CRISP PASTRY WITH MEAT FILLING

RU'A'BIL-L-LAHMA CRISP PASTRY WITH MEAT FILLING

For Savory Minced Meet:   INGREDIENTS   * 1 kg beef * 2 onions, chopped very fine * cooking oil * salt and pepper   INSTRUCTIONS   Mince the beef coarsely. Fry the onions until pale gold, then add beef and seasoning and cook until the juice is reabsorbed.   For the Main Dish INGREDIENTS   * ru'a' (Very thin cracker-type bread) * Savory minced beef * Meat Broth * Butter   INSTRUCTIONS Grease a baking tray and boil the meat broth. Take one layer of ru'a' at a time, dip in boiling meat broth, and line bottom of tray. Sprinkle with butter and repeat to cover bottom with 3 to 4 layers. Spread savory minced beef with the remaining melted butter and bake in preheated moderate oven. When the top browns, turn over to allow the bottom to brown as well. Cut into sections while still hot.

 

SANIYIT KUFTA

Baked Minced Beef Ingredient: 2 1/4 lbs. minced beef 2 onions 2 tb. tomato paste 1/2 ts. nutmeg or cinnamon 3-4 ripe tomatos salt & pepper   Instructions:   Finely chop the onions and add to the minced ( ground ) beef. Add tomato paste, spices and seasonings. Mix well, then spread on an oven pan or baking dish, to form a layer 1.5 to 2 inches thick. Cut into 4" square sections and release sides. Peel tomatoes, slice and place on meet. Bake in center of preheated 350F oven for 30 minutes or until done.

LAMB WITH RICE

SELEQ – LAMB WITH RICE
FROM THE ARABIAN PENINSULA


"’Tafaddaloo – do us the honor!’ exclaimed the Bedouin as he invited the weary travelers to his tent for a sumptuous meal." So begins many travelers’ tales of journeys across the desert lands of the Near East.
It is entirely possible that Seleq was served to our weary traveler, for this is a very common dish among the desert Bedouins.

* 2 lbs. of lamb cut into ½ inch cubes
* 3 medium onions, finely chopped
* 2 Tb. Fresh cilantro, finely chopped
* Salt and pepper to taste
* 2 cups milk
* 2 cups rice, rinsed
* 4 tablespoons butter, melted

Simmer the meat, onions, coriander, salt and pepper in water in a covered saucepan over low heat for one hour. Remove the meat and set aside, and keep warm.
Add 2 cups of water and the milk to the stock in which the meat was cooked. Bring to a boil. Stir in rice, cover and cook very gently over low heat until the rice is nearly cooked (about 15 minutes.) Turn off the heat and allow to steam 10 minutes longer.
Place the rice on a large tray. Arrange the pieces of meat on top. Pour the melted butter over the rice and meat. Serve with a vegetable salad.

Serves 4 to 6.

ORZO CASSEROLE

TAGIN LISAN 'ASFUR

ORZO CASSEROLE

 

Ingredient:

* 1/2 kg lisan 'asfur1
* 1/2 kg beef
* 2 onions, sliced very thinly
* 2 sweet greet peppers
* 1 teaspoon cinnamon
* 1 - 2 cups meat stock
* 1 tablespoon butter
* 1 tablespoon oil
* salt and pepper

Instructions:


Cut meat into bite-size cubes. Remove stems and seeds from peppers and slice thinly. Saute onion and pepper in a mixture of butter and oil, then add meat and fry until the juice is reabsorbed/evaporated. Add stock to cover, toss in peppers, cinnamon, and seasoning and cook for 15 minutes. With a perforated skimmer, remove all these ingredients and place in an earthenware casserole dish. Reboil stock and add lisan 'asfur and parboil for 5 to 7 minutes. Then pour over meat mixture. If the stock does not completely cover, add more hot water. Bake in preheated moderate oven for 30 minutes.
1. Dry, small, oval shaped pastry. Lisan 'asfur literally means "swallow's tongue," thus eloquently describing its shape and size.

DRY PASTERY FINGERS WITH MEAT FILLING

ASABI' GULLASH BI-L-LAHMA

 

 

DRY PASTERY FINGERS WITH MEAT FILLING

Ingredients:

* gullash
* savory minced beef
* butter

Ingredients for Savory Minced Meet (Lahma mu'assaga

* 1 kg beef
* 2 onions, chopped very fine
* cooking oil
* salt and pepper

Directions for Savory Minced Meet

Mince the beef coarsely. Fry the onions until pale gold, then add beef and seasoning and cook until the juice is reabsorbed.

