A Book of Middle Eastern Food - Claudia Roden

A Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden

• Overview:

  • Explores Middle Eastern cuisine, making it accessible with readily available ingredients.

  • Suitable for those wanting to expand their culinary knowledge and introduce new dishes.

  • Features recipe introductions, sections on origins and influences, and dietary laws for entertaining overseas visitors.

A BOOK OF MIDDLE EASTERN FOOD

• Claudia Roden:

  • Born and raised in Cairo, Egypt, absorbing the cultures of the Arab world and diverse communities (Armenian, Coptic, Jewish, European).

  • Educated in Paris and London; studied art and exhibited works expressing the Middle East's flamboyance.

  • Relocated to England after the Suez Crisis and resides in London with her family.

Contents Overview

• Key Topics:

  • Introduction.

  • Hors D'oeuvre (Mezze).

  • Salads (Salata).

  • Yoghourt.

  • Savoury Pastries.

  • Soups (Shorbah).

  • Egg Dishes (Beid).

  • Fish (Samak).

  • Poultry.

  • Meat Dishes.

  • Substantial Dishes.

  • Vegetables (Khodar).

  • Pickles (Melehalel).

  • Rice (Roz).

  • Breads (Khubz).

  • Puddings, Cakes and Sweets (Halaviyat).

  • Jams and Preserves (Mirabbfyat).

  • Sherbets and Drinks (Sbarbat).

  • Additional Sections: Metric conversion tables, Bibliography, Where to buy Middle Eastern food, Index.

Acknowledgements

• The author expresses gratitude to Middle Eastern individuals for sharing recipes and culinary traditions.

• Special thanks to parents, especially her father for instilling appreciatio n for Middle Eastern food and her mother for guidance.

• Appreciation for her husband, brothers, friends (particularly SuzyBenghiat for h er passion for food), and children for their support.

• Specific mentions to Mrs. Iris Galante, Mrs. Lily Galante, Aunt Regine Douek, Mrs. R. Afif, Mrs. Irene Harari, Mrs. I. Laski, and Mrs. S. Gaon for recipe contributions.

• Gratitude towards Arab and North African Embassies and the Islamic Centre for their generosity and help.

• Acknowledgement to the Israeli Embassy and Government Tourist Office for recipes and advice.

• Deep appreciation to Miss Belinda Bather for Turkish recipes and Mrs. V. Afsharian for Persian dishes.

• Recognition of Professor A. J. Arberry for allowing inclusion of recipes from al-Baghdadi's manual and culinary poems.

• Debt to Monsieur Maxime Rodinson for studies in Arab culinary history.

• Acknowledgement of various Arab, Turkish, and Persian cookbooks.

• Thanks to her editor, Helena Radecka, for guidance and enthusiasm.

Introduction

• The book is a compilation of recipes from Middle Easterners in exile, reflecting a longing for the food and culture of their homeland.

• The collection started with a recipe for ful medames, which symbolized home for the author and her family in Paris.

• The author gathered recipes from relatives, acquaintances, and friends who have settled in various countries after leaving their Middle Eastern homelands.

• Sharing these dishes at gatherings evokes memories of Middle Eastern markets, streets, and occasions.

• The goal is to convey the culture and traditions inseparable from the dishes.

• The author initially thought her food was uniquely Egyptian but discovered its commonality with Turkish, Syrian, Lebanese, and Persian cuisines, leading to a broader Middle Eastern focus.

• The Middle East is defined broadly, including Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Iran, Turkey, Greece, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Sudan, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, and Israel, all linked culinarily.

• Balkan countries are excluded due to their distance from the Middle East, while North African countries are included due to their connection to the Arab world and similarities with medieval Persian and Arab dishes.

• The author gives careful attention to aspects of food related to her personal background while aiming to do justice to other countries' cuisines subjectively.

• Cosmopolitan Egypt provided access to various Middle Eastern cuisines through its diverse communities.

• The author received help from Turks, Syrians, Persians, Lebanese, Saudi Arabians, Armenians, Israelis, and North Africans in London.

• Contributors provided detailed explanations of ingredients and preparation techniques but often lacked precise measurements.

• The author has included both traditional and modern dishes, including prize-winning Israeli recipes, and traced the origins and influences of dishes.

• Translations of medieval cookery manuals by Professor A. J. Arberry and M. Maxime Rodinson are included.

• The book aims to provide a detailed explanation of Middle Eastern cooking traditions passed down through generations.

• Middle Eastern cooking is described as easy, with dishes like stuffed vine leaves requiring time but offering enjoyment.

