It's Always Time for HUMMUS

Americans think of hummus as a dip; Arabs think of hummus as a meal—especially at breakfast time. Early in the morning, children scurry down streets in their pajamas, or with a dress or jacket thrown over pajamas. Each child carries a plate and a few coins, and all heading for the nearest hummus maker. Nothing beats good hummus with fresh pita bread for breakfast—unless you add falafel.

Breakfast doesn't last all day, but hummus can. For many families in the Arab world, the main meal of the day is at midday. If someone, or several someones happen to visit at meal time, a quick trip to the local hummus maker can stretch every meal to accommodate everyone.

 Unfortunately, where we live, there is no local hummus maker. So... I make my own. We haven't found a pre-made hummus that suits us, but it isn't hard to make.

  Add a can of chickpeas, tahini (sesame seed paste), lemon juice, and a little garlic in a food processor and let 'er rip. Make sure it is a smooth paste and not grainy. Canned chickpeas work just as well as cooked dried chickpeas, although there are purists who disagree. Don't forget to keep out a few chickpeas to use as garnish.

Finish the garnish with sumac and parsley. Top with extra virgin olive oil, and it's ready to go.

I did say hummus was good anytime, didn't I?

Ever have a day with no inspiration for dinner? Try this: Crumble some ground meat in a skillet, add some pine nuts that have been lightly browned in olive oil. Instead of the sumac and parsley, put the meat on a dish of hummus. Top with browned pine nuts. Serve with a veggie platter—and add some pickled turnips, or dill pickles if you can't find turnips.

If you want to top your hummus with some of the best olive oil in the world, try some made from olives grown in Palestine. I buy mine from Canaan Fair Trade. They sell all kinds of great food. https://www.canaanusa.com/shop?code=USC

This video shows a Palestinian woman making hummus with a blender. While she doesn't use as much tahini as I would use, I love watching the family eat. Notice that they use little snippets of bread and pop the whole thing in their mouths. No double dipping, just sharing.

Arabic Bread: an important part of culture

© 2010 jeffreyw, Flicker from Wylio.com

Arabic bread is more than just a food. It is an integral part of the culture across the Arab world, and no wonder, since historians believe that wheat and barley were first domesticated in the Fertile Crescent about 10,000 years ago. At that time the first grinding stone was invented in Egypt, and the first grain was crushed. The first bread was flat and thin, similar to tortillas. ("History of bread," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_bread&oldid=696359727 (accessed December 23, 2015).

     It is widely thought that the Egyptian skill with brewing beer and the warm climate led to the discovery of levening. Around 2500 BC, the first leavened breads were made in Egypt. (Encyclopedia of Food and Culture | 2003 | Franklin, Peter S. COPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc. as quoted in http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/bread.aspx)

     Ever since that time, Bread has been part of each meal. The soft flat loaves can serve as a plate. Its soft, pliable texture make it perfect for dipping in liquid or semi-liquid foods. It can be folded into a scoop to pick up anything solid or semi-solid. Endlessly adaptable, it is the plate, the utensil, or the meal itself. Often called aish, which also means life, it is clear that for Arabs, bread is truly the staff of life. With a ten thousand year history, is it any wonder Arabs say that Bread is Life?
     Food plays a large part in my novels, Born a Refugee and Checkpoint Kalandia, just as in real life.  It truly is part of the culture. (http://sandhpublishing.com/Kalandia.html)
     Pita bread, also known as pocket bread, can be made from any standard bread recipe. When it is time to shape the dough, shape into balls about two inches in diameter. Cover with a clean cloth and let rise. After the dough rises, roll each ball into a disc a little less than a half an inch thick and let it rest for 10 or 15 minutes. Baking will puff the loaves into shapes resembling improperly inflated footballs. After the bread cools, each loaf will flatten out into its characteristic shape and there will be a pocket in the middle.

© 2010 jeffreyw, Flicker from Wylio.com

     Although everyone thinks of pita bread when the topic of Arabic bread arises, that is not the only kind of bread native to Palestine. Taboon (or tabun) bread is named after the domed stone ovens that villagers used to build. The ovens resemble stone igloos. On baking day, a fire is built inside the oven. As the fire subsides into embers, the village women slap the thin rounds of dough onto the oven walls. When the dough begins to fall off the wall, it is done. At least that is what I remember from a conversation with an elderly relative who lived in the small village of Burhahm. Today there are other ways of getting similar results. I have seen people bake the bread on an inverted wok over an open flame. It can also be approximated at home. http://arabianmama.com/2013/03/31/palestinian-taboon-bread/ that suggests preheating a flat baking dish covered with small rocks or pebbles to duplicate the texture of the original.

