The menu is hugely diverse, and experience has taught my Mom how to be efficient: the Beef is minced all at once, seasoned with the same spices, and used for the lasagna sauce, stuffed potatoes, Macaroni with Béchamel Casserole and the Goulash. The Red tomato sauce made for the Kofta is the same red sauce used for the Koshary and the Molokheyya. The 3 types of pasta –Lasagna, Penne and short macaroni – are all prepared in quick succession using the same pot of boiling water. All the components are prepared together according to their method; the frying is done once and everything that needs to go into the oven will go in at the same time.

That’s a lot of food, and takes a lot of time to make. And I’m always fascinated by how she keeps the kitchen so clean throughout. When I cook, I need a specialized dishwasher on call the whole time I’m in the kitchen. Everything else I can handle.

The homemade feast is definitely my favorite meal of all time; but it has less to do with the food on offer than the actual gathering of loved ones. The table, covered end to end with our favorite childhood dishes, almost feels like a long lost member of the family. Every bite is not salty or spicy; they are mini time capsules taking me back 10, 15 or 20 years to when I thought that the Blue Whale was the best animal on earth because it was so big. Between heaping spoonfuls of food and sips of Pepsi, we share our latest stories, and recount old ones. Sometimes we’ll even find out something new about an old mystery. We never eat in silence. We don’t leave the table unless all the food is eaten, and even then, we find ourselves lounging in our dining chairs clutching our enormous bellies. Smiles all around.

To try and critique a meal like that is pointless. I would not remark upon the seasonality of the ingredients because a family meal is always in season. I couldn’t tell you if the chicken pane was overcooked or not because, frankly, I don’t care. Nostalgia is a big part of this meal, and I like the rose-tinted glasses. That is why I’ve been trying to learn my mother’s recipe for these things. They are all deceptively simple, and it never turns out quite the way my Mom makes it. The taste is good, but not quite “there”. And not through lack of seasoning, mind you.

It’s because my Mom did not cook it. That’s the missing ingredient, the rarest ingredient of all. Non-replenishable, unpurchaseable, irreplaceable.

Happy Mother’s Day.

Everyone is aware of the four basic taste families – Sweet, Salty, Sour and Bitter. There also happens to be a fifth, called “Umami”. This is a Japanese term which describes the “meatiness” that you taste when eating a steak or grilled mushrooms. A great tasting dish typically has at least 3 of these different taste profiles.

Egyptian food hasn’t got the most glamorous reputation, but the flavor profiles can be astounding; let’s take a look at two of them:

Molokheyya:

Also known as Jew’s Mallow; this dish transforms the raw bitterness of the Molokheyya leaves into a sumptuous and complex broth, which is naturally thickened by the compounds in the leaves itself. The addition of cilantro and garlic gives a further depth of flavor, and adds saltiness which serves to whet the appetite. Common additions to Molokheyya include dem3a; which is a particularly salty tomato sauce to further enhance the broth. Molokheyya is typically served with some sort of protein: duck breast, roast chicken or braised beef. The end result is a wonderfully satisfying dish that only your mother has perfected.

Koshary:

The staple of many an all-nighter for students on a budget; this dish brings together a lot of seemingly bland components, but transforms them into something decidedly unique. Texturally, it’s a grab bag of cooked pasta, rice, lentils, chick peas, fried onions, tomato sauce and garlic vinaigrette. Even though there is no meat involved, this is the one vegetarian dish that packs one hell of an Umami wallop. Couple that with the tangy sourness of the garlic vinaigrette, the subtle sweetness of the fried onions and the saltiness of the tomato sauce; and you get a perfect storm of texture and flavor. Be sure to try eating it out of a plastic bag.

