Kobeba (pronounced Ko-beh-buh) or Kibbeh, is a classic Middle Eastern dish consisting of a filling of ground beef surrounded by layers of ground beef and cracked bulgur wheat mixture. It is very commonly found in single-serve preparations shaped into conical, fried, meatballs but I like more baked in a tray (saneya in Arabic).
Author: Marisa Lopez Chicote
Kobeba (pronounced Ko-beh-buh) or Kibbeh, is a classic Middle Eastern dish consisting of a filling of ground beef surrounded by layers of ground beef and cracked bulgur wheat mixture. It is very commonly found in single-serve preparations shaped into conical, fried, meatballs but I like more baked in a tray (saneya in Arabic).
Ingredients
For the kobeba crust:
2 cups burghul
500g minced lamb or beef
1 medium onion finely chopped
1 tsp mixed spices Boharat
1 tsp mixed herbs parsley and coriander
1 tsp cumin powder
A pinch of chilli
1/2 glass water
For the filling:
200g minced lamb or beef
1 tbs olive oil
1 medium onion finely chopped
1 tbs pine nuts or another nut I use cashew or almonds
1 tsp mixed spices boharat
Salt & pepper
Elaboration:
Place bulgur in a large bowl, cover with hot tap water for 20-30 minutes. Drain the bulgur in a sieve or squeeze the water out.
To do the crust: Puree onions in a food processor. Add minced meat, salt, all spices and bulgur and mix.
To do the filling: add 1 tablespoon of oil, butter or ghee in a pan on medium heat. Add minced onion and garlic until they turn golden. Then add minced meat and all spice and cook for around 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease baking tray or large pyrex.
Take half of the meat crust and spread evenly on the greased baking tray.
Add kobeba meat filling and spread over the crust without reaching the edges. Spread raisins and some of the pine nuts over the filling.
Add one more layer of the crust meat on top.
With a sharp knife cut the meat into squares or diamond shapes, and add one or two pine nuts on each diamond.
Place it in the oven and bake for 45-50 minutes or until golden brown on top and cooked all the way through.
Serve hot with yoghurt salad.
About the Author: Marisa Lopez Chicote is an event planner and mother of 5, living in Cairo and Muslim since 1985, alhamdullah. She loves travelling and cooking.
Today we are going to talk about the bachelor party (henna) and the wedding party (farah).
3IMA
Before entering these two points, I would like to comment on something important in the days before the wedding. The bride takes all her belongings to her future new home, then a civil contract is made called 3ima where the bride details point by point all the furniture and furnishings that are in the house, including the shabka, whether she bought them or not and the groom, once completed, has to sign it. This serves so that in case of divorce, she can take everything without problems.
HENNA PARTY
The henna party takes place the night before the wedding or sometimes a couple of nights before and is technically what in Spain is known as a bachelor party. The women of the family meet at the bride’s house, where they bring a woman to paint the henna to the bride, if she wants or any of the guests. Of course with food and music and dancing. Henna parties for me are much more fun than weddings.
For their side, the groom and his male friends and relatives meet at the groom’s house also to eat and dance as well.
WEDDING PARTY (FARAH)
And finally the big day that every Egyptian woman has been waiting for since she was little, her wedding day.
The day starts early in the beauty salon with waxing sessions, Turkish bath and massage.
Some brides do their hair and make-up in the same salon and already dress there and the groom picks them up in a car decorated for the occasion and then they go to the photo session in a studio or in some historical places, styled in the Baron’s Palace. , Citadel etc All this accompanied by family and friends of the couple.
Other brides hire a room in the place where the wedding is to be held and they dress, do their hair and do their makeup there and then they do the photo session.
Once the photo session is over, the bride and groom and their cortege go to the room where the celebration will take place. Upon arrival, a folk group called Zaffa will receive them with music and will accompany them to the kosha where they will be seated during the wedding. He brings them a drink called sharbat and it is a kind of super sweet grenadine.
Family and friends of course will take photos with the couple and the music and dance will begin. In case the marriage contract has not been signed, it will be done at this time.
Something that caught my attention in Egyptian weddings is that the food is served last and is mostly buffet, which is completely different in Spain that the banquet comes first and is served and the dance is later.
At this point in the wedding, the mother of the groom shows the shabka to the guests and the groom puts it back on the bride. Before opening the banquet, the cake is brought and the bride and groom cut it and feed each other.
The shows during weddings differ according to the budget of each one and their social and religious level. Some put on music and people dance joyfully to the songs.
