Cottage Cooking: Arabic Breakfast

For a complete Arabic breakfast:

- 1 can foul mdamas (can be found in the middle eastern section of grocer or arabic store, it's basically small fava beans in a can) 

 

- Eggs (for boiling or frying, can be fried in with the foul or made separately) 

- 1 or 2 Sujouk sausages (a spicy beef sausage, you can get it fresh from the supermarket ahead of time or buy it and freeze it so you have it around, it transports well in the cooler frozen and thaws the next day when you throw it into the fridge at the cottage) When ready to serve simply remove the casing and slice up into rounds or dice, fry in some oil in a non stick skillet, use very little oil as it has some fat in it that is rendered once heated. 

- Labneh (store bought or homemade, for homemade use 1 container of bulkan yogurt, add about 1/2 to 1 tbsp salt in container and whisk it all up very well until creamy. Line a strainer with cheesecloth (or 2 pieces of square paper towel) and place over a bowl that will collect the liquid. Add the yogurt into the cheesecloth and set in fridge overnight or up to 2 days. Remove the thick lebneh yogurt mixture and place in a ziplock container. Simply drizzle olive oil over and serve with bread as part of your breakfast or mezze (tapas) spread. 

- Olive oil

- Garlic butter  (easily made ahead of time and stored in the freezer, can be used in many recipes from seafood to pasta.. it's worth it. Sautee 5 big cloves of garlic in 1/4-1/2 lb butter and set aside. Freeze and transport. 

- Lemon juice (Also another cottage necessity, zest and then squeeze a bunch of lemons and place in a plastic container, freeze and transport) 

- Fresh produce (Tomato, cucumber, radishes, green onion, mint, cilantro) 

- Olives 

- Pita bread (not shown here but we had white pita and Egyptian bran bread) 

- Watermelon 

- Black tea with mint and sugar

Cook the beans by adding the contents of can to a large pot with a piece of garlic butter, add cumin spice if available. Cook and mash the beans with a fork partially for texture. Some people like to add tomato paste or simply add chopped tomatoes to the final dish.
Cook until fragrant and soft. Plate and drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice. Serve with bread and fresh chopped tomato, radishes, green onion and herbs like mint and cilantro.

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Pancakes are always a hit, prep a homemade mix by adding 1 2/3 cups all purpose flour, 3 tbsp sugar, a dash of salt and 2 tbsp baking powder into a big ziplock bag.

At the cottage whisk 2 eggs in a big bowl, add 1 1/2 cups milk and 3 tbsp melted butter or oil. Add the dry mix and blend together without over mixing. Let sit for about 10 minutes and then fry up in a non stick pan (add a small drizzle of oil if needed)

Serve with high quality maple syrup and fresh fruit, we opted for wild blueberries!




Tomato & Halloumi
(Slice tomatoes and season with good olive oil, salt and black pepper) Fry up pieces of halloomi cheese in olive oil in a non stick pan. Drizzle with lemon juice and serve together!