever was that of the people of Tripoli El-Mina so this is the one we’re going to feature today.
Number of Servings: 4
Ingredients
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Ingredients: 4 Servings
• 1 Kilor (or about 2 lbs) of Fresh Red Snapper (or Rock Cod, LingCod, or even Alskan Cod)
• Olive Oil
• 1.5 cups Freshly squeezed Lemon Juice
• 17 cloves of garlic
• 1.5 cups of Tahini sauce
• 4 cups of water
• 1 tablespoon of salt
• 5-6 tablespoons of coriander or to taste
• 1 tablespoon of hot chili powder or to taste
• 1 cup of Pine nuts
• Green Italian Parsley (chopped)
Directions
Preparation:
Rub fish with white vinegar and salt then rinse with cold water in order to tame down any smell. Grease the cooking tray with a tiny sprinkle of olive oil so it doesn’t stick, cut slits in fish (or just lay the filets on the tray if you bought filets), rub a tablespoon amount of olive oil and sprinkle a few drops of lemon juice on the fish filets. And if you’re cooking a whole scaled fish, then insert lemon slices inside the fish for flavoring. Bake at 300 degrees F for 20-25 minutes. If it looks like it’s getting dry, squeeze a bit more lemon juice on top of the fish.
Sauce:
In a small pan, mix 1 cup of pine nuts with 1-2 tablespoon of olive oil and cook on medium heat for about 3 minutes or until lightly browned. Take half of the pine nuts and grind them with a mortar and pestle, you will need to add them to the sauce. Keep the remaining pine nuts for garnishing at the end.
Mince about 17 cloves of garlic, add them with 1.5 cups of lemon juice in a pot, add 1.5 cups of tahini, 4 cup of water, 1 tablespoon of salt, 5-6 tablespoons of coriander or to taste, 1 tablespoon of cayenne pepper or to taste (if you like spicy food, spike it up with 2 table spoons or to taste). Heat on stove to medium/high, stirring constantly (very important so they don’t stick or burn). If the sauce looks too thick, add a cup or 2 of water. It should have a liquid consistency at the end. Bring the sauce to a boil while keeping on stirring non-stop and then lower heat, add the smashed pine nuts then keep on cooking on low heat and stirring until you reach about 20 minutes cooking time for the sauce.
Once the fish is done, lay it out on a serving platter that is at least 1 inch deep, pour the cooked tahini sauce on top of the fish, garnish with parsley and browned pine nuts, serve hot with pita bread and enjoy
Sandwich: If you’d like to make it into a sandwich, pour the fish + sauce along the diameter of a pita bread, add lettuce and tomatoes, roll and enjoy.
Notes: We’ve tried the Samkeh Harrah with fish like Salmon and other fish, and our personal honest opinion is that it tastes best with Red Snapper or fish from the Rock Cod family so try to try stick to it. And if you happen to try it with a different type of fish and ended up with a tasty fish let us know.
We hope you enjoy it, and let us know how it turned out
www.mamaslebanesekitchen.com
Serving Size: 4 cup Servings.
Number of Servings: 4
Recipe submitted by SparkPeople user LEBANESEKITCHEN.
Rub fish with white vinegar and salt then rinse with cold water in order to tame down any smell. Grease the cooking tray with a tiny sprinkle of olive oil so it doesn’t stick, cut slits in fish (or just lay the filets on the tray if you bought filets), rub a tablespoon amount of olive oil and sprinkle a few drops of lemon juice on the fish filets. And if you’re cooking a whole scaled fish, then insert lemon slices inside the fish for flavoring. Bake at 300 degrees F for 20-25 minutes. If it looks like it’s getting dry, squeeze a bit more lemon juice on top of the fish.
Sauce:
In a small pan, mix 1 cup of pine nuts with 1-2 tablespoon of olive oil and cook on medium heat for about 3 minutes or until lightly browned. Take half of the pine nuts and grind them with a mortar and pestle, you will need to add them to the sauce. Keep the remaining pine nuts for garnishing at the end.
Mince about 17 cloves of garlic, add them with 1.5 cups of lemon juice in a pot, add 1.5 cups of tahini, 4 cup of water, 1 tablespoon of salt, 5-6 tablespoons of coriander or to taste, 1 tablespoon of cayenne pepper or to taste (if you like spicy food, spike it up with 2 table spoons or to taste). Heat on stove to medium/high, stirring constantly (very important so they don’t stick or burn). If the sauce looks too thick, add a cup or 2 of water. It should have a liquid consistency at the end. Bring the sauce to a boil while keeping on stirring non-stop and then lower heat, add the smashed pine nuts then keep on cooking on low heat and stirring until you reach about 20 minutes cooking time for the sauce.
Once the fish is done, lay it out on a serving platter that is at least 1 inch deep, pour the cooked tahini sauce on top of the fish, garnish with parsley and browned pine nuts, serve hot with pita bread and enjoy
Sandwich: If you’d like to make it into a sandwich, pour the fish + sauce along the diameter of a pita bread, add lettuce and tomatoes, roll and enjoy.
Notes: We’ve tried the Samkeh Harrah with fish like Salmon and other fish, and our personal honest opinion is that it tastes best with Red Snapper or fish from the Rock Cod family so try to try stick to it. And if you happen to try it with a different type of fish and ended up with a tasty fish let us know.
We hope you enjoy it, and let us know how it turned out
www.mamaslebanesekitchen.com
Serving Size: 4 cup Servings.
Number of Servings: 4
Recipe submitted by SparkPeople user LEBANESEKITCHEN.