1. April, 15th 2010, Diala Khasawnih's studio, Amman
a collaborative cooking event with artists Sav and Ana Pecar (artists in residence in Makan). The idea is to bring together all three artists in an interactive, playful, and intimate setting with an audience (invited group of artists, art practitioners and writers), check: http://tinyurl.com/3ysw3hs
2. September 2009, ¿QUIÉN PUEDE VIVIR EN ESTA CASA? An art space in Buenos Aires, Argetina.
This cooking project, a collabroative work with curator Ola Khalidi, was part of a residency in the art space in Argentina run by artists Lucrecia Urbano. The project involved several cooking feasts, a cook book of recipes including where to get the ingredients locally, in English and Spanish, and wall displays of the dishes and recipes in the kitchen of the residency home. Check http://www.makanhouse.net/content/makan-cooks-argentina
Food in Shatana (Shatana International Artist Workshop, Shatana village open day, Jordan)
1. Shatana Workshop 2009
this project is a collection of recipes with stories and illustrations documenting recipes specific to the shatana workshop menu. Food is very important in the workshop, it brings the participants together, conversation takes place, relationships develop and all the craziness of organising the workshop is okay for the duration of a meal. The collection was photocpied and bound in a small booklet and distributed on the open day. http://www.makanhouse.net/content/diala-khasawnih-jordan-1
2. Shatana Workshop 2008
This project involved several people from the village (mainly women) who make food at home to bring in income. They were encouraged and assisted to display and sell their produce on the open day and placed on the event map which indicates the locations of the art works/performances by the participating artists. http://www.makanhouse.net/content/diala-khasawnih-jordan
3. Shatana Workshop 2007
Shatana village is a small village with a 150 quickly dwindling population. Many women, to support their families, have turned into the production of dairy foods such as cheese, butter, jameed, labaneh and yogurt. Labaneh, soft and cream-cheese like, is a popular ingredient of every breakfast in Jordan, a favourite of mine. In this project I created a jewelry shop in an abandoned house and placed the labaneh (which is often preserved in small ball shapes in jars of olive oil) one ball in a small jar each filled with olive oil in a display mimicking that of jewels in a boutique and called it Habbat el Lulu (pearls).
http://www.makanhouse.net/content/diala-khasawnih-jordan-0
3. blog on food:
example:
Saturday, May 29, 2010
makmoura from eidoun
makmoura is a very personal dish for me. it is about my grandmother in a small village up north of jordan. and now my aunt makes it. it is big and festive. my grandmother woke up as early as 2.00 am to start cooking it, for it took hours and hours in the oven after all the onion chopping and meant and/or chicken cooking and dough preparing. so my aunt and sita made it for us this time with me present to watch and understand and possibly one day cook.
1. the onions: finely chop a lot of onions and cook with a lot of olive oil, some salt, 7 spice mix and add cumin and cinnamon. cook until soft but not totally. keep to cool to avoid burning fingers.
2. the game, a mix of meat and chicken seems to be the standard
boil the chicken first for five minutes and take away the fat in
the water.
in a deep pan heat some oil with a bit of onion then add the meat (spice with salt, 7-spice mix, cumin, cinnamon, sumac, bay leaves and some curry leave) and cook for a few minutes before adding in the chicken and cook until 85% done.
3. mix white flour (1 third) and brown flour (2 thirds) with salt, sesame seeds, black seeds (قزحة) then start adding water until it is a fine thick dough, soft enough to spread with hands, use olive oil to avoid dough sticking on hands.
start the layering in a deep oven pan, first two layers of thin dough flats. then spread onion mix on each layer using fingers, add some of the chicken/meat stock from the meat pan. then add the pieces of meat and chicken, say 2-4 pieces each layer. and so on until the pan is full and you end with a thick layer of dough. cover with foil and place in medium heat oven and leave for 3 hours. to check if done, taste the top layer of dough if done (still soft and all) then all layers are done.
flip upside down on a big pan and serve to a huge crowd. the bigger the merrier. you may want to have some yogurt with it, or a yogurt drink. delightful.
traditional alternative: place layer after layer of dough and in the center place all the meat/chicken and wrap dough around it, like a ball with the meat as center. it used to be cooked in taboun oven and covered all over with heat.
