In today’s illustration, we are taking a closer look at the Middle Eastern pantry behind some of the recipes scheduled for my Illustrated Middle Eastern Recipes blog series.
Mouneh is the word used in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and Palestine to indicate the tradition of preserving organic seasonal produce consisting of vegetables, yoghurts, herbs and fruits, kept in a food-safe place for culinary use during off-season months.
Essential Ingredients in the Middle Eastern Pantry
Obviously, the term Middle Eastern pantry is a generic term that covers so many types of Mouneh. The contents of the Mouneh room will vary from town to town, and from country to country, depending on their local food traditions and the types of produce that is endemic to their locales. However, some of these contents will almost always be shared amongst all types of Mouneh across every town or country in the Middle Eastern Levant, and these include Zait Zaiytoun (olive oil) and Samneh (ghee).
Whereas today’s modern families keep their Mouneh in kitchen cupboards, refrigerators, or tiny shelved pantry rooms, the original Mouneh room was a sizeable cool and shaded space that housed more than just a handful of jars filled with legumes or homemade jams. It was kept super spotless and clean, while great care was being taken to make sure none of its contents get spoiled for one reason or another.
My Grandmother’s Childhood Mouneh
Once upon a time, in my grandmother’s childhood household, the Mouneh room, also referred to as Ghurfet el Mouneh, was a vast chamber containing large burlap-style sacks stacked against each other. Each sack held its valuable contents for anticipated family feasts all year round. These sacks were also referred to as Khawabi, and they contained rice, wheat, Freekeh (smoked wheat), Bulgur, barley and flour.
The same pantry room was also designed to house large tin containers of olive oil. These are still referred to as Tanakeh, or Tanaket Zait. Zait is Arabic for oil.
Other items found in my extended family’s traditional Middle Eastern pantry include: Zaiytoun (preserved olives in olive oil), Mkhallal (pickled vegetables, mainly cucumbers), Makdous (stuffed pickled aubergines or eggplants), Zaa’tar (thyme with salt, Sumac and sesame seeds), Dukka (crushed roasted chickpeas, called Qdameh, with other spices and seeds like Aniseed, cumin, coriander, and sesame seeds), Ottain or Teen Mjaffaf (dried figs), Warak Enab bil Mayy wil Mileh (vine leaves preserved in salty water), and Qamar el-Deen (sheets of dried apricot juice).
Some of the essentials in the Lebanese and Syrian pantries also include: Dibes Rumman (concentrated pomegranate molasses syrup), Ma’ Ward (rose water), Ma’ Zaher (orange blossom water), ‘Asal (honey), Qawerma (smoked slices of meat kept in ghee-like fat), Tahini (sesame paste), Kishk (dried Bulgur and yoghurt-based powder), and every so often, Dibes Enab (sweet grapes molasses).
The pantry is also used to keep homemade jams, with Damascene-Rose jam being a favourtite at my grandmother’s household, used for curing mysterious childhood aches of the tummy.
Middle Eastern pantry can also include Jibneh Maghliyyeh (boiled white cheese kept in salt water), Bamyeh Mjaffafeh (dried okra), Mlookhiyyeh Mjaffafeh (dried Molokhia leaves), and pulses of every kind including, dried white beans, lentils, and chickpeas. Nuts are also a basic ingredient in so many dishes and those, too, have their place in the Middle Eastern pantry, and those include: Almonds, pine nuts, walnuts, and pistachio.
The Jordanian pantry has a slight variation over the Levantine pantry in that it also includes Labaneh Mda’abaleh (strained yoghurt balls kept in olive oil), also referred to as Labaneh Jarashiyyeh. This sour dairy product originates in the northern Jordanian city of Jerash, known for its ancient Roman ruins.
In the illustration above I included most of the items mentioned in today’s post, and I really had a lot of fun creating this artwork. My hope is to expand on the topic in the future and create illustrations for other aspects of the Middle Eastern cuisine, and to hopefully share them with you on my blog!
Food illustration by illustrator and artist Yaansoon