Egyptian food recipes enjoy multiple cultural backgrounds, such as Greek, Turkish, Palestinian, Lebanese, Syrian, and various others that were blended by Egyptian chefs with great craftsmanship and sophistication, changing them to suit Egyptian customs and elegant and original taste.
The constants that govern the recipes of food in the Egyptian street are grains, fish, and an agricultural land product of vegetables and ripe fruits, as well as meat may be used, albeit somewhat less due to the high prices and exorbitant costs.
Here is one of the most popular "Egyptian Street Food Recipes", enough to satiate generously for eight people:
It's: THE EGYPTIAN KOSHARY
First: the ingredients
2. 400 grams of boiled spaghetti.
3. 400 grams of boiled pasta.
4. 400 grams of fried and boiled noodles.
5. 250 grams of boiled chickpeas.
6. 300 grams of brown lentils (with skin).
7. From 5 to 8 fruits of onions.
8. 8 glasses of tomato juice.
9. 8 finely crushed garlic cloves.
10.6 red-hot peppers, finely chopped.
11. A quantity of paprika (smoked dried red sweet pepper).
12. Half a cup of olive oil.
13. A large cup of oil.
14. Half a cup of vinegar.
15. Half a cup of lemon juice.
16. Table salt, cumin, a pinch of sodium bicarbonate, and black pepper to taste.
In fact, the Egyptian koshary is a creation of the Egyptian chef's thoughts, and here he is telling us how he does his work in order to delight his guests with the best taste.
Second: the method of preparation
·
How to prepare koshary sauce
Heat half the
amount of olive oil in a separate frying pan over medium heat; add chopped
garlic and two onions cut into small squares (Brunoise). These items are then
stirred for 4–5 minutes until the onions wilt and become translucent. Then, add
the mashed tomatoes and an amount of smoked paprika and stir-fry for 10–15
minutes over medium-low heat. A small amount of water can also be added if
needed. Then season with salt and a pinch of black pepper and set aside.
· How to prepare fried onions (rose in the chef's language)
The rest of the onion is cut into slices, then placed in hot oil until it turns golden, then removed from the fire and placed on paper towels or paper towels to get rid of the excess oil and set aside.
· How to prepare rice with noodles, pasta, lentils and chickpeas
After removing the onions from the hot oil in the previous step, the oil is used to fry the onions, to brown the noodles, then add the washed rice to it with good stirring until it dries out of the water completely, then add boiling water in an amount equal to the amount of Egyptian rice approximately, bearing in mind the increase of two more cups of Boiled water to cook the noodles, leave for 20 minutes in a closed saucepan until fully cooked.
Brown
lentils are also cooked completely independently in water in a covered saucepan
over medium heat for 30–45 minutes until fully cooked.
In
another separate pot, put the chickpeas that were previously soaked in water
for a period ranging from 6 to 12 hours after draining and rinsing, the water,
with a little sodium bicarbonate and oil over medium heat until it boils for
about 30–50 minutes until it is cooked. The pot is removed from the heat, drain
the chickpeas from the water and set aside.
The
pasta is cooked independently according to the directions on each package.
· How to prepare hot Egyptian Koshary sauce
Take a cup of
the regular sauce prepared previously with the addition of finely chopped chili
fruits and a little oil, and leave it until it boils, then remove it from the
fire.
· How to prepare the Egyptian Koshary Dokka sauce
In a bowl with a
small amount of oil, then we add some mashed garlic and stir until it wilts,
then adds vinegar, lemon, and water in addition to salt and cumin, and a
little chili powder can be added.
Egyptian Koshary is served in many forms, starting with rice with
noodles, then different types of pasta. The chefs are skilled in decorating
dishes in various shapes and colors, using a large number of ingredients and contrasting their colors.
Egyptian chefs can also use other types of pasta such as penne, bucatini, or delta line, in addition to chicken pieces, cooked sheep, liver, and kidneys,
to make the Koshary dish more interesting to the guest, not to mention the
skillful and light movements that make the noise of bumping tools and serving
dishes with pots that contain Koshary ingredients The multipronged
presentation of musical pieces played as if by a professional musician’s
fingertips, followed by presenting the dish as if it were a painting drawn by a
painter’s brush.
Egyptian Koshary is one of the most popular dishes among Egyptian street
food recipes, and it is found in abundance all over Egypt in small, roadside
cafés. When a large silver bowl adorned with serving plates appears from a shop
window, it is a clear and sure sign of the presence of Egyptian Koshary.
Historical information from the Guinness Book of World Records
The largest koshary dish on earth, with a diameter of 10 meters, a height of 1.2 meters from its base, and the weight of its content of koshary ingredients amounted to eight tons. The cost of the vacant dish amounted to 250 thousand pounds, and the cost of transporting the components of the dish was 8 tons from Abu Tarek Koshary restaurant in half of the country to the headquarters of the huge festival in which the dish was prepared, 100 thousand pounds, while the cost of the “koshary itself” amounted to 50 thousand pounds, excluding rewards, salaries, an announcement of the festival and others. The dish was registered in the Guinness Book of World Records on January 17, 2015.