Egyptian style Molokhiya

It's hard to describe molokhiya if you've never seen or tasted it. Molokhiya / mulukhiyah / malukhiya etc (sometimes known in English as Jew's mallow) is a Middle Eastern and North African soupy/stew-like dish that uses leaves from the corchorus olitorios plant as a base. The leaves have an unusual texture, mucilaginous or slimy, similar in character to okra. There are a number of different ways to prepare molokhiya, in Tunisia the leaves are dried and ground to a fine powder before being mixed with oil and slow cooked in a stew, in other countries of the Middle East the dried leaves may be used, in Egypt often the fresh leaf is preferred. I've made molokhiya before using the Tunisian method (I brought back 1kg of molokhiya powder when I was last there), but as fresh molokhiya is pretty much impossible to find here Egyptian style is something I have never attempted. However a work colleague who is of Sudanese origin informed me that one of the Asian grocery stores now had little Egyptian /Sudan section, and in addition to stocking the dried leaf, they also had frozen molokhiya! So, what's a person to do? I made a trip there pronto and gathered all the ingredients together to cook up an Alexandrian style molokhiya with prawns! In the rest of Egypt rabbit, or perhaps lamb is the preferred meat, and when I have cooked molokhiya before I used soya chunks. While I am pretty much 99% vegetarian, however, I do on occasion eat fish and prawns, and having found some juicy looking tiger prawns in the supermarket I knew just what to do with them...

400g bag frozen molokhia
~500ml vegetable stock
Olive oil
1 large onion
4 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon harissa
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 large bunch of coriander
For takliya
Margarine or butter
1 tsp ground coriander
4 cloves of garlic (crushed)

6-8 large prawns

1. Slice the onions thinly and fry in olive oil with crushed garlic until softened. Stir in the tomato paste, harissa, and spices and cook for a few minutes. Add vegetable stock (around 500ml) and the frozen molokhia. I just put the block in the pan and waited for it to thaw

2. Once it’s melted stir it in, put the lid on and simmer on a very low heat for around 30 minutes
3. When the molokhia is almost done, make the takliya, which is the garlicky sauce to mix in. Fry crushed garlic and coriander until golden brown, and then stir into the molokhia mixture
4. Stir in the finely chopped coriander, and turn off the heat 
5. I reserved a little of the takliya back and then added the prawns to the pan to cook in the garlicky and buttery juices
6. Serve with white rice and lemon slices to squeeze over.

Knafeh (Middle Eastern shredded pastry dessert)

My kitchen Holy Grail has always been kataifi pastry, those hair thin strands of filo dough used in so many Middle Eastern sweet recipes. Alas, not something easily obtainable in the UK, at least if you live outside of an area with a large Middle Eastern population. I live in the north of the country, and while I am in a multicultural city, our speciality grocery stores are Asian and Chinese. So... kataifi pastry has always been there on the horizon, taunting me with its inaccessibility! I did find an online retailer who would deliver outside of London, but delivery costs were steep...

Fast forward to a food related discussion with a work colleague a couple of months ago, his family are from Sudan and he was telling me that one of the Asian grocery stores had started stocking some Egyptian and Sudanese ingredients, namely fresh and frozen molokhiya, Egyptian rice, karkadeh etc so I decided to take a trip. And oh yes, they had the above ingredients and more... I peered into the freezer and was met with boxes of frozen kataifi pastry! Hallelulya!

So what to make with this rare kitchen delight? For my first attempt there was no question, it would be knafeh. Syrup soaked kataifi pastry encasing a warm gooey cheese middle. Traditionally it's made with nablusi cheese or sweet cheese. An unsalted cheese with the texture of mozzarella. Indeed mozzarella (soaked to remove any salt) is a fine alternative. Though here I have a confession to make... I have a bit of a mental taste block as far as sweet cheese goes. I like my melty cheese savoury, and while I do enjoy traditional knafeh, I was making this primarily for people unfamiliar with the dish (and possibly with similar sweet cheese aversion) so I used rocotta for the filling instead. If you want the stringiness, then slice mozzarella and lay it on the pastry base on top of the ricotta and you have a pretty good facsimile.
I'd love to say that there are substitutions for kataifi pastry, but nothing really gives the same results. I tried years ago making knafeh with shredded wheat. it 'looked' okay, and tasted okay, but the taste was overwhelmingly of shredded wheat. I'm wondering whether taking leaves of filo pastry allowing them to air dry and then blitzing in a food processor may give close results, as the traditional recipes for kanafeh usually involve processing the pastry until you have a fine crumb, the strands are not absolutely neccessary...

Knafeh
200g kataifi pastry
100g margarine
Splash of orange blossom water

Filling
200g ricotta
Geranium blossom water (optional)

Syrup
100ml water
100ml sugar
Lemon juice
1 tablespoon orange blossom water
 

1. Break the kataifi pastry into small pieces, some recipes call for blitzing it in a food processor until the crumb is the size of couscous, I wanted some texture so I crumbled it in my hands until the pieces were roughly the size of rice grains
2. Stir in the melted margarine until it’s well mixed, add a little of the orange blossom water to this
3. Brush the bottom of a baking tin with margarine or ghee, and decorate with halved almonds (optional, as you can see from the photo my almonds 'drifted' slightly during cooking!)

