Celebrating the Liberation of Libya

The National Transitional Council is about to announce the complete liberation of Libya 8 months after the first demonstrations and exactly 2 months after the capital was freed. Gaddafi's last stronghold and hometown of Sirte has been liberated, as Libyans celebrate the demise of the bizarre and brutal dictator who has ruled us for 42 years. His humiliating last scenes, reminiscent of deaths of Ceausescu and Mussolini, are a fitting end to a man who delighted in televising executions and left the corpses hanging in university campuses and public squares. In some ways building a state of institutions will be much more difficult than the battle against Gaddafi's brigades, but today is a day to honour the martyrs and wounded who sacrificed for a free Libya, it is a day to celebrate. 

Celebrations in Libya mean one thing: Asida, a quick dessert that is made for births and Eid and is traditionally cooked and eaten as soon as possible after receiving good news.

Asida is a cooked dough eaten with honey or date syrup and melted butter. We have a step by step recipe for asida showing how the dough is cooked in water. Asida is an Arabic word and the dish is also known in the Arab Peninsula,  but is in some ways a sweet version of the Amazigh Bazeen which is also a dough of wheat or barley flour cooked in water. 
As soon as the news was announced, we at the Libya Food Blog made this Asida to celebrate the liberation of our country.

Smiley face asida with a Libyan flag.

Libyan Couscous with Fish: Kusksi bil Hoot كسكس بالسمك على الطريقة اليبية

Couscous is an Amazighi dish served throughout North Africa, and there is an enormous variety of sauces and methods of preparation in the region. In Libya the sauce is most often  tomato-based, although with different toppings, there is for example a root vegetable couscous, coucous with dried meat, coucous with busla (onion sauce), couscous with chicken, with chickpeas and raisins, with squid, and with a variety of fish. In seafood coucous, the vegetables are often fried in oil, then added to the tomatoes sauce, in this recipe I have replaced frying with grilling.

Serves 4-6

Steamed Couscous:

500g couscous (ready-cooked variety can also be steamed)

1 cup of hot water + 3 tbspoon olive oil

Stock

1-2 fish heads (washed, gills removed)

1 medium onion, chopped 

1 medium tomato, chopped  

1 cup parsley, chopped

1 teaspoon black pepper, ground cumin

salt, to taste

1 1/2-2 litre boiling water

Vegetable sauce

1 medium onion cut into wings

1 medium size potatoes 

1 medium size aubergine 

1 medium size squash 

1 medium size red bell pepper

1cup cooked/canned chickpeas (or fresh/frozen peas)  

1 can of chopped tomatoes

1 tbspoon tomatoes paste

5 tbspoon olive oil  

1-2 chilli pepper

3-4 garlic cloves

For the Fish and Marinade:

4-6 portions of firm fleshed fish, grouper is the Libyan favourite

4 large cloves garlic

4 tbspoon lemon 

1 chilli pepper chopped 

1 cup chopped celery (optional )

1 teaspoon of each salt and pepper

2 teaspoons cumin

Olive oil to brush the fish before grilling 

Ideally steamed dishes or Imbawakh (an important category in Libyan cuisine) should be cooked in a kaskas, but any pot with a fitted steamer is fine. When steaming couscous you can place a square of cheese-cloth between the pot and steamer as its holes are larger than a kaskas, but from experience even without you will only lose a few grains.

 Put all the ingredients for the stock in the steamer pot. Bring to boil then reduce the heat and cook on medium heat. 

  

Pour 1 cup of hot water and the 3 tbspoon olive oil over the couscous, mix well. Put the couscous in the steamer, then place it above the stock pot. Lightly rake over the top layer only with a spatula a few times during the first steaming, so it gets steamed properly.

Put all the ingredients for the fish marinade in the food-processor, then use this paste to coat the fish from both sides. Cover the fish with cling film and set aside for at least 30 minutes.

                                  

                                    

                                      

Put the fish on a hot tray, grill until golden in colour, and keep warm to serve with the couscous.

After about 45 minutes, the stock will be ready. Remove the steamer and put the couscous in a deep plate,  pour about 5 ladles of hot stock onto the  couscous.

 Mix well, then return the couscous to the steamer for another 45 minutes. Stir lightly thoroughly 2-3 times during the second steaming to break up lumps.

Brush the vegetable generously with olive oil,  place on a pre-heated tray and grill (or fry the vegetables).

Meanwhile, begin preparing the sauce by putting olive oil, chopped onion, chopped chilli and whole garlic cloves in the pot, then stir until they have softened. Add tomato paste and chopped tomatoes, cover  and cook on low heat.

 Remove the vegetables from the grill at this point ( half done), and add to the onion and garlic mix in the pot.

 Add the peas/cooked chickpeas and about 3 ladles of strained fish stock, so the liquid is just about covering the vegatables, and cook for a further 15 minutes.

Remove the couscous from the steamer, add about 2 ladles of sauce from the vegtable sauce pot ( avoid the peas and onion), mix well. Put the couscous in a serving dish, arrange the vegetables above the couscous, spoon some of the remaining sauce around the vegetable.  Serve with the grilled fish and lemon wedges.  

Coucous is usually served in a communal dish in Libya. However if you want to serve couscous on individual plates, a suggested presentation is to arrange the vegetable in the base of a bowl, fill with couscous, spoon some sauce on top, leave for 1 minute and then turn upside down on a flat plate.

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.