Mahshi Rice Stuffing
Mahshi Rice Stuffing: Making good mahshi rice stuffing is the starting point to making perfect Mahshi; Egyptian stuffed vegetables.
Month: February 2024
Mahshi
Mahshi is the quintessential feasting food of Egypt. Vegetables stuffed with wonderfully seasoned rice and then braised in delicious stock.
Roasted Red Peppers
Roasted Red Peppers
Roasted Red Peppers is a great tasting side dish capturing the fantastic sweetness of the beautiful ripe bell pepper.
The flavours are concentrated in the roasting process
Roasting concentrates the flavours which are then accentuated by their seasoning.
They’re brilliant as part of a mezze
As I said, roasted red peppers are brilliant in their own right as a side dish or as part of a mezze. But they have so many other uses.
Roasted Red Pepper is great as an extra in a sandwich
They are really good as an extra in a sandwich or on a pizza.
An added bonus in salads
Salads can be given an extra dimension when they are added. They are especially good in warm aubergine salad.
Blitz your roasted red pepper and add them to hummus
Try blitzing them and adding them to hummus or cream cheese – delicious!
Throw them into frittata
Frittata and Shakshuka both benefit from having Roasted Red Pepper thrown into the mix.
Wonderful pasta sauce in minutes
Roasted Red Peppers can make wonderful pasta sauce, in minutes.
More interesting beef stew
Beef stew can take on a completely different look when roasted red peppers are added. It becomes far much more interesting, one example of this is Beef Stew with Red Peppers and Cannelini Beans
Some sauces would be lost with Roasted Red Peppers
For example, they’re an essential ingredient in Harissa Paste.
Muhammara is my favourite – Roasted Red Pepper and Walnut Dip
My personal favourite use for them has to be Roasted Red Pepper and Walnut Dip with pomegranate molasses – Muhammara. I just can’t say how good it is. A real crowd pleaser.
So, let’s have a look at how Roasted Red Peppers are prepared
Ingredients
- 5 large red peppers
- olive oil
- 1tsp white vinegar, cider vinegar or balsamic vinegar
- sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- chilli flakes – optional
- 10 garlic cloves – peeled and sliced – optional
Preheat the oven to the hottest temperature
Method – Here’s how to do it
First prepare the peppers
Cut the peppers in half – top to bottom. Remove the stems and seeds.
Put them on a baking tray
Place them skin side up on a baking tray.
Rub oil onto their skins
Drizzle a little oil into your hand a rub this over the skins of the peppers. This helps with the charing.
Bake until the skins are charred
Bake in the oven for 30 to 40 minutes. By which time the skins should be completely wrinkled, and their skins charred.
Let them sweat
Remove the tray from the oven and immediately cover it tightly with aluminium foil. This allows the peppers to sweat a little and makes removing the skins very easy.
Wait until your red peppers are cool
Allow them to cool for about 15 minutes, or until they are cool enough to handle.
Peel away the skins
Peel away the charred and blackened skins.
Cut into strips
Cut the peppers into broad strips.
Season your roasted red peppers well
Season the peppers with salt, freshly ground pepper, chilli flakes, garlic and a splash of white vinegar.
Store in jars and bathe in oil
Put your roasted red peppers into a jar along with any juices that have collected and the teaspoon of vinegar. Pour the olive oil over the peppers to seal them.
Enjoy your delicious roasted red peppers
Your delicious roasted red peppers are now ready to be enjoyed.
These can be stored in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
I hope this helped and you enjoy the recipe. Let me know which recipes you used them for.
Send me photos. I’ll be really interested to see how you use them.
Lambs Liver
Lambs Liver cooked with onions, peppers and tomatoes Lambs liver cooked with onions, peppers and tomatoes is incredibly popular in Egypt. So much so, that it’s one of the country’s favourite street foods. The liver is cut very small. This means that it cooks in …
Liver in breadcrumbs
Liver in Breadcrumbs : Learn the recipe here. Thin slices of liver are marinated in spices, coated in breadcrumbs and the fried. Delicious!
Um Ali
Um Ali
Um Ali – true comfort food
Um Ali is true comfort food, flaky buttery pastry in a rich and creamy sauce, embellished with nuts, dried fruit and coconut.
The origins of Um Ali
Um Ali translated from Arabic means Ali’s mother. In Egypt parenthood changes your significance for ever. From that point onwards you are no longer called by your own name, instead you become known and referred to as the parent of your first born child (son or daughter). In my case, no one in Egypt ever calls me Susan any more ( well apart from my husband, and my sisters), everyone calls me Um Amir; Um (mother of) Amir (my eldest son). I therefore assumed for years that this recipe was created by a lady known as Um Ali (mother of Ali) – I imagined her to be a homely old lady known for her fabulous home cooking – similar to Mrs Beeton (it turns out she wasn’t a fabulous cook either but that’s a completely different story) or Mrs Bridges, out of ‘Upstairs and Downstairs.’
Instead I was told that she was a high ranking woman who had this made and distributed throughout the area to celebrate the death one of her rivals. Not quite the story I had had in my head.
More recently an alternative story emerged stating that it was in fact created by a completely different character whose surname was in fact O’Mally. She was a red headed Irish temptress and the mistress of one of the khalifas of Egypt, who created this dish one day as a result of a craving for a sweet treat from her homeland; bread and butter pudding.
