So Fahsah, So Good: Yemeni Comfort Cooking

“[Dearborn, Michigan] is like the Yemeni equivalent of Little Italy,” said Amjaad Al-Hussain. She’s the author of Sifratna: Recipes from Our Yemeni Kitchen, the only Yemeni cookbook written and published in English. Though many of her family members were born in Yemen, Al-Hussain has never visited, having been raised entirely in the United States. She said Dearborn took her by surprise. “I spent a week there [a few years ago],” Al-Hussain explained. “Speaking with a store clerk in my own Yemeni dialect was like an out-of-body experience, but that’s normal in Dearborn! Traditional outfits, Yemeni grocery stores, street signs in Arabic … it’s really a community.”

I had called Al-Hussain late last year to ask about fahsah and saltah, two delicious-sounding Yemeni stews that were brought to my attention while working on another assignment. From Al-Hussain, I learned that both stews are served boiling-hot. The starting point for the stews is the same: a mix of sauteed garlic, onions and tomatoes. Both dishes rely on a condiment known as hilbah (and, often, some version of green sauce) for oomph. In fact, some Yemenis don’t even distinguish between fahsah and saltah.

To find out more, I spoke to Mrs. Zindani, a Yemeni-American and her husband, Abdo Alkhubari, who owns Dearborn’s Al Nawras restaurant. Zindani, who requested that her full name not be used, said the difference between these stews is cost. “Fahsah is like a rich man’s food, because it has meat,” Zindani explained. “Saltah is more like a poor man’s food, because you add in whatever you have.” And, she noted, sometimes that’s just vegetables.

Zindani provided the fahsah and saltah recipes for this article, translating her home recipes from Arabic during Thanksgiving week, and as the mother of a 2-week-old newborn. Her generosity of spirit stunned me, and I wanted to reward her by cooking exactly as she instructed. Yet, what she seemed to advise was improvisation. I felt grateful, especially because the pandemic necessitated minor substitutions.

These stews didn’t take long to make, an advantage Zindani mentioned. And, as she noted, their flavors were deep. Having said that, neither stew shocked my palate. Zindani’s version of saltah, chock-full of peppers and potatoes, was milder and sweeter than I expected, reminding me of the Italian home-cooking I enjoyed during my childhood. Her fahsah, rich with cubed lamb, tasted more like Greek food. Both stews still maintained a distinctly Yemeni character, which was lent to them by the traditional add-ins I mentioned earlier: hilbah, with a dollop of green sauce mixed in.

Hilbah means “fenugreek” in Arabic, and it is, as you’d guess, a condiment made out of fenugreek seeds. The raw seeds look like wheat germ, but, after you grind and soak them, they froth up into an intriguing quasi-gelatin. “[Hilbah is] definitely an acquired taste,” Zindani cautioned. “[It has a] nutty [flavor]. It has tang.” That’s especially true if you add lemon juice to the mixture, as Zindani recommends. To my palate, hilbah tasted bitter, though in a pleasant way — like a celeriac pudding, almost.

Zindani explained that Yemenis sometimes mix a second condiment — a green sauce — into their hilbah. She provided a recipe for a sauce called zahawig, which was simple to make. With its cilantro, tomato, garlic, hot peppers and spice, zahawig tasted familiar, like a cumin-laden salsa. I encourage you to experiment with it: in my research for this article, I found zahawig recipes which included mint, ginger, parsley, caraway — even cheese! You can also omit the tomatoes in the recipe, and substitute them for chives. That way, you’ll create something more like khadaar, a condiment I also heard referred to as “green” zahawig, and which Yemenis frequently add to hilbah.

Consider getting creative with Zindani’s fahsah and saltah recipes, too. When I interviewed Al-Hussain, for instance, she mentioned that her family adds okra to these dishes, along with scrambled eggs. (I discovered, personally, that I like to make fahsah with mild sweet potato, and the addition of ground coriander.) While there is a fair amount of variety within Yemenis’ preparation of the two stews, this variation is sometimes predictable. For example, the further South in Yemen you travel, the spicier the food gets. I called Haneeth House, another Yemeni restaurant in Dearborn, and spoke to Ali Musleh, a server there whose family is from Ibb, in Southern Yemen. He agreed, saying, “We like to spice it up!”

