Name: Sumaghiyya (Sumac-Soured Chard and Beef, Served Cold)
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 2 h
Total time: 2 h 30 min
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: Palestinian
Ingredients: 80 g ground sumac; 800 ml warm water; 40 g plain flour; 120 g tahini; 600 g beef; 1.2 L water; 1 kg Swiss chard; 400 g cooked chickpeas; 3 tbsp olive oil; 2 tsp salt; 8 cloves garlic; 2 red chillies; 2 tsp dill seed; 4 tbsp olive oil; 1 to taste olive oil; 6 pita

Ingredients

6servings

Sumac sauce
ground sumac · about 10 tbsp80 g
warm water800 ml
plain flour40 g
tahini · sesame paste120 g
The solids
beef · brisket or chuck, cut into 2-3cm pieces600 g
water · for the beef1.2 L
Swiss chard · stalks included1 kg
cooked chickpeas · drained if tinned400 g
olive oil · for the chard3 tbsp
salt · 1 tsp for the beef, the rest to adjust at the end2 tsp
Seasoned oil
garlic · chopped8 cloves
red chillies · chopped; or 1 tsp chilli flakes2
dill seed · coarsely crushed in a mortar2 tsp
olive oil4 tbsp
To serve
olive oil1 to taste
pita6

Steps

Stir the ground sumac into the 800ml of warm water and leave it for 1 hour.
⏲ 60 min
Put the beef in a pot with the 1.2L of water and 1 tsp salt, skim once it boils, and simmer gently for 90 minutes. Lift the meat out and chop it finely; keep 300ml of the broth.
⏲ 90 min
Separate the chard stalks from the leaves and chop both finely. Heat 3 tbsp olive oil in a wide pot, fry the stalks for 5 minutes, then add the leaves and fry 10 minutes more, until they have collapsed and there is almost no liquid left in the bottom of the pot.
⏲ 15 min
Line a fine sieve with muslin, strain the sumac water through it and twist the cloth to wring it out. Throw away what is left in the cloth. Whisk the flour and tahini into the strained liquid until there are no lumps.
Add the chopped beef, the chickpeas and 200ml of the reserved broth to the chard and bring it to the boil. Pour in the sumac liquid while stirring and cook over a low heat for 12-15 minutes, scraping the bottom. It is done when it is a little looser than porridge and no longer tastes of raw flour. It thickens as it cools, so do not take it too far; if it does get too thick, loosen it with the rest of the broth.
⏲ 15 min
Put the 4 tbsp olive oil, garlic, chilli and crushed dill seed in a small pan over a low heat for 1-2 minutes, until the garlic is just about to colour. Pour it into the pot, stir, and take it off the heat.
⏲ 1 min 30 sec
Spread it into wide, shallow dishes, let it cool, and chill it for at least 2 hours.
⏲ 120 min
Taste it cold and adjust the salt. Pour over a little olive oil and serve with pita.

Variations

With lamb: lamb shoulder in place of the beef, boiled and chopped the same way.
Without meat: double the chickpeas and use water in place of the beef broth.
From whole sumac berries: soak them overnight, rub them between your hands to work the sourness out, then strain.

More detail and the reasons why (1)

A holiday dish: Korean Wikipedia describes sumaghiyya as a Palestinian dish, first made in Gaza, and eaten at Eid al-Fitr and other holidays and at weddings. It is made in quantity, chilled and eaten cold; the article's last sentence is that it is spread on plates, left to cool and served with pita.

Tips

The sumac becomes a liquid. Fattoush says "Sumac is a dry acid, and that is the point of it." You can raise the acidity without adding a drop of water, and in a salad where water is the enemy that is right. Sumaghiyya wants the acid the other way round, as a liquid: the article's method is to stir the ground sumac into water and whisk tahini and flour into it. That sour water is the body of the sauce, and it is strained so that the coarse residue stays out of it.

More detail and the reasons why (6)

The opposite order to musakhan, from the same country. Musakhan adds its sumac off the heat and says why: "Heated, the sourness goes and bitterness stays." Sumaghiyya cooks its sumac water with the flour. That does not make musakhan wrong; this dish pays for the heat in quantity. Where musakhan says "5 tbsp to a kilo of onions is right", a pot of this takes 80g, about 10 tablespoons. And the time over the heat is cut to the 12-15 minutes the flour needs.
A sour liquid is thickened with flour. Thickening a sauce sets out the problem with acid: "Vinegar or tomato cuts the starch chains, so acidic sauces need more starch", and says the acid is better added after the thickening is set. Here that cannot happen, because the acid is the liquid. The same guide gives churchkhela, which thickens sour grape must, as the case that uses flour rather than starch, and flour "is the most opaque and the most robust, but has to be cooked out or it tastes raw." So it is whisked in completely and then cooked for 12-15 minutes. Tahini, being sesame paste, adds body and oil at the same time.
Eaten cold, so it is seasoned cold. The first line of serving temperature is about this dish: "Cold suppresses sweetness and saltiness while bitterness and acidity come forward." Salt that tasted right hot is short once it is cold, and the sourness comes forward instead. So, as the guide says, "chill it first and season it last". That is why half the salt waits until the end.
Made ahead, so flour is the right choice. "So a sauce you intend to make ahead wants flour or cornstarch", says the thickening guide, and sumaghiyya is made hours ahead, or the day before for a holiday. It firms as it cools, so stop it a little loose.
Drive off the chard's water first. Spanakorizo cooks its rice in the water the spinach gives up; here that water would only thin the sumac sauce. Fry until the leaves have collapsed and the pot is nearly dry.
Garlic, chilli and dill seed in oil, separately. The article seasons the dish with garlic, chilli and dill seed fried in olive oil. Much of their aroma dissolves in fat, which is why they are fried apart and poured in (blooming spices). Browned garlic turns bitter, so stop just before it colours.

The basics behind this dish

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