Every Thursday here at work someone brings in breakfast. My turn is coming up next week and I’m sick of bagels, donuts and McDonalds so I thought I’d make an authentic Middle Eastern thing. So I asked my wife (half Lebanese) what a traditional breakfast was when she was a child, her response - “cream of wheat”.
I asked her mom (full Lebanese) - same response (she later recommended bastilla, but I don’t like these people that much).
So now I turn to you. I need an interesting breakfast for about 20 people that, hopefully, can be mostly made the night before. Any ideas? (I’ll share my bastilla recipe in exchange)
Local restuarant does a Moroccan breakfast that consists of a small panload of tomato sauce (not Italian-style , more like a heated spicy salsa tomato&onion thingummy) with eggs poached in the sauce. I can see the sauce being done ahead of time, and then the eggs poached there, should be able to do 10 eggs at a time in a larger pan. Serve with pita, humus etc.
I have two favourite Middle Eastern breakfasts - first is lebanese (pita) bread with boiled eggs and halloumi cheese. Most delicatessens should have halloumi. Very tasty and easy to make - all you have to do is hard-boil the eggs!
Second is more Egyptian to my mind, but could also be Lebanese - foul medammas (similar to hummus but made with boiled fava beans instead of chickpeas and not pureed) with lebanese bread - it has a similar effect to baked beans, so watch out for post-prandial flatulence!
Otherwise I know a lot of Lebanese who rave about manakish - which is like a savoury pastry topped with “zaatar” (mix of herbs and spices, including thyme I think) and sesame seeds.
In Saudi Arabia breakfast was some kind of beans and large soft flatbread, sort of somewhere between a tortilla and a pita. I’m a bean fan, and found it quite tasty. No recipe for it, though. Maybe Paul in Saudi could chime in on middle east breakfasts.
I do have an (after the fact) amusing anecdote about a cow-orker being imprisoned in Lebanon on charges of being an Israeli spy back in the late 90s, but we’ll save that for another thread.
Israeli breakfast: Thick slices of whole wheat bread slathered with farmer’s cheese (a plain yogurt would do), topped with chopped tomatoes and cucumbers.
They like to eat fried eggs for breakfast with some kind of pita bread and also hot cereal. Not very exciting. I mean, if your lebanese mother in law doesn’t have any ideas, I don’t think we will.
If there’s one bit of cuisine that we do right in America, it’s breakfast. Even in France, you’re lucky to get a croissant, an egg and some ham. Naturally, they do have great pastries for breakfast but I’d still rather have sausage, eggs and home fries.
Yum… Some good sounding stuff here. Thanks! I might have the menu figured out already, but I’ll change it if something else sounds good. Not really tied to the Middle-eastern theme, so Gambian or Ecuadorian or whatever would be appreciated. Exotic breakfasts for dummies! That’s what I’m looking for.
Sweet manakish, foul medammas, and some eggs with pita (got a hotplate in the lab, so we can do omelets for the Nebraska boys that think bagels are weird). Yeah, this could work…
MIL doesn’t cook, she’s about as Americanized as anyone I’ve ever met - hence the cream-of-wheat, and Siti is 90 something and forgets things. MIL frequently asks me to make baklawa for her parties… About the only Lebanese dish I’ve ever seen her cook is m’jadrah <gack>.
My b’stilla recipe is at home, but I’ll get it posted if anyone cares. I don’t like big chucks of boiled egg, so I scramble an egg in the chicken at the last minute. Also bump up the cinnimon slightly, and use lean chicken breast instead of squib or whole chicken. A little leaner and not as exotic tasting as some.
Ok, here’s Big Bad Bob’s bitchin’ B’stilla (bistilla, bisteeya)
1 package phyllo dough (about a pound, I think they are)
2/3 cup clarified butter
2 egg yolks beaten
3-4 eggs
2 ½ – 3 pounds chicken
~ 1 teaspoon salt
¼ cup olive oil
1-2 teaspoons cinnamon (or a couple of cinnamon sticks)
½ teaspoon ground ginger
1 lb onion finely chopped
3 cloves garlic
2 cups water
½ cup chopped flat leaf parsley
¼ cup chopped cilantro
Put chicken, salt, olive oil, cinnamon, ginger, onions, garlic, and water in large pan. Boil/simmer (kind of halfway between) partially covered for 45 minutes or until the chicken is fully cooked, add beaten eggs and stir (kind of like egg drop soup).
Remove chicken (and cinnamon sticks, if applicable) remove bones from chicken (if applicable) and cut into small pieces.
Add parley and cilantro to pan, cook medium low for 6-10 minutes until liquids completely evaporated.
Preheat oven to 400
In springform pan, arrange 6 overlapping circles of phyllo dough (cut out circles using base of springform pan for template) half in the pan half out, (“like the petals of a flower” the recipe says), then place 2 circles on bottom of pan. Brush the hanging out parts with butter; spread the chicken in bottom, then the onion/herb mix.
(Recipe calls for sliced hard-boiled eggs layered on top instead of scrambling them with the onions)
Cover with 2 circles of phyllo, brush with butter. Fold the hanging sheets over the top, seal with butter.
Remove side of cake pan, arrange 6 more circles of dough, half covering top half hanging off and overlapping, then tuck under. Replace springform side.
Brush top with butter, put another sheet of phyllo on top, then brush top and sides with egg yolk and bake for about 20 minutes.
Carefully remove spring-sides and turn pie over onto baking sheet (or other flat thing) and bake for another 10 minutes.
Remove and carefully turn over onto serving dish and dust top with powdered sugar and cinnamon and eat it all before anyone else gets to it.