White Kidney Bean Beef Stew Tabikhet Fasolia طبيخة فاصوليا

This is a simple, filling stew made with white kidney beans, lamb or beef meat and tomato sauce, which is served with white rice or with fresh hot bread. White kidney beans are called fasolia in Libya, although it has other names in other Arab countries. Other variations of this dish include  fasolia bil kercha which uses pieces of tripe instead of meat, as well as a casserole version. This stew is more everyday, but a great favorite.

(serves 4-6)

150g white kidney beans (soaked overnight)
4-6 pieces of medium sized lamb meat
Black pepper, salt to taste
2 tablespoon of chopped onion
2-3 finely chopped garlic
1-2 finely chopped green or red chillies
3-4 tablespoon of vegetable oil
Spices: 1 tspn turmeric, 1 tsp seven spice mix, 1tsp cumin, 1 tsp black pepper



 
 

Soak the beans overnight.

Cook the meat in water with black pepper and salt and the tablespoon of chopped onion.

Once the meat is cooked, pour the broth over the kidney beans, about a finger above the surface.

Cook the beans in the broth until soft.

Add the meat to the cooked beans. In a small pan, stir the garlic, chillies and another tablespoon of chopped onion,  in the vegetable oil. Add 2 tablespoons of tomato paste. Stir until the sauce bubbles, stirring for five or so minutes. Add the spices. Add the sauce to the beans and meat.

Chop some parsley and/or coriander and sprinkle on top. Serve warm with fresh hot bread or rice.

Lamb, Pumpkin and Chickpea Stew with Raisins: Tbeikhet 'Eid طبيخة عيد

This recipe was featured on My Halal Kitchen's post on Traditional Eid Foods

 This pumpkin stew requires no special ingredients, yet has an exotic taste, with the perfect combination of flavors and textures. The pumpkin and raisins give this stew a hint of sweetness typical of savory specialties in Eastern Libya, where aromatic spices like cloves, cinnamon, cardamom and especially shaiba leaves are used more often than hot spices and turmeric. This stew is from the town of Derna. Known as Eid Stew, it is made on feast days as a distinctive flavorsome dish suitable for special occasions yet very easy to put together. This recipe is perfect for Halloween.  For dessert pumpkin and bechamel pudding is a tried and tested favourite.

 Serves 4

Ingredients

4 servings of lamb, bone in, washed and drained

1/2 kilo pumpkin. peeled and cut into medium cubes

1 medium onion,  finely chopped

4 tablespoons clarified butter (samn/ghee) or oil

1 cup cooked chickpeas
1 cup raisins 

1 can crushed sieved tomatoes or 2 tablespoons tomato puree disolved in 2 cups water

10 cloves
5 bay leaves 

3 cinnamon sticks or 2 heaped teaspoons cinnamon
1 heaped teaspoon ginger
A few shaiba leaves, known as dagad phool in Indian cuisine (optional)
Salt to taste

In a heavy base pot put ghee, onions, lamb and add ground and whole spices then cook on medium heat. Stir constantly until the onion softens and the oil/ghee is infused with the spices. 

Add the sieved crushed tomato and leave on low heat for  about 10 minutes, then add about 2 cups of boiling water and cook on medium heat unitl the lamb is well done (45-60 minutes).

Add the pumkin, raisins and cooked chickpeas, cover the pot and cook for a further 30 minutes. Add water when needed, but a little at a time so the sauce is concentrated. 

Serve hot with warm tanoor bread to soak up the sauce. 

Libyan Lamb Casserole with Carrots and Green Olives: Tajin Sfinari bil Zaytun طاجن الجزر بالزيتون الأخضر على الطريقة اليبية

Tagine in Libya doesn't refer to the distinctive Morrocan cooking vessels, it just means casserole.

This colourful Tagine is distinctly North African, its combination  of carrots and green olives is popular in the region, and it is similar to an Algerian chicken, preserved lemons and green olives recipe.   The Libyan casserole diffrentiates itself from the latter by its unusual mix of flavourings: caraway (which goes really well with the carrots) is dominant, but without overwhelming the lemon, cinnamon,  harissa and parsley.

