Egyptian Tomato salad

This is a typical Egyptian delicious Salad ,served in many restaurants & made on regular basis in all Egyptian houses.

Chickpeas soup , chickpeas drink , Hummus elsham , Halabesa الحلبسه . حمص الشام

I really don’t know what can I call it exactly ! It’s chickpeas swimming in a delicious spiced soup. You enjoy eating the chickpeas as much as you enjoy drinking its soup. It’s one of the few official winter drinks that are sold in every corner in Egypt specially Cafes , clubs , street carts & of course in every house !

It’s so easy to make , you can add your favourite spices to it , and enjoy your personal taste .

It’s made of dried chickpeas that you have to soak overnight in water ,so as to make it easier in digestion & to take less cooking time. I personally use the precooked chickpeas sold in cans & the outcome is always the same ! using the ready made chickpeas in cans makes it ready in nearly 15 minutes. Just boil in water with tomatoes, onion, garlic, spices and it’s done !

This recipe was featured in my beautiful freind Nisreen's website .

Here’s the very easy recipe that kids too love .

Rice meatballs . Koftit Roz. كفتة الرز

This is a typical Egyptian dish ,made of rice meatballs soaked in delicious Tomatoe Sauce . Rice meatballs with Egyptian rice is one of my favourite dishes , it's so tasty and easy to make , you can eat it with rice or bread , or combine it with potatoes and eat it as a full meal.
It's made of minced beef meat and ground rice . You can either use the blender or kitchen machine to grind rice into a powdered form , or simply use rice flour . Earlier ,there wasn't any rice flour in the market ,so we had to grind rice at home and it was a bit hard because sometimes you can't have the powdered form that you are looking for , now with the presence of rice flour , doing this recipe became easier.

Ingredients :

Egyptian Puff Pastry Pudding ( Um Ali ) . أم علي

Um Ali (or Om Ali ) is a typical authentic Egyptian delicious dessert that kids & adults love !It's made of thin Pastry chips (made of Puff Pastry or Filo ) blended with cream & Milk & Nuts , I'm sure now that you can imagine how it amazingly  tastes ! 

Name Story : 

It literally means " Ali's Mother " ( Ali is an Egyptian Boys' name & Um means Mother ) ! There's a story behind the name (somehow bloody! ) that goes back Hundreds of years into Egyptian History (year 1250 ) during the Era of Ezz Eldin Aybak ,the first of Mamluk Sultans of Egypt. He had two Wives , the first is "Um Ali" & the second was " Shagaret Aldorr" . Shagaret eldorr was roled Egypt for nearly 80 days after her first Husband's ( Elsaleh Negm Eldin Ayoub ) death, as she was a very powerful Woman  . Aybak married her latter , and she forbade him from seeing his first Wife Um Ali and his Son Ali ! Aybak , by time, became more powerful & more aggressive towards his Wife "Shagaret aldorr" ,who prepared to kill him latter & she succeeded . His first Wife "Um Ali" wanted to revenge for her Husband ,so she planned to kill "Shagaret aldorr" by paying for the Palace Guards to kill her by beating her with Wooden Clogs till death ! 

To celebrate her death "Um Ali" ordered to make a dessert & to distribute among all Egyptians & This dessert was "Um Ali" !!

Green Beans Stew . الفاصوليا الخضراء المصريه

Today I will share with you one of My mother's favourite Vegetable recipes . It's was a favourite recipe for her because it's so easy , healthy &  we all like it too :) You can do it with meat , Chicken , or if you are a vegetarian you can also do it with vegetable stock. These day there are lots & lots of Fresh green Beans , so I simply buy them , clean them & cut them into one inch sized pieces , boil them in some salted water for a minute or two an freeze them , I like preparing my own vegetables  ,but I also use the forzen ones ! 

This dish is served with Rice ,or you can also eat it with Bread. Hope you like it & try it & give me your feedbacks :)

Egyptian Semolina Cake. Agyptischer Grieß Kuchen . البسبوسة المصري

This is a very popular and well known Egyptian delicious recipe. It's made of Semolina Flour & soaked with light Sugar Syrup . It's a family favourite specially in the holly month of Ramadan , as it provides us with the Energy needed during fasting :)
I've searched a lot for many recipes & this one is my favourite , it's Sally Foad's recipe ,she's a well known Egyptian Chef . I love this recipe it's really a no fail one !

Ingredients: 

Egyptian Beef Liver . Ägyptische Rinde Leber.

Egyptian Beef Liver recipe is a very popular Liver recipe all around Egypt. It's called "Alexandrian Liver"  , The name is related to the beautiful city of Alexandria in the north of Egypt.
It's sold every where in Egypt, & in many corners in Food Carts , we eat it in Sandwiches with the Egyptian brown bread or in Pita bread, with Tahini Sauce.
It's usually done very spicy, but I prefer it not so spicy because my kids don't bear spicy food :)
Here's the very easy recipe that is done in less than 30 minutes.

