Egyptian Ka'k Shortbread Cookie

The perfect Eid cookie! A melt in your mouth buttery shortbread cookie that is PERFECT with turkish coffee or espresso. They look fancy but are super easy to throw together and you can have them ready in a tin for when your guests pop in.

Basic Egyptian Ka'k (shortbread)
Approx. 60 cookies

4 cups flour
50 g powdered sugar + extra for dusting
3/4 tsp baking powder

sprinkle of salt (1/16 tsp)
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tbsp Ka'k essence  (or ground mahlab, which comes from the pit of a cherry giving it that almost almond like essence)



Whisk all of the above.

Add until absorbed:

300 g ghee or clarified butter at room temperature, it's creamy textured (or 1 1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp)

Splash of orange blossom water

Incorporate the milk until dough forms:

40 g milk at room temperature, or add up to 80 g if needed

Mix all together and roll into balls. Use a tbsp sized scoop if you have one and put evenly sized balls of dough onto your baking sheet.

Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat the oven to 180C/ 350F for 22-25 minutes until firm to touch and golden all over. Remove from oven and cool

Lay on a tray or flat surface and dust with powdered sugar using a fine sieve and tapping the edge from a height over the cookies.

Store in a container, these will keep for a very long time.

Quick breakfast

Easiest breakfast that got whipped up out of nothing. I love days like this!

I was going to do a fried egg, but then I saw a tomato from the corner of my eye and I had some homemade pizza sauce in the fridge so I added about 2-3 tbsp of tomato sauce in the pan and began washing the tomato and draining it in the strainer. One of my biggest pet peeves in this world is tomato peel, or maybe it's a phobia because no matter how tiny it is ground up I am pretty sure I'll choke on it.

My kettle just finished boiling so I poured the water over the tomato in the strainer and then began peeling it, peel came off so easily! No blanching necessary.

It was a super ripe tomato so I chopped it up and added it to the skillet.

I couldn't stop there, what about some green pepper!

A few slices of green pepper went in. Cut off a chunk of red onion and thinly sliced that.

Crushed a large garlic clove and threw it in. Sliced up a thick chunk of ginger and nestled it between the tomatoes (can be removed later)

At this point I thought why not spice it up?

A dash of cinnamon, turmeric, black pepper, ground coriander, cumin, paprika, crushed chilli.

Once this simmered and almost dried up I created a nest in the middle of the skillet by pushing the vegetables to the side and then cracked some eggs in the middle. Covered and cook to desired doneness.

Season with salt and a little sprinkling of pepper on the eggs and good to go!
Serve with flat bread and some fresh cilantro (I love cilantro!) and a nice big cup of moroccan mint tea.

Macarona Bachamel

Here's a revision on the beloved "Macarona Bachamel" an Egyptian dish which resembles the Greek Pastitsio very much.

I had some ground beef but wasn't in the mood for lasagne. Macarona bechamel was perfect, also this dish has no cheese in it, only a thick creamy custard! It goes well with salad, and tastes great cold too, a perfect pot luck dish. I baked it in my new Samsung Range :)

Here's my original post for some more details





Macarona Bachamel

Ingredients:

Part 1 - Sauce:

2 tbsp oil

1 lb ground beef

4 tbsp tomato paste (or 3/4 small can)

Salt & black pepper

1/4 tsp cinnamon

Water

In a pot heat the oil and brown the meat, season it with salt & pepper. Add the cinnamon. Stir in the tomato paste and brown it a bit to remove the raw taste. Add enough boiled water to make a sauce like consistency.

Cover and simmer on low for 15-20 mins.

Set aside.

Part 2 - Boiling pasta:

In another pot or the same pot, remove the meat sauce and bring water to a boil.

Add salt.

Boil 3/4 standard package of large pasta (penne or tubes, something big)

Once they are cooked, strain and rinse with cold water to cool them down a bit.

In the meantime prepare a casserole or deep baking dish.

Layer a teeny bit of sauce on the bottom just so the pasta doesn't stick (I removed a bit of the oily off the top of the sauce for this)

Divide the boiled pasta in half, the first half goes into the pan nice and evenly.

Now top with all the sauce you made, nice and evenly.

The last batch of pasta goes over the sauce in an even layer.

Set the casserole aside for now.

Meanwhile preheat the oven to 375-400 F.

Part 3 - Bechamel Sauce:

- Approximately 4 tbsp butter

- Approximately 1/3 cup flour

- Approximately 4 cups milk

- 1 egg

- half a tsp salt

-1/8 tsp nutmeg

In the same pot (cleaned or wiped up) or another pot melt the butter on medium high heat, add the flour and blend it to make a roux. Cook it until it bubbles stirring well so it doesn't burn and immediately add milk (it could be warmed or cold, it works either way)

Stir and stir until it thickens, once it's thick enough to coat the back of a spoon or kinda like warm pudding or custard consistency then remove off the heat.

Add the nutmeg, a dash of salt and while whisking quickly drop the egg you had previously cracked into a bowl and whisk it up really well to incorporate into the sauce. You must do this quickly as the sauce is hot and you don't want the egg to cook in large pieces once it hits the cream sauce so whisk it well.

Pour the cream sauce all over the top of the pasta in the baking dish.

Part 4 - Baking:

Now bake in the preheated oven for 30 mins or until top is browned. After 30 mins if the top isn't browned set it on broil and watch it, it will develop dark brown blisters and then remove it immediately.

Wait for it to cool down before serving as it tastes better that way, also makes GREAT leftovers!! Tastes even better the next day.