This One-Skillet Jordanian Dish Is the Finest Solution to Use Your Summer time Tomatoes

In Jordan, the place I grew up, galayet bandora is a staple, and there isn’t any higher method to prepare dinner too many tomatoes. Tomatoes are cooked down with loads of olive oil, copious quantities of sliced garlic, and a little bit of recent inexperienced chile peppers, and seasoned merely with salt and black pepper. It comes along with only a few components, but it is so beloved that it is thought-about one of many nation’s nationwide dishes. Usually scooped up with heat pita, it will also be eaten with a wide range of rice dishes. Its energy is in its simplicity.

Whereas galayet bandora means “fried tomatoes” or “stir-fried tomatoes” in Arabic, the tomatoes on this dish aren’t truly fried in any respect. As an alternative, they’re simmered on the stovetop till they collapse and focus right into a deeply savory and naturally candy stew-like dish. The “fried” within the identify is probably going a nod to the beneficiant quantity of olive oil wherein they’re cooked.

The Finest Solution to Expend Your Tomato Surplus

That is the dish I flip to when tomato season’s dizzyingly stunning array of sorts, shapes, and colours predictably makes me get carried away and over-shop on the farmers market. The brevity of the season solely encourages my tomato-hoarding habits. It is the brightest, most colourful stretch of the 12 months and the one I look ahead to most. This dish is very good for these tomatoes which can be too smooth for a sandwich or caprese, plus it is an effective way to make use of numerous them.

It is one in every of my favourite—and most nostalgic—methods to prepare dinner by my haul. For the reason that ingredient record is brief, it is price in search of out in-season, ripe, and native (if attainable) tomatoes which can be naturally sweeter and extra flavorful than the cardboard-like ones you usually discover on the grocery store. A fruity, peppery extra-virgin olive oil performs seamlessly with the tomatoes’ grassiness and umami notes. So few components, but they arrive collectively to create a variety of flavors.

My Model of Galayet Bandora: With Warmth, Texture, and Tang

Galayet bandora—pronounced with a tough “g” within the typical Jordanian dialect however alayet bandora in my West Amman metropolis woman accent—usually options an entire inexperienced chile pepper (on this case, a serrano) that simmers away within the sauce. Following conventional preparations, I begin by blistering an entire inexperienced chile (often a serrano) within the olive oil till it is speckled brown and softened. Then I add a second chopped chile for a contact extra warmth. The entire chile simmers within the sauce like a spicy bay leaf—besides it truly provides one thing unmistakable. (Okay, high-quality, bay leaves do one thing too. However this does extra, giving a delicate grassy warmth all through.)

I additionally stir in coarsely chopped yellow onion for texture (one thing my mother at all times does) and end the dish with a splash of pomegranate molasses. That bit is not conventional, however the molasses provides a tangy pop and depth to enrich the tomatoes’ brightness and the olive oil’s richness. Whereas the tomatoes do take time to simmer down, the prep is fast, the cooking is usually hands-off, and every thing occurs in a single skillet—simply let it bubble away, stirring often, particularly towards the top when the combination turns into extra concentrated and vulnerable to sticking and scorching.

How you can Serve Galayet Bandora

This dish is a full-on celebration of the tomato—so central and satisfying that all through Jordan, it is thought-about a important dish, not a facet. Because it’s comprised of extensively accessible components, it is exceptionally approachable, but it surely’s additionally exceedingly flavorful. It is sometimes eaten by tearing off bite-size items of pita and scooping up the cooked-down tomatoes, a technique known as taghmees, which implies “dipping.” The identical method is used for consuming mezze like hummus and muhammara, amongst different dishes. It is an intimate means of consuming that if finished proper, should not get your fingers messy. However if you happen to resolve to go at it with a spoon, I promise to not decide.

Why I Love This Dish

I’ve at all times discovered it significant that this dish, which feels synonymous with Jordanian dwelling cooking, stands in stark distinction to mansaf, the nation’s different nationwide dish. Mansaf is grand and ceremonial—slow-cooked lamb in a sauce comprised of jameed, a fermented, dried yogurt that is soaked in a single day. It is served over a skinny flatbread known as shrak, layered with yellow rice, and topped with toasted almonds. Galayet bandora, by comparability, is straightforward, weeknight-friendly, and fully plant-based. The 2 could not be extra completely different: One depends on particular components and lengthy preparation; the opposite comes along with what’s recent and available. That distinction is a testomony to the Levant’s dynamic and wide-ranging culinary traditions. And to me, galayet bandora is one in every of my favourite methods to have a good time the fleeting tomato season—nonetheless the happiest time of 12 months.

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