10 winter soups
Here are 10 comforting soups to get you through the winter. One or two may be a pleasant surprise.
food
January’s seasonal produce celebrates nettles and sage
Rainy, muddy winter brings out the best of January produce in the Middle East.
September seasonal fruits and vegetables
Look for the exotic jujube fruit in Middle Eastern markets this month.
Make magical baharat, the 7 spice blend of Middle East cuisine
Baharat is an essential blend you can make at home. It's like a Middle Eastern answer to curry. But distinct.
Organic Panna Cotta Recipe
Light, creamy panna cotta is a perfect way to finish off a summer meal. Garnish the pudding with berries or sliced fruit.
Khirret, A Vanishing Iraqi Sweet Made from Cattails
Khirret is still made in southern Iraq and other parts of the Middle East, but it's appreciated for its rarity, rather than a sweet that stands in competition with commercial candies.
Basil Bread Recipe
My basil plant now wants to reproduce, flowering almost from one day to the next. To keep it from going leggy, I pinch off the flowering tops and harvest yet more leaves. My answer to the basil overflow problem is to bake green bread.
Mouth-Watering Vegetarian Burgul Balls in Garlicky Yogurt Sauce
This recipe actually brought water to my mouth even as I was reading it through. Then I cooked these spicy bulgur balls and set the platter on the table. The family and guests simply snarfed it up; not a scrap left. This bit of Turkish home cuisine is called Arap Koftesi, and I discovered it […]
Make mead
As promised in our post about the great mead comeback, here is the easiest mead recipe for newbie brewers, Joe Mattioli’s Ancient Orange, Clove, and Cinnamon Mead. It’s a controversial recipe that has enraged and delighted countless home brewers since it first appeared on the the GotMead site and went on to go viral. Many home […]
Mead: The Ancient Wine Is Back
What do you think of when you think of mead? You might imagine Vikings with braided beards quaffing something potent out of cow's horns. Or possibly, jolly Hobbits clinking pewter cups of golden liquid between nibbles of seed-cake and tarts. But mead is no longer the drink of the mythical past.
Recipe: Turkish Red Pepper Paste
If you love Turkish food and crave its flavors at home, you’ll soon find yourself stirring up the Turkish pantry staple, spicy red pepper paste. It’s a basic flavoring ingredient for many dishes in southern Turkish cuisine. There are no tomatoes in the paste; its deep red color comes from slow-cooking red bell peppers and […]
Blame Roundup For Celiac And Gluten Intolerance Symptoms
The gluten intolerance and celiac disease epidemic that’s spreading worldwide is related to herbicide residues on foods we eat, according to a study published published in the Interdisciplinary Toxicology journal in 2013. The researchers are Anthony Samsel,an independent scientist who has worked as a consultant to the EPA on arsenic pollution and to the U.S. […]
An ancient salad recipe from the Rambam
Maimonides, referred to as the Rambam, was a philosopher, codifier of Jewish law, and a renowned doctor in 12th-century Egypt. Israelis follow his startlingly modern-sounding health advice until this day. He wrote that the best breakfast is a big, leafy salad: it clears digestion and the kidneys and purifies the blood. That’s not how I […]
Eat Prebiotic Foods To Keep Your Probiotics Healthy
An apple a day keeps the doctor away. Folk wisdom produced this proverb a long time ago. Our canny ancestors didn’t conduct laboratory experiments with rats, but they knew that people who ate an apple every day stayed healthier. The proverb would hold true even if changed to “an onion a day” or “whole grains […]
Missing Aleppo Peppers
The catastrophic war in Syria and the devastation of Aleppo has resulted in a shortage of – Aleppo peppers. Western chefs and gastronomists bewail the absence of the unique spice in their pantries. Yet before rightly considering that millions of displaced and starving people in Syria endure unimaginable horrors every day, consider the loss of […]