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Tahini salad dressing with greens, courtesy of Flickr user tiny banquet committee

Recently, there was a discussion over at Epicurious about the essential ingredients home cooks always have on hand because they use them so frequently. For me, one of those items would be tahini, or sesame-seed paste. As I found during my “week without recipes” challenge a couple of weeks ago, it adds a rich, nutty flavor and creaminess (without the sweetness of many nut butters) to Mediterranean- or Middle Eastern-inspired foods. It also works well in other kinds of dishes.

Sesame seeds—sprinkled whole on breads, pressed for oil, or hulled and ground into tahini paste—have been used in cooking since ancient times. Although tahini is easily found in most supermarkets or health food stores, you can also make it yourself, as The Cupcake Project reports—however, the result will be less smooth than commercial tahini because it would be difficult, if not impossible (or at least insane), to hull the seeds yourself.

Tahini, like most nut and seed products, is relatively high in calories and fat, but mostly unsaturated fat. It is a good source of thiamine, magnesium and other minerals. Here are five delicious ways to use this versatile and nutritious ingredient:

1. Middle Eastern dips. Other than as a sauce for falafel, simply thinned with lemon juice and water, hummus is probably the most well-known use of tahini, where, in its most basic form, it joins pureed chickpeas, lemon juice, garlic and olive oil. Other versions mix in roasted red peppers, caramelized onions or green olives. The next-most famous use of tahini, I’d wager, is in baba ganoush, a tasty dip with mashed roasted eggplant. Less common is the Turkish walnut and tahini dip teradot.

2. Salad dressings. Salads and steamed vegetables get a serious flavor boost from a dressing or sauce made from tahini—it goes well with almost any green veggie. You can stay in the Middle Eastern range by blending it with yogurt and lemon juice, as this New York Times recipe does to top avocado (another great pairing). Or you can veer it over to East Asian flavors, as in this Japanese-inspired soba (buckwheat) noodle salad with miso tahini dressing.

3. Vegetable purées. Tahini not only tastes great on top of veggies; it also adds oomph and creaminess to vegetable purees. Look at this gorgeous (and healthy) winter squash purée with tahini, topped with pomegranate seeds. It can also provide an interesting twist on mashed potatoes or turn mashed carrots into a Moroccan-style side dish.

4. Soups and stews. Tahini creates a creamy, dairy-free base for soups and stews, like this simple Greek tahinosoupa with angel hair pasta, traditionally eaten during Lent. It’s combined with coconut milk and spices in this fish stew; with soy sauce, ginger and rice vinegar in this Chinese chicken noodle soup with sesame and green onions; and with zucchini and lemon juice in this chilled soup.

5. Halvah. Possibly my favorite use of tahini is in the Middle Eastern candy called halvah. Although the word can refer to a variety of sweets, the one most familiar to Americans (especially those who frequent Jewish delis), is the crumbly, fudge-like sesame halvah sold commercially by Joyva, which was founded in 1907 on Manhattan’s Lower East Side (and now based in Brooklyn). The texture manages to be both meltingly creamy and a little crunchy, and instantly brings me back to childhood trips to Art’s Delicatessen in Studio City, California, when a bar of marble halva was the highlight. You can also make it yourself, with either tahini or whole sesame seeds.

Food is a familiar presence in works of art. Sometimes it is the sole focus, as in these modern woodcuts of pie or massive oil paintings of candy; in other cases it offers context or detail to people-centric scenes. Either way, studying food in art can often yield insights about human history, sociology and culture.

Da Vinci's "Last Supper," painted circa 1495. Wikimedia Commons image.

So I think it was a clever idea to analyze how a particularly famous meal has changed in art through many centuries: “The Last Supper,” the Biblically inspired scene of Jesus Christ sharing a final meal with his disciples on the eve of his crucifixion. This meal has been imagined and re-imagined by dozens of artists including, most famously, Leonardo da Vinci.

The study, published today in the International Journal of Obesity, was the brainchild of two brothers: Brian Wansink, a consumer behavior expert who leads Cornell University’s Food and Brand Lab, and Craig Wansink, a Presbyterian minister who teaches at Virginia Wesleyan College. They analyzed the portion sizes in 52 notable “Last Supper” paintings, positing that as food resources have been more available in the developed world in recent years, “we might expect to see it reflected in popular culture.”

Using computer-based statistical models with funny names like “bread-to-head ratio,” they found that the size of the bread, plates and main courses depicted have grown steadily larger in relation to the scene’s human subjects—increasing by 23, 66, and 69 percent, respectively.

“The last thousand years have witnessed dramatic increases in the production, availability, safety, abundance and affordability of food,” Brian Wansink said in a press release. “We think that as art imitates life, these changes have been reflected in paintings of history’s most famous dinner.”

