A recipe from South Lebanon: Kamounet el-banadoura
by R.S.
Kamounet el-banadoura is a traditional South Lebanon recipe. Banadoura is the Arabic word for tomato in the Levantine dialect. Kamouneh is a herb and spice mix named for its main ingredient, kamoun or cumin. This is a humble meatless recipe, often seen as poor villager food, but the fragrance and freshness of its ingredients are a celebration of the region’s agricultural treasures.
Ingredients
½ cup bulgur, a regional cracked wheat cereal from around 4000 B.C.
4 large tomatoes, a two hundred year old South American import, now ubiquitous in Lebanese cuisine, with many local cultivars
3 tbsp pomegranate molasses, a centuries-old autumn ritual in the villages
½ an onion or 3 scallions
½ cup olive oil, pressed from ancient olive trees, which were spread by the Phoenicians from present-day Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria to the rest of the Mediterranean
A few sprigs of fresh basil, marjoram, or mint
Fresh chilli and salt to taste
Kamouneh
Cumin seeds
Dried Damask rose petals
Dried marjoram
Dried bush basil
Dried mint
Instructions
Gather around with your mothers and sisters and daughters. In the summer, dry and crush your wheat into bulgur, pick and dry your garden herbs for kamouneh. In the autumn, press and simmer your pomegranates into molasses. Store these in your pantry until it’s time to use them. If you and over one million other people are forced out of your village, wait until you return. And if you return to find your house destroyed along with thousands of other houses or if you find your kitchen looted by the invading soldiers, wait until the next season. And if in the next season, your herbs do not grow because the soil has been poisoned with white phosphorus bombs, store-bought will do. Soak the bulgur in water for a few minutes and rinse.
Roughly chop the tomatoes and onion.
Divide your olive oil, not unlike an occupier who divides your land, in half. The current year’s local olive oil is best. Grow your trees for at least five years or tend those passed down in your family for generations. Harvest and press your olives in the winter at the village mill. If your trees get bombed or burned or stolen to be sold elsewhere, use the previous year’s harvest. If you can’t reach your home where you’ve stored last year’s oil, imported store-bought will do.
Add all of your ingredients, including the fresh herbs, to a blender. Although this recipe calls for many herbs, it luckily does not call for zaatar, and you do not live in Palestine and are not banned from foraging for this staple food. Blend to your desired consistency; avoid overmixing or juicing.
Spread on a serving platter, drizzle the remaining olive oil. Serve with scallions, a few sprigs of your favourite herb, and Lebanese bread.
Bulgur dishes tend to be quite filling and are best eaten right away. This dish is great for slow Sundays when you can relax and rest - rest assured that kamounet el-banadoura was there before the occupier and will remain long after he is gone.