Pumpkin, Potato and Lamb Stew with Barley Dumplings

This is an alternative presentation which got some Palestinian dinner guests who usually baulked at the traditional version to try Bazeen. Form the bazeen into bite-sized dumplings before pouring the stew over them. Arrange halved boiled eggs and chopped chillies on top, and serve with lemon quarters.

Bazeen بازين

Bazeen, an Amazigh dish most often made from barley, is one of the most distinctive North African dishes. It is a staple in Western Libya, and often served for lunch on Fridays. There are variations on the basic lamb bazeen, serving it with stews featuring camel meat, chicken, squid or broad beans. A favourite winter variation is Bazeen served with Hassa soup made with dried meat (gideed). The most well-known Bazeen is made of a mixture of 3 parts barley flour to 1 part wheat flour. The flour is cooked in salted water to make a hard dough, and then formed into a rounded, smooth dome, with the tomato sauce, potatoes, boiled eggs around it, the mushroom shown in the picture is my addition, not part of the original recipe. An untraditional alternative is to serve bazeen as dumplings in a stew.

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

about 1 kilo meat (preferably shoulder and leg of lamb)

1 large chopped onion

1/2 cup olive oil

3 tbsp tomato paste

1 tbsp fenugreek

1 tbsp tumeric

1 tbsp red chilli 

1 tbsp black pepper

1 tbsp salt

1 large garlic clove

2 chopped fresh green chillies

3-4 medium potatoes peeled and halved

500g pumpkin cut into medium sized cubes (optional)

for the dough

1 kilo barley flour

1/4 kilo plain / wheat flour 

1 tbspoon salt

about 11/2 litre boiling water ( more as needed )

Pour the olive oil in a  pot.

Add the fenugreek, onion and chillies to the pot. Stir and cook until the onion begins to soften.

Add the meat to the pot.

Add the spices and mix.

Add the roughly chopped garlic cloves.

Add tomato paste, mix well.

Add about 1/2 litre of boiling water. Cook on low heat for about 15 minutes then add another litre of boiling water and cook on medium heat  for further 45 minutes 

                 Add potatoes halves, cook on low heat, meanwhile prepare the dough

Mix the barley with the plain flour in a deep bowl.

In a deep pot, pour 1 litre of boiling water and add 1 tbsp salt.

Pour in the barley mix, all at once.

With a wooden spoon, push in the edges, creating an island of flour in the middle of the pot, allowing the water to bubble around it. Do not disturb the flour in the middle. Do not cover the pot.

Stick a wooden spoon in the middle of the island, and move the spoon a little so the water can bubble up inside, then do not disturb. Leave the dough to cook for 45 minutes on medium heat.

Hard-boil 6 eggs.

Test the potatoes. They should be just cooked, firm rather than mushy!  Remove the sauce from heat at this point.

After 45 minutes the dough should be ready. Using the wooden spatula mix well with the water in the pot, you might need to add more hot water to make a medium hard dough. Using the spatula press the dough against the edges of the pot to remove any lumps. The best way to do this is to place the pot in the sink, holding it against a corner with one hand to get a good purchase. 

If you have a machine that will knead bread dough then it will handle bazeen fine, and you will get a smooth ball of dough in minutes. 

Test the dough by pressing it in your fist and checking if it holds together well. Remove the dough from the pot. Place in a large flat serving bowl and knead it to get rid of the lumps, then form into a ball. If there are deep cracks you need to knead it again.

Form the bazeen by placing your palm on the ball and rolling in circular motions around the dish until you have a smooth dome with a flat base.

Press the edges down to make the dough stick to the dish.

Pour the tomato sauce around the dough. Arrange the meat, potatoes, and pumpkin if used. Peel and add the six hardboiled eggs. Bazeen is served with fresh chillies and lemon and is typically eaten in a communal dish, using the right hand.

Libyan Dougnut: Sfinz (سفنز (معجنات مقلية

Sfinz are usually served for Friday breakfasts. Sfinz is a spongy fried bread that can be made plain and eaten with sweet toppings like date molasses and honey, or else fried with an egg. Sfinz doughnuts are also served with afternoon tea. This amount makes about 10-12 sfinz. A great way to use leftover sfinz dough is to bake herb bread.

Makes 10-12 Sfinz
Ingredients
4 cups fine white flour
4 tablespoons olive oil for the dough
4 teaspoons sugar 

2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoon baking powder
One cup warm milk and 1/2 cup warm water (or one and a half cups warm water)
1/2 cup warm water for the yeast
(25g fresh yeast or 1 tablespoon dried yeast + 1 teaspoon sugar)
corn oil for deep frying

To Serve:
Qashta cream
Date syrup
Honey
Kiri cheese

 In a small bowl mix the fresh yeast and sugar, with 1/2 cup warm water, leave in warm place until it becomes frothy

                     Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl, add the yeast  mix.