As Katherine Hobson of U.S. News & World Reports points out, this isn’t the first time Brian Wansink has pondered portion sizes from a historical perspective. He’s also the guy behind last year’s interesting study about The Joy of Cooking, which showed that the average calorie count in several of the cookbook’s same basic recipes grew by 63 percent over the course of various editions in 70 years.

You can read more details, and watch a brief explanatory video on Wansink’s website.

Israeli couscous with roasted butternut squash and lemon, courtesy of Flickr user travelingmcmahans

I have a new pasta obsession: Israeli couscous. Like its smaller cousin, it is a round pasta, but its diameter is nearly twice the size of regular couscous. The little balls are much chewier than regular couscous and hold up better to sauces even in a cold salad—no mush. They remind me a little of tapioca balls and provide that same satisfying texture and bite that tapioca adds to boba, or bubble, tea.

Known in Israel as ptitim, Israeli couscous is one of the few uniquely Israeli dishes. According to the Israeli paper Haaretz, Ben Gurion, the country’s first prime minister, contacted a large food manufacturer and asked that it find a way to produce a whole wheat substitute for rice. The first ptitim were rice shaped and are commonly know by their nickname, “Ben-Gurion Rice.” The company next produced a round ptitim, which we now call Israeli couscous outside of Israel. Unlike most pasta, which is dried, Israeli couscous is baked in a oven, giving it a slight toasty flavor.

The same article also notes that ptitim is mostly a children’s food in Israel. The demand even inspired production of ptitim in the shapes of stars, rings and hearts (kind of like macaroni and cheese here).

In the United States and other countries, Israeli couscous is a new trend in restaurants, which is where I first encountered it. But the couscous is easy to make at home. Israeli couscous is quick to prepare—takes about six minutes—because of its small size. It also tends to clump together less than regular couscous. I’ve prepared what I thought would be a great batch of regular couscous only to come back five minutes later and find it all stuck together. Epicurious has a recipe for couscous with pine nuts and parsley that I’m going to try with the box I just bought from Trader Joe’s. Either that or I’ll wait until zucchini, asparagus and tomato come in season and make Bobby Flay’s couscous with grilled summer vegetables.

A Haft Sin table, a tradition for Nowruz. Image courtesy of Flickr user Hamed Saber

Of all the times that various cultures observe the new year—January 1 on the Gregorian calendar, late winter on the lunar calendar, or early fall on the Jewish calendar—I think the one that makes the most sense is Nowruz, the Iranian new year, celebrated at the Northern Hemisphere’s spring equinox. Nothing says “new start” like the first buds of leaves growing on trees or the return of animals from hibernation, at least in those places with distinct seasons.

This year Nowruz  falls on March 20, at 9:32:13 p.m. (Tehran time), to be precise. Recently the United Nations passed a resolution recognizing March 21 as the “International Day of Nowruz.” The observance dates back to ancient Zoroastrian tradition, and is also celebrated in many of the countries of Central Asia that were once part of, or influenced by, the Persian Empire. Because it predates Islam, its observance has sometimes been controversial. The Taliban banned it in Afghanistan before 2001, and just this week, Iranian officials denounced the ancient fire festival, Chaharshanbeh Suri, traditionally held on the eve of the Wednesday before the new year.

While jumping over bonfires is probably the most exciting element of the festivities, food also holds an important place in both Chaharshanbeh Suri and Nowruz celebrations. Ajeel, a mix of seven nuts and dried fruits, is distributed. (Seven is a significant number in Persian mythology.) Ash-e Reshteh is a noodle soup that is said to bring good luck, and is eaten whenever starting something new.

Spring foods, especially fresh herbs, are featured prominently in Nowruz dishes such as sabzi polo va mahi, herbed rice with fish. Fresh herb kuku is a fluffy omelet that incorporates lots of herbs plus another symbol of spring, eggs. Decorating eggs, much like Easter eggs, is also a traditional part of the celebration.

A few weeks before Nowruz, people begin sprouting lentils, wheat or barley seeds, called sabzeh. By the holiday the seeds or legumes will have shoots several inches long, providing a powerful symbol of rebirth.

The sabzeh is then used for the sofreh haft sin, an arrangement of (at least) seven symbolic items that begin with the letter “s” (or, sometimes, the letter that corresponds to the “sh” sound in English), which is an essential element of the celebration. Like many traditions with ancient roots, the original significance of the haft sin is difficult to nail down. For instance, I haven’t been able to find out why the items must begin with “s”—if anyone out there can tell us, please comment below. One of the clearest explanations I have found is that the seven items correspond to the seven stages in which the material world was believed to have been created.

Aside from the sabzeh, these items include lotus fruit (senjed), symbolizing love; apples (sib), symbolizing health; a sprouted wheat pudding called samanu, symbolizing sweetness and fertility; vinegar (serkeh), which signifies age and patience (traditionally, wine—sharab—was used, but alcohol is not permitted in Islam); sumac berries (somagh), which either represent the color of sunrise, when good triumphs over evil, or the “spice of life”; and garlic (seer), a symbol of medicine. Additional items, some starting with “s” and some not, are also often included.