Recipe – Umami packed Caramelized onions

[Prep time 5 minutes, Cooking time approx  60 minutes]

1. 5 large white onions – finely sliced
2. Very Large pot
3. 2 TBSP Olive oil
4. 1 TBSP Worcestershire sauce
5. 1 beef Bouillon cube
6. 2 TBSP Brown sugar
7. 1 TSP White sugar
8. 2 TSP Salt
9. 3 TSP Pepper

• On a medium low heat, add the onions to the pot – do not overcrowd the pot, the layer at the bottom should be no more than a couple of centimeters deep. If necessary, cook in batches.
• Add oil, and coat the onions.  Give it a couple of tosses to coat the onions.
• Add salt and pepper, cover and let it cook over a low heat for 20 minutes. Check on it every now and then to give it a quick stir, to prevent the onions from “catching” on the bottom of the pot. After this point, they should start to become soft and transparent.
• Add the sugars, Worcestershire sauce and the bouillon cube; stirring to evenly distribute it among the cooking onions. Cover again, and let it cook over a medium-low heat for another 30 minutes. Once again, check on it often to make sure it doesn’t catch. If the onions look like they’re beginning to fry, then turn down the heat a little and stir.
• At this point, the onions should have turned a brown color’ give it a taste and season accordingly. You can finish it off with another splash of Worcestershire sauce or even a little bit of barbecue sauce.
• This mixture keeps for upto 2 weeks in the fridge. Enjoy it with anything your heart desires – scrambled eggs, meat, or even potatoes.

On the left - Om Ali! On the right - Bread and Butter Pudding!

Ramadan – or as I like to call it: “Radamaddacanman” – is on its way (don’t worry, it takes some time to pronounce correctly). We all know that Ramadan is more about feasting than fasting; and no feast is complete without a rich dessert that sticks to your thighs.

Om Ali is synonymous with richness and a staple of many a Ramadan Fitar table – even though it is readily available at other times of the year. It’s simplest incarnation is toasted Filo pastry pieces, buttered and covered in a spiced milk mixture and baked in a ramekin. Typical toppings include raisins, walnuts and coconut, and some recipes call for cloves or cinnamon in the milk mixture.

The origins of Om Ali have been attributed, in most legends, to Ezz El Din Aybak, the first Mamluk Sultan of Egypt in the mid 13th century. One legend describes how Om Ali was a dish created to celebrate the brutal assassination of Ezz El Din Aybak’s second wife by his first wife. Another legend claims that the Sultan was on a hunting trip, and a peasant woman named Om Ali made him a dessert of leftover bread, sugar and milk as an offering. The sultan liked it, and had the dish permanently named after her.
On the other hand, Food historians have reliably traced back the original bread pudding to the 12th century, as a way for peasants to salvage stale bread. The current incarnation, bread and butter pudding, was developed much later. In the 1845, a cookbook listed one of the earliest known recipes for bread and butter pudding. It was an evolution of the Bread Pudding as the formerly expensive ingredients for the pudding became more affordable and available. Later on, it became a staple of British Christmas dinners.
But the Om Ali Legend I prefer – and the one that makes the most sense – is the one that attributes the creation of the dish to Miss O’Malley, one of Khedive Ismail’s mistresses during the mid 19th Century. She was an Irish woman, and perhaps when she felt amorous, would use stale bread to make her lover a traditional English bread pudding. More likely, however, was that Miss O’Malley cooked a Christmas dinner and served bread and butter pudding during the feast. What’s even more interesting is that Ramadan and Christmas coincided from 1868 till 1870. During this time, Khedive Ismail was in power as Ruler of Egypt, and would have definitely appreciated the introduction of a British Dessert at the Ramadan Fitar Table, in a gesture combining both religious events.
Thankfully, Egyptians back then chose to arabicize her name to “Om Ali” rather than call the dish “Brid Buddin”.
Whatever; both are insanely tasty and rich. The main difference between them is that the Bread and Butter pudding soaks the stale bread in custard; while Om Ali simply uses a spiced milk mixture. The result is that the Om Ali has a thinner consistency than the bread and butter pudding. Whichever you decide to make I can guarantee it will be the perfect denouement to a Protein rich meal.

Om Ali:

You can get prepackaged Om Ali Kits, but you get the best results if you construct this from scratch; the entire preparation time takes less than 10 minutes. For added dimension, I use Sahlab mix to give a rich thick sauce. This particular recipe serves 2 to 3 people.
Dry Ingredients:
•    500gms thawed puff pastry sheets
•    ½ cup chopped pecans
•    ½ cup chopped hazelnuts
•    ½ cup chopped walnuts
•    ¼ Cup white Sugar
•     ½ cup raisins
•     ½ cup flaked coconut

Wet Ingredients:
•    ½ cup Sahlab mix
•    ½ cup Sugar
•    3 cups Milk
•    1 tsp cinnamon

Topping
•    1 TBSP cold butter, cut into small cubes.