• http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/pitabread
• http://www.backwoodshome.com/middle-eastern-breads/
• http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-pita-bread-at-home-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-90844

All recipes for good pita bread. It is easy to make at home. Some people use ovens, others used large flat frying pans. There are many videos available that walk you through the process. Here are a couple of my favorites.

Ramadan and Eid

Eid al-Fitr, or the Feast of Breaking the Fast, is the holiday marking the end of the month of Ramadan. For children the Eid is a time of magic. Schools are closed, there is visiting and merriment everywhere. Coins flow from the adults and they are free to spend them on sweets. It is a time of new clothes, carnivals, presents, and sweets that boggle the imagination.
   During Ramadan, Muslims fast from sunup to sundown. That means no eating, no drinking, no smoking, and even no makeup for women (lipstick might get licked and ingested, eye makeup might get into the eye, etc.). To help people along in the fast, they often get up in the wee hours of the morning and have a meal, call the sahoor.

     Ramadan is a time to develop self-control and to think about how to become a better person. Lying, arguing, gossiping, and other sins of all types should be avoided. Charitable giving and prayer are encouraged. It is a time to think of others and to be thankful for the blessings of God.

   That being said, when you spend hours on end without food or drink, your thoughts stray to food and drink more often than they might otherwise. The evening meals are always more elaborate and more delicious than any other time of year, the desserts are amazing, and everyone feels the excitement and anticipation of the call announcing the end of the day’s fast.

     In winter Ramadan is a lot of fun—especially for youngsters who get up at unusual hours to eat, even if they don’t fast the next day. The days are short and the meal at the end of the day is especially welcome after a long fast.

     In summer, it’s an entirely different story. The days are unbearably long, and in many places unbearably hot without water. Traffic jams become noisy masses of frayed nerves as hunger, thirst, and lack of nicotine turn cab drivers into demons of speed and impatience.

   All the problems of fasting in the summer have been exacerbated in modern times for many Muslims who find themselves far from Mecca or Medina. Now there are Muslims scattered across the globe, including places above the Arctic Circle. Consider the dilemma of people fasting in Scandinavian countries, where the daylight can last 21 hours or more. Fasting in the land of the midnight sun? How is that possible?

Midnight sun in Advent Bay, Spitzbergen, Norway from http://www.flickr.com/photos/8623220@N02/3174207141/in/photolist-5QuDck-5noiCE-bD8bZG-5QyVPN

     There are two ways it can be done. One is to fast by local time, which leads to fatigue and may have long lasting effects on the health. The alternative is to follow Mecca time or the nearest Muslim country time. Dr. Abdul Mannan, an Imam and president of the Islam Society of Northern Finland, quotes Egyptian scholars who say “if the days are long - more than 18 hours - then you can follow the Mecca time or Medina time, or the nearest Muslim country time." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19199411

     Why is Ramadan in the summer sometimes and in the winter other times? Because the Islamic calendar runs on the lunar year, which is only 354 days long. Since we normally use the solar calendar, Eid appears to be eleven days earlier each year.

     Traditionally, the end of the lunar month was determined when the new moon was sighted, witnessed by a Muslim known to be truthful and trustworthy. Today, modern astronomy can accurately predict the appearance of the new moon years in advance. There is no more guessing about whether the Eid will be tomorrow or the next day—we can even tell what day it wall fall on next year, or ten years from now.

     The twenty-first century has intruded on Ramadan in other ways, too. In the past, believers who were not within hearing distance of a mosque could end their fast when they could no longer tell a white thread from a black thread. Today modern astronomy can tell us exactly when the sun will rise or set. Smartphones have apps that tell you when to begin the fast and when to end the fast. Apps like iPray, iQuran, and Find Mecca, an app that tells which way to face for prayer, have changed the face of Ramadan. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nidhal-guessoum/ramadan-modern-technologi_b_917031.html

We hope nothing ever changes the message that we should always do our best to be good members of the family of man and good citizens of the world.