Golden-pink apricots are in season now in the Middle East. Preserve some as chutney for year-round enjoyment. Do you like chutney? Cooking your own seasonal (and preferably organic) fruit, you can enjoy locavore preserves that you won’t find in any supermarket. And you choose the sweetness and chili heat of your chutney according to your […]
This light, creamy cheesecake fits into your green Shavuot, especially if you make it with organic cheese and eggs. It's also light on sugar.
You know mango chutney from India. It's eaten well on samosas. But all manners of fruit can create a chutney, especially those fruits that don't keep in the fridge.
Caught yourself a summer cold? Make this organic tea to control the cough. The Middle East is experiencing a strange transition from winter to summer. One day it’s hot, with a dry chamsin wind that sweeps in with a cloud of fine red dust. Bad news for asthmatics. The next day is cool, with a […]
Do you love artichokes? We do. Here’s a healthy recipe perfect for the Middle East. It’s springtime, and the markets of the Middle East display piles of these artichoke thistles with the succulent hearts. The hot climates of North Africa and the Middle East produce a fantastic variety of vegetables that are easy to stuff […]
Hungry? Run on down to your local shuk and get yourself a butternut squash. Butternut squash is still in season. Try stuffing it with quinoa, the seed that the pre-Columbian Native Americans called “mother of the grains.” With its nutty taste and high nutritional protein levels (not to mention amino acids and minerals), quinoa’s a […]
You won’t be able to keep these halvah-like cookies around for long. And they couldn’t be simpler to make. We never thought to use tehina (or tehini as you might know it) in baking, but this recipe produces the most meltingly delicious cookies you can imagine. If you’re looking for ways to use up your […]
Poissins are baby chickens. This recipe calls for pine nuts stuffing.
Eggplant seems an unlikely soup ingredient. But blended with vegetable stock, herbs, and cream, the shiny purple vegetable makes a creamy soup full of Middle-Eastern flavors. Now is when eggplant is coming into season in the Middle East. In any market there’s a table piled high with long purple-black eggplants, round eggplants, ridged eggplants, purple […]
Fresh za’atar at Ramla Open-Air Market Chef Moshe Basson created this pungent, chunky pesto in just a few minutes, right under our eyes. Za’atar (Arabic: زعتر, also romanized as zaatar, za’tar, zatar, zatr, zahatar or satar) is a generic name for a family of related Middle Eastern herbs from the genera oregano, calamintha, thyme, and […]
Ma’moul means “filled” or “stuffed” in Arabic, and these tender, crumbly pastries are stuffed with dates or nuts. Traditionally, they’re made in special wooden molds that imprint the pastry with individual designs – so you know if your ma’amoul is stuffed with walnuts, dates, or pistachios, without having to take a bite. People all over […]
A culinary heritage centuries old is preserved in this cookbook. This is a Jewish collector’s cookbook. It contains 100 old-fashioned recipes that evolved out of the centennial Jewish presence in Iraq, plus a synopsis of Jewish history there. Through the book run parallel threads, the main one being the recipes. Around the recipes are comments […]
White Almond Blossoms Make A Unique Liqueur All over the Mediterranean and Middle East, wild almond trees in fields and along highways are becoming clouds of pink and white blossom. They’re the first to bloom at winter’s end. Although rain and dark skies may return a few more times, tentative sunshine warms our faces, and […]
Will chicory become chic? Chicory, or olesh in Arabic and Hebrew, is a tasty wild edible related to endive. Generations of Middle Eastern peoples hand-gathered the lance-like, serrated leaves to cook, but you can buy it cultivated now. Unfortunately, this nutritious, inexpensive wild vegetable hasn’t acquired the prestige of, say, artichokes – which are really […]
Winter salads are as colorful and appetizing as warm-weather ones. Miriam shares two recipes here. The word “salad” evokes a warm afternoon, sunshine streaming in through the kitchen window and a big ceramic bowl filled with chopped tomatoes and cucumbers. At least, it does to me. But it’s the wrong season for that picture right […]