Kushary

Among the inexplicable amalgam of sights, smells, and sounds that are modern Cairo is the extraordinarily simple taste of a workingman’s lunch called Kushary.

Hearty plate of Kushary

Kushary is sold in countless hole-in-the-wall cook shops scattered throughout the medieval warrens crowded with Cairo’s fourteen million people. Itinerant Kushary cooks also sell this rice, lentil, and macaroni dish from colourful hand-painted donkey-pulled carts throughout the working-class neighborhood of the city. Bicycles fitted with wooden boxes also crisscross the streets selling Kushary in plastic containers. However Koshari has it own fancy restaurants full of marble, brass utensils and shiny mirrors.

Kushari, also koshari (Egyptian Arabic: كشرى‎‎), is an Egyptian dish believed to be originally made in the 19th century, made of rice, macaroni and lentils mixed together, topped with a spiced tomato sauce, and garlic vinegar; garnished with chickpeas and crispy fried onions. A sprinkling of garlic juice, or garlic vinegar, and hot sauce are optional.

The first written mention of Kushary is found in the diaries of the famed Muslim traveler of the fourteenth century, Ibn Battuta. In the mid-nineteenth century the famous British traveler and translator of Thousand and One Nights, Richard Burton, identifies Kushary in “the Suez”. Given Kushary’s relationship to mujaddara, a dish with roots in the tenth century, its history may be older and more Arab  than admitted.

Serving Koshary

  

The other more plausible interpretation is that Kushary originated in the mid 19th century, during a time when Egypt was a multi-cultural country in the middle of an economic boom.

The lower classes' usually limited pantry became full with a myriad of ingredients: lentils, rice, macaroni, chickpeas, tomato sauce, onions, garlic, oil, vinegar, etc. At the end of the month, families would usually have the entire collection of ingredients as leftovers, so families would quickly finish their supply in one dish.

Serving Kushary

More sources state that the dish originated from India and Italy, in 1914 when Indians attempted to make lentil and rice Khichdi, Italians added macaroni to the dish, over time the dish has progressed and evolved into the current dish through Egyptian soldiers, then Egyptian citizens. Kushary used to be sold on food carts in it's early years, and was introduced to restaurants in later years.

Koshari is widely popular among workers and laborers. It may be prepared at home, and is also served at roadside stalls and restaurants all over Egypt; some restaurants specialize in Kushary to the exclusion of other dishes, while others feature it as one item among many. As traditionally prepared Kushary does not contain any animal products, it can be considered vegan so long as all frying uses vegetable oil.

Kushary Cart Vendor

Clifford Wright (a famous Food critic) own history with Kushary was a bit convoluted. He was determined to have some Kushary in Cairo, but was often warned away from street food by those in the know, and not unwisely. Still, he had a strong craving for a bowl of this hearty-looking dish that he saw Cairenes eating with such gusto and which was described by the distinguished professor of botany Charles B. Heiser, Jr. as a nearly perfect food for protein enrichment. Finally throwing caution to the wind, he sauntered into a cook shop that would not have met Western hygienic standards, but seemed clean enough to him relative to the countless other less clean places in Cairo. In any case, the food preparation area was clean.

    The cook and his helper, standing behind a counter, were quite delighted to see him, a Westerner, walking into their shop on the Suq al-Tafikiya half way down from the Shari’ Ramses, near the national telecommunications building, far off the beaten tourist path. The name of their place was in Arabic, Kushary Magdi and Sons.

A plate of Kushary and sauce

The Kushary plate was assembled in front of him by spooning into a bowl broken pieces of cooked spaghetti and tubetti that are kept warm in a large pan, a cross between a wok and a tub. In another large pan a mixture of cooked rice and lentils is warmed separately and then tossed on top of the pasta, about three parts rice to one part lentils, flavoured by being sautéed first in samna (clarified butter). In a third, smaller bowl are very brown, slightly crispy, and thinly sliced onions, also cooked in samna.

First the cook’s helper tosses the macaroni into the bowl with a large serving ladle, on top goes the rice and lentils with a little hot liquidly tomato sauce, dim’a musabika (thick tomato sauce cooked to perfection), and then the caramelized onions on top of that.

Clifford sat down at a rickety table to eat with a spoon and considered the two condiments on the table. One was a pitcher of chili pepper-based tomato sauce and the other was a bowl of powdered wheat bran.