Method
1.    Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter a large clay ramekin.
2.    Toast the pastry sheets in the ramekin in the oven until crunchy and golden.
3.    In a bowl, combine walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, raisins, coconut and sugar. Break toasted pastry into pieces and stir into nut mixture. Place at the bottom of the Ramekin.
4.    In a saucepan, prepare the Sahlab mix with the milk and cinnamon, and bring to a boil.
5.    Pour the Sahlab over the dry ingredients. It should just cover the dry ingredients.
6.    Sprinkle the cold butter cubes over the surface of the mixture.
7.    Place dessert in the oven until top is golden brown, about 10 minutes.
8.    Serve hot. Devour.

Bread and Butter Pudding

This is a bit more labor intensive than the Om Ali, but the results are still fantastic. It is typically served with some sort of fruit compote, and in the spirit of Ramadan, I’ve included a recipe for cherry-apricot compote. This serves 4 hungry diners.
For the Bread and Butter pudding.
•    300ml Milk
•    600ml whipping cream
•    1 packet vanilla
•    5 Eggs
•    190g caster/powdered sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
•    4 tbsp raisins
•    12 slices of lightly toasted bread, cut into cubes.
•    250g Butter, melted.

Method
1.    Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Warm the milk and cream with the vanilla in a pan until lukewarm. Whisk the eggs and sugar together in a bowl.
2.    Add the warm milk and cream to the egg and sugar mixture, whisking well. This is very important, because you do not want the eggs to scramble. Set aside until lukewarm.
3.    Put a tablespoon of raisins each into a casserole dish. Then dip the slices of bread into the melted butter and add to the casserole dish.
4.    Pour the cream mixture over the bread; it must be lukewarm not cold when poured to prevent the butter from hardening.
5.    Leave the bread to soak up the cream mixture for about 15 minutes, then add more mixture until the bread is very soft and gooey. Sprinkle over some caster sugar.
6.    Place the casserole dish in a deep roasting tray, pour hot water into the tray around the casserole dish and bake until set, around 25-30 minutes. You can tell the pudding has set by gently shaking the casserole dish – it should “jiggle” like a jelly, but not be too runny. The top should also be golden brown.

Cherry-Apricot compote

This is a great addition to any Ramadan dessert, especially since cherries happen to be in season at the moment. Use this with either of the two desserts, or with cereal for a fantastic sohour option. It can be made a day in advance, and keeps well in the fridge for upto a week.

•    1 1/4 cups sugar
•    1 cup water
•    1 cup unsweetened orange juice
•    2 teaspoons grated orange peel
•    500gms dried apricots, chopped
•    500gms fresh cherries; pitted and halved.

Method
1.    Combine first 4 ingredients in heavy large saucepan.
2.    Stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Bring to boil.
3.    Add apricots and cherries; simmer until fruit is tender, about 5 minutes.
4.    Transfer to bowl. Chill until cold, about 2 hours.
5.    Serve over dessert or get a spoon and enjoy!

Cooking Time – 35 minutes

Add all the Wet mix ingredients into a saucepan over high heat, and bring to a boil.

Remove it from the stove and let it cool down and infuse for about 20 minutes.

Next, in a sauce pan, melt the butter over medium heat and add the flour, whisking it constantly to prevent the flour from clumping.

Crush the Stock cube into the flour and butter mixture, and keep stirring it in. if it starts getting too “dry” add a little bit more butter.

Keep stirring till the color of the dry mix begins to turn a light caramel color, about 5-10 minutes.

Add the wet mix slowly, stirring the whole time.

Keep stirring the sauce over medium heat until it just coats the back of a spoon. Don’t worry if It seems too thin – it thickens as it stands.

————————————-

Step Two: Put the Pasta On.

A simple rule of thumb is 1 liter of boiling water and 10 grams of salt (about ¾ TSP) for every 100 grams of pasta. Remember to add the pasta only once the water has come to a boil. Cook it for 7-10 minutes to get “al dente”.

