Egyptian Food

[hillvalley]

I'm feeling the need to purchase marachino cherries!

In college we used to make Shirley Temple's out of Zima and grenadine. We called them antivirgin temples

[chromedome]

Okay...my archaeologist friend got back to me, and seconded the notion of Ful Medammas as a classic, archetypal Egyptian dish.

Then he reminded me that he'd given me this, and several other Egyptian recipes, months ago. <blush> I'm blaming lack of sleep.

So, Rod's starting point was boiled eggs. I quote:

You will first need to know how to boil an egg. This is one of the hardest things to learn. It takes patience and a sense of art.

Egyptian Boiled Eggs (hamini)

doz eggs

water to cover

about a third of a cup of olive oil

a double handful of brown onion skins

tsp salt

Then cook, cook, cook, cook, cook, cook, that's it, do it some more, cook, cook, cook, - actually, simmer them for at least 24 hours. If the shells crack during this, all the better. This is one hell of a boiled egg. Interesting color and fantastic flavor.

The reason it is so basic is that it gets mashed on, stuffed into, sliced upon, diced at and just plain consumed by the millions, no good street food is complete without it and PLAIN BOILED EGGS JUST DO NOT WORK. (sorry for shouting - I get carried away at times).

<He does, at that...'Dome>

Egyptian food is such that if the basics are not well known, more complex dishes become next to impossible. After all, to many people, a boiled egg is a boiled egg and I'm even finding Egyptian recipes calling for 'regular' boiled eggs. Don't believe it. There is no shortcut to great Nile fare.

And, from a later missive:

Ful Medames

This is one of those recipes that you know variations on it existed during the Pyramid Builders. Classic Egyptian in every way.

Also one of the most common meals at the push carts.

One full pound of fava beans, soaked - 1 tablespoon ground cumin (the fresher the better) - about 6-7 crushed garlic cloves - 4 hard-boiled eggs (you know what we're talking about here) - a handful of chopped cilantro - small handful of chopped fresh mint - 1 medium brown onion sliced - 1 lemon quartered - good olive oil - salt and pepper

This is a baked bean dish. Put the drained, soaked beans into the baking dish and add enouth water to cover them by two inches. Add half the cumin. Add lots and lots of black pepper and the garlic. Cover and bake at 300 F. 3-4 hours (the longer time is best since favas are not quite as tender as new world beans.

In the meantime, put the eggs, cilantro, mint, lemon, and onion is separate serving dishes at the table. If you are buying a cup of this at the push cart, this same selection of additions are available. If you serve it at the table, have the eggs chopped. If you buy it from a cart, just mash a hamini (boiled) egg on top of it.

When the beans are ready, salt them, add the rest of the cumin and a 1/4th cup olive oil. Serve them right in the baking dish at the table. Diners add their own egg, mint, cilantro and lemon juice on top. Some add more olive oil to give a smoother texture. Serve with a lot of fresh pita bread to scoop with.

For a "western" thingy - a dash of tabasco is good.

Best salad to go with - tomato/onion/cucumber/fresh mint/olive - with a light yogurt and garlic dressing. (for western ease, I have found a garlicky ranch dressing works well - but not out of a bottle)

With these two things (properly boiling an egg and a recipe for Ful Medames) You may call yourself the "most basic" of Egyptian cooks.

Just a bit of color about Egyptian cooking. Many Europeans and Americans say that Egyptian food is dirty. They can't quite put their finger on it since the restaurants and hotels have clean kitchens. It is just that everything is "dirty looking."

Egyptians use brown onions in an overwhelming number of their dishes. Often with the skin on - and plain brown onion skins are used almost everywhere as a seasoning. Brown onion used in this way imparts its own "dirty" color to many dishes. Just look at the hamini egg. It looks like it had been dropped in the coffee grounds, then retrieved and dusted off. The use of brown onion skins as seasoning makes the rice 'dirty and off color' it makes other vegetables have a 'dirty' look. The "dirtyness" of Egyptian food is no more than the color of onion skin. Cairene food is not dirty, - it is just ugly - - - - but it tastes great.

