This Sunday was the first day of Eidul-Adha, the Day of Sacrifice, when all Muslims celebrate the sacrifice by Abraham of his first born, who was replaced by a ram. This is why Muslims all over the world bring sheep, cows and other animals to be sacrificed in this holy day. In our family the tradition is that the cook used to take the animal to his home one month before that day and feed him properly, since I had imposed a no-kill policy in our house: any animal that would come in will be kept alive with my cats, dogs and/or birds. So on the first day of Eid I would be kept in my room with my pets of course, until everything was done. I was only allowed in the kitchen when my aunts were already busy cooking our brunch, and my grandma had already packaged all the meat that would be distributed to the poor. So it is a meat day. Brunch consisted mainly of all meats from the "support system" as my friend Lana likes to call it: liver, kidneys, hearts, brains etc. Then lunch, served late, about 4 pm, would consist of other cuts of meat and two special Egyptian dishes: Fatta and Molokheya. The first is a combination of bread and rice and the second is our famous green soup. This year, I wanted to make something different, maybe a lasagna or something. It was an uproar in the family: "WHAT? Eidul-Adha without Fatta, are you crazy?" So fatta it is. I should be glad they gave me some kind of flexibility in the choice of the meat that I would serve!
PS: the pictures today were taken by the children, happy to help with the blog!
VEAL NECK IN CLEAR STOCK
It's the easiest way to have delicious veal stock. I bought 3 large pieces of veal neck and asked the butcher to cut each in 3 pieces. Some of the pieces came without bones, so I reserved them to add to the shoulder I was going to roast. The remaining pieces all with the bone in went into a big 8qt pot, full of water and I started to cook them over high heat. Let the pot boil for a while until all the dark bubbles and foam stop coming up. Remove from heat, discard the water, rinse the meat, clean the pot and fill it again with water and return the meat to it. Bring to a boil over high heat. Then add 1 medium onion, whole, 2 tsp ground cardamom, 3 to 4 crystals of mastic and 1 tbsp celery salt. Of course you'll have to add salt and pepper. Cover and let simmer until the meat is tender. Remove it to a serving dish and keep it warm. Use the stock for the other dishes. Just make sure that you fish out the onion and all its parts that will be floating in the stock.
EGYPTIAN FATTA
Why I say Egyptian? Because many countries in the region have their own version of this dish, they add to it other ingredients like yogurt, chicken pieces etc. This is the basic recipe, tweaked of course to make it lighter and tastier. Yes, because you'll be surprised that although I make a very mean fatta, I don't eat it, and always keep some rice for myself on the side! It is basically toasted pita bread, seasoned with garlic and vinegar, covered with a layer of rice. Some like to fry the bread in butter to toast it. You can imagine how heavy it would be, so this is the first step I avoid. They also cook the garlic in butter or ghee, I prefer 1 tbsp of oil. I think it all adds up: a piece of butter here and there, it adds up. You'll need:
6 pocket less pita bread (white or whole wheat as you like)
3 to 4 garlic cloves, depending on the size
1 tbsp dried coriander
2 to 3 tbsp vinegar
1/2 can tomato sauce
Cooked white rice
1 to 2 cups of stock (prepared earlier)
Salt and pepper
1 tbsp Canola oil
With a clean kitchen scissors, cut the bread in strips then in 1 inch squares. Spread them on a baking sheet and toast them in a 375 degree oven til golden brown and crispy. Don't add any butter or oil. Your house will be filled with a delicious aroma from the toasted bread. Remove and let sit at room temperature to harden the bread squares. Transfer the bread to a 2 or 3 inch deep serving dish. The squares should be in 2 layers not more. Get the stock to a boil, and ladle some of it over the bread. Cover the dish to allow it to absorb the liquid. Wait 2 minutes and toss the bread squares to make sure that they have absorbed the liquid. Add some more boiling stock and toss. Cover and let stand. The bread should absorb the liquid, but not to the point where it becomes mushy. Cover and let stand. Crush the garlic (or finely grate it, the idea is not to have big chunks of it) into a small nonstick skillet, add coriander, salt and pepper and 1 tbsp of canola oil. Cook the garlic mixture over medium heat until it browns, about 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from heat and toss with the vinegar. It will bubble, so pour it over the bread, toss and cover it again. In the same skillet, keep some of the garlic mixture, and add to it the tomato sauce. Stir and briefly cook over medium heat while you finish the dish. Now, remove the cover, stir the bread to make sure that the garlic mixture is evenly distributed and start covering the whole dish with cooked rice. Make sure that you don't leave pieces of bread uncovered. I usually try to make it a ratio of 1 bread to 1 and 1/2 rice. Pour the sauce over the rice and spread it to cover most of the dish. Serve immediately. This whole process (starting from the moment you put the bread in the serving dish takes about 8 minutes or so).