He finally admitted that the Kushary was absolutely delicious --- 

a very basic staple street food that really hits the spot and he would recommend it heartily.

Kunāfah

Kanafah (Arabic: كنافة‎‎ kunāfah, Turkish: künefe, Azerbaijani: ریشته ختایی riştə xətayi, Greek: κανταΐφι kadaïfi/kataïfi, Hebrew: כנאפה‎‎ knafeh), also spelled kunafeh or kunafah is a Middle Eastern cheese pastry soaked in sweet, sugar-based syrup, typical of the regions belonging to the former Ottoman Empire. It is a specialty of the Levant and adjoining areas of Egypt and Turkey.

Appetizing presentation

Main ingredients are dough in filaments, sugar, cheese, pistachio, rose water, kaymak (cream)

Kanafeh pastry comes in three types:

khishnah coarse (Arabic خشنه): crust made from long thin noodle threads

na'ama (Arabic ناعمة) (fine): semolina dough

kunafa with semolina

mhayara (Arabic محيرة) (mixed): a mixture of khishnah and na'ama

dough ready to spread

The pastry is heated in butter, margarine, palm oil, or traditionally semneh and then spread with soft white cheese, such as Nabulsi cheese, and topped with more pastry. In khishnah kanafeh the cheese is rolled in the pastry. A thick syrup of sugar, water, and a few drops of rose water or orange blossom water is poured on the pastry during the final minutes of cooking. Often the top layer of pastry shops is tinted with red food coloring (a modern shortcut, instead of baking it for long periods of time). Crushed pistachios are sprinkled on top as a garnish.

Knafeh in Nablus

Variation with kunafa

Kanafeh was first mentioned in the 10th century.

It is generally believed to have originated in the Palestinian city of Nablus hence the name Nabulsieh. Nablus is still renowned for its kanafeh, which consists of mild white cheese and shredded wheat surface, which is covered by sugar syrup. In the Levant, this variant of kanafeh is the most common. The largest plate of kanafeh was made in Nablus. in an attempt to win a Palestinian citation in the Guinness World Records. It measured 75×2 meters and weighed 1,350 kilograms.

Turkish künefe and Turkish tea (çay)

The Turkish variant of the pastry kanafeh is called künefe and the wire shreds are called tel kadayıf. A semi-soft cheese such as Urfa peyniri (cheese of Urfa, or Hatay peyniri, cheese of Hatay), made of raw milk, is used in the filling. In making the künefe, the kadayıf is not rolled around the cheese; instead, cheese is put in between two layers of wiry kadayıf. It is cooked in small copper plates, and then served very hot in syrup with clotted cream (kaymak) and topped with pistachios or walnuts. In the Turkish cuisine, there is also yassı kadayıf and ekmek kadayıfı, none of which is made of wirey shreds.

making of the dough wires

Riştə Xətayi

This type of Azerbaijani variant is prepared in Tabriz, Iran. «Riştə Xətayi» is called to mesh shreds that are cooked typically in Ramadan in the world's biggest covered Bazaar of Tabriz. It is made of chopped walnuts, cinnamon, ginger, powder of rose, sugar, water, rose water, olive oil.

Kadaif

In this variant, called also καταΐφι or κανταΐφι in Greek (kataïfi or kadaïfi), the threads are used to make pastries of various forms (tubes or nests), often with a filling of chopped nuts as in baklava.

A Bosnian style kadaif pastry is made by putting down a layer of wire kadaif, then a layer of a filling of chopped nuts, then another layer of wire kadaif. The pastries are painted with melted butter, baked until golden brown and then drenched in sugar or honey syrup.

The dessert is usually made with long, thin strands of shredded phyllo dough known as kataifi. In fact, the word, kunafa is used interchangeably to describe both the dessert and the dough. The dough is usually fried or baked with butter or oil until it is crisp. In some variations, the kunafa is made with rich, cake-like semolina dough instead.

Kunafa mabruma

The Abbasid Caliphate cooks during the 9^th century  made a “crepe-like” pastry called qata’if wrapped around almond cream and drizzled with honey. Still know today under the same name.

robin nest kunafa

By the 10th century, Middle Eastern cooks began to bake “thinly sliced … qata’if and tossed the shreds with honey,” perfected later by Nablus cooks to become the kunafa of today, much later was the qata’if batter poured “into thin lines onto a hot metal sheet.” to form the uncooked dough. 