Now, finally, a recipe you won't cook but which your students may find interesting. This comes from an inscription he saw on one of his digs, which centred around the Greco/Roman period in Egyptian history. Don't ask me about the units of measure....

Raghif Alsinlyyeh

Begin with 30 rotles of wheat flour. Kneed it with 3.5 rotles of sesame oil then divide it into two parts.

Spread one part on a large copper plate of about four spans in diameter and which has strong handles.

Arrange on the dough three roasted lambs stuffed with chopped meats fried in sesame oil, crushed pistachios, various hot and aromatic spices such as pepper, ginger, cloves, coriander, caraway, cardamom, and pine nuts.

Then sprinkle rose water in which you have infused musk over all.

After that, put on and in between the lambs wherever you find spaces, a score of wild fowl, another score of pullets and fifty small birds.

The fifty small birds may be stuffed with eggs and/or chopped meats.

Then put above them little pastery boxes filled with chopped meats in some and honey and chopped nuts in others.

If you would like to add one lamb more, cut into small morsels, it would not be out of place. The Romans also liked to add fried cheese.

When it is all arranged in the form of a dome, sprinkle again with the rose water and musk mixture.

Cover with the other piece of dough and make sure there is a tight seal so steam does not escape.

Put the whole thing into the top of the oven till the pastery is solid and begins cooking. Then lower the dish in the oven little by little and leave it until the crust is well cooked and takes on a rose red color.

Remove it from the oven and wipe it with a sponge containing even more of the rose water mixture.

"This dish is to be put before kings and wealthy persons when they go hunting far from home or take part in pleasures in far off places: for in this one dish is found great variety, is easy to transport, difficult to break, pleasing to the sight, satisfying to the taste, and keeps hot a very long time." - an ancient description.

Once in a while in Egypt's more isolated and remote locations, it or something similar is still prepared as a wedding or funeral feast.

[hillvalley]

The egg recipe is just what I am looking for. This is so great! A familiar food that is prepared in a different way means a better chance my kids will eat it.

Please please please thank your friend for me.

One question, can I boil the eggs for less than 24 hours? What's the shortest amount of time I can boil them? Would over night work?

Thank you for all of your help. A classroom full of inner city special needs kids are expanding their horizons because of you!

[hillvalley]

I am impressing the hell out of my head teacher with all the info and recipes I have. She thinks I have spent hours and hours researching on the Internet. Not to mention that checking in on eg during the day is officially work related! If she only knew....

[chromedome]

When I got home from work tonight, my friend had already checked this thread and e-mailed me a response for you. The instructions on this link are for a 6hr-to-overnight version:

Hamine recipe

Have fun...

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You're right, btw, about the eye-opening effects of a familiar dish done in an unfamiliar way. When I lived in Vancouver, I once stopped into a little Portugese "greasy spoon" for lunch. Seeing that their special of the day was salt cod and potatoes, that's what I ordered.

I am from Atlantic Canada, the son of a Nova Scotian mother and a Newfoundland father. Back home, salt fish and potatoes is served typically with "scrunchins": salt pork diced small and rendered. The crunchy rendered pork is sprinkled over the fish and potatoes as a garnish, and then the melted fat is drizzled in greater or lesser degree (according to personal taste) over the whole dish. Raw onions are a frequent accompaniment, either fresh-sliced or macerated in vinegar for a while.

At the Portugese restaurant, my salt fish came to me with a generous garnish of black olives, a substantial drizzling of olive oil, and several rings of fresh-sliced onion.

My initial reaction was incredulity (Olives? with salt cod? ....In my own defence, let it be said that I was quite young at the time...). Upon reflection, though, I realized that it really was the same dish. The salty, pungent olives filling in for the crisp, salty pork...the olive oil making a (healthier) alternative to the rendered pork fat...and of course the onions were precisely the same.

That was the time in my life when I began to take food seriously, and this meal was something of a turning point for me.

