Libyan Home-made Pasta: Megata/Rishdet Burma مقطع/رشدة برمة

Megata (literally: chopped) is also known as Rishdet Burma in Tripoli - Burma means pot and this is to distinguish it from Rishdet Kaskas, another kind of fresh pasta steamed in a couscous pot. Megata is a Libyan dish of fresh home-made pasta cooked in a tomato-based sauce, often made  with gideed (dried meat). Depending on the region, the dish can include different kinds of additions. In the west Megatat is made with  beans, lentils, fava beans, chickpeas and fenugreek. The eastern method is with coriander, basil and fresh mint. A lighter version of Megata is cooked in milk or buttermilk instead of a tomato-based sauce. There is another variation (which is good for colds) where the pasta itself is made with a mix of thyme and flour, and served in a thyme and olive oil sauce.

Ingredients (serves 6-8)

Dough

6 cups of flour

3 cups of water

1 tsp salt

Sauce 

2 handfuls chopped Gideed (or 500 g cubed fresh beef or lamb)

1/2 cup of oil

1 finely chopped onion

2 finely chopped tomatoes
3 tablespoons tomato paste

3 finely chopped cloves of garlic

1/2 cup lentils

1/2 cup of pre-soaked chickpeas
1/2 cup of dry fava beans

1/2 cup of fresh fava beans
2 fresh hot chillies (optional)

Spices

1 tablespoons fenugreek
1 teaspoon red pepper

2 teaspoons tumeric

1 teaspoon black pepper

Salt to taste (remember that the gideed is salty!)

 

Pour the flour in a deep bowl, add the salt, make a hollow in the center and add the water gradually, until the dough is firm. The dough is meant to be hard. Cover and leave to rest while you make the sauce.

 Stir the gideed in a little oil.

Add the tomato paste, chopped tomato and onion and the spices. Stir on medium heat for a few minutes.

Add the pulses and chickpeas.

 Add the garlic and chillies, then about 1 liter of water to the pot and cover and leave the sauce on medium low heat for around half an hour. Meanwhile return to the dough!

Once the dough has rested, form into a 'loaf' and cut into 'slices'.

Powder each side of each 'slice' with plenty of flour.

If you have a pasta machine, put each piece of dough through the lasagna roller and layer the resulting lengths on top of each other, with a (very generous) dusting of flour in between to prevent sticking.

Cut each length into half and thin out again by putting through the machine for a second time.

The third time, put the dough through the tagliatelle cutter.

If you don't have a pasta machine, use a rolling pin to thin out each piece, then begin chopping from one end into noodles/tagliatelle. I've demonstrated using only one layer, but you should stack four layers with plenty of flour in between then begin chopping.

Add about 1 liter of water to the sauce pot. Bring to boil. Throw the pasta in the pot, a bunch at a time rather than all at once and stir gently. Let it cook for around 20 minutes.

Serve warm with wholemeal bread and lemon wedges.

Libyan Lamb Casserole with Carrots and Green Olives: Tajin Sfinari bil Zaytun طاجن الجزر بالزيتون الأخضر على الطريقة اليبية

Tagine in Libya doesn't refer to the distinctive Morrocan cooking vessels, it just means casserole.

This colourful Tagine is distinctly North African, its combination  of carrots and green olives is popular in the region, and it is similar to an Algerian chicken, preserved lemons and green olives recipe.   The Libyan casserole diffrentiates itself from the latter by its unusual mix of flavourings: caraway (which goes really well with the carrots) is dominant, but without overwhelming the lemon, cinnamon,  harissa and parsley.

Nowadays a Libyan Tajin is usually made by cooking the meat or chicken in a pot and then adding it to the rest of the ingredients in a pyrex dish. The traditional method  uses an ovenproof  clay casserole dish (pictured above) that goes from stove top to oven (they used  to be sent to the neighbourhood bakery).  A Moroccan Tagine or Dutch oven would also make this a one-pot meal.  When I don't have time for slow cooking I use a pressure cooker for the meat in which case this casserole takes about 1 hour cooking time (15 minutes for the lamb and 45 minutes in the oven).

