Did you know it’s a mitzvah to eat well before the Yom Kippur fast? Kreplach (Ashkenazic traditional stuffed noodle dumplings) are a delicious addition to the pre-fast meal. This year, Yom Kippur starts on Friday evening the 17th of September, and lasts till Shabbat is over on Saturday night. Although the fast falls on Shabbat, […]
Dozens of colorful fresh spices enliven traditional dishes of the Arab world. Spices and herbs are treasured as culinary ingredients, and as medicine, in every Middle Eastern country. While modern supermarkets and small grocery stores carry many of the popular ones, people in the know still search out traditional spice and herb shops, where they […]
You’ll eat well and save money by changing the way you look at holiday leftovers. This time of year is a time of intense food activity. For Jews, the High Holidays are taking off with symbolic foods called Simanim, and for Arabs, Ramadan just came to a close (have a look at the lively, vegan […]
A play on words and a plea for blessings. Start the Jewish New Year with a variety of salads that symbolize things you desire. Rosh Hashana’s symbolic foods represent things we ask to be granted in the coming year, the Jewish New Year. But they simply might represent words. Enjoy these easy-to-make symbolic salads and […]
Impress your date and reduce your negative impact on the environment with a green-ified date. Dating can be rough. Firstly, it can be hard to find that special someone (which is facilitated, in our modern times, by some form of online dating site or one of those popular US dating sites), and secondly, it can […]
Sun tea is nature’s equivalent of the crockpot… minus the electricity. We each have our own way of dealing with the Middle East’s harsh sun and humidity during the summer, especially in August. For some it’s sun dresses, for others it’s catching the breeze by the beach, and for some it’s a popsicle. If none […]
Arwa offers a 6 step guide to greening your Ramadan holiday. With the month of Ramadan quickly approaching, Muslims across the world are beginning to prepare for the month of fasting from sunrise to sunset. Food supplies are stocked up (ironic, I know), appointments are rescheduled and preparations are made for the month of spiritual […]
Is toast with Margarine and honey part of your routine? Well maybe you should consider taking away just one small ingredient. In today’s day and age we have many choices available to us as we make out way through supermarket aisles; which brand to choose, which size, which flavour and which one is the healthiest. […]
More Jews in Britain are finding spiritual and culinary inspiration by growing their own food. Jews are known for their love of food, but less so for their love of farms. Most Jews in Britain live in big cities where, like many urban-dwellers, they are detached from the people and places producing their nosh. But […]
Green babies are being born all over the UAE. Coming soon to a hospital near you? [image via: Gulf News] When it comes to setting green patterns, there is no doubt that it is better to create eco-friendly habits early in life. No different than other forms of education, or even good habits such as […]
I have quite a taste for post-apocalyptical fantasies myself (such as Cormac McCarthy’s chilling ‘The Road’, reviewed here earlier on GP), so I picked up ‘Everyone Can Be A Hero’ with some eagerness. It is a novel for teenagers set in a Britain devastated by a nuclear accident, where the remaining population is forced to […]
Finally, the recipe for sourdough bread! We’ve broken it up in parts, because it’s complicated, but today we’ll put it all together so it’ll makes sense if you’ve been following the parts. Last week we started with making a sourdough starter, and dedicated a whole post on how to care for and feed your sourdough […]
Baking sourdough bread can be a pleasure, but a bit like owning a pet. Miriam continues the series on baking great sourdough bread and how to maintain your starter. Earlier in the week, we covered how to make the starter for your sourdough recipe. But your starter needs to be fed. Yeasts need to be […]
The crucial test, apparently, and one which we should remember and apply, is "would our grandma or great-grandma recognise this alleged food item as food?"
You can bake a sourdough corn bread like this, too. our 4-part series on baking with sourdough starts here. People have relied on wild yeasts to ferment their bread doughs, beer, and wine for thousands of years. By contrast, commercial yeast has only been around for about 100 years. It only became possible to culture […]