Koshari كشرى

This was a request from a follower of the blog.

Kushari is carb-rich spicy comfort food from Egypt, made with layers of rice, pasta and legumes which are topped with a spicy garlic and tomato sauce and garnished with caramelized onions and (optionally) cooked chickpeas. As a vegetarian dish, it has not been popular in Libya, where meat is usually an essential part of every main meal. However, it is a great change for precisely that reason. Note: this is our own version of koshari, a modified recipe!




Ingredients
(serves 4-6)

Sauce:
3 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 cloves minced garlic
2 hot red chilli chopped
3-5 finely chopped ripe tomatoes
1 tablespoon pureed tomatoes
 juice of  1/2 lemon
5 tablespoon vinegar
teaspoon of salt


Koshari:

1 cup brown lentils, washed, cooked in boiling water
1 cups short grain rice, rinsed  and cooked

2 cups elbow pasta

3 tablespoons oil /ghee
3 medium onions thinly sliced 

Stir the chilies, garlic, and tomato paste in hot vegetable oil.

Boil the lentils in 3 cups or so of  water, bring to a boil until lentils are tender.

 

Cook the rice and combine the two.

 

 Cook the pasta and layer on top of the rice and lentils.

  

Caramelize the onions in oil, or preferably, in ghee. If there is any liquid remaining after the onions are done, pour it into the tomato sauce to add to the tang.

Spoon the garlicy tomato sauce over the pasta, and sprinkle the caramelized onions on top.

Serve hot with vinegar and hot sauce as condiments.

Sahlab سحلب

Sahlab is a warming winter drink topped with a generous sprinkling of cinnamon. Libyan sahlab is greenish-grey in colour and and has the distinctive nutty flavour of qsab flour (pearl millet/دخن).

In other Arab countries and the region Sahlab is thickened with powdered orchid tubers or (less traditionally) cornstarch. Like Mahalabia (milk pudding) the drink is flavoured with nuts and flower water.

Ingredients
Serves 3

4 tablespoons pearl millet flour
1 mug cold water
2 mugs boiling water
3 tablespoons sugar

 Mix the pearl millet flour with a mug of water and start stirring it on low heat in a saucepan.

Pour the boiling water over the mix, stirring vigorously, so that lumps do not form.  Stir in the sugar.  Cook over low heat, stirring continuously, until the mixture thickens (5-10 minutes). 

Pour out in a mug and sprinkle with cinnamon. Drink hot!

Rishdat Kaskas - Libyan Home Made Pasta

Rishta or Rishda is a favorite Libyan/North African dish which we here at Libyan Food have received many requests for. Well finally, here it is! Rishda is a fresh pasta of very thin noodles. It is steam cooked in a couscousiere and served with the onion-rich sauce called busla.
Known in Libya as Rishda Imbaukha (steamed rishda) or Rishdat Cascas (couscousiere rishda) it should not be confused with Makaruna Imbaukha (steamed pasta), which is made with dry angel-hair pasta. You can find two different recipes of Makaruna Imbaukha on this blog, here and here.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6 persons

For the pasta:

750 g white flour

1 egg  (beaten)

1 tea spoon salt

200 ml water (enough to make a hard dough)

Base sauce to cook meat:

4-6 lamb meat pieces

1 medium onion finely chopped

3-4 table spoon tomato paste

1 tea spoons each of:

• black pepper
• turmeric
• red chili powder
• ginger
• cinnamon
• 11/2 liter boiling water

Busla/Onion sauce:

4-5 medium onion cut into thin wings

2 cups chick peas soaked over night

1 tea spoon ground cloves

2 sticks cinnamon or 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

                Mix the flour with the egg and salt. Add water gradually till you get a  hard dough.

Knead the dough. On a clean surface sprinkle cornflour under and over the dough, and roll out. 

Cut into strips and put through a pasta machine repeatedly, first to thin out and the second time to produce thin noodles similar to angel hair pasta. 

Put onions, spices, tomato paste and oil at the bottom part of the couscousiere. 

Stir and add the meat till the meat is cooked.

Cook the chickpeas. Slice the onions into rings and add to the sauce.

Place the rishda in the couscousiere and cook uncovered for around 15 minutes. Take down the couscousiere and pour the rishda into a bowl to fluff or separate the noodles to make sure they are not clumping. Put the rishda back in the couscousiere and cook again till fully cooked, around 20 minutes.

Add potatoes and pumpkin to the sauce at the bottom part of the couscousiere.

Take off the rishda, pour into a wide bowl if communal or separate plates. Pour the sauce over the noodles/pasta, and then add the meat and potatoes and pumpkin. 

Green Broad Bean and Artichoke Heart Salad - Salatet Fool Akhdar - مدمس فول أخضر ليبي

This salad is  healthy, easy to put together and bursting with flavour. It is both simple and versatile. The green broad beans can be served warm with rice, or cold as a fresh tasting side dish eaten with bread to soak up the dressing. Leftovers make an excellent packed lunch.  The artichoke hearts are an optional extra which lift the dish to another level. We use frozen green broad beans and frozen artichoke hearts which can be found at middle-eastern grocers.

Serves 6 as side dish, 2 as main

Ingredients

400g green broad beans

6 artichoke hearts

1 red chili

1 green chili

1 garlic clove

Generous drizzle of olive oil 

Salt to taste

Juice of half a Lemon

Boil green broad-beans and artichoke hearts until fork-tender.

Pulse garlic with red and green chilies in the mixer.

Add salt, lemon juice and olive oil to make the dressing.

Drain the beans and artichoke hearts, dice the artichoke, then mix in the dressing while the vegetables are still steaming hot. Serve warm or cold.

Eid al Adha

Hope everyone had a great Eid!

We've been away for a while but we've been working on several posts which are now ready, including, I'm happy to say, the Rishda post. Will post soon.

Cookies Stuffed with Lokum - Kak Halqom - كعك حلقوم

Hope everyone had a great Eid! We had hoped to put up some Eid cookie recipes before the day but it was not to be. This is one of the recipes for cookies we made which was a great favorite with everyone, coming second only to everyone's favorite, magroud! These cookies are soft and crumbly and stuffed with nuggets of unflavored lokum (Turkish Delight) which melt in your mouth. We liked the fact that they look like leaves and preferred them without the traditional powdered sugar coating.

Ingredients

3 to 3and 1/2 cups flour 

1/2 cup orange blossom water

1 cup ghee or melted  butter

1/2 cup oil

1 teaspoon yeast added to1/4 cup warm milk 

2 spoons powdered sugar 

(or melt the sugar in the orange blossom water)

1 tablespoon baking powder

About 400g unflavored  lokum (Turkish Delight)

icing sugar for coating (optional)

Mix all the ingredients for the dough, which should be soft but easy to handle.

Cut the lokum cubes into small pieces.

Make an oval shape, flatten it slightly with a finger, place the piece of lokum inside and roll the edges over.

Smoothen and shape, using the garasa.

 Place them in when the oven has reached a temperature of 220 celsius.

Remove when golden brown and roll in powdered sugar. Or not, as the case may be :)