4. Take around half of the pastry and press it into a loose bottomed baking tin (these quantities are enough to fill a 20cm sandwich tin) make sure it’s pressed down quite firmly (I used a tin can covered in plastic wrap)
5. For the filling I used ricotta, traditionally knafeh is made from Nablusi cheese, an unsalted cheese that when melted has the stringiness of mozzarella, and indeed mozzarella (soaked to remove as much of the salt as possible) is a good alternative. I mixed the ricotta with a few drops of geranium oil
6. Spoon the filling onto the pastry base, keeping it clear of the edges
7. Lightly spoon the remainder of the kataifi dough over the top of the cheese until it’s covered. You don’t need to press down too hard but make sure to press down firmly at the edges (the idea being that the pastry is going to totally encase the cheese filling)
8. Cook in a preheated oven for around 20 minutes until golden brown, my oven settings aren’t too accurate so I can’t say what the temperature was
9. While the knafeh is cooking prepare a simple sugar syrup and allow it to cool
10. Once the knafeh is cooked, pour over the syrup
Leave for a few minutes, then eat! Delicious with strained yoghurt or cream if you’re wanting something more luxurious. Also nice cold

Bamya (Egyptian style okra stew)

I love okra in all its forms, but none more so than in the hearty Egyptian stew bamya. As with a lot of Middle Eastern and North African foods, the recipes are shared throughout the region, but with subtle differences. Bamya in Egypt pretty much always contains meat of some sort, after much trialand error I found that rather than use  meat substitute, using grilled chunks of aubergine work perfectly. Especially when marinated in a sweet and sour vinegary marinade.
As with all my recipes, the amounts are approximations, use more or less liquid depending on how much okra you have.

Ingredients
300g okra
1 large onion 
1 aubergine 
Olive oil
8 garlic cloves
1 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp coriander seeds
2 tsp caraway seeds
2 tablespoons of tomato paste 
200ml of passata 
Margarine or butter (a good sized dollop)

For the marinade
A splash of balsamic vinegar
A splash of regular vinegar
Olive oil
1 tablespoon ground cumin, coriander and caraway seeds
Salt
1 tsp smoked paprika 

1. Cut the aubergine into large cubes and grill on a griddle pan until done, I don't add any oil. If you prefer you could roast the aubergine slices in the oven. You want them to keep a bit of body, so don't overcook
2. While the aubergines are cooking dry roast the cumin, coriander and caraway seeds and then grind in a pestle and mortar or a coffee grinder. (As an aside, this spice combination is known as tabil and is Tunisian in origin, while not strictly used in the Egyptian version, Egyptian cuisine does use coriander and cumin heavily, so as I always have tabil ready made I tend to just use that)
3. Tip the still hot aubergine cubes into a container and add the balsamic vinegar, regular vinegar and spices. Leave for at least an hour
4. Grate the onions, and fry in olive oil with 4 cloves of crushed garlic until golden brown
5. Add the okra and sautee for a few minutes
6. Stir in the spices and tomato paste and then add the passata. Top up with some boiled water if the sauce needs thinning down
7. Bring to the boil, and then simmer on a low heat for around 30 minutes or until the okra is tender
8. Now add the aubergine chunks and cook for another 10 minutes
9. As the bamya simmers, crush the remainder of the garlic and fry with the dried coriander in butter or margarine until golden brown, this is called the takliya and is the finishing touch in many Egyptian dishes
10. Pour the takliya into the bamya taking care not to miss a drop (I usually pour a little of the tomato sauce into the pan that the garlic has been frying in just to catch all of that garlicky goodness)
11. Serve with white rice and a squeeze of lemon joice

Kar Assaly (Egyptian pumpkin pie)

I've been woefully neglectful of my blog of late (but not of cooking and if anyone is interested in following my cooking experimentation I can be found here on Instagram). I've a ton of recipes that I've been meaning to upload, but I have been without a laptop, and unable to upload using my mobile phone, so they have had to languish a bit. Hopefully I'll be a bit more regular in my updates now! 

It’s winter and the grocery stores are filled with pumpkins and squashes, I normally prefer my pumpkins savoury, but had been intended on experimenting with sweet. I’d recently acquired a copy of an Egyptian cookbook, and one dessert recipe in particular caught my eye, Kar Assaly. It’s pie-like dessert with a sweet pumpkin base smothered in a creamy béchamel sauce and baked in the oven. The original recipe is quite heavy, and has a lot of added sugar, now… while I do like my desserts sweet, I decided to try and use as little sugar as possible, so to the base I added some grated sweet potato and carrot to add natural sweetness. I also went down the non-dairy route, mainly because my local supermarket was selling off some hazelnut milk, and I thought that would make a lovely addition to the béchamel. If you prefer to go with the original, then add sugar to taste to the pumpkin mixture, and substitute regular milk for the hazelnut milk.

