Goji Berry One Green Planet We love anything and everything that can be made with chickpeas and falafel is one of our favorites! So how happy are we that June 12th is International Falafel Day?! The whole world will come together to celebrate these delicious little balls of chickpeas. The traditional way to make falafel … Continued
IMAGE: IAMSPRUNG/INSTAGRAM BY NICOLE GALLUCCI Mashable.com Give milk a break and try dipping your cookies in hummus. While the combination of cookies and hummus would normally sound pretty unappetizing, Delighted By has taken chick peas to a whole new level by creating an intriguing line of dessert hummus. A photo posted by The Original Dessert Hummus™ (@delightedbydesserthummus) … Continued
Middle Eastern brewers look to expand their market as the region starts to get a taste for better beers. Beer and barley have a long history in the Middle East, but drinking culture is not popular as it was in the era before Islam. But in Lebanon and Jordan, microbreweries have experienced spikes in popularity … Continued
The Economist
MAZEN HAJJAR likes to say that barley was first domesticated—in the Middle East, mind you—for the purpose of brewing beer, not baking bread. Bread is now the region’s daily staple; beer barely registers. But the founder of 961, a Lebanese microbrewery, thinks there is a fertile market in the Fertile Crescent. “There is too much light fizzy tasteless stuff,” he says.
In Lebanon the trend is growing. Colonel Brewery in Batroun, a Christian seaside town, serves its beers in its garden and sells more to 70 Lebanese bars. Beirut Beer is another brand made by a winemaking family. Schtrunz is the latest to join, made by a family with Czech roots. But Lebanon is not the rest of the region. Is there room elsewhere?
Yes, say producers. Israel has a flourishing craft beer scene, and in the West Bank Taybeh (“tasty” in Arabic) has been producing a range of craft beers since the 1990s. Even Jordan has its own microbrewery, Carakale. Some brews are flavoured with regional herbs and spices such as sumac and thyme.
Most Arabs are Muslim and most Muslims agree that the Koran bans alcohol. But not all of them shun it, and Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine have sizeable Christian populations. Brewers say there is room to grow. Beer is still underappreciated in a region where wine, arak and whisky hold sway.
In other Muslim countries, craft brews could replace bad beer. Egypt’s Stella and Sakara could use some competition, as could Morocco’s four tasteless local brands. If alcohol were allowed into Iran or Saudi Arabia, craft beers could displace secretly-produced (and often horrible) home-brews.
The biggest obstacles to wannabe brewers are the same ones that face any company trying to operate in the Middle East: red tape, lousy infrastructure and sluggish economies. When 961 started to look for export markets, sending a sample abroad with DHL required special government permission. Electricity is unreliable. Carakale took two years to get permission to set up.
The lure of expanding into virgin territory outweighs those concerns for now, says Jamil Haddad, the founder of Colonel. “I thought about opening in London or Europe,” he says. “But here it’s a new concept and I can do something unique.”
Source: www.economist.com
Al Arabiya English As many Muslims who observe Ramadan look forward to breaking their fasts, perhaps it’s time to take a trip around the world and see what other cultures eat for their iftar meal. The breaking of the dawn-to-dusk fast, a meal called iftar, is celebrated with a vast array of different foods around … Continued
The iftar buffet at Olive Tree includes dishes, snacks and dips from across the Middle East. Sarah Bennett Los Angeles Times The lines outside the Olive Tree Restaurant in Anaheim’s Little Arabia last Monday started early in the evening, well before opening — one line for those who hadn’t eaten anything since sunrise and another … Continued
By Donna Olmstead
Albuquerque Journal
Food and language were writer Zora O’Neill’s tickets to the Arab world.
O’Neill, who first studied Arabic in college in the 1990s, decided it was time to put her language skills to the test in a tour through the Middle East and wrote a book about her experiences, “All Strangers Are Kin: Adventures in Arabic and the Arab World,” (June 2016, Houghton Mifflin, $25).
The New Mexico native, who grew up in the East Mountains, will read from her book at 6 p.m. at Bookworks on Rio Grande NW.
“When I first started to think about this book in 2009, I knew I wanted to write about people’s everyday lives to show a side of these places that never makes it into the news. Conveniently, those topics – jobs, boyfriends and girlfriends, what people had for lunch – are just about my skill level in Arabic,” she says. “I absolutely love food and it’s an easy way to connect with people. In any language I always learn the food words first. Although I didn’t focus on food in this book, the subject certainly crept in a lot, as it’s a natural topic of conversation for me.”
O’Neill has written and published more than a dozen books, including the 2009 cookbook, “Forking Fantastic: Put the Party Back in Dinner Party,” a book she wrote with Tamara Reynolds.
She says she chose countries to visit to represent different Arabic dialects and cultures: “People talk about the Arab world as if it is one place, but it’s a quilt of cultures and traditions, sewn together with a (kind of ) common language.”
