Bastirma بسطرمة

I'm back... with Bastirma! The cloudy winter months kept me away from photographing and blogging about food but I assure you it hasn't kept me away from enjoying some great recipes in these last couple of months.

Here I have a very very special recipe.

A little backround about bastirma, it is a cured meat that is popular in Egypt, Lebanon and Armenia, it's supposedly very easy to make because people often make it at home and no special curing ingredients required.

I've only enjoyed this delicacy once in my life when my mother attempted to give it a go in our home in Kurdistan, she asked me to go to the butchers and fetch the leanest piece of meat possible and then she took advantage of the new bedrooms being constructed on the second level of our home where she hung the prepared piece of meat for a number of days.

All I remember was that it was supposed to be very smelly, strong and pungent which is why she hung it upstairs and we all anticipated the day we could taste it.

I have fond memories of having breakfast after dark upstairs on the roof right under the staircase leading up to the high rooftop. We had a lovely spread of cheese, fresh bread and thinly sliced bastirma, it had a unique flavour because the coating of paprika, garlic and fenugreek used to preserve the meat flavored it nicely as well.

A couple of weeks ago I found myself with a piece of tenderloin (purchased at a pretty descent price) so I thought I'd give it a go.

I looked up a lot of recipes, and many of them varied significantly but the I decided to stick with the recipe my mother was taught because it was fairly simple.

I used the following ingredients:

- Beef tenderloin, cut in half and one half used (I would have made the other if I knew it would come out so good!)

- Lots of salt.

- Preservation spices, both ground fenugreek and paprika

- Lots of fresh garlic.

- Butchers twine, needle and scissors

Some kind of dripping tray / rack comes in handy too.

1- The first step is to clean the meat well and then place on a bed of salt (turn to coat both sides well, everything must be covered)

Set in the fridge (I felt it was safer though it's supposed to be able to be preserved without the use of a fridge)

2- the following day I transferred the salted meat to the dripping rack placed inside a tray (meat should still be coated with salt, if not cover the bare areas)

Still set inside the fridge with something heavy on top to weight it down. As the salt began drawing out the liquid I dumped the water/moisture.
I believe I did this for 2 days or so.


3- I removed the meat at this point and rinsed the salt off well then rolled it in a paper towel and weighed it down again for a third day in the fridge.

4- Now it was time to coat and hang it. I used a twine and a needle to push the thread through (not too close to the edge of the meat could tear and fall, so two or three inches down worked)

The coating was made of lot of fresh garlic (grated/rasped into a paste) and then paprika, a bit of dry ground fenugreek and a dash of salt.

Use gloves for the next step because I didn't and my hands smelled for days! (I couldn't even sleep for the entire night after making it because the smell was so strong and triggered my appetite all night long - now I know why they say not to use food or citrus scents in the bedroom)

Wear the gloves and use (boiled and cooled water or distilled water) to make a paste out of the spice/garlic mix then begin to rub it all over the hanging meat (set it in a comfortable place to work, then you can move it somewhere else later)

Cover it all very well, none of the meat should be exposed and the layer should not be too thick or too thin.

At this point I hung it in my kitchen, it smelled for about 24 hours then I couldn't smell it anymore (if you have a place to hang it like a secure garage, balcony or basement, try that, should be a cool well ventilated place)

I hung it for about a week and the coating was very dry at this point.

Once it's ready you can slice it thinly and include a plate on your breakfast, dinner or mezze table with some bread. You could even fry it in some butter/ghee/samna and then fry or scramble eggs with it and enjoy with bread (if it's too salty remove some of the coating, and don't salt your eggs)

I'm extatic that it worked out, my worries were mostly that the meat would rot or something would go terribly wrong but it was so lovely and red on the inside (they say if it turns grey for some reason it's still ok, same taste and should be perfectly fine)

So if you're feeling adventuress enough, give it a go and let me know how you like it :) And if you have an arabic store near you and would like to try some head over there and see if they've got some available to see if you like it before attempting to make it.

I'm sure other cuts of meat can be used, I'm going to try it with a rib eye roast perhaps because it's less expensive.

Roasted Radishes

I discovered that you can roast a radish!

-Radishes (washed and sliced)

-Salt

-Black pepper

-A dash of mustard powder

-A Drizzle of honey

Bake on 425 for 15 minutes or until roasted.

Drizzle with a little more honey and serve!

They took just as quick as asparagus (which I simply dressed with salt, black pepper, olive oil and a squeeze of lemon)

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.

Berry Trifle

Here is one of my all time FAVOURITE desserts, and I think I'm just getting started on how many ways you could customize it.

I bought the cake, just an angel food cake that I sliced into slices and set aside on a plate to dry up a bit (remember it's going to absorb a lot of yummy goodness so didn't want it to get too mushy)

A little homemade custard, chilled.

Homemade whipped cream and lots of berries.

Layer it up.

Cake

Custard

Berries

Whipped cream

Repeat

Repeat again and finally add some berries on top for garnish

It tastes best when it sits a bit so that's what I did, stretched a bit of cling wrap over top and set it in the fridge overnight.

Yumyum!