In the authenticity of the past and the mood of modernity, Lebanese women prepare mortar, especially in late summer and early autumn, drawing on knowledge and accumulating experiences when they helped their mothers and grandmothers in making everything necessary for the winter and its cold, especially in villages and mountains, where the goods did not arrive in the past, and people did not eat The fruits are only fresh in their seasons.
With passion and defiance, Fatima Hamia from the Bekaa region prepares her strange monument, as she always dares to experiment, secures her reasons for success, and now publishes her recipes on some social media pages and answers the commentators' questions.
Jams and dryers made from melon peel (Al Jazeera)
Strange recipes
Fatima considers that there is nothing that does not have a solution, and she tells Al-Jazeera Net that everything that is dried or sifted can turn into powder, paste or jam, and she shares some of her strange recipes.
Fatima dries figs, apricots, peaches, grapes and all the fruits she loves by putting them under the sun or in the oven. She also dries vegetables such as tomatoes, maktas, zucchini, eggplant, onions, garlic, carrots, potatoes, peas, peas, and leaves such as mint, coriander, parsley and celery.
And remember that each has a method, some of which need to add salt or sugar, and you find that drying in Lebanon is more effective than freezing because electricity is not always available.
All that Fatima works on is manual and for home consumption, she learned from her mother from a young age, and her love increased the more she looked at magazines and books for cooking and cooking, then websites and videos to learn additional things that increase her experience, and considered herself persevering in this field, in addition to those around her. They see her as talented, and everything she makes is liked and satisfied.
Sun-dried chopped tomato (the island)
Dry tomatoes in different ways
The first method:
Fatima dries the tomatoes in the sun and presses them with oil. She rinses the tomatoes well and removes the upper neck, then cuts them into 4 sections and puts them on a piece of cloth in the direct sun, and sprinkles them with fine salt to speed up the drying and preservation process, as the fine salt helps to quickly remove the liquids in the tomatoes. And saves the beans after drying, as you say.
She also puts a thin cover or netting to protect the tomatoes from dust and insects, and leaves them in the sun for 4 days, then collect the dried tomatoes in the early morning to be soft due to the dew of dawn, and put them directly in sterile glass jars, and add olive oil with some emollients such as black pepper and bay leaves And remember that some people prefer to add garlic, rosemary, or other herbs and spices.
Dried tomatoes have many uses in dressings, soups, stews and stews (Al Jazeera)
The second method:
which is tomato powder, and it has many uses in marinades, soups, stews, etc., after the aforementioned drying, you leave it for two additional days and then grind it smooth or cubes for use in the fillings for pies, stews and soups as well.
The third method:
It is an innovative method, and Fatima calls it tomato labneh because its spherical shape resembles labneh balls. After drying tomatoes for 6 days, she puts them in hot water for half an hour, then filters them from water well, and grinds them with a meat grinder to make it smooth.
Add to it some flavorings such as dried thyme, ground walnuts, garlic powder, onion powder and black pepper, and knead them well until the ingredients are homogeneous and form into balls the size of a walnut, and keep them in oil in sterile glass jars with the addition of bay leaf, black pepper seeds and dried thyme leaves, and can be used after 20 days until they are soaked. Flavors and oil.
Orange blossom jam (Abu Sfeir) and can be used to decorate sweets (Al Jazeera)
Beetroot powder, syrup and tincture
Fatima says that she has always been unable to secure the beetroot in the off-season, so she decided to dry it during the season to use it in another season, and tried it in cooking and desserts.
And she made pickles with beetroot powder only, without the need to chop fresh beets, and the result was wonderful away from carcinogenic synthetic colorants.
She also used it in juices, salads, cakes, sweets and pastries, adding that she also used it to dye hair naturally.
Regarding the beetroot concentrate, she says that she boiled the peels with two cups of water, added 3 cups of sugar and a little lemon juice and left them to concentrate, and packed the beetroot concentrate in a sterile glass jar and kept it in the fridge, and used it to color the cream desserts, with juices and cakes.
Orange peel jam from the industry of Fatima (Al Jazeera)
Citrus peels
Fatima did not provide dried lemon and orange peels for multiple uses for citrus fruits, desserts and salads. "I consider it my favorite spice, I use it in cakes, salads, rice, kibbeh, tea, juices, boiling meat and even cleaning. It smells fresh and refreshing, and it is an excellent alternative to sprinkling orange peels and fresh lemon." It is not widely available in the summer. "
As for the method, she tells Al-Jazeera Net that she peels the lemon and orange and removes the white part from it, puts the peels in the sun to dry and stores them either as pieces of tea and a mixture of boiling meat, or grinds it as a powder for sweets and cooking and stores it in sealed glass jars until use.
Pine jam from cones and leaves and used as honey (Al Jazeera)
Strange babysitters
Everything Fatima turns into sweet-tasting jams, from the whole fruit to the peels of lemon, orange and watermelon, to beetroot, tomato, lemon blossom, pepper, jalapeno (a little hot pepper) and pine nuts.
We mention here jalapeno jam or chili pepper, as you dry it a little, then put 3 cups of water in addition to a kilo of sugar, and when it boils, you put the jalapeno and the juice of half a lemon, and leave it on the fire until it gets complicated, and says that it tastes sweet and sour at the same time.
As for pine jam, for every kilo of soft green pine cones one and a half kilograms of sugar, the cones are washed and placed on the fire and placed on the fire about two centimeters two of water, boiled for half an hour, then they are left for 12 hours covered to take the taste, then sugar and lemon juice are added and boiled to thicken a little, and it is better to save In the refrigerator.
She indicates that it is used like honey, and in the absence of cones, it can be replaced by pine needles and give the same flavor.