This new method of cooking the dough became the norms for the kunafa we see today.

data collected from internet

Dates the Fruit

DATES 

Majestic palm tree

Phoenix dactylifera, commonly known as date or date palm, is a flowering plant species in the palm family, Arecaceae, cultivated for its edible sweet fruit. Although its place of origin is unknown because of long cultivation, it probably originated from lands around Iraq.  The species is widely cultivated and is naturalized in many tropical and subtropical regions worldwide Date trees typically reach about 70–75 feet (21–23 m) in height growing singly or forming a clump with several stems from a single root system. The leaves are 4–6 meters (13–20 ft) long, with spines on the petiole, and pinnate, with about 150 leaflets. The leaflets are 30 cm (12 in) long and 2 cm (0.79 in) wide. The full span of the crown ranges from 6–10 m (20–33 ft).

The species name dactylifera "date-bearing" comes from the Greek words daktylos (δάκτυλος), which means "date" (also "finger"), and fero (φέρω), which means "I bear”.

History of dates

Dry Dates

Dates have been a staple food of the Middle East and the Indus Valley for thousands of years. There is archaeological evidence of date cultivation in eastern Arabia in 6000 BCE. They are believed to have originated around what is now Iraq, and have been cultivated since ancient times from Mesopotamia to prehistoric Egypt, possibly as early as 4000 BCE. The Ancient Egyptians used the fruits to make date wine, and ate them at harvest.

There is also archeological evidence of date cultivation in Mehrgarh around 7000 BCE, a Neolithic civilization in what is now western Pakistan. Evidence of cultivation is continually found throughout later civilizations in the Indus Valley, including the Harappan period 2600 to 1900 BCE.   

In later times, traders spread dates around South West Asia, northern Africa, and Spain. The Spaniards introduced dates into Mexico and California in 1765, around Mission San Ignacio.

A date palm cultivar, known as Judean date palm is renowned for its long-lived orthodox seed, which successfully sprouted after accidental storage for 2000 years. This particular seed is presently reputed to be the oldest viable seed, but the upper survival time limit of properly stored seeds remains unknown.   

Fossil records show that the date palm has existed for at least 50 million years.     

Dates

Red Dates,
Traditionally eaten by Copts in Egypt
Symbol of the martyr's during Nyrouz

The fruit is known as a date. The fruit's English name (through Old French), as well as the Latin species name dactylifera, both come from the Greek word for "finger", dáktulos, because of the fruit's elongated shape. Dates are oval-cylindrical, 3–7 cm long, and 2–3 cm (0.79–1.18 in) diameter, and when ripe, range from bright red to bright yellow in color, depending on variety. Dates contain a single stone about 2–2.5 cm (0.79–0.98 in) long and 6–8 mm (0.24–0.31 in) thick.

Three main cultivar groups of date exist: soft (e.g. 'Barhee', 'Halawy', 'Khadrawy', 'Medjool'), semi-dry (e.g. 'Dayri', 'Deglet Noor', 'Zahdi'), and dry (e.g. 'Thoory'). The type of fruit depends on the glucose, fructose, and sucrose content.

The date palm is dioecious, having separate male and female plants. They can be easily grown from seed, but only 50% of seedlings will be female and hence fruit bearing, and dates from seedling plants are often smaller and of poorer quality. Most commercial plantations thus use cuttings of heavily cropping cultivars. Plants grown from cuttings will fruit 2–3 years earlier than seedling plants.

Yellow dates before turning Brown

 Dates are naturally wind pollinated, but in both traditional oasis horticulture and in the modern commercial orchards they are entirely pollinated manually. Natural pollination occurs with about an equal number of male and female plants. However, with assistance, one male can pollinate up to 100 females. Since the males are of value only as pollinators, this allows the growers to use their resources for many more fruit-producing female plants. Some growers do not even maintain any male plants, as male flowers become available at local markets at pollination time. Manual pollination is done by skilled laborers on ladders, or by use of a wind machine. In some areas such as Iraq the pollinator climbs the tree using a special climbing tool that wraps around the tree trunk and the climber's back (called تبلية in Arabic) to keep him attached to the trunk while climbing.