Ingredients
1 small sweet potato (grated)
2 carrots (grated)
500g pumpkin (ideally butternut squash)
6 cardamom pods
1 stick of cinnamon
2 tablespoons orange blossom water
100g desiccated coconut
50g chopped nuts
Squeeze of honey (optional)
Handful of raisins (optional)

For the béchamel
50g margarine or ghee
2 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk (adjust according to thickness)

1. Add the grated carrots and sweet potato to a pan with the cardamom pods and cinnamon stick and enough water to cover and simmer until they start to disintegrate. While these are cooking, boil the pumpkin until tender and drain (if you want to go for the original recipe, boil the pumpkin in sugar water)
2. Remove the cardamom pods and cinnamon from the carrot and sweet potato mixture, mash the pumpkin and add to the pan. Stir in the coconut and orange blossom water. The pumpkin filling should have the consistency of thick mashed potato, if it’s too runny add more coconut, if too thick then add a little of the pumpkin cooking liquid
3. Spread a layer of the pumpkin in the bottom of an oven proof dish. Top with some of the nuts and raisins and then add the remainder and the rest of the nuts
4. To make the béchamel sauce, fry the flour in margarine or ghee until it loses the raw smell
5. Whisk in the milk, adding a small amount at first
Cook for around 10 minutes until thickened, if the sauce is too thick then just add more milk until it’s the desired thickness
6. Pour over the top of the pumpkin mixture (I sprinkled some flaked almonds on for a bit of extra texture) and bake until golden brown and bubbling (around 20-30 minutes) eat hot, warm or room temperature!

Feteer meshaltet with cheese and olives (Egyptian stuffed flaky pastry)

I had a relaxing weekend planned, and my idea of relaxation usually involves cooking of some sort. I'd had a dream a few nights previously about feteer meshaltet, I'm not sure what triggered it but I woke up with the taste in my mouth and knew I had to make it...
For those unfamiliar with the dish, feteer meshaltet is an unbelievably delicious Egyptian pastry dish, it has the crispness of filo pastry and the layering and moistness of puff pastry. Layers of super thin pastry are smothered in clarified butter and stacked and folded upon themselves, sometimes it's stuffed, savoury and pie-like and sometimes just the pastry is baked and served with a dusting of sugar and honey. I prefer the savoury version and decided to go with a filling of feta and green olives (cheese is quite a common filling, often of the processed variety... Mmmmm)
I'm not a big maker of pastry, and I did wonder whether I would be able to re-create the transparently thin layers, and had bought some ready made puff pastry as a back up should it not work. However, the pastry was actually quite straightforward to make, the trick being to knead it well, and rest to allow the elasticity to develop, so I would encourage anyone to give it a go!

Ingredients
450g plain flour
250ml water (you may need a little less)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
100g margarine or ghee (melted)

For the filling
100g feta (crumbled)
1 handful green olives (roughly chopped)
1 tsp za'atar 

1. Pour the flour, salt and sugar and slowly add the water, I've said 250ml but you may need a bit less, orpossibly more. The dough should be quite wet and sticky, but still kneadable
2. Once the dough has come together in a smooth ball, knead for 10-15 minutes, then divide the dough into four parts. Drizzle with a little of the melted margarine (or olive oil), cover and leave to rest for an hour 
3. Once the dough has rested you're ready to make the feteer. Pour some of the melted margarine on a clean work surface and start pushing the dough flat with the heel of your hand, keep the dough well oiled for this. With the kneading and resting the dough should be quite elastic and you'll find it spreads quite easily. The idea is to get it as thin as possible, if you can see your work surface through the dough then it's think enough! As an aside, if you get the occasional hole, don't worry. It's going to be folded up so the odd tear doesn't matter

4.  Add the crumbled feta, olives and za'atar to the centre of the dough circle (or square/oblong/rectangle) and fold the sides in over the filling. Once it's encased put it to one side
5. Repeat the process with the second ball of dough, this time when it's reached the desired thickness carefully pick up your filled dough parcel and place it in the middle of the circle, and fold the pastry over it 
6. And repeat again with the third and fourth balls, you'll end up with a well wrapped dough parcel

7. Bake in a preheated oven until golden brown and crispy, I can't give temperatures as my oven doesn't have a temperature gauge, but 190C for around 20 minutes seems about right!

8. Eat, and then wish you'd made more! 

Moussaka (Middle Eastern style)

I love aubergines, probably one of the finest and versatile vegetables that there is. I have to say though, thanks to various cookery programs and articles the British* seem to have some strange ideas about this vegetable. 

Even as recently as 10 years ago I remember watching Delia Smith salt the poor creature and then wring it out in a kitchen towel “to remove the bitter juices”. I am not sure where the fallacy that aubergines are bitter came from, quite possibly some early semi-feral variety. In my decades of aubergine eating I have only once come across one bitter little bugger and that was some teeny tiny baby aubergines I bought from an Asian grocery store.
So I say for the sake of the poor wee veggies, unless you are frying them in which case you want as much moisture drawn out of them as possible to stop them being a little fat-soaking-up sponge – don’t salt your aubergines, they really don’t need it!!!

This recipe is a halfway house between Lebanese style moussaka and Egyptian style moussaka (or mesakaa / messa’aa depending on the transliteration). Both sharing a name and perhaps a few similarities to the more widely known Greek dish. The Lebanese moussaka is vegetarian and contains chickpeas. It’s also usually a stew cooked on a stove top. The Egyptian moussaka may be vegetarian, though more often than not it contains lamb, especially when cooked at home. It also may or may not have a béchamel sauce like the Greek variety, and like the Greek variety it’s baked.