[zora]

Ooh, I forgot about fiteer--that stuff is good! Especially the sweet ones--the ones I got often had dabs of apricot jam on them as well. The dough is a little chewy, a little flaky...will have to look into the best way to make that...

[hillvalley]

Is it safe to assume the eggs will last a couple of days? I was going to make them tonight and eat them Friday.

Most of my students are pretty adventurous eaters. I wrote about or adventures in eating sushi in my food blog if you are interested.

I think the final menu is going to be the eggs, lavash, pomegranites and shirley temples. We are having a party in the afternoon, so I don't want to load them up too much. Any ideas on what to eat with the lavash? Hummus didn't go over that well and babaganosh probably won't either. What is that blend of spices they use in the middle east? It starts with a Z but I am drawing a blank!

[Pan]

zaatar

[hillvalley]

(smacks self hard on forehead)

Of course!

[hillvalley]

Thank you all for your help. Our Egyptian Feast is officially added to the growing list of "Guess what my students eat?" I would say this is second only to the sushi making.

I should mention that between the full moon earlier in the week, Valentine's Day and my birthday, the room was pretty hyper. It was also the first five day week we have had in a month so by the time Friday came around it felt like we were about to burst.

This is all the most stressful time of the year for teachers. We have two separate reports to write on each kid that run between 10 and 30 pages each, so there is not a lot of teaching going on right now either. It had literally been over a week since I spent all day actually teaching and not working on paper work. I actually missed teaching, even though I work as a teacher.

Friday is my day to run the room. I do morning meeting, Social Studies, Science and the classroom store. The day before I wrote up Daily News in red marker and redesigned the daily star charts that each kid has. They were in red, covered with hearts and teddy bears. On everyone's desk was a Valentine's Day mailbox they had decorated the day before. I was decked from head to toe in different heart jewelry and wearing a bright red sweater. I looked like Valentine's Day. (Did I mention that it was my birthday? ) Exactly the kind of stuff you would expect from an elementary school teacher whose birthday was a holiday. I play my role very well, from the heart pendant my great grandfather gave me great grandmother for her birthday to the tiny heart ring I wear on my pinkie that was my first piece of good everyday jewelry from my grandparents. If you are going to do it, do it right.

I kept our menu simpler than I planned. Friday was a very food centered day. The Egyptian Feast in the morning, icing cupcakes an hour later, pizza for lunch, candy necklace making at our party finished with birthday cupcakes and cookies for me. A few of my kids are very picky eaters. The physically do not like to eat. It hurts or is uncomfortable. Different textures are also a problem. If I pushed them too far early in the day it could get ugly later on. Tears and screams and hitting and spitting do not make for a fun Valentine-Birthday party.

We had 11 hour eggs, lavash, foul and Shirley Temple's. For those of you who read my blog, I had also bought a cucumber to bribe Eric with. I knew he would taste anything for some cucumber and was well prepared to use that information against him in the name of food exploration.

I introduced the eggs, canned foul and lavash right away. I started with the eggs and upon immediate viewing the "I ain't eating that you crazy women" looks started coming from the other side of the desks. "That crazy teacher was making them eat crazy food again." I let a little about the "surprise ending" included soda. Everyone settled down a little bit. I told them they were going to eat a food called fool. They got a little excited again.

Everyone received an egg and a bowl. I left them peeled so that the kids would have to do it. Any time I can throw in a kitchen skill, or fine motor activity such as cracking and peeling I jump at the chance. Throw in a little Daily Living and Occupational Therapy without the little buggars knowing! Three for the planning of one, if you will.

Once the kids saw that the yolk were yellow and started resembling the eggs they recognized, they were more willing to eat. I did the obligatory first bite and proved that I really liked it. This would be a good time to mention that I hate the yolk in hard boiled eggs. I also knew that I didn't eat it, there was not way my students were ever going to try it. Oh the sacrifices you make in the name of education.