Dates ripen in four stages, which are known throughout the world by their Arabic names kimri (unripe), khlal (full-size, crunchy), rutab (ripe, soft), tamr (ripe, sun-dried).   

Date Pit

Dates are an important traditional crop in Iraq, Arabia, and North Africa west to Morocco. Dates are also mentioned more than 50 times in the Bible and 20 times in the Qur'an. In Islamic culture, dates and yogurt or milk are traditionally the first foods consumed for Iftar after the sun has set during Ramadan. Dates (especially Medjool and Deglet Noor) are also cultivated in America in southern California, Arizona and southern Florida in the United States and in Sonora and Baja California in Mexico.

Date palms can take 4 to 8 years after planting before they will bear fruit, and produce viable yields for commercial harvest between 7 and 10 years. Mature date palms can produce 68 to 176 kilograms of dates per harvest season, although they do not all ripen at the same time so several harvests are required. In order to get fruit of marketable quality, the bunches of dates must be thinned and bagged or covered before ripening so that the remaining fruits grow larger and are protected from weather and pests such as birds.

Fruit food uses 

Common commercial Dates

Dry or soft dates are eaten out-of-hand, or may be pitted and stuffed with fillings such as almonds, walnuts, pecans, candied orange and lemon peel, tahini, marzipan or cream cheese. Pitted dates are also referred to as stoned dates. Partially dried pitted dates may be glazed with glucose syrup for use as a snack food. Dates can also be chopped and used in a range of sweet and savory dishes, from tajines (tagines) in Morocco to puddings, ka'ak (types of Arab cookies) and other dessert items. Date nut bread, a type of cake, is very popular in the United States, especially around holidays. Dates are also processed into cubes, paste called "'ajwa", spread, date syrup or "honey" called "dibs" or "rub" in Libya, powder (date sugar), vinegar or alcohol. Vinegar made from dates is a traditional product of the Middle East.    Recent innovations include chocolate-covered dates and products such as sparkling date juice, used in some Islamic countries as a non-alcoholic version of champagne, for special occasions and religious times such as Ramadan. When Muslims break fast in the evening meal of Ramadan, it is traditional to eat a date first.

Dates can also be dehydrated, ground and mixed with grain to form a nutritious stock feed.

In Southeast Spain (where a large date plantation exists including UNESCO protected Palmeral of Elche) dates (usually pitted with fried almond) are served wrapped in bacon and shallow fried.

It is also used to make Jallab.

Dates provide a wide range of essential nutrients, and are a very good source of dietary potassium. The sugar content of ripe dates is about 80%; the remainder consists of protein, fiber, and trace elements including boron, cobalt, copper, fluorine, magnesium, manganese, selenium, and zinc, The glycemic index for three different varieties of dates are 35.5 (khalas), 49.7 (barhi), and 30.5 (bo ma'an).       

The caffeic acid glycoside 3-O-caffeoylshikimic acid (also known as dactylifric acid) and its isomers, are enzymic browning substrates found in dates. 

Nomads (Bedouins) in Egypt deserts are know to live on a diet of dry dates and goats milk.

      

Other uses of the fruits 

In Pakistan, viscous thick syrup made from the ripe fruits is used as a coating for leather bags and pipes to prevent leaking.

Uses of other parts of the plant 

Where craft traditions still thrive, such as in Oman, the palm tree is the most versatile of all indigenous plants, and virtually every part of the tree is utilized to make functional items ranging from rope and baskets to beehives, fishing boats, and traditional dwellings.   

Seeds 

Variety of Dates in Cairo market 

Date seeds are soaked and ground up for animal feed. Their oil is suitable for use in soap and cosmetics    Date palm seeds contain 0.56–5.4% lauric acid. They can also be processed chemically as a source of oxalic acid. The seeds are also burned to make charcoal for silversmiths, and can be strung in necklaces. Date seeds are also ground and used in the manner of coffee beans, or as an additive to coffee. Experimental studies have shown that feeding mice with the aqueous extract of date pits exhibit anti-genotoxic and reduce DNA damage induced by N-Nitroso-N-methylurea.  

Fruit clusters 

Stripped fruit clusters are used as brooms. Recently the floral stalks have been found to be of ornamental value in households.    

