During Ramadan, ironically, food is plentiful. Family and friends gather around the dining room table at iftar, partially to indulge in a meal after a day’s fasting, but also to enjoy the company.
While calendars are chockfull of iftar and sohour engagements, it’s also a time for hosting guests. The ordinary pressures of preparing a meal for company are augmented by time pressures of serving the meal – piping hot – precisely as the canon blasts, and satiating a group of very hungry visitors.
The secret to a successful, pressure-free meal is planning.
The first step is to brave the supermarkets. Arm yourself with a shopping list, and hit the supermarket aisles like a battlefield. But above all, remember that the woman slamming her shopping cart into yours – like two goats butting heads – at the corner of every aisle is not out to get you. She’s just as pressured and harassed as you are. So try to don a graceful smile, and rally all your compassion. And, it might be wise to browse through a magazine as you wait in the long, messy queues at the check-out.
Once you get home, shopping bags in hand, you’ve won half the battle. With the right recipes, from here on out it’s smooth sailing.
My weapon of choice in the kitchen during Ramadan is “My Egyptian Grandmother’s Kitchen by Magda Mehdawy. This collection of traditional recipes is made simple with her step-by-step instructions. So armed with the cookbook, I create a menu selection that’s easy to prepare and will appeal to my guests’ tastebuds.
One of the simplest meals is Fattah Al-Lahm (meat fatta) – a whole meal on a single platter. I love it because it takes up a good chunk of the dining room table, and my guests love it because it’s delicious. The combination of textures and flavors is an epicurean delight. The tanginess of the broth meets the subtle spiciness of the meat in the palette.
Mehdawy’s straightforward method is easy to follow, even for a caffeine-deprived amateur chef like myself. Enjoy.
Meat Fatta? Ingredients? 1 kilogram meat (shin or neck recommended)? 2 loaves of stale baladi bread? Salt and pepper? 2 tablespoons ghee (or butter)? 4 cloves of garlic? 2 tablespoons of vinegar? 2 cups of plain rice
Method1. Cook meat by boiling in water to make broth.2. Cut bread into small pieces and season with salt and pepper. Coat with 1 tablespoon ghee and place in a low oven until golden brown and crisp. Arrange in a serving dish. Arrange in a serving dish.3. Pour about 1 cup meat broth over the bread and set aside until broth is absorbed.4. Crush garlic and fry in 1 tablespoon ghee until yellow in color. Add vinegar and ½ cup broth and bring to a boil. Add some of the above sauce to the bread, then cover with rice. Add the remaining vinegar sauce to the rice and sprinkle with pepper.
Serving SuggestionsTo serve, place the boiled meat and soup into one bowl and the fatta (rice and bread) in another serving dish. Another way of serving fatta is to fry the boiled meat pieces in a spoon of ghee, and arrange them around the rice with the broth in a separate bowl.
Published courtesy of The American University in Cairo Press.My Egyptian Grandmother’s KitchenBy Magda MehdawyThe American University in Cairo Press, 2006