They all tried the egg, and the ones who liked them in real life enjoyed them. Once the salt came out a few others were happy. We talked about how in Russia and other countries they dye easter eggs using brown onion peel. I impressed the hell out of one of my co-teachers (who is also a foodie) with the 'oil on top of the water so it doesn't evaporate' trick.

Next was foul. I found a canned version at the local grocery store that was imported from Lebanon. Close enough. Frankly, it looked less than appetizing to me. But many of my students grew up eating southern and Jamaican versions of this dish so for most it was not a big deal. We passed out the lavash and encouraged this kids to use the bread as a scope with the egg and foul. Again I snuck in some OT without their even knowing.

I wasn't very impressed with the foul, but that's probably because it was canned. Other foul I have eaten has tasted much better, but then again I am a food snob. I am interested in trying it out on my own. The kids each ate a small spoon full, which was good enough for me.

We ended with the Shirley Temples. This went over pretty well. Syrup and soda with candied fruit. Kids heaven. Especially when I talked about how this is the drink I order when I eat out in restaurants. Sure I add some vodka but they don't need to know that. The promise of more later at the party kept them happy enough to try and do some real work.

Yet another success, thanks to you. I truly I could not have done it without you. My kids know that I have many friends who helped me learn so I could teach them. They want to know what we are eating next.

Edited February 16, 2004 by hillvalley (log)

[Mayhaw Man]

Your post just finished up my day in a very nice way. Those are some lucky children (and parents) having you for their teacher everyday. Thank you.

Brooks

[Pan]

Thanks for the report. I just can't imagine what it's like to write 10-30-page reports on every kid! You must be exhausted!

[Jason Perlow]

Brilliant. How did you integrate Shirley Temples into their understanding of Egyptian food? did you just say that the coloring was made from Pomegranates?

[hillvalley]

Thanks for all the kind words. I have pictures of the eggs I'll post later.

I explained to the kids that they eat pomegranites in Egypt and the syrup was made out of pomegranite juice. Frankly I think the whole pomegranite thing went over their heads, but it impressed my head teacher, principal, etc.

I left out the part where I was showing off one of my stupid human tricks by tying cherry stems with my tounge. They thought this was the coolest thing they had seen in a couple of hours. In the middle of my demonstration of how to do it, the assisstant director walked in with a few "important visitors". It took some talking to get myself out of that one

[hillvalley]

The eggs a few hours into cooking

The pictures of the eggs 10 hours later is too blurry. Sorry

[hillvalley]

Finished product

[hillvalley]

(I wrote this a few weeks ago but forgot to post it. Sorry!)

Sweet success continues.

At the Eastern Market last weekend I found pomegranates at one of the fruit stands. That was last Sunday.

This week sucked. Between the full moon and what we thought was a major paperwork deadline (5 months of data for eight kids) the entire building was cranky. There was very little learning going on. What teaching occurred was rushed and uncreative. And spring break is a month away.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning I made a left onto Conn. Ave. from my driveway and remembered the pomegranate sitting in my kitchen. Turning around would add at least 15 minutes to my trip and I was already running late. After three mornings in a row I put the damn thing in front of my door as soon as I got home Wednesday. Put my keys on top, just in case.

I was late to work Thursday because my keys were missing. I knew as soon as I turned in my data, I would get my mind back.

Thursday was just a bad day. Deadlines were extended creating more work. Kids forgot how to count pennies. (aaarrrrrgggggg, are you kidding me? can't they forget next week?) Teachers forgot how to use computers. (If I show her how to save one more time I am going to throw her and it out the window.) Tests were not passed. The new kid finally got his first fight over with. Crankiness ruled.

By 10:30 I was going around asking subs in the building to work for me on Friday. Everyone had already beaten me to it. At noon the head teacher remembered her 2:30 parent meeting. That meant she would be leaving at 2. And I had a pomegranate.

I took a deep breath. I threw out a hint during lunch that I had a pomegranate in my bag. I was thinking about sharing, but I hadn't decided yet. Then I went on break.

By the time I returned children were learning, stars were earned and a little happiness found its way into our dungeon. I also learned of the fight while they were at recess.

