These two recipes bring the tastes of Arabia straight to your dining table
Arab cooking is essentially based on the food available to nomads, such as dates, grains, pulses, fruits, goat milk and lamb meat. Using these they developed cooking to provide a balanced diet.
History reveals, that the caravan routes passed through Arabia from Syria on the way to Yemen where the Indian vessels brought them the herbs, aroma, spices and rice, which till today is a part of the Arab cooking.
In the recipes that follow, I am going to give you some of the starters of the Mezze table.
Ful Medames (Egyptian Brown Beans)
This is a starter served on the Mezzeh Table. It is a traditional Egyptian dish as old as the Pharaohs. Ful is sold in small Ful shops in the bazaars, as well as the 5-star hotels throughout the Arab world.
Ful mainly consists of broad beans which can be bought in tins from any local store. This dish is served with bread.
Ingredients:
1 tin Ful Medames (brown broad beans)
2 cloves garlic (crushed)
Juice of 2 lemons
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp chopped parsley
1 onion (chopped)
1 tomato (chopped)
Method:
Put the broad beans in a dish and add all the above ingredients, except the parsley. Mix it well and at the end, sprinkle the parsley over the dish and add some olive oil over it.
Labna (cream cheese dip)
I am often asked, “What does an Arab eat for breakfast?” The first thought that comes to my mind is Labna, which is eaten as a spread on bread or simply as a dip. It is refreshing and can be kept in the fridge for several days. Basically it is drained yogurt.
Ingredients:
1/2 kg yogurt
A pinch of salt
Olive oil
Method:
Take the yogurt, pour it into a muslin cloth and hang it, or put it in a strainer, to allow the water to drain off. What remains in the bag after five to six hours is a slightly soft, creamy yogurt which is more like a cheese. The Lebanese and Jordanians often shape this cheese into little balls, the size of a walnut. Sprinkle a little olive oil over them and make a hearty breakfast out of it.
This recipe was originally published in Dawn’s Tuesday Review on December 29, 1992.