Zindani’s family, on the other hand, is from Sana’a, the capital city of Yemen in the country’s North. Same for Al-Hussain’s family. The two women said their favorite thing about fahsah and saltah wasn’t the taste, but how these dishes are enjoyed. Traditionally, Yemenis gather on the ground around a large stone pot known as a huradhi (or magla). People eat communally, scooping up individual portions of stew with bread. Zindani and her husband have reflected on the merits of eating this way. “[We] notice more flavor, or a bigger appetite because … people are … sharing the [same dish],” she said. Their restaurant, Al Nawras, serves fahsah and saltah in a huradhi, as opposed to individual bowls.

While I cannot wait to visit the restaurant, it somehow feels like I already have. What an odd thing it was to experience Yemeni hospitality remotely, over the phone — but that’s what happened! Conversations with Dearborn’s Yemenis tended to leave me so joyfully teary eyed that the first question I asked Amjaad Al-Hussain was whether my response was normal. She assured me that, yes, it was. “Most of the time, people hear about Yemen in the context of war and famine. There’s very little emphasis on the rich culture … and I think [Yemenis] want to share the beauty in that.” -BL

R E C I P E S

FAHSA فحسة‎

Ingredients

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 1/2 cups onion, finely chopped

4 pounds Lamb or Beef, cut into cubes

2 medium tomatoes, diced

1 teaspoon ground cumin

5 cups water

1 Maggi chicken bouillon

Salt to taste

Directions

Start by heating oil over medium heat in a saucepan.

Once the oil is hot, add onions and cook until they are slightly browned and translucent.

Next add the minced garlic, cook together with onions until aromatic

Add the lamb or beef and stir for 10 minutes.

Add diced tomatoes, Maggi chicken bouillon, salt, cumin, and mix everything around together well.

After mixing everything together well, add the 5 cups of water. Bring it all to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer and cover saucepan and let everything simmer together until lamb or beef is cooked for approximately 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

Once cooked, heat a Yemeni huradhi (rock) pan until its hot, transfer lamb or beef to pan and add optional items hilbah and/or zahawig to taste and serve.

Optional: add hilbah or zahawig to taste. Enjoy with Yemeni malooj bread, pita or flatbread.

SALTAH سلتة

Ingredients

1/4 cup olive oil

2 onions, chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

3 green hot peppers

2 tomatoes, finely chopped

1 bell pepper (red, orange, or yellow), chopped

2 potatoes, peeled and diced into 1/2 inch cubes

2 tablespoons cilantro leaves, finely chopped

5 cups vegetable broth

Salt to taste

Optional toppings: hilbah and zahawig

Instructions

Start by heating olive oil over medium heat.

Once the oil is hot, add onions and cook until they are slightly browned and translucent.

Next add the minced garlic and peppers, cook together with onions until aromatic.

Add diced tomatoes and potatoes, and mix everything around together well.

After mixing everything together well, add the cilantro and vegetable broth. Bring it all to a boil, then reduce your heat to a simmer and let everything simmer together until potatoes are cooked through.

Optional: add hilbah or zahawig to taste. Saltah is usually eaten with a Yemeni bread called malooj.

Directions:

Combine 1 cup flour, oil and baking powder in a bowl, mix thoroughly

If the mix seems sticky, add more flour. If the mix seems crumbly and dry, add more water.

Repeat the process until you get a dough with a pillowy consistency

Form into a ball and, on a floured surface, roll into a thin tortilla shape

Place dough onto an oiled cast iron skillet on med-high heat, cook until portions of the dough’s surface appear lightly toasted.

Alternate methods: Let dough sit for half an hour before heating. Or, mix slightly watery dough (no oil) and leave overnight in the fridge. Mix the next day with fresh flour and water, roll out and heat.