Directions for Asbai' gullash bi-l-lahma

Gullash is paper thin dough sold in bakeries. It dries out quickly, and should be kept covered.

Cut gullash sheets into 10 cm squares and keep covered with moist cloth. Taking one square at a time and covering the rest immediately, place on a smooth surface and arrange minced meat in a narrow strip at the center of the square 1 cm from both ends. Fold ends over the meat mixture and roll tightly so that it resembles a cigarette. Arrange tidily in a greased baking tray, brush top with melted butter, and bake in preheated moderate oven until golden.

KOFTA WITH APRICOT SAUCE

In her book, Memories of a Lost Egypt, Colette Rossant’s recounting of various family events and activities always includes a sumptuous description of the food served at these special times, as well as recipes. This month we are featuring a recipe for Kofta (meatballs) with Apricot Sauce, which was served in her Grandmaman’s house as part of a wedding feast.   Kofta with Apricot Sauce Apricot Sauce       Soak 1 cup dried apricots in water to cover for 2 hours. Drain the apricots and place them in a food processor or blender and puree. Then, with the motor running, slowly add 3 cups of chicken stock. (Note: I found that 2 cups of chicken stock was sufficient.) Add salt and pepper to taste, transfer to a saucepan and simmer, stirring with a wooden spoon, for 5 minutes.   Kofta * 1 pound of ground lamb * 2 small leeks, cleaned and finely chopped * 1 tablespoon raw rice * 2 eggs * 1 tablespoon olive oil * 1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro * salt & pepper * 1 ½ cups chicken stock * flour * 2 tablespoons butter or margarine   Mix the ground lamb with the leeks, rice, eggs, oil, cilantro and salt & pepper to taste. Form balls the size of walnuts. (If you have a cookie scoop, use this and you will get uniform sized meatballs.) Place the meatballs in a large saucepan with the chicken stock and simmer for 20 minutes, adding water if necessary. Drain the meatballs and cool. Roll the meatballs in flour and melt the butter or margarine in a large skillet. When the butter is hot, add the meatballs and saute for 5 to 6 minutes, until nicely browned. Pour the Apricot Sauce on the Kofta and serve. Makes 4 main dish servings. This recipe may also be served as an appetizer (mezze) or used as a filling for a pita sandwich with salad greens.

SANYET BATATES Recipe

SANYET BATATES (OVEN POTATO STEW)

 



 

SANYET BATATES  Recipe is easy to prepare and well worth the effort.

 

Ingredients for  Egyptian SANYET BATATES  Recipe

10 Potatoes.
Beef (or lamb or turkey, quantity according to budget.
4 Onions
2 cups tomato paste.
Cardamom pod (Habahan)
Salt and pepper.

 

Directions for Egyptian SANYET BATATES  Recipe

 

1. Cut 1 onion into 4 pieces (this goes with the meat when it is boiled). Cut the remaining onions into ring slices and place them in a cooking pot, and keep the other onion for later use.
2. Wash and peal the potatoes and cut them into thick slices and put in the pot, add water to cover the ingredients and add the tomato paste and salt and pepper to taste.
3. Boil the mixture for about an hour until the potatoes are cooked.
4. In the mean time cut the beef into 2x2x2cm cubes and put in another pot with the remaing onion and the cardimom. Boil for about 1/2 an hour, then fish the cardimom out.
5. Preheat the oven.
6. Layer the potatoe and onion slices in the oven dish together with the beef cubes.
7. Pour the beef broth (Bahreez) resulting from boiling the beef in the oven dish, and put the dish in the preheated oven. Cook until the potatoe become red in colour (10-15 mins). You might need to add more broth if all the water is absorbed before that.

 

Variations and Comments

 

* You can miss out on the meat to end up with a vegeterian dish
* You can use a layer of uncooked tomatoes as well. You can also add a layer of uncooked onions.
* This is a low fat version since there is no fat used in cooking. For a lower fat version use turkey instead of beef. For a fuller fat version with nice distinctive taste use lamb.
* This is the quick way of cooking this dish and requires less time than cooking everything in the oven from their raw state (usijng thinly sliced potatoes).
* The proper, full taste, full fat method would involve frying some of the ingredients (meat, onions, tomatoes with possibly some garlic) in olive oil rather than boling them, but can result in too heavy a meal.

 

That’s the traditional Egyptian SANYET BATATES Recipe Hope you like it.