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Libyan Food
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eat the country, and you will understand it!
Olive oil is the main ingredient of nearly any Libyan dish or meal, and it is almost impossible to cook without it in Libya. Its use in North Africa goes back thousands of years, and its healing and life-prolonging properties were known to the ancient Egyptians. Offering of the olive branch to the Libyan oracle of Amon at Siwa indicates its sacred nature and antiquity. Its use in Mediterranean diets has been always associated with good health and preventing major diseases like stroke, heart disease and lung cancer. The healing properties are found mainly in the extra virgin olive oil (and virgin olive oil), which is naturally produced, unrefined oil (also called "cold pressed"); while the active ingredients of the second type, known as "pure oil" or "olive oil", were badly destroyed by the chemical processes used to extract the oil. According to recent research extra-virgin olive oil contains a natural painkiller similar to ibuprofen (found in headache tablets), and its active ingredient oleocanthal inhibits the activity of enzymes involved in inflammation just as ibuprofen does. Olive oil is also widely used as a skin ointment for its healing properties and in perfumes and medicines. Ancient oil lamps were also kept alight by a regular supply of olive oil; adding a bit of salt around the wick prolongs the life of the lamp and reduces the consumption of oil.
Dates at various stages: yellow when first ripen, dark brown when mature, black-dark-red as date syrup (rreb). The image on the right shows the seed, housed inside the date, which will go on to become another Palm.
There are four main ingredients of traditional Libyan food: olives (and olive oil), palm dates, grains and milk. These are very ancient foods and their use must go back to neolithic times, when humans first began to harvest their produce and make use of the natural surrounding ingredients. Grains are roasted, ground, sieved and used for making bread, cakes, soups and dough. Dates are harvested, dried and stored for the rest of the year; they can be eaten as they are, made into syrup or slightly fried and eaten with "bsisa" (or "ad'emmeen"), or eaten with milk as a delicious delicacy. Anthropologists tell us that early neolithic societies never kill female cattle and that it is always the male who is killed (and eaten); females are regular source of milk and more females to continue the cycle of families. Thus milk by itself becomes a meal of its own; and from milk one obtains ghee, yogurt, butter and cheese . Sahara's slim Tuareg can easily live on dried dates and fresh milk provided by the palm and the goat. Date syrup, olive oil, and boiled dough make one of the most ancient and popular dishes in Libya: "a'eish", "utshu" or "bazin" -- names which also mean "food" and "life".
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Utshu, A'eish or Bazin |
A traditional, and probably neolithic, dish made of dough and sauce. The dough is kneed into a semi spherical ball and placed in the middle of a large bowel, around which the sauce is poured, making the dish look like a rock island surrounded by water. The Dough: the first stage is to prepare the flour which then can be stored for up to two years and used when needed: roast the grains in an empty frying pan until golden brown; grind into fine flour; sieve well and store away in a jar. To prepare the dish, take about one kilogram of flour from the mix, boil about third litre of water in a large deep saucepan, and then as the water is boiling keep adding a bit of flour with your hand while mixing with the other hand, using a large wooden ladle. Once you start this, do not stop, just keep adding flour with one hand while mixing in a circular fashion with the other, until the dough becomes hard to stir and the mixture solidifies into dough. Remove the saucepan off the ring, take out the dough, place in a larger bowel, and while wetting your hand with a bit of water (because the dough is still hot) start kneading the mixture into consistent dough, just as you kneed bread, and shape it into a ball, and finally place in the middle of a large bowel and pour the sauce all around. It is eaten by hand by breaking a small bit with your fingers, pulling a small bit down into the sauce and kneading it with the sauce into a tasty lump which you throw into your mouth for further chewing. The traditional type of bazin, especially the one prepared by the Berber mountain people, is very hard to drive the fingers in and thus known as "mountain bazin". This stiff consistency is achieved by boiling the final dough (after it has been prepared as described above). The Sauce: any kind of sauce can be used with this. Normally a simple meat and a couple of vegetables is used as follows: fry two large onions, add garlic, turmeric, chili powder, salt and tomato puree, then throw in the lamb chops (or beef or fish) and water, and then cook until the meat nearly done. Add potatoes and pumpkin pieces and further cook until vegetables are done. Pour the sauce around the dough, and serve while hot with lemon (ready to be squeezed into the sauce). A simple version of white bazin (made of white flour) is normally cooked for breakfast, but eaten with olive oil and date syrup: instead of mounting the dough like a mound, spread flat onto a plate, then sprinkle with olive oil and pour some date syrup in the middle (or alternatively use honey, or sugar, or fenugreek powder instead of date syrup). It is eaten in a similar way: break a small piece of dough, mix thoroughly with oil, dip into the syrup and mix with your fingers a few more times before throwing it into the mouth for further chewing.
