About 
Hi there, I'm Rose. I love to cook food - and eat it. If you have any questions concerning any of my recipes, drop me a line at:
Contact:
rose [at] avocadobravado.net
|
Soon after my roommate returned to the States while I was still living in Egypt, I came down with the flu. Since I was living alone, my sweet grandmotherly landlady brought me a soup similar to this two days in a row, along with a large stack of aish baladi, Egypt’s national flatbread. Her version was slightly different, it didn’t contain carrots or celery, and the beans were partially mashed rather than puréed. I’d like to think of this as the Egyptian equivalent of chicken noodle soup, since it helped nurse me back to health. I’m not sick at the moment, but I don’t need an excuse to eat fava beans. I like puréed soups that are on the thicker side, so I only added two cups of stock. If you prefer a thinner soup, add a cup or two more.
Puréed Fava Bean Soup
Print this recipe
2 cups dried fava beans (broad beans)
1 large onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 rib of celery, chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 tomatoes, chopped
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon paprika
4 tomatoes, chopped
1 bay leaf
2-4 cups chicken stock, vegetable stock, or water
cayenne pepper or red chili flakes, to taste
salt & pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
1/2 cup parsley, chopped
For garnishing (optional): chopped parsley, lemon wedges, drizzle of olive oil
For serving: flat bread or pita bread
Cover fava beans with water in a large bowl and soak overnight.
Drain fava beans and transfer them to a large saucepan, with several cups of water. Bring to a gentle boil, reduce heat, and cover for 2 to 2 1/2 hours, until beans are tender. Stir occasionally. Drain and set aside.
Heat oil in another large stockpot over medium heat. When hot, add the onions, carrots, and celery. Cook, stirring often, for 5-7 minutes, or until the onions have softened. Add garlic, cumin, paprika, and coriander, and cook for another minute. Add tomatoes and bay leaf, cook for a few more minutes, or until the tomatoes begin to fall apart. Add the stock or water, bring to a gentle boil and simmer for a half hour. Remove and discard the bay leaf. Transfer both the soup and fava beans to a blender, working in batches, and puree until smooth. Return the soup back to the saucepan. Add cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper, according to taste. Stir in the parsley and add the lemon juice, just before serving. Garnish with extra parsley, lemon wedges, olive oil, and serve with flat bread.
Serves 4-6
Try the recipe index for more ideas.
When I studied in Cairo, my German roommate Antje and I would often buy pitas stuffed with mashed potatoes and eat them for breakfast. We’d spend the rest of the morning drinking instant coffee (Nescafé, naturally) and studying. Serve these in pita bread and you have yourself an Egyptian breakfast, or serve them on their own as a side dish.
Mashed Potatoes with Olive Oil and Parsley
(adapted from The New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden)
Print this recipe
1 1/2 pounds boiling potatoes (such as Russet or Yukon Gold), peeled and chopped
salt & pepper
1.5 cup reserved cooking liquid
6 tablespoons olive oil
2 large cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
Wash and peel the potatoes. Cut them in half and cut into 4 to 6 pieces. Fill water in a large pot and add some salt. Bring to a gentle boil, add potatoes, and continue cooking until the potatoes are tender, 20-25 minutes.
Meanwhile, chop up parsley and garlic. When the potatoes are finished, drain them in a colander. Reserve one cup of the cooking liquid. Heat olive oil in the pot the potatoes were cooked in. When hot, add the garlic and cook for about a minute.
Return the potatoes to the pot and mash them with a potato masher. Mix in the reserved water, a couple tablespoons at a time, until the consistency of the mashed potatoes is to your liking. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the parsley and serve.
Serves 4-6
Try the recipe index for more ideas.
This is the national dish of Egypt. Traditionally, ful mudammas is prepared with dried fava beans (broad beans) and simmered overnight in a dammasa, a metal vase-shaped pot with a tight lid and narrow neck. Ful is typically served for breakfast, but is also eaten for dinner by the poor. It’s always served with ‘aish baladi, the local bread. Any flat bread will do though, if you happen to be outside of Egypt.
I never bothered to make this until I returned to the States, since I could easily buy this on the street in the mornings for about the equivalent of nine cents. I even brought back several cans of ful back home with me, not realizing it could be easily found in Middle Eastern grocery stores. Here is my quick version, using canned beans. I add several spices to my version of the dish, but if you insist on being a purist leave out all the spices but cumin.
