Month: September 2019

Prepare the sauce by putting 1 tablespoon butter, 1 tablespoon olive oil, onion, meat, chicken, salt, pepper, ginger, turmeric and let cook at low heat for 30 minutes.

Add boiled water, chickpeas and let cook.

Prepare the meatballs by mixing all the ingredients. Form walnut size balls. Cover with plastic wrap and place them in the fridge. Make sure to keep a little bit of the ground meat to be used with the boiled eggs.

Take a small amount of ground meat mixture and cover the eggs with it ( this step is optional). Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

Prepare the Melon seed pasta or Tlitli. In a large frying pan, roast the Melon seed pasta on low heat until golden.

Add 1 tbsp of olive oil to the roasted pasta and mix well.

Place the pasta in the top of a steamer and steam for about 15 minutes.

Dump the steamed pasta in a large dish and add about 1 cup water. Let it absorb the water, then steam it for the second time for 15 minutes.

Dump the pasta in a large dish and add 1/4 tsp salt and about 2 cups of the strained chicken/meat sauce. Let it absorb the sauce, then steam it for the third and last time for 15 minutes.

Once the chicken is cooked in the sauce, take it out and brown it in 1 tbsp butter.

Add the meatballs and the meat coated boiled eggs to the sauce. Let cook on low for 15 minutes. You may need to take out the meat coated boiled eggs in the first few minutes.

Put the Tlitli in a large saucepan. Strain the chicken/meat sauce and pour it over the Tlitli . You may not need to pour the whole sauce. The sauce should just cover the Tlitli. Place the saucepan over low heat.

Let cook on low for 10 minutes or until the sauce is absorbed, then add 1 tablespoon butter and mix it well.

Serve the Tlitli garnished with chicken, meat, chickpeas, meatballs and meat coated boiled eggs (optional).

Put yeast in a cup and add warm water. Mix and let it proof.

In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, salt, sugar and oil until fluffy.

Add the flour and yeast mixture, then mix with a wooden spoon. The dough may look sticky but you will get it together with hands. Cover the dough in that bowl with plastic wrap and let rise for about 1 hour or until doubled in volume.

Deflate the dough and dump it on a slightly floured working board.

Divide the dough into equal portions. In my case, I divided the dough into 7 portions. I needed 4 portions for the round bread and 3 for the long one.

Roll each portion of dough into long strand. Roll it with 2 hands, moving your hands back and forth until you obtain a strand.

Start shaping your bread.

To make the long bread, just take 3 strands and pinch one end of each together, then start braiding. Pinch the other ends together.

To make the round bread, take 4 strands.

Place 2 strands horizontal and the other 2 vertical, on top of the first ones.

One of the horizontal strand should be put under/ over (the vertical strands) and the other should be put over/ under (the vertical strands) as it is demonstrated in the picture above.

Take each strand that is under and place it over its partner ( please see picture above).

Now we reverse and work counter clockwise. Place the part of the strand that’s under, over its partner counter clockwise.

Tuck the endings of the strands under the round shaped bread.

Place the shaped bread in a baking sheet, lined with parchment paper and let rise for 30 minutes more.

Mix the egg wash ingredients and brush the bread with it. Sprinkle sesame seeds on top if you like (optional).

Bake in a 375°F preheated oven for about 20 minutes.

Brush Challah bread with melted butter, to get that glossy finish (optional).