Jacaranda Galore!

Jacaranda Tree by Samia Zeiton

A stroll down Maadi streets during April and May holds a special treat for Nature lovers. This is the season when the Jacaranda blooms! It bursts with color whilst carpeting the ground around it with the heavenly lavender trumpet-like blossoms.

It is said that if you walk beneath the Jacaranda and one of its flowers lands on your head you will have good fortune for the coming year. The Jacaranda tree has always inspired landscape artists to plant it. Here in Maadi, many young couples can be seen taking photographs beneath its purple canopy.

 

The name Jacaranda derives from the Brazilian name for the tree where it grows in abundance as it does in most tropical and sub-tropical regions. It is well-suited to Egypt’s climate. This tree gives a glow to the bleakest street and enhances the whole neighborhood with its splash of color. Once the flowering is over the light green fern-like leaves appear and remain there until autumn when they turn into a deep yellow before shedding. The seeds can be easily recognizable as brown and woody with two valves.

The Jacaranda is shallow-rooted, so is an excellent ornamental tree for medium- to large-sized gardens. It is also popular as a street tree requiring full sun and enough space to grow as they can reach 15 meters and just as wide. Be careful to plant it away from drains, pipes and water lines since they have a strong root system.

Care for the Jacaranda almost always includes proper pruning. This keeps the shape of the tree and prevents the weight of the tree from splitting the trunk. The branches are quite brittle so seasonal pruning is advised to keep branches from breaking. Average life span is about 50 years. Recently new varieties have appeared in smaller sizes ...they can be seen at the Festival City complex. Planted in rows they are truly breathtaking!!!

Pretoria in South Africa is known as Jacaranda City with over 70,000 trees lining their streets blooming from September to November. In Nelson Mandela,s biography The Long Walk to Freedom he writes,”those moments under the shade of the Jacaranda trees on the Vicarage lawn were the most pleasant.”

Next time you happen to be at a nursery look out for a Jacaranda and plant it with care so it can continue giving pleasure to many generations to come

Tahina or Liquid Contentment!

According to writers in the Al-Ahram’s Friday Supplememt, sesame paste or Tahina as it is known all over the Middle East would be the elixir of contentment! “Although it does not make noise like the harvest of cotton or wheat.. sesame represents a quietly contented part of our lives, whether sprinkled on the ubiquitous Ta’ameya pattie, or in liquid form, drizzled over a plate of Fava beans (ful).

Traditionally, the paste is made by grinding the sesame seeds between special stones used especially for this purpose for the last few centuries. According to article, there remain only a few traditional mills for sesame in Old Cairo (serga). The best-tasting sesame comes from Sudan, Ethiopia and Egypt.

Tahina dip (photo: 21food)

The typical way Tahina is served is as a dip. You can find the paste at any Mediterranean food store.

Serves 4

¾ cup Tahina

2 tblsp Lime juice or vinegar

½ to ¾ cup Water

Salt, Cumin to taste

Start out by incorporating the lime juice or vinegar until you get a smooth paste. Add salt and cumin. Then add the water one table spoonful at a time to avoid lumps. Add enough water to reach the consistency of your choice. 

Drizzle this sauce over sandwitches (photo: mediterraneanfood)

Tahina can also be dissolved into yogurt to made a delicious sauce accompaniment (Tartour) to grilled meats and poultry. Simply add 2 tablespoons of Tahina per cup of yogurt.

Delightful Sycamore

Sycamore branches with their fruits growing directly from the branch (photo: Dr. Loutfy Boulos)

This time of the year is the peak of ripening Sycamore fruits. The Sycamore tree was sacred to the ancient Egyptians, perhaps for its ability to bear fruit all year long. It was godess Hathor’s dedicated tree, and she is pictured sprouting out of the trunk to feed the deceased and his family. The wood of the Sycamore has survived for thousands of years unchanged, from the Pharaonic era until today. It was used to make coffers, furniture and small ornate objects on display at the Egyptian Museum.

Fruits at different stages of ripening as seen from color (photo: Dr. Loutfy Boulos)

The delightful Sycamore Syrup brings all that goodness to your plate! Made from all natural ingredients, the Syrup contains no preservatives, relying on sugar content and pH for preservation. It can be used to uplift the taste of any recipe, adding a sweet, fruity flavor to meat dishes, stuffed vegetables and salad dressings.

Growing out of the tree trunk, the Goddess gives fruit and drink to the deceased in this 19th Dynasty depictiion (Tomb of Sennedjem, West Bank, Luxor; photo: touregypt)

Herbed Cucumbers and Labneh

The Mediterranean diet that Middle Easterners have enjoyed for centuries has recently made headlines in the West for its healthy features. With its variety of green, leafy vegetables, monounsaturated fats like olive oil, lots of fresh or dry fruits and juices; and a choice of non-animal protein sources from favorite pulses and whole grains, the MedDiet is increasingly popular with health-conscious consumers.