Because she traveled alone, she also picked countries for personal and practical reasons – Egypt, because she went to graduate school there. The United Arab Emirates because she could not travel alone in Saudi Arabia. She went to Lebanon, because Syria was already getting too dangerous for extended travel and she wanted to see “the new, cool Beirut.”
She says she could eat breakfast all day in Lebanon and Syria. She recalls manousheh, a round, chewy bread, sprinkled with zaatar (oregano-sesame spice), oil and cheese. A dessert, knafeh, crispy semolina and cheese can become breakfast when it’s encased in pita and dolloped with apricot jam. She thinks foodies of the world are ready for labneh, thicker and more sour than the popular Greek yogurt.
She says she’s sorry she couldn’t spend more time in Syria as a casual tourist, because the food culture there is unrivaled. She remembers a 2007 trip. “You could not have imagined a less terrorizing country. A lot of the feeling I got there had to do with the food and the people who prepared it. It is some of the most refined in the Arab world, especially in Aleppo. People are extremely particular about ingredients and preparation and won’t eat food out of season. There are a lot of sweet and sour combinations.”
She especially favors muhammara, an intense red pepper paste, walnuts, pomegranate molasses and hot chile.
“Having some language skills gave me the confidence to take these trips in the first place,” says O’Neill, who now calls Queens, New York, home. “Traveling as a middle-aged, white American woman is one of the more fortunate positions to be in across the globe. In the Middle East, it gave me special perks. I was often welcome in traditional men’s zones, just because I was such a novelty. Because people there rarely do anything solo, I think some people just felt a little sorry for me sometimes and treated me extra well.”
She ended her journey in Morocco because of her parents’ travels there in the 1960s. She credits them and their adventures for her love of Arabic culture. Her name, Zora, honored a Moroccan woman her mother admired for her independence.
“Our house was filled with lots of little things from their trips, including clothing and dishes from Morocco, and a cassette of Arabic music that I listened to over and over when I was really little. All the Morocco stuff sort of primed me to think of Arabic as not that foreign. Just that little exposure to Arab culture as a kid had given me a way in.”
During her five years researching and writing the book, she often found herself invited into the homes of new acquaintances and their extended family, “who invite you in as if you’re an old friend and cook you enough delicious food to put you in a coma. Overall this is a book about everything but politics. I went back to study Arabic again precisely to reconnect with the culture I remembered before. Even if there is some political unrest in a country, daily life goes on. As I learned in Cairo, trouble is extremely localized. Just look at a map and remember that the human ability to maintain normalcy is very strong.”
MUHAMMARA (SYRIAN RED-PEPPER-AND-WALNUT DIP)
This is short work if you have a food processor. Many Syrian cooks would use a mortar and pestle. The average Syrian home cook also uses prepared red pepper paste (Turkish brands are imported to the U.S.; look for those that contain only salt and peppers). It is more convenient than roasting fresh peppers, and more intensely flavored.
Serves 6-8 as an appetizer
2 red bell peppers
1 red jalapeño
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¾ cup shelled walnuts, chopped fine
½ cup fresh bread crumbs
1 clove garlic, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses
1 tablespoon tahini (optional)
Approximately ½ cup cold water
¼ cup olive oil
½ teaspoon ground cumin
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1 teaspoon kosher salt
Dried Turkish or Aleppo pepper flakes (optional)
½ teaspoon sugar (optional)
Juice from 2 lemons
Over an open flame, char the red peppers and the jalapeño. Let rest in a covered container, then slip off charred peel and pull out seeds. Chop coarsely and place in the bowl of a food processor.
To the food processor, add the walnuts, bread crumbs, garlic, pomegranate molasses and tahini. Pulse until only a cohesive paste forms; it does not have to be completely smooth.
In a bowl, combine the paste with cold water, stirring energetically, until the texture is soft but not flowing; the amount of water depends on your bread crumbs. Whisk in the olive oil. Then add the cumin, salt and lemon juice, as well as optional sugar and pepper flakes, tasting as you go. You want a mixture that is sweet, spicy and sour, with richness from the walnuts and tahini.
Ideally, let the mixture sit for at least a couple of hours, for the flavors to combine, and taste again before serving. Drizzle with additional pomegranate molasses and serve with toasted thin pita bread.
MOROCCAN LENTILS
This is a staple in Moroccan restaurants and homes, quick and easy and much more flavorful than the simple preparation suggests. You can add more liquid and serve it as a soup, though the traditional way is as a side dish or appetizer, with nice chewy bread. The flavor improves further with a day of sitting.
2 cups brown lentils, rinsed
1 red pepper, coarsely chopped
1 heaping tablespoon tomato paste
3 teaspoons each cumin and sweet (not hot) paprika
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon turmeric
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons kosher salt
3 cloves garlic, peeled
1 bunch each parsley and cilantro
1/3 cup olive oil
To a heavy-bottomed pot (or a pressure cooker, as Moroccans use), add the lentils, red pepper, tomato paste and spices.
Chop the garlic and herbs together, very fine, and add this to the pot, followed by the olive oil. Finally, add water until to a depth of roughly one inch above the surface of the lentil mixture – just above the first joint in your finger.
