Posted Oct 3, 2010
Our modern lifestyles often shield us from the protective mantle of nature’s resources. A polluted environment, high-tech stress and a plethora of refined foods make us forget that good nutrition is the foundation of good health.
Medical experts now advocate people should eat natural foods — fish, poultry, a little meat, less-refined cereals, pulses, vegetable oils, pure butter, vegetables, fruit, nuts, yogurt and cheese. And in fact, these with herbs and spices, are what Middle Eastern cooking is all about, a diet basically unchanged for thousands of years. This is especially true about Egyptian cooking, “particularly southern Egyptian cuisine where cooking methods and ingredients have remained unchanged since the days of the pharaohs”, says Magda Mehdawy, author of “The Pharaoh’s Kitchen”, (AUC Press) and this is due to the relative absence of foreign influences in that region. Consequently, in Upper Egypt and Nubia, the cuisine is simple and uses local vegetables, grains, spices and herbs.
Despite the abundance of food sources, ancient Egyptians ate moderately. An Old Kingdom text addressed to the vizier Kagemni, tells him: “If you sit down to eat with many people, then look at the food with indifference, and if you desire it, then willpower does not take more than an instant and it is shameful for a person to be greedy. One cup will water a whole crop.”
Bread was a staple food in ancient Egypt as it is today; there were up to 15 kinds of bread in the Old Kingdom and nearly 40 in the New Kingdom and they were baked from wheat, barley or corn, in a number of shapes, from oval to round, twisted, concave and even in the form of animals like the crocodile which is traditionally believed to bring good luck and is still made by the Nubians.
In ancient Egypt, bread was mostly a thin sheet of dough similar to the “roqaq” or a thick loaf like the “shamsi”, the sun bread, which is still made in Upper Egypt. The ancient Egyptians would make the “shamsi” bread by leaving a ball to rise in the sun; however, like most bread baked during those times, it was hard and chewy. Early wheat strains were heated before threshing so that the husk could be removed but this process destroyed the gluten-forming proteins essentials to make a light-textured bread.
The ancient Egyptians developed a strain of wheat which could be threshed without preliminary heating, taking a huge step toward the improvement of bread. They also introduced leavening into their bread and, in the third millenium, began using yeast.
Grains and pulse were popular in ancient Egypt and still are today. Besara, a wholesome broad bean puree is still made the same way by boiling skinned dried broad beans (ful nabbed), mashing them into a smooth thick paste, then adding spices and herbs such as cumin, dry and fresh coriander, salt, parsley.
The traditional dish of ful medammes, simmered fava beans, is made in the same urn or “idra” used in the Pharaonic era. This special pot tapers to a narrow neck. The shape is deliberate since it helps retain the small amount of water. As steam condenses on the upper sloping side, it drops back into the pot.
Lentils were also used in ancient Egypt. A depiction in the temple of Rameses III shows a female servant preparing a meal of lentils. Today, lentils are prepared into a soup and are cooked along with macaroni and rice in the famous “Koushari”, a popular dish eaten with a spicy tomato sauce and fried onions.
The fertile land watered by the Nile produced a large number of vegetables including cucumbers, peas, taro, Jew’s mallow, courgettes, purslane, celery, leek, mint and radish. Jew’s mallow, a secondary source of jute grown in Egypt and India, is the essential ingredient for “molokhiya”. The younger shoots are harvested and the oval leaves are stripped from the long stalks and made into one of Egypt’s most popular vegetable dishes along with “bamia” okra. Molokhiya has the viscous properties of okra, and its characteristic taste is, more often than not, disliked by Westerners who try it for the first time. The finely chopped leaves are boiled in a chicken or meat stock; it is served with chicken, meat or rabbit, flavored with sliced onions soaked in vinegar or lemon juice and accompanied with plain white rice.
We have become increasingly aware of our health and the need to include more vegetables, grains and pulses in our daily diet. The vegetables used in traditional Egyptian cooking answer our nutritional needs; they are rich in fiber, vitamin C, protein, complex carbohydrates, vitamin B complex, minerals and micro-nutrients. Plant foods contain a host of phytochemicals that can help prevent disease and keep our body healthy. They help us prevent cancer and fight against free radicals. The richest foods in phytochemicals are soybeans and soy products, broccoli, citrus peels, flax, garlic, green tea, grapes and tomatoes. Incidentally, tomatoes, sugar, lemon, chicken and chilli were introduced after the Pharaonic era.
Fruit and vegetables also boost our immunity and are rich in antioxidants and vitamins which are essential to life. Vitamins, in particular, enhance our health by regulating the metabolism and assisting the biochemical processes that release energy from digested food:
Vitamin A: Liver, carrots, beetroot, pumpkin, spinach, eggs, dairy produce, fruit.
Vitamin C: Peppers, green leafy vegetables, tomatoes, cauliflower, citrus fruits, guavas, kiwis.
Vitamin E: Nuts, seed, and vegetable oils made with safflower, sunflower, corn and peanuts.
Although, the ancient Egyptians left no recipes, their staple diet, according to Mehdawy consists like today, mainly of bread and whatever produce the land yields that is onions, garlic, lentils, leeks, turnips, radish , lettuce, and cucumbers. Most of these vegetables were eaten raw: All of the parts including the skin, contain valuable nutrients. Precious enzymes and vitamins are usually destroyed in the cooking process. By eating raw vegetables or slightly cooked, one diminishes the risk of cancer and other disorders.
Egypt’s traditional diet has been in many ways unchanged by the passage of millennia. Egyptian food today, especially in Nubia and Upper Egypt, reminds us of a simpler and healthier life and it resembles the basic and wholesome food prepared during the Pharaonic era.
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