Dove's Eye View

Opposing Occupation

An elderly Holocaust survivor, Israeli citizen and lifelong Communist, gives her views in this article from The Nation online: Opposing Occupation

People like Pnina Failer give me hope for a common future for Arabs and Jews.

Republican Hawk Tells the Truth

I don't agree with Richard Clarke about many things. But when a senior Bush adviser with impeccable Republican and Hawk credentials blows the whistle on the Bush administration, it's good news. Read it here: Yahoo! News - Clarke Grabs Center Stage at 9/11 Hearing

Juan Cole's analysis is always required reading:

"Clarke comes across as a principled conservative with special expertise. He clearly feels that his expertise was respected by Bill Clinton, who made him a cabinet official and took an intellectual interest in the nature of terrorism. And he clearly feels that George W. Bush lacks that intellectual curiosity, and surrounded himself with anti-Iraq hawks who simply did not understand asymmetrical organizations and the threat they posed. As a result, Bush and the people around him demoted Clarke from the cabinet and paid no attention to his suggestion that the administration go to 'battle stations' as a result of the increased chatter in summer of 2001.

"That Clarke, while in office, tried to put a positive face on the Bush administration, in which he was serving, does not detract from the credibility of his memoir, Against all Enemies. Only the most naive observer could fail to be able to distinguish between the discourse of a public servant and that of a private citizen released from such duties, and now able to speak his mind. Washington rhetoric is often so simple-minded that it is insulting to those of us west of the Potomac, as if we are little children who will swallow any tall tale fed us.

"Clarke's integrity in standing against the Neocons' and Rumsfeld's outrageous politicization of intelligence and peddling of false charges that Saddam was behind 9/11 or in cahoots with al-Qaeda more generally, is extremely admirable."

Abu Aardvark also weighs in.

Steve Gilliard, a prominent blogger, quotes Clarke's apology.

Palestinian Intellectuals Urge Restraint

Story from Yahoo News.

"RAMALLAH, West Bank - Sixty prominent Palestinian officials and intellectuals on Thursday urged the public to refrain from retaliation for Israel's assassination of Hamas' founder, saying it would ignite a new round of bloodshed that would only hurt Palestinian aspirations for independence.

"The half-page advertisement in the PLO's Al-Ayyam newspaper called on Palestinians to lay down their arms and turn to peaceful means of protest to end Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip (news - web sites).

"The ad reflected growing sentiment among many Palestinian leaders and intellectuals that military struggle is not helping the Palestinian cause. Thousands of Palestinians have died during 3 1/2 years of fighting with Israel. Similar calls in the past have had little impact on public opinion, and Thursday's ad was greeted with little enthusiasm by ordinary Palestinians. "

Palestinian maestro leads multi-ethnic orchestra in US

"LOS ANGELES: Southern California is home to an amalgam of ethnic groups, tribes, clans and sects from around the world. This mix of differing cultures is reflected in the 40 musicians who perform in Nabil Azzam's Multi Ethnic Star Orchestra (MESTO) which offered its 10th concert on March 20."

Appears here in the Beirut Daily Star - Palestinian maestro leads multi-ethnic orchestra in US

Israeli Culture - Coexistence

Right now it seems that only through cultural and social exchanges in the diaspora can we keep hope alive. Here's another one from the Israel Center of San Francisco:
Israeli Culture - Coexistence

"Recent studies ...have shown that people are craving for a positive message - a message of hope, to come from the Middle East. That they are tired of militant rhetoric and the never-ending quarrel, that seems to turn them away from engagement with the Jewish community.

"In response to this challenge the Israel Center has decided to dedicate the Spring Performing Arts Series to the topic of co-existence and dialogue. We also decided that the appropriate way of bringing the message would be through dialogue between Jewish and Arab artists. Audiences seem to be much more receptive to the message of artists than that of politicians, and culture has a very powerful way of conveying important ideas.

