The days of KOSSa Mahshi

AYAM EL KOSSA MAHSHI

The days of KOSSA Mahshi: (stuffed courgettes)

Still today I dream of our kossa mahshi in Egypt!

Though I am considered a good cook, I have never managed to obtain the taste of those Mahshis of my past!

IT IS PROBABLY DUE TO THE KOSSA ITSELF; here we have fat and watery courgettes not at all convenient for el mashi. In Italy they have those delicious zucchini almost as good as the Egyptian ones.

To prepare kossa mashi you need above all a NAKHWARA. It’s an instrument to void the insides of the courgettes without making a hole at the other end.

You insert the Nakhwara and turn it delicately till you have only the outer skin left.

Your stuffing will need to be prepared as well. As no minced meat was found, you had to mince it with that old-fashioned machine. You needed good arms for that.

Then roz (rice) was added to the minced meat, basal (onions),  malh (salt) lamoun (lemon) korkom (curcuma), kamoun (cumin), ou zeit (and oil), karafs ( minced parsley) that gives it a cheerful colouring.

Mix all this with CLEAN hands and stuff your courgettes one by one without breaking the courgettes.

In a very large pan quickly fry the stuffed courgettes and then put them in a spicy tomato sauce you have prepared yourself. And don’t forget to add the inside of the courgettes you have cleaned out with the nakhwara.

The secret of success is to let your mahshi cook gently and for a long time.

The ones I prefer are the slightly burned ones!!!

This delight will take you to the top of the world!

The days of baccala

The days of baccala: (cod, morue)

When my mother prepared Baccala, I went on strike. For her and my father it was a real delight, not for Sultana.

« Mais mange un bout, c’est délicieux !’

« Non ! »

Baccala at the outset is dried cod in salt. It is hung out in the air to dry.

It has a strange aspect, like a greyish dead leaf. Of course the smell is tremendous;

So you bought your baccala at the market and put it in a basin with water overnight.

This way it lost a good part of its salt.

As it could not be cooked in that state, the old-fashioned mincing machine was attached to a table and the baccala, cut into smaller pieces, was introduced one after the other into the horn-like opening and the handle twisted. That was how meat and baccala were minced.

The operation was repeated as many times as was necessary using strength and patience!

Finally when all the baccala was minced, my mother added a boiled potato and an egg and

kneaded it till it became a unified paste. Then one after the other she formed balls the size of a golf ball. When all the paste had been turned into balls, it was time to fry them. There were no deep fryers so it was a slow job to fry all these balls.

After that a very spicy tomato sauce was prepared from fresh tomatoes tabaan (of course) and one by one the baccala balls were put into the sauce to absorb part of it. It was served with rice greatly appreciated with every meal!

I do not know if I could ever eat baccala even now! But I keep baccala day in my mind and I remember what an extraordinary cook my mother was!