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Seeking a recommendation for egyptian recipes?

Hi, Jan!

Apart from Koshari, Kheyar Mekhalel or Sharkaseya I have not tried much, in spite that I have cooked a lot of Middle Eastern dishes. Some of my all time favourite books in this are the ones written by Arto der Haroutunian. But I am not sure if I answered correctly to your question.

Kind regards,

Mar

The Taste of Egypt is a favorite of mine. My review can be found here at Eat Your Books. 

Ahahah reviving this post as I am going to travel to Egypt in January... In French it is worse... I went into a bookstore asking for an Egyptian cookbook, and i could feel the condescendance... "in 20 years of career i have never seen a book on Egyptian cooking" (and actually I looked it up and not far from the truth).

So I looked in English and I finally ordered "Eat, habibi, eat" (indexed!) and an old version of a French book. I will let you know what i think once i have been there... lol

Sorry I corrected all the typos in my original email (French phone autocorrect).

I don't think she's done anything specific to Egypt but one of my favorite food writers is Claudia Roden who herself is Eygptian.  She's written numerous books on middle eastern cookery so I'd start there.

Agree with other that that Claudia Roden is your best bet, she was born and brought up in Egypt and learned to cook there, her New Book of Middle Eastern Food has many Egyptian recipes in it, and nice background information and little stories, her recipes usually work well for me  

I enjoyed the food I ate in Egypt, especially that made by Bedouin cooks around Sinai

This is a recommendation for a specific recipe, not a cookbook: I really like the Saveur recipe for koshary. This recipe matches pretty closely what I remember from the semester I spent in Cairo back in college. Koshary is a popular Egyptian street food - lentils, chickpeas, rice, and pasta, served with fried onions and a spicy tomato sauce. It's carb heavy but very tasty!

Thank you! I will check out Claudia Roden. Taste of Egypt looks great as well although difficult to source out here, maybe Amazon but I do prefer to work with our beautiful Anglo-French or cookbook stores here in Paris (Galignani and Librairie Gourmande, in the odd chance you are listening, I love you !). 

Thank you also for koshary - I read about it in my travel guides, but of course never tasted it!

If any of you has more recipes, or even restaurant recommendations, especially in Cairo and Louxor, please forward. Going to Cairo, then Louxor then cruise over several days down to Abou Simbel, and then up the coast.

I'd urge you to get Claudia Roden's New Book of Middle Eastern Food, as others have suggested. I lived in Egypt for a year and when I came back, this was the book which enabled me to recreate the dishes I enjoyed. She also writes so beautifully and evocatively about the food and the culture.

It doesn't have the same range, but Colette Rossant's Apricots on the Nile: A Memoir with Recipes is also lovely.

I like Arto der Haroutunian's books too, but I feel he has a better insight into food from the Levant. I don't remember so many dishes I recall from Egypt in his books.

I was also going to suggest Claudette Rossant's Apricots on the Nile. I see that it was originally published with the title of Memories of a Lost Egypt, and is also available in French (translated from English) with the title of Mémoires d'une Égypte perdue.

Just came back - I agree it is not a foodie culture .. well actually there are good cooks in the Louxor/Assouan region (including the chef on my boat, bless him), but most dishes are borrowed or shared with other middle-eastern countries or North Africa (versions of hummus, tatsikis, wine leaves, oriental styles desserts/biscuits, variations on rice).

Notable exceptions (there might be more, I do not pretend to be exhaustive :) : 

- koshary as mentioned earlier in this thread

- Molekheya/Molokhia (soup based on "corete" which is an herb quite rare in western countries)

- Foul and galettes made of foul (Egyptian version of breakfast beans)

- Stuffed vegetables (Mahshi)

- Kunafa : Dessert made with fried noodles (odd I know, but it is good :)

Molekheya Is popular in Japan too known for its sticky property when cooked that Japanese love and health benefits.  BTW, I want to make that stuffed zucchini recipe and just ordered another small gadget for coring zucchini and cucumbers.