Egypt - !بالهنا و الشفاء
Posted in Egypt on April 26th, 2009 by erin – Be the first to comment
I was initially very excited when the random country generator spit out Egypt. After only a few minutes of research, I realized that, because many Egyptians are very poor, there’s not much variety in their diets. Many meals are centered around bread and offer legumes and grains as the other main ingredients. While Egypt does share the same culinary style as some other Middle Eastern nations, I wanted to find dishes that were unique to Egypt alone.
I’ve had to learn many new cooking techniques during this cooking adventure, so I’ll take the blame for the mediocre kushari but from the entire meal I learned that Egypt really isn’t big into using spices…which was a bummer.
Egyptian bread
45 min | 15 min prep
Serves 6
Ratings:
Taste: 3. There was nothing special about this bread. It was well cooked but bland, and not as fluffy as I like my bread.
Intangibles: 8. It’s called Egyptian bread…how much more authentic can you get? But really, this bread transported me to the desert life of a peasant in Egypt. Also, it was supposed to be chewy and hearty, so I knew I did it right.
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
- 7 oz. water
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/4 oz. Dry Yeast
Directions
1. Put flour and salt in an oversized bowl.
2. Mix Dry Yeast with the water.
3. Slowly add water.
4. Take turns kneading the dough.
5. Spread flour on a clean, flat surface.
6. Roll dough into small balls.
7. Form balls into flat round shapes or triangles.
8. Cover with a cloth for one to two hours only.
9. Bake bread on a greased sheet for 30 minutes at 350 Degree heat.
Ful Medames
Egyptian-Style Breakfast Beans
30 min | 10 min prep
Serves 2
Adapted from Allrecipes.com
Ratings:
Taste: 6. This dish was the best element of the entire meal. I’d eat the Ful Medames again, plus the egg and bread complemented it well.
Intangibles: 9. Multiple sources said that Ful Medames is a very common breakfast meal I also received a recommendation to cook this dish, so knowing this while I cooked and ate it probably contributed to how authentic this dish felt.
- 1 15-ounce can fava beans
- 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 1 large tomato, finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
- 1-2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, to taste
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Grilled flatbread
- 2 eggs
Directions:
1. Drain and rinse the beans, then pour into a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer for five minutes, breaking up roughly with a fork. Stir in the olive oil, onion, tomato, cumin, lemon juice, salt, pepper, and most of the parsley. Continue cooking for five minutes.
2. In the meantime, grill the flatbread or sear it with a little olive oil in a skillet. Fry the eggs in some olive oil in a separate skillet, leaving the yolks runny.
3. Serve the bean mixture warm with the fried eggs and flatbread.
Kushari
Rice with Lentils
70 min | 35 min prep
Serves 6
Ratings:
Taste: 4, while I think I probably made a mistake by adding 1.5 c of uncooked lentils instead of 1.5 c of cooked lentils, this dish was mushy and bland. I’ll take the blame for 2 points worth of taste and give kushari a 4 for taste, all things considered.
Intangibles: 8, this dish seemed extremely authentic. It incorporated lentils and rice, two of the most common Egyptian ingredients.
- 1.5 c large brown lentils (soaked overnight)
- 2 large onions
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 c long-grain rice
- salt, black pepper, flat leaf parsley (garnish)
Directions:
1. drain lentils, put in large pan. add water to cover by 2 inches. bring to a boil, cover, simmer for 40 min to 1.5 hrs, or until tender. drain thoroughly.
2. finely chop one onion, slice the other. heat 1 tbsp oil, saute chopped onion until soft. add lentils and spices.
3. measure out rice, add it with same volume of water to the lentils. cover and simmer for 20 min, until rice and lentils are tender. heat remaining oil in frying pan, cook sliced onion until very dark brown. add as garnish with parsley.
4. serve, hot or cold.
Bon appetit! !بالهنا و الشفاء