Ingredients
1 large aubergine
1 large tomato
200ml passata
1 large can of chickpeas
1 onion (thinly sliced)
4 cloves of garlic (crush 2 cloves, chop the remainder finely)
Bunch of coriander
Handful of ground walnuts (optional)
Handful of chopped black olives (optional)
Handful of grated halloumi
A splash of pomegranate molasses
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon dried mixed herbs
1 tsp caraway seeds
1 tsp ras el hanout (optional)
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tablespoon of harissa (or to taste)

1 Slice the aubergine into 1cm rounds and grill
2. While the aubergine is cooking, fry the sliced onion and crushed garlic in olive oil until softened
3. To the onion, add the spices, passata, chickpeas, pomegranate molasses, olives and ground walnuts (if using, I was clearing out the fridge and had a few odds and ends knocking around)
4. To assemble, get a large oven proof dish, spoon a little of the tomato mixture in the bottom and then layer on the aubergines. Sprinkle with some of the chopped garlic and halloumi and then add more sauce. Repeat until you run out of aubergine reserving a little sauce to add on top. Decorate with the sliced tomato, some chopped coriander and the remaining grated halloumi
5. Bake in a 250C oven for around 30 minutes or until bubbling. I’m not overly fond of over browned cheese so I covered the dish with tinfoil for the first 20 minutes
6. Eat! Delicious served with a salad and topped with a yoghurt tahini dressing, or if you want something a little more filling, a vermicelli rice pilaf

*Not just the British, at least half the recipes I see online that contain aubergine will somewhere mention in the article that salting is required to draw out the bitterness. Don’t believe me?! Have a nibble of a raw slice, go on – it wont kill ya! Sure it may not taste of much, but I guarantee it’s not going to taste bitter!!!

Karkade (Hibiscus) syrup

Karkade (sometimes referred to as ‘red tea’) is a drink made from hibiscus flowers (Hibiscus sabdariffa) popular in Egypt and the Middle East. Often served chilled it is also delicious hot on a winter’s day. The astringent flavour of the hibiscus flowers is counterbalanced by the addition of sugar making a delightfully refreshing brew. Drinks made from hibiscus are popular wherever the hibiscus grows, and anyone who’s been to Mexico will surely be familiar with the aguas fresca ‘agua de Jamaica’.
Anyway, I had originally intended on making my usual rose syrup to serve with mahalabiya, but decided on something slightly different. The tart cranberry-like flavour of the karkade would complement the sweetness of the mahalabiya perfectly, and the jewel-bright redness complements the green pistachios beautifully.
It’s a simple sugar syrup based on 1 part sugar to 1 part water, and it’s equally delicious over yoghurt, porridge or drizzled on some pancakes. Whatever takes your fancy!
Ingredients
1 handful of dried hibiscus flowers
150g sugar
150ml boiling water
1 tablespoon rose water
Squeeze of lemon

1. Put the hibiscus flowers in a bowl and pour over the boiling water. Allow to steep for 30 minutes or so (you want the water to be a rich deep red colour), and then strain – don’t throw away the soaked flowers, you can reuse them
2. Add the hibiscus water to a pan and stir in the sugar, bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the lemon (this will stop the sugar from crystalising)
3. Take off the heat and stir in the rose water 
4. Allow to cool and then refrigerate. Delicious on desserts, yoghurt, ice cream...

Aubergine and chickpea fattet

It's winter and time for comfort food... I could never buy into the 'carbs are the enemy' mentality popular these days as the thought of life devoid of bread, rice and pasta seems to be a very sad existence indeed. When in need of something warm and nourishing I tend to look eastwards and feeling in need of something more substantial for breakfast than porridge I decided on Fattet.  
Fattet (or fatteh / fette) is a dish found over the Middle East, its base being stale fried pita or flatbread (the name comes from the Arabic word for crumbs). There are quite a few different variations of fattet, fattet hummus where a layer of steamed chickpeas cover the bread, or fattet makdous where fried aubergine is added to name but two. The resulting delicious mixture is then usually topped with a yoghurt tahini sauce. Inspired by the delicious fattet moussaka (with the Middle Eastern vegetarian moussaka rather than the Greek style) I ate last weekend, I decided to go for that option, combining the aubergine with a spicy tomato sauce. Also, rather than fry the bread and aubergine I baked them in the oven, while maybe not quite as unctious as the fried version, it tasted perfectly acceptable and probably saved quite a few hundred calories. Don't be put off by the daunting list of ingredients, most of them are for the moussaka (which could be omitted if you want to go with the basic but delicious fattet hummus)

Ingredients
3 pita breads
1 can of chickpeas
1 large aubergine
1 red onion (sliced)
3 cloves of garlic (crushed)
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp caraway seeds 
1 can of tomatoes
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon harissa
2 tablespoons smoked paprika
2 tsp cumin
Olive oil
1 handful pine nuts
3 tablespoons low fat yoghurt
3 tablespoons tahini
Pinch of salt
Squeeze of lemon juice
Hot water (to thin sauce)
Fresh coriander
Fresh parsley 

1. Prick the aubergine and bake for around 30 minutes until soft, take out the oven and allow to cool before cutting into large cubes
2. While the aubergine is baking, cut the pita bread into squares (approximately 1 x 1 inch) and spread over a baking tray. Drizzle with a little olive oil (optional) and sprinkle the cumin and caraway seeds over the top and bake for around 10 minutes until golden brown. 
3. For the moussaka: Fry the onion and garlic until softened, stir in the ground spices, harissa, vinegar and tomatoes. I also like to add some pureed soaked ancho chillies which give a delicious smokey flavour. Stir and add the cubed cooked aubergine. Turn down the heat and simmer for 30 minutes, at the end of cooking stir in the chopped coriander and parsley
4. Heat the chickpeas 
5. For the tahini yoghurt sauce: Mix in a bowl, add salt to taste and a squeeze of lemon juice. Thin the sauce to a pourable consistency with a little boiling water
6. To assemble the fattet: Add some of the bread to the bottom of a bowl, top with a couple of spoonfuls of the aubergine moussaka and some of the chickpeas. Add a bit more bread and repeat. Top with the yoghurt tahini sauce and a sprinkling of pine nuts. Eat!