Don’t be shy and test it while it’s cooking to make sure it’s cooked right. Instead of the boring Penne pasta, try mixing it up with some shells or farfelle; it’ll be a very nice surprise for your guests.

———————————————————————-

Step Three: Stir and Fry the Garlic Chicken Thigh

Heat your skillet over a high heat. Add olive oil and sliced onions.

Cook the onions until they start turning color, about 2-3 minutes.

Season the chicken with salt and pepper, and add it to the skillet along with the garlic and soy sauce. Stir constantly!

Cook for another 5-7 minutes, until the chicken just start to develop some color on their surface.

Add the chicken stock and turn down the heat to medium-low, and let it simmer until the liquid has reduced by two thirds.

———————————————————-

Step Four: Bring it all together, and bake.

1/3 cup of crushed Bake Rolls.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Add the chicken to the cooked pasta, and mix it well. Add a little of the béchamel sauce as well.

Layer that on the bottom of a casserole dish.

Pour over the remaining Bechamel sauce and sprinkle the crushed bake rolls on top.

Place in the oven for about 10-15 minutes, or until the top is golden brown.

.

.

Devour.

The Daily News Egypt has seen it fit to interview the Managing Partner of Tamarai, Mr. Vincent Guillou. The man is not a Chef; he is a restauranteur – it is very clear in the way he talks about Tamarai. He seemed more passionate about the misguided decor than about the food he allows to leave his kitchen. Especially galling is his claim that he wants to bring food to “the people”. Last time I checked, Tamarai was not hosting a Ma2edat Rahman (free dinners for the underprivileged). Mr. Guillou even has the audacity to refer to himself as Egyptian – nay, Egyptian-French – yet nowhere in his food do I see an Egyptian influence.

I’ll let the video do the talking. I’m going to sit back in disgust and watch the comments roll in.

Cooking Time: 4 minutes

To understand Koshary is to understand the Egyptian psyche. We need a feast for the eyes, and also a feast for the stomach. This is evident when we sit down at a family dinner: the table is covered end to end in different varieties of food – mountains of rice, Penne and béchamel casserole, Molokheyya soup, plates of chicken and beef and okra stew in a bright red tomato sauce – all vying for valuable real estate in our stomachs, hearts and memories.

Koshary is like a huge dinner table, except its all in one plate. We’ve got the pasta. We’ve got the Rice. We’ve got the bright red tomato sauce. Koshary is a poor man’s dish, so there is no meat or vegetables, but to make things interesting, we’ve added lentils and chickpeas, and topped it with inexpensive fried onions, and drizzled a garlic vinaigrette on top for that extra “kick”

Meanwhile, the French are using soy sauce (!), Italians are making bolognaise ragù with Kobe beef and the Americans sit somewhere between continental and oriental cuisine; the culinary equivalent of an identity crises. One thing all American food has in common, however is that it’s all invariable fatty. Kind of like the American people. You are what you eat after all.

But I digress.

I decided to begin the hunt at Abu El Seed, ostensibly a monument to Egyptian cuisine. Since I had never been there, I spent these past few months asking around, and the feedback I received was generally positive, notable for the fact that while everyone recommended the Sherkasseyya (Chicken with walnut sauce) no one had actually ordered the Koshary. “Why not?” I asked. Responses ranged from “I don’t like koshary” to “why would I pay so much for such a cheap dish?”

I thought to myself: if Abu El Seed was making koshary using the exact same ingredients as Sheikh El Balad or Koshary el Tahrir, then we’ve got problems.

At long last, after enjoying sushi, raving about C+G’s and a thinly veiled rant about the sexuality of beef, I have finally gotten around to telling you, my nonexistent reader, what the Koshary in Abu El Seed is all about.

In a word? Disappointment. Much like Lucille’s “world’s greatest hamburger” moniker, I was promised so much by the hype surrounding the restaurant itself and let down.