Nowadays a Libyan Tajin is usually made by cooking the meat or chicken in a pot and then adding it to the rest of the ingredients in a pyrex dish. The traditional method  uses an ovenproof  clay casserole dish (pictured above) that goes from stove top to oven (they used  to be sent to the neighbourhood bakery).  A Moroccan Tagine or Dutch oven would also make this a one-pot meal.  When I don't have time for slow cooking I use a pressure cooker for the meat in which case this casserole takes about 1 hour cooking time (15 minutes for the lamb and 45 minutes in the oven).

Serves 6
Ingredients

1 kilo veal or lean lamb (deboned and diced into bitesize pieces)
Bone or 1 litre stock

1  kilo carrots sliced diagonally (more surface to absorb the flavour!)

1 medium onion, chopped

1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger (or ground ginger )

2 cinnamon sticks

2 teaspoons caraway seeds
salt and pepper to taste

Handful good quality pitted green olives
1 heaped teaspoon harissa (homemade or commercial)

Before Serving

Olive oil 

 juice of one lemon

1 cup chopped parsley

           Place the onion and spices in the pan with olive oil, and stir on medium heat.

                                                      Add the diced lamb or veal

                               Stirring occasionally until it is evenly browned

                                
Add about one litre water and a bone, or cook in stock. Cover and leave to cook on a medium heat until the meat is just done, at this point the stock should be reduced to about half the amount (concentrated).

Remove the meat from the pot with a slotted spoon and place in an ovenproof dish, cover it with the cooking liquid after straining it through a sieve (fine enough to catch the  caraway seeds)

Add carrots sliced at an angle to the meat and broth, cover tightly with foil or your ovenproof pot lid, and place in the oven for about 45 minutes at  250 °C.

When the carrots are fork tender the lamb should practically melt in your mouth.

Add a teaspoonful of harissa, and mix it in the sauce. Scatter olives on top and place the Tajin in the oven for about 10 minutes without a cover.  When some of the sauce has evaporated and the lamb has browned slightly, remove from the oven. Don't let it dry out!

Add the fresh lemon juice over the Tajin and drizzle generously with olive oil, then garnish with chopped parsley.  Eat with with warm Arabic bread to soak up the sauce.

Chard/Spinach Stew - Tabikhet Silq/Sabanikh طبيخة ورق السلق / طبيخة السبانخ

Tabikhet Silq is a flavorful stew and a staple of Libyan home cooking. Tabikhet Silq is made with chicken or meat. It can be served with rice, but is most often eaten with bread, which makes Tabikhet Silq an easy one-pot meal. Chard can be replaced with spinach for Tabikhet Sabanikh. Both the Chard and Spinach recipes use a little rice to thickens the stew.

Serves 6

Ingredients
6 portions of chicken/red meat (or omit and add 2 vegetable stock cubes with the spices)

1 chopped large tomato
2 tablespoons chopped onions
1/2 cup short grain rice
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 cup chopped coriander leaves
2/3 garlic cloves
Chard or spinach, roughly chopped

Place the skinned chicken at the bottom, then add the spices, onion, chopped tomato, tomato paste and 1 cup pureed or canned tomato. Stir then leave covered on medium heat for about 15 minutes.

When the chicken has begun to cook and the rest of the ingredients have combined into a sauce, add the rice and mix well (you don't want it all at the bottom).

Whizz the coriander and garlic in the mixer, add it to the pot.

Once the chicken is cooked add the chard (or spinach). Lay the swiss chard leaves on top of each other and chop widthwise into broad strips. Some people like to remove the stems first.

Fill the pot to the brim with chard (or spinach) pressing down. Once the leaves wilt stir to coat in the sauce then leave for 10-15 minutes.

Leave the chicken whole or debone then return to the pot, Serve with bread or noddle rice.

Sufra Dayma!