Comptoir Libanais: A Feast of Lebanese-Style Home Cooking

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Felicity Cloake’s perfect fattoush. Photograph: Felicity Cloake for the Guardian The perfect fattoush Ottolenghi and Tamini roll their falafel in sesame seeds to coat, which looks handsome and makes the exteriors extra crunchy.

They also look very pretty, as do Comptoir Libanais and Honey & Co’s pomegranate seeds, which should supply a lovely burst of sweetness – but pomegranates at this time of year tend to be disappointingly dry, so I wouldn’t bother. Bringing together the passion of owner Tony Kitous, the extraordinary designs of award-winning graphic artist Rana Salam, and bestselling author and photographer Dan Lepard, the Comptoir Libanais cookbook blends a vibrant culinary tradition with modern flavours and cooking methods

Comptoir Libanais Express

Tamimi’s mother used a homemade yoghurt dressing that the pair believe was probably her own creation. “Sami can’t recall anyone else in the neighbourhood making it.” It is indeed “terribly comforting”, and both richer and more cooling than your average fattoush – it’s a dish for when you want something a little more substantial. Toss the dressing with the salad, then, just before serving, cut the radishes into quarters and use to top the salad, along with the bread and a final flourish of sumac. Indeed, you can find good falafel everywhere from Baghdad to Bawshar - but, unless you live near one of the small, but growing, number of decent vendors here in Britain, your best bet might be to make your own. Thankfully, it's really quite simple. Pulses Middle Eastern dining is a social affair where dishes are selected and shared with friends. Customers can forget the knife and fork – mezze is finger food – and select a mezze platter and some wraps for a picnic outside, or in their own office. Alternatively, they can take a couple of richly-flavoured tagines home to pass off as their own cooking! Comptoir Libanais uses celery and green chilli, neither of which I'm particularly keen on; the celery is surprisingly dominant, and the heat of the green chilli feels like it belongs to a different dish. Herbs and spices

Salt is also extremely important in a dish that, badly seasoned, can tend towards the dull, which is why it's a good idea to fry up a little to test the mixture before shaping. Chilling, shaping and cooking Heat the oven to 200C. Toss the pitta with a little olive oil, then bake for about 15 minutes until crisp. Allow to cool slightly, then break into shards. By the time the pomegranates are in season, tomatoes won’t be, and tomatoes are( in my opinion, at least) key here. I like the idea of using a variety of colours and sizes, chopped “two or three different ways … to give the salad some texture”, as Honey & Co recommends, but go with whatever looks best if you don’t have a big choice; cherry tomatoes are usually the safest bet, but everything should be decent in midsummer. There’s no need to peel them as Roden does but, if they seem watery, rather than solid, you might be advised to core them, as in Baxter’s recipe.

Chilling, shaping and cooking

Everyone uses some sort of raising agent, whether bicarbonate of soda or baking powder, to make their falafel extra fluffy. As there doesn't seem to be much in the way of acid in the recipe, I'm not surprised to find that Ottolenghi and Tamimi and Roden's baking powder proves more effective. Vegetables The food is meant for sharing, so there’s plenty of choice, with everything from dips to mezze bites, savoury flatbreads, tagines, wraps, salads, pastries and cakes – they even bake their own Moroccan bread. And. whilst his London restaurants Levant, Pasha and Kenza put glamour into Middle Eastern cuisine, it is Comptoir Libanais that has begun introducing Lebanese food to the high street, providing relaxed canteen style dining with light Arabic cooking, served in the friendly and accessible way demanded by many customers today.

Ground coriander and cumin are also pretty much a given, and I like the fiery sweetness of Helou's Lebanese seven-spice powder, with its ginger, cinnamon and allspice, which balances beautifully with the savoury garlic and peppery herbs. Some recipes use cayenne pepper, paprika or chilli flakes too - I find the warmth of the ginger sufficient for a dish that is rarely hot as opposed to spicy, but if you feel the need, add a shake to taste. His next move was the acquisition at the end of 2005 of Pasha from Richard Caring of Caprice Holdings, transforming it into the most opulent and seductive restaurant of its kind in the capital. He then launched Kenza, a feast of Middle Eastern craftsmanship and rich design, in the City of London in 2007. The first Comptoir Libanais opened at Westfield Shopping Centre in November 2008, with four more following in London. Further openings include Duke of York Square in Chelsea (pictured below), Bluewater in Kent, and in the London airports – with more to come.

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This wouldn't be a Middle Eastern recipe without heaps of fresh herbs. Forget the sad little supermarket bundles and try to find yourself a proper market stall bouquet, if possible. Parsley is popular, used by everyone but Helou, but so is coriander, which makes its way into all the recipes. I like a combination of the two – the sharp, pepperiness of parsley and the aromatic freshness of coriander, both in sufficient quantity to turn the mixture a bold green colour. The success of Comptoir Libanais restaurants centres on an easy, relaxed cafe-style of food: light Arabic home cooking mixed with familiar bistro flavours and techniques. Tony Kitous’ recipes combine fresh vibrant vegetable dishes with simple grills, flat breads, grains, herb salads and dips. Pastries are richly flavoured and delicate, made with syrups and spices. Absolutely the menu for today and adaptable for the home cook. Chilling the mixture before cooking helps with the shaping. The size of the falafel seems to vary, from the 40g Comptoir Libanais monsters to Roden's diminutive 4cm discs. She and Salloum recommend shaping tools, which I discover inside a box of Lebanese falafel mix in the grocers, but I find the Roden-sized versions too crunchy; making them bigger allows for a greater variation of texture between the crisp outer and fluffy interior. There are recipes for breakfast, mezze, salads, grilled dishes, fish, soups and stews, grains and desserts in the book. I’m sharing the recipe of one of the dips from the book, as for me this is the perfect healthy party food. I made the Artichoke and Tahin dip from the Comptoir Libanais cookbook and I’m sharing the recipe with you below. This dip is healthy and vegan!