It didn’t taste nearly half as good as the cheaper alternatives at KT’s or Abu Tarek. The plate had very little rice, very little lentils and was little more than a bowl of slimy spaghetti strands swimming in a sea of garlicky water. There were so many transgressions committed against this venerable dish:
- The use of spaghetti pasta – cooked al dente, no less! (Koshary is the exception to the Al Dente rule).
- Incorrect proportions of fried onions, lentils, chickpeas, rice and pasta.
- drowning the plate in Garlic water: I’m sure we all agree that the application of the hot red pepper sauce, garlic vinaigrette, and tomato sauce should *always* be left upto the consumer.

In the end, I realized I need to be more selective of whom I ask for restaurant recommendations. Unfailingly, the first thing mentioned is the dessert they “loved”, the fact they were starving when they got there and that the decor is “really cool”. Well, it turns out the dessert they loved was a 2 day old apple tart bought in from the Marriot Bakery and the decor is a cross between a suburban coffee outlet and a sheesha joint, complete with Bamboo chairs.

For Koshary, Abu Seed fails miserablty. And the search continues..

Cooking Time: 45 Minutes.

While both share a very similar origin, and actually taste very similar; they are two seperate types of salted red meat. Pastirma, available in all former Ottoman countries, is stronger tasting and darker in color than the western Pastrami. These former Ottoman countries are for the most part Muslim, and share with the Jewish faith the tenent of eating only Kosher/Halal food – with a special ban on eating Pork products. Muslims also do not drink alchohol, so for a gourmand like myself, cooking with wine is out of the question – more on that later.

Here in Egypt, Pastirma is used in a similar fashion to Bacon – as a breakfast meat, and is commonly seen mixed in with scrambled eggs. But it has almost no use in an egyptian kitchen otherwise.

I’ve been thinking – why dont we use Pastirma as a substitute for Pork Bacon? The fat content in Pastirma is actually high enough to provide its own cooking oil, and yet it still retains a distinctly beef flavor. It is certainly alot more flavorful than the Breakfast Beef strips available at your local Stop and Shop.

To that end, I’ve started using Pastirma in my own modified recipe for Chateubriand, as well as using locally made cheese and mint as a stuffing for chicken breasts wrapped in Pastirma. It has worked beautifully. But the fun doesn’t stop there: do you want to elevate your mashed potatoes to a new level? Take a few strips of pastrami and put them on a tray in a 350F oven for about 7 minutes. when they come out, just break them into pieces and mix them in with sour cream, butter and chives. Viola! Heavenly creamy mashed potatoes.

Here are some tips for buying Pastirma here in cairo:

1- Make sure your Deli is clean – ideally, the pastirma should be a deep red color, not brown. If possible, ask the man to wipe down the cutting machine before preparing your order.
2- Tell him to cut it thinly. I mean THIN. Paper thin. there’s alot of flavor in there, so having a thick slab of pastrami even 3mm thick will overpower anything you wrap it in. Also, cutting it thinly makes it easier to use as a wrap, since thick slices tend to break up along the lines of fat in the meat.
3- If possible, ask for Garlic free pastirma – or just buy the Al-Marai brand. This brand tastes perfect – mild, yet still distinctly pastirma, and without leaving that lingering smell on your fingers. Its texture is also perfect, very smooth. Plus, it actually cuts alot better than the other brands; so the Deli man won’t have a problem cutting it thinly.
4- If you live in Nasr City/Heliopolis, just go to Spinney’s. The Deli there is fantastic. Tell the man you want Al-Marai Pastirma sliced “like paper”, and make sure he shows you a sample. It’s not being mean – it’s being assertive. While you’re there, pick up their Beef Filets cut conveniently into round steaks. They will come in handy very soon!

How about:

Black Lentil Risotto with Caramelised onions on a bed of fresh pasta Al-dente finished with a tomato-garlic sauce. [Description is copyrighted, 2007 - Don't snatch.]

“What’s the most important element of cooking?”
“Ingredients”
- Chef!

So the transformation begins with choosing a high quality grain rice and making fresh pasta.

I’ve got to have something to compare it with, right? As far as I know, the only purveyor of fine traditional egyptian (not lebanese) cuisine is Abu-El Sid. They’ve got Koshari, so I’m going to try theirs. If anyone can recommend another “fine egyptian food” restaurant, leave me a comment with their fone number and address.