• The food is economical, featuring lamb and minced meat, and excludes alcohol due to Muslim dietary law.

• Vegetables and spices are widely available.

• The recipes are accompanied by tales, poems, descriptions of ceremonies, rituals, myths, customs, and manners, as well as riddles and proverbs.

Origins and Influences

• The author collected recipes from various people, many of whom were unaware of the dishes' origins.

• The history of Middle Eastern food is intertwined with the region's history of triumphs, defeats, loves, and sorrows.

• Early origins can be traced to Bedouin and peasant dishes, and in Egypt, back to Pharaonic times with dishes like roast goose and melokhia soup.

• Foods mentioned in the Bible, such as beans, lentils, olives, figs, and grapes, were prepared similarly to Egyptian methods.

• The Persian Empire of c. 500 B.C. influenced the region, followed by Macedonian Greeks and the Romans.

• The Persia of the Sassanid period (3rd to 7th century) saw the blossoming of culinary traditions.

• King Khusrow II's reign featured lavish banquets and dishes that are still familiar today.

• The death of Prophet Muhammad in A.D. 632 led to Muslim Arab conquests and the establishment of an Islamic empire.

• The Abbassid Arabs, influenced by the Persians, adopted traditions of chivalry and good living, leading to a period of culinary magnificence in Baghdad.

• Manuals on cooking were written, songs were sung about food, and legends were born of great feasts.

• Maxime Rodinson studied the social climate of this period, which ended in the 13th century.

• Two manuscripts of recipes have been found dating from the collapse of Abbassid rule, including the Kitab al-Wusla ila al-Habib and a manual written in Baghdad in 1226 by Muhammad ibn Hasan ibn Muhammad ibn al-Karim al-Katib al-Baghdadi.

• Al-Baghdadi divided pleasure into six classes: food, drink, clothes, sex, scent, and sound, considering food the noblest.

• Haute cuisine from Baghdad and Damascus was introduced by conquerors to various countries, with trade enabling the availability of ingredients across the Arab Empire.

• The Ottoman Empire brought a new cuisine based on Arab traditions and adopted from conquered countries, with many Balkan dishes bearing Turkish names.

• The 16th-century Turkish poet Revani wrote of glorious banquets.

• After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the Middle East became cosmopolitan, with European influences leading to lighter food and a fusion of Eastern and Western tastes.

• Restaurants in the Middle East offer both traditional and cosmopolitan menus.

Social Aspects

• Cooking and eating reflect the Middle Eastern character and way of life, with hospitality being a stringent duty.

• Sayings and beliefs emphasize the importance of pleasing guests and hosts.

• People entertain warmly and joyously, with it being an honor to have guests.

• When preparing food, one should allow for an extra helping in case an unexpected guest should arrive.

• The host should provide all the food he has in the house, and apologize for its meagreness.

• The host must never ask why a guest has come, but receive him with a smiling face.

• Guests should inquire about the host’s family and affairs before stating the reason for their visit.

• The host must treat his guests as though he were their servant.

• The first duty of a host is cheerfulness, providing gossip, jokes, and satire.

• Guests must refuse offered food at first, but eventually give in on being pressed.

• The Quran advises guests to talk nicely and politely.

• Admiration towards a possession may oblige the owner to offer it.

• Cooks need and expect approval, and husbands often express their wishes for dinner and remark on the success of the dish.

• Cooking ability is rated highly among female accomplishments.

• Cooking is often done in company, with family and friends helping each other.

• People turn to food to mark important events like weddings and religious festivals.

• Criticism and disapproval are feared, leading to repetitive dishes at parties.

• A language of food exists, with the serving and presentation of dishes expressing subtle social distinctions.

• Status influences who is served first and the best helping.

• Some foods are believed to have magical powers, such as garlic warding off the evil eye.

• Eating yellow things is believed to result in laughter and happiness, while honey is believed to sweeten life.

• Some foods were believed to have aphrodisiac qualities.

• Middle Eastern cooking is deeply traditional and non-intellectual, with loyalty and respect for custom.

• Recipes have been cooked for centuries, basically unchanged.

• Each cook feels that within the boundaries of tradition she can improvise and create a unique dish with her own individual taste.

• Malleability and the capacity to absorb new cultures have enabled people of the Middle East to incorporate dishes from various sources.

• Mezze, served before a meal or with drinks, reflects the passion for leisure and tranquility.

• The numerous stuffed mahshi, biirek, sanb11sak and pastries denote a local pride in craftsmanship.

