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. The ancient Romans left a simple cheesecake recipe: ricotta cheese, honey, and eggs. Pour into a clay saucer. Bake over coals. That still works, but for the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, we […]
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.
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 […]
Miriam continues the fourth part of her series on medicinal herbs from the Middle East. To keep things simple for this series, we’re only considering the medicinal properties of dried seasonings. (See parts I, II, and III here on Green Prophet.) Some herbs don’t amount to much when dried. Basil, parsley, and coriander leaf, for […]
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 […]
Dried galingal root is a Middle East spice great for nausea and flatulence. In Mama Nazima’s Jewish-Iraqi Cuisine, author Rivka Goldman mentions that her mother cooked soup to help invalids regain strength. Well, all the recipes involve spices: curry, black or red pepper, turmeric, ginger, cloves, and cumin. Mama Nazima, with her rich fund of […]
Purim, one of the most colorful and popular holidays in Judaism (probably because it is a mitzva to get, ahem, inebriated), is coming up this Saturday evening. Colorful because it involves getting dressed up in costume, and popular because it’s fun to see everyone else’s creative costume ideas, eat delicious pastries, hear the story from […]
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 […]
There’s really no better way to get to know someone than by sitting down and sharing a meal. Sarah Melamed, plant biologist and naturalist, aims to make those connections happen by recreating recipes from all over the Middle East and the Mediterranean on her eclectic blog, Foodbridge. In multicultural Israel, where Melamed lives, every kitchen offers […]
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 […]
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 […]
I’d always admired people who eat wild vegetables. No water gets pumped and no gas is drilled to get those plants to the market. But as an immigrant without a horticultural bent, I needed guidance. Fortunately I had expert teachers: Green Prophet’s own Miriam Kresh, and Sarah Melamed, who writes Foodbridge. Miriam has taught me […]
Taste of Beirut blog features authentic Lebanese cuisine and a great give-away. I love this blog. I love Lebanese food, and author Joumana, a Lebanese ex-pat living in the States, presents recipe after delicious-looking recipe, Slow Food style. Just a small example – the Toom garlic paste, a staple flavoring in Lebanese kitchens. Whirl garlic, […]