Koshari (rice with lentils, pasta and chick peas)

I posted a recipe for mujadarra a while back, a delicious rice and lentil concoction found all over the Middle East, rice and lentils are probably one of my 'go to' comfort foods. Easy and quick to make and utterly delicious and satisfying. Nothing like a double dose of carbs to ease a troubled soul. Double dose you say? Pah! I laugh on your double dose, what about a triple, quadruple or even quintuple dose of carbs? Yep, now we're talking, and we're talking koshari!

The Egyptian take on mujadarra. It has the rice and lentils, but snuggling up to them are vermicelli, pasta and chick peas all smothered in a spicy tomato sauce and topped off with fried onions. Oh yeah!
I've side-stepped from tradition slightly with this recipe, it's probably more of a pimped up koshari than the type you'd encounter on the streets of Cairo, as I decided to make the sauce with some canned cherry tomatos and ancho chillies, I also had no ditalini pasta (short macaroni tubes) so mine is the lightweight 4-carb version, but immensely satisfying all the same. I made this with a packet of ready cooked puy lentils - you could use canned brown lentils or cook your own lentils from fresh. As for the sauce, wing it! The ancho chilli gives it a lovely rich smokey flavour, but I've had koshari with a variety of sauces from the thinner vinegary end of the spectrum to the thicker lucious side. It's all good!

Ingredients
200g rice (rinsed)
100g vermicelli
250g cooked lentils
1 can of chick peas
Water (or vegetable stock)
Olive oil

For the sauce
400g can of cherry tomatoes 
4 cloves of garlic (crushed) 
1 large red onion thinly sliced
4 large ancho chillies (soaked in boiling water for 30 minutes)
1 tsp cumin (ground)
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp caraway seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
Salt to taste
Balsamic vinegar

1. Rince the rice to remove some of the excess starch. Roughly break the vermicelli and fry in olive oil until toasted and golden, add a pinch of salt, stir in the rice and cover with boiling water or stock (I'm not giving amounts here, I pour in the water until it's around 1.5 cm from the top of the rice, it's a pretty forgiving recipe as the pasta soaks up any excess water). Turn up the heat and boil vigorously for 1 minute, then turn down to the lowest heat, cover the pan with a cloth and put on the lid and cook for 30 minutes
2. While the rice and pasta are cooking, prepare the sauce
3. For the sauce, fry the crushed garlic and half of the onion in olive oil until softened
4. Toast the cumin, caraway and coriander seeds in a dry pan for a couple of minutes and then grind.
5. Drain the ancho chillis (reserving a little of the soaking liquid) and deseed them. Put in a blender and pulse until they form a smooth paste. Add this to the onion and garlic mixture and fry for a few minutes
6. Add the tomatoes, ground spices and balsamic vinegar and simmer on a low heat for around 30 minutes. Season to taste, if you want a spicier sauce add a spoonful or two of harissa
7. Once the rice is cooked, stir in the lentils and chick peas and put the lid back on. I usually leave things to mingle while I am frying the onions for the topping
8. Fry the remaining thinly sliced onion until crispy and caramelised
9. To serve, spoon the rice, lentils and chick pea mixture on a plate, add a ladle or two of the tomato sauce and top with a handful of crispy fried onions. Delicious!

Besara (broad bean / fava bean dip)

I was prompted to upload this recipe after hearing my mother wax lyrical about the humble broad bean (fava bean) the other night. Her theory being that mother nature must have known just how special they were because unlike peas and their simple unadorned pod, broad beans are swaddled in a luxurious fur lined casing that befits their role as king of the beans.
Broad beans are a much maligned pulse in a lot of Western (or specifically Northern European) cooking, however head further south and they take on a much more important role. None more  so than in Egypt where in addition to being the star of the ultimate breakfast food fuul medames, they are also found in the Egyptian version of falafel (taameya) and fuul nabet (sprouted bean soup) to name just a few dishes. 

Egyptian bean dishes traditionally use the dried fava beans, I had fresh frozen, while the flavour is perhaps not as concentrated and rich as the slow cooked dried beans, I decided that I would try making the fava bean dip known as besara (or bessara, b'ssara etc depending on transliteration). While traditionally Egyptian it is also found in Morocco. If you want to go down the more traditional route then substitute the 500g fresh beans for dried. Soak them overnight and then cook according to your preference.

Ingredients
500g fresh broad beans (or frozen)
1 large bunch of coriander
1 large bunch of dill
1 large bunch of parsley
Olive oil
4 cloves of garlic (crushed)
Salt and pepper to taste 

For the tasha (garlic and coriander seasoning):
Olive oil
2 cloves of garlic (crushed)
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin

1. Add the beans to water and boil for around 10 minutes, drain (reserving a little of the cooking liquid) and once cool enough to handle, take off the skins. This is time consuming. Ideally for this part of the recipe it helps to have a mother who's idea of a good evening is watching antiques shows on TV whilst skinning broad beans :)
2. Once the beans are skinned (you don't have to be too obsessive about it, but really the taste and texture is so much better) add them to a blender with a good glug of olive oil, the fresh coriander, dill and parsley, crushed garlic and blend until smooth. If the resulting mixture is too thick then add a little of the cooking liquid until you have the desired consistency and season to taste
3. To make the tasha seasoning (so called because when you add the hot oil to the bean mixture it makes a "tssssha" sound) heat some olive oil in a pan and fry the remaining crushed garlic until it is lightly browned, add the coriander and cumin and cook for another few minutes then pour the hot oil and spice mixture into the pureed beans
4. To serve, transfer into a deep serving plate and top with some fried onions. Delicious! 

