Tomato, Cucumber and Olive Salad with Crab Apples - Salata Arabiya bil Tufah Albaladi سلطة عربية بالتفاح البلدي

There are many varieties of salata arabiya in Libya, unified by tomatoes being the main ingredient. This makes the salad very liquid, perfect for eating with barley bread or zumita paste formed into fingers. This version includes small sour apples (which grow wild in libya).

Serves 4 

Ingredients
6 tomatoes 
2 crab apples, diced
1 medium onion or 4 spring onions, chopped
1 cup chopped parsley and / coriander 
1 cup grated or finely diced  Arab cucumbers


Dressing
6 tomato pulps
1/2 cup olive oil
Salt to taste
Lemon Juice to taste
Topping

1/2 a cup of pitted black olives 
extra crab apple slices
Serving Suggestions
Add canned tuna 
Mix in Barley bread cubes
Eat with Zumita paste formed into fingers
Scoop up with flat bread

Finely chop the parsley, dice the apples and onion, and grate the cucumbers.

Remove the pulp from the 6  tomatoes and set aside. Dice the flesh.

 Place the 6 tomato pulps in the mixer, then add salt to taste and lots of lemon juice.

Mix the chopped ingredients together with the tomato dressing,  Drizzle with olive oil before serving and top with olives.

In the Western mountain region they eat Salata Arabiya with Zumita fingers. Zumita is made mainly from barley which is first roasted and then ground to a powder.  Mixed with water and olive oil it makes a nutritious paste.

Adding tuna and bite-size bread pieces makes Salata Arabiya a full meal, often eaten for lunch especially in  hot summer days.

Fried Cauliflower with a Cumin Batter and Minced-Meat Filling - Mbatan Kronb Alzahra مبطن كرنب الزهرة

Mbatan Kronb is a delicious side dish, with cumin flavoured batter and a minced meat filling lifting it above plain fried cauliflower. It is a traditional variation on the more famous Libyan recipe of meat-filled potato wedges which are referred to simply as Mbatan.

This type of Mbatan uses cauliflower florets instead of potatoes, and the minced meat and parsley filling is flavored with cumin. The stuffed cauliflower floret is dipped in a thick cumin batter and then fried until golden. This stuffed cauliflower Mbatan is also served as a Main meal with noodle rice: after frying the cauliflower florets place them in an oven proof dish, add tomato sauce and bake for 20 minutes.

Serves 4-6
Ingredients:
1 medium cauliflower 
vegetable Oil for deep frying


Filling
500g minced lamb
1  cups parsley, finely chopped
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp butter/ samn ( clarified butter or ghee )
2tbspoon bread crumbs
2 tspoon spices mix
1 tspoon black pepper
1 tbspoon salt
1  egg
Batter mix
3 tbspoon plain flour
3 tbsp water
2 larg eggs
1 large garlic clove very finely grated  
2 teaspoons cumin
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

Prepare the stuffing. Put 2 tbs butter in the frying pan, add the minced meat and cook on medium heat. Do not cover and stir occasionally until it releases its own liquid, when the minced meat has dried add a cup of hot water half the amount of the chopped onion,all the spices cover and cook on  medium  heat until all the liquid is absorbed . Reduce the heat add the remaining amount of the onion and all the amount of parsley. Cook for another 5 minutes. Remove from the heat, when it get cold, break in one egg and 2tbspoon bread crumbs and mix well.

Prepare the batter mix. Beat two eggs with  of flour, grated garlic cloves a pinch of salt , 2 tsp cumin, baking powder and the 4 table spoons of water to make a thick batter.

   

Using a sharp paring knife separate the cauliflower into florets. Select the large florets and parboil them (half cooked), then leave to cool. Make an incision in the middle of each compact floret, creating a place for the stuffing but leaving the base intact. You don't need to make a cut when you have several small florets loosely attached to a single stem, just fill the 'hollows'.

Stuff with the meat mixture, pressing firmly into place.

Dip 'head first' in a bowl of flour to cover just the filling, then place in the cumin batter and spoon it over the whole floret, ensuring that it is well coated. Lift up the floret with a spoon to hold the stuffing in place, and place in the hot oil.

Fry in batches.always start with the filling side downward then turn to fry all sides 

Remove the florets when golden brown, drain excess oil.

The meat filling inside.

Mbatan Kronb served as aside dish or you can put it in an oven proof dish, add tomato sauce and bake for 15 minutes and serve as a main with noodle rice

Lentil Soup With Fried Onions: Hasa Adas حساء عدس

Hasa adas  is a thick lentil soup flavored with cumin and topped with caramelized onion wings, fried until crisp and extra sweet. The same soup ( sometimes made with dried meat) is poured as a sauce over a layer of toasted Arabic bread to make a warming winter comfort food called fattat adas. 

Serves 4
Ingredients:

2 cups orange lentils (washed and drained)

5 cups water
2 garlic cloves
1 medium carrot, chopped
1 chopped onion
1 chopped tomatoes
1/2 - 1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon salt


Fried Onions
2 medium onions, chopped into wings
oil for frying


For Topping
Extra cumin
Toasted or fried bread (cut into cubes, or triangles for flat bread)

Wash and drain lentils, wash and cut the carrot, chop tomatoes and onion.

        Put the onion, tomatoes, carrot,  lentils, garlic cloves, salt and cumin in a pot.  

Add about 5 cups of boiling water. Cook, until the lentils become mushy. 

Leave to cool, puree, add boiling water to desired thickness, stir well. 

Chop 2 onions into thin wings, fry in a little olive oil or butter, stirring constantly until dark brown. 

When serving add a squeeze lemon and a sprinkle of cumin to each bowl then top with a tablespoon of fried onions. Place a handful of toasted bread in the soup bowl before ladling on the soup, to turn it into a more filling meal.