Once the buffet is open, and everyone has dinner, the bride and groom head to their new home to spend the wedding night accompanied by their procession.
At home, the mother of the bride will have prepared a tray with food. When my daughter got married, I prepared stuffed pigeons, pasta with béchamel, soup, kofta and roast chicken and kakh el arousa which are stuffed cookies and covered with sugar. I also left them chocolates and sable pastries to offer to the guests the next day.
The next day, it is called sabaheya and the couple begin to receive visits in the afternoon from their families and friends to give them gifts and congratulations.
Normally the next day the bride and groom usually go out for the honeymoon, shahar el 3sal.
About the Author: Marisa Lopez Chicote is an event planner and mother of 5, living in Cairo and Muslim since 1985 alhamdullah. I love travelling and cooking.
When I first tried Egyptian bisara, I thought that it was a ta3meya soup, because it has the same taste. This dish was the star dish of my MIL Allah yerhamaha. It is a simple but very nutritive dish full of flavour and perfect for vegetarians.
Author: Marisa Lopez
When I first tried Egyptian bisara, I thought that it was a ta3meya soup, because it has the same taste. This dish was the star dish of my MIL Allah yerhamaha. It is a simple but very nutritive dish full of flavour and perfect for vegetarians.
1 cup peeled and split fava beans, soaked in water for 1 hour (foul mashus).
1/2 cup fresh parsley, coarsely chopped.
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, coarsely chopped.
1/4 cup fresh dill, coarsely chopped.
1 onion, quartered.
3 garlic cloves.
1 teaspoon ground cumin.
1 teaspoon salt at your taste
2-3 cups water.
1 onion chopped.
1/4 cup olive oil for frying onion.
More cumin, salt and black pepper to taste for final seasoning.
Elaboration:
In a deep pot over medium high heat add soaked and drained beans, onion, garlic and fresh herbs.
Add the cumin, salt then pour in water to cover.
Bring everything to a boil then simmer stirring occasionally. If it soaked up all the water feel free to add more, half a cup at a time.
Keep cooking until the beans are very tender.
Using your hand blender or an ordinary blender blend all the ingredients together until very smooth.
Pour back into the pot and boil again.
Check seasonings adding more salt, cumin and black pepper to taste.
In a non stick skillet brown onions in some olive oil.
Pour the Bissara mixture in serving plates and garnish with browned onions. Serve hot or cold.
About the Author: Marisa Lopez Chicote is an event planner and mother of 5, living in Cairo and Muslim since 1985, alhamdullah. She loves travelling and cooking.
The Egyptian custom is that the bride dances only with the groom and with the women and the groom with her and with the men. They do not usually mix genders during the dance although they are in the same space but each one in a different circle.
Author. Marisa Lopez Chicote
As I promised you yesterday, we are going to complete a little more the post about the couple relations of the Egyptian Muslim community that is 90% of the total population of Egypt.
Yesterday, we talked that during the official proposal to the bride, the date of the engagement party is set.
ENGAGEMENT PARTY (KHOTUBA)
The courtship of the new couple is made official with an engagement party whose cost is borne by the bride and her family depending on the economic and social level of the couple, it can be done at the bride’s home or in a hotel , or a boat on the Nile or in one of the many places where events of this type are held.
During the party, the groom puts on the bride the shabka that they will have previously bought with the bride for the agreed cost. Shabka should have also the engagement ring that was given during the courtship (as an inheritance of the Anglo-Saxon colonization). Thee engagement ring is put it on the right hand and changed to the left on the wedding day. Unlike in my country Spain, we wear in the left hand during the engagement period.
At the party, the bride and groom, very well dressed for the occasion, sit on decorated chairs called koshas on a small stage and people come to congratulate them and take pictures with them. Only the family is usually invited to the khotuba party and it may include friends of the bride and groom.
During the party, food and refreshments are served and above all, people dance.
The Egyptian custom is that the bride dances only with the groom and with the women and the groom with her and with the men. They do not usually mix genders during the dance although they are in the same space but each one in a different circle.
After this party, the bride and groom are officially engaged to marry and in a certain period that varies according to various factors, especially the economic one, since the groom has to contribute many things and does not always have money to do so and the bride also has to buy everything that has been left and also there is not always so much money available and it takes time
Sadly and in recent times, many people get into loans that they cannot pay later, to prepare the marriages of their children and end up in jail.