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Z'ummeeta |
Z'ummeeta is a doughy dish made of mixing water with flour until it is firm and doughy. It is eaten by dipping a small bit, taken by hand, in olive oil, and with the option of dipping in chili sauce. It is usually eaten for breakfast, but some times it is eaten whenever one is hungry, as it takes only few minutes to mix. The flour mix is made of whole grain barley, a bit of coriander and cumin seeds and a pinch of salt. These are dry roasted in an empty frying pan until golden brown, then ground into powder, sieved and finally placed in clay jars and put away. Normally this process is done once a year, although the mixture can last for even two years. Whenever you need some z'ummeeta, just take some flour, mix thoroughly with a bit of water, spread on a plate, and pour the olive oil. The mixture breaks up in the hand nice and dry, and smells fresh of roast coriander and oilve oil.
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Couscous (Kesksoo) |
Couscous is made of wheat or barley, ground into coarse flour (with grains the size of poppy seeds). The dish involves cooking two things: the couscous, and the vegetable and meat sauce to go with it. The couscous: to start with, sprinkle some salt, pepper, olive oil and a bit of water over the couscous grains, then mix thoroughly by hand, from right to left, slowly rolling the couscous grains into larger balls. Keep mixing and adding a few drops of water at a time until the balls become round and about a third of the size of a rice grain. Place the mixture in a special saucepan called "keskas", which is like a steamer or a saucepan with lots of holes, and cover with the lid. This steamer is then placed on top of the other saucepan containing the vegetable and meat sauce, so that the couscous will be cooked by the steam rising from the simmering sauce. (The modern, commercial way of cooking couscous is to place the contents of the ready-mixed couscous bag in a saucepan and cover with boiling water and then place the lid tightly close and leave for a few minutes. Real couscous needs to be steamed over a good sauce for the flavour to soak in. The sauce:
Heat the oil, fry the onions until golden brown, throw in the garlic, the spices and tomato puree and mix for a few minutes, and then add the meat and about half a litre of water and cover the saucepan with the steamer containing the couscous and then cover the steamer with a lid and leave to cook for 45 minutes on a slow heat. After that, take the couscous and pour it on a large bowl (very large one) and leave to cool for a few minutes, then sprinkle some olive oil and mix again, breaking the congealed clumps into fine soft grains of couscous and place back in the steamer. Add the vegetable and the chickpeas to the sauce, make sure there is enough water but not to much so that the sauce come out nice and thick, and place the steamer back on top, cover and simmer until the vegetables cooked (normally about 20 minutes). To serve, put the couscous in a large bowl (if the whole family eating from one bowl) or serve small portions into plates, cover with the vegetable sauce (using a good ladle), place a piece of lamb on top of the sauce, then finally fry some finely chopped onions until golden and mix them with a bit more of cooked chickpeas and sprinkle the mixture on top of the sauce and the meat. Finally, do not forget to eat.
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Mb'atten |
Mb'atten is really a Libyan specialty dish, prepared on special occasions, celebrations and festivities, often with Kofta and couscous. It is a unique dish never to be found anywhere else in the world (according to our current knowledge). It is made of slicing potato lengthwise into thin slices (about 3mm thick) but keeping each two slices joined together at the base, to form a sandwich, which will be stuffed with minced meat and herbs and then fried. The remaining mix of meat and herbs can be flattened into small burgers, dipped into white flour and then fried to make Kofta. The Stuffing: a good quantity of minced meat (beef or lamb), about half of the mixture should be meat, a bundle of fresh green dill, a bundle of fresh parsley, two bundles of spring onion, a bit of fresh parsley, 3 cloves of garlic (ground into paste), teaspoon of salt, teaspoon of hot chili, 2 teaspoon of turmeric, a touch of cinnamon, 3 tablespoons of tomato puree, one egg and dry couscous. Preparation: finely chop the fresh herbs (parsley, dill and spring onion) and place in a large bowel. Spice and season with the spice mixture and add the tomato puree, break in the egg and mix and squeeze (with your hands to force all the juice out of the herbs), then add a handful of dry couscous and mix well and cover. Pour some olive oil in a frying pan, chop in one onion very fine, and add the mince, and half-cook for a few minutes, then mix with the prepared herb mixture. The second stage involves preparing the potatoes: slice the potato lengthwise, cutting one slice three-quarters down and stopping just before reaching the bottom, then cutting the second all the way down, ending with two slices of potatoes joined at the base, each about 3mm thick. Sprinkle some salt on all the slices and dry with kitchen paper, if wet. Open the two slices and stuff with the mixture (about 2 tablespoonfuls for each sandwich), until the sand witch is full and fat, and then tap in firmly with your hand along the exposed edge. Hold the two slices from the joined end and dip the exposed stuffing into white flour and then dip (only the exposed stuffing, not the rest of the potato) in egg (to hold together while frying) and throw in a deep fryer (or frying pan with lots of olive oil), until golden brown. These are now ready to eat, but traditionally, they can be cooked for a further few minutes in a saucepan with a bit of tomato sauce, as follows: place all the remaining potato pieces that were left over from the slicing in the saucepan, place all the stuffed potatoes on top, pour in a bit of tomato sauce, cover the saucepan, and heat over a very low heat for about ten minutes. This turns the fried potatoes into soft and sauce-covered delicious chunks, just like adding a bit of ketchup. Serve warm with couscous or salad. If there is a lot of mixture left over, then roll into small balls, flatten onto a plate containing white flour, then fry in olive oil as koftas. The stuffed potatoes are also great cold, after being kept in the fridge overnight.