Arab Rice with Noodles: Ruz bil She'reya رز بالشعرية

Ruz bil She'reya is plain white rice mixed with golden-brown noodles. In most Arab countries this is the typical way rice is made when served as an accompaniment (e.g with stew or casserole). Ruz bil She'reya is also eaten liwith just yougurt (plain or with cucumber and mint) as a light meal.

Ingredients
Serves 4

1/2 cup She'reya  (vermicelli pasta)

50g butter and 2 tbspoon oil
11/2 tablespoon salt

3 cups rice washed and drained (ideally soaked for 10 minutes before cooking )

water according to the instruction on the package

On a medium heat, put the butter, oil and pasta  in a pot stir and cook until golden-brown, then add the washed and drained rice and stir well to coat in oil. Cover with boiling water, the water level should be about one fingers above the rice

.

Boil then reduce the heat when the water  reaches the level of the rice. Cover and leave to cook for about half an hour (if the rice was soaked, the cooking time should be less).

Chard/Spinach Stew - Tabikhet Silq/Sabanikh طبيخة ورق السلق / طبيخة السبانخ

Tabikhet Silq is a flavorful stew and a staple of Libyan home cooking. Tabikhet Silq is made with chicken or meat. It can be served with rice, but is most often eaten with bread, which makes Tabikhet Silq an easy one-pot meal. Chard can be replaced with spinach for Tabikhet Sabanikh. Both the Chard and Spinach recipes use a little rice to thickens the stew.

Serves 6

Ingredients
6 portions of chicken/red meat (or omit and add 2 vegetable stock cubes with the spices)

1 chopped large tomato
2 tablespoons chopped onions
1/2 cup short grain rice
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 cup chopped coriander leaves
2/3 garlic cloves
Chard or spinach, roughly chopped

Place the skinned chicken at the bottom, then add the spices, onion, chopped tomato, tomato paste and 1 cup pureed or canned tomato. Stir then leave covered on medium heat for about 15 minutes.

When the chicken has begun to cook and the rest of the ingredients have combined into a sauce, add the rice and mix well (you don't want it all at the bottom).

Whizz the coriander and garlic in the mixer, add it to the pot.

Once the chicken is cooked add the chard (or spinach). Lay the swiss chard leaves on top of each other and chop widthwise into broad strips. Some people like to remove the stems first.

Fill the pot to the brim with chard (or spinach) pressing down. Once the leaves wilt stir to coat in the sauce then leave for 10-15 minutes.

Leave the chicken whole or debone then return to the pot, Serve with bread or noddle rice.

Sufra Dayma!

Herbed Rice with Coriander Seeds and Fish Fillets in a Cumin Marinade: Ruz Hoot bil Kusbur رز مع السمك

Ruz bil Kusbur is a strongly flavored rice with herbs and tomatoes, studded with crunchy coriander seeds. It is served with seafood, and traditionally cooked in a stock made from fish heads. The typical Libyan marinade for fish is based on cumin and garlic, sometimes with the addition of chillies. It is used for grilled and baked fish; but also to add zing to fried fish fillets, as in this recipe.

Despite Libya having one of the longest coastlines on the Mediterranean, with the majority of the population living in the coastal areas, lamb and chicken based dishes dominate the cuisine. Seafood is eaten regularly though, some favorite recipes being Haraimi (fish poached in a spicy tomato sauce), baked Faruj (grouper), stuffed squid, and small fried fish with potato stuffing (Mubattan Kawali). While sometimes eaten with bread, these seafood dishes are more often accompanied by Ruz  bil Hoot.

Serves 4-6

Herbed Rice with Coriander Seeds
3 cups short grain rice washed and well drained
about 6 cups hot fish stock (or 2 fish stock cubes dissolved in 6 cups hot water )
5 tbspoons corn oil 
1/2 cup finely chopped celery
1/2 cup finely chopped parsley
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup finely chopped tomatoes
1 finely chopped chili peppers
2-3 garlic cloves, grated
1 tablespoon grated ginger root
1-2 tablespoons pan roasted coriander seeds
1 teaspoon of each, cumin,black pepper, paprika
2 tablespoons salt

Libyan Cumin and Garlic Marinated Fried Fish

6 White fish fillets (any kind)
vegetable oil for deep frying  

Marinade (also used for whole grilled or baked fish)
3-4 garlic clove, finely grated
1 tablespoon cumin
1 finely chopped chili pepper (optional)
Salt and Pepper
Juice of half a lemon


for fish coating 
5 tbspoon white flour  
5 tbspoons fine breadcrumbs

2-3 tbspoons water  

2 eggs

Combine all the ingredients for the marinade, put in food processor until it becomes a smooth paste, coat the fillets and set aside while you start cooking the rice. 

Put the oil in a thick base pot, add the chopped  ingredients, stir for a few minutes, and leave  to cook on low heat until the onion soften.

Meanwhile roast the coriander in a frying pan, preferably just before adding. Some like to grind them first, but whole coriander seeds give a nutty texture to the dish.

 Add the rice, the remaining spices, stir well and add the fish stock (or crumble stock cubes and add hot water). The stock should be about 2 fingers above the level of the rice. Leave on moderate heat until evaporated to just above the level of the rice, stir well, cover and leave on low heat for approx. half an hour.

Meanwhile, start frying the fish. Whisk the egg with 3tbspoon water, dip each fillet first in the egg mix, then coat both sides with flour and breadcrumbs mix, then deep fry in batches until golden in colour, place on kitchen towel to absorb excess oil.

Put the rice in serving plate, top with the fish fillets. Serve with haraymi sauce and lemon wedges