Mouneh Time..... مونة تايم

My mom kicks it into high gear this time of year (no rhyme intended). In typical Arab fashion mom’s preparing this year’s “mouneh” so it can last us during the long Canadian winter. Mouneh, for those who are unfamiliar with the term, is the preparation of certain foods/vegetables in a certain way, such that they are preserved over the winter months. Mouneh goes back centuries into Arab culture, and it is still practiced today, even in Canada!

Typical mouneh items include but certainly not limited to:

Mloukhieh: the main ingredient in a very popular Egyptian/Levantine dish.

Magdous: Eggplants stuffed with walnuts, red pepper, preserved in olive oil over the winter months.

Kousa (Zuchini): an important player in the mahashi category, which consists of vegetables such as eggplants, and red peppers stuffed with spiced rice and ground beef/lamb.

Pickles: although pickles are available year round in grocery stores, the taste is not the same as homemade pickles, plus can you even buy “lifit” pickles from here?

Flefleh hamra (red peppers): For use in mana`eesh and other reciepied, it’s usually dried in the sun, and placed in the freezer for the rest of the winter

Then there is all the garden herbs that mom dries such as thyme, rosemary, and mint.

All this talk about food got me hungry, I’m off to make ‘aasha (the last meal of the day, usually eaten around 9 o’clock, consisting mainly of TEA, labneh, magdous, cheese, olives and every dairy product known to man)

Magdous

Kousa (Zuchini)

Various pickles

Post Dedication: To mom, who works so hard to make us feel at home

technorati tags: arab, culture, magdous, mouneh, pickles