The Stuff of Life
You know how some people say they don’t trust those who do not love animals? Well, we would venture to say the same about olive oil. It is near impossible to imagine one of our dishes, or even a small bite, being prepared without this liquid gold (with a few exceptions, of course). Without this versatile and enriching staple, the meal would simply feel incomplete. Besides the smooth richness and delicious flavour olive oil adds to food, the numerous health benefits due to healthy monosaturated fats and antioxidants are a very welcome bonus.
Every now and then, it occurs to us how fortunate we feel to be born into a culture with such a rich diet when it comes to ingredients. Not only rich for health and nutrition purposes, but also in terms of the actual food culture and history. It doesn’t stop with just olive oil. Garlic and lemon are so intrinsic to our cuisine and general diet, and are used in abundance. The health benefits of both the aforementioned staples are so deeply established and need no elaboration, but further to this their culinary benefits are so varied and prized; so much so that it is usually a talking point when somebody from our lands is not a fan of garlic!
So many of our everyday recipes call for a generous squeeze of fresh lemon juice to finish them off, and sometimes it can make all the difference; for example with ful muddamas – garlicky fava beans drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with parsley. We’re also so lucky to have a cuisine where spices feature prominently in many meals which not only greatly enhance the dishes and give them layers of depth and unique flavour, but also boost our general wellbeing through all the goodness contained in them.
Ful muddamas
It’s true that sourcing high-quality, organic ingredients isn’t as simple as the old days that our mother tells us about, where traders made monthly visits to households across Beirut to distribute dairy fresh off the farm, or yearly visits to regular customers after the first olive harvest to sell olives and the pressed oil in tin cans. Though these supplies were also sold in stores at the time, some like our great grandmother used to appreciate getting them straight from the source. The same goes for the historical community-based practices, such as when our mother and her siblings and young cousins used to help their grandmother, Deeba, and the other elders pound open those fresh olives with glass Pepsi bottles to allow the brine to be fully absorbed during the pickling process. This was a traditional custom in Palestine, where olive trees grow in abundance. My mother recalls how her grandmother’s kitchen was always stocked with massive glass jars of black olives, green olives and all kinds of pickled foods from lemons and cucumbers to aubergines.
Though we can’t replicate the exact scenarios that existed back then, we try as best as we can to keep the spirit of those practices alive making things from scratch as often as we can - for example our dairy products and pickled vegetables - and sourcing the best quality ingredients we can lay our hands on. A day doesn’t go by without us thinking of and thanking our beloved ancestors who instilled and passed on this attitude towards and understanding of the intertwining nature of food, love, community and family.