"This spring, the Israel Center is bringing to the Bay Area a three-part performance arts series that is a dialogue through music, dance, and theater. All three performances are presented by a Jew and an Arab who collaborate in their respective artistic fields. The performances will be staged at small theaters throughout the Bay Area.
...
"Part II: Neighbors Meeting NEW DATE: Wednesday, March 17, 2004

"Two friends and neighbors from the Galilee join together in this production. Wassim Bashar , an Arab musician who plays the Ud and the violin, and Pablo Ariel, a Jewish actor who has performed with the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra, meet and have an intimate dialogue through music and "object theater."

"NEW DATE: Wednesday, March 17, 8:00pm. San Francisco. Followed by a reception with the artists, @ The Marsh, 1062 Valencia Street, San Francisco (near 22nd street in the Mission). Tickets $10. For reservations or more info call 415-512-6424 or email [email protected].
For more info call 415-512-6424. "

Non-Violence in Palestine

A Gush Shalom e-mail arrived in my inbox with this information:

"Meanwhile, all this served to distract attention from a highly significant development: the dramatic increase in mass, unarmed Palestinian acts of resistance, specifically in the West Bank villages which strand to lose their land to Sharon's "Separation Wall". In village after village, hundreds of people stand together to block the bulldozers. Israeli peace activists are a welcome part of such protests, as are internationals.

"We stood four hours, and were treated to repeated barrages of tear gas. The soldiers were extremely trigger-happy, though they had no pretext. Nobody threw stones, there was nothing but men and women, young and old, trying to defend their olive groves with their bare hands. Twelve were wounded and needed medical treatment, and the others just stood their ground" was what we heard this morning from Shai Pollak, Tel-Avivian activist of "Anachists Against The Wall". Of course, a single suicide bomber gets enormously more air time on the international media than a dozen mass unarmed actions..."

Gush Shalom bewailed the attacks in Madrid and Israel, noting that they overshadowed the non-violent actions in Palestine.

Festival of Fes

Alison keeps the faith with this link to a performance at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley:Cal Performances | Celebracion

"The ancient city of Fez, Morocco, plays host every spring to one of the world's great musical events, a one-of-a-kind festival that brings together performers from all over the globe in a unique musical celebration of the divine. Transporting its sounds for the first time outside Morocco, some of the festival's finest artists, many often little known in West, perform a wide-ranging program that in the past has included Islamic devotionals, Sufi ritual songs, Berber trance music, Arab-Andalusian rhythms, Bulgarian orthodox choir, Hindustani chants, Celtic sacred music, Christian Gospel, Swedish chamber choir, and more. "A festival of music by believers, but not for believers alone," says Jon Pareles in The New York Times. "As virtuosity met devotion, the pleasure of music was inseparable from the profundity of faith."

"Program: The Spirit of Fès: From My Soul to Your Soul, the Art of Transmission, featuring performances by Yacoub Hussein (Invocation, Palestine) and Gabriel Meyer (Invocation, Israel); Francoise Atlan (Vocals, Sephardic Jewish Tradition, Algeria); Jamey Haddad (Percussion, U.S.A.); Farid El Foulahi (Oud , Morocco);
The Women's Hadra Ensemble of Taroudant (Vocals, Islamic Tradition, Morocco); The Anointed Jackson Sisters (Vocals, Gospel, U.S.A)

Baba Ghanoush Soufflé

Recipe invented by Brian Mailman, edited by Leila

This is a wonderful soufflé made with roasted eggplant, garlic and tahini sauce, hence the name - an inspired combination of French and Arab cuisines. Brian Mailman is a professional chef and moderator of rec.food.cuisine.jewish I met years ago through rec.food.cooking (RFC) potluck gatherings. Brian credits a back issue of Food and Wine for giving him the idea.