Egyptians are not like us, Europeans, who can marry four pieces of furniture from IKEA and then little by little buy the rest between the two of them. They especially want to marry with everything put down to the smallest detail and that costs a lot of money that most of the population do not have.
Many mothers start buying their daughters’ trousseau since their daughter’s birth.
The average courtship is one to two years and during this time the couple, depending on the level of conservatism of their parents, go out alone or accompanied and visit as a family.
All this of course without any physical relationship (in most cases) since in Egyptian society marrying a virgin is still an important value.
KATB THE KETAB
This is literally registering the marriage and it is the religious marriage with a mazoon who also registers the marriage in the civil registry.
This marriage is only valid between couples, both are Egyptians. For mixed couples, the only legal marriage is in the Ministry of Justice.
Kabt el ketab normally is celebrated in a mosque but currently a lot couples do on the same day with the wedding party to save money.
The ceremony of the katb ketab day:
The mazoon invitedpeople toarrive before the bride and groom. They are usually offered chocolate, juices andsweets. As soon as the couple arrives, the atmosphere is filled with sounds of zagaro ts –sounds women do with their tongues in weddings and such celebrations to express happiness. It’s literally like saying “lulululy!” Yes, it’s a little funny. After that, the couple, their fathers and the mazoon ( marriage officiant) sit together on a table. The couple begins to repeat vows after the officiant and then sign the marriage contract. Their fathers also sign as witnesses on their marriage. Then everyone prays for them and tells them alf mabrouk ( congratulations ). At this point, the couple is officially married but most of the couples do not begin life together until the wedding is celebrated (Farah) or also known as the night of the entrance (the dohla) or the big night (the leila el kibira )
A wedding picture of one of the numerous couples who met through the Amirazz Matrimonial Service (Egypt)
Tomorrow we continue with the henna night and talking about farah and all its customs
About the Author: Marisa Lopez Chicote is an event planner and mother of 5, living in Cairo and Muslim since 1985, alhamdullah. She loves travelling and cooking.
How do people relate and know each other and what are the social norms and customs that are followed in Egypt for two people prior to the eventual marriage ?
Author Marisa López
We are going to start a series of 3 posts dedicated to personal and couple relationships in Egyptian Muslim culture.
How do people relate and know each other and what are the social norms and customs that are followed in Egypt for two people prior to the eventual marriage ?
KNOWING LIFE PARTNER
Young people now have more ways of getting to know each other than in the past when it was only limited to the university or having someone from the family introduce them to each other as a possible candidate, known as gawzaz salonat (marriage of salons) or ‘marry a cousin’ (this has decreased a lot of in urban areas but not in rural areas).
Although these modalities are still very present, the possibility of meeting through any social media has also been added. This is not yet widely accepted, but I have two very close relatives, who have married other Egyptians whom they met via Facebook randomly. (I am not personally very open to that because let’s face it, there is a lot of risk due to the number of scammers that swarm the network).
Another way that is clearly on the rise, is to use a marital matching company as Amirazz that guides and helps to choose the right one and protects from possible scammers and be sure that both have right intention to have a Muslim family.
In any case, everyday there are more young people who interact with persons of the opposite sex before committing themselves and carrying out the whole process that we will talk about later.
These pre-commitment relationships, for the most part, do not include any type of physical relationship between couples If they limit themselves to going out together to any restaurant or park and chatting and usually both are very young and are studying, so the idea of commitment involving the family may not be an option until both finish their studies
These relationships can be known by the family of both and this is a good sign and others hide it because they belong to very conservative families that would not accept it in any way.
MARRIAGE PROPOSAL
Once the couple decides to move on to the next step, the candidate groom and his family set a date with the bride’s family to go to their house and request the girl’s hand.
Once there, in this step the negotiation or agreements are made that they are going to put each party for the future marriage, the groom explains to the bride’s family what his work is and his means to be able to maintain the house and the family. Tradition is that the groom brings the apartment , half of the furniture and pays for the wedding with everything, the bride’s dress, makeup and hairdressing and honeymoon.
The bride or her family contributes the other half of the furniture, appliances, carpets, curtains and lamps and all the household goods and also pays for the engagement party with all dress, makeup, etc.
Another important point of the negotiation is the shabka, the amount of jewelry gifts that the groom will deliver to the bride on the day of the engagement party. The mahr or dowry and the points that both groom and bride want to add in the contract are also negotiated at this time and this is really important. For example, I recommend always adding a clause on immediate divorce and compensation, in case the man tries to marry another woman.