Date maamouls

It's always fun to play with new kitchen toys, and my beautiful hand carved maamoul mould is my newest. I already posted a recipe for the pistachio filled maamouls a couple of weeks ago, this time I'm going for the other main traditional filling - dates. Nature's chocolate... the desert's candy... simply divine... 

I used medjool dates to make the filling here, lucious plump beauties. If you can't get a hold of them and are using standard dried dates, soak them for a bit longer in the rose water, overnight if possible so they soak up all that goodness. If all you can find in your supermarket is the so-called 'ready to eat' dates then frankly I wouldn't bother! I am not sure what they do to them, but whatever it is seems to render them useless for cooking.

Ingredients
300g semolina
100g white flour
150g margarine / ghee
50g caster sugar
1/4 tsp ground mastic (optional)
1/4 tsp mahleb (optional)
1/4 tsp yeast
100ml orange blossom or rose water 

For the date filling
8 medjool dates
Pinch of cinnamon
Orange blossom water

1. Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl, melt the margarine or ghee and pour in, along with the orange blossom or rose water. Mix together until it comes together in a large dough ball. Cover with plastic wrap and leave for around 4 hours. I should point out, in that time nothing particularly magical happens, it doesn't transform in size, the waiting period is more to allow the semolina to absorb the fat
2. While the dough is resting, blitz the dates in a blender, with the cinnamon and orange blossom water. You want a fairly thick textured paste
3. Pinch golf ball sized (or walnut, depending on your frame of reference) pieces of the dough and roll into balls. With this quantity you should have enough to make around 20 (ish) maamouls
4. Take a ball into one hand and flatten out with the heel of your other hand. Pinch off a teaspoonful of the date paste and roll into a ball. Place this in the middle of the flattened dough circle and close the dough around it to encase fully
5. At this point squish it in your maamoul mould, traditionally the oval ones are used for nut fillings, and the round for date. If you don't have a mould then you can decorate a pattern on the top with a fork
6. Arrange the maamouls on a baking tray covered with greaseproof paper and bake in an oven preheated to ~190C for 15-20minutes. You want the bottom golden, but the top to be lightly coloured
7. Cool, and dust with icing sugar to serve

Pistachio maamouls

I don't need much of an excuse to cook up a batch of maamouls as they are probably one of my favourite cookies to make. However, if I did need an excuse I found the perfect one in London last weekend - a maamoul mould. My granny used to have a few but along with her kitchen axe and massive cauldron they went AWOL after she died. This maamoul mould I bought from the rather fabulous Persepolis in Peckham. Well worth a detour to if you are hankering after all things Iranian (and generally Middle Eastern and scrumptious). 
A small note on a couple of the optional ingredients: mastic is a resin from the mastic tree (Pistacia lentiscus), it's used in quite a lot of Middle Eastern and Eastern Mediterranean sweets and desserts and lends a pine-y flavour to the finished dish. Mahlab is a spice made from the seeds of a particular species of cherry (Prunus mahaleb) and gives an almondy/cherry flavour to the dish. 

Ingredients
300g semolina
100g white flour
150g margarine / ghee
50g caster sugar
1/4 tsp ground mastic (optional)
1/4 tsp mahleb (optional)
1/4 tsp yeast
100ml orange blossom or rose water 

For the pistachio filling
100g pistachios
Sugar (to taste)
Orange blossom water

1. Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl, melt the margarine or ghee and pour in, along with the orange blossom or rose water. Mix together until it comes together in a large dough ball. Cover with plastic wrap and leave for around 4 hours. I should point out, in that time nothing particularly magical happens, it doesn't transform in size, the waiting period is more to allow the semolina to absorb the fat
2. While the dough is resting, blitz the pistachios in a blender and add sugar to taste and then the flower water until you have a fairly tough marzipan-ish paste
3. Pinch golf ball sized (or walnut, depending on your frame of reference) pieces of the dough and roll into balls. With this quantity you should have enough to make around 20 (ish) maamouls
4. Take a ball into one hand and flatten out with the heel of your other hand. Pinch off a teaspoonful of the pistachio paste and roll into a sausage. Place this in the middle of the flattened dough circle and close the dough around it to encase fully
5. At this point squish it in your maamoul mould, traditionally the oval ones are used for nut fillings, and the round for date. If you don't have a mould then you can decorate a pattern on the top with a fork
6. Arrange the maamouls on a baking tray covered with greaseproof paper and bake in an oven preheated to ~190C for 15-20minutes. You want the bottom golden, but the top to be lightly coloured
7. Cool, and dust with icing sugar to serve (or alternatively leave for 5 minutes and eat while hot... Mmmm)

Date shake

I seem to have gone a bit date crazy recently… In my defence, as my local supermarkets just seem to stock awful 'ready to eat' dates (i.e. reconstituted with nastiness, preservatives, oil and usually tasting of nothing) when I see unadulterated dried dates or beautiful glistening fresh ones I have a tendency to go a bit wild and buy in bulk. Which has resulted in having around 2kg of dates in the cupboard, and a couple of packs of reduced to clear medjool dates that I picked up last night on the way home from work. So I decided I had to do something with them and quick. As it is Ramadan at the moment, and it is traditional to break the fast with dates and a drink, here is a recipe that combines both. 

