Day Thirteen - Egypt

'ahlaan! Welcome to Egypt! Recent political strife aside, this is a country that has always been on my bucket list to visit.  I would love to see the Pyramids and the Sphnix, mostly because I still haven't given up on the hope that some sort of Indiana Jones-style adventure could await me there.

I knew nothing about the cuisine of Egypt before doing some research for this month.  I wanted to try something a little different for this country and shy away from meat dishes.  I would use stock, but otherwise I wanted to shoot for a vegetarian style meal. I found what I thought to be quintessential dishes online, and went to work.

Koshary

1 cup lentils
1 cup rice
1/2 box rotini pasta
Cold water to cover
1 can garbanzo beans
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 yellow onion
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 can diced tomatoes with chilis
1/2 cup tomato sauce
3 cups of chicken stock
1 can french-fried onions
Salt and pepper to taste

Koshari is a traditional and popular Egyptian street food.  Everyone has their own recipes, but the foundations are generally the same. After making it, I don't see how this is eaten in the street.  In bowls maybe?  Also, in the hot desert, I wouldn't think this mash of boiled pasta, lentils, and rice would be all that appetizing...

To start, I put the garbanzo beans, vinegar, coriander, cayenne, and cumin in a ziploc bag.  I mixed up the bag and put it in the fridge while I cooked everything else.  I would shake up the bag every 5 minutes or so.

Next, I soaked, then rinsed, then boiled the lentils, rice, and pasta in three separate pots.  For the rice, I first fried it in olive oil for about 5 minutes and then boiled it in the chicken stock.  Each pot took about 20 minutes to boil.

While these three pots boiled, I made a tomato sauce to top the koshary.  I did this by first heating up the olive oil in a saucepan.  I sauteed the garlic and then the onions until the onions were clear.  I then added the can of diced tomatoes and the tomato sauce.

Once the three pots had boiled, I combined the lentils and rice and put them on a plate as the first layer.  I then layered the pasta over the lentils and rice.  I topped all of this with the tomato sauce, and then added the garbanzo beans and french-fried onions on top of that.

Bamya Stew (Orka stew)

1 16 oz. package frozen okra
1 onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tomatoes, finely chopped
1/2 cup chicken broth

To start, I sauteed the onion and garlic in the olive oil until the garlic was browned and the onions were clear (I might have cooked the garlic a little longer than needed).  Then, I added the chopped tomatoes and cooked on medium heat for about 5 minutes.

Next, I added the frozen okra directly to the pan and cooked for about 5 minutes.  I then added the chicken broth, and let it all simmer for 20 minutes.

The result...

...was...eh? Elizabeth and I couldn't figure out why koshary was a thing.  The mix of rice, lentils, and pasta was way too starchy for us.  The sauce had a nice zip to it, and the garbanzo beans will be great on salads.  But neither of us were blown away by this supposed staple of Egyptian cuisine.

The same can be said for the bamya stew.  I've cooked okra and tomatoes and onions as a side before and they have come out way better than this.  When we added the lemon to the soup it helped a lot, but still the base was too thin and runny.  It needed something else to make it a heartier and more fulfilling stew.

Now, I won't immediately say that the cuisine of Egypt is lacking because of course, it could have been the recipes I chose.  It is also highly likely that the cook (that would be me) could have screwed this up royally...but I don't know where I would have.  Regardless, for the purposes of this project, Elizabeth and I both agreed that Egypt has a firm hold on the least favorite tour stop so far.  We still want to visit the Pyramids, but we'll probably pack a lunch from home when we go.