Adventures of an Egyptian Housewife

Cooking is kind of my thing.  I love doing it and I think I'm pretty good at it.  Lasagna, beef wellington,  salted brown butter nutella cookies, cinnamon rolls, you name it I can probably have a half decent go at it.  But Egyptian food is something I haven't quite worked out yet.  I can make a solid fool and a fairly decent messaka but that's about it.  So today I decided that each week I will try to master a different Egyptian dish.  Think Julie and Julia but way less aggressive.  I will also give you the recipes so you can give it a go yourself.

I started today with bisilla bel gazar we sauce tamatam.... peas with carrots and tomato sauce.  Simple enough to be sure I got this project off on a good foot.  This is a delicious thick stew like dish with meat.  I wanted to make it with lamb but the store only had giant hunks of lamb that required deboning and chopping and what not and I am not quite there yet.  So I went with veal cutlets.  I actually made two separate dishes since our friend Matthew is a vegetarian - the one with veal and another with potato. They were both DELICIOUS and super duper easy.  I am not entirely sure what it is supposed to taste like but Mohamed assures me it was done right and it was certainly delicious so I feel pretty good about it.  I asked him if his mom would approve and he assured me that she would.  So without further ado, the recipe that I pieced together from friends' suggestions and a little innerwebs searching:

bisilla bel gazar we tamatam

1 lb veal cutlets

1 lb frozen peas, thawed but not cooked

3 carrots (chopped)

1 big white  onion (chopped)

4 ripe tomatoes

3 T tomato paste

butter or olive oil

water

salt and pepper

1.  Cook the onion in a little butter over low heat until it gets a bit opaque and smells amazing

2.  Add the meat cutlets and cook them until they are brown

3.  Add the peas and chopped carrots and about 1/2 cup water and cook for about 10-15 minutes adding water as needed so that there is always a bit of water at the bottom of the pan

4.  Blend the tomatoes and another 1/2 cup of water until it is a liquid and add this liquid along with the tomato paste to the meat and veggie mix

5.  Add whatever spices you fancy.  I added salt, pepper and an ambiguous blend simply called "meat seasoning"

6.  Cover the pan and cook on low for 20-25 minutes until the sauce is thick almost like a paste that sticks to the meat and veggies

7.  Serve with rice (or whatever)

If you want to make this vegetarian you can substitute potatoes for the meat.  Just cut them into big hunks and boil them until they are soft before adding them to the onions.

(can you believe how gigantic these Egyptian carrots are?!)

The final product