Add the olive oil and one and a half cup warm water gradually.  Knead well to get a soft consistency dough, which will be easy to spread by hand later. The sfinz dough is soft and sticky dough, so you need well oiled hands to work with it.

Oil your hands, then shape the dough into a large ball and brush it with oil. Cover with a cling film, and leave until the dough has risen, it should be treble its original volume. (Most convenient is to leave it overnight and finish making the Sfinz the next morning)

Knead the dough again so it falls, then leave to rise again. Next we will start to shape the dough.

Oil a tray, and with oiled hands take a handful of dough and squeeze into large egg size, making about 10 sfinz balls. Place the balls on a well oiled surface and cover them with cling film. Leave to rest for 15 minutes.

Oil a dinner plate. put one dough ball in the middle of the plate. Flatten each ball to the same shape as the plate, dipping your hands in oil as needed. The edges should be a bit thicker than the center, like a pizza crust.

Fry in hot oil. If you are making plain sfinz just fry, turn to the other side until both sides are golden brown.

When you fry sfinz, the top side of the sfinz will pop up as soon as it placed in oil. To make egg sfinz flip the sfinz onto the opposite side as soon as it pops up. This side will have a " hollow." You should have an egg in a bowl ready to pour into the hollow.

Push the sfinz down with a spatula and spoon hot oil on top to fry the egg as well. Once the egg has set you can flip to brown the egg side.

Egg sfinz are great rolled up with a slice of cheese, or just plain, and the egg can be hard or runny.

Drizzle plain sfinz with date molasses, or tear off pieces to scoop up Qashta cream or Kiri cheese and honey.

Sfinz is best eaten as soon as possible after frying, but warms up well in the microwave. It also keeps for a day or two in the fridge if stored in an airtight container.

Baked Aubergine and Bell Pepper Stuffed with Lamb - Sheikh El Mahshi شيخ المحشي باذنجان و فلفل حلو

Stuffed vegetables are a feature of Arab Cuisine with innumerable recipes falling under the generic name mahshi, which simply means "stuffed." There are regional variations and even vegetarian versions but the base is a rice and herb stuffing. The exception that proves the rule is sheikh el mahsi, so called because it is richer, stuffed with meat and nuts.

The stuffed vegetables most popular for sheikh el mahsi are aubergine and to a lesser extent zuchinni. In my family there are a few people who don't eat either so we added sweet bell peppers, which work really well with the flavors of this dish. It also makes a variation from the traditional Libyan stuffed bell peppers recipe, filfil mahshi. This adaption of sheik el mahshi combines bell peppers and aubergines filled with a lamb and aubergine mix, then baked in tomato sauce and sprinkled with pine nuts.

Ingredients

2 large eggplants

2  bell peppers (preferably not green)

Filling

1/2 kilo minced meat (or ideally finely chopped lamb)
 about 50g  butter 
1 chopped medium onion
1 cup boiling water
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp dry mint
for decoration
1/2 cup pine nuts (or blanched almond )


Sauce
3-4 tablespoon olive oil 
1 grated garlic clove
1 chilli finely chopped
1 tablespoon tomato paste
4  finely chopped tomatoes (or tin of chopped tomato)
1 teaspoon salt

Partially peel the eggplants ( leaving strips of alternating peel and flesh). Prepare the eggplant and bell peppers by cutting them in half and hollowing them out.

Chop the eggplant hull into cubes and saute.

Put the butter and the minced meat in frying pan cook on medium heat stir occasionally until it releases its own liquid add chopped onions and spices one cup of water cook for 30 minutes. When the mix ready it should be moist. Remove from heat add the fried aubergines to the mix.

Prepare the sauce while the meat is cooking. In a pan fry grated garlic and chilli, add 1 tbs paste and stir. Add 4 fresh tomatoes and put through a food processor.  Leave on medium heat for 10-15 minutes. Place the aubergines and peppers in a deep oven-proof dish. Spoon the meat and aubergine mixture into the eggplant and bell peppers, pour about 2 spoon tomato sauce over each vegetable piece,  use any extra to fill the bottom of the dish.

Cover with foil and bake for about 1/2 hour at 250. Remove the foil and cook for anothr 15 minutes.

Decorate with roasted pine nuts or halved browned almonds. Serve with rice and salad. 

    

Egg Omelette Sandwich, with Cheese, Sundried Tomatoes, Harissa and Olives

The tuna and harissa sandwich is a well established Libyan tradition. Chilli paste (harissa) spices up a plain tuna sandwich into something else, and the two definitely go hand in hand. But that's not the only option. Homemade harissa is delicious spread on fresh barley/wheat bread, and there is a variety of other fillings and toppings. One alternative is harissa (homemade or commercial) with a layer of cheese spread and egg omelette, and sliced homemade sun-dried tomatoes and olives. A drizzle of olive oil on top, and it doesn't feel like too much of a betrayal of the tuna!