Week 15: Egypt

Egypt was home to one of humanity's great civilizations which lasted more than 3 millennia. During this time they invented many things that are critical to our modern existence including paper, colored inks, deodorant and guyliner. Although they didn't invent beer, the ancient Egyptians were the first drunks to write down how it was made.

Nowadays, Egypt is a growing country on the crossroads between West Asia and Africa. The country is 90% Muslim with Coptic and Christian minorities. Despite a growing economy, the state subsides basic necessities for many people.



Ful Medames is the national dish of Egypt. It is essentially fava beans cooked for a long time with olive oil, onion, parsley, lemon, and tomato. Many recipes include spices, like cumin. We tried cooking dried fava beans, but didn't cook them all day like you are supposed to for this recipe. It wasn't great. Granted, it was our very first attempt ever to cook fava beans, so maybe we did something wrong. The best part was the fried eggs on top (Ful Medames is a breakfast food, typically) and the fluffy and wonderful flat bread Michael made.

Aesh Baladi (Egyptian flatbread)

2 teaspoons dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups flour

Proof the yeast in the warm water. In a separate bowl sift the flour and salt together well then when the yeast is nice and frothy add it to the dry ingredients. Mix and then knead for a few minutes. Raise for 3 hours and then punch down. Divide into 6 equal portions and form into balls. Let these rest for 15 minutes and then press into flat 5 inch circles. Place these on baking sheets and preheat the oven to 400F. Cook for 8 minutes. You can eat them or finish them by putting under a high broiler for 1 minute which browns them nicely.


In addition to the bread, another success was a little Egyptian snack we made:

Gebna Makleyah (oven fried cheese)

1 cup crumbled feta cheese (or traditional Egyptian cheese such as labna or gebna, which we could not find)
2 tablespoons flour
1 egg
black pepper, to taste
lemon wedges

Preheat oven to 400°F. Combine cheese, flour, egg, and pepper in a bowl. Spoon small scoops onto a greased baking sheet. Bake 10 minutes, until golden brown. Serve warm with lemon wedges.

Week 14: Ethopia

Ethiopia is famous for its Olympic distance athletes, rock-hewn churches and as the origin of the Coffee bean. This sounds like a series of facts that we hilariously juxtaposed, but we got it straight out of The Wikipedia. It's inherently hilarious, I guess.

Ethiopia is considered an area of one of the oldest human settlements, if not the oldest, according to some scientific findings. Lucy, discovered in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia's Afar region, is considered the world’s oldest, most complete, and best preserved adult fossil. Crap! Lucy was just on exhibit last month at the Pacific Science Center, but Jean was too distracted by the Muse laser show last time we were there to focus on anything remotely sciencey. They even warned us that Time Was Running Out. Too bad we missed the educational opportunity, but a girl needs to prioritize.

This ancient country, old even before the time of Christ, is called the land of thirteen months of sunshine, (the Ethiopian calendar having twelve months of thirty days and an extra month of five days called Pagume). The climate is balmy and pleasant with rain falling rarely except in the summer months. Sounds delightful! When it is isn't, you know, plagued by famine and celebrity supergroups.

We decided to try our hand at making Ethiopia's national dish, Doro Wot (wot wot!). This is a spicy chicken dish made with a blended spice called berberé. We were fortunate to find the spice blend at Market Spice near Pike Street market. We served the chicken with the Ethiopian flat bread, Injera (like a crepe), and small fresh salad on the side. Traditionally, the meal would be served and eaten on Injera using it as a utensil (attempted with limited success).

Doro Wot
1 lemon
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 large yellow onions; roughly chopped
1 tablespoon garlic; chopped
1 tablespoon fresh ginger root peeled; finely chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons berberé spice mix
1 pound boneless skinless chicken thighs
salt
1 1/4 cup water
4 whole hard boiled eggs

Ahead of time cut the lemon in half and juice into a zip lock bag with the chicken and marinate for a few hours. Melt the butter in skillet and added the chopped onions. Take your time make sure the onions are well caramelized, in our case 25 minutes at medium high heat. Add the ginger and garlic and cook very briefly. Add the berberé and water followed by the chicken. Stir it all up. Cover and reduce to low heat, simmer around 40 minutes. Finally, uncover and raise to medium-high heat. Gently stir it intermittently until the sauce thickens into a gravy.

Note: The original recipe called for twice as much butter and 1 1/2 Tablespoons of berberé. Feel free to add more spice if you want it hotter. You can also add the spice as a condiment.

Injera
1 1/2 cups white flour
1/4 cup wheat flour
1/4 cup cornmeal
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1 3/4 cups warm water

Mix the warm water and the yeast, set aside. Sift together the remaining ingredients. When the yeast is nice and foamy add the water/yeast mixture in small stages to the dry ingredients and stir together. This should be somewhat soupy. Set aside for 1-6 hours in a warm place, we only set aside for 2 hours and it turned out fine. Put it in a blender just before you are going to cook it and thin it with 1/4 to 1/2 cup water. You want a fairly thin batter that will spread evenly on the pan.

Now get a pan nice and hot over medium high heat. Pour just enough batter into the pan to coat it. These will cook very quickly and might not need to be flipped. It will turn out like a rough crepe.

Note: The traditional recipe uses a flour called teff (similar to millet) and the batter is fermented for several days instead of using ready made yeast but we prefer to do everything at the last minute.