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

Jewish Muslim Interfaith Cooking Day - Israeli Style Shabbat Dinner

This week, we visited Our Big Kitchen (OBK). It  is a kosher and halal approved commercial kitchen located in Bondi. The kitchen is open to anyone who wants to use it to empower themselves or to help others. The kitchen was built by donations and runs on donations – of goods and services, food and most importantly, donations of time by volunteers.

 

Here are some biscuits that were baked by volunteers, ready for delivery.

 And here we are learning about OBK

Our meal this week was inspired by Lynda Ben-Menashe, with a selection of old family Shabbat recipes from a time when Lynda was living in Israel. The sabbath starts on Friday night, and until the sun sets on Saturday, the Jewish people rest. So the Jewish kitchen is very busy all day Friday, preparing meals for our Sabbath.

 The first recipe we made was a deliciously soft and moist chocolate cake. Above, we can see the women working together in creating this spectacular dessert.

What is so special about our Interfaith Cooking days, is not only the new and exotic recipes we cook each week, it is the conversations we share together.

 The women made a pea dish and a grated carrot salad with mayonnaise and raisins which was a refreshing accompaniment to the chicken and rice.

We enjoyed a chicken dish baked in spices, date syrup and slowly cooked in its juices. We made a Middle Eastern rice dish, where the onions were cooked in oil and margarine first, then the rice, parsley and stock were added. When the stock was boiling, we reduced the temperature until the rice had absorbed the stock. This is a great dish that stays warm on the stove for hours with the lid on and the gas off.

Lynda had a smile from ear to ear, so excited to be sharing her family recipes with us all. And as you can see below, we too, enjoyed the meal.

 

As part of the dessert, Elaine poached pears in a wonderful cinnamon, cardamon syrup, which worked so well with the chocolate pudding / cake.

And below we have the youngest member of the OBK team, resting after a busy morning in the kitchen.

Until next week in the interfaith kitchens ..... Ciao, Mel

Jewish Muslim Interfaith Cooking Experience

What an incredible day! How exciting to be a part of this Jewish Muslim Interfaith Day, where over the next few weeks, we all share our food customs and traditions with women, whose families have traveled throughout Europe and the Middle East, and today we sit at a Shared Table in Punchbowl Boys High School.

 The girls started with babaghanouj, placing the eggplant directly on the gas hotplates to cook which gives a delicious smokey flavour. This is traditional cook on an outdoor fire. once the eggplant is soft, remove from the heat and let cool. then add cruched garlic, tahini, lemon juice and serve, see below.

Next on the menu were Sambousic, otherwise known as ladies fingers, slim and delicious!!! Below we can see how the girls filled the pastry with the cooked mince and rolled up these little slender pastries, ready for frying.

 

Definitely fiddly, but so very much worth it. We chatted that this dish was really only cooked when entertaining and often made then frozen prior to cooking. Below is Leila cooking the Sambousic.

How delicious were these Lahmi Bajeen below! A puff pastry base topped with a spicy minced meat topping, with pinenuts, to complete such an incredibly simple idea that was the perfect tool to eat the hummos and babaghanouj with.

We enjoyed homemade hummos, with chick peas that were soaked overnight, boiled until soft, drained and set aside to cool. Pureed with lemon juice, tahini, garlic salt and that is it.

What was interesting to learn is that most Lebanese women partially cook their chick peas, then freeze them. So when time is of essence, the peas are almost ready for hummos.

And here below, is the work of some very talented women. Women working together with traditional recipes, traditional ingredients and and a mutual respect and passion for food.

 

A huge thank you to Lynda Ben Menashe at the NSWJBD for creating this brilliant program, together with Fadima from the Muslim community.

Don't forget to LIKE us on Facebook at our "Shared Table' for all the latest news in food and a 24/7 cookery support helpline.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Shared-Table/121816364572861

Until next time, Ciao, Mel