• The traditional decoration of dishes with spices and herbs is the result of a love of beauty and ornamentation.

The Traditional Table

• Before proceeding to the table, guests are entertained in a different room, where they often sit on sofas at floor level.

• A maid comes round with a large copper basin and flask, pouring out water for the guests to wash their hands.

• Dining tables are low and round, with metal trays resting on stools or short, folding wooden legs.

• The trays are of copper, brass, or silver, beaten and engraved with traditional oriental decorative patterns.

• Several bowls containing a variety of dishes are placed on each table.

• Before the meal is started, the word Bismillah (In the name of God) is uttered by all.

• In eating, a strict code of etiquette is observed.

• The Imam Hassan listed twelve rules of etiquette to be observed. The first four are necessary, the next four are customary, and the last four are rules of particular politeness.

• It is tolerated to eat with five fingers when eating the couscous.

• It is considered sociable and polite to detach choice morsels and offer these to a neighbor.

• If one feels satiated, one should nevertheless continue to nibble at a dish from which others are still eating.

• One must lick one's fingers at the end of a meal only.

• One must always talk about pleasant and joyful things.

• Guests leave the table to go through the hand-washing ceremony again and partake of coffee or tea.

• At buffet dinner parties, the guests stood far away from the table and had to be urged and pressed to eat.

• Some might misunderstand the description of table manners. Eating with the fingers is most delicate and refined, and has respect for the elegance of of savoir-vivre.

Muslim Dietary Laws

• The religion of Islam is an important part of Middle Eastern culture and the main foundation of the customs and traditions of the region.

• The code of religion is derived mainly from the Quran.

• The Quran consists of a collection of the revelations or commands which the Prophet Muhammad received through the Angel Gabriel as messages from God.

• Muhammad mentioned food many times throughout the Quran, and insisted particularly on its beneficial character as a gift from God.

• He repeated injunctions about kinds of food permitted and not permitted.

• The actual things forbidden are:

  • animals dead before they are slaughtered, or those killed for reasons other than that of food;

  • blood;

  • pig's flesh;

  • animals slaughtered as an offering to a pagan deity or in the name of the deity;

  • alcoholic or fermented liquids, and all inebriating liquors, although they were favored at first. They are forbidden in cooking, too.

• An animal that is killed for the food of man must be slaughtered in a particular manner, the person who is about to do it, must say: 'In the name of God, God is most great!' and then cut its throat.

• These dietary laws are observed in varying degrees of laxity throughout the Muslim world.

General Features of Middle Eastern Food

• Cooking fats used in most countries in the past were rather heavy, in particular, alya, the rendered fat from a sheep's or lamb's tail, was extremely popular, now, clarified butter (samna), ordinary butter, margarine and oil.

• Samna is butter (usually made from buffaloes' milk) which has been melted over boiling water and clarified by straining it through thin dampened muslin.

• Oil-usually corn or nut oil-is generally used by Jews for all their cooking, while Copts prefer sesame oil. All countries use olive oil for dishes which a.re to be eaten cold.

• As a general rule, people like to fry or sauté their meat and vegetables before adding water to make the stews and soups. Those acquire a rather darker colour and a somewhat richer flavor.

• A large variety of spices is used. Practically every Middle East town has its affarine or spice street, containing very small shops which sell spices.

• Each country seems to have a favourite combination of spices or herbs.

• Saffron, the pistil of a certain variety of a crocus, is highly prized. In certain parts such as Morocco and Persia, it is used extensively in all types of dishes for its faint, delicate aroma, and for the magnificent yellow color it gives the food.

• Another coloring spice which is much favored for its taste and for its acid yellow shade is turmeric, used in powdered form.

• In many countries, roasted spice, seed and nut mixtures are sold ready prepared from jars in groceries, or in paper cones in the streets.

• Utensils and the type of heat available have to a large extent determined the style of cooking.

• It was customary in the past, and to a lesser degree is it still even today, to send certain dishes to be cooked in the ovens of the local bakery.

• Another factor which helped to perpetuate the tradition of slow, lengthy cooking, as well as that of the more elaborate dishes which require time and craftsmanship, is the social custom which has kept women in the home until very recently.

• Nuts have been used since ancient times in a variety of dishes and in unexpected ways.

• Persians favor dishes delicately balanced in flavor between sweet and sour, cooked with vinegar, lemon and sugar, and the sour juice of pomegranates.

• I have indicated precise quantities and measures in the recipes, and have given a few variations to allow for the natural fluidity and variability of the dishes. Another cook might use slightly different with the same outcome though.