In the June 2015 issue of Oprah Winfrey's O magazine, this "Labneh with Herbed Cucumbers" recipe offers a refreshing addition to any summer meal! (The recipe below is adapted for local use.)

Ingredients (serves 6)
3 packs, 200 g     Yoghurt, drained overnight
5 pcs                     Cucumbers, medium-size, peeled & sliced
1 pc                       Shallot, sliced thin
1 bunch                Mixed fresh herbs: parsley, dill, mint, cilantro
                              and arugula/rocca (gargir), sliced thin
3 tblsp                  Olive oil              
3 loaves               Brown pita bread
Salt, white pepper & Egyptian lime juice to taste

Photo: Oprah Winfrey's O magazine

Drain yoghurt overnight in the fridge by slitting the tops and lining the packs on their side in a shallow soup dish. Peel and slice cucumbers arranging them in a bowl (if organic, no need to peel). Wash and slice all the herbs and the shallot. To ensure that herbs don't wilt, mix olive oil, salt, lime juice and herbs with cucumbers just before serving. Spread labneh on pretty salad dish, top with herbed cucumbers and drizzle with olive oil. Serve with toasted whole wheat brown pitta loaves. Voila!

Note: If no fresh mint is available, you can use dry mint, crumbled and sprinkled. 

King of Limes

One of Egypt's best kept secrets is its lime! Yellow or green, small in size but big in flavor, this type of lime closely resembles other limes in appearance, except that it is especially juicy and perfumed (Banzaheir variety). Limes are delightful in plain lemonade, mint lemonade, or flavored and colored pink with pomegranate. One use that is unfortunately dying out is in artisan-made Granita, a frozen ice sherbet treat that used to be popular on the coastal towns, especially in summer. Commercial popsicle-like variations are found in the frozen section of the supermarket, and occasionally, the "slush" drink version.  

Fresh mint brings added refreshment to this Egyptian "lime-onade"! (Photo: thepalefox.wordpress)

Squeezed onto soups, salads and baked Fava beans, limes are a staple condiment served at every meal. Egyptians love them with fish and seafood, as well as in dishes such as Stuffed Vine Leaves (Warak 'Einab), giving them a unique tangy, lemony taste. They can be used interchangeably with yellow citrus lemon in any recipe.

With parsley, garlic and onion, fresh lime is essential for fish dishes (Photo: abissadacook.blogspot)

Lime juice is one of the many fresh fruit juices that can be enjoyed year-round in Egypt! The flowers of the tree start to blossom in early spring and the fruits ripen slowly. If left on the tree, they turn from bright green to yellow and drop off. This means the limes are plentiful all year long, except for a short period in summer when they become less juicy and their price goes through the roof.

Tagins or Earthenware Cooking

 

(Photo: forums.egullet)

Traditionally in Egypt, Tagins are used for oven-baked vegetable stews in the countryside, but even city-dwellers cook special dishes in them. Authentic dishes are cooked at home in a “Bram” or برام, in Arabic, for recipes such as “Roz Me3ammar”, a rice dish with a creamy texture, made with tasty morsels of chicken. The delicious Egyptian dessert Om Ali is also baked in the oven in a "Bram".

Shali Lodge Hotel facebook page, photo: Copyright Suzy Bakos Photography

Ideal for slow-cooked dishes in the oven, the Tagins (clay pots and pans) hold their temperature for a long time, even after you take them out of the oven. Another particularity of earthenware is that it's porous, so food looses some of its moisture while the closed oven retains it. Perhaps this is the secret to the special taste of this age-old method of cooking.

While Tagins are found throughout Egypt, savvy Chefs use clay pots of various shapes and sizes, especially made to order in Upper Egypt, where skilled potters continue to produce this traditional crockery. There are deep Tagins, shallow ones, round and oval, but all impart their simple, wholesome glow on the food they hold. Even pizza is more appetizing this way, hot from the oven!

Siwa Dates

Photo by Combos Momn

Dates are Siwa’s pride and joy! With so many traditional varieties, many Siwans prefer dates to chocolate or baked sweets, as this form of sugar is natural.

Dates are used in many creative ways from date-filled crepes to date soufflé and date-stuffed biscuits. Traditionally, the pitted dates are used as a delicious and highly nutritious filling; for example in the preparation of Elhuji, a dish made of eggs with dates and olive oil; and Tagilla, made of flour, dates, water and olive oil. A date syrup can be used as a condiment.

Some of Siwa’s date production is bought up by Italians who love to eat dates at Christmas time, a tradition that goes back to the early days of Christianity when the Magi brought dates along as gifs for the newborn king. Dates in the Muslim world are traditionally eaten first to break the fast during the holy month of Ramadan.

Visitors to Siwa remember fondly a unique dish they enjoyed at breakfast: eggs cooked with dates, a memorable combination!