1 small eggplant (about 3/4 pound), trimmed and sliced crosswise into 3/8-1/2" thick slices
Salt
Pepper
3 tbsp. olive oil
1 medium head of garlic, separated into unpeeled cloves, root end cut
1 cup milk
2 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 tbsp. + 1 tsp. flour
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp. cumin
3 tbsp. tahini
4 large egg yolks
1/4 cup grated parmesan (about 3/4 ounce)
2 tbsp. more grated parmesan.
6 large egg whites, at room temperature

1. Spread the eggplant slices in a single layer on a large baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt and let stand for at least a half hour to draw out the bitter juices.

2. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Rinse the eggplant slices and pat dry, then transfer to a lightly oiled baking sheet. Brush with 2 tbsp. of the olive oil and season with salt and pepper. The second iteration of this I added no salt.
Toss the garlic cloves with the remaining 1 tbsp. oil and wrap loosely in foil.

Roast the eggplant and garlic for about 30 minutes, until both are softened and golden. Remove from the oven and increase the temperature to 400:F.

3. Bring the milk just to a boil in a small saucepan; keep warm. In a medium saucepan, melt the butter. Add the flour and whisk over moderately high heat until foaming but not colored, 2 to 3 minutes.

Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the milk. Bring the sauce to a boil over moderately high heat and cook, whisking constantly, until thickened. Add parmesan and whisk until melted in. Turn down heat and let simmer to rid sauce of floury taste. Add pinch of nutmeg. Add cumin. Add tahini. Season with salt, pepper, to taste. I didn't add any salt here, either, since parmesan is naturally salty. Remove from heat.

4. Squeeze the roasted garlic cloves out of their skins. Since the root end is cut, allyaneedtado is squeeze the tip to make the good stuff come out. In a food processor, combine the garlic, eggplant and white sauce and puree until smooth. Add the egg yolks. Make sure the puree is lukewarm, at most and process until smooth. It won't be. Don't mind about that. I liked the roasty skin bits.

5. Butter 1-1/2 quart soufflé dish thoroughly. I melt the butter in the dish in the microwave and roll the dish around to coat, then wipe it with a paper towel just to make square.

6. Beat the egg whites to a firm peak. Fold in 1/4 amount of whites into eggplant mixture, then fold the mixture into the remaining "base".

7. Spoon the soufflé mixture into the prepared dish and smooth the surface. Run your thumb around the inside edge of the dish. Make a dent about a half-inch deep.

Bake the soufflé in the lower third of the oven for 20 to 25 minutes until puffed, nicely browned and set around the edges.

Leila's note: Soufflés can be baked in almost any sort of dish, including shallow baking dishes normally used for gratins. You won't get the same loft but it will puff, and it will still taste fabulous.

Baked Kibbeh

This is a kind of meatloaf with all Middle Eastern ingredients: lamb, bulghur wheat, pine nuts. My father made it for parties when I was growing up.
Kibbeh is extremely good served hot with plain yogurt dolloped on top. It can also be eaten cold or room temperature, making it a terrific potluck or buffet dish. Serve a tartly dressed green salad with tomatoes, cucumbers and mint.

My Sephardic Jewish friend who grew up in Los Angeles only knows kibbeh as “fried footballs” – exquisite small rocket shapes with the filling inside, fried to perfection. She was surprised (and delighted) to meet baked kibbeh at my table. Kibbeh baked in a tray is considered more “home style” in the Arab world and at one time might have been too plain to serve to guests. In my childhood my aunts prepared it three ways for feasts: raw (yes! Kibbeh tartare), baked, and fried.

The following recipe is adapted from Claudia Roden's Book of Jewish Food, kitchen tested and reliable in terms of the spicing. I have noted my own comments.

Baked kibbeh is usually made with two bulgur/meat shell layers and one central layer of meat fried with onions and pine nuts.