Many people also serve one of my favorite s-words: sweets, like this Persian pistachio nougat, flavored with rose water.

Happy Nowruz!

The DC Environmental Film Festival started this week, continuing through March 28, and its theme this year focuses on the many connections between food, agriculture and the environment.

Still from "Peaceable Kingdom: The Journey Home," a 2009 documentary about farming.

I’m faced with some tough decisions: many of these sound fascinating, but it’s not physically possible for me to make it to all of the screenings. Here’s hoping Netflix will have a few of these titles eventually….

1. Fresh (USA, 2009, 72 min.) This showed last night, sorry—I missed it, too! But this documentary is making the rounds nationwide; find a schedule here or even host your own screening. It features farmers, activists and businesspeople who are “re-inventing our food system” with an eye to both sustainability and practicality.

2. Terra Madre (Italy, 2009, 78 min) Ermanno Olmi’s documentary combines reportage about the international Slow Food movement with lyrical images of farmers and their environment. Screening at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 18 (tonight!) at the E Street Cinema, tickets are $10.

3. The following four films will be shown consecutively in a free screening on Saturday, March 20, in the National Museum of Natural History‘s Baird Auditorium:

12:30 p.m.: Dirt! The Movie (USA, 2009, 90 min.), a documentary about why soil is so important to all life, narrated by Jamie Lee Curtis.

2 p.m.: Ladies of the Land (USA, 2007, 30 min.), a profile of four women farmers, in recognition of the growing proportion of women in American agriculture.

2:45 p.m.: Soil in Good Heart (USA, 2008, 14 min), about the literal earth we depend on to grow food. This is a preview of a longer film in progress by Deborah Koons Garcia, whose “The Future of Food” (2004) is also worth watching.

3 p.m.: Seed Hunter (Australia, 2008, 59 min.) spans several continents chasing scientist Ken Street, a “real-life Indiana Jones” (though I think Nikolay Vavilov would be a more impressive comparison) as he collects seeds from hardy, drought-resistant indigenous crop species that could help humanity cope with climate change.

4. The following three films will be shown in a free screening on Sunday, March 21, in the National Museum of Natural History’s Baird Auditorium:

Noon: Homegrown (USA, 2009, 52 min.) How one California family lives and farms “off the grid” in an urban environment.

1 p.m.: Ingredients (USA, 2007, 66 min.) Traces the birth and progress of the local, sustainable foods movement in America.

2:15 p.m. Honey for the Maya (US, 2009, 8 min.) The ancient Mayan art of keeping stingless bees.

5.  Lunch (USA, 2010, 25 min) looks at the links between nutrition and learning, through the lens of Baltimore’s public school cafeterias. Larry Engel’s Potato Heads (USA, 2010, 30 min) explores the history of the potato while tying into larger agricultural issues. Free screening of both films at American University’s Wechsler theater at 7 p.m. on Monday, March 22.

6. Nora! (USA, 2009, 30 min) celebrates chef and farmers’ market champion Nora Pouillon, whose namesake DC eatery was the nation’s first certified organic restaurant. Free 7 p.m. screening on Tuesday, March 23 at International Student House, followed by discussion with Nora Pouillon.

7. Seeds of Hunger (USA, 2009, 52 min) A primer on the political, environmental and social challenges of achieving food security as the global population climbs. Free screening at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, March 24 at the World Bank, RSVP required.

8. Harvest of Shame (USA, 1960, 55 min) The National Archives revisits CBS television broadcaster Edward R. Murrow’s powerful investigative report about the plight of migrant farm workers in the United States. Free screening 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 24, followed by discussion with Bob Edwards.

9. E2 Transport: Food Miles (USA, 2008, 30 min), narrated by Brad Pitt, addresses the problems of a fossil-fuel driven food transportation system and highlights solutions. Next up, The Great Food Revolution: 24 Hours, 24 Million Meals (Canada, 2009, 45 min) uses the microcosm of New York City to illustrate the “complex choreography” of food distribution. Free screening of both films at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 25 at the Maret School.

11. Our Daily Bread (Austria, 2005, 92 min) describes itself as “pure, meticulous and high-end film experience that enables the audience to form their own ideas” about the systems at the heart of industrial food production. Free screening at 7:30 p.m. on March 25 at the Embassy of Austria. Reservations are required.

12. Food Fight (USA, 2008, 73 min). Christopher Taylor’s documentary about the corporatization of the American food system in the 20th century, and the growth of alternative local-sustainable-organic foods movement. Free screening at noon on Friday, March 26 at the Martin Luther King Jr. Library.

13. Peaceable Kingdom: The Journey Home (USA, 2009, 78 min). A film that “explores the awakening conscience of several people who grew up in traditional farming culture and who have now come to question the basic premises” of their way of life.  Free screening at 12:15 p.m. on Saturday, March 27 at the Carnegie Institution for Science.