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Short Summary
Main recommendation: Make an oven-baked one-hour Shabbat menu built around three dishes: Moroccan salmon with matbucha and a secret spice mix, Hawaij spice chicken, and a coffee Hawaij spiced fruit crisp. The video frames the whole meal as cookable in under an hour by working backwards from the shortest-cooking dish.
Key Points
- Timing strategy: the host starts the chicken and fruit crisp in the oven first, then cooks the salmon last because it has the shortest cooking time.
- Shortcuts used throughout include frozen blueberries and peaches for the crisp, pre-peeled garlic cloves, and store-bought matbucha as an alternative to homemade.
- The Hawaij spice blend is central to both the savory chicken and the dessert, with the coffee version used in the crisp.
- The Moroccan salmon's flavor comes from a spice mix with a little sugar, which balances the heat of the matbucha.
- The host offers optional extras to round out the meal: an over-the-top hummus bar, sesame broccoli, and a fresh Israeli salad.
Details Worth Noting
- Concrete instructions:
- Chicken: sauté onions and carrots in extra virgin olive oil, add rice, then one spoon of Hawaij, salt, and broth, and mix well. Use boneless, skinless chicken breast, which cooks faster (thighs also work). Add more Hawaij, cover, and bake for 40 minutes at 400°F (200°C).
- Fruit crisp: use frozen blueberries and peaches, add the juice of half a lemon to add acidity and cut sweetness, add a spoonful of flour to absorb the liquid the frozen fruit releases, and add brown sugar. Make the topping by combining one cup of old-fashioned oats, the remaining flour, brown sugar, and 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil with a fork until a coarse crumble forms.
- Salmon: line the pan with parchment for easier cleanup and to keep the skin from sticking, add a few tablespoons of good-quality extra virgin olive oil, add chickpeas, use pre-peeled garlic and matbucha (store-bought or homemade via the host's linked sheet pan roasted tomato recipe), spread the spice mix over the salmon fillets, and place them in the pan.
- Sourcing: Hawaij can be bought at a Middle Eastern spice shop or a specialty kosher supermarket, or made from the host's own recipe.
- The host says the coffee Hawaij spice should not be left out of the crisp, and suggests doubling the crisp recipe so guests can be served.
- The host recommends commenting with what viewers tried or plan to try.
- Subscribing and enabling notifications on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram are also requested, though not cooking steps.
Bottom Line
A complete Shabbat dinner with fish, chicken, and dessert can be prepared in about an hour by staggering oven times and using time-saving shortcuts like frozen fruit and pre-peeled garlic, with Hawaij spice carrying the flavor across the whole menu.