Cover the pot, bring to a boil, then turn to low and simmer until tender, stirring occasionally. This can take an hour or so, depending on the lentils; you may want to add more water. (If using a pressure cooker, prepare as you would other lentil recipes; you may need to add additional spices after cooking.)
– recipes by Zora O’Neill
Source: www.abqjournal.com
By Anoothi Vishal Food.NDTV The question of who exactly are the Arabs and what exactly is their cuisine is a question simpler to ask than answer. The Arab identity is a complex notion. Politically speaking, the “Arab world” connotes the 22 Arabic speaking nations of the Arab League. But if you go beyond this relatively new … Continued
By LEYAL KHALIFE StepFeed We’re all pretty familiar with what happens when visiting an Arab person’s house. It all starts with the deyafe including a wide array of nuts, homemade sweets and juices. As hospitable as we are, Arabs sometimes take food to a whole new level – especially when the person asking you if you … Continued
By Racha Adib
Al Arabiya
Ramadan iftars marks the end of fasting. When the sun goes down, families and friends typically gather round a table of lavish feasts. While iftars are an enjoyable experience, they can be daunting for people trying to maintain good eating habits during this holy month.
Having a balanced iftar is important as it’s the meal that replenish energy stores and help sustain your fast the following day. You must place an extra effort into consuming the right foods to get the nutrients your body needs. Ramadan is an opportunity to cultivate good eating habits that will stay with you after the fasting month ends. We’ve put together a few tips to help you find a cleaner way to break you fast and make the rest of your Ramadan a healthy one.
Hydrate before eating
Drink plenty of fluids such as water, freshly squeezed juice, or milk. This will prevent dehydration and provide your body with the essential fluids it needs. Water remains your best source of hydration. Drink 1 – 2 glass of water before your meal and not during your meal to avoid delaying your digestion process. Be wary of Ramadan drinks because they contain a lot sugar and calories.
Break your fast with dates
Traditionally, dates are eaten at the start of your iftar meal. Because they are a nutritious burst of natural sugar they fuel your body with much needed energy. If you suffer from headaches during the fasting hours, most likely caused by low blood sugar, begin your iftar with 2 dates and replenish your sugar levels.
Have a bowl of soup
Soups are an indispensable dish in iftar. They’re rich in water and help you hydrate. Reach out for lentil, tomato, or vegetable soup and avoid cream-based soup. If you don’t enjoy a warm soup during the summer months, cold soups and Gazpachos make a great alternative.
Eat your greens
Vegetables are rich in vitamins, minerals, and fiber and provide so many nutrients in so little calories. The more colorful your salad, the more health benefits it holds. It also provides a feeling of fullness, ensuring you eat less on your main dish. Aim for 2 servings of vegetables per meal. One serving equals a 1/2 cup of raw or cooked vegetables or vegetable juice or 1 cup of leafy raw vegetables.
Choose good carbs
Your iftar meal should contain a source of carbohydrates, preferably complex. These include brown rice, whole grain pasta or bread, potatoes or burghul. Complex carbs provide a more stable and sustainable source of energy in addition to fiber and minerals.
Incorporate lean protein
At iftar, you should aim to eat high quality protein that are highly digestible and contain all the essential amino acids. Your body uses these to build and maintain muscle mass. Beef, milk, yogurt, eggs, cheese, fish and poultry are all complete high-quality proteins. Choose lean proteins to get the benefits with little saturated fats. Include fish, skinless chicken or turkey and low fat dairy to have as part of your iftar meal. If you’re vegetarian, you can select other protein sources such as legumes, beans and nuts.
Take it easy
Don’t be in a hurry to finish your food. After being deprived of eating for an entire day, overloading on food may lead to indigestion and other gastric problems. Have a light iftar that includes reasonable food portions. Controlling the size of your portion is key to staying healthy and preventing weight gain. As a rule of thumb, don’t exceed amounts you would have for a typical lunch or dinner meal.
Avoid foods high in fat, salt and sugar
Whenever possible, stay away from heavy meals for iftar that have too much unhealthy fats, salt and added sugar. When cooking, make your favorite Ramadan recipes healthier by stewing, baking, roasting, steaming or grilling and avoid frying. Add herbs and spices instead of salt to flavor your meals. Finally, replace sweets and sweetened drinks with naturally occurring sugar in fruits, dried fruits and fruit salads.
Source: english.alarabiya.net
BY: Pam Bailey/Contributing Writer It is 3 a.m. and time for suhoor, the last meal before fasting begins during the days of Ramadan, one of Islam’s holy months. The call to prayer will waft through the clear night air at 3:50, signaling the start of the day’s long hot hours, with no food or even water allowed … Continued
By Racha Adib Al Arabiya During Ramadan, many people are likely to put on weight. And if you are one of them, you may be falling victim to a number of Ramadan mishaps. You may find yourself consuming large portions of food at iftar, more than you would have ever at any meal, or grazing … Continued
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