I cooked bamia & served it with crusty baguettes for Hari Raya Haji. This time, I chose the Egyptian-style which is different from the bamia I'm more familiar with. Unlike the Indian-curry version which uses more spices, this one has very little ground cumin & coriander, resulting in a delicious tomato-flavoured meat stew. The cooking method is also different in that instead of solely cooking the dish on the stove, this version also requires cooking in the oven for one & a half hours. My family loves this dish, so I'll definitely be cooking it more often.
Egyptian Bamia
(Lamb/Beef & Okra Casserole)
Ingredients:
1kg boneless stewing lamb or beef (I used beef.)
2 tbsp ghee or butter
1 large onion, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 cup peeled chopped tomatoes
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/2 cup stock or water
1/2 teaspoon sugar
salt and freshly ground black pepper
500g fresh okra
1 tbsp ghee
1 quantity Ta'leya (Refer to recipe below.)
fresh mint leaves (I added.)
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 150–160°C.
- Trim the meat and cut into 3 cm cubes.
- Melt the ghee or butter in a heavy-based saucepan and brown the meat on all sides, adding a single layer of meat to the pan at a time. Transfer to a casserole dish.
- Reduce the heat, add the onion to the pan and fry gently until translucent. Add the cumin, tomatoes, tomato paste and stock and stir well to dissolve the browned sediment.
- Pour the mixture over the lamb or beef. Add the sugar and season with salt and pepper. Cover tightly and bake for 1½ hours.
- To finish the dish, prepare the okra. Dry very well with paper towels or a cloth. Melt the ghee in a frying pan, add the okra and fry over medium heat for 3 minutes, tossing gently.
- Arrange the okra over the stew, then cover and bake for a further 40 minutes, or until the meat is tender.
- Prepare the ta’leya and pour while hot over the okra. Add in mint leaves & stir well.
- Serve from the casserole dish.
TA'LEYA
3-4 cloves garlic
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsps samneh or clarified butter (I used QBB ghee.)
1 tsp ground coriander
pinch of hot chili pepper
I'm linking this post to the Cook-Your-Books event no. 17 hosted by Kitchen Flavours.
Crush garlic with salt in a mortar. Alternatively crush in a garlic press & mix with salt. Heat samneh or butter in a small pan & add garlic. Cook, stirring constantly, until golden brown, remove pan from heat & stir in coriander & pepper. Use while sizzling hot as directed in recipes.
Recipe by Tess Mallos from The Complete Middle Eastern Cookbook.
I'm linking this post to the Cook-Your-Books event no. 17 hosted by Kitchen Flavours.
1 comment:
Hi Faeez,
such a delicious dish! I can see why your family loves it so!
Thanks for linking with CYB!
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