Most of us know Tagines as the elaborate sweet and savory dishes from Morocco, cooked in a conical clay Tagine pot on the stove or over coals. Tagines in Tunisia and Libya are only savory and are always slow cooked in the oven – more casserole than stew. In Tunisia these casseroles almost always contain eggs,…
Category: Recipes
Ka’ak Alrabe’a: Spring Rings
Click here to go straight to the recipe As spring struggles to push the winter out during this volatile month, or as the common Italian saying goes Marzo è pazzo “March is Crazy!”; the women of the Jufra are busy baking golden sweet Ka’ak Alrabea. These rich fluffy rings of bread are then presented in…
Aseeda Barley Porridge
Barley forms the staple grain, along with durum wheat (hard wheat which is made into semolina) in the western region of Libya for both the Bedouin Arabs and the Amazigh Berbers. Barley is usually lightly toasted before being milled into flour used to make an array of pastes, dough and bread. Barley porridge, called bazeen…
Naturally Sweet Date Syrup
Islamic celebrations follow a lunar calendar meaning that they fall on different dates every year. As such most food traditions tend to be based on year round staples rather than seasonal produce. Miloud, or Mawlid Al Nabi, the prophet Mohammed’s birthday, is welcomed every year with a hearty barley based porridge (aseeda) topped with date…
Days of White
White days are those that are full of joy, good and prosperity. Typically a wedding day, a birth of a baby, and a graduation from college are white. There seems to be an abundance of white in Libya these days. It’s raining after years of drought, as this country cleanses itself of the terrible filth…
Parcels of Joy
I was doing some food history research online when I came across the curious fact that the first dolma or stuffed vegetable recipe was recorded circa 350 BC! Turkish dolma known to the ancient Greeks as thrion was first made using fig leaves rather than vine leaves. Fig leaves were pickled and stored in much the…
From the Books
I love okra. I have always eaten it one way, as a stew tabeekhat bamia, and I have previously posted my version on Look Out Libya. I came across a new recipe (new to me anyways) about a year ago when I first started looking for material for We Are Food at its inception stage….
Dehydrated
This scorching heat has dried me up. The lack of water all day doesn’t help. I water my potted balcony “garden” almost twice a day. My fridge is still defrosting so I’m still in the spirit of being resourceful with food storage. My tomato plant hasn’t borne any fruit yet (for those of you who…
It’s Not Only Soup!
A heated discussion about a previous post titled “It’s Only Soup” ended with a somewhat clearer picture of what Libyan soup consists of, but I am still no closer to revealing the origins of this elusive broth. A suggestion that tomatoes were around since the time of the Romans proved untrue since tomatoes were first…
Sugar Syrup
I guess my blood sugar must be getting low by now because I am desperately craving something sweet. I would usually head straight for chocolate, but come Ramadan all I want are sticky, aromatic Arabian pastries. Sweets in the Arab world go hand in hand with one thing, a’asel, qatar, atar, or sugar syrup. This…
Breakfast
I got up early as usually this morning and woke up to a sleeping silent city. It was calming allowing me to reflect on many things. I love the sound of nothing. No breakfast to make this morning (except for the little one), ours will have to wait until the sun goes down. Amazingly most…
Shakshuka Battles
Shakshuka is one of those great rustic, versatile, eat anytime meals that are super easy to make. The name shakshuka indicates the way this dish is prepared, “all shaken up”. Eggs poached in a spicy tomato, garlic, onion and sweet green pepper ragout flavored with salty, smoky gideed*, my mouth is watering already! I like…
We Are Food 