Three weeks ago, the pomegranate would have been theirs. My boys don't fight. They have learned that good behavior brings surprises. Like pomegranates. And seaweed. And Nuttella.

New kid hadn't figured that out yet. Who cared about a pomegranate anyway? Who knew what it was? Just more crazy stuff they make us eat.

I knew what new boy didn't: that when you ate pomegranate, you got to spit out the seeds. And there were more seeds than a watermelon. There was spitting to do!

Most of you may not have noticed during your watermelon seed spitting contests, but spitting is hard work. You have to breath in, not choke on a small object perfectly designed to lodge in your throat, aim, breath out quickly and land in a predetermined location. For a few of my kids, a nightmare task. Occupational and Speech therapy with spitting! Legitimate spitting!

I have powerful possession of the sole timer in the classroom. That meant theoretically I controlled the length of work sessions. My co teachers figured out we were ending early after the first work session. My higher functioning kids figured it out by the end of the second session. The others figured it out when the first two started whispering. High functioning kid 1 sat down at my table and said, "Where's the pomegranate?" Everyone should get to see a kid figure out that being able to tell time is cool. Eric figured that out Thursday.

The pomegranate was perfect. The juice poured out a brilliant magenta. The perfect first pomegranate color. The seeds were bursting but still firm. It only took a small bite to pop open the juice.

I have one student who has gourmet lunches 3-5 days a week. Salads with grape tomatoes and squash with homemade dressing. Leftover homemade 5 pepper beef stir-fry. Papaya, mango, strawberries. Haven't seen an apple since the fall. Gourmet Guy scoffed in February when a teacher brought in apples for the kids. “These are old apples” he told the class.

I would eat these lunches.

Gourmet Guy knew what a pomegranate was. Since I first mentioned pomegranates a few weeks ago G.G. has declared his love. This kid loved pomegranates. The grown ups were impressed. The rest of my class knew that they could impress us too, if they liked it.

Pomegranate is a real boys fruit. It is juicy and messy. You get to peel and pick. It squirts. Consumption involves spitting. It's got that sweetsour thing going on.

The pomegranate was perfect. The juice poured out a brilliant magenta. The perfect first pomegranate color. The seeds were bursting but still firm. It only took a small bite to pop open the juice.

Tasting the pomegranate took no convincing. They knew New Kid almost blew it. Putting up a fight would be pushing it too far. One kid refused, but he doesn't eat anything anyway. “No pomegranate. No pomegranate. No apple. No grape. No strawberry. Go away ms. hillvalley. Go away.” Another kid tried it but didn't like it. He doesn't like much either, but he'll try anything. You have to pick your battles.

Everyone else immediately declared their love. Eric, who still has not recovered from the tofu, was the first to ask for seconds.

I had saved half for the grownups, incase it didn't go over well. We got one small section. My students inhaled all that was put in front of them and asked for more. They tried biting it like an apple. Eating the seeds one by one. Spitting the seeds. Swallowing the seeds. Popping the seeds with your tongue. Biting down on one seed. Biting down on a lot of seeds. They tried it all, working on coordination and those oral muscles, without every knowing. All this from 'a special treat'.

Now they ask “for the spitting fruit”. And dulce de leche. And sushi. Just wait ‘till they tried vegemite next!

[PakePorkChop]

I don't know if your class is done with this subject, but you may find this article on Mediterranean (North African} cooking in Hawaii to be useful because there are descriptions of various dishes, including Egyptian:

http://www.hawaii.rr.com/leisure/reviews/a...4_cmsrenice.htm

[hillvalley]

Welcome to EG Pake! Thanks for the link.

We have moved on from Egypt and are wrapping up Brazil tomorrow. From there we will spend a short time in Korea and then it is off to Australia.

But like most teachers I am a total packrat when it comes to lesson plans/material. I've printed out the article for future use

By the way, today was the first really warm day of spring. We spent part of the afternoon having a pomegranite seed spitting contest.