EGYPTIAN GREEN SOUP (MOLOKHEYA)
It's the traditional Egyptian dish par excellence. When you say Egyptian food, you mean Molokheya. It's a plant, probably from the mint family (?), that grows up to 3 feet tall. I've seen it grow in the wild in East Africa, in Tanzania, but nowhere else. Back in the day it was a hassle to prepare molokheya: you cut the stems, pick the leaves, rinse them several times, then spread them on a large platter to dry. Then you had to spend a very long time mincing them using the half moon shaped knife with 2 handles going back and forth until the leaves were reduced to almost a pulp. Every kitchen in Egypt had to have this large platter and that special knife. Now I buy it already minced and frozen in 1 lb packages. If you never had molokheya before, you may find its consistency a bit uncommon: when it's cooked, the soup has some viscosity in its texture. But not the kind that would spook you. We grew up eating it, so we never noticed that. And it's very beneficial to your system. You'll need:
1 package (1 lb) of frozen minced molokheya (at Middle Eastern grocery stores, it can be spelled differently depending on the brand, but it's easily recognizable: it comes in a square flat package)
2 or more cups stock
2 to 3 garlic cloves
1 tbsp ground coriander
1 tbsp canola oil
Salt and pepper
The traditional recipe wants you to cook the molokheya in the stock, brown the garlic and coriander in a separate skillet, then toss them into the boiling molokheya. But one day I was cooking with my sister and we were feeling lazy. We didn't want to have to a lot of dishes to clean afterwords, so we decided to skip the skillet part, and cook the garlic directly in the same pot. It came out perfect, much better than the traditional way, probably because we cooked the molokheya with the garlic mixture all the way. So here is what you have to do: grate or crush the garlic over a 3 qt pot, add the coriander and salt and pepper. Add 1 tbsp of oil and cook until it browns. Add the molokheya, still frozen, and add 3 ladles of boiling stock. Stir to defrost the molokheya and you may add another ladle or two of stock. It should not be very soupy or too thick. Reduce the heat and keep stirring until it's all defrosted and boils lightly. Remove from heat and serve. The process will take about 7 to 10 minutes depending on how many packages you are making (I made 3).
VEAL SHOULDER
This is the piece de resistance: I asked the butcher for a part of a leg of veal and he thought I was crazy. He said it will be too big, so he offered me a whole veal shoulder with the bone in. He cut it in slices, but not all the way to keep it in one piece. It was about 10 pounds.Of course my husband objected vehemently, since as usual he tends to eat "with his eyes" first. I reassured him, that with the extra veal neck pieces we'll be fine.
It may seem like a lot of work, but it's very easy. You'll need:
1 whole veal shoulder
3 tbsp frozen onion/garlic mixture
4 to 5 bay leaves
1 tbsp each celery salt and oregano
2 tsp herbes de Provence
1/2 tbsp curry powder
2 tbsp plain yogurt
Salt and pepper
Remove the visible fat from the meat and rub it with the onion/garlic mixture, plus salt and pepper. Mix the other spices and add them to the meat. Add the yogurt and rub everything on the meat, to make sure that it is all covered with the marinade. Cover and let marinate from 2 hours to overnight in the fridge. Cook in a 375 degrees oven covered for 2 hours. Remove the cover and continue cooking for another hour. It will be well browned on one side, turn the meat on the other side and continue cooking for 45 minutes. If the meat is tender and you feel that it would come easily off the bone turn it again, turn off the oven and keep it there until you need to serve it, but not more than 30 minutes. Remove the meat to a serving platter. Don't discard the sauce in the pan, you can use it later as a base for stock, cook with it, or make into gravy.
NOTE: Don't boil the rice, pilaf it. Just cook it for a couple of minutes in oil or butter then add stock or water according to the package directions. We don't want to spoil the whole feast with a tasteless rice!
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