Some Notes on Middle Eastern
Home Cooking

"From the north still came a faint snarl of hungry blond men gnashing at raw meat, and an occasional whiff of carrion, that sweet wild sickening smell. But all around the Mediterranean and to the east, a ring of good things was sprouting. Gradually fig trees were planted, and then grapes, and wheat grew because men made it."
           –MFK Fisher, from "Greek Honey and the Hon-Zo"









Rawia Bishara, author of Olives, Lemons & Za'atar says in her introduction that in her native Nazareth that the word Rawia means 'storyteller,' and that is what she is and does through cooking. She says she was born into a food loving family in souther Galilee in which the ideas, not the phrases specifically, of organic, locavore and sustainable were ones they lived by. "My grandmother always had several ceramic urns filled with fruity olive oil, pressed from the olives my aunts and uncles picked on her family's land. My mother, too, made her own olive oil, and used used the remaining 'crude' to make soap. She distilled her own vinegar, sun dried herbs and fruits, made fresh batches of goat cheese as well as fermented sweet wine, and jarred jewel-colored jams from the bounty of the local orchards. Pictures accompanying her introduction show sun soaked photographs of this Mediterranean climate, a landscape at the outskirts of the city markets, that are rocky scrub brush, fig trees sprouting in the background. "The drive from Nazareth was itself was a food lover's dream. A colorful mosaic of rooftops stretched into the horizon, each one laden with vegetables and herbs drying in the sun. There were plum tomatoes, eggplant, okra, wheat, sesame seeds, thyme, sumac, figs, apricots, and spearmint..."  Her journey from these 'food' roads to New York City, where she would eventually create the wildly popular middle eastern eatery Tanoreen, comes forward in recipes that she has translated from Galilee to America like falafel, Arabic bread, and Baba Ghanouj, a primarily eggplant-based recipe that becomes a beautiful spread. "My dad used to say that the key to making excellent baba is to begin with grilled eggplant made by setting the vegetable directly over hot coals or the flame of a gas stove, imparting a lovely smoky flavor."


Baba Ghanouj

Makes 6-8 Servings

3 medium eggplants
1 1/2 cups Thick Tahini Sauce
2 cloves garlic
Fresh lemon juice
1/4 c olive oil
2 tbsp fresh parsley
Arabic bread for serving