Serves 6
Ingredients

1 kilo veal or lean lamb (deboned and diced into bitesize pieces)
Bone or 1 litre stock

1  kilo carrots sliced diagonally (more surface to absorb the flavour!)

1 medium onion, chopped

1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger (or ground ginger )

2 cinnamon sticks

2 teaspoons caraway seeds
salt and pepper to taste

Handful good quality pitted green olives
1 heaped teaspoon harissa (homemade or commercial)

Before Serving

Olive oil 

 juice of one lemon

1 cup chopped parsley

           Place the onion and spices in the pan with olive oil, and stir on medium heat.

                                                      Add the diced lamb or veal

                               Stirring occasionally until it is evenly browned

                                
Add about one litre water and a bone, or cook in stock. Cover and leave to cook on a medium heat until the meat is just done, at this point the stock should be reduced to about half the amount (concentrated).

Remove the meat from the pot with a slotted spoon and place in an ovenproof dish, cover it with the cooking liquid after straining it through a sieve (fine enough to catch the  caraway seeds)

Add carrots sliced at an angle to the meat and broth, cover tightly with foil or your ovenproof pot lid, and place in the oven for about 45 minutes at  250 °C.

When the carrots are fork tender the lamb should practically melt in your mouth.

Add a teaspoonful of harissa, and mix it in the sauce. Scatter olives on top and place the Tajin in the oven for about 10 minutes without a cover.  When some of the sauce has evaporated and the lamb has browned slightly, remove from the oven. Don't let it dry out!

Add the fresh lemon juice over the Tajin and drizzle generously with olive oil, then garnish with chopped parsley.  Eat with with warm Arabic bread to soak up the sauce.

Mixed Stuffed Vegetables: Tajin Mahshi محشي مشكل

Stuffed cabbage and vine leaves are best cooked on the stove, but Mahshi vegetables like paprika, tomatoes, onions, courgettes and aubergines are easier to make as a casserole. The larger varieties of aubergines and courgettes tend to get  mushy when stewed.

Tajin Mahshi is usually a main meal served, but for guests stuffed vegetables are always just a side dish. Mahshi is a great make-ahead dish, as it tastes even better the next day, and warms up well. You can also prep extra vegetables and stuffing, and freeze both to make it less of a chore next time.

Serves 6

Ingredients

3 Aubergines (ideally small, or cut large ones in half and use the bottom ends)

3 Courgettes (ditto)

3 Firm Tomatoes 

3  small paprika Peppers (preferably the smaller Arabic variety, less sweet and with firmer flesh)

Stuffing:

500g finely chopped lamb (or substitute minced meat)
1 cup finely chopped large onion
1cup finely chopped tomato

2 cups finely chopped parsley

2 cups short-grain rice, pre-soaked for 10 minutes and drained

2 tablespoon tomato paste
1-2 finely chopped chillies (optional)
2 pieces chopped spring onions (optional) 
1/2 cup olive oil

2 tsp salt

1 tsp of each, black pepper, turmeric, ginger,cinnamon

Cooking Liquid
1 tablespoon olive oil
1teaspoon tomato past
1cup boiling water

1 tsp of each salt, black pepper ,ginger, turmeric, cinnamon

 

To core the courgettes and aubergines use the pointed end of a vegetable peeler to hollow out a segment, then hold the peeler in place and rotate the vegetable until you have scraped away almost all the flesh. Remove the tomato pulp with a teaspoon, dice the pulp and add it to the stuffing mix.

Mix all the ingredients for the filling, stuff the vegetables leaving space for the rice to expand (fill to about 3/4). Place the vegetables in an oven-proof dish (one layer only). Line the pot with parsley stems or potato slices before placing the stuffed vegetables in it.

Mix and spoon the cooking liquid over the vegetables, cover with foil and place in the middle of the oven at 250°C for about one hour. Remove the foil and cook for further 15 minutes (until all liquid is absorbed and the Mahshi is slightly browned).

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!