Jewish Muslim Interfaith Cooking Day - Middle Eastern Style

How wonderful to walk into a busy kitchen where all the beautiful women are working together..... the smells, the chatter, the hustle and bustle of a Middle Eastern kitchen, is so inviting, so warm, and so so delicious.

All hands were on deck, rolling out the dough for the homemade Manakish. This is a Lebanese style pita, is traditionally cooked over an open fire, on a dome griddle. the dough is brushed with either a za'atar which consists of olive oil, wild thyme, culinary sumac and sesame seeds, or the traditional topping called kashk of dried yoghurt, soaked buckwheat, finely chopped tomatoes, chillies and fresh herbs.

 Next on the menu was Nadia's homemade Falafel. A deep fried ball or patty made from ground chickpeas, garlic, parsley, cummin and coriander. The Arabic word means "a unit" ط ع م, and when translated meaning "a little piece of food". Falafel has become a common form of street food in the Middle East.  

The fried patties are regularly eaten as part of meze. During Ramadan, falafel is sometimes eaten as part of the 'iftar, the meal that breaks the daily fast

after sunset^. Falafel became so popular that Middle Eastern McDonald's now serves a "McFalafel".

 

 Fatimah made a traditional Lebanese dish called Fetteh. It is made of layers of toasted or baked pieces of pita bread and chickpeas which are covered with a thick layer of seasoned yoghurt and topped with roasted pine nuts and chopped parsley.

 

 

                                   

                                        

We ended the day on a wonderful sweet treat, making Ma'amoul. these are small shortbread pastries filled with dates, pistachios or walnuts.

Now what I love about our Interfaith cooking days, are the similarities we share as women, the passion we all have for food, for family and for tradition.

But as I have just discovered, we share far more than we all realise. Many households keep a stock of Ma'amoul all year round, but they are particularly used on religious festivals. Muslims eat them at night during Ramadan, and Egyptian Jewish communities, eat Ma’amoul during Purim.

And today in Modern Jewish homes, we celebrate our festival of Purim, eating Hamentaschen, date filled sweet pastries. 

We truly are family !!!!!

until next week, ciao, Mel