A number of dishes that go under the general name of fatta all have in common a bed of toasted bread, soaked in stock, and a topping of yogurt. The name denotes the manner of breaking up crisp, toasted bread with your hands. To me, they recall a special person, the late Josephine Salam. Many years ago I received a letter from her from Beirut saying that she had a number of recipes she thought I would like. On our first meeting, at Claridge’s tearoom in London, where a band played Noël Coward tunes, she offered to come to my house and show me how to make fatta with chicken. We made that and many more meals together. It was the time of the civil war in Lebanon, and as she came and went from the country, I received an ongoing account of everyday life in the ravaged city. Her daughter, Rana, has become an artist and designer. For her thesis at the Royal College of Art in London, she asked me to give a lecture on the history of Middle Eastern food. She had ten portraits of me painted on cloth by a poster-painter in Egypt (he used photographs I gave Rana) and hung them around the college to publicize the event. She laid out foods and spices as in a souk, put on a tape of sounds and music recorded in an Egyptian street, and passed around Arab delicacies. When she visited me a few years later with her husband and new baby, I offered her the fatta with stuffed eggplants on page 300.

　　

Ingredients

serves 8

　　4 cups plain whole-milk yogurt

　　3/4 cup strained Greek-style yogurt

　　2 garlic cloves, crushed

　　1 1/2 tablespoons crushed, dried mint

　　Salt

　　1 large chicken

　　1 large onion, cut in half

　　1 large carrot, cut into pieces

　　2 bay leaves

　　1 cinnamon stick

　　6 to 8 cardamom pods

　　White pepper

　　3 very thin, Lebanese breads or 2 pita breads

　　3 to 4 tablespoons white wine vinegar

　　One 14-ounce can chickpeas, drained

　　2/3 cup pine nuts

　　2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

　　

Step 1

Mix the two types of yogurt in a bowl and beat in the garlic and mint with a little salt. Let it come to room temperature.

　　

Step 2

Put the chicken in a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring it to the boil and remove any scum. Add the onion, carrot, bay leaves, cinnamon stick, cardamom pods, and salt and pepper. Simmer, covered, for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until the chicken is very tender and almost falls off the bone. Lift out the chicken and cut it into pieces, removing the skin and bones. Strain the stock.

　　

Step 3

Open out the Lebanese or pita breads. Toast them in the oven, or under the broiler, until they are crisp and only lightly browned. Then break them up into pieces in your hands and spread them at the bottom of a wide baking dish. Mix the wine vinegar in about 1 1/4 cups of the strained chicken stock, and pour over the bread, adding more if necessary, so that the bread is thoroughly soaked and soggy. Sprinkle the chickpeas over it.

　　

Step 4

Spread the chicken over the soaked bread and chickpeas and cover the dish with foil. Heat it through in a medium oven 20 minutes before you are ready to serve—it should be very hot.

　　

Step 5

Just before serving, pour the yogurt evenly all over the dish. Briefly fry the pine nuts in the olive oil until lightly golden and sprinkle over the top.

　　

variation

Step 6

Instead of adding mint to the yogurt, beat in 3 tablespoons tahini.

　　Arabesque