You choose which fruit and nuts you prefer
Traditional Um Ali has a mix of dried fruit, coconut and nuts in it. The fruit used in this recipe is dried apricots. Sultanas are another alternative which is frequently used and which you could substitute in if you chose. To complement this a little of the sugar, which would normally be used, has been replaced with apricot jam, which emphasises the use of the fruit perfectly .
In this recipe the sauce is enriched using a little cream and egg with the milk, to make an even richer sauce than the average Um Ali, making it extra special. We love it made this way. If you are a traditionalist, however, you are welcome to revert to the old ways.
Ingredients
- 1 pack Ready-Rolled puff pastry
- 2 cups milk
- 2 cups double cream
- 1 egg – beaten
- ¾ cup sugar – plus a little to sprinkle
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 tbsp apricot jam
- ¼ cup dried apricot – chopped
- ½ cup slithered almonds
- ¼ cup desiccated coconut
Method – Let’s make Um Ali
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C
First bake the pastry
Unroll the puff pastry sheets, and lay it on a baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes in the preheated oven until it puffs up and becomes golden brown.
Allow the pastry to cool slightly and then spread the apricot jam over it.
Toast the coconut
Heat a dry (no oil added) frying pan over a high flame. When the pan is hot put the coconut in it and toast it for a few minutes, until it begins to brown slightly.
Break the pastry up & add fruit and nuts
Break the puff pastry into pieces and put them in a large oblong pyrex dish or other oven-proof dish about 20cm x 30cm for baking.
Sprinkle over the chopped apricots, nuts and toasted coconut. Toss them together slightly to mix them evenly.
*Take care not to do this too vigorously otherwise all the fruit and nuts will drop to the bottom of the dish.
Pour over the creamy mix
Mix the milk, cream, egg and sugar together in a bowl.
Pour the milk mix over the pastry mix in the baking dish & sprinkle a little sugar over the top.
Bake your Um Ali
Bake for about 15 minutes in the preheated oven, until the liquid has thickened, the top has browned a little and the sugar sprinkling has crisped up.
Remove your glorious Um Ali from the oven and allow it to stand for 10 minutes before serving. I firmly believe it’s better warm than hot – the flavours shine through much better.
Enjoy
Fancy Um Ali but short on time?
If you’d like to make Um Ali in super quick time, you could follow James Martin’s idea for making bread and butter pudding and try using croissants instead of spending extra time baking puff pastry.
Although this recipe doesn’t fully follow the traditional way of making Um Ali I do hope you’ll try it.
And I hope you’ll love it as much as I do.
Let me know what you think
Macarona Bechamel
Macarona Bechamel – imagine the best Mac & Cheese crossed with a wonderfully rich lasagne – this is Macarona Bechamel.
Spiced Baked Fish
Spiced Baked Fish – Perfectly seasoned to enhance the flavours of the beautifully moist flesh.
Prawns in Spicy Tomato Sauce
Prawns in Spicy Tomato Sauce
The first time I had Prawns in Spicy Tomato Sauce was in a fish restaurant in Fayid, a small fishing town half way up the Suez Canal. It was a side dish as part of a fish mezze. I must admit the idea of having prawns in a tomato sauce didn’t really appeal to me at all, initially. But I was encouraged to try it and that was it, I was totally sold. It was bursting with flavour. The dish was laced with garlic, a dash of lemon and it had a zing of chilli that just made music on my taste buds.
Prawns cook so quickly and yet taste so good.
It’s really quick to prepare this dish, making it great for a mid-week supper to be shared with family and friends for the busy cook. It’s great served with rice or could be served with warm, flat bread to scoop up the sauce.
Ingredients
- 500g king prawns – peeled and de-veined
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 large onions – thinly sliced
- 1 red pepper – cut in half lengthways, de-seeded and sliced into 1cm strips
- 1 green pepper – cut in half lengthways, de-seeded and sliced into 1cm strips
- 8 cloves garlic finely chopped
- 3 large tomatoes – peeled and chopped
- 2 red chilli thinly sliced into rings
- 1 heaped tsp turmeric
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 1 handful fresh coriander leaves chopped
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- serve with lemon wedges
Here’s how to make Prawns in a Spicy Tomato Sauce
First cook the onions and peppers
Heat up a wok or a large sauce pan over a high heat.
Pour in the oil, onions and sliced peppers and fry until the onions take on a golden colour – stir continuously so that they don’t burn.
Make the delicious tomato sauce
Add the garlic and fry for just a minute until they begin to release their wonderful aroma then add the chopped tomatoes, chilli, turmeric and stock. Reduce the heat slightly and continue stirring occasionally as the sauce cooks for a further 3-4 minutes.
Add the prawns and cook for just a couple of minutes
Add the prawns and turn them over in the sauce for a couple of minutes until they take on their glorious pink colour showing they are cooked.
When they turn pink, they’re done
Quickly take the pan off the heat once your prawns are cooked. They’ll become tough if they remain on the heat too long. , and you don’t want that, so make sure that doesn’t happen.
Just before serving your Prawns in a Spicy Tomato Sauce …..
Stir in the chopped coriander, adjust the seasoning with the salt and pepper and your prawns are ready to serve.
This is a fantastic recipe. If you like prawns try them cooked this way for a change. I’m sure you’ll love them.
Let me know what you think.
Lamb with Black-Eyed Beans
Lamb with Black-Eyed Beans. Lamb with black-eyed beans is a wonderfully hearty meal. It’s one of my favourite ways to have lamb. The meat is slow cooked so it’s perfectly tender. The rich tomato sauce is packed with flavour from the herbs and spices and …