A variety of dips for iftar, the meal that breaks the daily fast during the holy month of Ramadan
Spice up your table with muhammara, pureed grilled eggplant or hummus
Ramadan, which begins Monday evening, is a monthlong period of fasting during the day and breaking the fast after sunset at a meal known as iftar, often with family and friends. The iftar dinner can be simple or elaborate. Many people start by drinking water, fruit juice or milk and eating a date or two. In Anaheim’s Little Arabia district, most break-the-fast meals are Middle Eastern. For many years we enjoyed going there with friends for lavish iftar buffets at restaurants, but during the current period of limited gatherings, the restaurants can’t offer the buffets. In fact our favorite one, Olive Tree Restaurant, had to close last year; we hope it will reopen soon.
Middle Eastern cuisines are known for meat dishes, but cooks make a variety of vegetable dips as well, to serve as appetizers or side dishes. Turkish, Syrian and Palestinian iftars sometimes begin with an array of such dips. At home we make those savory, easy-to-prepare dips and spreads mostly from pantry foods combined with one or two fresh ingredients.
One is muhammara, a spicy walnut and red bell pepper pâté seasoned with cumin, semi-hot red pepper and pomegranate molasses. We tasted our most memorable muhammara near Gaziantep in southeastern Turkey, at a restaurant on the banks of the biblical Euphrates River, where it was served with just-baked flatbread.
Grilled eggplant dip enriched with tahini and flavored with lemon and garlic, known as baba ghanouj or mutabbal, is another favorite of ours. For a reddish spread with a touch of sweetness, we add pureed, grilled sweet red peppers. For a delicate flavor, we substitute yogurt for the tahini.
Hummus, the familiar chickpea and tahini dip, is the fastest of all to prepare if you use canned chickpeas. Middle Eastern cooks often give the hummus a bowl shape and drizzle of olive oil in the center, then garnish it with chopped parsley and semihot ground red pepper.
What people eat for iftar varies according to their origins. At an Afghan iftar, for example, we had aushak — Afghan dumplings filled with leek chives and topped with meat and split pea sauce; at a Pakistani iftar we ate peppery chicken curry and pakoras — vegetable and chickpea flour fritters. A Ramadan meal we savored at a Sri Lankan restaurant featured biryani — meat cooked with spiced rice. No matter what the culinary style of the Ramadan dinner is, it can be a veritable feast.