The amount in shabka and mahr depends a lot on the possibilities of each family.
The engagement party is also usually dated and the time the courtship will last before the marriage and wedding.
Once an agreement is reached, everyone recites the fatiha (the first surah of the Qur’an) in the case of Muslims, to seal the agreement before Allah.
Tomorrow InshaAllah we will continue with the following steps
Have a great day InshaAllah
About the Author: Marisa Lopez Chicote is an event planner and mother of 5, living in Cairo and Muslim since 1985, alhamdullah. She loves travelling and cooking.
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Baklava is a sweet dessert made of layers of flaky phyllo pastry filled with crushed nuts and sweetened with honey syrup. This sweet is Turkish in origin but each country and each home has their own recipe and secrets.
BAKLAVA
Author: Marisa López Chicote
Baklava is a sweet dessert made of layers of flaky phyllo pastry filled with crushed nuts and sweetened with honey syrup. This sweet is Turkish in origin but each country and each home has their own recipe and secrets.
I will share my recipe with all of you.
Ingredients:
Phyllo pastry- find frozen phyllo dough in the freezer section
Melted butter or ghee
Nut mixture- Almonds,pistachios, walnuts, hazelnut, honey, ground cinnamon,. You can change the nut mixture according to what you have. For example, you can use just walnuts or pistachios or peanuts, but be sure to have enough of whichever nut you use. And if you’re not a fan of cinnamon, you can omit that.
Honey syrup- water, sugar, honey, and lemon juice. To infuse the syrup with more flavor, I add two more completely optional items, orange zest and cinnamon stick .
Elaboration:
Preheat oven to 180 C
Make the Honey Syrup Place the sugar and water in a saucepan ( 2 glasses of sugar and 1 and half of water) and heat stove-top, stirring occasionally, until sugar dissolves. Add the lemon juice, orange zest, and 1 stick of cinnamon; stir to mix. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and let simmer for about 25 minutes. Remove syrup from heat. Remove the cinnamon and let the syrup cool completely (it will thicken a little bit).
Make the Nut Mixture In the bowl of a food processor fitted with a blade, add the almonds, pistachios, walnut, and hazelnuts. Pulse a few times to chop. Transfer to a large mixing bowl and add honey and cinnamon. Mix well to combine.
Prepare the Phyllo Pastry Carefully unroll the thawed phyllo pastry and place the sheets in between two clean kitchen towels. This will help keep the phyllo from breaking while you work.
Assemble the First Few Layers of Baklava Prepare a baking pan. Brush the interior of the baking pan with some of the melted butter or ghee.. To assemble the baklava, take one sheet of phyllo and place it in the pan (for this size pan, I typically fold my phyllo sheet in half, and it fits perfectly. You can also do a bit of trimming using a pair of kitchen shears). Brush the top of the phyllo sheet with the melted butter.Repeat this process a few more times until you have used up about ⅓ of the phyllo pastry, each layer being brushed with the melted butter.
Distribute some of the Nut Mixture.Now, distribute about ½ of the nut mixture evenly over the top layer of phyllo.
Continue Assembling the Baklava One sheet of phyllo pastry at a time using another ⅓ of the phyllo. Again, brush each layer with a bit of the melted butter.
Distribute the remaining ½ of the nut mixture evenly over the top layer of phyllo.
Finish the remaining ⅓ of the phyllo pastry following the same process, laying one folded sheet at a time and brushing each layer with melted butter.
Brush the very top sheet of phyllo with butter.
Cut the Baklava into Pieces, Using a good sharp knife, cut the pastry into diamond shaped pieces
Bake: Place the baklava dish on the middle rack of your heated oven. Bake anywhere from 35 to 45 minutes or until the top of the baklava turns golden and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. (IMPORTANT…Because ovens vary, be sure to check your baklava half-way through baking).
Pour Syrup. Let COOL. Garnish: As soon as you remove the baklava from the oven, pour the cooled syrup all over the hot baklava. Make sure you distribute the syrup evenly. Let the baklava cool completely (it’s best if you leave it for several hours, or at least 1 hour, to allow the flaky phyllo layers to absorb the honey syrup completely). Cut through the pieces you marked earlier.
And if you like, garnish with a little sprinkle of pistachio before serving and enjoying.
About the Author: Marisa Lopez Chicote is an event planner and mother of 5, living in Cairo and Muslim since 1985, alhamdullah. She loves travelling and cooking.
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