She's thinking of an aromatic preparation of wheat berries, raisins, walnuts, fennel and cinnamon called Anoush Abour - Slee'a in Arabic. She also highly recommends a traditional pudding, but not the one 'like a speckled cannonball' that Mrs. The Armenian Christmas menu, says Kazanjian, might involve any number of rice pilafs, noodle dishes, eggplants stuffed with rice and tomato. 'This is uniquely an Armenian-Syrian recipe and is absolutely exquisite,' says Kazanjian, an international educational consultant who lives in North Bethesda. Miriam Kazanjian, who is compiling a book of her grandmother's Armenian-Syrian recipes, has particular fondness for a preparation of stuffed squash and eggplant involving rice, ground lamb, tomato paste, garlic, mint, a seven-spice bouquet called deheh and a tamarind or pomegranate sauce. 6 - the date of the observance before it was changed sometime after the fourth century - with an array of fragrant preparations. The Armenians who, like the Jews, could be standing almost anywhere in the Diaspora, celebrate Christmas on Jan. Of course, much of what is considered fitting holiday fare for Hanukkah or Christmas depends on where in the Middle East you're standing. Whatever - so long as it's fried.īeyond the oil, there's the Tangy Beet Salad, a Middle East holiday dish simply by virtue of the fact that beets are in season at that time of year. In Greece, Turkey and Egypt, Levy says Jews at Hanukkah might prepare a kind of jelly doughnut, a round puffy fried confection known variously as lokma, loukoumados, with sundry versions of the spelling.

The potato latke came from Russia, but absent the potato - which did not grow in the Middle East 2,000 years ago - there was probably a kind of fritter made with vegetables, eggs, flour and, of course, fried. Her Chicken Pecan Bulgur Cakes With Cilantro Pesto calls for a ground chicken patty sauteed in olive oil. Her recipe for Garlic-Marinated Eggplant includes eggplant fried in olive oil.

Levy says Hanukkah has always been celebrated with foods fried in oil, as a commemoration of the temple lamp that seemed to have only enough oil for one day but burned for eight. Using the Old and New Testament as source material, along with her knowledge of Middle Eastern food, Morse compiled recipes to capture the ancient spirit: Millet With Saffron and Walnuts, Grilled Sardines With Fish Sauce, Barley Cakes, Dried Fruit, Cinnamon and Red Wine Compote. Connecting with the culinary world surrounding these holidays draws one into the Bible, with its hundreds of references to food.

A Biblical Feast by Kitty Morse