Sap 

Drying dates in the sun

Sweet sap tapped from date palm in West Bengal, India, In large parts of Northern India the local species of wild date palm, Phoenix sylvestris, is tapped for palm wine, while in Bangladesh, Pakistan and other countries in the region it is now mostly tapped for jaggery and palm syrup production. Wild date palms are also tapped in large parts of Africa for palm wine. The process of palm tapping involves the cutting of the unopened flower stalk and then fastening a bottle gourd, clay or plastic vessel on to it. The palm sap then collects in the vessel and is harvested in the early morning hours. If a few drops of limejuice are added to the palm sap, fermentation can be stopped and the sap can then be boiled to form palm syrup, palm sugar, jaggery and numerous other edible products derived from the syrup. In India and Pakistan, North Africa, Ghana, and Ivory Coast, date palms are tapped for the sweet sap, which is converted into palm sugar (known as jaggery or gur), molasses or alcoholic beverages. In North Africa the sap obtained from tapping palm trees is known as lāgbī. If left for a sufficient period of time (typically hours, depending on the temperature) lāgbī easily becomes an alcoholic drink.    citation needed     Special skill is required when tapping the palm tree so that it does not die.

Leaves 

Palm tree bearing red dates (Zaagloul)

Date palm leaves are used for Palm Sunday in the Christian religion. In North Africa, they are commonly used for making huts. Mature leaves are also made into mats, screens, baskets and fans. Processed leaves can be used for insulating board. Dried leaf petioles are a source of cellulose pulp, used for walking sticks, brooms, fishing floats and fuel. Leaf sheaths are prized for their scent, and fibre from them is also used for rope, coarse cloth, and large hats. The leaves are also used as a lulav in the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.

Suite American dates

Young date leaves are cooked and eaten as a vegetable, as is the terminal bud or heart, though its removal kills the palm. The finely ground seeds are mixed with flour to make bread in times of scarcity. The flowers of the date palm are also edible. Traditionally the female flowers are the most available for sale and weigh 300–400 grams. The flower buds are used in salad or ground with dried fish to make a condiment for bread.

Wood 

Date palm wood is used for posts and rafters for huts; it is lighter than coconut and not very durable.

“Fūl Medames”

Typical fūl medames “Vicia faba“ is served as breakfast by an Egyptian street vendor with  pickled vegetables, as well as fresh rocket (arugula) leaves on the side and plenty of Baladi (local) bread.

Fūl Street Vendor

Fūl medames (Arabic: فول مدمس‎‎, fūl midammis  IPA: [fuːl meˈdæmmes]; other spellings include fūl mudammas and foule mudammes), or simply fūl, is an Egyptian dish of cooked Fava beans served with vegetable oil, cumin, and optionally with chopped parsley, garlic, onion, lemon juice, and chili pepper. It is a staple food in Egypt. Fūl medames is also a common part of the cuisines of Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Israel, Sudan, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia.

History

The Egyptian used Broad beans (Vicia faba L.), as a popular food in Egypt for a long time. The oldest known broad beans have been found in 5th dynasty tombs. They were mentioned in one of Ramses II's paeans on himself:

"Lower Egypt rowed to Upper Egypt for you, with barley, wheat, salt and beans without number." Stele of Ramses II, year 8-9

Breakfast is ready..

In medicine beans were used in remedies against constipation, in a remedy for a sick tongue or a treatment for male urinary complaints.

According to Herodotus, who travelled through Egypt in the Late Period, beans were ritually unclean and were not grown for human consumption:

"Beans moreover the Egyptians do not at all sow in their land, and those which they grow they neither eat raw nor boil for food; nay the priests do not endure even to look upon them, thinking this to be an unclean kind of pulse." Herodotus, Histories II

Preparing fūl meal

Diodorus thought that the Egyptians were forbidden to eat beans and chick peas in order to teach them the value of abstention. But legumes were found as offerings in tombs. During the times of Ramses III the priests of Thebes and Memphis received donations of beans. Lupins, lentils, chick peas and peas (since the Middle Kingdom) were also consumed. Lentils, easily kept dry, were used in trading. According to the story of Wenamen's journey 21 measures of lentils were part of the payment the Egyptian ambassador gave to the ruler of Byblos for a shipload of timber.