Quick Ful Mudammas (Egyptian fava bean breakfast)
Print this recipe
1 15 oz can fava beans
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped finely
1 tomato, chopped
1/2 t cumin (use 2 teaspoons, if not using any other spices)
1/2 t curry powder (optional)
1/2 t cinnamon (optional)
dash of clove (optional)
dash of cardamom (optional)
salt, to taste
dash of cayenne pepper (optional)
1 T lemon juice
- Add oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. When hot, add the onions. Let them cook for about 5 minute, stirring occasionally. Add garlic and stir for about 30 seconds, or until fragrant.
- Stir in spices and salt. Add the chopped tomato to the skillet and let it cook until it begins to break apart.
- Add the fava beans to the skillet and mix. Turn the heat to low and let the mixture simmer for about 15 minutes. Either leave the beans whole or mash them as much as you like with a potato masher. In the last couple minutes of cooking, add a generous squeeze of lemon juice. Season to taste and serve.
Serving variations:
- Garnish with fresh parsley, bechamel sauce, or olive oil
- Serve with any of the following: bread, quartered hard-boiled eggs, lemon wedges, lime wedges, jam, cheese, fresh fruit.
Serves 2
Not quite what you had in mind? Try the recipe index!
When I first arrived in Cairo in October 2006, it was Ramadan. The days were still long and hot in October and it wasn’t unusual to spot shopkeepers, policemen, and security guards napping in the final hours of fasting. But once the maghrib (sunset) prayer erupted, signaling it was iftar – time to end the fast, the city would burst with energy. Cars would honk endlessly, children would be running around in excitement, and people would be on the streets giving away free food and drinks to the poor or whoever happened to walk by (side note: in more residential neighborhoods, it would be eerily quiet – the only sound you’d hear would be the clanking of dishes as families got together to break their fasts). The first time I had tamarind juice was during iftar. I was in a cab and a man on the street stuck his head in the window and gave both the cab driver and I a bag of juice.
I took a sip, surprised by the sour and sweetness and asked the cab driver, “what is this?”
“Tamr hindi,” he replied.
I had never heard of tamr hindi before, but from my limited Arabic I knew it literally meant “Indian date”. And for the rest of my time in Cairo, I constantly sought out fresh juice stands and hunted down street vendors who sold tamr hindi.
 See where I took out a bite on the bottom? I couldn’t help myself!
Tamarind is a fruit native to Africa, but it’s also heavily used in Indian, Southeast Asian, Portugese, and South American cuisines. It’s unmistakibly sour, with just a hint of sweetness. The sourness from a tamarind is more complex and has a lot more depth than the sourness from say, a lemon. Tamarind is often used as a flavor enhancement, rather than on its own. I’m only familiar with tamarind in juice form, though. The tamarind juice I used to drink in Egypt was a bit sweeter than the batch I made, so I encourage you to double the amount of sugar if you prefer a sweeter drink.
Where to buy tamarind: If you happen to be in San Francisco, I picked up my tamarind from Queen of Sheba Grocery on 1100 Sutter street. If you live elsewhere, your local Middle Eastern, Asian, Caribbean, or Mexican grocery may carry tamarind. And of course, there’s always the Wal*Mart of the Internet: Amazon.com.
Tamr hindi (Tamarind juice)
Print this recipe
1 14-oz block wet tamarind
1-2 C sugar (I used 1 C and it’s still on the sour side, if you want something a bit sweeter, kick it up to 2 C)
10 cups water
- Cut tamarind into four pieces and place in a large bowl. Pour 2 cups of warm water into the bowl and let the tamarind soak for 20-30 minutes.
- Scoop out one piece of tamarind from the bowl and place in a blender with another cup of water. Pulse for only a couple seconds – just to break up the large chunks and pour into a saucepan. Repeat with the other three pieces of tamarind and pour the water from the bowl into the saucepan.
- Add four more cups of water to the saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Lower the heat and stir in the sugar. Simmer for 15 minutes.
- Take the saucepan from the heat and strain the mixture through a colander/sieve over a cheesecloth into a large bowl or another large saucepan. Once all the liquid has been strained (and has cooled down!), squeeze as much liquid as you can from the cheesecloth. Discard the pulp.*
- Once the juice has cooled down, pour it all into a pitcher and refrigerate. Serve over ice while dreaming of warmer weather.
* If anyone has any ideas on what to do with the remaining pulp, let me know! I felt bad for throwing it all away. I’m sure I’ll be making this again and I don’t want to waste any of the pulp.
Serves about 8-12
Not quite what you had in mind? Try the recipe index!
|
|