For the meat shell: 2 1/2 cups (500 g) fine ground bulghur wheat (cracked wheat)
(Leila's note - I used 1 cup of bulghur for this much meat)
About 2 teaspoons salt (I'd start with a little less)
1 large onion, quartered
1 pound (500 g) lean lamb
Pepper
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
For the filling:
1 large onion, chopped
3 tablespoons sunflower oil (I used olive)
1 1/2 lbs (750 g) ground lamb, preferably fatty
(I used much less than this, and used the same extra lean ground lamb I used for the shell. You can also use beef for the filling and lamb for the shell)
Salt and pepper
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/4 cup (100 g) pine nuts
2-3 tablespoons sunflower oil

For the shell, soak the bulgur in lots of cold water for about 15 minutes. Rinse in a sieve, press to drain thoroughly.

Process onion in a food processor. Add the meat, blend to a paste. take out and mix wtih bulghur & flavorings. Process, in batches, to a soft, well blended, doughlike paste.

For the filling, fry the onion in the oil until soft. Add the ground meat, salt, pepper, cinnamon and allspice and fry, turning and crushing the meat with a fork, until it has changed color. Add the pine nuts and mix well.

Grease a large shallow baking dish with oil. Press half the shell paste evenly on the bottom, about 1/2 an inch thick. Spread the filling on top and cover with the rest of the paste. You'll need to flatten the paste in sections between your palms, then apply to the top. Patch any holes and press firmly.

Use a pointed knife to score the meat in straight or diagonal lines (to make squares or diamonds). Dot each square wtih an additional pine nut, if you like. Most recipes suggest brushing the top with more oil, or butter, or (shudder) CRISCO. I omitted this step with good results, but it's possible the ground lamb I used was not as absolutely fat-free as Claudia Roden's recipe requires. Middle Eastern lambs store their fat in their tails, so the meat is relatively lean, thus needing more fat basted on top.

Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven for about 25 minutes.

A further note from Leila: a lovely German friend of ours, married to a Lebanese school chum of my father's, served us kibbeh made with ground turkey in the shell and beef for the filling.

Spiced Chicken

The Dove's vision isn't working so well on the political front. Food, however, is always a sign of hope.

SPICED CHICKEN or POUSSINS

This recipe from Gourmet Magazine, May 1995, has been a big hit at my summer outdoor parties. I make it with 3 chickens, quartered, and sometimes I improvise using chicken parts, expanding the quantities. The spice mixture goes a long way. The chicken is prepared earlier in the day or the night before, and baked at high temperature in the oven. It’s good served at room temperature -- great for a buffet. The flavors are sophisticated but even little kids will like it - if you omit the cayenne.

Poussins are available at some butcher shops.

2 tablespoons cumin seed
a 3-inch cinnamon stick, broken into pieces
10 whole cloves
1/4 cup paprika
3/4 teaspoon cayenne
twelve 3/4-pound poussins (baby chickens) or three 3-pound chickens, quartered
3 garlic cloves, chopped and mashed to a paste with 1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon freshly grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
Garnish: parsley sprigs

With a mortar and pestle or in an electric spice grinder grind cuminseed, cinnamon stick pieces, and cloves and in a small bowl mix with paprika, cayenne, and salt to taste. In a non-aluminum container large enough to hold chickens stir together garlic paste, zest, lemon juice, oil, and 2 tablespoons spice mixture (reserving remainder) to make marinade.

Rinse chickens and pat dry with paper towels. Put chickens in container and rub with marinade to coat. Marinate chickens, covered and chilled, at least 2 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 450°F.

Put half of chickens in each of 2 large roasting pans. Brush chickens with any marinade left in container and season chickens with salt. If using poussins, truss and arrange breast sides up (they should fit without touching). If using chicken quarter, arrange skin sides up.
Sprinkle chickens with reserved spice mixture.

Roast chickens in upper and lower thirds of oven 20 minutes. In a small saucepan melt butter. Brush chickens with butter and sprinkle with chopped parsley. Switch pans between upper and lower racks and roast chickens 20 to 30 minutes more, or until a meat thermometer inserted in fleshy part of a thigh register 175°F. and juices run clear when thigh is pierced with a skewer.
Serve chickens warm or at room temperature and garnish with parsley sprigs.

Serves 12 as part of a buffet