In the last ten years The American University in Cairo Press has published several Egyptian cookery books. In 2006, Magda Mehdawy’s English translation of “Matbakh gidatty” (My Egyptian’s Grandmothers’ Kitchen), came out and the same year, John Feeney’s wonderful “Egyptian Soups: Hot and Cold” was also released in the market. A filmmaker, photographer and writer, New Zealand-born John Feeney arrived in Egypt in 1963; he came for a year but he stayed forty years! His love for Egypt: Its vivid colors and flavors come alive in a choice of unique and dazzling soups. The iced soups, made with Egypt’s juiciest and tastiest fruit: cantaloupe, guava and strawberry are simply out of this world and the Desert Truffle soup an everlasting experience.
“Authentic Egyptian Cooking” followed in 2013. The author, Nehal Leheta, shares with us the recipes for traditional Egyptian specialties in the iconic “Abou El Sid,” a restaurant celebrated for its “rich mélange of Egyptian flavors and its unique fusion of cuisine, décor, lighting, and music that conjure an Egypt of the golden age from the 1920s to the 1950s.”
However, I believe that “The Taste of Egypt” which has been published recently is the best Egyptian cookbook I have ever come across. It is written by Dyna Eldaief, an Australian born to Egyptian parents. Her mother is a talented cook and Dyna soon realized that her friends loved the food her mother prepared, especially the sweets.
As she grew up, Dyna was even more appreciative of the flavors and textures of her mother’s Egyptian cooking. However, after she married, she realized that she could not reproduce her mother’s dishes.
“She made them without a recipe. It was then that I decided to write a cookbook, made up of the recipes that my mother cooked for us when I was growing up,” she says.
Dyna recalls in the introduction of the book how challenging it was to put to paper the recipes that her mother had prepared many years without any measurements.
“My mother would say that you work out whether a dish is right by seeing what it looks like, smells like, and tastes like. How could I argue with that? But then again, how could I portray precisely in words a smell or taste that encompassed all her years of cooking experience? ... In practice this often involved many attempts at preparing each dish.”
Dyna’s passion for food and her constant efforts to come up with the best recipe, have contributed to the success of this book.
She has strived hard to concoct recipes that are easy to prepare. Professional cooks often publish books that either lack the proper explanations or are simply too complicated to follow.
I enjoyed the selection of “Snacks and Starters”. “Tahini”, according to Dyna is used “as a tasty, healthy, and dairy-free alternative to butter and margarine on an everyday basis, because tahini is high in calcium and several vitamins including Vitamins E,F, and several of the B-group of vitamins. It is also a richer source of protein than milk, soya beans, sunflower seeds, and most nuts.”
Tahini makes a delicious sauce with a creamy texture and a nutty flavor eaten with fresh or toasted bread, it can also be used as a sauce with fish and ta’miya, which are fried patties made basically with dried broad beans and coriander.
Besides the Tomato and Onion Salad, the Five Bean Salad and the Green Summer Salad, I noticed the presence of a simple but regal Artichoke Salad. This seasonal vegetable, which is an edible thistle, appears on the Egyptian market during the months of March and April. It was considered in Europe the aristocrat of the Renaissance kitchen garden. The monarchs of Europe, from the Medici in Florence, Henry VIII in England to Francois I and his court in France, loved artichokes. Incidentally, King Francois’s daughter-in-law, Catherine de Medici, ate so many artichokes at a wedding in 1575 that she nearly died of indigestion. For this simple but healthy “Artichoke Salad”, Dyna trims off the outer leaves. I prefer to admire the architectural beauty of this vegetable. I enjoy eating it slowly, a leaf at a time dipped in sauce. And when the outer garments have been plucked away, one can still feast on its tender green heart!
Another recipe “Roasted Artichokes in Red Pepper Sauce” makes use of artichokes in a creative manner and it highlights Dyna’s imagination and cooking skills. The Red Pepper Sauce made with tomato sauce, red pepper, basil and onion is poured over the hearts of artichokes filled with minced beef.
Dyna acknowledges that she mixes things up occasionally: “I often don’t plan too far ahead and will use what I have in the fridge or pantry, for example if I don’t have chickpeas for hummus I use butter beans which makes it creamier.”
Kobeba, Howawshi and Ma’saha are among her favorites: “It must be all that butter flavor that I love from Kobeba and Hawawshi. I particularly enjoy the aroma as it builds in the kitchen during cooking. But Ma’saha has a warming of the soul feel for me. Because whenever I even think of it I feel like a child again. Playing in the back yard with cut grass, seeds and leaves making my own “home cooked” food.”
Stuffed Pigeon is a well loved dish in Egypt but it is considered a festive dish and not one you eat on a daily basis. Pigeons are raised in picturesque mud-brick structures covered with holes which you see throughout the country. I have seen pigeons stuffed with rice or green wheat called fireek. Incidentally, fireek is difficult to obtain outside the Middle East and Dyna uses a mixture of both fireek and rice.
One of the most interesting dishes in the book has to be the “Fried Turkey and Apple Kofta,” this creative recipe is a welcome change from the ubiquitous beef or lamb kofta. “The apple is great with the mince because it adds tartness and lends some moisture to the kofta. This kofta is also coated in breadcrumbs which gives it a crunchy coating and makes it a lovely twist on traditional kofta,” explains Dyna.
Molokhiya is one of the most popular dishes in Egypt with Bamya or Okra. This green herb has the properties of okra and it is liked or disliked more for this than for its flavor. In the main course section, you will also find the lesser known Taro or colcassia, known in Egypt as “Ul’as”. There are two ways to prepare this vegetable. You can either cook it with minced beef and tomato sauce, or in a broth with Swiss chard and fresh coriander.
The selection of desserts are “a collection of the sweet things that we ate at home,” says Dyna who is like her mother, a superb pastry cook. Basbousa is a popular cake in Egypt made with semolina and we are treated to four versions of Basbousa including a Dairy-free Basbousa where the milk and yogurt are replaced with soy milk. My favorite sweet is the sweet flaky pastry know as “Fitir” which reminds me of the Breton “Kouign amann”. “
Kouign” is the Breton name for cake and “Amann” means butter. Unlike the Egyptian “Fitir” which does not contain sugar, the Breton “Kouign Amann” is made with layers of butter and sugar folded in a yeast dough.
It has the texture of a croissant with moist layers of dough all encased in a crunchy, caramelized shell and it is worth all its calories! The Egyptian “Fitir” is more versatile and it is traditionally eaten with cheese, or with honey and molasses. Dyna serves her own “Fitir” with berries, whipped cream and icing sugar!
In this book, Dyna gives us more than a taste of Egypt, she shares with us her genuine passion for food and she entices us to discover or re-discover Egyptian cooking: “Egyptian Cuisine for me is like the surprise chocolate in a lava cake. I believe Egyptian food is unique as the final product tastes distinctly different from that of its neighbors.”
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