Ingredients
500ml milk (real, soya, rice or otherwise)
10 dates*
2 tablespoons rose water or orange blossom water
Pinch ground cardamom
Flaked almonds or pistachios to decorate (optional)

1. The first step depends on how squidgy your dates are, if you’ve got some large juicy medjool dates then just whizz them up in a blender. If your dates are of the drier variety then chop them up finely and soak in some freshly boiled water for an hour or so and then puree
2. Pour the milk, date puree, rose water (or orange blossom water) and cardamom into a blender and blend
3. Serve over ice in a tall glass, decorate with some flaked almonds if you so wish and enjoy. Also delicious if made into a smoothie with yoghurt instead of milk, or with a scoop or two of ice cream to thicken things up, or some oats if you want to have a breakfast smoothie instead. The possibilities are endless...

*I used medjool dates, so soft and lucious that they practically turn into a delicious puree as soon as you look at them. Dried dates will need some soaking to soften them up, and I am not sure how well it would work with a date like deglet noor, as beautiful they are to look at, and with a delightful honeyed taste I am not sure whether they'd puree successfully, but I may be wrong...

Omek houriya (North African carrot salad)

Carrots are pretty versatile vegetables turning themselves to just about anything sweet or savoury. Omek houriya (or omi/ommok houriya/houria depending on the transliteration) showcases them in their (almost) natural form, with the flavour enhanced by harissa, cumin, caraway and coriander seeds. This Tunisian recipe is usually served with a topping of tuna, egg and olives but works just as well without the fishyness (or egg, and in my case olives as I realised I had none in the house...). Simple and a perfect way to use up any carrots languishing at the back of your fridge.

Ingredients
Carrots (amount left to the cooks discretion)
Olive oil
2 cloves of garlic
2 tsp smoked paprika
2 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp coriander seeds
2 tsp caraway seeds
1 tablespoons harissa
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Boil the carrots until done (~ 10 minutes or thereabouts. You don't want them to be too mushy
2. Drain and mash or blend to a puree. The texture varies, some cooks blend it to a smooth paste, others a more chunky texture
3. Add the crushed garlic, I like adding it when the carrots are still warm as the flavour infuses through the mixture
4. Dry roast the cumin, coriander and caraway seeds in a heavy based pan and then grind. You *could* use ready ground spices, but if at all possible try to grind the coriander yourself, it tastes totally different from the pre-ground stuff
5. Add to the carrot mixture and taste. Season and stir in a splash of olive oil
6. Now mix in the harissa, I have suggested a tablespoonful but it really depends on what brand you are using
7. Eat, traditionally it comes topped with tuna, hardboiled egg and olives
 

Salad Mechouia (North African roasted pepper salad)

I love the taste of vegetables cooked over an open flame, however having an electric oven and hob just doesn't get the same results. I took advantage of the long Bank Holiday weekend and decided to set up a barbeque (one of those disposable supermarket ones) and grill some veggies. Aubergines for baba ghanoush (oven cooked ones taste okay; however burned and charred skin takes it to another level of deliciousness entirely...) were my first choice, and as the charcoals were still white hot I decided to throw on some peppers without any clear idea on what to make with them.

Grilled salads are popular all over North Africa, and this one salad mechouia (or salad mashwiya /meshwiyya depending on the transliteration - meshwiya meaning grilled or roasted in Arabic) makes use of grilled red and green peppers, chillies, tomatoes, garlic and onion.  The salad is also found in Israel, brought over by the Moroccan immigrants and is known as matbucha, though the Israeli version is probably heavier on the tomatoes. 

It's a simple recipe and one that literally takes a couple of minutes to put together (assuming you already roasted the veggies)

Ingredients
2 green peppers
2 red peppers
1 green chilli
1 large red onion
2 tomatoes
2 large cloves of garlic (unpeeled)
2 tsp capers (optional)
1 tsp caraway seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
Olive oil
Lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste
Black olives (to garnish)

1. Put the veggies on the grill and cook until well done and slightly charred. Leave to cool and then peel
2. While the vegetables are grilling, dry roast the cumin, caraway and coriander seeds in a frying pan for a few minutes until the aroma is released. Grind in a pestle and mortar
3. Chop the peeled peppers into small cubes and toss them in a large bowl (some recipes call for all of the vegetables to be blended, however I prefer my salad chunky - each to their own...)
4. Roughly blend the onions, garlic, chilli and tomatoes together and then add to the chopped peppers. I add some capers at this point.
5. Stir in the ground spices and add the olive oil, lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste.
6. You can eat immediately, but it tastes better after a few hours to allow the flavours to blend. Serve at room temperature decorated with black olives.

Mlabes (North African iced cookies)

Despite recent posts to the contrary I'm not big on sweets, preferring savoury any day. However, I've currently got a bit of an obsession with making North African sweets and cakes, partly prompted by the gorgeous patisseries I was window shopping in when I visited Paris last November, and partly due to boredom. I hate the winter, I hate the cold and I hate the rain. For the past few weekends the weather has been dire and the incentive to go out and 'do' something has been sadly lacking. Add to the mix a Winter lurg and you’ve got a recipe for staying at home.

