authentic Egyptian recipes
Anise Biscuits Recipe – A Unique and Delicious Treat If you’re looking for a biscuit recipe that’s both unique and incredibly delicious, these homemade anise biscuits are a must-try. They have a warm, aromatic aniseed flavour paired with a rich, sweet, toffee-like date filling, making …
Za’atar with Olive Oil; learn how to make this flavourful dipp in seconds. This authentic Middle Eastern recipe is perfect for mezze, dipping or seasoning.
Serve with warm flat bread!
Atayef – A Traditional Ramadan Delight
Atayef is one of the most beloved and iconic treats enjoyed during Ramadan in Egypt. This delectable dessert can be found on every street corner during the Holy Month, sold fresh from market carts alongside raw kunafa pastry. The sight and scent of atayef being prepared is a cherished part of the Ramadan traditions in Egypt. Making it a must-try dish for anyone looking to embrace Egyptian culinary traditions.
Atayef is best described as a stuffed mini pancake, typically filled with nuts, dried fruits, or cream, then deep-fried until golden brown and drenched in fragrant sugar syrup. For the best taste, always eat atayef fresh, as they lose their crispiness when left for too long.
Atayef is a true taste of Egypt’s Ramadan traditions, bringing families and friends together over a shared love of delicious food. Try this easy recipe and create your own Ramadan memories with every bite!
Mahshi Rice Stuffing: Making good mahshi rice stuffing is the starting point to making perfect Mahshi; Egyptian stuffed vegetables.
Mahshi is the quintessential feasting food of Egypt. Vegetables stuffed with wonderfully seasoned rice and then braised in delicious stock.
Roasted Red Peppers is a great tasting side dish capturing the fantastic sweetness of the beautiful ripe bell pepper.
Roasting concentrates the flavours which are then accentuated by their seasoning.
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.
They are really good as an extra in a sandwich or on a pizza.
Salads can be given an extra dimension when they are added. They are especially good in warm aubergine salad.
Try blitzing them and adding them to hummus or cream cheese – delicious!
Frittata and Shakshuka both benefit from having Roasted Red Pepper thrown into the mix.
Roasted Red Peppers can make wonderful pasta sauce, in minutes.
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
For example, they’re an essential ingredient in Harissa Paste.
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.
Preheat the oven to the hottest temperature
Cut the peppers in half – top to bottom. Remove the stems and seeds.
Place them skin side up on a baking tray.
Drizzle a little oil into your hand a rub this over the skins of the peppers. This helps with the charing.
Bake in the oven for 30 to 40 minutes. By which time the skins should be completely wrinkled, and their skins charred.
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.
Allow them to cool for about 15 minutes, or until they are cool enough to handle.
Peel away the charred and blackened skins.
Cut the peppers into broad strips.
Season the peppers with salt, freshly ground pepper, chilli flakes, garlic and a splash of white vinegar.
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.
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 cooked with onions, peppers and tomatoes is incredibly popular in Egypt. So much so, that it’s one of Egypt’s favourite street foods, packed into a pita bread pocket and drizzled with tahini.
Liver in Breadcrumbs : Learn the recipe here. Thin slices of liver are marinated in spices, coated in breadcrumbs and the fried. Delicious!
Um Ali is true comfort food, flaky buttery pastry in a rich and creamy sauce, embellished with nuts, dried fruit and coconut.
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.
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.
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C
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.
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 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.
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 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.
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 – imagine the best Mac & Cheese crossed with a wonderfully rich lasagne – this is Macarona Bechamel.