Spiced Rice with Chicken Liver and nuts. Gewürzreis mit Hänchen Leber und Magen und Nüße.

This spiced delicious Rice is oneof my mother's amazing recipes that I've always loved as a side dish or a whole meal !
It's delicious & you can do it without the Chicken Liver, Stomach & Heart and Nuts.
You can also remove or add more spices according to your personal taste!

Ingredients:

Stuffed Vine leaves. Gefüllte Weinblätter.

Stuffed Vine leaves is one of my favourite dishes. I don't usually do it a lot as I'm too slow in wrapping the leaves (unlike my Mom who taught me this recipe) , but it's a family favourite & we do it usually in Egypt for Guests as it's a very special & delicious dish.

Here's the recipe that I always use , some people add some cooked Minced meat to the filling, but I personally prefer it only with Rice & Herbs.

Egyptian Fava Brown Beans. Ägyptische Saubohnen (braunebohnen). الفول المصري

Egyptian Fava beans called "Fool" is the most popular breakfast in Egypt. Mostly all Egyptians eat Fool daily or frequently, It's delicious and a very important source of protein ! Its delayed digestion causes a sense of full stomach for a long time ,that's why we depend on "Fool" a lot during our fasting moth "Ramdan" as "sehoor" (The early breakfast before starting fasting).

Fava Beans Carts are every where in the streets of Egypt, there you can find hundreds of people early in the morning having breakfast before going to work. It has the same shape & color always & there you can eat the most delicious Fool ever :) You order it with many many flavours according to your taste.

Egyptian Fattah (Rice-Meat-Bread dish). Ägyptische Fattah .الفتة المصرية

Egyptian Fattah is a traditional Egyptian delicious dish made of Rice, Meat (usually lamb meat) , crispy bread & tomato Sauce. It's the main dish in the fist day of our Islamic feast (Eid-al-adha) amoung every Muslim Family. We do this dish the whole year usually using cow meat, but in the Feast we do it using Lamb meat & It's more delicious.

It's easy & Here's how it's made:

Ingredients: (enough for 4 )

Egyptian Rice stuffed Cabbage. (Ägyptischer) Reis gefüllter Kohl .

This is a traditional Egyptian delicious dish , It's White Cabbage stuffed with Rice with some herbs & some people add some minced meat to the stuffing mixture. The recipe is a bit long but easy. I tried to simplify it as much as I can with pictures (specially for non-Egyptians) , I hope you'll like it!

Ingredients: (for 4-6 persons)

Egyptian Okra (Ägyptische Okra)

Egyptian Okra has always been a favourite recipe to me, It´s so easy & delicious. Usually doe with meat specially lamb meat, but you can also do it with Chicken like this recipe over here. IT´s served with Rice or eaten with the beautiful Egyptian bread (Eish balady).

Ingredients: (serves 4)

400 gm Frozen Okra (the fresh ones are the best ,but I don´t have them here)

1 medium sized onion

5 garlic cloves

1 medium sized green Paprika

3 Table spoons Tomato paste

1 Table spoon Butter

3 cups Chicken stock

Salt & Pepper

1 Lemon





Preparation:

Wash Okras & clean the top & Bottom part of it .
Chop Onion,Garlic & Paprika in a Food processor .
In a pot over high heat, add butter , the onion,garlic, paprika mixture & stir for few moments.
Add the chicken stock, tomato paste, squeeze the lemon & finally add the Okra, stir & wait till it boils then reduce heat & leave for 15 minutes.
Add Salt & Pepper according to taste.

A Tip:
You can decrease the amount of Stock & increase the amount of Tomato paste according to you taste & according to whether you want a thick or runny Sauce.

Zutaten:

400 g gefrorene Okra
1 mittlere große Zwiebel
5 Knoblauchzehe
1 grüner Paprika
3 EL Tomato paste
3 Tassen Hänchen Brühe
Saft von einer Zitrone
1 EL Butter
Salz & Pfeffer

Zubereitung:

Okra tauen & waschen.
Zwiebel,Knoblauch & paprika in einem Zerkleinerer hacken.
In einem Top auf dem Herd (bei hoch hitze) : Butter & die  gehackte Zwiebel,Knoblauch & Paprika geben & rühren (ca. 2 minuten).
Hänchen Brühe, Tomato paste ,Okra & Zitronen saft im Topf geben & bei mittlere Hitze ca. 15 minuten kochen lassen.
Mit Salz & Pfeffer abschmecken.

Egyptian Falafel (Ägyptische Falafel)

This a traditional Egyptian dish, it´s healthy, cheap & very nutrritive. It´s sold in every corner in Cairo & all other Egyptian Cities & it´s a popular breakfast specially in weekends.

Ingredients:

Lentil Soup (Linsensuppe)

One of my favourite soups ever! very easy & when you eat it with bread & Salad it´s considered as a complete healthy meal.

Ingredients: (serves 4)

Koshary

Koshary is a very traditional delicious Egyptian dish, made of brown lentils, rice, pasta, chickpeas & covered with tomato sauce & fried onions.