Mlabes are a Tunisian and Algerian delicacy, beautifully iced almond biscuits that melt in the mouth. I searched high and low for a fool proof recipe, but the majority I found online seemed to be based on the same original recipe, one that had at some point been translated from Arabic, in itself not a problem, but no one seemed to know what one of the mystery ingredients was (kthira*) so omitted it. All the recipes did contain egg whites, and as I'm not overly fond of using eggs if I can get away with it I decided to play around with the ingredients a bit. Using margarine as a binding agent seemed to work acceptably, admittedly my cookies are probably a bit 'heavier' than they should be, but I like the texture. I also substituted half ground pistachios for the almonds.
I should point out that any weights listed below are an approximation only; I didn't weigh anything out while I was making the cookies, and adjusted the ingredients depending on the texture. You want the dough to hold together and be quite malleable, so adjust the ground almonds / margarine accordingly.
For the icing, I used an all-in-one royal icing mix (icing sugar and powdered egg white), and added a little more water than the directions on the packet stated so I could dip the cookies in.

Ingredients
200g ground almonds (or 2/3 almonds 1/3 ground pistachios)
50g sugar
2 tablespoons rose water (or orange flower water)
50g margarine (melted)

1. Mix the ground almonds and sugar in a large bowl. Stir in the rose water.
2. Add the melted margarine slowly, you should have a slightly oily malleable dough. If it's too crumbly add more margarine, too loose then add some more almonds.
3. Pinch off small pieces of the dough and roll into balls slightly smaller than golf ball size
4. Arrange on an oiled baking tray and bake at 175C for 20 minutes
5. Allow the cookies to cool completely before icing them
 
Icing
1. Prepare the icing according to the packet (or Google a recipe for royal icing if you want to make your own with egg whites!) you may need to add a little more water, the icing should be thick enough to coat the cookies without slipping off, but not so think that you’ve got to trowel it on! You can either leave the icing plain, or flavour it. I made half with plain icing, and added some violet essence and mauve food colouring to the other half
2. Dip the cookies fully into icing and place on a rack to dry
3. Traditionally they are topped with a diamond of gold or silver leaf, I used a combination of edible gold glitter, bronze sprinkles, and gold stars. To go with the violet ones ideally I would have topped them with a crystallised violet petal…
4. Step back and admire your finished work. Sure they are a little wonky and the icing may not be great, but for a first attempt they are not bad at all

 *Best guess for kthira is that it is a gum or a resin similar to mastic or gum arabic...

Basbousa (semolina cake) with orange blossom syrup

I'm not a big baker of cakes, in fact I rarely attempt to bake anything, preferring instead to make savoury foods. Well, with the exception of Middle Eastern sweets. Basbousa (also known as hareesa, revani or ravani) lies somewhere in between a sweet and a cake. It's found thoughout North Africa and the Middle East, and also in Greece and Turkey, though its actual origins are probably Egyptian. 
There are numerous recipies out there for basbousa, some using self raising flour in addition to semolina, some using eggs, some yoghurt, and some milk. I've gone for the yoghurt version as I think the tanginess of the yoghurt contrasts beautifully with the sweetness of the syrup. And about the syrup, some versions have a rose water syrup whereas others call for a plain simple syrup. 
Don't worry about being too precise with the ingredients, like just about everything I make it doesn't call for exact measurements. Same with the cooking time, depending on the size of dish, efficiency of the oven and the phase of the moon it could take anything from 30 minutes to an hour :)

Ingredients
350g semolina
50g dessicated coconut
100g caster sugar
Vanilla extract (optional)
150g margarine (melted)
200g Greek yoghurt
3/4 tsp baking powder
1 pinch of salt
Blanched almonds (to decorate)
For the syrup
250ml water
225g sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon orange blossom water

1. Mix the semolina, baking powder, coconut, sugar and salt in a bowl
2. Stir in the melted butter, the mixture should look like damp sand
3. Add the yoghurt and vanilla extract (if using) and mix well. You should end up with a thick batter-like dough
4. Grease a baking dish (~ 27cm/10 inch) and spoon in the mixture. Smooth down and leave for around 20 minutes (Use this time to make the syrup and let the oven heat up...)
5. To make the syrup add the water and sugar to a pan and bring to the boil and then simmer for 5 minutes. Add the lemon juice (this will stop the syrup crystalising when it cools) and then add the orange blossom water. Leave to one side
6. Score the top of the cake mixture into lozenge shapes, and then put into a preheated oven (175C) for 20 minutes

 7. It's not ready yet, you just want to reinforce the scoring, and if you're using almonds to decorate press them into the centre of each lozenge at this point (if you do it right at the start they tend to burn)
8. Put the cake back in the oven and cook for another 20-40 minutes. You want the top to be golden brown, as the cake is so moist cooking it for longer wont dry it out. Just keep checking on it!

9. Once the cake is cooked, take it out of the oven and pour on the sugar syrup. You may not need all the syrup (in fact you probably wont! Keep some aside to drizzle on the leftover yoghurt and top with dessicated coconut and chopped pistachios... delicious). Once it's drunk enough of the syrup it's ready to eat. Basbousa can either be eaten warm or cold.