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Summer Salad |
Traditional Libyan "slatha" is a main meal eaten by itself and is not a side dish that accompanies a main course. This is a traditional summer salad often prepared by the beach for an easy and light lunch after swimming in the sea. Preparation: cut one onion very thinly into a large bowel, chop five tomatoes into six segments each, cut half cucumber into small cubes, throw in a handful of pitted green olives, cut one fresh green chili pepper into small pieces, add a pinch of salt, 3 tablespoons of olive oil, and about half a cup of water. Mix well by hand, squeezing the tomatoes and the vegetable to release some of the flavour into the water (but not to much as to mush up the contents), squeeze a bit of lemon and serve with crispy bread. The dish is eaten by breaking a piece of bread and dipping it into the salad and lifting some of the vegetables with it by folding it over the vegetables. Many of the younger generations nowadays add a tin of tuna to the salad for richer flavour and some protein.
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Shorba (Libyan Soup): |
Fry finely-cut large onion and garlic in ghee until golden brown; add the meat cubes (beef or lamb), spices (turmeric, chili, salt, a bit of curry powder, and a teaspoonful of sugar), tomato puree and water, then cover and simmer for about 40 minutes until the meat is cooked. Add in the orzo (pasta shaped like pearls of barley) and cooked chickpeas and cook for 15 minutes until orzo is cooked. Chop a bit of fresh parsley and crush one clove of garlic and mix with olive oil and add to the mixture just before removing from the ring. Serve with lemon wedges, raw chopped parsley (sprinkled at the top) and crispy warm bread.
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T'ajeen |
Peel and cut potatoes into thick slices, boil until cooked, crush, and spread in a "tajeen" (a baking tray). Fry thinly-chopped two onions until brown, add crushed garlic, and quickly add the mince (if you burn the garlic for longer, it leaves a bad taste and smell in the food) , then spice up with chili, turmeric, salt and curry powder, stir and simmer until cooked, then remove and spread on a large plate to cool down the mince. All the ingredients cold, add the mice to the crushed potatoes and mix in the beaten eggs and bake for 20 minutes at mark 180. Finally, take out from the oven, sprinkle some mozzarella cheese on top and bake for a further 15 minutes until the dish is covered with a light golden crust. Serve hot with crispy bread.
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O's'b'an or Ma'danous |
Ma'danous is in a way a thicker kind of herb sausage, made of stuffed intestines. Preparing the intestines: clean the intestines with hot water, turning inside out and flashing all the way through, then marinate in a mixture of lemon juice and salt for at least one hour. Wash again, very well, and then stuff with the mix. The mix: take two bundles of spring onion, two bundles of fresh parsley, a bit of mint, and one bundle of fresh coriander, chop finely in a large deep bowel, add the spices (chili, turmeric, salt, curry powder, black pepper, a handful of raw white rice, few spoonful's of olive oil, and then cut in the meat mix (pieces of liver, kidney, lungs, heart and belly,which would have come with the intestines from the same animal). Mix well, stuff the intestines, tie a couple of knots at each end, and place in a saucepan in which a sauce of tomatoes, spices and salt brought to boil. Remember one thing: before you put the stuffed intestines in the saucepan, make sure you prick them with a needle in few places, otherwise they will explode when the stuffing expands with heat.
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Ghrayba With Almonds |
Heat the butter, add the sugar, flour, almond, mix well, cut in diamonds, place in a baking tray, and put in a preheated oven. Once cooked (when it looks firm and slightly golden by the edges), take out from the oven, sprinkle some sugar heated oven. Remove from the oven and sprinkle some sugar over the ghrayba
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Magrood |
Filling: mix one pound of dates (paste) with one teaspoon of cinnamon and three tablespoons of olive oil. Take a handful of the mixture and shape into a small ball, roll into a long thick strip. Dough: mix about 4 cups of semolina, one teaspoon of baking powder, half a cup of flour and one cup of oil. Roll the mixture into a ball. If the dough breaks keep adding more oil until it holds together. Then take about one cup of this mixture and mixed with a bit more of water in another bowel until soft. Shape the firm dough into a long loaf, press with the fingers along the middle to form a dent along the length of the loaf, cover with the soft dough, decorate with a fork to make serrated lines, cut into diagonal, 2 inch pieces (like diamonds), and place in a baking tray. Bake in a preheated oven at mark 200) for about 35 minutes, or until golden brown. Take out of the oven, and while still hot pour the sugar syrup and/or honey over the whole pieces, sprinkle with sesame seeds, and leave to soak for a while
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