More evidence of the use of fūl in the middle east was in a cache of 2,600 dried wild beans unearthed at a late Neolithic site on the outskirts of Nazareth.

Fūl

The qidra

  

The word medames was originally “Coptic”, meaning "buried", and it’s use here might mean that the beans are buried in the pot, but the most plausible explanation is that the pot was buried in the smouldering ashes for long hours. This cooking method is mentioned in the Talmud Yerushalmi, indicating that the method was used in Middle Eastern countries at least since the fourth century.

Qidra

In the Middle Ages, the making of fūl in Cairo was monopolized by the people living around the Princess Baths, a public bath in a tiny compound near today's public fountain of Muhammad ‘Ali Pasha, a block north of the two elegant minarets of the Mosque of Sultan Mu’ayyad Shaykh above the eleventh-century Bab Zuwaylah gate. During the day, bath-attendants stoked the fires heating the qidras, which are huge pots of bath water. Wood was scarce, so garbage was used as fuel and eventually a dump grew around the baths. When the baths closed at the end of the day, the red embers of the fires continued to burn. To take advantage of these precious fires, huge "qidras" (copper containers) were filled with Fava beans, and these cauldrons were kept simmering all night, and eventually all day too, in order to provide breakfast for Cairo's population. Cook shops throughout Cairo would send their minions to the Princess Baths to buy their wholesale fūl.

Fūl plant

Although there are countless ways of embellishing fūl, the basic recipe remains the same. Once the fūl is cooked, it is salted and eaten plain or accompanied by olive oil, corn oil, butter, clarified butter, buffalo milk, basturma, fried or boiled eggs, tomato sauce, garlic sauce, tahini, fresh lemon juice, chili peppers, or other ingredients including Cumin.

Fūl is prepared from the small, round bean known in Egypt as fūl ḥammām ("bath beans"). Other kinds of Fava beans used by Egyptian cooks are fūl rūmī ("Roman"), large kidney-shaped Fava beans, and fūl baladī (local beans, which are of middling size).

Fresh ful pods

Fūl akhḍar ("green fūl") are the fresh Fava beans in their pods eaten mostly in spring during “Sham El Nassim”. Grains of green fūl is also cooked in a tomato sauce as a vegetable dish.

sprout beans

Fūl nābit (sprout beans) are dried Fava bean soaked in water until they sprouts then they are boiled, it is normally eaten as a soup.

Bisara

The fūl madshūsh ("crushed fūl") are dried crushed Fava beans, they normally are used to make the famous Falafel (Tamieh) patties that are basically made from Fūl madshush,  some spices and then deep fried. Another dish is “Besara” a variant of cracked Fūl and green coriander, leaks and many more green spices presented as  puree garnished with fried onions.

Falafel patties

Each family, group, village or country has it own variation of how to prepare Fūl, for example the fūl Iskandarani (From Alexandria) ispresented with parsley and cotton oil, Fūl Domiati (From Damietta) with eggs and sunflower oil etc...

Typical Fūl meal

Amazingly enough Fūl will blend with almost any type of culinary ingredient to suite different tastes. Some recipes will pass it through a strainer to get rid of the skin and present it like a puree again garnished with oil and lemon.

Fūl medames was exported from Egypt to other parts of the Arabic Speaking World, as well as other parts of Africa and Asia, but particularly to Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Yemen, Sudan and Libya.

Fūl is a popular breakfast dish in Syria, especially Aleppo. The Fava beans are left simmering in large copper jars throughout the night, to be served the next morning, the beans swim in tahini and olive oil, completed with a hint of red pepper paste (made from Aleppo pepper) over the top.

Fūl is a very common dish in Armenia, however unlike most Middle Eastern countries, it is modified with more exclusive and rare spices and not to forget "Bastourma".

In Somalia, fūl is eaten with a pancake-like bread called laxoox (canjeero/injera). It is also part of Ethiopian cuisine, where it is one of the only dishes not served with Ethiopia's traditional injera (flatbread). Instead, fūl is served with standard flour bread, often providing a communal kitchen for patrons seeking to bake such types of breads. The beans are topped, or mixed with, a combination of oil and Berber spices.

In Malta, fūl bil-toome (beans with garlic) is usually associated with fasting during Lent and Good Friday. The beans are cooked in oil with garlic and fresh or dried mint, and then dressed with olive oil or vinegar before serving.